Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

APD is kettling and pepper spraying protesters on the sidewalk by Garrett's memorial. People need to come out to 4th and congress! This is ridiculous #austinprotests https://t.co/Ua3HUDf3yT

— Mike Ramos Brigade (@mike_r_brigade) August 2, 2020

Also seeing a Livestream from another protest elsewhere in the city that's chill af.

And this was earlier, near the memorial?

Large armed force of Boogaloo boys stationed under I35 in front of Austin Police Headquarters. #austinprotests pic.twitter.com/K7qYtMYF0J

— Taylor Blount (@Third3y3Club) August 1, 2020

Yikes

Video from the #protest in Austin earlier shows police get off the transport busses. #austinprotests #Texas pic.twitter.com/A7Be0EHto8

— The Up2Dater (@UptoDateNewz) August 2, 2020

Comforting to know that @Austin_Police are doing such a good job keeping protesters safe? If there's one thing that says the #1stAmendment is supported, it is exercising that right under the watch of armed snipers. #AustinProtests #BLM #GarrettFoster https://t.co/QpW6YMCirl

— Henry Blank (@HenryBlankJokes) August 2, 2020

fuckin' christ

One of the Boogaloo Boys at Garrett’s memorial accidentally pointed the muzzle of their rifle at us while scratching an itch. My husband says “if that’s our last line of defense we are all dead” lol #boogaloobois #austinprotests

— 𝓜𝓮𝓻𝓻𝓲𝓬𝓴 𝓓𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓵𝓵𝓮 (@merrickdeville) August 2, 2020

this incident happened the day before the primary, back in march

BREAKING: @AGBecerra charges Los Angeles DA's husband for pulling gun on Black Lives Matter protesters https://t.co/ySTOMm4dKq

— Carla Marinucci (@cmarinucci) August 4, 2020

NEW: A Miami Beach cop who knocked out an unarmed Black man at a restaurant in 2018 has been cleared by internal affairs. The officer who leaked the video and sought whistleblower protection faces suspension. w/@ChuckRabin https://t.co/wv4oaQMael pic.twitter.com/O8JHEDG3Yh

— Aaron Leibowitz (@aaron_leib) August 4, 2020

There has been an LAPD Officer-Involved Shooting in the area of Santa Monica Blvd & Wilton Pl within @LAPDHollywood Division. Preliminary info is that officers responded to a suicidal male radio call at approx 2:10pm in the area of Santa Monica Blvd & Wilton Place.

— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) August 6, 2020

good news is no innocent people were hurt despite apparent intentions. bad news is recovery is expected & it sounds like they fucking shot a dog, again (hard to tell with the passive to the point of abstraction voice in these things)

didn’t that racist sex pest- the one trying to unseat the other one- just now demand more funding for the cops? that might help them kill their intended targets more efficiently

Joe Biden's $300 billion will be dedicated to training them to shoot people in the calves.

read that as "shoot people in the cakes"

oh, you were into Beto cause he made your calves cramp? your buddy Joe can top that just you wait

Cakes sounds like slang Biden would use for butts.

"Look at the cakes and gams on that dame."

The dog was also injured during the incident, but it is unclear if it suffered a puncture wound from the scissors or gunshot wounds.

how will we ever know?

https://gothamist.com/news/majority-nypd-officers-dont-live-new-york-city-new-figures-show

Is this the all purpose rioting and looting thread, too? Because from what I was reading this morning some fucked up shit went down in Chicago last night.

I thought this was a succinct and helpful breakdown of the legal, social and ethical issues involved in prosecuting Hankinson, Cosgrove and Mattingly in the murder of Breonna Taylor.
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/08/08/why-it-s-not-so-simple-to-arrest-the-cops-who-shot-breonna-taylor

and here's the stories of five people arrested during protests
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/07/nyregion/ny-protest-arrests.html

On the night of June 4, Dr. Mike Pappas said he decided to volunteer during a protest in the South Bronx as a medic. He recalled that he packed a bag with medical supplies, painted red crosses on his shirt and bags and headed out.

As curfew neared, Mr. Pappas said he noticed a growing police presence behind demonstrators. Then, as protest leaders turned the group down a side street, they found their path blocked by another line of police.

Mr. Pappas said an officer approached and told him, “Come with me, man, everything’s going to be fine.”

