Tag: Police

Closing Thought–07Sep21

How many times have you heard or read about a traffic stop involving a black person has gone wrong with death or injuries to the suspected perpetrator?

Too many to count?

Here is a report that illustrates that there are two separate responses by the police to a suspected perp……

Police in Burlington, Vermont, are searching for 33-year-old Matthew Kaigle, who is wanted for assaulting a traffic guard and evading police. According to MyNBC-5, he was stopped shortly after the assault, but was allowed to drive away without ever getting out of his car.

“Kaigle refused to exit his vehicle after being told multiple times he was under arrest,” a police report read. “Officers did not pursue Kaigle due to his unpredictable and violent history.”

Kaigle has a long history of encounters with police. He has a number of convictions including felony charges, and multiple offenses for violating court orders or parole. He was also listed by police as threatening another person with a sledgehammer in July.

Kaigle is also accused of punching and kicking a man several times, leaving him unconscious in Battery Park. After his arrest, police began investigating the incident as a hate crime.

https://www.rawstory.com/cops-pull-over-white-suspect-but-allow-him-to-drive-away-because-of-his-unpredictable-and-violent-history/

Really?

You want proof there are 2 standards for justice in this country….look NO further than this incident.

This person was known to be a violent person and yet he gets a pass…..and allowed to drive away.

If this person had been black or brown he would either be tasered into submission or worse shoot multiple times for the police feared for their safety…..

Two separate policing policies……

When will the people start caring about this division in justice and policies?

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Sue The Bastards!

Closing Thought–01Sep21

If the violated police cannot get justice from the DoJ…then take Shakespeare’s advice and “sue the bastards”……..

In a turn there has been a lawsuit filed by police officers….

Former President Trump just got with another lawsuit over the Capitol riot, this time by officers who were injured by his supporters. The lawsuit also implicates several Trump allies, including Roger Stone and members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.

  • Main claim: The lawsuit filed in federal court in DC accuses Trump of intentionally setting a mob upon the Capitol as part of his bid to remain in office. Trump “worked with white supremacists, violent extremist groups, and campaign supporters to violate the Ku Klux Klan Act, and commit acts of domestic terrorism in an unlawful effort to stay in power,” says the suit, per the AP. That 1871 statute is aimed at violence meant to disrupt the actions of Congress.
  • Accusers: Seven Capitol Police officers filed the suit, reports the New York Times. “This is probably the most comprehensive account of Jan. 6 in terms of civil cases,” says Edward Caspar of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which filed the suit on behalf of the officers. “It spans from the former president to militants around him to his campaign supporters.”
  • Details: The suit includes first-hand accounts from the officers, including Governor Latson, who describes how rioters beat him and hurled racial slurs at him. Latson, who is Black, also was injured by “exposure to noxious pepper spray, bear spray, fire extinguishers and other pollutants sprayed by the attackers,” says the suit, per the Washington Post.
  • Details, II: Another officer, Jason DeRoche, describes being hit with batteries and doused with mace and bear spray while on the steps of the Capitol. Officer Michael Fortune says “it was like a war zone, with chemical fog in the air, tables flipped, statues defaced, feces on the walls, blood and broken glass on the floors.”
  • Other suits: This lawsuit makes similar allegations to those made by individual members of Congress in previous litigation. While Trump has not responded yet to the officers’ lawsuit, he has sought to dismiss the earlier ones by saying he was acting in his official capacity as president and thus is immune from civil suits. A special House panel also is investigating the events of Jan. 6.

https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-michael-pence-4cd64aab06e0f943ca8f83fd0b65037d

GREAT!

Now take these slugs for every penny they have.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

A Solution For Gun Violence?

Americans are worried about the rise in gun violence and murder in our largest cities……and now the White House endorses a plan by a insurrectionist senator to add 100,000 more cops on the street.

The White House distanced itself from the “defund the police” movement by endorsing Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s proposal to hire 100,000 new cops, according to a press release from the Office of Josh Hawley.

Hawley introduced legislation in June to combat spiking crime rates. The legislative agenda included hiring 100,000 new police officers, increasing penalties for assaulting officers, protecting the privacy of law enforcement officials, expanding concealed carry rights for judges and prosecutors and creating a criminal offense for targeting officers based on their occupation, according to the Office of Josh Hawley.

