The US policing crisis thread

[whitey]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/26/us/yale-blow-son-detained/

Here's another one. Black kid at Yale, son of someone famous, has gun pulled on them and wrestled to the ground by a Yale cop in a case of mistaken identity.

Holy blue murder all weekend on the airwaves and in the liberal press....ha never heard the like

The one pertinent fact that was left out of the entire story was that the cop involved was actually BLACK-LOL

[foxcommander]

Now of course, we could bring up the fact that as a black person, you are many times more likely to be incarcerated than than a white person arrested and convicted for the same crime. But that would be just playing the game.

Easily fixed. Don't break the law....

[muppet]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/26/us/yale-blow-son-detained/

Here's another one. Black kid at Yale, son of someone famous, has gun pulled on them and wrestled to the ground by a Yale cop in a case of mistaken identity.

Holy blue murder all weekend on the airwaves and in the liberal press....ha never heard the like

The one pertinent fact that was left out of the entire story was that the cop involved was actually BLACK-LOL

You are too stupid to realise your latest link proves this is about the victims. Your story actually proves the point we are making, not disproves it. 

The cops are the problem, regardless of their colour. The likely source of the problem though is the incredibly ignorant medieval attitudes of people like yourself, Foxcommander and Hannity. Sadly it appears there are quite of few of you shoot to kill merchants.

There is more to it than simple colour, class is a major factor here. But colour is the easiest way to discriminate in the US. In Ireland it was religion. All the same.

[muppet]

When you think about it, it is a very sad state of affairs that a university has to have its own police department.

[easytiger95]

Now of course, we could bring up the fact that as a black person, you are many times more likely to be incarcerated than than a white person arrested and convicted for the same crime. But that would be just playing the game.

Easily fixed. Don't break the law....if you're black

Yes, very easily fixed - did that for you.

[Puckoon]

When you think about it, it is a very sad state of affairs that a university has to have its own police department.

Why?

[easytiger95]

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n10/adam-shatz/freddie-gray

"It's true that some protesters in Baltimore exploited the rage over Gray's death to loot and destroy property"

No way!!

"It's not clear why he was a person of interest, other than that he was a young black male"

Omitted that Freddie Gray was a known drug dealer. The article loses any credibility.

Don't see how that matters?

It does if you are trying to paint someone in an innocent light to justify your article.
If he had previous it's disingenuous to say "not clear why he was a person of interest". Peddling drugs is an offence is it not? That's why he ran.

Selling crack to kids. What a good chap. Defend his rights to deal Muppet!!

No one is defending anyone's right to deal.

You are denying any of these people the right to even a trial, never mind the right to live.

Muppet - start your campaign #DrugDealersLivesMatter

So drug dealers are to be killed before trial, in horrible, tortuous ways? Good stuff Foxcommander.

Dog whistle, racist stuff. Glad to see your spiritual king Mr. Limbaugh is suffering a slump in ratings, it's enough to make you think sanity may be returning to at least some areas of the American media.

You do realize that 3/6 of the officers charged in Baltimore are actually BLACK??

baltimore police officers charged

And they are also the ones facing the most serious charges?

https://tribwxin.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/s047047812-300.jpg?w=770

So before you go making accusations of rascism, make sure you do just a little research

And before you go on with that kind of ridiculous riposte, credit us with a little intelligence, even if we live outside the intellectual powerhouse that is the United States. The identity and race of the alleged murderers is not the issue. The issue is Foxcommander's implications that he deserved it because he was a drug dealer - and there is the dog whistle moment, because of course , the vast majority of drug dealers are black. Now of course, we could bring up the fact that as a black person, you are many times more likely to be incarcerated than than a white person arrested and convicted for the same crime. But that would be just playing the game.

Please don't come on here expecting not to be called out for coded racism when you are plainly using it. We are not thick, and some of the attitudes on here are atrocious. No point calling them anything other than what they are.

Dog whistle....shmog whistle - na,na,nana, na - playground stuff, ignore the point.

Are some cops bullies?  Yes - and this bullying is usually directed towards people of colour

Are some cops rascist? Absolutely - please, enough with the one bad apple defence, how much does "some" have to be before you describe the institution as racist rather than the indivduals?

Are some cops thundering ar$eholes? Bet your life they are - I'd rather they all be assholes on an equal opportunities basis than "some" being racist regularly

But is EVERY incident between cop and a person of color rooted in Rascism-not on your life!!! - Not every incident has to be based on racism for a lot of racist incidents to have taken place. If the standard for institutional racism to exist is that every arrest has to be based on that, then you're basing your argument on the exception rather than the rule, making it impossible to prove that there is any problem a all - but then you knew that, didn't you?

