Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

I can't comprehend how you let a diabetic fade out, collapse, and die in front of you because you won't give them insulin. Like literally what is the internal monologue here.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/family-of-diabetic-black-man-says-he-died-after-a-jail-refused-to-give-him-insulin/

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2015/08/cop_shot_himself_and_blamed_a_black_driver_police_officer_kelly_stewart.html

the victim is the cousin of Boots Riley from The Coup.

http://www.joincampaignzero.org/#vision

this was just launched, don't know much about it yet except that supposedly @deray is behind it somehow

This looks great.

Mistrial in the Randall Kerrick police shooting case: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/mistrial-declared-police-officers-manslaughter-trial-33235595

Protests beginning right now in uptown Charlotte: http://www.wcnc.com/story/news/local/randall-kerrick-trial/2015/08/21/kerrick-trial-protesters-blocking-4th-street/32137825/

I mean, what the hell, a cop can't even get convicted when his own department turns against him:

Following the shooting, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department released a statement calling the shooting unlawful. "The evidence revealed that Mr. Ferrell did advance on Officer Kerrick and the investigation showed that the subsequent shooting of Mr. Ferrell was excessive," police said in a statement the day of the shooting. "Our investigation has shown that Officer Kerrick did not have a lawful right to discharge his weapon during this encounter."

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/22/us/politics/in-rare-case-fbi-tries-to-fire-agent-who-shot-queens-suspect.html?_r=0

For the first time in decades, the F.B.I. is trying to fire an agent for intentionally shooting a suspect, after finding that the agent violated bureau policy when he wounded an unarmed man who had apparently helped break into his Lexus outside his home in Queens.

The agent, who was off duty, fired at the man from a second-story window, hitting him in the back.

O_O

the shooting took place a few years ago, but still

a rare bit of good news:

Judge overhauls troubled Ferguson, Missouri, court

A new municipal judge in Ferguson, Missouri, on Monday ordered sweeping changes to court practices in response to a scathing Justice Department report following the shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown a year ago.

Municipal Court Judge Donald McCullin, appointed in June, ordered that all arrest warrants issued in the city before Dec. 31, 2014 be withdrawn.

Defendants will receive new court dates along with options for disposing of their cases, such as payment plans or community service. Fines may be commuted for indigent people.

The changes come five months after the U.S. Department of Justice strongly criticized city leaders in its report, saying the police force and court worked together to exploit people in order to raise revenue.

The Justice Department specifically said Ferguson's municipal court practices caused significant harm to many

people with cases pending as minor municipal code violations turned into multiple arrests, jail time, and payments

that exceeded the cost of the original ticket many times over.

McCullin, who is black, ordered instead that if an arrest warrant is issued for a minor traffic violation, the defendant will not be incarcerated, but will be released on their own recognizance and given another court date, the city said.

"These changes should continue the process of restoring confidence in the Court... and giving many residents a fresh start," said McCullin in a statement.

He added that many people who have had drivers licenses suspended will be able to obtain them and start driving again. In the past, the city's director of revenue would suspend a defendant's driver's license solely for failing to appear in court or failing to pay a fine.

McCullin replaced Judge Ronald Brockmeyer who resigned after being criticized in the Justice Department report.

"It is meaningful and will have a real impact on the lives of many," said St. Louis-area lawyer Brendan Roediger, who has helped represent some protesters complaining of mistreatment by police and courts in Ferguson.

"That being said, payment plans and community service do not solve racial profiling or excessive fines," Roediger said.

A two-fer from CNN today:

Black driver tailed for two minutes, pulled over for making 'direct eye contact'

Man with hands raised shot to death by Texas sheriff's deputies, incident captured on cell phone video

"This is a very unique situation where we actually have the shooting on video," LaHood said. "That gives us a whole different perspective that we've never had to deal with before."

i'll bet

"Had to deal with before". Well if that isn't super creepy.

the thing that is disheartening to me is that these on-camera recordings of police misconduct are getting more frequent and comprehensive as vigilant civilians are better prepared to start the camera rolling immediately. so the footage is of better quality, and more of the events leading up are captured, but the response of the general public and police of course hasn't been proportionate.

No matter how much of the incident you get on video, someone will insinuate that there was a portion left out which would have "explained why the cops had to use necessary force", and this gets believed more easily than it should because of confirmation bias. it's nothing new, of course, but they always hinge on the one element that is hazy in the video or unclear and make a narrative out of that. like DJP and others said upthread, it's the sad query, having to ask "is he going to be convicted" despite damning, unambiguous video evidence.

Not that the videos of these incidents haven't been effective in gradually swaying public perception or even in some cases have resulted in action from police forces. and that it might be subconsciously influencing cop behavior in these situations if they aren't wearing body cams but feel they might be videotaped. But still such a long, long way to go.

