Tag: Police

Mississippi “Goon Squad”

You have heard the term ‘New South’, right?

That was a PR attempt to try and paint the South in a different light from the days of segregation and bigotry.

It is possible that there had been some movement into the 21st century but it has been slow and small.

Take my state of Mississippi….we are infamous for our lynchings of blacks, murders of civil rights workers and leaders and since the 1950s not much has changed in the attitudes of most Mississippians.

We all have read or heard of the bad behavior of law enforcement around the country….but a group in Mississippi illustrates just how deep bigotry is even in the police organizations.

Six former Mississippi sheriff’s deputies from a self-described “Goon Squad” pleaded guilty Thursday to subjecting two Black men to racialized torture and shooting one of the victims in the mouth after a neighbor called in a complaint about the men staying in the home of a white woman.

Former Rankin County Sheriff’s Office (RCSO) Deputies Brett Morris McAlpin, Jeffrey Arwood Middleton, Christian Lee Dedmon, Hunter Thomas Elward, Daniel Ready Opdyke, and Joshua Allen Hartfield pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with the January 24 torture of 32-year-old Michael Corey Jenkins and 35-year-old Eddie Terrell Parker.

On January 24, the white deputies—who had no warrant—broke down the door of the Braxton home where Parker was living, handcuffing and repeatedly tasing the victims before sexually assaulting them, calling them racist names while threatening to kill them, and shooting Jenkins in the mouth, shattering his jaw and causing permanent injuries to his tongue and neck.

“These guilty pleas are historic for justice against rogue police torture in Rankin County and all over America,” Malik Shabazz, an attorney representing Jenkins and Parker, said in a statement. “Today is truly historic for Mississippi and for civil and human rights in America.”

“There were a lot of naysayers,” Walker added. “This proves there is justice in Mississippi, even in Rankin County with its long history of police violence.”
Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey—who in June said the six deputies had resigned or been terminated—called the case “the most horrible incident of police brutality I’ve learned of over my whole career, and I’m ashamed it happened at this department.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/rankin-county-goon-squad

But  I ask will there truly be justice for what these animals did?

Will this change anything in the state?

Mississippi will remain the backwards state it has been for the last 100 years….no change will come (at least for now).

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Closing Thought–26Jul22

Occasionally I write about stuff that happens in my state of Mississippi…..this one is just disturbing on so many levels…..

The police chief of a small city in Mississippi is out of a job after an audio recording leaked in which he boasted of killing 13 people on the job and used racist and homophobic slurs, reports USA Today and the Washington Post. The board of aldermen in Lexington voted 3-2 to fire chief Sam Dobbins last week, reports WLBT, after the audio was made public by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting. Dobbins is white, while an estimated 80% of Lexington’s 1,600 residents are Black. Among the lines in the recording causing controversy:

  • “I’ve killed 13 men in my career, justified,” he said. “In my line of duty, I have shot and killed 13 different people.”
  • “I shot that n—– 119 times, OK? … The vehicle was shot 319 times, but he was hit 119 times by me.” Dobbins suggested he “saved 67 kids in a school” with this shooting in a cornfield, though the Post notes it’s unclear what he is referring to.
  • “I don’t talk to f—ing queers, I don’t talk to f—ing fa—-s.”
  • “You’re going to get some s— in the streets, and there’s only going to be one man fighting for you, and it’s going to be me, OK? Don’t ever ruin that, all right, because these other n—–s, they’re [unintelligible]. I don’t give a f— if you kill a motherf—er in cold blood. I will articulate to fix the f—ing problem, and I’m the only man in the business here that’s smart enough to do it.”

The recording was secretly made in April by Robert Lee Hooker, a Black officer who resigned last week. Regarding his claims of killing 13 people, Dobbins (before being fired) told the MCIR, “that’s something we don’t discuss, period.” Of the slurs, he said, “I don’t talk like that.”

This guy is an idiot….it is that simple.

Can you believe the stupidity?

I wish just once something good would happen in my state….instead of the stream of crap from idiots.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Uvalde Again

Uvalde makes the news….again.

