Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

The tragic killing of two officers by an emotionally and psychologically unstable shooter is being used to further the political goals of an establishment that’s been challenged through effective, largely nonviolent protest. Despite that movement’s focus on the criminal justice system as a whole, from policing to the role of district attorneys and the grand jury system, police leadership and rank and file are using this moment to claim victim status....

What’s equally predictable and disappointing is the near-erasure of Shaneka Thompson from the story of Ismaaiyl Brinsley’s shooting spree. Thompson is the 29-year-old ex-girlfriend whose Maryland apartment Brinsley entered before shooting her in the stomach and leaving her to scream for help. “I can’t die like this. Please, please help me,” she is reported to have shouted as she banged on a neighbor’s door. According to news reports, Thompson is a health insurance specialist with the Veterans Administration and an Air Force reservist. Brinsley took her phone with him as he headed north to New York, using it to post self-incriminating rants to Instagram before killing Officers Ramos and Liu and, finally, himself.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/193577/why-no-one-talking-about-nypd-shooters-other-target

otm

http://news.yahoo.com/grand-jury-clears-houston-policeman-fatal-shooting-black-213936653.html

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0K11EV20141223?irpc=932

Reuters interviews black NYPD officers about their experiences off-duty.

NY police officers arrested less than half as many people and wrote one-tenth as many summonses than in the same period a year ago, building on a drastic drop in activity that began shortly after the murder of two officers.

I love how this is like a tacit admission that NYPD arrests have nothing to do with actual crimes being committed

it's kinda funny that the only point these assholes are proving is we don't need so many of them.

i think they're waiting for a moment when something/anything horrible happens in the city so they can do the "SEE! SEE!" thing but i doubt they're gonna make it

Nah, that way they surrender whatever moral high ground they think they have. They wouldn't play it up.

I was under the impression that it was about money. Less fines etc. = less money for city hall to play with.

What, like the two cops shot this morning isn't being played up?

Cops being in danger is the crux of what they want people to think this is about, so of course its fair game for them. However if civilians get hurt as as a direct result of the tactics they're using to protest, then they've put the lives of the people they're meant to protect in harms way just to make a political point which is horrible PR.

I was under the impression that it was about money. Less fines etc. = less money for city hall to play with.

― tsrobodo, Tuesday, January 6, 2015 2:43 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm, it's all about this afaik

cities and states rake in a FUCK TON of money from fines/fees/penalties. years past boston brought in something like $70 million worth of parking ticket fees. i know that's not a police-enforced area but imagine if parking attendants stopped enforcing that shit?

doubt this will go anywhere but good on them for trying: http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Group-seeks-new-grand-jury-in-Ferguson-police-5997288.php

exactly why that shit should not be counted on as a revenue source. xp

protect and serve the bottom line

juking the stats and all that

"givin' a fuck when it ain't your turn to give a fuck", etc. etc.

wow. i guess it wasn't mentioned on this thread, but remember that story from a few days ago where the off-duty NYPD cop assaulted a MTA employee in the middle of the night and then walked away? look at how the story was covered by the New York Daily News, before and after they realized the assaulter was a cop:

The hilarious coda to this story is the treatment of this story in the news by the New York Daily News. Here’s the headline from the story they wrote before they knew that the culprit was a police officer:

THUG ATTACKS FEMALE MTA EMPLOYEE AT BRONX TRAIN STATION: COPS (VIDEO)

A hulking brute grabbed a 28-year-old MTA employee up in a bear hug at a Bronx train station, shoved her onto the platform and began choking her in an unprovoked attack – then ran away smiling, authorities said Wednesday.

Here’s the story after they found out that the culprit was a police officer:

NYPD COP TURNS HIMSELF IN FOR ATTACKING FEMALE MTA EMPLOYEE

Police Officer Mirjan Lolja, 37, was suspended after the assault in which the Metropolitan Transportation Authority worker — who was on-duty and in her uniform — was allegedly put into a bear hug, thrown to the floor and choked, cops said.

http://wonkette.com/570758/smirking-thug-who-attacked-lady-subway-worker-was-an-nypd-cop-surprise

funny how the word "allegedly" materialised after they realised the perp was a cop

btw NYPD union head Pat Lynch says that December protestor chants of "What do we want? Dead cops" (certainly vile) should've been tamped down by deBlasio. Cuz obviously, ppl chanting such things take their orders from da mayor!

xpost
also the switch from active to passive voice.

cities and states rake in a FUCK TON of money from fines/fees/penalties. years past boston brought in something like $70 million worth of parking ticket fees. i know that's not a police-enforced area but imagine if parking attendants stopped enforcing that shit?

