Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

you got "Man in the Mirror" stuck in my head.

It is a grim thing to think of the admittedly great, positive message behind that song and to juxtapose it against how Michael Jackson chose to implement it upon himself.

Well, this is a grim thread.

I am thankful on a nearly daily basis that the DCPD and other local LE have not (yet) become whatever the hell it is the PDs in the rest of the country are devolving into. US Capitol Police notwithstanding.

I was gonna say; if the problem under discussion was that the police are indiscriminately gunning down EVERYONE, opposing the current state of affairs wouldn't be controversial because it would also affect a larger number of white people.

― ¶ (DJP), Thursday, September 29, 2016 12:15 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

less then a year for things to begin to swing this way

Last references to Homan Square itt were from two years back; new, awful details just released via a Guardian investigation

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/19/homan-square-chicago-police-disappeared-thousands

NYPD sergeants union shamelessly cried "blue racism"

https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/8/22/16179930/blue-racism-police

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-prepares-to-lift-limits-on-military-gear-for-police/2017/08/27/3dee004c-8b86-11e7-9c53-6a169beb0953_story.html

Documents obtained by The Associated Press indicate Trump was preparing to sign an executive order undoing an Obama administration directive that restricted police agencies’ access to grenade launchers, bullet-proof vests, riot shields, firearms, ammunition and other surplus military equipment.

Trump’s order would fully restore the program under which “assets that would otherwise be scrapped can be repurposed to help state, local, and tribal law enforcement better protect public safety and reduce crime,” according to the documents.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions could outline the changes during a Monday speech to the national conference of the Fraternal Order of Police in Nashville, Tennessee, a person familiar with the matter said.

President Barack Obama issued an executive order in 2015 that severely limited the surplus program, partly triggered by public outrage over the use of military gear during protests in Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. Police responded in riot gear and deployed tear gas, dogs and armored vehicles. At times they also pointed assault rifles at protesters.

Obama’s order prohibited the federal government from providing grenade launchers, bayonets, tracked armored vehicles, weaponized aircraft and vehicles, and firearms and ammunition of .50-caliber or greater to police. As of December, the agency overseeing the program had recalled at least 100 grenade launchers, more than 1,600 bayonets and 126 tracked vehicles — those that run on continuous, tank-like tracks instead of wheels — that were provided through the program.

Trump vowed to rescind the executive order in a written response to a Fraternal Order of Police questionnaire that helped him win an endorsement from the organization of rank-and-file officers. He reiterated his promise during a gathering of police officers in July, saying the equipment still on the streets is being put to good use.

Last references to Homan Square itt were from two years back; new, awful details just released via a Guardian investigation

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/19/homan-square-chicago-police-disappeared-thousands

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Friday, 11 August 2017 01:16 (two weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that article is itself from two years ago though

well at least he's honest

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Remember-we-only-shoot-black-people-Georgia-12164011.php

FTP

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/01/health/utah-nurse-arrest-police-video/index.html

Read about that on Splinter yesterday, was unable to think clearly for several minutes.

The full video of the Utah nurse's arrest was making me crazy. I don't think I would have held it together under intimidation.

*under that intimidation

St Louis police assault an elderly woman for protesting the St Louis police pic.twitter.com/wxoU5U28Yt

— jordan 🌹🌹 (@JordanUhl) September 16, 2017

Things are starting to remind me of this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8awXGkgW1vI

violence "breaks out" AFTER police kill someone and not WHEN they killed someone is one of the more Orwellian cliches of our time pic.twitter.com/jd9POmhls4

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) September 19, 2017

come the FUCK ON

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oklahoma-city-police-shoot-kill-deaf-man-holding-pipe/

"we didnt hear the people shouting 'he can't hear you'".

if only there were some other ways to observe when someone clearly isn't processing what you're saying.

but the officers didn't hear the witnesses

That's all that's going to be needed to avoid charges or get an acquittal, I suppose.

