Here’s your daily episode of racist, violent, lying, dishonest cops:
Gore Vidal, many years ago- “It is no secret that American police rarely observe the laws of the land when out wilding with each other, and as any candid criminal judge will tell you, perjury is often their native tongue in court. “
JWR
I think it musta been the “wide nose”.
Trentrunner
Loved Vidal (also had problems with him in his dotage). Describing as “wilding” what the COPS are doing is a brilliant twist of the Vidalian knife.
(For those under a certain age, “wilding” was a 1980s-90s bullshit racist media term for roving packs of black teenagers on a random, rampaging urban crime spree. See also, super-predator.)
tybee
wow. i know what the topic of conversation at work will be on monday.
Villago Delenda Est
The good cops (they are most likely the majority) need to do something about the bad cops. NOW.
The authority of all LEOs is being degraded by a handful who know, right now, they’ll be shielded from the consequences of their actions. This must stop, or all is lost.
SiubhanDuinne
Christ. I feel sick to my stomach after watching that.
(Not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops, not all cops)
Villago Delenda Est
@Trentrunner: One of the things we can trace back to Drumpf. He wanted the Central Park “wilding” suspects put to death. They were all innocent.
Trentrunner
@Villago Delenda Est: Sorry, any who shield, prevaricate, or look the other way while the “handful” break the law are themselves culpable and should be held accountable.
When it comes to LEOs, all LEOs, the maxim is true: “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”
Suzanne
@Villago Delenda Est: THIS. I truly believe that most cops are okay or better, but then how are these shitty ones protected?!?! This omerta shit they engage in is ridiculous.
Baud
Libertarians are stunned silent.
.
.
.
I miss those police state posts on Reddit.
The Ancient Randonneur
Until the thin blue line is permanently and irrevocably erased it is ALL OF THEM.
Damien
I think this would be a perfect use of the International Criminal Court. Let’s make a uniform set of laws applicable to every LEO in America, and then every instance that even remotely appears like a violation of those laws gets investigated by a UN team that has complete authority to remand bad officers to the Hague.
Hey, I didn’t want a New World Order, but it seems like the way to go.
raven
@Damien: Yea, that will happen.
Schlemazel Khan
Can’t blame the cops. We all know those people all look alike.
grandpa john
Well , after a few more Dallas events happen, maybe the good cops will decide that they don’t want to die because of the bad cops behavior and decide to quit covering for them and to get rid of them. It is really in their hands.
Villago Delenda Est
@Baud: It’s one thing when the LEOs are going after the Bundy Bunch, and something totally completely different when they’re killing a black guy for not obeying contradictory orders.
Prescott Cactus
Watched it. I’m going to watch every single one from now on. I used to feel that it was like watching it would harm me. I’ve decided that not watching is a harm to the community and country. Old white folks need to feel and see the treatment that others in the United States of America are subjected to.
Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astro – fricken -physicist has been subject to DWB.
Change, more than ever!
hovercraft
@Villago Delenda Est:
And he criticized the payouts they were given for the wrongful convictions. Because you know he knows they were guilty of something.
Villago Delenda Est
@hovercraft: Well, blah. Duh.
Lee Hartmann
this was sickening.
i’ve also seen cops lying on the witness stand.
unlike the bbc shows, it looks like cctv (when not disposed of by the police), body cams, and
phone cams are our main tool against… the police.
Emma
@Prescott Cactus: On the other hand, I can’t watch. I feel that in some strange way I am becoming desensitized to these events. I don’t ever want to get to the shrug-cops-will-be-cops stage. I’ve been reading the articles rikyrah has been posting, as well as other reports and stories, trying to understand it from the point of view of AAs, as much emotionally as intellectually. It’s a better use of my time.
Lynn Dee
Jeez that’s enraging. They come in so convinced they’re right. They’ve got it all worked out in their heads, and everything that happens, everything Patrick says, gets fit into that narrative. That’s just nuts. Then they find out they’re wrong, and it’s CYA all the way, baby. No apology, no “we were wrong,” just an immediate shift to CYA.
Renie
Does anyone know what happened with Patrick? Did it affect his probation? job? etc.