Image

“American families aren’t safe, but they deserve to be. And they can be if we will act. This is not the time to defund the police or vilify them, but to support the brave men and women in blue – and put more of them on the streets. Immediately,” said Hawley about his proposal.

Seriously?

The answer to gun violence is to put more guns on the street……add 100,000 more guns to the fray.

Biden is on board with this as a election strategy….he is trying to run away from any police reform to garner votes…screw the idea of trying to find actual solutions to the problems of gun violence.

As usual it is about the next election and never a thought of the actual problem.

This is what you get when you worship centrism….more problem added to the problem.

Just what this country needs….100,000 new cops with guns….what could possibly go wrong?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Defund The Police”

Oh boy the GOP has a new slogan for the next election cycle….a slogan but NO policy to address the term…..or the problem (which is typical these days….lots of slogans and NO policies)

This is nothing new….as a matter of fact I have addressed the idea on several occasions……

https://lobotero.com/2020/07/21/is-it-police-reform-or-defund-or-abolition/
 
 
 
(Why I bother to offer background info is beyond me)
 
The basic fact is that police reform is a moot point…..the police cannot be reformed….
Why would I make such a statement?

The American police have more funding than any military besides our own or China’s. This certainly makes any sort of revolution, no matter the strength of organizing, extremely difficult. Despite this mismatch, we see a weak spot: the police themselves.

It they can’t even handle criticism, they likely will continue to roll over when class contradictions heighten. The American Right, while horrifying in their institutional power, extremism, militancy and stupidity, are above all a small and cowardly lot. They are overrepresented in the courts, the cops and in political office.

But without a whole lot of dark money and big guns behind them, they fold, and fold quickly. In some ways it may be surprising that the largest chunk of police abolition has been by the police being so snowflake they can’t hang with massive peaceful protests. Yet this is a sign that this approach is working. Noam Chomsky has recalled the unprecedented nature of the global protests following George Floyd. These protests worked to defund the police, even when politicians predictably opted mostly for symbolism.

The Police Can’t Be Reformed

I offered up possible ways to reform the police….sadly none will ever happen…..I mean look at Biden…..https://lobotero.com/2021/04/14/biden-and-police-reform/

A good start….but where will it go in this spineless Congress?

I am sorry but I do not see any thing actually changing in the policing of our streets in my lifetime…..of course that is not that long because I am an old fart.

I wish someone somehow could formulate a plan that would put more equity on our streets….but sadly all this is just a fart in a hurricane….all this rhetoric signifies nothing.
 
Turn The Page!
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”

Rats Leave A Sinking Ship

Since the trial of Derek Chauvin and his subsequent guilty outcome and now his sentencing to 22.5 years has some running scared…… the news is not good for many PDs across the country……

Who wants to be a cop these days? In many US cities, the answer is increasingly “hardly anybody.” Officers have been resigning or retiring in droves across the country and police departments are finding it very difficult to recruit replacements, NPR reports. The Police Executive Research Forum think tank says a survey of almost 200 departments this month found a 45% increase in the retirement rate and a jump of almost 20% in resignations in the April 2020-April 2021 period compared to the previous year, meaning police departments are shrinking at the same time violent crime is surging. The New York Times looks at Asheville, NC, which has been hit particularly hard: The liberal city, sometimes called the South’s Austin or Portland, has lost more than a third of its 238-strong police force over the last year and recently released a list of crimes officers will no longer respond to.

In the PERF survey, officers said the national conversation over the role of police—and calls to hold them more accountable—was a major reason for resigning. In Asheville, chief David Zack says many officers quit after they were targeted during George Floyd protests and felt the city failed to support them. He says six of the seven officers who investigated domestic violence and sexual assault cases have left. “A lot of our experience is walking out the door,” the chief tells the Times. One officer, Lindsay C. Rose, quit months after her legs were scorched by an explosive charge thrown during a June 2020 protest. She says she was spat on and vilified, with members of the city’s gay community calling her a “traitor.” She worked for a moving company started by another officer who had left—but earlier this year, she agreed to return as a community liaison officer, tasked with making the force more transparent to the public.