You nearly got there Whitey, nearly got there... but Roger Ailes would be proud of your logic towards the end.

[omaghjoe]

When you think about it, it is a very sad state of affairs that a university has to have its own police department.

Why?

Probably highlights how alot of people misunderstand how police forces are setup in America

To answer Muppets point America is a much more diverse place than Ireland socially, economically, culturally and so based on these needs police coverage is a lot more fragmented in America than in Ireland. So many cities setup their own departments so they can have more control of the police force based on the localised requirements and expectations of law enforcement.

Where I live the beach cities have their own police force so that the police are well rehearsed in the needs of tourists and what is acceptable for tourists to do and maybe have a gradual escalation of enforcement. Whereas in the more urban areas police are straight in deal with things quickly and abruptly b4 a situation gets out of hand. If these standards were applied to the beach cities they would very quickly have no tourists. On the other hand if the Beach cities police standards were applied to south central they would be taken advantage of and do very little enforcement

I imagine Universities have them for similar reasons as a university campus is a unique environment with unique requirements for law enforcement

[whitey]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/26/us/yale-blow-son-detained/

Here's another one. Black kid at Yale, son of someone famous, has gun pulled on them and wrestled to the ground by a Yale cop in a case of mistaken identity.

Holy blue murder all weekend on the airwaves and in the liberal press....ha never heard the like

The one pertinent fact that was left out of the entire story was that the cop involved was actually BLACK-LOL

You are too stupid to realise your latest link proves this is about the victims. Your story actually proves the point we are making, not disproves it. 

The cops are the problem, regardless of their colour. The likely source of the problem though is the incredibly ignorant medieval attitudes of people like yourself, Foxcommander and Hannity. Sadly it appears there are quite of few of you shoot to kill merchants.

There is more to it than simple colour, class is a major factor here. But colour is the easiest way to discriminate in the US. In Ireland it was religion. All the same.

Ah Jaysus Muppet you're losing the plot completely-LOL. I never said that the cops werent the problem-I said that every incident involving an officer and a person of color was not necessarily based on race. (And this article proves that point to a tee)

When  I did make  the point about the Boston cops hammering the $$hite out of a bunch of people (male and female I might add) outside a bar for failing to comply with an order, you jumped down my throat and said that that was t relevant to what happened in TX.

Now you're saying that not alone is police brutalityrelevant, but that's it's the crux of the issue.

So now you're actually agreeing with me

[whitey]

When you think about it, it is a very sad state of affairs that a university has to have its own police department.

Why?

Probably highlights how alot of people misunderstand how police forces are setup in America

To answer Muppets point America is a much more diverse place than Ireland socially, economically, culturally and so based on these needs police coverage is a lot more fragmented in America than in Ireland. So many cities setup their own departments so they can have more control of the police force based on the localised requirements and expectations of law enforcement.

Where I live the beach cities have their own police force so that the police are well rehearsed in the needs of tourists and what is acceptable for tourists to do and maybe have a gradual escalation of enforcement. Whereas in the more urban areas police are straight in deal with things quickly and abruptly b4 a situation gets out of hand. If these standards were applied to the beach cities they would very quickly have no tourists. On the other hand if the Beach cities police standards were applied to south central they would be taken advantage of and do very little enforcement

I imagine Universities have them for similar reasons as a university campus is a unique environment with unique requirements for law enforcement

In my area.....town police, State Police, County Sherrifs (really only do prisoner transport) Environmental Police (enforce fishing regulations) Harbormaster (enforces town bylaws as they pertain to leisure watercraft) MBTA Police (if I take the subway into Boston) Amtrak Police (if I take the train to Amtrak Train to NYC) Park Police (responsible for National Parks) Postal Police (at the Main post office downtown Boston. There's probably some other ones I'm missing

[Rossfan]

What's " a person of color(sic)"?

[whitey]

What's " a person of color(sic)"?

Remember years ago Rossfan there used to be tinkers in Ireland.........and you wouldn't find a t**ker now to save your life........

Kinda the same thing here with the evolution from Negro to Colored person to black person and now (probably all Obama fault) were almost back to colored person again with "person of color". In case you didn't know American keyboards are missing the "U" key

[Eamonnca1]

12 year-old black kid plays with a toy gun in a park. Cops show up and he's dead within two seconds. Let's hear your justification for this summary execution, you banjo-playing rednecks:

Tamir Rice: judge finds cause for murder charge over police killing of 12-year-old

A judge in Ohio said on Thursday he had found probable cause to charge a police officer with murder for the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice last year.

