Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

Pretty harrowing video - the two proximal officers are "suspended without pay" and there will be an "internal investigation", no problem here, no sir.

Is that guy ok?

I've seen videos of the incident in front of Buffalo's City Hall in which an older protester appears to have been shoved by police, fell backwards and suffered a serious head injury. It sickens me. I've confirmed he is at ECMC in stable condition. My thoughts are with him now.

— Mark Poloncarz (@markpoloncarz) June 5, 2020

(tho consider the source)

separately, NYS determines that habeas corpus is suspended, opts to keep peaceful protesters in close quarters for extended periods during a pandemic.

Breaking: NYS Judge James Burke rules NYPD can now keep anyone (peaceful protestors arrested for curfew and criminal looters) detained for over 24 hours given these are extraordinary times. “It’s a crisis within a crisis", he said. "All writs are denied, BK, BX and manhattan"

— Bryan Llenas (@BryanLlenas) June 4, 2020

NYAG replied to the tweet thred that "she" (because I am sure there are assistants that also maintain the twitter; i know who the NYAG is) has seen the video. also in that original thred other ppl say he is alive

That video of the elderly man being pushed made me think a lot about the meaninglessness of the individualistic "good cops" "bad apples" debate vs the phenomenon of "police." It doesn't matter that some of them have the initial reaction of showing normal human concern for the fact that a man is on the ground bleeding from his head, they are quickly corrected by others, all in identical black riot gear, like straying sheep butted back into the group. People become their roles.

brief moment of respite amidst horror

"Lose Yo Job" By Me & @Remixgodsuede 🔥🚀😎 • #iMarkkeyz pic.twitter.com/9vtFay03oj

— iMarkkeyz (@iMarkkeyz) June 4, 2020

As a Buffalo resident nothing about that video surprises me

And here just a few hours ago I was telling a someone looks like the police are standing down, might actually be a quiet night downtown tonight. Like a goddamn imbecile.

there’s a photo of buffalo cops kneeling on that very sidewalk 24 hours ago

just another night of dominating the battlespace in the war against peaceful elderly citizens

this seems important
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world

also here's a follow-up on this asshole
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/06/04/man-who-drew-bow-arrow/

xp as the article states, this is the founding precept of the Extinction Rebellion. I have my fingers crossed that it's borne out.

spreadsheet of videos: https://tinyurl.com/GFProtestPoliceBrutality

mapped: https://maminian.github.io/brutality-map

absolute fucking scholar James Madison dabbing on everyone who ever made fun of the Third Amendment pic.twitter.com/vtC8vmrNQy

— GLADIO Nation (@SchrafftVortex) June 5, 2020

NYPD Irish Nazi commish Shea has to go. Beautify NYC: off the assaulting pigs.

https://gothamist.com/news/live-protest-updates-june-4

Two Gothamist / WNYC reporters just detailed nightly cop assaults on protestors, can't find radio link though.

Indianapolis:

DON'T LOOK AWAY.

The cop groped her and when she tried to break away, she was beaten while standing still.

THIS IS AN ATTEMPT TO CRUSH DISSENT LIKE A DICTATORSHIPpic.twitter.com/j4Kzei2INx

— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) June 4, 2020

What a read:

Policing experts say officers usually avoid punishment for a variety of reasons.

There's the fact that in many jurisdictions, police officers — sometimes from other agencies — are responsible for investigating the actions of other police officers. That arrangement can lead to a situation where officers try to protect one another, according to Laurie Robinson, who co-chaired the White House Task Force on 21st Century Policing that was established in the wake of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.

"There is a sense of, 'We're out here doing a tough job and we protect our own,’" Robinson said. The decision to charge officers with crimes then falls on local prosecutors. Clark Neily, who runs the criminal justice program at the libertarian Cato Institute, said that arrangement creates an immediate conflict of interest since prosecutors rely on police officers every day to build their cases. That "near-zero accountability policy," Neily said, leads to few criminal prosecutions.

"Those are extraordinarily rare and only happen when there's a viral video that makes it politically impossible to not respond," Neily said.

Even civil courts are rarely an option.

In recent decades, the Supreme Court established, on its own, the "qualified immunity" doctrine that lets police officers off the hook unless their behavior violated "clearly established" laws or constitutional rights. Under the doctrine, a lawsuit against a police officer has to show that a court has already ruled against the specific actions the officer is accused of.