Mary G
I think that every time a suspect is injured or killed, all the officers involved should have to give blood to be tested for alcohol, steroids, and illegal drugs. If they are going to have their cult of silence, we will have to find other ways.
TriassicSands
@JWR:
C’mon. they’re practically the same color. And they’re both male. You can’t get any closer than that without being identical twins.
The police officer has trouble counting. First, he says he asked for Patrick’s ID three times and he repeats that. Then, later, he claims it was four times and he repeats that. By the time it gets to court the video will have been lost and it will be five or six times. Maybe a dozen.
I wonder if we who have not had this kind of experience fully understand how upsetting it would be to have police try to arrest you when you know you’ve done nothing to justify a warrant.
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’ve come to believe that it is a risky assumption to accept that “most” police officers are OK and the bad ones are few and far between. I don’t know how you prove that either way, but my advice to anyone who is being arrested would be to assume the police you are dealing with are not good guys.
At this point I’d say that the assertion that most cops are OK is a platitude. It may be true, but you’re likely to be a lot safer if you assume it isn’t.
Villago Delenda Est
@TriassicSands: This is why the good cops MUST do something about the bad cops, because they WILL be assumed to be bad as a mater of fact.
It’s ironic, because that is PRECISELY the way they treat black males. As “the enemy” by default. Well, sorry good cops. You’re now “bad cops” by default. Because you are doing NOTHING to give the civilians to believe otherwise. Your authority is being destroyed by your own inaction on the bad apples.
Major Major Major Major
@grandpa john: Are you advocating for second amendment remedies?
p.a.
Why oh why is there a correlation between the number of cellphone cameras in use over time and the number of bad cops? It’s a mystery.
rikyrah
The Untold Stories Of Black Girls
March 23, 20166:31 AM ET
ANYA KAMENETZ
The video, taken at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, S.C., went viral last fall: A school safety officer flips a desk to the floor with a girl seated in it, then flings her across the floor. The student is African-American; the officer is white.
Ultimately, the officer was fired based on the fallout surrounding that video. But Monique Morris, a scholar, author and activist, was concerned about what else happened, when the cameras were turned off.
The student, 16, was both arrested and suspended immediately after the incident. So was a second student, another black girl, Niya Kenny, 18, whose role seemed to be encouraging her classmates to film the incident.
Moreover, says Morris, “My conversations with the legal community in South Carolina revealed that when those girls came back to school they were faced with a pretty hostile environment.” Both girls started avoiding school.
Recent research has documented that black girls are punished at school at rates that are even more disproportionate than those experienced by black boys. For example, they are suspended six times more often than white girls. Morris calls this “a story untold,” and she sets out to tell it in her new book, Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools.
Prescott Cactus
@Emma: I understand. Until just a few days ago I didn’t either.
I suspect this is not a phenomenon that is arising like Pokeman GO. It’s being captured and broadcast for the first time because of smartphones. The last 10 years of my work I was probably putting 30,000 miles a year on the car. I was stopped twice for speeding, ticketed once. Very polite encounters.
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah: They were being uppity. They had to be dealt with.
Yup, that’s the story, and I’m sticking to it.
raven
@Renie: It’s fairly recent and the video is posted by a pretty heavy duty Savannah law firm. Stay tuned.
eclare
@p.a.: Good point. I watched as far as I could, but knowing me, I had to turn it off. I don’t know what to do, but I’ve thought for a while that payouts to victims should come out of the police pension fund, not the city’s liability insurance. Probably not legal, but yes, until the unquestionable protection of bad cops ends, they will act with no regard to humanity.
Or ask cities to disclose how much of their premiums for liability insurance are directly related to police settlements. And then turn that number into how much that increases property taxes. That might get more people concerned. Note, this should be about treating people as humans, not dollars, but obviously that hasn’t worked.
rikyrah
Homeless teen bikes 6 hours to get to college, sleeps in tent
by: Hope Jensen
Updated: Jul 15, 2016 – 6:20 PM
BARNESVILLE, Ga. —
At just 19 years old, Fred Barley has proven he knows what he wants out of life and he’ll do anything to make it happen.