Should that not tell the organizations something about the quality of the people they have hired in the past?

I say good riddance!

Now it falls on cities and states to hire and train a much better quality law enforcement.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

BLM Mississippi

Note:  I apologize for this post is a week late.

Recently I posted on the death of a baby after a high speed chase that ended in gun fire in Mississippi….https://lobotero.com/2021/05/08/a-baby-dies/

Last Saturday Black Lives Matter held a gathering that asks for information on why a 3 month old baby was killed by police….

Black Lives Matter Mississippi held a protest outside the Gulfport Police headquarters on Saturday asking for police accountability and transparency regarding the death of three-month-old La’Mello Parker.

This comes after the Biloxi Police Department announces it will not disclose the results of the forensic test on the bullet that struck Parker.

Biloxi is handling the investigation because other law enforcement agencies were involved.

The baby, La’Mello Parker, was killed May 3rd near Biloxi after his father, Eric Derell Smith, led police on a chase from Louisiana to Mississippi.

The Black Lives Matter Mississippi group wants the public to have access to the officer body cam footage and for the individuals responsible for the infant’s death to be held accountable for their actions. Protester Dwight Watkinz said, “It is 2021. We have all the forensic evidence in the world that can help figure out who fired this bullet, who killed this child. I’m sorry, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t mean to do it. If I go out tomorrow and hit somebody on the side of the road and I didn’t mean to do it, I’m still going to jail for manslaughter.”

(wxxv25.com)

So many questions that needs answering….but will the information be forthcoming?

My guess is that it will not.

I can smell that “blue brotherhood” formulating their defense for killing a baby….for no reason.

At what point will this type of story become an exception instead of the rule?

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Qualified Immunity”

A term that is once again in the news as the 4 other policemen prepare to go to trial for the murder of Floyd in Minnesota…..

This is a process where the police because they wear a inform are protected from accountability…..

A narrow judicial principle created by the US Supreme Court, qualified immunity protects police from lawsuits unless plaintiffs can show police have been previously found to have violated a person’s rights in exactly the same manner. As a result, many cases never come to court and those that do are often dismissed.

Qualified immunity permits law enforcement and other government officials to violate people’s constitutional rights with virtual impunity. Today, we hear about police shooting after police shooting where officers are rarely if ever held accountable by the criminal legal system, either because prosecutors decline to charge, because grand juries decline to indict, or because juries decline to convict.

Qualified immunity takes away the other avenue that victims of police violence should have available to hold police accountable. But while stories like Brooks’s—abuses of authority that go completely unremedied—occur every day in our legal system, there is a coalition building against qualified immunity, and there is reason to be optimistic that things will change.

That means, where prosecutors often avoid bringing criminal charges against police, recourse through the civil courts for people whose rights were violated is often blocked.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police, an advocacy group based in Alexandria, Virginia, defends qualified immunity, saying it allows police to “make split-second decisions, and rely on the current state of the law in making those decisions”.

Yada….Yada….Yada….

I have made my thoughts on this statue……https://lobotero.com/2021/05/07/end-qualified-immunity/

I do not believe that because a person wears a uniform does not allow them to act as they see fit and when they act recklessly they are protected from the law.

The term will be used more and more as the trial of the 4 police officers that stood by and did NOTHING to prevent the murder of a suspect will get some sort of protection.

They did NOTHING then they are GUILTY of accessory to murder….and should pay for their CRIME.

This needs to stop….if police reform is truly needed then the beginning is here…..

Then there is the problem of militarized police….that as well needs to end and there is a guide for us citizens on how to help bring about this obscenity….

In an effort to curtail police militarism, anti-war group Win Without War on Thursday released an activist guide titled Stop Militarizing Our Communities: 5 Things You Need to Know About the 1033 Program.

The activist guide was authored by Tanaya Sardesai, a student at Pomona College and a former intern at Win Without War, and centers on the Department of Defense’s 1033 program, which is responsible for supplying military weaponry to domestic law enforcement.