― marcos, Tuesday, January 6, 2015 3:06 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's about this and it's also a shot across the bow. The cops are saying "we can fuck up your administration, DiBlasio." You have to understand it in context of New York City's recent history with crime and the mayor's office, with Dinkins having been perceived as not having the city under control (probably wrongly) and then Giuliani and Bloomberg coming in and "cleaning up the city." The right has been stoking fears since DiBlasio first entered the mayor's race that the city would return to chaos under his administration. The cops are basically saying "get with our program, or else we can fuck things up for you." A lot of people right now are gloating about how it hasn't "made a difference" that cops aren't doing low level arrests, but given time believe me it would make a difference in the ways that your average complainy new yorker would complain about.

your average complainy new yorker

so, all of them?

p much yeah, like if the perception in an election year were that there was more graffiti, more homeless guys sleeping on trains/pissing on sidewalks, more people blasting loud music, etc. that could definitely tip the scales against DiBlasio even if the homicide rate doesn't go up.

The revenue is also something that is not going to be felt instantly, but would have an impact if prolonged.

Do you really think, given the way this is playing out, that people would blame DiBlasio rather than the nonparticipant cops for the increased graffiti or loud music? I'm reminded of, like, Gingrich and company shutting down the government - to anybody on the fence the Republicans were transparently petty, childish and vindictive. Things like this will also not help the police's case here: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/nypd-rides-hood-patrol-car-brooklyn-article-1.2066644

What I'm missing in the articles I've read is a stronger cross-reading of the shutdown events with the issues this thread deals with. I'm probably talking out of my ass here, but I'd imagine at least some communities are thrilled the police aren't going around citing people for petty shit all the time. I mean, basically, if the police were pulling this stunt a few months ago, Eric Garner would still be alive, so, maybe they should stick with this thing, save some lives.

much of Queens and Staten Island in particular pretty damn pro-cop and pro-"QoL"

also all these new Brooklynites who think bar patios should close by midnight on weekends

I thought it was the old brooklynites who wanted that

all the bars serving old people closed.

in places like Carroll Gardens it was usually the old Italian Catholics trying to tamp down on bars, not the newcomer yuppies, but IDK maybe now there's a wave of more conservative yuppies.

Do you really think, given the way this is playing out, that people would blame DiBlasio rather than the nonparticipant cops for the increased graffiti or loud music?

I guess the best I could say is, maybe? He came in already with the perception that he was weak on crime, that's the whole reason he even hired Bratton in the first place. So it could stick to him.

except you can't blame him for being "weak on crime" when cops are refusing to make arrests of their own volition.

nyt had a good editorial about all this.

for "tough guys" cops seem to have the thinnest skin imaginable. i've never seen "professionals" behave so childishly en masse over what is largely a perceived greivance. (i'm not talking about the assassination of two cops, which was all too real, but the supposed lack of support from City Hall.)

i should say, largely an imagined greivance

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/12/us/albuquerque-police-murder-charges/index.html

It's unclear if Perez is still on the force.

haha ok um really well oiled machine they're running there....

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/15/1357973/-Undercover-officers-infiltrate-BlackLivesMatter-protest-movement-in-Minnesota-charge-leaders

"The cost to the taxpayers of Bloomington for the police overtime and additional police resources of other communities currently exceeds $25,000," it says. "The cost to the MOA for the additional security needed to maintain public safety during the demonstration currently exceeds $8,000."

this is basically extortion. having been on the receiving end of just such a notice myself, it's totally infuriating. they just tell you you owe them money, even though you have not been ordered by a court to do so, or been convicted of a crime.

"aiding and abetting an unlawful assembly"

jfc

http://www.bagnewsnotes.com/2015/01/police-use-video-as-sympathy-propaganda-media-bait/

Do the police behave this way with any demonstration? Of course not.

I'm coming to the conclusion that a lot of police are just morons. When you pull shit like this, you're essentially saying you, the police, ought to run the community. And you have a national audience doing this. We should all feel threatened by the bad behavior we've seen from police across the country.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ex-nypd-made-life-living-heil-article-1.2086167

they were probably just angry about gaza

Terrible pun in the url there

goys will be goys

not US, but
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/22/met-police-warren-luke-cleared-kicking-mother-child-hospital

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/16/us/florida-black-male-sniper-targets/

Wow, that NYPD article. Do they engage in hazing and justify this stuff as part of that?

Once again, NYPD: your behavior affects how police are regarded across the country. If you can't recognize that, you shouldn't have a job.

This is hardcore

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/01/25/florida-police-used-mugshots-of-black-men-for-target-practice-clergy-responded-usemeinstead/?hpid=z5