7/31 Open Thread: Cop Talk
OK, some history bits
On this day in 1703, Daniel Defoe was placed in the pillory for seditious libel. The people seemingly approved of his work, because they pelted him with flowers. The English had all the fun back then it seems, but more recently, 1970 brought forth Black Tot Day, the last issueance of Navy Rum to the sailors of the Royal Navy. There was weeping and gnashing of teeth from Portsmouth to Singapore and Hong Kong.
In 1789, the world lost Denis Diderot on this date. A French philosopher and critic, he was famous for many things but possibly most famous for saying:
Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
He failed to point out that not all tyrants and autocrats need be kings, but that's a pretty good start anyway.
On to the topic at hand --
In essence, cops, plus those speaking on their behalf, DAs, Police Chiefs, Police Internal Affairs Departments and other self-investigatory bodies, the Mayor, and amateur copologists all spout variants of the same line: "He disobeyed me, so I killed him.". A major difference is that those other than the cops themselves say variants of "He disobeyed the officer, who then had no choice but to kill him".
I told him to drop the knife and he didn't so I killed him
I told him to freeze and he tried to flee the scene, so I killed him
I told him to show me his hands and he didn't, so I killed him
I told him to get on the ground and he didn't, so I killed him
I told him to get out of the car and he didn't, so I killed him
etc.
There are exceptions, 2 of which come immeditely to mind. One is the infamous "reaching for waistband" assertion first invented (and successfully used) by a cop in California's central valley who has the eternal gratitude and hero worship of police throughout the country as this has become the number one exculpatory assertion I thought he was reaching for his waistband, so I killed him. This is, however, a specific embellishment on the He disobeyed me so I killed him theme, because it invariably arises in a situation where the cop asserting it has confronted the victim and issued some order, command, directive or "request". What kind of "request" is grounds for instant immedite assassination of any who fail to comply with it for FSMs sake? (The other exception, utterly laughable as it may seem is the equally infamous but rarely used I thought it was my taser)
Of course, they don't say killed, they say shot, but we have heard more than enough times that they are trained to shoot to kill, so by training, if nothing else (such as the overhwelming deathly fear of concealed hands that they claim comes over them at these times), the intent to kill is there, included in the act of shooting. If you re trained to shoot to kill, and you decide to shoot, then you have decided to kill. If you are trained to shoot to kill, and you intend to shoot, then you intend to kill. It is really that simple. They also fail to state that there is very often, possibly more often than not, pretty much insufficient time for the victim to comprehend and act upon their order, it is simply "freeze!", bang, dead about as fast as you can say it.
Hence, they have become assassins, killing those who disobey them. What law grants them the power of summary execution? So the victim had a knife? Is that even a crime? It is certainly not a capital offence? When and how in the hell did the cops in this country acquire the power of summary execution of those suspected of reaching for their pockets? They have, in fact, become assassins, killing whenever and wherever the impulse strikes them. This is a sufficiently well known fact that it has led to people "swatting" their enemies or folks whom they otherwise would like to see murdered. Call the cops and send them to the victim's home with the right kind of story and the victim dies. In a quasi recent swatting, the cops arrived at the victims house, the victim heard a noise and opened the door and they immediately shot him, claiming, of course, that he reached for his waistband. Because there were no cameras or witnesses to testify as to what really happened, that stands as a "fact" even though the epidemic of unarmed persons reaching for their waistband in the presence of hostile cops defies all probability, logic and reason. In this case, the DA with jurisdiction is going after the swatter for involuntary manslaughter, a seeming blatant admission that cops are trigger happy and prone to kill persons without reason and that this is so widely known as to border on established fact. ( https://www.cbsnews.com/news/suspect-in-fatal-swatting-call-charged-with... ) It is a widely accepted defense against a charge of involuntary manslaughter that the death or killing that occurred was not due to the defendant's negligence or commission of some specific crime, but was a true accident. ( https://www.justia.com/criminal/offenses/homicide/involuntary-manslaughter/ ) To overcome such a defense, the DA would have to show that the murder of a person by the cops when you "swat" them to the victim's door is no accident, but situationally guaranteed. That's a pretty telling admission.
It has come to my attention that various and sundry types are desirous of restoring the public's trust in cops, and in trying to find methods of doing so. The following link is to an article on trusting the police and contains lots of relevant data: https://medium.com/s/trustissues/the-police-dont-deserve-your-trust-6d77...