The scene of a recent mass shooting in Texas makes the news again…this time with a video showing the police standing around jerking off while children were murdered…..

The Austin American-Statesman has viewed a 77-minute surveillance video from the hallway of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on the day a gunman massacred 19 students and two teachers, USA Today reports. The footage is not graphic, but offers what USA Today calls “an unabridged view of police inaction,” including an hour of an increasing number of police officers and amount of shields and powerful weapons waiting in the hallway before entering the classroom. It helps to clarify the confusing timeline of the tragedy, and it clears up one point that “has become a matter of contention,” per USA Today: the arrival of troopers from the Department of Public Safety on the scene.

The Uvalde mayor has accused the DPS director of casting local law enforcement as scapegoats even though DPS officers were also on the scene, and the video does confirm their presence. It also shows the 46 minutes during which officers, who already had multiple assault rifles and ballistic shields, waited for yet more shields and tear gas canisters to arrive while they discussed various options for entering the classroom. The next question is whether the video will be released to the general public: Hours after Rep. Dustin Burrows announced that DPS and the mayor had reached a deal to release it, DPS said it could not release it because the Uvalde DA has instructed it not to, ABC News reports.

Of course the people that were ‘in charge’ on the day are worried about the video’s release and have come up with a lame excuse……

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin slammed the Austin American-Statesman and KVUE Tuesday for releasing surveillance video taken inside Robb Elementary School during the May 24 mass shooting. The mayor, speaking during a town council meeting Tuesday night, called the move “one of the most chicken things I’ve ever seen,” the Hill reports. McLaughlin said the city had been planning to release the footage on Sunday, but without the sound of gunshots or images of the gunman entering the school. Families of victims “don’t need to relive that—they’ve been through enough,” the mayor said. The 82-minute video shows officers waiting for 77 minutes before they confronted the gunman.

Council member Ernest King also criticized the news organizations. “That part of that video was not supposed to be in what they’re doing on Sunday,” he said. “They did that for ratings and they did that for money.” State Rep. Dustin Burrows said earlier Tuesday that a panel investigating the shooting planned to show a version of the video to families Sunday before it was publicly released. The American-Statesman, which has defended its release of the video as a way to shed light on police inaction, says some residents at the council meeting approved of the release and criticized a lack of transparency from the mayor

Excuses by lame ass politician to protect their butts…..they could care less about the parents sensibilities…..the more out there the more trouble for the city and the police….that is what they are trying to control.

Everyone involved needs to be punished for allowing children to die needlessly…..PERIOD!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

‘Cowards Of The County’

Not the country song but the actions of the police department of Uvalde in the mass shooting that killed children.

I wrote earlier about the CYA that began after the shooting by the Uvalde PD……

And The CYA Begins

Now there is more coming out about the incompetence of the Uvalde PD….

Days after the revelation that police responding to the Uvalde school massacre last month didn’t try the Robb Elementary School classroom door behind which the shooter was killing 21 people, another revelation raises more questions about the law enforcement response to the tragedy: According to documents and surveillance footage from inside the school reviewed by KVUE and the Austin American-Statesman, within 19 minutes of the shooter’s arrival on campus, multiple officers with rifles and at least one ballistic shield were on the scene. That’s earlier than has previously been reported. The officers remained in the hallway outside the classroom for almost an hour after that, according to the reports.

Investigators believe this shows the police on the scene had enough firepower and protection to enter the classroom, according to KVUE. The newly released video shows that 11 officers were on the scene even earlier, within three minutes of the shooter’s arrival, but that the first ballistic shield did not arrive until the 19-minute mark. The latest information on the massacre, and the law enforcement response to it, will be presented Tuesday at the first of two consecutive days of a a Texas Senate hearing on the tragedy. Members of the public will be allowed to speak to lawmakers at the Capitol.

(Read more Uvalde mass shooting stories.)

AS this story unfolds the more they appear to be incompetent for a SWAT team….or they were just afraid to engage the shooter.

