• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We still have time to mess this up!

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

The willow is too close to the house.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

This blog will pay for itself.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Archives for Civil Rights / Criminal Justice / Shitty Cops

Shitty Cops

Saturday Evening Open Thread: A Start Is Made, in Memphis

by Anne Laurie|  January 28, 20238:06 pm| 119 Comments

This post is in: Criminal Justice, Open Threads, Shitty Cops

Here's the full statement. https://t.co/j5H2GjV5eW pic.twitter.com/gjBp796OBu

— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) January 28, 2023

The Memphis Police Department is shutting down the SCORPION unit tied to the deadly beating of Tyre Nichols. https://t.co/IKhWI2FXW1

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) January 28, 2023

show full post on front page

… The SCORPION unit, launched in 2021, was tasked with tackling rising crime in the city, but has been heavily criticized in the aftermath of the 29-year-old man’s killing. Nichols was brutally beaten on January 7 after a traffic stop. He required hospitalization and died on January 10.

The five Memphis officers who were fired and charged in Nichols’ death all were members of the unit, Memphis police spokesperson Maj. Karen Rudolph told CNN on Saturday.

In a statement posted on Twitter Saturday, Memphis police said it was “in the best interest of all to permanently deactivate” the unit.

“The officers currently assigned to the unit agree unreservedly with this next step,” police said. “While the heinous actions of a few casts a cloud of dishonor on the title SCORPION, it is imperative that we, the Memphis Police Department take proactive steps in the healing process for all impacted.” …

Some city leaders said disbanding the unit is just one step in addressing issues within the police force.

“The community has a lot more questions and a lot more demands,” Memphis City Council Member Patrice Robinson told CNN’s Jim Acosta on Saturday evening.

“We have gotten emails from many citizens in our community, they’re all concerned and they’re expressing exactly what they see and what they want to see in our police department. We really need to investigate and find out what’s going on.” …

If you can’t watch the bodycam video, the AP has a very detailed description here:

"You can’t go nowhere." In harrowing video of Memphis police beating, chaotic brutality gives way to excruciating reality: As Tyre Nichols lay suffering, a horde of officers paid him little mind. https://t.co/JRFnZGs6Nr

— The Associated Press (@AP) January 28, 2023

NEWS ALERT: @AttorneyCrump and @TonyRomanucci have issued a statement following the announcement that Memphis Police will eliminate its SCORPION Squad — the unit that included the five officers who brutally beat and killed Tyre Nichols. pic.twitter.com/HwNID4XzIo

— Ben Crump Law, PLLC (@BenCrumpLaw) January 28, 2023

Memphis PD permanently disbanding its SCORPION unit is just the next step on this journey for justice and accountability. Clearly this misconduct is not restricted to specialty units — It extends so much further! #CallOutTheCulture #JusticeforTyreNichols

— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) January 28, 2023

Saturday Evening Open Thread: A Start Is Made, in MemphisPost + Comments (119)

Open Thread: An Update From Uvalde

by Anne Laurie|  August 23, 20227:40 pm| 36 Comments

This post is in: Gun Issues, Open Threads, Shitty Cops

A collection of families of victims and survivors of the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary are filing a class-action lawsuit seeking $27 billion in damages that will target multiple law enforcement agencies on the federal, state and local levels. https://t.co/HUTcNBQBgz

— Chron (@chron) August 23, 2022


Per the Houston Chronicle:

A collection of families of victims and survivors of the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas are filing a class-action lawsuit seeking $27 billion in damages that will target multiple law enforcement agencies on the federal, state and local levels, reports KSAT in San Antonio. The suit alleges the agencies violated the victims’ rights under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

“What we intend to do (is) to help serve this community, and that is to file a $27 billion civil rights lawsuit under our United States Constitution, one-of-a-kind in the whole world,” said Charles Bonner, a Bay Area civil rights attorney representing the families, told KSAT. Bonner and his associate have been meeting with families at Pastor Daniel Myers’ church, Tabernacle of Worship, in Uvalde during the weeks leading up to this week’s announcement…

Bonner intends to file the lawsuit next month, he said, after the Department of Justice wraps its investigation into the shooting. Bonner also announced that his firm is working with the gun safety organization Everytown For Gun Safety and several other firms to represent the Uvalde families in the case, according to KSAT.

show full post on front page

Pastor Myers said that the lawsuit is a key step towards finally holding law enforcement accountable for their botched response to the shooting. pic.twitter.com/U769ukncQX

— Chron (@chron) August 23, 2022

The largest fund for those affected by the May 24 Uvalde shooting is still months away from distributing most of the $16 million it has raised. Some families are turning to smaller donations to get by. https://t.co/efncEBcdV8

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) August 22, 2022

Uvalde families are organizing a massive rally in Austin on August 27th to demand the age to buy an assault weapon be raised to 21 just like we did in Florida after the Parkland shooting.