“I know the feeling of a police officer holding your arm when you’re going to be arrested,” said Mr. Pappas, who was dressed in scrubs.

He offered to show the officer his ID and explained that he was an essential worker and was permitted to be out after curfew, he said.

“‘You were standing in the road, you’re no longer a medic, you’re a protester,’” Mr. Pappas recalled the officer’s saying.

At the precinct, Mr. Pappas said he was struck by the disorganization. During intake, Mr. Pappas said, he was asked repeatedly to explain the contents of his pockets and record his possessions.

“They must have asked me 30 times how much money I had on me,” he said.

While waiting for the intake process, Mr. Pappas said he saw several officers come in and out of the station house, high-fiving and fist-bumping each other. They called out numbers to each other, he said, joking about how many arrests each officer had recorded that night.

Santa Clarita, California:

Three black teenagers were being attacked by a homeless man and witnesseses called for help.

When police arrived they pointed their guns, and arrested the kids who needed their help. Terrifying them.

On brand. Exhausting...pic.twitter.com/R3dXb6DOtC

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) August 10, 2020

Jesus fuckin' christ

It gets more fucked: https://www.tmz.com/2020/08/10/la-county-sheriffs-point-guns-santa-clarita-black-teens-needing-help/

Not shockingly, multiple 911 calls were made. Three in total. Two of them state the homeless man attempted to rob them and they were fending him off. Another says that the Black men are attacking a homeless man.

Guess which one became the description dispatch gave to the officers? Fuckin' bullshit.

For that third caller, they may have not seen how the fight began, or they may have been racist. Impossible to know.

But this Get Out of Jail Free card that is "The caller and dispatcher gave us wrong details, we are under no obligation to suss out what's actually going on at the scene before drawing guns" is precisely why SWATTing works.

LASD is the most harmful police force in the united states.

LAPD is like the ur-corrupt police of the modern era.

i don't disagree but LAPD is a different entity and actually slightly better than LASD (which is the agency in this story). LASD is off the charts.

Another says that the Black men are attacking a homeless man.

Guess which one became the description dispatch gave to the officers? Fuckin' bullshit.

even if this were the case, when the rolled up and saw teens with skateboards the obvious coarse of action is to pull out your AR-15's ? just fucking assholes the lot of them

LA sherrif's department provides policing for cities in LA county that don't have their own police force, and unincorporated LA county, and they run county lockups. the chief of LASD (i.e. the sherrif) is a elected (unlike the chief of LAPD). he is also a lunatic who displays open contempt for/insubordination to democratic local government. LASD is riddled with gangs (especially east LA and compton) and a significant fraction of it's 2000s-era senior leadership is in prison right now. LAPD is very bad, but LASD is just intitutionally insane and completely iredeemable, but no one cares because they don't police white LA.

Is this the all purpose rioting and looting thread, too? Because from what I was reading this morning some fucked up shit went down in Chicago last night.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around what actually happened. There is so much contradictory information and bullshit flying around today. "teens organized this on TikTok" (which just reeks of scare-mongering urban legend, see: "the knockout game"), "pros planned this, see where they strategically placed U-hauls!". All of which is before you even get to whatever happened in Englewood yesterday, which seems to have been a flashpoint with multiple different versions of events.

From what I understand everybody is right, or at least a little right. There was supposedly a call to cops last night about somebody in Englewood with a gun. The cops show up, find who they identify as a suspect, chase after said 20 year old suspect, who supposedly shoots at them, and cops end up shooting him in the shoulder. Word gets around not that cops shot and wounded an armed 20-year-old, who is now in the hospital and recovering, but that they shot and killed an unarmed 15-year-old in the back. Tension builds as this inaccurate depiction makes the rounds, and more cops get sent to Englewood. Meanwhile, in retaliation, or simply to exploit the situation, troublemakers post on social media an invitation to caravan into downtown and go looting, which they do. So yes the looting and shooting are related, but only in the most tenuous of ways. At least as I understand it. I have a good friend who I trust who has been on the front line of all this stuff for the last few months, and his description is significantly different than the description I got from another good friend of mine who has been on the front line of this stuff for months.