Not much more needs to be said…..other than disbanding a team of the police that cannot function the way it was intended and to hold the chief responsible for the deaths that his team could have prevented.

At almost every turn the police are illustrating the need to throw the slogan of ‘protect and serve’ into the crapper…..for it means NOTHING!

The war of the words continues around this shooting…..

On Tuesday we reported on the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety’s forceful, scathing denunciation of the decisions made by local police during the mass shooting in Uvalde. Our story didn’t contain one standout piece of information given in testimony before a special state Senate committee in Austin by Col. Steven McCraw: that murdered teacher Eva Mireles’ husband, a police officer, tried to save her but “was detained and they took his gun away from him and escorted him off the scene.” McCraw said Ruben Ruiz, a police officer for the school district, received a call from his wife, who said “she had been shot and was dying,” reports KSAT.

McCraw says that upon getting to the scene, Ruiz tried to force his way into the school and was stopped; McCraw didn’t provide details on who stopped him. McCraw himself ended up being a target on Tuesday, with CNN reporting Uvalde’s mayor “sharply criticized” DPS and McCraw; the Texas Rangers fall under the DPS umbrella and are heading up the investigation into the shooting. While speaking at a City Council meeting on Tuesday, Mayor Don McLaughlin said McCraw hasn’t been providing him with updates on the investigation, and he faulted McCraw for what he has revealed and what McLaughlin perceives to be spin.

“Colonel McCraw has continued to, whether you want to call it … lie, leak, mislead, or mistake information in order to distance his own troopers and Rangers from the response,” McLaughlin said. “There were no less than eight law enforcement agencies present in the hallway leading up to the breach of the door at Robb Elementary School,” he continued, per Fox News. “Every briefing, he leaves out the number of his own officers and Rangers that were on scene that day. He leaves out that during this time, every other classroom in the building was safely evacuated.” McLaughlin also made clear that the school building would definitely be demolished, saying, “You could never ask a child to go back or a teacher to go back in that school, ever.”

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

And The CYA Begins

I know it is the weekend and I try to keep it light and informative…..but this story broke and I feel that my readers deserve to see the BS as it unfolds.

There have been many accusations and recriminations of the Tuvalde police SWAT team for there inaction during the recent school shooting…..and now the police chief has spoken after many days of silence.

In his first extensive public comments since the Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde, Texas, school district police chief Pete Arredondo tells the Texas Tribune he did not consider himself the incident commander, though that’s the way the state Department of Public Safety has described him, and that he did not instruct police to avoid breaching the classroom, as has also been reported. “I didn’t issue any orders,” Arredondo says. “I called for assistance and asked for an extraction tool to open the door.” He said the classroom door, which had a steel jamb, could not be kicked in, and he waited on dozens of keys to open it, none of which worked. It was 77 minutes after the shooting began that police finally unlocked the door

Arredondo firmly pushed back on the criticism that has been leveled at him and other officers on the scene: “Not a single responding officer ever hesitated, even for a moment, to put themselves at risk to save the children,” he says. “We responded to the information that we had and had to adjust to whatever we faced. Our objective was to save as many lives as we could, and the extraction of the students from the classrooms by all that were involved saved over 500 of our Uvalde students and teachers before we gained access to the shooter and eliminated the threat.” But law enforcement experts the Tribune spoke to also questioned why Arredondo had no radio; he left both his police and campus radios outside when he entered the school. He tells the paper he wanted both hands free for accurately firing at the shooter, and was also afraid the radios would slow him down.

Even if he and other officers in the hallway outside the classroom had had radios, Arredondo’s lawyer says they would have turned them off because they were trying to remain quiet so as not to give their position away to the gunman. No one passed along crucial information to Arredondo, including 911 calls that were coming from inside the classroom, and he continued to believe the incident had become a barricaded hostage situation. He says he considered himself a responder on the front lines and assumed someone else had command of the larger situation, and he recounts sending officers to break windows in adjacent classrooms to evacuate children. Read the whole piece at the Tribune. Meanwhile, the New York Times reports officers at the scene waited more than an hour for shields to arrive, even though they were informed children inside the classroom needed medical attention.