Combine all of this with the existence of causeless stop and search and stop and frisk (Terry stops etc.) as well as no knock warrants (kick your door in in the middle of the night without warning) and it is very difficult to keep the phrase "police state" from coming to mind. This is especially true because the Supremes seem to have further weakened a citizen's protections against retaliatory (violent) arrests and beatings as summary punishment for contempt of cop ( https://abovethelaw.com/2019/06/the-supreme-courts-new-rule-ensures-publ... ) Worse yet, I have no remedy to propose. There is a campaign to film all cop v citizen interactions ("see something, film something"), but the police are constantly having their official reports and court testimony impeached and proven false by photo and film evidence and it never seems to make a damn bit of difference, so I can't see how awareness of being on film will change their behavior. Nonetheless, I guess it is the only weapon we have, so keep your cameras ready and download the ACLU app for filming and submitting film of cop on citizen violence for your state, assuming one exists for your state ( https://www.aclu.org/issues/criminal-law-reform/reforming-police-practic... ).
Image is don't shoot
Its an open thread so have at it. The floor is yours
.
Comments
Shoot to kill
...instead of shoot to disarm or disable? The peace officer became a violence perpetrator. From public servant to public terrorist. Lord help you if you're of color.
In a nearby town there was one officer throughout the sixties. Now there are 20 officers and multiple patrol cars (in a town of less than 5,000).
Hope you all have a peaceful day.
PS thanks for the Lomax lesson this weekend el
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning Lookout. Yeah, we're overpoliced and
the cops are over equipped and over armed. A lot of that is due to Clinton, but a lot is due to societal fear and need to control "the other" on the one hand and TPTB wanting the power to control all and every on the other. They've created these forces which naturally gravitate towards corruption and abuse and have done so.
When I was a kid my older brother pointed out a coupe of popular songs that were variants of serious oldies (folk stuff). The first I recall was Plain Jane, which was Buffalo Gals. I found a bargain on Lomax's Folk Songs of North America and gave it to him for a birthday, then personally devoured it from cover to cover, repeatedly and eventually got my own and used it to teach myself guitar. That, plus an affinity for folk blues which is full of mix-and-match kept me always aware of and on the lookout for all that kind of origins/history stuff. Then when I was in Berkeley, Chris Strachwitz (Arhoolie Records) had a radio show (and his record store nearby) which kept pushing in that direction too.
Thanks for reading.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
All my adult life
It's not the robbers but the cops that have hassled me mostly indiscriminately. Because they can. Even the local skin head steroid drenched power trippers like to yell and berate. Protect and serve my ass. Respect training is in order, IMO.
question everything
Morning QMS. That's somewhat my story too, somewhat.
With me it was all my entire life, not just as an adult, though worse as the decades passed. Time and place, in part, I guess. And yea, "Respect the Badge", that's now a mantra to them and part of their training, and is, of course, a crock of shit. Respect is earned, and I've never seen that happening anywhere.
Have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
A little story
About 4 years ago, when my daughter was in high school, I was harassed by a school resource officer. I still shake when I think about that day and I still shake every time I see a pig.
My daughter had her ipod stolen during her senior year of high school. I went to the school and specifically asked to speak with either the principal or a guidance counselor. They sent a pig out instead. After I explain why I was there, the pig tells me that they don't have cameras inside the classrooms so there is no why to find out who stole it. I said something about how it felt like a prison with thieves and guards everywhere. The pig asked me to repeat what I said, so I repeated it a little louder. Then he jerked my arms behind my back and pushed me outside the building, knocking the magnet part of my cochlear implant off my head in the process, leaving me totally deaf. While I'm deaf and he's pushing me outside, I could feel him continuing to speak. I start getting louder because that's just what happens when I can't hear myself. I asked if he was going to shoot me.
Once he gets me outside, I put my hearing back on as soon as my hands were free to do so. As soon as I get it back on my head, he jerks my arms behind my back - knocking my hearing off again, and handcuffs me. He continues to talk and I start yelling that I am deaf and I can't hear him. I tell him that the cord that's dangling is my hearing. My picks up the magnet part in his grubby paws and starts examining it like he has no clue wtf it even is. As I'm crying and shaking and yelling, the principal comes outside by a side door. I yell at her to tell this oaf that I can't hear him because I am deaf and have a cochlear implant and he's holding it in his nasty hand. I yelled that at least 3 times before she came over to help.
If the principal hadn't come out when she did, the pig would have arrested me. Disturbing the peace or some such bullshit. After the principal and guidance counselor talked with me for 10 minutes or so, I went and sat in my truck for a while to calm down. I realized that the pig had broken the clip that holds my CI to my shirt and had damaged the new $125 cord that goes from the sound processor to the headpiece with a magnet.
I then went back inside the school to sign my daughter out. The secretary had watched the whole thing happen on camera and when I went in, she asked if I was okay. I was still crying and shaking and all I could do was show her the broken clip. She offered to pay for it, but I refused. When my daughter got to the office and saw me, she thought my dad had died (he had advanced Alzheimer's at the time). I told her right there in the office that she never had to go back to that school if she did not want to.