Officers found the teen sleeping in a tent over the weekend outside a local college. Instead of giving him a ticket for trespassing, the officers listened to his story – and that’s where this amazing story begins.
Barley, a homeless college student, told the officers he had ridden his little brother’s bike six hours from Conyers to Barnesville to register for classes for his second semester of college. He had two duffel bags carrying all he owned and 2 gallons of water as he rode through the heat of a Georgia summer.
Problem is, the Gordon State College campus dorms don’t open until August, so Barley pitched a tent in some bushes on campus and prepared to spend the next few weeks there, with nothing more than a box of cereal to eat.
Barley spent the day job-searching and had just returned to his tent Saturday night when officers responded to a report of someone sleeping in a tent on campus. They told Barley to come out with his hands up, but the officers quickly realized that something wasn’t right. They sat down with Barley, who told them his story.
The biology major, who dreams of going to medical school one day, told the officers he thought the bushes on campus would be a much safer place for him to sleep than staying in his tent in Conyers.
“We can’t allow you to stay here, but I have somewhere you can stay.”
“He was so understanding and he said, ‘I definitely I applaud you for doing this. We can’t allow you to stay here, but I have somewhere you can stay,’” Barley told Channel 2 Action News.
Damien
@raven: Obviously it won’t, but will happen? Policing isn’t a career route that appeals to shades of grey thinkers, it seems, and are we going to say that cops weren’t shooting black men as far back as police have existed in this country?
How do you address rot from root to branch without ripping it straight from the earth; an absolutely insane proposition in this case, given that law enforcement as a concept is pretty important to a civilized society?
I’m not trying to put you on the spot, I just don’t know either.
rikyrah
EDITORIAL: What I Said When My White Friend Asked for My Black Opinion on White Privilege
Yesterday I was tagged in a post by an old high school friend, asking me and a few others a very public, direct question about white privilege and racism. I feel compelled not only to publish his query but also my response to it, as it may be a helpful discourse for more than just a handful of folks on Facebook.
Here’s his post:
Here’s my response:
Hi, Jason. First off, I hope you don’t mind that I’ve quoted your post and made it part of mine. I think the heart of what you’ve asked of your friends of color is extremely important and I think my response needs much more space than as a reply on your feed. I truly thank you for wanting to understand what you are having a hard time understanding. Coincidentally, over the last few days I have been thinking about sharing some of the incidents of prejudice/racism I’ve experienced in my lifetime – in fact I just spoke with my sister Lesa about how to best do this yesterday – because I realized many of my friends – especially the white ones – have no idea what I’ve experienced/dealt with unless they were present (and aware) when it happened. There are two reasons for this : 1) because not only as a human being do I suppress the painful and uncomfortable in an effort to make it go away, I was also taught within my community (I was raised in the ‘70s & ‘80s – it’s shifted somewhat now) and by society at large NOT to make a fuss, speak out, or rock the boat. To just “deal with it,” lest more trouble follow (which sadly, it often does). 2) Fear of being questioned or dismissed with “Are you sure that’s what you heard?” or “Are you sure that’s what they meant?” and being angered and upset all over again by well-meaning-but-hurtful and essentially unsupportive responses.
So, again, I’m glad you asked, because I really want to answer. But as I do, please know a few things first: 1) This is not even close to the whole list. I’m cherrypicking because none of us have all day. 2) I’ve been really lucky. Most of what I share below is mild compared to what others in my family and community have endured. 3) I’m going to go in chronological order so you might begin to glimpse the tonnage and why what many white folks might feel is a “Where did all of this come from?” moment in society has been festering individually and collectively for the LIFETIME of pretty much every black or brown person living in America today regardless of wealth or opportunity. 4)Some of what I share covers sexism, too – intersectionality is another term I’m sure you’ve heard and want to put quotes around, but it’s a real thing, too, just like white privilege. But you’ve requested a focus on personal experiences with racism, so here it goes:
raven
@Damien: There are people a lot smarter than me here, maybe they know.
p.a.
Ducks > Rethugs
TriassicSands
@Villago Delenda Est:
Another irony. Good cops who don’t do anything about bad cops are not good cops — they’re enablers, who may not be as bad as the true racists and extremely violent police, but they can’t be considered good.