— David Hogg ☮️ (@davidhogg111) August 20, 2022

“Uvalde children and educators were not only defenseless against a gunman with an AR15, they were defenseless against a Governor who will not take the necessary action to protect their lives,” @BetoORourke #txlege

pic.twitter.com/LP4CWbuqWg

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) August 23, 2022

Open Thread: An Update From UvaldePost + Comments (36)

Justice for Breonna Taylor

by John Cole|  August 5, 202211:30 am| 33 Comments

This post is in: Civil Rights, Shitty Cops

Mistermix mentioned this yesterday, but I think it is worth closer inspection:

Four current and former Louisville, Kentucky, police officers were charged Thursday with federal crimes connected to the 2020 death of Breonna Taylor.

The 26-year-old emergency medical technician was shot and killed by police who had carried out a nighttime “no-knock” warrant to storm her home while she was sleeping with her boyfriend. Believing they were intruders, her boyfriend fired one shot at the officers using a handgun he legally owned. The officers responded by firing 22 bullets, killing Taylor with a shot to the chest.

The fatal shooting of Taylor, a Black woman, galvanized racial justice protests in the spring and summer of 2020, following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The charges against defendants Joshua Jaynes, Kyle Meany, Brett Hankison and Kelly Goodlett, include civil rights violations, conspiracy, use of excessive force offenses and obstruction.

Charging documents state that three of the officers, Jaynes, Meany and Goodlett, lied in order to obtain a warrant they used to search Taylor’s apartment in an act that violated federal civil rights laws and led to Taylor’s death, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a news conference.

“We allege that the defendants knew their actions in falsifying the affidavit could create a dangerous situation, and we allege these unlawful acts resulted in Ms. Taylor’s death,” Garland said.

The question is why? For arrest numbers? To justify the existence of that unit? For asset forfeiture money? Or maybe we should revisit the amended lawsuit by Breonna’s family:

The police raid of Breonna Taylor’s home that ended with police killing her was connected to a political plan to clear a Louisville, Kentucky, street for a real estate development, according to an amended lawsuit filed by Taylor’s mother.

Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT, was shot eight times after police broke down the door to her apartment while executing a nighttime, no-knock warrant in a narcotics investigation on March 13. Her mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit in April against the officers involved: Brett Hankison, Myles Cosgrove and Jonathan Mattingly.

The Louisville Metro Police Department has since fired Hankison, one of the officers who fired into the apartment.

***

Mayor Greg Fischer is mentioned in the lawsuit but is not a defendant. The lawsuit claims that Fischer wanted to incorporate large-scale development in west Louisville to leave a visible legacy for his time in office, which is currently set to expire in January 2023. A recent development initiative, called Vision Russell, intends to redevelop the Beecher Terrace public housing complex. The lawsuit says the effort has stagnated for six years.

Vision Russell’s website refers to itself as a Choice Neighborhood Initiative project designed to “implement a dynamic and transformative plan for the Russell neighborhood, including the Beecher Terrace public housing development.”

Representatives with the Vision Russell initiative did not return CNN’s request for comment.

And then there is this:

The attorneys representing Breonna Taylor’s family now claim a development project was the reason police focused on her ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover. Part of the project includes Elliott Avenue, where Glover rented a house, the lawsuit states, and where the City of Louisville has recently acquired several properties.

A warranty deed obtained by WAVE 3 News Troubleshooters, dated June 5th, 2020, shows the city purchased Glover’s rented home from Law-Mar Inc. for $1. The estimated home value was more than $17,000.

A map, which shows the City of Louisville logo and the title of the Elliott Avenue Project, shows several of the properties surrounding Glover’s home were labeled as “city controlled” and have already been purchased or demolished. The map is dated November 2019.