That's actually the best summary I've found so far that actually touches on all of the various threads I've so far just seen in bits and pieces.

even if this were the case, when the rolled up and saw teens with skateboards the obvious coarse of action is to pull out your AR-15's ? just fucking assholes the lot of them

― (•̪●) (carne asada), Monday, August 10, 2020 2:25 PM bookmarkflaglink

oh completely. cops always pretend as if dispatches are never wrong and that it's not their job to assess what the scene actually is when they arrive. and when witnesses, including one of the people who called, are screaming at you that they didn't do anything, maybe don't continue to point the AKs at the kids for another 2 minutes. so a bystander doesn't have to scream PUT YOUR HANDS UP, out of fear that you're going to shoot them?

This story about Baltimore PD is bonkers:

https://www.salon.com/2020/08/10/the-incredible-saga-of-baltimores-worst-gang-an-elite-police-squad-gone-bad/

So much disgusting and murderous behavior.

https://www.thecity.nyc/2020/8/11/21364522/nypd-cops-tased-unarmed-queens-man-died-video-shows

Gut-wrenching. And of course, NYPD falsely claimed, in the immediate aftermath, that he engaged officers with a sword; bodycam footage reveals that in fact, they asked him through the door to ditch the sword, he did so, and the officers confirmed it was gone.

"NYPD officials didn’t respond to questions Tuesday about how the prior statement squares with the video, which doesn’t show Zapantis holding the sword at any point."

Dismantle the NYPD.

xpost I just picked up that "I Got A Monster" book from the library, looking forward to (and dreading) starting it.

Meanwhile, locally, a bunch of well-meaning protestors went down to Englewood and got more or less chased out by activists from the community, who complained that outside protestors lead to trouble, and it's the locals in the community who often end up paying the price, especially when protestors come down there to protest the police but don't show up to, say, protest rampant gang violence that kills kids.

Standing in the middle of 63rd Street, encircled by police reform protesters, the 42-year-old lifelong resident of Englewood yelled: “None of these motherf-----s are gonna be here tomorrow. That’s why I got a problem.”
“They didn’t let the community know. They didn’t put flyers on peoples’ doors,” Kidd said. “If they would’ve gotten something incited with the police, who’s gotta deal with it tomorrow? The community. Not them. They’ll be somewhere sipping sangria somewhere. I’m telling you like it is.”

More here:

https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/08/12/older-englewood-leaders-to-young-protesters-dont-disrupt-our-neighborhood-and-leave-us-with-pissed-off-police/

and here:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-englewood-police-station-protest-20200812-w5k4bsqbkjft3gddiawr55jopq-story.html

not exactly sure where to put this grim article but it has an excellent historical summary of police functions and i think it's largely otm about where things are headed.

"In both the South and the North, the purpose of police departments was fundamentally the same: to secure, within the settled frontier, the social order on which profit-making activities depended."

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/climate-apartheid-is-the-coming-police-violence-crisis

https://www.thecity.nyc/2020/8/17/21371231/nypd-withholding-evidence-from-ccrb-police-abuse-investigations

HAPPENING NOW: Following a vote from #ATXCouncil members to cut millions from @Austin_Police, @GovAbbott has announced a legislative proposal that says any city that defunds police will have their property tax rate frozen at current levels and won't be able to raise it.

— Mark D. Wilson (@MDWilsonSA) August 18, 2020

Austin cut the police budget, so naturally Governor Abbott proposes legislation to freeze the property tax of any city that does that. Seems like a bold chess move from a guy who usually loses at checkers.

Remember a decade ago when people said Texas was becoming a purple or even blue state? That was funny

Texas is becoming purple, but disenfranchisement and gerrymandering have slowed that process down. Even I was surprised at how close the Beto/Cruz Senate results were in 2018. Senate races have been Republican blowouts here for as long as I can remember. The Gubernatorial races still are.

I'm good with the police budget cuts and having my property tax rates frozen.

Oh no Mr Governor, please don't throw me in the brier patch freeze my property tax rate

yeah how does that penalize communities

Really hard to figure out what his strategy here is.

Yeah, idgi. Whenever they raise property taxes here (all the time) they always do so apologetically and promise future relief/lower rates.

yeah how does that penalize communities

― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Tuesday, August 18, 2020 11:31 AM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Imagine if you need to improve schools, for example?

guess they'll need to defund the police some more then