Many police departments also use the false equation gimmick where they deliberately focus the debate solely on whether the victim was resisting or not, to slyly manipulate the discussion to where all participants accept the default assumption "mild resistance = license to shoot", and thus the police just need to prove he was resisting to legitimize the shooting. When that default assumption is bogus to begin with and should be questioned by all - most resisting obv doesn't require lethal force.

I mean, when I was 16 I saw a man who was hopped up on several drugs put a bowling alley employee in a chokehold unprovoked. The cops were there in minutes and he was just not going down, despite macings and baton strikes, and he continued to get up and squirm away. Despite his resistance, the cops managed to subdue and arrest him without the use of lethal force. Some of the 'resisting arrest' incidents that have resulted in shootings equated to resistance far more mild and unthreatening than that afternoon.

Hoping this video retrieves the right result - if a civilian is giving himself up to surrender and you have trained weapons on him, that line of 'we felt threatened' kind of flies out the window.

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/cop-shot-responding-to-wrong-house-gbi-leading-inv/nnWKr/

http://news.yahoo.com/1st-freddie-gray-hearing-since-6-officers-charged-085105487.html

Texas Lt Governor has truths to tell:

https://twitter.com/stjbs/status/639125941990637568/photo/1

Yeah, the cop and cop groupie world is really in a tizzy over Goforth, and has combined that (admittedly awful) murder with a bunch of traffic accidents, is calling it "8 BLUE LIVES IN 8 DAYS" and is convinced that there is now a hot war on the cops by "them". Things should stay ugly for a while.

cop groupie world, sigh. that is a thing that exists, isn't it

our boys in blue : (

lol @ that Lt Governor statement, the requests are like "give your teacher a gift on the last day of school": they're about how the people feel, so that people continue to want to do a job despite the pay and working conditions being shitty. like I don't think the reason that people stop being cops is that people don't call them sir enough.

you would think the level of arbitrary power they have to interfere with citizen's lives would be enough to appease all but the most psychopathic

when you enjoy that level of arbitrary power the slightest detractions from it are magnified as all the more irritating

destroys the illusion

I often think about a Criminology class I took back in college many moons ago. Can't remember the professor's name, but he was one of the original proponents of broken windows policy during the Giuliani administration in NYC. As such, a good portion of the semester discussed the theory behind it and why policies were changed to have more police on the streets over more varied periods of the day to actively police small crime, which would lead to a decrease in serious crimes, and so forth. It was plain to see the logic and statistics behind its success, and also several years later, how the culture and bad cops would take that mandate too far and abuse citizens for things like selling illegal cigarettes.

And even in that class, on Day 1, our lesson was that police officers have an enormous, virtually limitless amount of latitude on deciding what crimes get paid attention to, ignored, lead to an arrest, and so on - there are no really almost no rules for this. So I find it pathetically laughable at the suggestion that we need to bow down to cops and make them feel better about their jobs because they're not respected or powerful enough.

so good luck to James Blake getting this NYPig fired.

http://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2015/09/nypd-brutalizes-wrong-innocent-man/404869/

the video and more

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/09/james-blake-wants-officer-who-tackled-him-fired.html#

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2015/10/06/red-wing-calls-for-attacks-on-police-to-be-considered-hate-crime/

“Currently 30 officers in 2015 have been killed by gunfire, that’s a little over three a month,” Red Wing Police Chief Roger Pohlman.

From Harris County, Texas to Fox Lake, Ill., officers have died at the hands of those who they swore to protect.

“They are targeting not the person but the position and the authority,” Pohlman said.

A call to honor the lives lost came from the National Fraternal Order of Police. The group wants cities, counties and states to acknowledge this crisis and work with them to address the violent surge against officers.

“I think it’s a very trying time for law enforcement,” Pohlman said.

fun debate question, is it worse to die at the hands of those you swore to protect, or to die at the hands of those sworn to protect you

It's worse to die at the hands of those sworn to protect you. Broken promises suck.

Another fun debate question, how can you call it a violent surge, when the yearly number of officers killed has been steadily dropping?

Currently 886 people in 2015 have been killed by police. 185 of them were unarmed, that's a little over 18 a month.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database#

Hahn, who is represented by high-profile Los Angeles attorney Mark Geragos, claims officers retaliated against her for calling a nonemergency police hotline to report that she felt harassed by Officer Kenyatte Valentine. Hahn, then 40, was leaving a birthday party with her 11- and 7-year-old children and asked Valentine what he was doing in front of a car whose alarm had sounded. According to the lawsuit, the officer responded with a profanity.

Valentine followed Hahn in her car after she called to complain, stopped her for a seat-belt violation, ordered her to leave the vehicle, and beat her while her children waited in the back seat, according to the lawsuit. Another officer, identified in court documents as Jody Knisley, joined Valentine and allegedly punched Hahn in the face "until she was limp" and her "clothes were almost ripped off."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/woman-sues-carlsbad-police-excessive-force-seatbelt-violation

From Harris County, Texas to Fox Lake, Ill., officers have died at the hands of those who they swore to protect.