“Foreign policy and domestic policy are intertwined,” said Sardesai. “Violence committed against communities of color abroad fuels violence against communities of color at home. We must end state violence and knee-jerk militarism, wherever it occurs. Ending the 1033 program is a small but necessary step toward that.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/04/29/anti-war-group-releases-activist-guide-end-militarized-policing-us

Be part of the solution not the problem!

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Baby Dies

Some sad news for the weekend.

Here on the Coast we have had a horrific high speed chase that ends with driver shot and killed as well as a baby he had in the vehicle.

The chase started in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with a double murder and the suspected perp went on the lame with a 4 month old baby…..along I-10 that ended in Harrison county Mississippi.

East Baton Rouge sheriff’s deputies responded around 11:30 a.m. to 911 hang-up call from the 2000 block of Richmond Street in Baker. Smith’s ex-girlfriend lives at the address.

When deputies got to the home, they found the shooting victims, identified by the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office as Christin Parker, 32, and her nephew, Brandon Parker, 26.

Smith left the home in a blue Nissan Altima and had the 4-month-old baby with him.

The top priority for Louisiana authorities was to locate the child unharmed, so they immediately released details of the incident to the public.

Biloxi police are handling the investigation into Smith’s death because the Mississippi Highway Patrol, Gulfport Police Department and the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office took part in the chase.

The baby has died from wounds sustained in the “shoot out”…..

After a baby was killed in an alleged shootout with police on the interstate Monday, many in South Mississippi have questions about police protocol and policies related to use of force.

Law enforcement chased a double-homicide suspect, Eric Derrell Smith, after he was spotted on the interstate in Mississippi. Smith’s 4-month-old baby boy was in the blue Nissan Altima with him.

After officers deployed spike strips, Smith kept driving at a speed as low as 10 miles per hour. Then, when Smith’s car got stuck in the interstate median, officers fired a barrage of bullets into the vehicle.

 
The story goes that there were 20-35 shots fired into the car…..the perp was killed and the baby did as well from a gunshot wound…
A coroner’s report says a 4-month-old died from a gunshot wound after his father was killed by police, though officials won’t say how the baby was shot. 
 
The autopsy report released Wednesday did not say where on his body the child was shot. It’s still unclear who fired the bullet.
 
This was the use of deadly force and a hostage situation….and yet many shots were fired into the car with apparently no concern for the safety of the baby.
 
The article above has the rules for the use of deadly force from the local law enforcement…..all responded (read the rules for yourself)….that with the exception from the county where I reside, Harrison,….they rejected the request for clarification.
 
Why was that?
 
Do they not have a set of rules or do they fear scrutiny?
 
Just another incident of “shoot first and cover ass later”…..
 
This is a tragedy that could have turned out better for the baby.
 
Now these troopers have to live with the fact that their trigger finger killed an incident by-stander.
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”

End Qualified Immunity!

We have new legislation on police reform and part of that bill wants to end ‘qualified immunity’….but is this situation really?

Qualified immunity is a type of legal immunity. “Qualified immunity balances two important interests—the need to hold public officials accountable when they exercise power irresponsibly and the need to shield officials from harassment, distraction, and liability when they perform their duties reasonably.”

Specifically, qualified immunity protects a government official from lawsuits alleging that the official violated a plaintiff‘s rights, only allowing suits where officials violated a “clearly established” statutory or constitutional right. When determining whether or not a right was “clearly established,” courts consider whether a hypothetical reasonable official would have known that the defendant’s conduct violated the plaintiff’s rights. Courts conducting this analysis apply the law that was in force at the time of the alleged violation, not the law in effect when the court considers the case.

Qualified immunity only applies to suits against government officials as individuals, not suits against the government for damages caused by the officials’ actions. Although qualified immunity frequently appears in cases involving police officers, it also applies to most other executive branch officials. While judges, prosecutors, legislators, and some other government officials do not receive qualified immunity, most are protected by other immunity doctrines.

in short this statue protects these offenders from being held accountable for their actions.

Here are a few examples of this situation….