Okay my thoughts….why have a SWAT team if they cannot act independently to a dangerous situation?

The inaction caused children to die….that cannot be justified or explained away.

And yet I do not see any justice for the dead…..those children died because the SWAT was in a circle jerk waiting for the proper time to intervene.

That is pathetic.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The ‘Heroes’ Of Uvalde

The tired debate ignites yet again….

Since the horrific shooting of children in Uvalde there has been another 10+ mass shootings….

Despite the horror and grief over the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and the rampage at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store before it, gun violence in the US has not diminished in the week since Uvalde. As of Monday, there had been at least 14 mass shootings in the US since the elementary school massacre, the Washington Post reports. Eleven of those were over the Memorial Day holiday weekend

The incident Stelter was speaking about took place in Tennessee on Saturday night, where six children between the ages of 13 and 15 were shot in what authorities believe was an altercation between teenagers. At a California party, one person was killed and three others were injured, one critically. At a Pennsylvania party, two people between the ages of 14 and 21 were killed and two were hurt. Six people were shot at an Alabama graduation party. At an Oklahoma festival, one person was killed and seven injured. A mother and her three young children were killed by a relative in Michigan, NPR reports.

Now the ‘heroes’ of Uvalde……

By now most people that are interested have heard the horror stories in Uvalde…..the deaths of children and 2 adults and then the other horror story is the crackerjack SWAT team that ‘saved’ the day……

Meet the Uvalde Police SWAT team. Where were they? Outside the school, waiting on reinforcements. When one parent shouted, “Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” they took out their Tasers to keep parents from entering the school to try and save their kids.

So basically the SWAT is little more than a coffee clutch while kids die.

What happened to the humor that is “To Protect And Serve”?

Though many police departments use the motto “protect and serve,” cops don’t have to come to your rescue, help you when you’re in distress or try to save your child from being shot. Under a Supreme Court case called Castle Rock v. Gonzalez, the police can’t be held accountable for not coming to your aid, even if the lives of your children are at stake. Yet they have the absolute right to taser, cuff and arrest you, if you complain too loudly about them sitting on their asses as kids are being shot in front of them.

So basically unarmed traffic offenders are targeted but a dude with a gun is off-limits….the people of Uvalde can sleep soundly now that they understand just how ‘heroic’ their police are (sarcasm in case you missed it)…..

Maybe all this would have been avoided if we had just armed teachers…(a cop-out by the Right)….

In the wake of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, some elected officials are making calls anew for teachers to be armed and trained to use firearms to protect the nation’s schools. To shine light on the matter, The Conversation reached out to Aimee Huff and Michelle Barnhart, two Oregon State University scholars who have studied the ins and outs of putting guns in the hands of the nation’s teachers as a way to protect students.

https://theconversation.com/arming-teachers-an-effective-security-measure-or-a-false-sense-of-security-183909

Let’s be real…..NOTHING will change kids will die and Congress will get their donations….and the cycle will go on and on…..inaction can kill….as our society keeps proving.

Eventually this episode will fade for the next great crisis that will grab our attention and our ire.

“Guns don’t kill people….Congress does”

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

All That Military Gear

Closing Thought–10Feb22

For years there has been a push to limit the amount of military gear that is given to the local police departments….and as one would think there has been a significant amount of pressure to continue the militarization of our police forces.

Biden in the beginning of his days as president tried to keep a political promise….but as usual he was a failure at this……and as usual it will not be a sweeping effort and riddled with loopholes (like all American bills)……

Since his efforts for a bill to stop this militarization he will resort to a tried and true…..executive order (EO)……

After more than a year in office, Joe Biden may finally take action on police militarization. A leaked draft of an executive order obtained by The Federalist contains a provision that would place restrictions on the federal government’s provision of military equipment to state and local police. Some powerful police interest groups have already publicly expressed opposition to the prospective measure.

Police unions successfully compelled the Biden White House to retract a similar measure a year ago. During the president’s first days in office, the White House announced that he  would sign an executive order that would recall a range of military equipment acquired by police through federal channels. But after a successful lobbying effort by law enforcement interest groups, the order was never issued.

