Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

i think the more serious cases have not reached that stage yet so the results are now skewed toward lower sentences

one of them was forced to be in Dear Evan Hansen

One of them might not get invited to the next Mr. Show reboot.

I absolutely understand there is legal reasoning behind this, but it doesn't make it any less outrageous seeming to an outsider. Hey man, as long as you claim self-defense, you can go ahead and paint the victims people you shoot and kill as whatever kind of monsters you want!

Repeat after me, "they were no angels."

Hey man, as long as you claim self-defense, you can go ahead and paint the victims people you shoot and kill as whatever kind of monsters you want!

― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, October 27, 2021 3:16 PM (seven hours ago)

I would be more livid if it was decided that "rioting," "looting," and arson with no immediate risk to life were offenses deserving of murder.

Also, semi-relatedly -- Kyle looks a lot like one of the sons of neo-Nazi Vern Schillinger in the tv show OZ

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2021/10/27/i-just-wanted-to-die-homeless-veteran-loses-service-dog-during-arrest-for-panhandling/

i did a little more poking around because i was curious about the judge's ruling in the rittenhouse case. i have concluded this has been pretty badly covered and framed to maximize outrage, as is usually the case. per washington post, this was about closing argument. i also saw a video clip of the judge making the ruling and he specifically said if the evidence shows x he is not going to bar the defense from saying x. if their case is weak enough to be harmed because they can't say "victims," they have other problems, but it's probably not (though it could fail for other predictable reasons).

thanks harbl. as a total legal ignoramus i’d like to retract my snarky and probably fp-worthy post upthread

not to derail this one, but is there a thread for wtf court/ legal shenanigans in our sundowning empire? or has the Steven Donzinger case been discussed in any depth on ILX?

i don't begrudge anyone wanting to dispense with trial and just draw and quarter this one i just sometimes feel like i am on the BadLegalTakes twitter account

there was a brief exchange about donziger somewhere and there is at least one thread about the criminal justice system somewhere but i would enjoy a law thread

Yeah, thanks for your takes harbl. It's not helpful when the reporting is designed to maximize a misreading of the situation, particularly in an inflammatory case like this one. For me, it just fed into the sinking sense that this kid is gonna walk without even a slap on the wrist and spend the rest of his life propped up and trotted out by the right wing media outrage machine.

this one is interesting:
https://oaklandside.org/2021/10/21/retired-oakland-police-captain-wounded-1-suspect-dead-following-robbery-attempt/

It doesn't seem clear that was a case of police brutality? Although based on the info provided apparently the retired officer did draw first.

Rohrer was standing on a median near a Gastonia shopping center with Sunshine on Oct. 13 when a 911 caller contacted police. While Rohrer wasn’t bothering anybody, having Sunshine with him was his way of using sympathy to get money from people, the caller said, according to a copy of the audio call.

Fuckyoufuckyoufuckyouihopeyoudiefuckyou

fuck arresting people for 'panhandling'

No offense to you, harbl, but I truly don't give a shit what any judge says about anything, or what the law says. Fuck the law, and fuck the judge.

Ok but other people do!

but this holiday season, table is...

https://i.imgur.com/sYr8ZBG.gif

above the law

(seagal is a cop in that movie, it fits)

fits with the thread, i mean.

sorry

https://bplusmovieblog.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/andjusticeforall.png?w=590

your honor, under the traditions of the time-honored Magna Carta, i believe that as the defendant in these proceedings i am entitled to a

Trial by Combat

what does "no offense to you" even mean lol. if you think i care about judges or what the law says i don't know what to tell you

I mean it's easier for us to dismiss the law when the case involves a privileged alt-right kid who fessed up to killing both people right after he did it and was publicly witnessed doing it by everybody that was there...

vs if someone of lower income who can't afford a lawyer and has to go with a public defender is accused of something they didn't do.

if conservatives had their way, it'd be easier to convict people on trivial evidence, and that's not something I want to gravitate towards. we already know of scores of people who were wrongly put on death row in the current system.