It is possible that the type of people who seek to be police and who are most likely to be hired as police are individuals who are more likely to be bad than good.
Watching this video is as horrifying as watching one of the police shootings — because this easily could have ended up with Patrick being a fatality. The idea that Patrick’s life could be adversely affected in any way because of this incident is appalling. The police involved should be disciplined, apologize publicly to Patrick and the wider public, and be put on a very strict probation.
Police training appears to welcome violent confrontations rather than seek to avoid them. I’d like to know what Michael Clay’s warrant accused him of doing. Unless he was wanted for a violent crime the use of force should never have entered into the interaction with Patrick. Patrick did nothing to threaten the police; he simply wasn’t complying with their unreasonable demands. I’m mystified why, when he identified himself as Patrick, the next words out of the police officer’s mouth were not “May we see some ID, please?” Instead, his next words were, “Stand up” and “Turn around and put your hands on the car.” Immediate assumption of guilt with zero evidence. They look alike is nonsense. Often, people’s photographs don’t look much like what they look like in the flesh.
Villago Delenda Est
@p.a.: Single celled animals > Rethugs
Villago Delenda Est
@TriassicSands: Yup. The “good cops” are complicit in the undermining of their own authority when they fail to very openly rebuke the “bad cops”.
JWR
Heard a pretty good interview with Norm Stamper, former Seattle police chief, on Democracy Now! the other day. He calls for something mentioned above, which is a sort of national police oversight board. Here’s a quote from the interview:
“I think it’s time for national standards, by the way, Amy. I think it’s essential that we recognize that policing is largely unsupervised in this country. There are no national standards—18,000 police departments, one Constitution. What does that tell you? It tells me that systematic violation of the Constitution is only rarely addressed in a Department of Justice investigation. Better to set national standards, certify all police officers and their agencies, and decertify those so they can’t go from Seattle, if they get fired, to NYPD the next day, which does happen. We need national standards.”
Renie
@rikyrah: As usual, you linked to a great story. I wonder what her friend’s reaction was to her article.
Mike J
@Villago Delenda Est:
It’s got to be tough on cops to be judge by people to be evil and violent just because of the actions of a few of them. If only black people knew what that was like they would cut them some more slack.
phantomist
@Renie:
From Rawstory:
What makes this particularly distressing is that Mumford was subsequently charged with violating his probation for a non-violent drug offense after this incident, and he could spend an additional seven years in prison if found guilty.
“Patrick is arrested for obstruction,” Claiborne explains. “As a non-violent drug offender serving in a first-offender probation program, a pending probation violation could cost him his job, his college education, and seven years in prison: all for sitting in his own car, minding his own business, and telling the truth.”
Timurid
@JWR:
National standards for police. And for primary and secondary schools while we’re at it…
And whitebread upper middle class bedroom communities everywhere will be going full Bundy, if not full Koresh. You think people have strong feelings about guns? Guns, in the greater scheme of things, are trivial…
RepubAnon
The really sad thing is that the police officer probably really thought that he had asked Patrick for his ID – otherwise, he’d have turned off the body cam and wouldn’t have kept saying confidently “it’s all on the video.”. To me, it looks like a cop whose “street instincts” told him that he had the right person – a crook who was lying about his identity.
It also looks as though these officers believed in confrontational versus conversational tactics. Notice how the officer began heavy-handed domination tactics immediately? The officer could have said “Are you Michael?” Instead, they just jumped to the conclusion that they had the right guy, who was not immediately submitting to their authority – so they began tasing him. Once they realized they had the wrong man, they could have apologized. Instead, they charged him with “obstruction” – again, to prove their dominance and to avoid admitting error.
Compare and contrast with how the police interact with, say, the Bundy Ranch folks.
TriassicSands
@phantomist:
We can only hope that a judge will view the video, be appalled by the lack of professionalism (and honesty) of the police and let Patrick off with an admonishment that even when the police are wrong, it is better to go along. That way you won’t be shot, tasered, or beaten — maybe, at least the chances are lessened somewhat.