"If George Floyd’s family sues the police officer who killed him, what they’ll need to do is find a case in the 8th Circuit Court where a police officer jammed his knee against the cervical spine of an unresponsive person for nine minutes until the person died," Neily said. "If they can’t find a case with those exact characteristics, their case is going to get thrown out."

POLICE OFFICER TELLS PROUD BOYS TO HIDE INSIDE BUILDING BECAUSE THEY'RE ABOUT TO TEAR GAS PROTESTERS. THE OFFICER SAID HE WAS WARNING THEM "DISCRETELY" BECAUSE HE DIDNT WANT PROTESTERS TO SEE POLICE "PLAY FAVORITES."#BLUEFALL #PoliceBrutalityPandemic #PoliceBrutality pic.twitter.com/ri83By2EVy

— SatelliteHeart (@Satellit3Heart) June 5, 2020

I'm not surprised

Like, why is that in all-caps? Isn't that behavior the baseline assumption at this point?

What city is that?

In the comments the poster says it's Salem, Oregon.

I think it's more rage-caps.

de blasio is just completely denying everything on the radio right now

Brian to mayor: can't you make the distinction between looters and peaceful protesters without kettling, arrests, violence, curfew?

de Blasio to @BrianLehrer: "I'm not hearing objectivity in your question."

— Kate Hinds (@katehinds) June 5, 2020

God, that video sets the gun-control part of me at war with the left should arm itself part of me, so bad.

meanwhile Erick Erickson has a monthly meeting w/his conscience:

Are any of you people who consider yourselves part of the conservative movement and spent two weeks engaged in whataboutism, character assassination, rumor, and innuendo to try to apologize for the McMichaels going to apologize? Do you have anything to say for yourselves?

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) June 5, 2020

let the healing begin:

Dermot F. Shea, New York City’s police commissioner, apologized on Thursday for any instances of police misconduct over the past several days.

But, during a brief news conference at Police Headquarters, he also demanded that demonstrators stop insulting and attacking his officers, warning that anti-police rhetoric could lead to continued violence against the people he oversees.

“For there to be calm, there must also be contrition,” Mr. Shea said. “So I am sorry. Sometimes even the best — and the N.Y.P.D. is the goddamned best police department in the country — but sometimes even the best fall down.”

He added: “So for our part in the damage to civility, for our part in racial bias, in excessive force, unacceptable behavior, unacceptable language and many other mistakes, we are human. I am sorry. Are you?”

"sorry for our racial bias, excessive force and unacceptable behavior; now will you please say you're sorry for insulting us?"

"if you wouldn't call me names I wouldn't have to hit you"

defund them all

I am sorry. Are you?

Melania's got a new jacket to wear

even the best fall down sometimes

our behavior is unacceptable. are you sorry too?

oh damn if y'all are so human maybe you shouldn't be a privileged class of totalitarian bullies

Shea is such a stompable fucking potato

Everybody send bags of shit to his house

I'm talking millions

we are sorry for beating you if you are sorry for complaining about us beating you

"stompable fucking potato" ❤️❤️❤️❤️ classic Morbsian wordplay that's great

NYPD last night summarized, look at em all

https://twitter.com/jangelooff

Threatening bystanders with arrest. “alright who wants to go to jail tonight?” pic.twitter.com/cOJYXp3UF6

— Jake Offenhartz (@jangelooff) June 5, 2020

Wow, it’s done! New “Black Lives Matter” Mural painted in #WashingtonDC on road to White House (16th St.)

They started at 3:00 am & just finished. Mayor Bowser approved it: pic.twitter.com/kqmknUOaDR

— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) June 5, 2020

It’s not a mural if it’s not on a mure!

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/opinion/police-riots.html

Jamelle Bouie opinion piece at NYT - "The Police Are Rioting. We Need to Talk About It."

muriel bowser's unmured mural

The shit being pulled by DiBlasio and the NYPD is fucking enraging.

haha, but also fuck these guys

L.A.’s police union is decidedly *not pleased* with what Mayor Garcetti said in the @latimes pic.twitter.com/YZLpjneLAZ

— Emily Alpert Reyes (@AlpertReyes) June 5, 2020

I’ve been thinking a lot about how the police response to attempts at reform might resemble police abolition.