General Police Misconduct aka Murdering Black People

[Sarah K]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/nat...k-and-unarmed/

[orestes]

This is a harrowing statistic.

[orestes]

Well, this is fucking stupid.

[Baphomette]

Ferguson activists DeRay Mckesson, Johnetta Elzie among those arrested in St. Louis

[Sarah K]

Lolllllll... What the fuck?

[Exocet]

Same thing happened to me in Western Ukraine in 2006...this shit is rife there...

I didnt know sections of the U.S police force was corrupt like this...plain nasty...this is not first world behaviour..

[allegro]

But the car was unregistered, which comes with a huge fine and the car had to be impounded, but the cop was being "nice" to these guys by letting them off in exchange for selling tix to a charity event.

[Sarah K]

http://6abc.com/news/philly-cop-to-d...ur-car/951155/

He's already been removed.

I love their commissioner. "IT'S JUST STUPID. IT'S JUST NOT GOOD. AT ALL."

[allegro]

Lol lol

I get calls from the FOP pressuring me to give them money, using tactics that would make that cop look like Mother Theresa.

The only way I've gotten out of it without fearing that something awful would happen to me is I told them I already gave them money (lied) or that I didn't have any.

[tony.parente]

Lolllllll... What the fuck?

aaahahah I honestly have no idea how I feel about that.

[DigitalChaos]

Philly, of course. WTF is with the huge amount of problems from there? It seems like they have a disproportionate amount of corrupt shit.

[orestes]

Apparently it's possible to run 85 ft. with a severed spine and pierced heart.

http://m.stlamerican.com/news/local_....html?mode=jqm

[Sarah K]

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2...ail-found-dead

This is terrible.

[tony.parente]

This is incredible.

[Swykk]

Real Time was on fucking point this week. Loved the conversation Maher and QT had. The Blue Line Wall (or Blue Line Frat, as I refer to it) is one of the biggest problems along with deeply flawed hiring and monitoring practices. It's a good feeling to see two people that I respect and are most likely smarter than I am basically quote me.

[DigitalChaos]

This is incredible.

laaaame

i prefer this one, as it doesn't trivialize the protections people have during a stop/checkpoint.

[allegro]

Chicago cop who shot black teen 16 times over a year ago is charged with First-Degree Murder, held without bond. Dashcam video to be released today per Judge's Order. Video allegedly shows cop shooting McDonald while he was walking away, in the back and then while McDonald was on the ground, and cop's partner tells cop to hold his fire.

Meanwhile, Chicago Police Chief Garry McCarthy moves to fire Detective Dante Servin who killed innocent bystander Rekia Boyd in 2012. Servin was acquitted after a Judge determined that the Prosecutor should have charged Servin with Murder, not Involuntary Manslaughter.

[Sarah K]

This is going to get fucking insane. They paid out $5,000,000 without a lawsuit even being filed. I just can't even imagine what happened for that to be approved.

Ridiculous that it took this long for him to be charged.

[allegro]

Meanwhile, I don't know how many people outside of this area know about the Fox Lake IL cop who was shot and killed and an immediate manhunt ensued because he had radio'd that he was pursuing 3 suspects (2 white guys and 1 black guy), who were later found but determined to be innocent (the cop probably saw them on his way to the site). The manhunt cost taxpayers MILLIONS of dollars and included police from hundreds of miles away, dogs, helicopters, etc. Ends up the officer staged his own suicide because he'd been a pretty bad cop for many many years, including putting a hit out and planting cocaine on a village trustee who was on to his stealing money from a local "Explorer's" program, grabbing women's butts at parties, DUIs while on the job, sexual harassment, etc. The police force KNEW about this but went ahead with a manhunt, anyway, and this guy had a HERO'S funeral.

[Sarah K]

Yeah... That made the national news rounds pretty recently.

Crazy ass shit!

[allegro]

Ridiculous that it took this long for him to be charged.

Yup, the prosector's office has had the dashcam video since November of 2014 and provided a copy to the Feds relating to a violation of civil rights. I just don't see why it took this fucking long to investigate this shit. And then they charge him TODAY, the day that the video is released? The god damned FOP is tying the prosecutor's hands way too much, and there needs to be WAY more cases where officers are charged. Yes, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that officers are allowed to use deadly force, but NOT WHEN THE SUSPECT IS CLEARLY WALKING AWAY, AND NOT WHEN NO OTHER OFFICER ON THE SCENE EVEN PULLED OUT A GUN, AND NOT WHEN THE SUSPECT WAS ON THE GROUND IN A FETAL POSITION. A fucking 4" knife is not a fucking threat, how is taking a YEAR "jeopardizing your case?" The prosecutor claims it's not unusual for a case to take up to "20 months" to investigate and we should not "rush to justice." Oh YEAH? Fuck you, 20 months is too fucking long, you dumb ass. The prosecutor is on TV right now saying that they released the video as a result of civil litigation with the family. WAIT, WHAT? Anita Alvarez is the QUEEN of covering her own fucking ass. I hope she LOSES THIS NEXT FUCKING ELECTION.

