Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshh5s2AGdGAx8GKBZxe

:D

tl;dr: heather macdonald of the manhattan institute is a cheap liar

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/02/ferguson-crime-wave_n_7494372.html

Wow, that is really loathsome. Would love to see if there's any response from the WaPo or author, but figure this will just get swept aside as a matter of 'subjective interpretation' or something.

And of course there are whole other essays to be written on the jump from ''there's this (actually fictitious) crime wave'' to ''well it's probably because protestors made everybody mad at the police.'' I mean, the sinister intentions of that 'argument/ are apparent, but it doesn't even make sense in crazytown: someone robs a gas station or kills their spouse, well, probably it's because some agitators stirred them up against the police. What? Does the Washington Post even have editors?

no, just Amazon interns

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/local-news/cleveland-metro/tamir-rice-shooting-investigation-moves-to-cuyahoga-county-prosecutors-office?fd

i wasn't expecting anything different but still

:(

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/06/06/ezell_ford_lapd_concludes_killing_of_unarmed_mentally_ill_man_was_justified.html

the conversation always moves to what happened in the few moments prior to the gun being discharged. Never to what circumstances led to the confrontation and if they could have been avoided. well, ok, that does get discussed but usually in a brief, glossed-over way.

perhaps if they didn't have one set of procedures for handling escalated scenarios that they applied to everybody in cookie cutter fashion instead of y'know, learning how to handle situations with the mentally ill or folks with learning disabilities so they might know what behaviors to anticipate.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ferguson-chief-20150607-story.html#page=2

interview with the interim ferguson police chief

it is some bullshit-ass bullshit, if you feel like reading some of that

the conversation always moves to what happened in the few moments prior to the gun being discharged. Never to what circumstances led to the confrontation and if they could have been avoided. well, ok, that does get discussed but usually in a brief, glossed-over way.

perhaps if they didn't have one set of procedures for handling escalated scenarios that they applied to everybody in cookie cutter fashion instead of y'know, learning how to handle situations with the mentally ill or folks with learning disabilities so they might know what behaviors to anticipate.

― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Saturday, June 6, 2015 8:08 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ I really couldn't put it any better than this

IIRC Seattle & Los Angeles PDs have recently adopted policies specifically geared towards changing this (by holding police accountable [at least in theory] for their decisions & actions prior to the actual split-second decision re: use of deadly force) but idk if any officers have actually faced sanctions as a result

... but obviously, it would take a complete overhaul of our police force & healthcare system to really deal with mental illness in a productive way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R46-XTqXkzE

cop starts waving his gun around at 3'10"

pigs

http://www.buzzfeed.com/davidmack/texas-police-officer-suspended-after-pulling-weapon-on-teens?bftw&utm_term=4ldqpgc#.niqy8qkQK

there's a long list of things i'd like to do to that cop.

what a terrible human being

This is more "correctional facility brutality" but I am disheartened that this story is the first I remember reading about his young man: http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/kalief-browder-1993-2015

yeah I've been following his story since that first new yorker article -- such a heartbreaking end for a young man who demonstrated so much resilience in the face of adversity

Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about him:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/the-brief-and-tragic-life-of-kalief-browder/395156/

xp I hate to say this because ugh, respectability politics, but... I hold out some (naive?) hope that Kalief Browder's tragedy might touch even those who dismiss Eric Garner & Michael Brown because they were 'no angels'

of course that's little consolation to his family, & none whatsoever to Kalief himself. RIP to a brave young man who was forced to go through hell and did everything in his power to make it through :(

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/06/08/police-officer-who-shot-walter-scott-indicted-for-murder/?postshare=361433779540588

good news

Who knew that South Carolina would be the state that was a leader on indicting police for murder?

leader on covering their ass when there's a video that no one could ever lie away

as opposed to New York

plenty of videos get lied away

read the url as "police-officer-who-shot-scott-walker"

wishful thinking

oh, Bratton

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/09/bratton-hiring-black-nypd-officers-criminal-records

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/11/us/texas-officer-was-under-stress-when-he-arrived-at-pool-party-lawyer-says.html?smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0

honestly a quiet resignation and apology seems like the best thing imo

that Texas cop was obviously playing some kind of combat hero in his own mind, witness the ridiculous and pointless barrel roll he did while running to the scene of the "crime"

surprised he didn't twirl his gun around on his index finger honestly

i mean it's possible to feel for him if he really did go through that shit earlier in the day and still think that if he can't handle that without abusing people he has no business being a cop and probably should be in heavy therapy

I like how that other cop was being chill with that other dude in the background. heard a couple "are you alright's" I think

I do have legit sympathy for the cop re: the items he witnessed earlier, but to amateurist's point, it comes with the job and can't turn you into a different person later in your shift. I mean there's a reason they have the whole psych evaluation, y'know.

Bratton backtracking / claiming to be misquoted

“He never intended to mistreat anyone, but was only reacting to a situation and the challenges that it presented,” Ms. Bishkin said. “He apologizes to all who were offended.”

He pulled a gun on children. I can't stop thinking about how much worse it could have gotten.

It goes a lot deeper than taking offence.

standard non-apology apology

I feel sympathy if he was stressed out, but he didn't just take it out on some kids. He specifically took it out on the black kids, while apparently ignoring the white kids.

According to his statement, he took it out on one white kid too. So there you go, racism is over.

Apparently steroid abuse is a big problem among cops. I mean just look at how different his composure is than the other cops and the teenagers. It's like he's full of just barely contained rage. He just doesn't seem to be in any normal frame of mind at all.

http://www.theonion.com/article/insecure-frustrated-bully-with-something-to-prove--33427

It is so depressing to see white supremacists come out of the woodwork again to "support the police". I mean, if you check these people's tweets and affiliations, they're into extreme gun politics and real Klan-type "defend our white neighborhood" stuff. And these police groups say NOTHING about it, so I have zero sympathy for them. Look who defends their crybaby attitude!

http://i.imgur.com/tSqbdZp.jpg

latest gotcha moment by the pro-police crowd for that really horrible attack on the police station in Dallas last night: http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/fredricka-whitfield-cnn-apology-dallas-gunman-controversy-1201519467/

even though context makes clear that she was clearly saying the attacks were audacious and fearless, not praising them (and although they're often used that way, brave and courageous aren't technically inherently 'positive' adjectives). Poor choice of words, for sure, and an apology is warranted, but of course the whole net's in an uproar over what was likely a spur of the moment statement that didn't come out the way the anchor intended.

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150618/washington-heights/video-of-chicago-police-officer-firing-into-car-of-teens-released-by-judge

"You don’t start firing into a car full of unarmed people,” Berman told the Reporter. “You just don’t do that.”

hmm dunno if the evidence supports ya here yr honor

http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2015/06/19/whitehall-ohio-4-year-old-accidentially-shot-by-columbus-police-officer.html

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/19/nicholas-thomas-shot-in-back-police

two blocks away from last night, the police shot a guy in the head after he flagged them down and then "extended a towel-wrapped arm towards them". The cops told him to put down the gun and then shot him. Anyway, unarmed OF COURSE.

video showed him with a big head wound and the cops flipping him over and cuffing him. He's still alive somehow.