The police should be disciplined.
petesh
@RepubAnon: Yes, the officer proves on the video that he knows he should have asked for ID, and apparently believes that the video will show him asking for ID three times. Unless there was some serious editing done, nothing of the sort happened. I think that’s entirely plausible. It’s dishonesty that is unconscious. He knew what he should have done, in the heat of the moment, and convinces himself that he did. Psychologically fascinating. He should get fired, of course, but more important this video should be played to other cops, who are no better eyewitnesses than anyone else; and there is lots of data on how unreliable eyewitnesses can be,
TriassicSands
@RepubAnon:
That seems to be the standard in police training. Think of how often police officers start yelling and screaming for the “perp” to comply. That always calms things down and de-escalates potentially volatile situations.
Major Major Major Major
@petesh: Later he switches to saying he asked four times, did you catch that?
Wyliecoat
@rikyrah: read and shared. We South Asians suffer from “white privilege” too.
TriassicSands
@petesh:
At first the claim is “three” times, but that is expanded to four times later on. Neither statement was true, but did the officer really not remember he’d been claiming three times? I’m not sure what to make of that discrepancy.
Anyone involved in a confrontation may be an even worse eyewitness than a bystander. After all, the police officer has a stake in the outcome and is expected to follow certain procedures.
hovercraft
@Schlemazel Khan:
I guess that’s why everyone tells me I look just like Beyonce.
scav
By repeating that statement of asking for ID often enough, I wonder if there’s also a (conscious or unconscious) attempt at getting that “fact” planted into the memories of those bystanders as though it actually happened. Figure of authority, participant, bending the narrative to fit what should have happened, tidying things up all around (possibly even to reassure himself he hasn’t blown anything).
Cat48
@rikyrah:
That’s a really great story about Barley. It made me tear up. They actually gave him a good start.
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
These are the stories that give me hope that it will get better one day. The sad thing is that there are many positive stories like this, but any good will is swamped by the stories like Patrick’s. Get rid of the bad cops, they are doing much more harm than good, both to the people they hurt, but just as important to their fellow LEOs.
Major Major Major Major
@scav: I think the cop believes it, at least towards the end.
Timurid
What struck me at first in the video was how strangely the “suspect” was acting… Then I realized that he was absolutely terrified and “frozen,” in a state of panic so severe that his faculties were impaired. He was reacting like someone walking through the woods who had just met an angry grizzly…
That depth of fear of the police… and the history that underlies it… is disturbing on so many levels…
scav
@Major Major Major Major: Convincing himself sure, repetition works on him as well as everyone else. May even be doing it unconsciously. But it certainly speaks to how much credence we can give to the evidence given by cops — they may seem to be spieling what they know should have happened rather than what did. Not good at observing things, not good at keeping an open mind, not good at self-critically observing their own behavior. Sloppy.
TriassicSands
@scav:
You may be right, but the officer has a small problem — the video, which is not going to support his version. It may be a combination of wishful thinking and his needing to believe that he must have done everything right.
I wouldn’t be surprised if virtually every police officer believes in his or her own absolute authority — when the police officer issues a demand it must be followed without question — and immediately. Otherwise, the person in question immediately becomes a “perp” and everything they do from there on out is wrong by definition, unless it is perfect compliance with the officer’s demands.
I really believe the “immediately” part of the equation is critical to what we’ve been seeing. In all the confrontations there seems to be an assumption that the police have to wrap things up as quickly as possible. That doesn’t allow for human imperfections, and it can end up with unnecessary violence. The word “necessary” is the other key ingredient in these interactions. Was there any need to taser Patrick? Only if you think the police didn’t have a few minutes to work things out rationally and without the use of violence.
Cat48
There’s a poll at WashPost about race, 62% think relations are really bad. At least 82% of those polled want a president that can help with that problem, not make it worse. That’s a good sign.
I think my president is not good at this right now. He always makes whites or blacks or both races angry when he discusses race. Sad, but true. On Twitter, they’re still complaining about the townhall he had last week, which I missed.
dp
@scav: That neighbor wasn’t buying it.
TriassicSands
@Timurid:
And don’t forget Patrick was already on thin ice (probation) and to make things worse, he hadn’t done anything to justify the police approaching him.
