Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

i wasn't being modest; i honestly have no idea why some folks seem bent on doing this. i guess it's a common enough habit of mind.

i'd rather this not be about "me" though. sorry if i derailed thread however briefly.

Hennepin County had 'sundown towns' until some time in the mid-late 1960s (mine was not one, but I think Edina and Wayzata were).

My sister was supporting the police via the magic of FB after the 4th Precinct killing, and she shared a macro via a white, exurban friend whose father happened to run one of the biggest illegal sports books in the Twin Cities during the '80s. I very politely called bullshit and didn't introduce the irony of her sharer. Furious messaging ensued, and sister seems to have had a Helen Keller moment after I pointed out many of her friends would (if black) have been in the prison system or dead for pulling the crap they did in high school. She replied that all of these people had turned out to be OK, law-abiding types (give or take the odd DUI). I said that all things being equal, adolescent misbehaviour should not preclude any kid from growing up to turn out OK. She's now been packed off with the On Reparations essay to read between shifts, so I live in hope.

doin the lord's work there suzy

murder charge for Chicago cop in Laquan McDonald case

http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2015/11/chicago_police_officer_charged.html#incart_river_home

The last thing of any length read by my sister was the James Frey book, and when it was exposed as ~fiction~ she said 'obviously the one time I buy a book, it turns out to be bullshit, so LESSON LEARNED.'

Feel like I have spent the past 24 hours telling various white_folks to break the habit of a lifetime, get their respectable middle-class selves to North Minneapolis and just quietly stand with these people, because white supremacists are also about intimidating potential allies.

Big discussion right now is over whether or not the video should even be released in the first place. Like does it do anything, what's the point

'obviously the one time I buy a book, it turns out to be bullshit, so LESSON LEARNED.'

books, always tryin to trick ya!

Big discussion right now is over whether or not the video should even be released in the first place. Like does it do anything, what's the point

― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Tuesday, November 24, 2015 7:06 PM (36 minutes ago)

i'd like to hear the argument that it does nothing. of course there are some people who are so entrenched that they will continue to give cops the benefit of the doubt whenever stories like this come out. but to say that seeing footage like this, of cold-blooded, line-of-duty murder, will have no effect on at least some people is to ignore the role that footage of police brutality has played in changing public opinion about civil rights issues in the past, particularly the desegregation era, etc

i mean the charges weren't even announced until the judge ordered that the video be released

we live in a bubble. no one on ILX, no one who follows us on twitter denies that police brutality exists or that young POC can be murdered in cold blood by police. we don't need to see that video.* but people who do deny, or at least question, that reality exist, and they outnumber us

*and of course the fact that the family didn't want the video released, or that footage like this can be traumatizing to POC, can't be ignored. those are real concerns. i don't know that there's a perfect solution. but it seems that taking the police at their word isn't working

yeah not releasing the video introduces ambiguity into what happened and that is going to favor the police version as has been shown time and time again. the kid is shot almost as soon as the cops are out of the car and is physically nowhere near them and doesn't make a lunging motion or anything. that alone should've been enough for a conviction but obv wouldn't even result in an indictment and reasonable ppl would've argued 'well you gotta do what cops tell you and you have to do it in 1 nanosecond'. it's not even the 14 to 15 times he's shot after he's already down that got the indictment. it's that it was caught on tape (or tapes actually but the cops destroyed the burger king surveillance tape) and that the tape could/would be released that got the indictment. as for conviction, we'll wait and see. i wouldn't bet my life though.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-chicago-shootings-violence-20141021-story.html

this is the story that was published after laquan's murder. the video doesn't get released and this is is the bullshit people will believe

the criminal justice reforms of the 60s brought a serious political backlash so i'm hoping history doesn't repeat itself there (i'm hoping also we actually get some criminal justice reforms brought about from this). i'm hoping that the shift in demographics that this time it isn't accompanied by a crime wave makes that possible.

xpost holy shit the amount of straight up lies in that story

Welp: https://www.facebook.com/CBSNews/videos/vb.131459315949/10153245175685950/?type=2&theater

 WATCH: Some "angry" protesters clash with police in Chicago video of #LaquanMcDonald's shooting released

"we live in a bubble. no one on ILX, no one who follows us on twitter denies that police brutality exists or that young POC can be murdered in cold blood by police. we don't need to see that video."