Judge Ronald Adrine of the Cleveland municipal court said there were grounds to prosecute officer Timothy Loehmann with murder, manslaughter, reckless homicide and negligent homicide.

Adrine also found there was probable cause for a charge of negligent homicide against officer Frank Garmback, Loehmann's partner, who was present when Tamir was shot at a park on 22 November while holding a pellet gun.

Tamir Rice
Tamir Rice. Photograph: Facebook
The judge's recommendation, however, was brushed aside by Timothy McGinty, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor, who pledged to proceed as planned with having a grand jury decide on whether the officers should be charged.

"This case, as with all other fatal use of deadly force cases involving law enforcement officers, will go to the grand jury," McGinty said in a statement. "That has been the policy of this office since I was elected. Ultimately, the grand jury decides whether police officers are charged or not charged."

In a 10-page order, Judge Adrine wrote that after viewing surveillance video, which shows Tamir being shot dead within two seconds of Loehmann's arrival, he was "still thunderstruck by how quickly this event turned deadly".

The judge said Tamir was given "little if any time" to respond to any commands from the officers, that his arms were not raised, and that he made no "furtive movement". Adrine wrote: "Literally, the entire encounter is over in an instant."

Advertisement

Adrine noted that his role remained "advisory in nature" and that any charges must be brought by prosecutors for the city of Cleveland or Cuyahoga County.

However, Walter Madison, an attorney for Tamir's family, said on Thursday that he knew of no legitimate impediment to a prosecution and that Loehmann and Garmback should be arrested and arraigned in court.

"We are very much relieved and it is a step towards procedural justice and people having access to their government," Madison told the Guardian.

The judge's finding followed community leaders taking advantage of a little-known law to appeal directly to the judge to commence a prosecution of the officer, as is permitted in Ohio and a few other states.

The Counted: people killed by police in the United States in 2015 – interactive
The Guardian is counting the people killed by US law enforcement agencies this year. Read their stories and contribute to our ongoing, crowdsourced project
Read more
"State law does provide an avenue for a private citizen having knowledge of facts to initiate the criminal process," Adrine wrote in his order.

Madison said the judge's finding showed "the police are public servants and not the public's master".

In a statement issued through their attorneys, the Rice family said the eight community leaders who filed affidavits to the judge accusing the officers of murder had "provided a blueprint for the nation to follow in addressing many of the relationship problems between African Americans and law enforcement".

Loehmann shot Tamir dead while responding to a 911 call claiming Tamir was pointing his pellet gun. The caller noted the gun was "probably fake", though it is unclear if that information was shared with the officers.

Adrine noted in his order on Thursday that the video shows the officers' patrol car was "still in the process of stopping when Tamir is shot", that for four minutes "neither officer approaches Tamir as he lies wounded on the ground", and that they physically restrained Tamir's sister when she tried to reach him.

An investigation into the shooting by the Cuyahoga County sheriff's office has been completed and handed to the office of McGinty, the county prosecutor.

Clifford Pinkney, the county sheriff, said his office had conducted an "extensive, thorough and unbiased investigation" based on thousands of documents, multiple interviews and reconstructions of the incident.

The decision to proceed with a grand jury in Tamir's case has prompted anxiety among his family's supporters, who argue that the format lacks transparency and favours police officers in controversial cases.

A grand jury in St Louis, Missouri, last year declined to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old in August. The following week, a grand jury in New York decided not to indict a police officer who caused the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, by placing him in a chokehold.

Earlier this year Barack Obama's White House policing taskforce recommended that all fatalities caused by law enforcement officers be investigated by independent prosecutors to avoid potential conflicts of interest among local authorities.

Full story including the shocking video:
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/11/tamir-rice-police-officer-murder-charge

[J70]

Now of course, we could bring up the fact that as a black person, you are many times more likely to be incarcerated than than a white person arrested and convicted for the same crime. But that would be just playing the game.

Easily fixed. Don't break the law....

You completely ignored the "same crime" bit, which was the point.

[Eamonnca1]

Anybody who says black people should "just obey the law and no harm will come to them" would need to spend a day in America living as a black person to see what it's like. Here's probably the best example I've seen of how differently blacks and whites are treated in this "post racial America" that the right wing media keeps talking about. Two people do the exact same thing: openly carry an AR15 rifle in the street in a state where it is legal to do so. Watch the different reactions from the police and come back to me with your theories about why racial prejudice has nothing to do with it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvW_zBvJlsA