When someone asked his name and he said “Patrick,” he expected to be believed, because that is his name. Then, when asked and he produced his ID, the police officers could apologize and leave quietly. Their lack of professionalism and irresponsibility could lead to Patrick losing his freedom and spending years in prison.
These police officers must be disciplined.
TriassicSands
@Cat48:
I disagree. A substantial slice of that group wants someone like Donald Trump to fix the problem.
Both have unreasonable expectations for what the president can do.
scav
@TriassicSands: Then again, judging from the speed of so many cases through the court and how these little things get handled at speed, how often will the cops ever really be confronted with what’s on the recordings? Watching them takes time and public defenders being few on the ground and often prone to suggesting deals etc. I’d think that most cases just rely on what th cops said and move on. I doubt most cops ever really get hit upside the head with any real consequences for this kind of behavior. It’s human behavior, but that doesn’t mean it’s inevitable and the general and LEO / judicial mental / social culture only makes the situation worse because they get away with it more easily. Worse, the consequences of their getting away with it are pretty dire.
scav
@dp: Good for them. They’ve probably had to learn how to observe and remember, with real consequences.
TriassicSands
@scav:
Agreed.
ljt
@rikyrah: Thank you.
Cat48
@TriassicSands:
I agree with you on unreasonable expectations for both sides.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Well, fuckface is right about one thing, at least. It is all on video. These asswipes need to be fired and prosecuted hard. This shit is never going to end until the police fear that they’ll get hosed if they fuck up this way.
grandpa john
@Major Major Major Major: no, I am replying from having been on this earth for 79 years in which time I have been able to observe human nature, and too many times seen the results of actions taken as the results of frustration, anger and the feeling of hopelessness . Ever hear of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising? when people become desperate and see no way out of mistreatment, they will then resort to desperate means to end the problem
Barb2
These cops should never ever passed the selection process. All cops, every single cop must be tested for racial bias. The must be National standards. And any individual who tests positive for racist attitudes must be kicked out of consideration as a trainee police officer. Period.
The behavior, voice, body language, and attitude is screaming racist.
Also as several have pointed out – these cops are lying pieces of sh*t. Lying liars can be detected by several psychological tests.
Which is worse – the racism we heard and saw from the cops or the consist lying. These cops should be in jail.
It really makes a difference when cop candidates have gone to integrated high schools and colleges. Although a racist home environment can still turn out racist children. Sometime multi ethnic friendships can overcome a hate filled home. There are examples of open minded, non racists at BJ who have at a less than optimal upbringing.
Hate is learned, we know this.
I’m still really upset after watching that video. The pig cops never bothered to even listen to Patrick. The pig cops had their mind made up.
As one of the trainers at a police academy said – the problem is with the candidates chosen for training and not the training. Very often the most aggressive candidates are chosen and the poorly educated. The academy trainers said cops need a college education and then the trainers can teach the rest. Choose hyper aggressive candidates and we get two pigs in the video. These is the issue of too much testosterone. Chemical or just two bullies.
burnspbesq
Any smart DA who sees that video will drop all the charges. And settle the inevitable litigation as quickly as possible.
TriassicSands
@burnspbesq:
For Patrick’s sake, I hope you’re right.
Gwangung
@burnspbesq: Lot of DUMB DAs out there.
bargal20
@Suzanne: The fact that “good” cops protect bad cops by lying for them makes them bad cops too.
D58826
@Villago Delenda Est: Seems about right. After all ‘old little hands’ holds the entire Muslim community guilty for the acts of a few because they did not speak up.
Cleos
@Gwangung:
That’s only part of it. I’ve been called to jury duty three times altogether and would never be seated on a criminal trial jury (they always ask “were you ever a victim of a crime?” and I was stalked by a violent, homicidal person when I was in my early 20s) but even if that had never happened, I’d still never make the cut. My overall misgivings about having to make such a decision is the blandly tolerated tendency of DAs to concentrate on “getting a conviction.” Guilt and innocence? Meh. That’s for TV cop shows.
Jado
@SiubhanDuinne:
Showcase the cops who ARREST these “bad apples” and i will agree with the “not all cops” mantra.
When do they get arrested for false arrest, unlawful search and seizure, etc.? If they are not in cuffs, there is no equal treatment under the law