I want to believe this (no reflection on you at all) but 7 days of posting stuff about Jamar Clark into an echo chamber on ILX that only ended when REAL LIVE RACISTS showed up to shoot BLM protestors and suddenly everyone felt comfortable about weighing in makes me pretty fucking skeptical about how much our peers don't need to see this video.

A basic summary of how Minnesota is actually a terrible state:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/24/why-activists-predicted-months-ago-that-minneapolis-could-become-the-next-ferguson/

I want to believe this (no reflection on you at all) but 7 days of posting stuff about Jamar Clark into an echo chamber on ILX

― a strawman stuffed with their collection of 12 cds (jjjusten), Tuesday, November 24, 2015 10:55 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

fyi i appreciated all the postings and news, but its not like i had a lot to say outside of "thanks for the links i appreciate them" and i still sorta don't.

i do think the video's release is a good thing in that there will probably be more protests after the release than before the release (for whatever reason) and that is worthwhile. also because it establishes the precedent that the police shouldn't just have the unilateral ability to only release the videos that suit them. even for activists, people that want to organize and protest around this stuff, the ability to know that the evidence is incontrovertible and in hand can strengthen their resolve and make them feel like it is possible to spur more people to action, etc.

i don't know if it needs to be watched, but the fact that it can be is important.

yes, i was reading about the jena six tonight and commentators after the fact remarked about the activist outcry at the time despite their / some misgivings that it was not a 'perfect civil rights case'. incontrovertible (save for like… the facebook comment i just read re someone who thought the tamir rice video cleared the officer?!) video evidence helps even the most resolute stay resolute. it's getting into the 30s here finally. the protesters at the 4th precinct have been lighting fires to stay warm. in the past several years (back to occupy) a lot of our protests here have tended to die out in the winter.

i've been so busy these past few days that i haven't been able to follow the news around the chicago shooting as closely as i'd have liked.

so do the authorities have any explanation for why it took a year to bring charges or even to get the office suspended? is the general assumption that it's only with the judge's decision to compel them to release the video that they have pressed charges?

the whole situation is heartbreaking. the scenario is similar to one that occurred in this city a year or two ago. although in this case the video evidence makes the inhuman gratuitousness of it undeniable. the video made me gasp--you see smoke rising from the young man's prone body, evidence that he's still being shot (by the same cop) ten, fifteen seconds after he hit the ground.

the other thing that i found so shocking--or if not shocking, then just hideously familiar--is that it's pretty clear the other cops knew that the kid didn't pose an immediate danger to them. most of them hadn't even drawn their weapons, it appears. so it's clear that what the one cop did was far beyond the bounds of what was demanded in that situation. and yet i have no doubt that every one of those other cops, even knowing that their coworker had murdered a young man in cold blood, colluded with him to fabricate a story, conceal/taint/destroy evidence, etc. unless we start to prosecute those folks, too, i'm not sure that we'll get anywhere....

so awful and sad.....

'investigations with police involvement are very complex'

'Needed extra time to try to fight every FOIA request'

'video server was loading very slowly'

jesus christ, this poor kid

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/25/us/laquan-mcdonald-life-chicago/index.html

Is this in any way credible?

http://henrycountyreport.com/blog/2015/12/01/leaked-documents-reveal-dothan-police-department-planted-drugs-on-young-black-men-for-years-district-attorney-doug-valeska-complicit/

Is Rahm in any way credible?

http://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2015/12/corruption-beyond-chicago-top-cop/418215/

that henry county report is insane.