[Sarah K]

Wheeeeeeeew.

Just watched the dash cam footage, too. What in the absolute fuck? Chicago is about to go wild.

[theimage13]

First and foremost, I support the charges here.

But I have to ask: what possible value is there in releasing that video publicly? What good does it do anyone? How does it better us?

And for those who choose to watch it: why would you voluntarily witness a murder? I just don't understand. Can someone provide a different perspective?

[Sarah K]

I used to never watch them, either. So I definitely understand that stance. For me, on a *personal* level, it's now pretty important. To brush it aside and to act like it didn't happen(which is what I was doing, when I was not willing to watch them) is silly. It furthers the narrative that police officers are all good and are making decisions while their lives are in danger... When they aren't. How many times have videos been released where the person who ends up killed is walking away?

The first one that I watched was the Tamir Rice one. I couldn't understand anything about the entire situation. This is shit that I care deeply about, and I think that people can't fully grasp the gravity of the situation that black people in this country are facing right now. It's not real if we don't see it and fully absorb it.

But I also understand the aversion to watching someone be murdered.

[Hazekiah]

^ Exactly, but I'll go ahead and chime in here for a minute, too...with a slightly more aggressive stance.

Why release it? What good does it do? How does it better us?

THESE PIGS NEED TO KNOW THEY CAN GUN BUT NOT HIDE.

The People will SEE what they did and hold them accountable for their actions. They should think about that more often. Same logic with the body-cams. The more transparency and information available the better.

Why watch it?

Empathy. Information. Respect. That kid died for something and it might as well FINALLY be something worthwhile.

[DigitalChaos]

If you contribute to a system via taxes or voting, you owe it to all your fellow citizens to be aware of the bad that is coming out of that system. If some aspect of a system that YOU CONTRIBUTE TO is too much for you to witness, then you need to do something about it besides ignore the ugly side of it.

The machinery of society and government makes it too easy for people to ignore all the ugly aspects that are created as a result. It's like people who eat meat but have no idea what animal slaughter entails.

[theimage13]

Thanks for the input. I guess I have a harder time understanding your perspectives because I've never personally needed to view something with my own eyes in order to grasp the seriousness of it. I also don't need a video to show me what racial profiling looks like, but maybe that's because I've been in countries where I'm literally the only white person I see all day and I get heckled for it. (For the record, I had a healthy understanding of these issues before I ever experienced them first hand.) And I certainly don't see how watching someone's murder is a way of validating it or respecting them. I mean, if my own parents were gunned down, I would find it more respectful for my last memory of them to be of the life they lived, not the bloody fate they suffered. And I'd be fuming mad if suddenly the whole world got to watch them die with the click of a button. It feels sick and perverted to me.

I don't see why the memory of a stranger should be treated any differently. There's no dignity in homicide. Information? I can read that the cop shot someone 16 times. I can read that the cop was charged with murder. What extra value is there in literally watching it happen? Again, maybe I'm just different, but I can get pretty choked up just reading about something - even in boring, monotone editorial text.

But I guess I should pose a hypothetical, as this is something I've wondered about before - do you think executions should be shown live on television? Almost every single person who has ever voted in favor of the government being allowed to take a life has never sat down and watched that person be strapped to a gurney or chair and killed. Do you think America would suddenly be in an uproar over the death penalty if we put it on Youtube?

[allegro]

Thanks for the input. I guess I have a harder time understanding your perspectives because I've never personally needed to view something with my own eyes in order to grasp the seriousness of it. I also don't need a video to show me what racial profiling looks like, but maybe that's because I've been in countries where I'm literally the only white person I see all day and I get heckled for it. (For the record, I had a healthy understanding of these issues before I ever experienced them first hand.) And I certainly don't see how watching someone's murder is a way of validating it or respecting them. I mean, if my own parents were gunned down, I would find it more respectful for my last memory of them to be of the life they lived, not the bloody fate they suffered. And I'd be fuming mad if suddenly the whole world got to watch them die with the click of a button. It feels sick and perverted to me.

I don't see why the memory of a stranger should be treated any differently. There's no dignity in homicide. Information? I can read that the cop shot someone 16 times. I can read that the cop was charged with murder. What extra value is there in literally watching it happen? Again, maybe I'm just different, but I can get pretty choked up just reading about something - even in boring, monotone editorial text.