Here’s a list from USA Today of outrageous examples where qualified immunity has recently shielded reckless government officials from accountability: 

  • Officers who stole $225,000.
  • A cop who shot a 10-year-old while trying to shoot a nonthreatening family dog.
  • Prison officials who locked an inmate in a sewage-flooded cell for days.
  • SWAT team members who fired gas grenades into an innocent woman’s empty home.
  • Medical board officials who rifled through a doctor’s client files without a warrant.
  • County officials who held a 14-year-old in pretrial solitary confinement for over a month.
  • A cop who body-slammed a 5-foot-tall woman for walking away from him.
  • Police who picked up a mentally infirmed man, drove him to the county line and dropped him off at dusk along the highway, where he was later struck and killed by a motorist.

If an individual, a civilian, committed any of these offenses then the rule of law applies…..but not when the individual wears a uniform.

But not to fear these offenders will still be shielded from accountability for the bill will not be sent out of Congress for the president’s signature……

A compromise to the portion of the bill on “immunity” has been offered by GOP senator Tim Scott……“Scott, who has served as the Republican leader on police reform talks, is suggesting that the doctrine be pulled back for law enforcement and that liability shift from individual cops to the departments that employ them.”

This proposal still does not punish the individual just shifts it to his/her employer….the individual still walks on the offenses they commit.

This is unacceptable!

If I am personally responsible for my actions then the individual cop should as well….this will do little to correct the culture of violence by the police.

I can see the Dems caving to this proposal so that bi-partisanship can be claimed….and once again the Dems will illustrate that they have no spine.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

So You Want Police Reform

The big debate these days is that of police reform….especially since the conviction of Chauvin….and yet since then at least three African-Americans have been needlessly killed.

You say that you are disgusted by all the police violence and deaths and you want change…..then get off your ass and work to that end.

American police culture apparently teaches how kill and not how to ‘protect and serve’…..and that needs some serious attention if it is ever to get solved.

If that is your aim then YOU need to force the change that the authorities seem unwilling to provide……don’t give it lip service time to stand or sit down and STFU.

I have made my thoughts known on this and what could be done on many occasions…..

8 Point Plan To End Police Brutality

“De-Fund The Police”

Is It Police Reform….Or Defund….Or Abolition?

Read those three post of mine….and then let me point out a few more things that could be done…..

1) Employ more oversight

2) Improve data collection

3) Address racial bias

4) End qualified immunity

5) Change use-of-force policies

6) Demilitarize the police

7) Defund the police

8) Abolish the police

9) Initiate broad systemic reforms

I am not advocating some of the these policies….but before you decide for yourself please read the article in Vox….they explain each and every part……https://www.vox.com/22396400/defunding-abolishing-police-among-ideas-derek-chauvin-verdict

I hear that recruiting practices are to blame….not the training…..I disagree….apparently the training teaches to go to the gun before anything…..that is training….recruitment needs to be tighter….but training is the real problem….if a cop cannot disarm a person with a knife without killing them then the training lacks substance beyond the gun.

If you think that real change will come with the leaders then you are in a delusional state.  Reality contradicts that belief.

YOU can make the changes society needs but not if you sit by and let the powers that be make the decisions on this……if you do sit by then nothing will change.

A change in the police culture can only be achieved by the local population.

Local, state, and federal governments in the United States should move beyond superficial changes and fundamentally rethink public safety by reducing the scope of policing, investing in community services, and ensuring abusive officers are held accountable, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. A detailed description of the pervasive problems with policing is included in the report, along with “14 Recommendations for Police Reform.”

The 29-page report, “A Roadmap for Reimagining Public Safety in the United States: 14 Recommendations on Policing, Community Investment, and Accountability,” proposes shifting investments from policing to social services, affordable housing, schools, community-based healthcare systems – especially mental health and voluntary drug treatment – and local economic development. Redirecting resources from policing to services that effectively address underlying societal problems, along with establishing effective, independent oversight of police, would limit harms by police and improve public safety.

You most let your voice be heard at all levels, city, state and national…..go to city council meetings and force the agenda you want…..go to the county supervisors meetings and do the same…..work on the state and national level with your representatives….force the issue.

You say you want change….then by god make that change….you and only you can make these social changes….

If the politicians will not change or listen then….TAKE IT TO THE STREETS!

Get Involved!

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”