A similar lobbying effort appears to be in the works this time around, too, so there is a chance that Biden will once again cave to the whims of police interest groups. However, there is more pressure for Biden to act now than there was last January. Biden’s signature police reform bill, the Justice in Policing Act, passed the House in March but stalled out in the Senate. By September, negotiations over the bill had collapsed entirely.

With no prospect for legislative action, the bill’s lead negotiators, Sen. Cory Booker and Rep. Karen Bass, have called on Biden to resort to executive orders to ensure that key parts of the Act take effect — among them, a provision that would place strict restrictions on the Pentagon’s 1033 program. Local police forces have acquired at least $1.8 billion worth of excess military equipment through the 1033 program since its inception during the War on Drugs. This influx of combat gear to local communities has contributed to increased police violence and inflated law enforcement budgets

Biden’s clamp-down on military gear to local police has giant loophole

In other words to put a simpler point on this issue….very little will change and the police will continue to use military equipment against its own people.

It is sad that the police need armored cars to deal with local disputes….all we are missing are jack boots…..

My disappointment with Biden continues to grow.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–02Dec21

As the police shootings and killings of civilians continues to spiral out of control….there comes a story that is just so disturbing on so many levels……it involves cops and a old fart in a wheelchair……

The Tucson Police Department has swiftly distanced itself from an officer who shot dead a man in a motorized wheelchair. Police Chief Chris Magnus said on Tuesday he was “deeply disturbed and troubled” by what transpired on Monday night: Officer Ryan Remington responded to a report of a man who was allegedly armed with a knife and stole a toolbox from a Walmart. An employee there said that upon asking 61-year-old Richard Lee Richards to show his receipt for the toolbox, he revealed his knife and said “Here’s your receipt.” Police bodycam video shows Remington later going after Richards as he drove his wheelchair toward the entrance of a Lowe’s across the street.

Remington yelled at Richards to keep out of the store, then fired nine shots, striking Richards in the back and side. The Arizona Republic reports Richards was pronounced dead a short time later. The New York Times reports surveillance video from Lowe’s shows Remington handcuffing Richards, who made no movements. “His use of deadly force in this incident is a clear violation of department policy and directly contradicts multiple aspects of our use of force and training,” Magnus said in a press conference. “As a result, the department moved earlier today to terminate Officer Remington,” who has been a member of the Tucson police department for four years. KOLD reports it could take up to a week for the termination to be official.

 

Remington’s lawyer, Mike Storie, described the chain of events as “unbelievable circumstances,” saying, “This event happened roughly 24 hours ago, and we have a chief of police who has fired the officer and the mayor who is calling for his indictment,” per the Times. Storie told the AP that Remington felt he “had no nonlethal options. He did have a Taser, but in his mind, he couldn’t use it because he didn’t feel he had the proper spread to deploy it, with the wheelchair between him and Richards.”

Why is the gun the first response?

Are you saying that the cops could not subdue an old fart in a wheelchair with a pocket knife without shooting him?

This is so disgusting on many levels for me….

Do you think the firing of this officer will change anything?

I do not!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–12Oct21

There seems to be a wealth of damning stories about the police acting in a pathetic display of disregard for the public.

As common as these incidents of police violence there is always one that is more disturbing than others…..this is one of those….

Police pulled over a man in Dayton, Ohio, telling him the stop was over tinted windows. In fact, police say they stopped Clifford Owensby because they were watching the house he had just left because they suspected drug activity, and they wanted a dog to sniff his car. They asked him to get out of the car, but Owensby, 39, who is paraplegic, said he could not. So they pulled him out of the car by his hair. Owensby told them that he didn’t have the use of his legs, and said he would file a lawsuit if they touched him without a good reason. He asked to make contact with a supervisor, which apparently upset the police officer he was talking to. “You can cooperate and get out of the car, or I can drag you out of the car,” he said heatedly. Owensby still resisted getting out without trusted assistance. “You can hurt me,” he can be heard saying in bodycam video released by the City of Dayton.