But I guess I should pose a hypothetical, as this is something I've wondered about before - do you think executions should be shown live on television? Almost every single person who has ever voted in favor of the government being allowed to take a life has never sat down and watched that person be strapped to a gurney or chair and killed. Do you think America would suddenly be in an uproar over the death penalty if we put it on Youtube?

First, I don't think we should only be concerned about this because of race; this could happen to anybody; police overreach their power and control and shoot people of all colors every fucking day; sure, they're more apt to shoot and kill people of color, but white people need to be aware of this not only to hold police accountable but because it can also happen to you.

Second, this isn't just grasping the seriousness but also knowing the facts; this isn't so horrible that it's like viewing an ISIS beheading (something I will not watch); it's a grainy, 10-second B&W clip that's fuzzy with no audio, but it's important to see if it you want to be involved in discourse in this matter because it clearly shows the facts; the cop's initial side (pre-video) was he and his partner were "rushed" by this kid with a knife. The Prosecutor then viewed the video and determined that the dash cam video (from another cop's car, not the accused cop's car) even though from far away, clearly shows that the dead kid never "rushed" anybody; but you can either take the word of either party, or you can see it for yourself. I've been in law for many years, and I prefer to see it for myself. This video shows the facts of a crime. Yes, the kid is clearly on PCP (it was found in his bloodstream), but he did not "rush" the cops; he was running AWAY from the cops. Until that Cowbow Cop emptied his gun into the kid (and then reloaded with the intent to keep firing at the kid now unconscious and near-dead on the ground), the other cops in the truckyard (with tasers) had talked to the kid trying to talk him out of his 3" knife, and none of the other cops on the scene even fired their guns. Btw, the kid wasn't dead on the ground; he was still alive with a pulse and died at the hospital. This video, a year ago, was so powerful that the Chicago City Counsel offered the kid's family $5 million dollars before the family's attorney had even filed suit.

Third, the facts are that a lot of cops in the country are indicted for shooting or murdering citizens but it is RARE for them to be found guilty; this is the first time in 35 years that a Chicago cop has been indicted for Murder; the facts are that a few United States Supreme Court decisions have supported law enforcements' nearly unilateral ability to shoot citizens using deadly force. A recent SCOTUS decision said that the cops don't even have to be aware of local laws (wtf). The laws are on the cops' side. The more that this happens, the more people are becoming "numb" to it. But, then dashcams and body cams arrived. If there were no dashcam in this case, there would be no case. Now, we can see it happen. Perhaps seeing it might cause an uprising where citizens will refuse to allow law enforcement to have the unilateral ability to murder citizens and lie about it, cover up evidence, withhold evidence, etc. Like, look at this case. I mean, seriously, WHAT THE FUCK.

The local television stations have decided NOT to show this video at all, because (a) the kid's family has asked them not to, (b) it might be difficult for the cop to get a fair jury trial, later, if it's all over every news station.

[DigitalChaos]

Thanks for the input. I guess I have a harder time understanding your perspectives because I've never personally needed to view something with my own eyes in order to grasp the seriousness of it. I also don't need a video to show me what racial profiling looks like, but maybe that's because I've been in countries where I'm literally the only white person I see all day and I get heckled for it. (For the record, I had a healthy understanding of these issues before I ever experienced them first hand.) And I certainly don't see how watching someone's murder is a way of validating it or respecting them. I mean, if my own parents were gunned down, I would find it more respectful for my last memory of them to be of the life they lived, not the bloody fate they suffered. And I'd be fuming mad if suddenly the whole world got to watch them die with the click of a button. It feels sick and perverted to me.

I don't see why the memory of a stranger should be treated any differently. There's no dignity in homicide. Information? I can read that the cop shot someone 16 times. I can read that the cop was charged with murder. What extra value is there in literally watching it happen? Again, maybe I'm just different, but I can get pretty choked up just reading about something - even in boring, monotone editorial text.


But I guess I should pose a hypothetical, as this is something I've wondered about before - do you think executions should be shown live on television? Almost every single person who has ever voted in favor of the government being allowed to take a life has never sat down and watched that person be strapped to a gurney or chair and killed. Do you think America would suddenly be in an uproar over the death penalty if we put it on Youtube?

reification. It's a key ingredient for a lot of things.


Color photography played a part in the anti-war response from the public during the Vietnam war. They could read all about it, just as you describe, but seeing color photos of war brought most of the public closer to a reality that they had never seen before. It created an emotional response that is, apparently, very important in how the majority of the public reacts to something... sadly. It makes it harder for the news to fade away behind all the actual real stuff that is directly happening in everyone's life. Most people have very little connection or experience with the negative things that are coming from the systems they are contributing to.

You also have the way people consume media now. Very few read past a headline, but videos are much more likely to be watched.

[allegro]

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel fires Chicago Police Chief Garry McCarthy