I want to pay wergild for my murders.

But if we all don't believe in the law then it will just fuck off and the prisons will disappear

The point is that there is quite literally nothing redeemable about the US legal system as it is, so while knowing its ins and outs is valuable, I don't actually put any faith in it. It's a field based in pain and death. Fuck it.

the problem with the legal system though is that it unfairly penalizes non-violent crimes that pose little harm to the community with stiff penalties, is weighted in favor of people with money who can afford rockstar legal representation as opposed to poorer individuals who can only receive the services of an overworked public defender. and that it punishes people of color disproportionately to Caucasian individuals. the issue with the legal system is that it is locking up too many people that do not belong locked up at all, locking people up for too long, locking the wrong people up, executing the wrong people, etc. Meaning the deck is stacked against the average civilian who runs afoul of the law. Suggesting more legal protections are needed for the average individual.

Yes, there are also people who aren't incarcerated who should be, but I've never understood the argument against our legal system to be that "more people need to be locked up", but that we need to overhaul and rethink the entire prison system, which encourages recidivism and makes it impossible for prisoners to re-enter society.

the example that harbl is talking about is an actual protection offered to civilians accused of a crime, mostly to prevent prejudicing the jury and resulting in an unfair trial that puts them away for many years. I wouldn't see this as an emblem of an unjust legal system because it's a protection that actually seeks to give defendants a fighting chance to defend themselves if they are wrongfully accused. and in this case, I don't think it's one that's going to have a significant role in the outcome of the case.

table i understand that, in fact i agree with you. i'm just not sure why you directed that at me like i'm proud of the legal system

yea, sorry. i apologize for that.

table i understand that, in fact i agree with you. i'm just not sure why you directed that at me like i'm proud of the legal system

― certified juice therapist (harbl), Thursday, October 28, 2021 3:02 PM (yesterday)

yeah ... it's a challenge to work within the system you have misgivings / major problems with to try and do harm reduction. I think you are awesome harbl, for what you do and being able to maintain your values and criticism of said system. Also Happy Birthday.

only complaint re: harbl is I miss the "superdeep borehole" display name.

aw thanks! flattered that my birthday is on sarahell's xls

fyi i don't do criminal law anymore i am now toiling in obscurity elsewhere ;)

lol, actually my xls only says ' harbl - Scorpio - awesome' -- and as Scorpio is the best sign, harbl gets a whole month of birthday

happy birthday to both of you

If this was posted here three months ago, you can ignore this. It came up in a Stereogum comment about the Travis Scott concert tragedy.

https://defector.com/the-myth-of-cops-overdosing-from-touching-fentanyl-persists-for-a-reason/

Looooooooool

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-police-lodge-jack-daniels-committee-investigation/2021/11/04/e035a92a-3377-11ec-a1e5-07223c50280a_story.html

united states cops - they aren't too smaught

“Look if what we did was illegal I think we’d know, after all I am a cop.”

I looked for an appropriately lolworthy quote in that article to repost here, but I gave up trying to decide which one after the first half dozen.

“He has good communication skills, and he is very neatly dressed,” the sheriff said.

The most important takeaway

So far, neither the lodge nor the leaders of the Jack Daniel’s committee have faced legal consequences. The D.C. police investigated, but prosecutors declined to file charges.

*screams*

Losing my fucking mind at the "police reform" proposals of Seattle's new mayorhttps://t.co/WmuvtO9d1F pic.twitter.com/gSl5PfJGZ2

— Michael Hobbes (@RottenInDenmark) November 7, 2021

jackoff motion optional

Mentioned it months ago, and a few days ago, but the other half of his proposal was that they can have a pizza party on Fridays if they don’t murder anybody that week.

Another in the "cops ain't too smart" series
https://www.insideedition.com/san-francisco-police-departments-sgt-davin-cole-charged-with-shoplifting-at-a-rite-aid-pharmacy

harbl if yr intersted in reading back

haha ok i do remember that!