"xp yeah, (NYT story on mutual aid location) definitely makes CHOP look pretty bad" btw today there was an anti-mask / pro-Jesus rally on the CHOP site, with hundreds of ppl gathering without masks and publicly baptising each other, and at least one baby, in a grotty tub. The mayor didn't send in one single cop to break them up, let alone hundreds of cops and National Guard to tear-gas them, though, so it'll probably look pretty... good? when the NYT writes it up.
― Steppin' RZA (sic), Monday, August 10, 2020 6:41 PM (five days ago)
Since this ^, the police chief quit without yet being able to state who gave the order for the precinct to be vacated by the police who were starting riots every second night, and the National Guard who were standing in various rows behind them, after the city council reduced her $285,000 salary by 7%.
In the same session, the council also voted to defund the team that conducts homeless sweeps, and unanimously agreed to remove police from this task force altogether.
This morning, the mayor did send dozens of cops in riot gear to clear homeless people from the CHOP site and harass volunteer workers handing out masks for free.
Keep us posted on how this looks in the New York Times' coverage!
― Steppin' RZA (sic), Saturday, August 15, 2020 5:58 AM (two days ago)
^ Since this, 115 pages of reports on SPD's use of force against the pre-CHOP protests were released, across three studies by the Office Of Police Accountability, the Inspector General, and the Community Police Commission. 2/3 maintain their support for a ban on tear gas, 1 recommends the use be limited. The CPC one especially calls out that the police chief overturned the mayor's 30-day ban on teargassing us after 40 hours, despite the fact that no officers have any training in the use of tear gas, and materially confirming that she gave the order because they had run out of OC gas by using it so much during the week. 2/3 call out SPD for attacking without taking any steps to communicate dispersal orders. The CPC calls out the mayor's curfew, issued over broadcast radio with 15 minutes' notice, making BLM protests illegal at the moment of a mass movement across the country, and echoed around the world. 2/3 call out police leadership, finding that incident commanders sometimes deployed officers “with no clear strategy or plan” using tactics that contributed to a “toxic cycle of escalation” and “served no clear law enforcement purpose.” All three note that the number of officers deployed to BLM protests, and riot-gear equipment that they came with, “perceived by community as an intimidation tactic.” 2/3 propose that police be directed not to use lethal tactics to stop people from tagging Amaz0ngo windows. The OIG one calls out other violence agencies (eg Sheriff's dept, state patrol, National Guard) for acting outside even SPD policies in the protests, and refusing to coordinate use-of-force reports with them even months after the fact.
The police department has been under a federal consent decree since 2012, signed by the now-mayor as then-US Attorney, requiring them to enact reforms related to their excessive force and racism. The chief did not resign because she has been unwilling or incapable of getting her officers to comply, six or seven or eight years after the legal agreement, but because her $300k salary was reduced slightly, but still remained over a quarter of a million bucks.
Across the city yesterday, non-resident police escalated tactics, smashing parked car windows, sending dozens of officers to traffic stops, blocking reporters and so forth.
At the CHOP site, a pack of unmasked cops attacked and kicked a disabled citizen (video in link) for swearing at one of 'em, and arrested a black bystander who was in the park with their 6-year-old kid, for attempting to protect the beaten citizen.
Haven't been able to find the NYT's framing of this yet.
― poparse's eye (sic), Monday, August 17, 2020 9:12 AM (four months ago)
I promise I looked on the NYT to see if this "looks pretty bad" for cops but can't find anything yet. lmk if this is the fault of homeless ppl tho
* because we still don't have a real one, five months after the previous chief quit in protest of a 7% pay reduction (down to a quarter mil) after her cops committed war crimes on the citizens for a month
― shivers me timber (sic), Saturday, 9 January 2021 09:25 (five years ago)