In the video, one officer grabs Owensby’s arm while another grabs his hair and uses it to pull him out of the car. Owensby cries out in pain, then yells: “Somebody help! I’m a paraplegic.” Once Owensby is sprawled on the ground, one officer holds him down with his knee, then police cuff his hands behind his back and drag him to their cruiser. Owensby’s shoes fall off, which another officer throws at Owensby’s car, missing once. “Can y’all call the real police, please?” Owensby can be heard pleading. Authorities say they later found a bag with $22,450 in it and claimed a dog indicated the cash could have been near drugs at some point, CNN reports. The money, Owensby said, was his savings, and officers did not make any drugs or weapons charges.

The video “is very concerning to me,” Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said, per the Dayton Daily News. “No matter where you live or what you look like, everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect when dealing with Dayton police,” Whaley said. The Dayton police department’s interim chief, Matt Carper, said, “We need to do better,” in response to video of Owensby’s arrest. That arrest, according to the Dayton Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 44 is, in fact, what Dayton police are trained to do. “The officers followed the law, their training, and departmental policies and procedures,” Jerome Dix, chapter president, said in a statement. “Sometimes the arrest of noncompliant individuals is not pretty,” he said. Owensby ultimately was cited for having a child unrestrained in the back seat, and for the tinted windows.

Procedures?

Treat a person that has NO use of his legs with disrespect and violence should not be acceptable in any form.

When will the American stop being so compliant to the violence and brutality?

Most officers may be the most trustworthy and  compassionate of people but all it takes is one a/hole to label them all as abusive.

Time for a change….immediately.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Closing Thought–05Oct21

WE all know or have heard/read reports about the violence committed on civilians by the police of this country.

But did you know that those horrific reports you have seen are under reported?

That’s right….55% of the police killings do not appear in the stats…..

Police killings in the US represent an “urgent public health crisis,” the size of which is not accurately reflected in the official statistics that guide health policy, according to a new study in the Lancet medical journal. Researchers say they compared data from National Vital Statistics System to open-source databases and found that an estimated 30,800 Americans died from police violence between 1980 and 2019, but more than 17,000 of the deaths, around 55%, were either unreported or misclassified. More:

  • Racial disparities. The study found that Black Americans were 3.5 times more likely to die from police violence than white Americans, and around 60% of their deaths were misclassified in the NVSS database, the Guardian reports. “Inaccurately reporting or misclassifying these deaths further obscures the larger issue of systemic racism that is embedded in many US institutions, including law enforcement,” says co-lead author Fablina Shahara
  • Reasons for the undercount. The researchers say that while clerical errors likely account for some of the discrepancy, coroners and medical examiners who work closely with police departments are likely to feel “substantial conflicts of interest” that make them reluctant to record police violence as a cause of death, reports USA Today. The researchers note that vital statistics systems in the US and other countries are usually considered reliable, but conflicts of interests arise when reporting police violence, “since the same state responsible for violence is also responsible for reporting it.”
  • Oklahoma was the worst in two ways. The study found that Oklahoma had the highest rate of underreporting fatal police violence, followed by Wyoming, Alabama, Louisiana and Nebraska. Oklahoma also had the highest death rate from police violence. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Minnesota had the lowest rates of police killings.
  • Men 20 times more likely to die from police violence. The researchers say men were around 20 more times likely than women to be killed by police, with an estimated 30,600 deaths in men and 1,420 deaths in women during the period studied, though they noted that data from death certificates only lists two genders, concealing the extent of police violence against transgender women.
  • Calls for a uniform nationwide system. There are currently no national standards on identifying deaths caused by law enforcement violence. Former Washington, DC chief medical examiner, an expert on investigating deaths in custody, tells the New York Times that death certificates should have a box that can be checked to indicate law enforcement involvement. “If it’s a function of training, a function of bias, a function of institutional and structural racism—all the things we can assume—we can identify that once we have a uniform system,” he says.

Why is this under reported?

Is it because the stats are withheld?

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”