Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

iirc he's pro cigarette smoking or something

Well he's a corporate shill...

Perhaps it is because Gladwell strikes the pose of always knowing everything that is important to know about the subject he is addressing and then makes a show of drawing the only possible conclusion. He treats his readers as cattle being driven up a chute into his selected cattle car.

he spreads conclusions not understanding, and he doesn't understand the statistics he's reporting, which is why in his world all effects are large

he's also a plagiarist https://ourbadmedia.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/a-guide-for-journalists-on-how-to-understand-our-gladwell-reporting/

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/us/charges-dropped-against-3-remaining-officers-in-freddie-gray-case.html

The prosecutors’ decision to drop the remaining charges was disclosed during a pretrial motion for Officer Garrett Miller, whose trial was scheduled to begin this week. Lawyers from Ms. Mosby’s office announced that the state would not prosecute that case or the two remaining ones — against Sgt. Alicia D. White and against Officer Porter, the first officer to be tried.

There had been little public hint of the decision; Judge Barry Williams of the Baltimore City Circuit Court had imposed a strict gag order on all the lawyers, defendants and witnesses, seeking to tamp down publicity surrounding a death that had sparked violent protests and riots last spring.

A court spokeswoman said Wednesday that the gag order has now been lifted.

to what extent are officers, generally-speaking, exposed to high-stress situations in training?

Such as traffic stops of African American men with babies in the car?!

Sorry if this isn't exactly a valuable contribution to the thread, but every time I see a picture of Sandra Bland's face on social media I get this awful, hair-raising shiver, as though her face were telling me she was murdered. It's totally bullshit and superstitious sounding but I cannot see photos of her without feeling haunted.

bratton out

Police accountability groups want him to leave sooner than potentially end of 2017. Still good news tho.

lol shit I should read the news huh

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/mayors-survey-police-shooting-law-enforcement-dallas-214152

A year after America’s mayors declared their concern that “Ferguson could happen to us,” a more multifaceted anxiety over the relationship between police and minority communities has taken hold in the country’s city halls, a new Politico Magazine survey finds.

During one of the most tumultuous summers in urban politics, ignited by the murder of eight police officers after more controversial police shootings of black men, more than half of mayors say they are very worried about the safety of their black citizens but nearly three-quarters of mayors say they now fear for their officers’ lives as well.

this is a great piece -
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/08/18/black-lives-and-the-police/

it's unusual to read a piece like this in 2016, with no explicit thesis or argument, there is no hot take. it's more of a documentation or testimony. and to me it reads powerfully for that reason, it feels like real reporting

The DOJ report on Baltimore is out. Haven't read it yet, but it's supposed to be pretty damning.

https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6915773/DOJ_Baltimore_Police_Department.0.pdf

synopsis: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/federal-probe-finds-baltimore-police-dept-racially-discriminated-in-practices-that-target-blacks/2016/08/09/51216804-5e8a-11e6-af8e-54aa2e849447_story.html

https://twitter.com/FOP3/status/763481919413641216

bpd union response - they call for the immediate elimination of the comstat program

http://www.cbs58.com/story/32754977/governor-activates-national-guard-in-milwaukee

Not sure if this is the right thread, but, a spot of good news: Justice Department Plans to Stop Using Private Prisons.

a tiny sliver of all prisons but still great news

prison industrial complex

(as probably the most relevant thread)

oh good call. crossposting.

yeah, tiny sliver - but still hopefully will mean very real, material benefit to the prisoners involved. and maybe just maybe set some kind of example that states might pick up on, i dunno.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-black-man-shot-cops-calling-report-robbery-article-1.2762748

I am completely numb about that story. What else were they supposed to do?

How the fuck does a cop think, even in a split second "Oh someone reported a carjacking outside their house, so the guy INSIDE the garage who is opening the garage must be the carjacker."

Oh right, because black guy in house.

even if he were holding his gun at the time of the garage opening, it might be understandable why he had it, given what just happened to his wife. aren't cops generally, y'know, supposed to tell you to drop a weapon before they start firing, especially if the guy isn't in a Weaver stance?