I later wrote a "to whom it may concern" letter of my side of the story and emailed it to the principal, the guidance counselor, the superintendent, and a few others. In it, I referred to the pig only as "the oaf" and included a definition of the word because I really don't believe they were all smart enough to already know what it meant. That was the nicest thing I could think of to call him. I was able to immediately get my daughter into an alternative school that had a waiting list. She made straight As in that school (she was barely passing in public school) and even got a scholarship from the alternative school when she graduated.
What makes things worse, that school was the public high school with the most deaf or hard-of-hearing students in the city. I pointed that out in my letter and said that someone that doesn't know what a cochlear implant is, does not need to be working at that school. I heard they transferred him.
Good morning Jen. Sorry to hear of your terrible experience,
and glad you weren't injured worse. Glad you were able to transfer your child too. Stories like that abound, yet the pundits wonder why folks distrust and even fear cops. They cannot be paying attention.
Have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Recently, here in Burlington
A cop with anger issues decided he was justified in repeatedly punching an ill and poorly abled man in the face, because the man was acting belligerently and wasn't immediately complying with the cop's instructions.
Three days later, the man died.
The ME ruled his death a homicide.
All hell broke loose, including separate attempts by the mayor and chief of police to convince the ME to change his determination. Thankfully, the ME stood his ground and there's an ongoing investigation.
(Here's a primer for anyone interested in the back story - many links to earlier articles listed below this one).
It's not the first time shit like this has gone down, and every single time, the cops get off (double entendre intentional).
And the City Council does a wonderful job of virtue signaling yet doing nothing to address the root problem.
Same as it ever was.
Good morning Eagles. With luck this could be that one in
100,000 case where the cop goes down, or at least one can hope that for a while at any rate. I dunno if more and more cameras pointed at cops will turn things around, but all we can do is hope.
Thanks for reading and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
It makes me wonder how many direct personal experiences
we all have with this sort of thing, and why there isn't a cultural unity around these stories.
Mine is a little different: working for a large medical school, hospital complex. One day in the early 80s there was a 'sniper' incident from a nearby hill. Of course the sniping was treated as a serious threat. Turned out it was one of the private or u security guards who wanted to have the civilian guard group armed. This was how he tried to make his point.
Oaf indeed.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
Morning, Dawn. HOrrible story, but not a surprise, which is a
sad state of affairs. It makes me wonder how often that has happened or how often it happens and, thinking upon it, I almost swear I've heard of something else similar, but I really cannot say.
Have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Low-level terror
Being born upper middle class, I've never really been exposed to the truly gruesome side of policing. But even relative privilege isn't enough to avoid the low-level terror of a police state.
In middle school, the police would show up every so often for 'random' inspections with drug-sniffing dogs. They'd slowly peruse the halls and if you caught a glimpse of a dog pausing for a moment near your locker, your heart would skip a beat even if you didn't have anything.
How many have the misfortune of driving during the end of the month and get pulled over for false or pointless traffic 'violations' (turning right instead of left out of a parking lot between 2 and 5 pm ...) only to be slapped with steep tickets and points that drive up their insurance costs. Good luck trying to fight it when it's your word vs. the cop.
What does it do to our psyche to know that every street corner has cameras that are taping you, if you make the mistake of doing a 23andMe DNA kit your DNA goes into a gov't database, if your kids take a field trip to a police station in first grade they take fingerprints that are on file forever, that any Ford Explorer could be undercover cops, that chat rooms are clogged with law enforcement trying to exploit and entrap the vulnerable (look at most 'foiled' terrorist plots)? And ultimately, even if your circumstances make it unlikely, at the end of the day they have the power to imprison, injure, or kill you on a whim and their word. It leaves people anxious and paranoid, eroding the bonds that make a society peaceful and coherent.
Of course, this state of affairs was only made possible by what the U.S. government does abroad. Torture, extrajudicial murder, fabrications of evidence, preemptive use of force, dehumanization of the 'enemy,' have all been normalized by the machinations of the war machine and now brought home.
Would we be less safe without police? I'm not sure.
Good morning ludwig. I agree with all you say with one tiny
quibble as to your last line. I was in Berkeley in the sixties, and the rule in Berkeley, Oakland and a lot of S.F. was
Everything has been horribly exacerbated by our actions abroad, but the police in this country have been pretty much instruments of class war and racism since day one.
Have a good one (and keep your head down)
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
good evening lo
et al
Makes my blood boil. Really hard to read let alone speak to. fuckthisshit. caps. bold. underline. italics. Thanks for the essay. Remember Sandra Bland. Have the best one you can and be well...
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
I can remember when I first started driving alone to Eastern
and South central Oregon in my red Jeep. With a Sheltie and a 9mm Ruger. I used to feel safe with OSP (Oregon State Police) and was helped out more than once.
My opinion shifted somewhere around fifteen years ago. Just a general feeling, and news reports. Sad. They used to be on our side.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.