The group of police officers who chose to notify federal authorities and the US Attorney in a series of constructed letters to protect their own safety documented is below as many had their lives threatened by fellow officers.

So is the $500M in settlement money that Chicago PD has paid to its victims over the past ten years.

For years, white supremacists in a Dothan, Alabama, police department planted drugs and guns on black people. According to Internal Affairs documents obtained by the Henry County Report, their superiors, several of whom have since been promoted, knew about the practice and helped cover it up. Indeed, the lieutenant implicated by the documents is now the chief of the department. The sergeant who obstructed the Internal Affairs investigation went on to become sheriff and then director of homeland security for the state, a position he continues to hold today. The district attorney at the time (still in office) sat on exculpatory evidence and proceeded with felony prosecutions against the individuals the officers had framed.

https://newrepublic.com/minutes/124937/years-white-supremacists-dothan-alabama-police-department-planted-drugs-guns-black-people

I'd seen this floating around and it's fucking insane

i have not read it myself yet but i see that there's already some questions about that report

the SPLC has retracted their tweet of it:

https://twitter.com/splcenter/status/672466511886422018

slate's criminal justice reporter gave it a hard look and interviewed the report's author:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2015/12/dothan_county_alabama_police_corruption_what_do_we_actually_know.html

SPLC ‏@splcenter 3h3 hours ago
Questions have arisen about the reporting and readers should not assume the claims are true until more information is provided.

hmm

SPLC's pretty reliable

Yeah, thought that might happen.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/police-tear-protest-camp-minneapolis-4th-precinct-35551810

Word on the ground is that this is a pretty pleasant and whitewashed version of how things went down

holtzclaw guilty, recommended sentence of 260+ years

he didn't take it well

Fake crying like the psychopath he is. Good luck, USA.

so we have our own case in SF now: http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Family-of-man-shot-by-SF-police-to-file-federal-6691945.php?cmpid=brknow

although tbh I'm a little ambivalent about this one, dude was armed and is suspected of having just stabbed somebody. Could they have captured him without killing him? I suspect so but there lies the rub (I haven't watched the video fwiw, I don't watch snuff films)

Fake crying like the psychopath he is. Good luck, USA.

― Three Word Username, Friday, December 11, 2015 4:04 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

why fake? even psychopathic serial rapists can cry when they learn they will spend the rest of their life in prison

yeah, i'm not exactly sorry for the guy in any way but he's almost certainly going to be in jail through 2045; you're allowed to lose your shit

dude is gonna get it in prison

:(

"it" = "a college degree"

shakey, the video is pretty incredible. the guy was pretty much encircled (against a wall) by cops, one of them tries to cut him off from the side, 'he lunges' or whatever bullshit they say, and then it's like a firing squad

SF Police Chief is using this as an opportunity to argue for arming cops with stun guns. Which I guess is progress of some sort (also sounds practically like an admission of wrongdoing)

jesus. that is absolutely horrifying. shakey i understand about not wanting to watch the video, but if you are not going to watch the video imo you need to not cast aspersions on what he was supposedly armed with or was suspected of having done. i don't think the latter is a good thing to do in any case because it aligns with the way police consistently slander victims, but i think in particular it does not look good to say "and don't show me anything to contradict this, either." like, that's what video evidence does, as absolutely terrifying and heartbreaking as it is to see a person shot fifteen times by five police officers - it cuts through those narratives and exposes them.

i don't care what you're "suspected of," it's profoundly unlikely that anybody needs to be shot to resolve the overwhelming, overwhelming majority of situations. certainly not shot so many times as to ensure death beyond a shadow of a doubt. a firing squad is a very apt analogy. god, that's horrible.

I would think that my average level of trust in police departments is well documented around here but I guess not

I don't "trust" the police version of events beyond the dude being armed and the fact that there was a stabbing nearby. My "little ambivalence" is due to these as mitigating factors distinguishing this from the countless instances of cops just shooting unarmed people when they felt like it - this one is slightly different. That doesn't make it right.