Okay folks, dare I say we almost have a 'light' story here on this front, almost. The third paragraph below being the key one.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/suffolk-county-da-thomas-spota-top-assistant-indicted-feds-article-1.3588145

Longtime Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota and a top assistant have been indicted by the feds on "shocking and appalling" charges that they tried covering up a disgraced police chief's brutal beating of a suspect.

Brooklyn federal prosecutors unveiled the charges against the Long Island lawman Wednesday, saying he and his high-ranking lieutenant colluded on how to conceal James Burke's 2012 pummeling of a handcuffed man inside a Smithtown police precinct.

The beating victim, Christopher Loeb, made the mistake of breaking into the wrong vehicle—Burke's police-issued SUV—and swiping the police big's sex toys, a porn video, a gun belt, cigars and a humidor. Burke threatened him with a "hot shot"—slang for a lethal heroin overdose.

The Greatest Story Ever Told

also on the lighter side but the operation they fucked up sounds like standard corrupt asset-seizure shit.

http://www.newsweek.com/detroit-cops-fight-each-other-very-embarrassing-undercover-mix-710270

At least six detectives in 67 Precinct probed for planting guns; two who quit rather than justify themselves. A phantom "informant." A riot. DA quietly dropping cases because no one trusts these cops. How is this not a bigger story?! https://t.co/hlZnhkBBXe

— Harry Siegel (@harrysiegel) November 28, 2017

that's this

Scoop: Two cops quit NYPD, as years-long saga of officers planting guns on men in East Flatbush continues… From @rparascandola @NYDailyNews https://t.co/MnjxatvA15 pic.twitter.com/MXfiAC4Nc6

— Harry Siegel (@harrysiegel) November 28, 2017

http://abcnews.go.com/US/cop-michael-slager-faces-19-24-years-prison/story?id=51595376&cid=clicksource_4380645_2_three_posts_card_hed

^^^ I was not expecting this.

I honestly wonder if his lawyers were.

I, weirdly, feel some amount of empathy toward Slager since he put in a guilty plea to this civil charge? Like, maybe dude isn't 100% irredeemable if he can admit to the wrongness of his actions? I also was not expecting to have this reaction.

was the guilty plea strategic due to thinking the second trial may not result in a mistrial and trying to minimize the damage? (which I guess Ned might have been getting at)?

he plead guilty to a civil rights violation to end the retrial, if i'm understanding correctly. punishment makes sense to me, especially after seeing that screenshot of the video again of his shooting Scott from behind.

Arizona Cop Acquitted for Killing Man Crawling Down Hotel Hallway While Begging for His Life

The video is unreal.

there's a link I will never click on

Some of us unfortunately need the reminder of the callousness some humans are able to inhabit.

fucking horrifying

I profoundly regret watching that.

Fuck this victim-blaming lawyer too. Shaver's 'actions' consisted of having a pellet gun in a hotel room. In Arizona, a state where you can walk around in public with a rifle.

“The last thing in the world that Mitch Brailsford wanted to do that night was shoot. His goal wasn’t to kill Daniel Shaver,” Piccarreta told the jury. “Shaver is not a bad person, but his actions are what brought the police that night.”

'if you make a mistake, i will kill you'

there's like no tense-situation bluster or unsaid implication to that, he's literally just saying, i have an idea of everything you must do and if you don't do it all exactly the way i want i will kill you

The cop's bloodlust was so sickening and obvious. And the inscription on his rifle? WTF???????????

And the jury saw that video and STILL let that fucking creep off.

i don't understand how this cop wasn't convicted of murder. there is absolutely no ambiguity here.

People want an authoritarian state where mistakes are punished by immediate death.

i don't get it -

There were two cops and the guy was face down, splayed out. One cop walks over and cuffs him, done. Instead it's a bunch of yelled commands about crawling and getting shot. bizarre.

The officer didn't want to investigate and de-escalate a situation. He wanted to kill someone.

There are some basic assumptions about what the police are supposed to do that are worth challenging in the face of all of these stories.

sadly, that is the only interpretation of that video that makes any sense whatsoever.

that he was out looking to kill

The opportunity to kill someone is part of the appeal of becoming a police officer for some.

monstrous