The problem is that police and their sympathizers have been able to shift the narrative in the media to suggest that if anybody they encounter merely possesses a gun at the scene, or makes any kind of movement in the direction of police, that gives them license to shoot, which pared with their track record with minorities, those with disabilities, etc, has to be terrifying to a degree I can't even comprehend.

One of the articles I read about this same shooting took sympathy with quotes from people interviewed like (paraphrasing) "police often get bad descriptions from the 911 caller/dispatch, they don't know what they're walking into" and "cops need to do community outreach to teach gun owners how to be responsible with their guns/not have their guns when police arrive", and it's like...really?

i think its about time we just take away cops' guns. or have them have guns in a lockbox in the trunk, and they have to get permission to unlock it. most cops never use their guns anyhow.

been arguing for years that it's insane that us police's first go-to is lethal ammunition; at the very least let's arm and train them with rubber bullets or tasers

yeah the counterargument is always some noxious shit about how then the criminals, who are all armed with rocket launchers, will be unstoppable and therefore you must hate cops and their families and want them all dead. this is stupid but politically effective. would be great to see a sustained pushback against that though.

the counterargument is almost always from dudes who are racially/societally unlikely to be the victims of erroneous and egregious police action. if white dudes were likely to be shot by bad cops things might change somewhat.

i would be more inclined to think this was a movement with some traction if it didn't frontpage splinter cell screenshots
http://www.disarmthepolice.com/our-position.html
someone please point me toward a more serious not-for-profit with these goals?

yeah I've wondered that myself, what happened to the time when the cops just tased everyone?

lol @ Sam Fisher, that can't be real

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/19/cops-taunted-black-veteran-as-he-died.html

that is one of the most horrible things i have ever read.

i can't even process that.

Under a controversial legal doctrine known as the "felony murder rule," the teen's prosecution relied on a theory of accountability enshrined in Illinois's criminal code: that while committing a felony, a person can set in motion a chain of events that lead to the death of another person.

"I cried," Louis admitted, remembering the moment he learned that he was being charged with murder for his friend's death. "It was unreal. I didn't know what was happening."

But Louis's prosecution was no fluke. Rather, a Reader investigation finds that his case was one of at least ten in Cook County in the past five years in which killings by Chicago Police Department and Cook County sheriff's officers have resulted in felony murder charges for civilians. In particular, the Reader found three cases in which police fatally shot passengers in fleeing vehicles—an act that's come under intense scrutiny since the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Paul O'Neal in late July—before holding a surviving passenger responsible.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/felony-murder-police-shooting-investigation/Content?oid=23200575

WHAT

Staggering. Both of those stories. The comments on the latter are blood-chillingly heartless. I feel sick to my stomach.

While in prison, he had "Marquise 7-8-12" tattooed on one hand, and his best friend's birthday on the other.

And while Louis is serving time for his friend's murder, the officer who actually pulled the trigger has been commended for his actions. For fatally shooting Sampson, Dicarlo received a 2013 Superintendent's Award for Valor, which honors "an act of outstanding bravery or heroism," according to CPD. Mayor Rahm Emanuel presided over the ceremony.

The director later testified he didn’t remember the doctor’s conversation but “if it happened, it was my bad.”
Then he tried to explain away Williams’s treatment. “People just die sometimes,” he said, according to court records.

FUCK THIS PIECE OF SHIT

"sometimes when people display textbook signs of paralysis, and complain that they can't move for three days, and we laugh and tell them they're faking, they just die. hard to figure out why."

what dr casino said.

jfc this fucking country

small bright spot: a few terrible prosecutors have been bounced:

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/08/zimmerman_prosecutor.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/north-dakota-becomes-first-us-state-to-legalise-use-of-armed-drones-by-police-10492397.html

A national prisoner labor strike is starting today: http://www.maskmagazine.com/the-prisoner-issue/struggle/live-updates-prisoner-strike

The Tyre King and Terence Crutcher murders are both absolutely awful and I have no idea what else to say. Fucking hell.

Yeah, so with every passing week I'm less keen on moving to the American south. Jesus fucking Christ, this country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/21/us/protests-erupt-in-charlotte-after-police-kill-a-black-man.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0