The Fox Lake case is far from settled, the police are investigating it as such but there have also been reports and plenty of speculation that the officer committed suicide.

Oh, they are adding all kinds of deaths -- accidental, off-duty conflicts, suicides -- together to make up a war on police. I took ten minutes to look at the cases involved in an hysterical "8 COPS IN 7 DAYS AND OBAMA MERELY RUBS HIS HANDS IN GLEE" -- only 2 were clear cases of officers killed by strangers on duty.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2ac4090767bf4bd58855ff296fcdf810/reports-officers-shooting-boy-pellet-gun-justified

tamir rice case

:[

If the officer isn't to blame because he got wrong information, then the person giving the wrong information is guilty of manslaughter, no?

This is insane. Hopefully Cleveland police will be put under DOJ administration as soon as possible.

"The officers did not create the violent situation," Sims wrote. "They were responding to a situation fraught with the potential for violence to citizens."

jesus christ

I mean the cops are being disingenuous as hell with this shit, as if once someone makes a false or exaggerated report, they have ZERO mechanisms to accurately and swiftly judge the threat at the scene. Nope, what's told to them over the radio dictates exactly how they react and requires them getting out of the car and firing within two seconds.

I remember a case LIKE this from when I was a teenager, where a local suburban kid had a toy gun that looked very realistic, and he was pointing it at various places and pretending to shoot it. the person who called 911 said they believed the weapon was real.

the cops showed up and assessed the threat, determined it wasn't, and even then the mother bitched that the cops harassed her kid, but nobody died.

Obviously one can't use one standalone case to make a sweeping statement but it illustrates there are alternate means of handling the situation that don't involve going full on CAll of Duty within seconds of arrival.

If the officer isn't to blame because he got wrong information, then the person giving the wrong information is guilty of manslaughter, no?

― Frederik B, Sunday, October 11, 2015 10:41 AM (1 hour ago)

obviously not

terribly sad story with zero accountability, once again. go america

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/us/2-outside-reviews-say-cleveland-officer-acted-reasonably-in-shooting-tamir-rice-12.html

if any of the non-principals should face discipline (though probably not criminal), it's the dispatcher, who chose not to relay that the 911 caller said that the gun was "probably fake" and fair was "probably a juvenile"

"The officers did not create the violent situation," Sims wrote. "They were responding to a situation fraught with the potential for violence to citizens."

...by cops.

i.e. any situation where a poorly-trained cop with a gun is dealing with the public.

i mean the cops were the only ones in this situation who posed any real threat to anyone.

yeah I mean details get miscommunicated to the cops all the time, either by a dispatcher or a civilian. it's like they're suggesting that the onus was on the civilian to positively ascertain the threat level....

I get that cops have to protect the general public but I really don't see what they saw upon arrival at the team that told them they had to basically exit the vehicle shooting.

Not sure if best thread (sorry if it's already on another one) but
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/10/the-nypd-is-using-mobile-x-rays-to-spy-on-unknown-targets/411181/?single_page=true

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-palm-beach-gardens-officer-shooting-20151019-story.html

Church musician's car breaks down on the exit ramp, he flags down cars for help, gets shot by a plainclothes police officer. Of course the local PD is saying the officer was "suddenly confronted by an armed subject," etc.

no cameras or witnesses, this one will end well :(.

officer will say he identified himself, nobody to refute. ugh...I probably wouldn't react much differently than the victim if, at 3 am, already on edge due to vehicular breakdown, I saw some stranger looking into my car.

This past Friday in Columbus, Mississippi: http://www.cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=45604

Three Columbus Police Department officers are on administrative leave after a shooting Friday resulted in the death of a 26-year-old Columbus man.

Chief Tony Carleton said the officers -- who he declined to identify -- are on indefinite leave pending the results of investigations into the shooting death of Ricky Javonta Ball.

Ball was a passenger in a car police officers attempted to stop about 10 p.m. Friday near the intersection of 14th Avenue North and 21st Street North. A woman driving the car did not stop immediately and Ball jumped from the car and ran, according to Warren Strain, spokesperson with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.

Authorities have not said what happened next, whether Ball was armed or how many times he was shot. An autopsy is scheduled for this week. MBI is handling the investigation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/28/us/spring-valley-high-school-sc-officer-arrest.html

The deputy also detained a second student, Niya Kenny, who told a local television station that her only offense was objecting to his treatment of the other girl.

“I was crying, like literally screaming, crying like a baby,” Ms. Kenny, 18, told WLTX. “I couldn’t believe that was happening. I’d never seen nothing like that in my life, a man use that much force on a little girl.”

As she protested, she said, “He said since you’ve got so much to say, you’re coming, too.”

grrrrr this sounds so fucking familiar from when i was in grade and middle schools: "you got something to say, too?"

https://twitter.com/shiftmsnbc/status/659117014368309248

FALSE ALARM, EVERYONE