This is some truly evil shit and if proven, more than just a few cops need hard time.

Justice for Breonna TaylorPost + Comments (33)

Late Night Silly Season Open Thread: Fentanyl Panic

by Anne Laurie|  July 16, 20226:50 am| 54 Comments

This post is in: Civil Rights, Criminal Justice, Open Threads, Science & Technology, Shitty Cops

Panic attacks, as anyone who’s had them can attest, are very real and deserving of medical attention. Encouraging panic attacks, however, is… not the best use of our limited time on this planet:

Cop husband gave her a panic attack, case closed https://t.co/eTD1OBHlo4

— Goku Missile Crisis (@BabadookNukem) July 12, 2022

Seriously, if you need to refute this new panic, here’s a great story:

I wrote about fentanyl-touch panic among police officers, and a toxicologist who spilled a bunch of fentanyl on his hand. https://t.co/GqBudEnZRK

— Dan McQuade (@dhm) July 5, 2022

show full post on front page

… Today’s astonishing overdose death toll comes not from gang violence or turf wars but from a ubiquitous market of cheap and potent synthetic drugs. And so it is in the drugs themselves that police officers now see grave danger, including to themselves. Last year, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department produced and released its own public-safety video featuring what Sheriff Bill Gore described as “traumatic body-worn camera footage” of an officer’s life-threatening fentanyl exposure — footage that circulated through various media outlets despite the skepticism of health professionals. It’s as though each of these videos seeks to identify the new villain, the shocking peril, in an era whose drug-war battlefields are too diffuse and mundane to capture the public imagination. Images of cinematic urban war zones and Uzi-toting gangsters have been replaced by the knowledge that drug use gangsters have been replaced by the knowledge that drug use quietly pervades communities of all sorts. So fear attaches to something equally slippery: fentanyl particles lurking in the air, or even just a few specks on a police uniform, blamed for one officer’s “overdose” in Ohio. (According to local reporting, the officer was eventually terminated from the force for, among other reasons, “gross misconduct.”)

These viral “exposure” videos have a way of inverting reality. The people with whom the police interact every day, the civilians and communities they are sworn to protect, are often people whose main crime is that they are struggling with addiction — which is to say that they, not the officers prodding at the contents of their pockets, are the ones in the most danger. There’s concern that these videos will only worsen that danger, not just by making people so terrified of invisible fentanyl traces that they hesitate to aid drug users experiencing overdoses, but also by driving the use of criminal charges to punish people for exposing police officers or emergency responders to drugs…

Late Night Silly Season Open Thread: Fentanyl PanicPost + Comments (54)

Entitled Punks

by John Cole|  July 14, 202212:09 am| 95 Comments

This post is in: Civil Rights, Criminal Justice, Open Threads, Shitty Cops

Watching the video of the cops just standing there while kids are being murdered made everyone’s blood boil, and the whole Punisher screen on the iphone was just fucking *chefkiss* and really nothing will sum up the state of modern policing more than that. But here’s the deal- it’s not surprising.

You don’t even have to go into the whole history of policing and how it stems from the slave patrol model, you just have to look at the rhetoric and training that’s been happening in my lifetime. For the past forty years, or at least since I was paying attention, the number one thing police have been telling themselves and we have been reinforcing is that the MOST IMPORTANT job they have is coming home to their family. We’ve created this fantasy world where policing is the most dangerous job in the world, when it’s not. It’s not even close. It doesn’t even crack the top ten and barely, by a hair, cracks the top fifteen.

Two quick graphs:

So it’s not even that dangerous relative to many other jobs, it’s gotten safer every year except for an increase in 2021 and 2022 (which we will talk about later), and fully half the cause of officer deaths involve something other than being involved in a shooting. Having a heart attack because you aren’t in shape and chasing someone or giving a ticket on the side of a road are as likely the cause of death if you are a cop than the off chance you are shot. That big spike in 2021 and 2022, where police deaths doubled? You know what caused that?

Fucking covid. And who was among the loudest group of people protesting mandatory vaccination of public employees? If you guessed police officers and police unions, congratulations on figuring out the obvious.

So put it all together and then let’s continue on. You have a group of heavily armed people who have spent the last couple decades being told they have the RISKIEST JOB IN THE WORLD OMEGALOL and with the majority of the American public mindlessly agreeing, and because of this fiction that we have all bought into, police are not trained in de-escalation, they are sent to bullshit academies that basically teach them a couple “important” things. The first is when in doubt shoot first, if you shoot then shoot to kill, and how to cover your bases to make sure it was a justified shoot. And you don’t even have to work too hard on the third part, because they’ll get massive assists from slavish DA’s, a compliant press heavily armed with the passive voice, and the structural and institutional racism of the United States.

Adam can tell you all about the types of academies these guys go to to learn this shit, and it’s horrifying what they are taught.

So, um, yeah. If the school shooter had been a black guy driving home from work on a backroad with a broken taillight, these guys would have been in their wheelhouse and would have easily dispatched him with 100 rounds to the body. But a school shooter? They don’t have the training, capabilities, or courage to do anything, because again, their most important mission, that has been drilled into them forever, is to come home to their family.

And that’s why we have videos of them standing, armed to the teeth, cowering in a hallway using hand sanitizer. That’s adrenaline and nervous energy and lack of training. Their bodies were telling them to do something, but they don’t know what to do, so they did anything, which in this case was wash their hands.

The entire US police force needs to be ripped apart, given a new mission, rebuilt, and retrained. And with strict tests to see which current police have the mental capacity to return to the job.

Entitled PunksPost + Comments (95)

Miranda Weakened

by John Cole|  June 23, 20222:39 pm| 250 Comments

This post is in: Civil Rights, Criminal Justice, Open Threads, Shitty Cops

If a police officer fails to give a suspect his Miranda warnings, and the gov't uses the suspect's un-Mirandized statements against him in court, can the suspect sue the officer for violating his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination? In a 6-3 ruling, SCOTUS says no.

— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 23, 2022

This is as good a time as any to remind each and everyone of you to NEVER TALK TO THE POLICE EVER. You literally have nothing to gain and everything to lose. It’s right there in the fucking Miranda warning- “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”

It doesn’t say “Anything you say can be used to prove your innocence.”

It doesn’t say “Innocent people never go to jail when they talk to cops”

It doesn’t say “You can prove to these guys you are innocent if you just keep talking and telling the truth.”

DO NOT TALK TO THE COPS EVER.

Miranda WeakenedPost + Comments (250)

Ta Da!

by John Cole|  December 23, 20216:49 pm| 87 Comments

This post is in: Shitty Cops

Little blurry because of the steam:

Ta Da!

And in some good news, another cop was convicted for killing a man for no reason:

Kim Potter, the white former Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, police officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright in April, has been convicted after appearing to mistake her handgun for a Taser during a deadly traffic stop.

Potter, 49, was found guilty on Thursday of first-degree manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter in relation to the April 11 traffic stop that ended with the 20-year-old Black man’s death. The former officer, who resigned from the force after 26 years on the job, now faces 35 years behind bars when she is sentenced on Feb. 18.

Potter briefly lowered her head and closed her eyes as the verdict was read out. As Judge Regina Chu thanked the jury for their sacrifice, calling them “heroes in this case,” Potter silently performed the sign of the cross. One female juror appeared to be crying as the verdict was read, a WCCO reporter in the courtroom said.

Maybe if this keeps up, police across the country will re-evaluate their “kill ’em all and let God sort them out” approach to policing.

Ta Da!Post + Comments (87)

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 50
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - Winter Wren - Point Lobos State Natural Reserve 3
Image by Winter Wren (7/31/25)

World Central Kitchen

Donate

Recent Comments

  • Harrison Wesley on Justice Brown Jackson Will Not Be Silenced (Jul 10, 2025 @ 12:59pm)
  • Princess on Justice Brown Jackson Will Not Be Silenced (Jul 10, 2025 @ 12:58pm)
  • Mr. Bemused Senior on Justice Brown Jackson Will Not Be Silenced (Jul 10, 2025 @ 12:57pm)
  • Baud on GOP Venality Open Thread: May Van Orden Be the First of Many Defections… (Jul 10, 2025 @ 12:54pm)
  • Trollhattan on Justice Brown Jackson Will Not Be Silenced (Jul 10, 2025 @ 12:52pm)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Feeling Defeated?  If We Give Up, It's Game Over

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc