ANDEVENASTHEVERDICTWASJUSTREADINTHECHAUVINCASEANOHIOCOPMURDERED A 16-YEAROLDGIRL
Columbus Police said one person was killed in an officer-involved shooting on the east side of the city Tuesday afternoon. One person was initially taken to Mount Carmel East hospital in critical condition, according to Columbus Police, and was pronounced dead at 5:21 p.m. Family members on the scene identified the person killed as 16-year-old Makiyah Bryan. Police said the initial call for a stabbing was received at approximately 4:30 p.m., with the shots fired call coming in at 4:45 p.m.
Columbus Police confirmed that it has requested the state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) respond to the scene. BCI is often tasked with investigating shootings involving police officers. Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther previously identified the victim as a young woman in a tweet Tuesday evening. Ben Crump, who represented the Floyd family in their civil case against the city of Minneapolis, tweeted about the shooting saying “As we breathed a collective sigh of relief today, a community in Columbus felt the sting of another police shooting.
A crowd had gathered Tuesday night at the scene on Legion Lane, which police had partially blocked off to traffic. Others gathered at the city’s police headquarters to protest, a week after officers pepper-sprayed a group that tried to enter the headquarters over the police killing of a man who had a gun in a hospital emergency room.The shooting happened about 25 minutes before a judge read the verdict convicting former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin of murder and manslaughter in the killing of Floyd.Kimberly Shepherd, 50, who has lived in the neighborhood for 17 years, said she knew the victim. “The neighborhood has definitely went through its changes, but nothing like this,” Shepherd said of the shooting. “But this is the worst thing that has ever happened out here and unfortunately it is at the hands of police.”Shepherd and her neighbor Jayme Jones, 51, had celebrated the guilty verdict of Chauvin. But things changed quickly, she said.“We were happy about the verdict. But you couldn’t even enjoy that,” Shepherd said. “Because as you’re getting one phone call that he was guilty, I’m getting the next phone call that this is happening in my neighborhood.”
Darnella Frazier was only 17-years-old when she saw Derek Chauvin in broad daylight murdering George Floyd. Young Darnella instantly thought about what she could do; she took out her cellphone and began recording. Darnella was going to Cup Of Foods with her young cousin to get snacks when she saw police officers kneeling on the back and neck of a man who was already handcuffed and was on the ground. Ironically, that man was arrested for having supposedly passed a fake $20 bill at the same cup-of foods convenience store.
Darnella Frazier
Young Darnella did not know the impact the video she recorded that fateful day and uploaded to Facebook would have in bringing some semblance of justice to another iteration of police murder, that previously wouldn’t even be investigated. But it was impactful. Darnella was one of 18 prosecution witnesses who testified at the trial of now-convicted killer cop Derek Chauvin. Ms. Frazier is 18 now, she wept uncontrollably as she testified at the trial of Derek Chauvin, traumatized, “I regret not physically engaging the four officers at the scene, but they were the ones ultimately at fault.” “It’s been nights I stayed up apologizing and apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life,” Darnella testified through her tears.
Derek Chauvin in the process of literally murdering George Floyd.
If ever there was an image that summed up the African-American experience at the hands of white people, this has got to be it. Nevertheless, all is not lost; the young off-duty firefighter who testified that she wanted to help the dying man but was prevented from doing so.…..she is white. Several members of the jury that delivered the decisive verdict that will send Derek Chauvin to prison, they too are white. The defense attorney for Dereck Chauvin posited to the jury a phalanx of lies and racist tropes, but in the end, they just believed what they saw with their eyes, as the prosecutors asked them to. The murder was one of the most shocking things that I have ever witnessed in my lifetime, and I imagine it will be for most of all who have witnessed it.
After the Republicans lost the Presidential elections in 2020, Donald Trump incited his minions to storm the capitol building. They did so, intending to kill the Speaker of the House and his own vice president, Mike Pence. But that was not all they did; in Georgia, they immediately passed a draconian anti-voting law that even criminalizes anyone offering a drink of water to a potential voter standing in line. The law also ensures that the infrastructure that expedites voting be dismantled in African-American communities, effectively ensuring that African-Americans will be forced to stand in line exponentially longer without anyone being able to give them a drink of water lawfully. It is a despicable and reprehensible law that shows the evil, degenerative mentality of its subhuman sponsors. Thank you, Justice John Roberts; your lifelong campaign to undo the voting Rights act has truly paid off for you; you must be proud. And oh, Justice Roberts, you knew exactly what would happen in 2013 when you voted with your Republican cronies on the court to strike down section 4 (b) of the 1965 Voting Rights Act for absolutely no reason. I fear that in the same way that Republicans are working feverishly against voting rights, they will now begin to criminalize photographing police crimes.
Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.
How many of you know what the Leahy Law is? You’ve probably never heard about it before today. Still, in the context in which I will frame this commentary, it is important to consider the Leahy law and what has been happening in the United States on the racial justice front.
1. What is the Leahy law?
(1) The term “Leahy law” refers to two statutory provisions prohibiting the U.S. Government from using funds for assistance to units of foreign security forces where there is credible information implicating that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights (GVHR). One statutory provision applies to the State Department, and the other applies to the Department of Defense. The State Department Leahy law was made permanent under section 620M of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, 22 U.S.C. 2378d. The U.S. government considers torture, extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance, and rape under the color of law as GVHRs when implementing the Leahy law. Incidents are examined on a fact-specific basis. The State Department Leahy law includes an exception permitting the resumption of assistance to a unit if the Secretary of State determines and reports to Congress that the government of the country is taking effective steps to bring the responsible members of the security forces unit to justice.
A veritable war zone.
The DoD Leahy law is similar to the State Leahy law. Since 1999, Congress has included the DoD Leahy law in its annual appropriations act. The DoD Leahy law is now permanent in Section 362 of Title 10 of the U.S. Code. It requires that DoD-appropriated funds not be used for any training, equipment, or other assistance for a foreign security force unit if the Secretary of Defense has credible information that such a unit has committed a GVHR. The law allows for two exceptions to this restriction. The first in cases where the Secretary of Defense (after consultation with the Secretary of State) determines that the country’s government has taken all necessary corrective steps. This first exception is also known as “remediation.” A second exception exists if U.S. equipment or other assistance is necessary to assist in disaster relief operations or other humanitarian or national security emergencies.
The National Defense Authorization Act for FY2015 authorizes DoD to conduct training to promote respect for the rule of law and human rights, including for otherwise Leahy-ineligible units under certain circumstances. This training may be conducted with the concurrence of the Secretary of State and is withheld from any individual of a unit when there is credible information that such individual has committed GVHR (or has commanded a unit that has committed a GVHR).Americans of all races turned out on April 19th as they await the verdict in the Derek Chauvin murder trial.
The law was named after Vermont’s US Senator Patrick Leahy(D), the principal sponsor of the legislation. The legislation as it was crafted seemed to make a world of sense. After all, the American people should have clear stipulations on how their tax dollars are being spent; one would not want tax dollars funding rogue regimes in despotic banana republics, you know, in the shit-hole countries. Just ensure that we send billions and billions each year to the only democracy in the middle east, Israel(sic). That aside, let us consider that many members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) had their US visas and green cards revoked and their names dragged through the mud. This is the legislation that made all of that possible. The law stipulates that assistance may be prohibited to units of foreign security forces where credible information implicates that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights. It also stipulates the conditions under which the Department of State would access the information as laid out in section (2) above.
A police officer looks out at protestors through fencing and barbed wire near the Hennepin County Government Center on April 19, 2021. The result of ignoring police abuse of segments of the population while focusing on other country’s police.
The U.S. government considers torture, extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance, and rape under the color of law as GVHRs when implementing the Leahy law. For those of you who have toiled in Jamaica as a member of the JCF or the JDF, and if you were paying attention, you would recall that the US Government used this law to punish the JCF using the slanted, inflammatory lies peddled by the now-disgraced baby doctor Carolyn Gomes as proof of extrajudicial killings by the security forces. No one should be deluded into thinking that there have not remained rogue elements within the Jamaican security apparatus. They exist in all security organizations, including over 18,000 police agencies operating across the United States. It is also important to understand that Jamaica is one of the most violent nations on the planet; it also has one of the world’s lowest officers’ citizen ratio. In concluding that Jamaica’s Police use of lethal force led up to punitive actions by the United States against Jamaica, one must consider all of the facts. It includes decoupling each police-related killing from the chain called [extrajudicial killings] and examine each case based on the evidence. As American police continue to kill.….….mind you, unarmed handcuffed African-Americans, we hear the constant refrain that we must consider the evidence of each case individually. Smaller, less powerful governments do not receive that deference from the United States when allegations are made against their security forces, usually by actors with specific agendas antithetical to their own country’s interest, à la Carolyn Gomes and Jamaicans for justice.
Minnesota today, soldiers deployed against American citizens. American police brought the country to this.
The hypocrisy inherent in the way the Leahy Law has been applied, particularly in Jamaica, is in the quality of the information or should I say the lack thereof, on which the Jamaican Government was forced to shut down effective units of the security forces, including the Mobile reserve out of fear that the crumbs would immediately dry up from America’s table. Ironically, the shutting down of those units has inevitably led the country closer to becoming a failed state. Jamaica is now unable to deal with its worst actors effectively. This results from years of subversive activities orchestrated by Jamaicans for Justice and Carolyn Gomes, its chief architect. As African-Americans and conscientious people of all color in the United States and across the planet await with bated breath, to see if finally, just once, America can get it right on justice; it has been the police that brought us to this point. American cops!! America has never done what’s right for African-Americans. Not at the Federal level. Not at the state level. Not at the community level. There is no basis, not a single precedent that would cause me to believe that even at this the most basic level, a level of only a few white people on a jury, we will not have a hung jury. But I hope for the peace of the country that I am wrong this time. That even with the most heinous of murders committed, as we watched in shocked disbelief, a murder that traumatized and galvanized the entire world, that a handful of white people will have that smallest shred of basic humanity and decency to do the right thing.
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.
Chad’s longtime leader has died of wounds suffered during a visit to front-line troops battling a little-known rebel group, the military announced Tuesday, just hours after he was declared the winner of an election that would have given him another six years in power.
The military quickly announced President Idriss Deby Itno’s son as the central African nation’s interim leader, succeeding his 68-year-old father who ruled for more than three decades.
Some observers immediately questioned the chain of events leading up to Tuesday’s stunning announcement on national radio and television.
Ayo Sogunro, a Nigerian lawyer and fellow at the South Africa-based Center for Human Rights, said that under Chadian law the term of an incumbent president who dies is completed not by family members but by the National Assembly.
“The army seizing power and conferring it on the son of the president … is a coup and unconstitutional,” Sogunro tweeted Tuesday, calling for the African Union to condemn the transfer of power.
Deby’s 37-year-old son, Mahamat, is best known as a top commander of the Chadian forces aiding a U.N. peacekeeping mission in northern Mali. The military said Tuesday he now will head an 18-month transitional council following his father’s death.
The military called for calm, instituting a 6 p.m. curfew and closing the country’s land and air borders as panic kept many inside their homes in the capital, N’Djamena.
UNADULTERATEDNONSENSE When you so-called ‘dominate the space,’ you are doing so with the bodies of police officers and soldiers who must necessarily be pulled from other duties. We also know that when you ‘dominate a particular space,” crime goes down in that space. That is a matter of common sense, but it is a political sleight of hand because the crime producers do not simply give up on crime; they move to a different “space” and continue with their activities. This usually means that once peaceful communities inexorably end up overrun with criminals. The proof that ZOSOS& SOEs do not work lies in the actual crime statistics. Crime is [not] trending down in Jamaica, so that’s the end of that conversation. Everything said after that is immaterial and inconsequential. Sure, crime trends down in spaces so-called dominated by the bodies of the security forces, but they trend up other areas. Mister Prime Minister, I am a Jamaica that has worked those streets; stop trying to deceive the people with these statements. SOE’s & ZOSO’s essentially adds up to a whack-a-mole strategy that does nothing about the underlying problem. Over the years, I have offered up strategies that I know will work; additionally, many other former officers have offered up strategies that we know will work to begin to bend the curb. [YOUR] unwillingness to listen to anyone but the sound of your own voice and your ego makes it impossible for you to step back and say I was wrong. Your policies on crime have failed. Antony Anderson’s supposed renewal of the JCF is not a crime-fighting strategy. It is a prescription for disaster. Under normal conditions, you would probably be a good leader, but your disdain for police officers and the thankless tasks they are asked to do makes them public enemy number one in your eyes. The country needs strong anti-crime legislation; it needs truth in sentencing, it needs to remove sentencing discretion for violent crimes from the preview of judges.
Police lied that Anthony Thompson, 17, shot an officer in his school’s bathroom. They then retracted the lie but have released few other details. It is reported the cop either shot himself or was shot by his cohorts.
Notwithstanding that police can arrest armed white mass murderers, they seem to have no desire to arrest unarmed African-Americans. On April 12th, police were called to the Austin-East Magnet High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, where Anthony Thomson jr. is a junior. Initial reporting is that the police were called because the mother of Thompson’s girlfriend called police after her daughter returned home from school earlier than she should after a physical confrontation between her and Thompson with whom she had a romantic relationship. The young woman is reported to have had marks on her face. Police arrived at the school where the Young man was locked in a bathroom. They immediately escalated the incident and employed lethal force, killing the 17-year-old. They then reported that he was shot after he shot one of their own but later retracted that story saying that Anthony Thompson did not shoot their officer. Neither the police department nor the Knox County District Attorney General’s office looking at the evidence, has released the bodyworn cameras.
Charme Allen
Charme Allen, the DA, argues the video cannot be released until a full investigation into the shooting is completed. “There are rules, abundant, as to why I cannot release this footage,” she said at a press conference. She cited privacy rights and due process of law should charges be filed in the case. “If we release this body cam footage, there’s the possibility that we could violate a law that where we could not use it in the trial if we were to go to trial.” In the meantime, the nation is left wondering what to do about this epidemic of police violence.
A former Texas sheriff’s detective suspected of gunning down three people in Austin was captured on Monday walking along a rural road, police said. Stephen Broderick, 41, was spotted in the 12300 block of Old Kimbro Road in Manor at about 7:30 a.m. CST before he surrendered to responding city police officers and Travis County Sheriff’s deputies, Chief Ryan Phipps said. “He was armed with a pistol on his waistband but he didn’t resist,” Phipps told NBC News. “He was fully compliant with our officers’ commands.“Broderick is suspected of fatally shooting two females and a male a little before 11:42 a.m. Sunday at the Arboretum Oaks Apartments in Austin, about 18 miles from where the suspect was caught on Monday. Police had received two calls that a man, believed to be Broderick, was walking along Old Kimbro Road, a rural path just off U.S. Route 290, Phipps said. The suspect has been booked into Travis County Jail in downtown Austin, the chief added. Broderick is a former Travis County sheriff’s detective who was charged with sexual assault of a child in June, NBC affiliate KXAN of Austin reported. Interim Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon on Sunday called the triple killing a “domestic incident.” “The victims were all known to our suspect,” Chacon added. “And so at this point, we do not think that this individual is out targeting random people to shoot them.” Elgin High School students Willie Simmons III and Alyssa Broderick were two of the people killed on Sunday, district Assistant Superintendent Al A. Rodriguez said Monday.(NBCNEWSREPORTS)
Cops thanked Kyle Rittenhouse, who traveled across state lines from Illinois to Wisconsin with an assault weapon, and gave him water. Kyle Rittenhouse would go on to murder two protestors in Kenosha, Wisconsin; that same night last summer, protests erupted when a cop, Rusten Sheskey, fired seven(7) bullets into the back of Jacob Blake at point-blank range, paralyzing him from the waist down. New information due to a data breach shows that cops are also donating to Rittenhouse’s crowdfunding effort. One Virginia cop who works in internal affairs must have forgotten the meaning of ‘anonymous, he donated to Rittenhouse’s effort using his email address, but that was not all; he offered words of comfort to Rittenhouse. The Guardian reports that a data breach at a Christian crowdfunding website has revealed that serving police officers and public officials have donated money to fundraisers for accused vigilante murderers, far-right activists, and fellow officers accused of shooting black Americans.
Kyle Rittenhouse and others traveled from other states to Wisconsin armed with weapons they should not carry across state lines. He murdered two people after the police in Kenosha thanked them and gave them water, then went back home to Illinois. He was only arrested the next day. Thereafter a (judge) promptly granted the double murderer bail. Imagine if a black kid did that? Would he have gotten bail or would he be long dead? Now police and other right-wing separatists have flooded his crowdfunding effort with cash.
One donation for $25, made on the 3rd of September last year, was made anonymously but associated with the official email address of Sgt William Kelly, who currently serves as the executive officer of internal affairs in the Norfolk police department in Virginia. That donation also carried a comment, reading: “God bless. Thank you for your courage. Keep your head up. You’ve done nothing wrong.” The comment continued: “Every rank and file police officer supports you. Don’t be discouraged by actions of the political class of law enforcement leadership.” If nothing else comes of these revelations, the FBI’s reporting that a sizeable number of those identified committing crimes on January 6th, 2021 were police officers, active duty, and former military members demolishes the constant lie about only a few bad apples exists in police departments.
There is new evidence that Qanon supporters are among the élite units within the United States Military. But that should come as no surprise; that white supremacy has once again reared its ugly head in the military; it never left; it was always there. Donald Trump’s legacy of racism and division gave strength to the imbecilic weaklings whose default option for their failures is racism. Like Trump, who squandered his father’s fortune and built a mountain of debt, his followers have not found a way to cash in on white privilege, so hatred is all they are left with. This is how low the right has become; violent mass murderers are supported by those who wear the uniform of police officers. It makes my stomach turn; as a police officer, regardless of your political beliefs, criminals are criminals, your support for them further demonstrates to the world that you are Nazis in police uniform. It further reveals the lie that there are only a few bad cops. At this point, it seems that there [may] be a few decent cops left in the over 18,000 police departments across America. You deserve no respect, no deference; you are common thugs.
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.
In the United States Senate, there is a single African-American Republican Senator; he is Tim Scott of South Carolina. In the United States, one of the greatest enablers of police sense of impunity when using lethal force when dealing with African-Americans, women or men, is the doctrine of ‘Qualified immunity.’ Qualified immunity is not to be found in the US Constitution. It is a [practice] validated by the US Supreme Court, yup, there we go again, that court.
(1) WHATISQUALIFIEDIMMUNITY? In the United States, qualified immunity is a [legal principle] that grants government officials performing discretionary functions immunity from civil suits unless the plaintiff shows that the official violated “clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.” (W)
(2) HOWDOESITWORK? Under qualified immunity, government workers can only be held accountable for violating someone’s rights if a court has previously ruled that it was “clearly established” those precise actions were unconstitutional. If no such decision exists — or it exists, but just in another jurisdiction—the official is immune, even if the official intentionally, maliciously, or unreasonably violated the law or Constitution.
(3) WHATDOESITTAKETOSHOWTHAT A RIGHTIS “CLEARLYESTABLISHED” To show that a right is clearly established, a victim must identify an earlier decision by the Supreme Court or a federal appeals court in the same jurisdiction holding that precisely the same conduct under the same circumstances is illegal or unconstitutional. If no decision exists, qualified immunity protects the official by default. For example, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals recently held that a prison guard who pepper-sprayed an inmate in his locked cell “for no reason” did not violate a clearly established right because similar cited cases involved law enforcement officials who had hit and tased inmates for no reason, rather than pepper-spraying them for no reason.
Injusticeforjustice writes The clearly-established test requires a victim to identify a nearly identical earlier decision by the Supreme Court or a federal appeals court in the same jurisdiction. This means that courts will sometimes hold that a government worker’s actions violated the Constitution and then use qualified immunity to let him off the hook. But often, courts do not even address whether a government worker violated the Constitution. Thanks to the Supreme Court’s 2009 decision in Pearson v. Callahan, courts may decide cases without addressing whether the actions at issue violate the Constitution. Such a system fosters what some scholars call “constitutional stagnation” since courts may ignore the underlying constitutional issues and decide cases under qualified immunity.
For instance, when a police officer shot a 10-year-old child while trying to shoot a non-threatening family dog, the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that the officer was entitled to qualified immunity because no earlier case held it was unconstitutional for a police officer to recklessly fire his gun into a group of children without justification. The Court also declined to establish that rule. Not only was the officer let off the hook in that case, but the very same officer could act the same way again and would still be entitled to qualified immunity.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R‑KY) listens as Sen. Tim Scott (R‑SC) speaks to reporters after the Senate Republicans weekly policy lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington U.S., June 23, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
In other words, the court’s desire to protect police from accountability is so strong that it makes no pretense about making common-sense rulings. Neither is it concerned about the blatant inconsistency that obtains with its position. Such is the rule established by the court that enables and empowers police to violently abuse, maim & kill with the ultimate belief that they cannot be held accountable. It was the lack of concern that guided Derek Chauvin; it was that lack of concern that guided Jason VanDyke when he put 16-bullets into 17-year-old Laquan McDonald’s body; it is what informed Daniel Pantaleo who choked the life out of Eric Garner as he pleaded and begged for his life, I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe until he was dead. It informs the God Complex of every cop who operates with bravado rather than a desire to serve with respect. In its 1967 Terry v. Ohio decision, allowing police to conduct searches, known as stop-and-frisks, based on the low legal standard of “reasonable suspicion,” the court placed racialized policing on steroids. Police were legally authorized to use any concocted reason they chose to stop, search & eventually abuse citizens (usually Black *Brown citizens)to their death. When looked at as explained in sections 2 & 3 above, qualified immunity literally authorizes police to do as they please to whomever they please without worry that they will face any consequences. But that is not all; In a 1996 ruling, Whren v. the United States, the court doubled down on its racist 1967 decision. It decided that police are allowed to use minor vehicle infractions as a pretext to initiate traffic stops to investigate other possible unrelated crimes. Politico reported; In the earlier 1982 case Harlow v. Fitzgerald, the Court made the lethal decision to create the doctrine it called “qualified immunity,” which has since allowed police to injure and kill with little or no consequence unless their conduct “violate[s] clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known,” a standard that has proven difficult to overcome. The cumulative impact from these court decisions is that the Supreme Court has broadly empowered police to stop Black drivers and pedestrians under the flimsiest justification. If the officer injures or even kills the person, their families may have no recourse to hold the officer accountable.
In the series of articles I have written, which may be found on these pages, I continue to argue that fighting with police is counterproductive. Demonstrating in front of police stations is basically an effort in futility. This is not a fight with the puppets; the fight rests with the puppeteers. State legislatures, the congress of the United States, and the courts are responsible for what police do. In previous articles, I have laid out the instances in its history that the United States Supreme has acted in contravention of the rights and interests of all people and African-American people in particular. The well-documented hostility of the court to the rights of Black people is an undeniable reality. The highest court has squandered resectability, validity, and authenticity on the altar of racial animus in its rulings, the latest earth-shattering iteration being the 2013 Shelby county Alabama vs. Holder stripped away section 4 (b) of the voting rights protections enshrined in the 1965 voting rights act. Time and again, the highest court has demonstrated that at the head of white supremacy and all it stands for sits the United States Supreme Court. Whether the United States Senator from South Carolina is conversant with these facts eludes me. Nevertheless, Senator Tim Scott opposes doing away with qualified immunity.
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday rescinded Trump-era limits on consent decrees, which the Department of Justice has used to enforce reforms in police departments accused of widespread misconduct. Garland, fulfilling a campaign promise from President Joe Biden, said in a memorandum that the Justice Department “will return to the traditional process” that was in place before former President Donald Trump’s administration imposed sharp restrictions on the civil-rights tool.
A couple of days ago, I quoted Martin Niemoller in an article. In light of the police violence being reported daily in America and the resultant silence from certain segments of the white population on the one hand, and the mindless ignorance on the part of others. First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me. The following story prompted me to use mister Niemoller’s famous quote once again to drive home the idea that we are all in this together. That injustice to any human being anywhere is a threat to justice to all of us everywhere.
A 73-year-old grandmother of nine was picking wildflowers on the side of the road in Loveland, Colorado, last summer when a local cop got out of his patrol vehicle and told her to stop — beginning a police encounter that ultimately left her with broken bones, bruised, and traumatized. Loveland Police Officer Austin Hopp had been driving behind Karen Garner with his overhead lights on because she was accused of shoplifting from a nearby Walmart. But Garner did not appear to notice, according to body camera footage published by Garner’s attorney Wednesday. Garner has dementia and sensory aphasia, an inability to understand spoken and written speech, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed on her behalf this week against the city of Loveland and three officers involved in Garner’s arrest. Hopp asked Garner why she didn’t stop after he activated his lights and siren, at which point Garner gave him a blank expression, said something unintelligible, and started to move away. “No, no, no,” Hopp said, according to bodycam footage.
Hopp then grabbed the 80-pound woman, threw her to the grass, and twisted her arms behind her back, bodycam footage shows. Garner was still clutching a handful of wildflowers. A second cop, Daria Jalali, arrived within minutes and assisted in the arrest. Then, Despite Garner’s evident distress and small stature, Hopp pushed her left arm “painfully upward,” according to body camera footage and the lawsuit. Police repeatedly threw her on the ground, and hog-tied her on the side of the road — a controversial restraint that’s been banned by some police departments. Once her feet were bound, Jalali, Hopp, and their on-scene supervisor, Sgt. Philip Metzler, lifted her into the back of a police vehicle, according to the lawsuit. “I’m going home,” Garner cried repeatedly. As a result of the incident, Garner was left with a dislocated shoulder, a fractured humerus bone, and a sprained wrist, the lawsuit alleges. She was covered with bruises by the time she arrived at a hospital — although she wasn’t taken to the medical facility until several hours after she was first stopped by police, according to the lawsuit. After the lawsuit was filed Wednesday and covered by local media outlets including KUSA, an NBC affiliate in Denver, the Loveland Police Department said in a statement that it’d investigate the encounter. Officials added they’d only heard of the incident this week, having not received any prior complaints. In the meantime, the department has placed Hopp on administrative leave, and reassigned Jalali and Metzler to administrative duties, according to the statement posted on the department’s Facebook page.
KARENGARNERHASDEMENTIAANDSENSORYAPHASIA, ANINABILITYTOUNDERSTANDSPOKENANDWRITTENSPEECH, ACCORDINGTO A FEDERALCIVILRIGHTSLAWSUITFILEDONHERBEHALF.
But Garner’s family wants to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone ever again — and they’re hoping for significant changes in personnel, leadership, and policy at the Loveland Police Department. “This is not a ‘single bad apple’ type of scenario,” Sarah Schielke, Garner’s attorney in the lawsuit, told VICE News. “This is a systemic, cultural, deeply ingrained, coming-down-from-leadership type of attitude, where this is not community policing — it’s community terrorism, practically.” She added: “If somebody’s dumb enough, in their mind, to not capitulate, they’re going to pay for it. Even if you’re an elderly disabled lady.” While Garner’s children were doing their best to keep an eye on her, she slipped out to Walmart the afternoon of her arrest, Schielke said. Later, Garner wound up wandering out of the store without paying for Pepsi, a candy bar, a T‑shirt, and some stain-removing wipes — worth less than $14 altogether. Walmart employees stopped her and took the items back. They then refused her attempt to pay and called the police, according to the lawsuit. Casey Staheli, a spokesperson for Walmart, said in a statement to VICE News: “We stopped the customer after noticing her attempt to take merchandise from the store without paying for it. To protect the safety of our people, the police were called only after Ms. Garner became physical with an associate.”
Hopp found Garner a few blocks away from the Walmart as she was walking home. When Garner appeared confused at his questions, he said to her: “You just left Walmart. Do you need to be arrested right now?” Then he tackled her. At one point, a concerned citizen stopped and asked the officers, “Do you have to use that much aggression?” “What are you doing? Get out of here,” Hopp said, according to body camera footage. The man, who had pulled over to the side of the road, asked to know who Hopp’s sergeant was, saying he had seen the cop throw “that little kid.” (Garner is 5 feet tall, according to the lawsuit.) “She just stole from Walmart and refused to stop, refused to listen to lawful orders, and to fight me,” Hopp told the man. “This is what happens when you fight the police. I have to use force to safely detain her. That’s what this is. This isn’t just some random act of aggression.” Later, when Metzler arrived and the officers were recounting the events of the arrest together, Hopp admitted he “struggled” with Garner.
“You’re a little muddy, dude,” Metzler said, according to body camera footage. “A little bloody, a little muddy, that’s how it works,” Jalali responded. The officers were referring to Garner’s blood. She was taken to jail and charged with theft of less than $50, obstructing a peace officer, and resisting arrest, according to the Loveland Reporter-Herald, though the Larimer County District Attorney agreed to dismiss the case in August 2020. The intense encounter with police has still left its scars, though. Garner’s children have told Schielke that she’s able to find some peace playing solitaire, listening to music, or doing crafts at a memory care facility, but has otherwise become withdrawn and mistrustful. They noted that in the past, Garner was the ultimate, crafty home-maker, who loved to go to concerts and play cards. “What little freedom and happiness Ms. Garner enjoyed in her life as an elderly adult with declining mental health was, on June 26, 2020, recklessly and deliberately obliterated by the Loveland Police Department,” the lawsuit states. Tom Hacker, a spokesman for the Loveland Police Department, said the agency’s professional standards unit will examine the incident. “There’s no record associated with this event, no frame of video, no shred of any evidence that won’t be looked at pretty thoroughly,” he told VICE News. It was unclear if the officers named in the lawsuit had attorneys who could speak on their behalf; the local police union didn’t immediately respond to VICE News’ request for comment.(From vicenews.com)
The struggle of people of color in America with police violence is well known, well documented. In this medium, we have consistently gone back to the genesis of this problem which has its roots in slavery, the devaluation of black lives per the 3⁄5 of a human being decree. This process continued to the black man has no rights that a white man is obligated to respect, through the black codes which criminalized people for merely existing in their black skin, redlining in housing, and now to the prison industrial complex, which is a system of profit that exists based on the number of bodies that are in jail cells. Black bodies. https://mikebeckles.com/peep-the-complex-web-woven-against-blacks-other-people-of-color-that-allows-police-executions/
https://mikebeckles.com/cop-who-put-7-bullets-into-jacob-blakes-back-back-on-the-job/ It is a system that was designed to separate the races, with the police as the new overseers, a step up from the plantation overseers and slave catchers. America cannot change policing practices without first denouncing & dismantling those principles on which the very idea of policing was first imagined. Ironically, as the problem worsens and the threat of mass protests and disruptions becomes an even more glaring possibility like we witnessed in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd in Milleopolis, those who support the police state and derive the benefits from it have doubled down with new laws intended to shore up the police state.
The police are violent and largely racist enforcers; that fact goes without saying. Even at its best, policing does not live up to its stated creed, ‘to protect and serve. Even in majority-white neighborhoods in so-called liberal states like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and others, policing is about profit. So the citizens are heavily taxed and their money allocated to police departments to pay more and more cops, pay for more and more equipment, and expensive SUVs, so cops can hide out in bushes to terrorize motorists driving five (5) miles over the posted speed limits. Never mind that the speed limits are generally so low that it is impossible to drive at that rate of speed without creating gridlock. But that is exactly the point, force working people to drive over the posted speed limit and then ticket them to feed the ever-hungry system. This is what activists with brains in their heads mean when they say defund the police. By creating the incentive for police to continue to terrorize people using phony ordinances and pretexes to justify stops that infringe on their rights, you amp up the possibility for frustration and confrontation, the likes we are witnessing today.
The police are the face of Government policy; getting mad at the police is counterproductive, as I continue to point out. Politicians make the laws and ordinances. Mayors and Governors are executives in cities, municipalities, and States. How the police behave is a mirror into the thoughts of those elected leaders. The very same elected leaders come out and offer up platitudes and concern when their militias kill your loved ones. Why did I use the term ‘militia’? Well, police departments are essentially independent militias that operate to ensure the stated goals of states and local governments. In some forms, like the elected Sheriffs, they operate as a law unto themselves without any real oversight or control. They operate as entities that sell a certain brand of service to the states and municipalities.
One of the things we continue to do is speak to the importance of electing Democratic candidates; it does not mean that Democrats are the silver bullet; it simply means that they are the only ones we can lobby. We also encourage African-Americans who are Democrats to be educated on the issues and to run for office. After all, the problems that we face will only be solved by us and our engagement. We continue to make a case for African-American leadership within the Democratic party, understanding full well that we cannot support Black Republicans in any form as we have seen from Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, US Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, Kentucky’s Attorney General Daniel Cameron, Texas GOP head Allen West, et al., negroes who have sold their souls to be patted on the back by their white masters. The reward for those sellouts, [black skin folks], usually comes in the form of a white wife or husband. Even though the rewards of Black leadership outweigh the risks, we cannot ignore Democrat African-Americans like Lori Lightfoot, Mayor of the city of Chicago who has compromised dignity and self-respect and should have no expectation that she is deserving of or will receive any respect from now on.
On March 29th of this year, Chicago police murdered 13 ‑year-old Adam Toledo, Mayor Lightfoot (a black woman, or so we believe), saw the bodycam video of the shooting, then lied to the city of Chicago. Lori Lightfoot said she had previously seen the video. She referred to the murder of young Adam Toledo as “excruciating” but would not talk about what she saw because she said it could compromise ongoing investigations by COPA and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. She previously vowed to find the people responsible for “putting a gun into the hands” of Toledo, shifting the blame away from the officer who shot him. We also continue to educate on how prosecutors who are supposed to look out for the people’s interest shift to protecting police when they kill and abuse citizens of color. During the encounter in which Adam Toledo was killed,21-year-old Ruben Roman was arrested; during Roman’s bond hearing, prosecutors alleged that Toledo had a gun in his hand when police shot him. We now know that that statement was a lie. At a news conference on Thursday ahead of the video’s release, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the details of the boy’s death released in court were correct, essentially lying again even though she had seen the video. What makes this even more galling is that Mayor Lightfoot is not an ordinary untrained person who cannot make the relevant distinctions of what is legally permissible from what isn’t. She is a trained lawyer by profession. Right after the Mayor again lied to the people of Chicago and the entire nation, the state’s attorneys office knowing that the video evidence would uncover the lie sought to cover its own ass by issuing a statement saying that its own detail about Toledo having a gun when he was shot was inaccurate.“ An attorney who works in this office failed to fully inform himself before speaking in court,” Sarah Sinovic, a spokesperson for Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, told WGN on Thursday. That report came only hours before they were forced to release the video Lori Lightfoot fought against releasing. Even after Lori Lightfoot saw that the kid had no gun and had his hand in the air when the cop, Eric Stillman put a bullet in his chest, she not only lied to the people of the city who elected her, she fought to keep it private, again lying that it would compromise the investigations.
After the information was released on Thursday, Mayor Lightfoot made the following statement, “I have seen those videos, and they are particularly difficult to watch ― especially at the end’. Lightfoot also called for people to withhold judgment until COPA finishes its investigation. “Simply put, we failed Adam.” No Mayor, you and your death squad failed not only Adam Toledo, but you also continue to fail the entire city that placed its trust in you. You are a disgrace!!! This is not the first time that Lori Lightfoot has used her office to try to block the crimes of CPD from coming to light.
Lightfoot has lost considerable trust from the public during her time so far as mayor, especially when local stationWBBM-TV released body-cam footage of heavily armed officers raiding the wrong home, breaking the door down and handcuffing a naked woman in distress. The incident with Anjanette Young happened in February 2019 ― just months before Lightfoot took office ― however, Chicago police under Lightfoot tried to block Young from obtaining video of her own trauma, and the city’s lawyers attempted to block WBBM-TV from airing the footage.
The mayor also came under fire after media outlets reported that Lightfoot spent $281.5 million in federal COVID-19 relief money on covering overtime pay for police officers instead of on needed housing relief, business support and vaccine outreach for Chicagoans most affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Lightfoot faced harsh scrutiny from both activists and aldermen who accused her of prioritizing the police department over working families.(Huffpost reports).
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.
A team from the Narcotics division carried out a surveillance operation at the Portmore fishing village (Causeway). A joint military team from the St Catherine South division joined and carried a raid upon which two motor vehicles were seen and two men apprehended. One of the vehicles, a white Probox motor vehicle, is reportedly owned by a police Corporal assigned to the St Andrew North division. The other vehicle is a blue Nissan Caravan minibus.
A Police Corporal who reportedly works at the Constant Spring police station was apprehended in denim uniform, adorned with police accouterments. He was searched, and a service pistol was seized from him. Another man who stated that he’s a fisherman and a boat captain from port royal was found in the policeman’s car. A preliminary search was done of the minibus; two illegal firearmswere observed in a bag. Two buckets were also seen, but the contents were not known at this time. An undetermined sum of money was also observed.
Both men were handcuffed detained. DSP Hopton Nicholson, Inspector Ian Purrier (SCS shift commander), Woman Inspector Maxine Bernard (Narcotics) are presently on location. Scene of crime personnel is on the way to start processing the scene. Corporal Maugin Romacan of the Narcotics Division is investigating.
Racism is becoming a very expensive posture to maintain. Unfortunately, this posture is not only evident in the United States now. This has been evident in Israel for decades, where the Apartheid Israeli state fences itself off from the Palestinian people who have occupied Palestine for thousands of years. This seems to be only the beginning as the younger generation takes a stand against white supremacy.
The Richland County Sheriff’s Department has shut down access to a Northeast neighborhood after peaceful protests have turned disruptive. Around 8:20 p.m., deputies were dispatched to Jonathan Pentland’s home after receiving reports that it had been vandalized. Upon arrival, officials found that objects had been thrown at the home and through an upstairs window. A light fixture attached to the home was also broken. Pentland was eventually arrested for confronting a Black man walking on the sidewalk outside of his home, but only after a video of the encounter went viral on social media and viewers reacted with outrage. He has been arrested and charged with third-degree assault and battery. Jail records show Pentland has since been released from the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center. Officials say the family has been removed from the home by law enforcement and transported to another location.
It must be nice how cops make these decisions to protect their own; even when they are charged with felonies, the taxpayers have to foot the bill for their protection. Barricades, fencing, and police protect Kim Potter’s home.
Meanwhile, in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, where police officer Kim Potter shot and killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright, police erected a barricade around her home, and officers maintain a defensive posture. Of course, the Derek Chauvin trial defense continues to blow smoke up the jury’s ass that what we witnessed with our own eyes we did not see.
In the continually degrading conditions that members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force find themselves fighting against violent criminals, one constant they can count on is the ever-present support of certain government institutions aiding the criminals. It is not hyperbolic speech to make the case that at every turn, the security forces are confronted with agencies of the state working in direct opposition to the intended goal of ridding the country of violent criminals. Having served a decade in that effort and having remained tuned-in to what is happening on the ground since leaving, it is particularly frustrating to see the continuation of this phenomenon. For the record, I believe that the appellate process is important to oversee, where warranted, the lower court’s decisions. Unfortunately, in Jamaica, unscrupulous lawyering, corrupt public officials, & a leaky decrepit system make for exploitation of the process, further eroding trust and increasing the possibility for more violence. Far too often, the Appellate court seems not to understand that it has no duty to interfere with the lower court’s findings unless there is glaring and irrefutable evidence of wrongdoing or bad conduct. Instead, the Appellate court functions as a last-ditch defense bulwark, allowing the most violent criminals to walk free on technicalities. Technicalities that would not change rulings in any other western court system. And so we see the court in its lofty ivory tower position continue to interfere with lower court rulings on the most insignificant technicalities that have nothing to do with the facts of the matter before the court. Yes, we celebrate when the innocent are vindicated in the appellate court; we should never apologize for doing so. That is exactly what the courts are for. In the same vein, we must condemn the process when the most violent are released on technicalities because the court of appeals believes in maintaining a purist posture, one that Jamaica cannot afford.
Christopher (Dog-Paw) Linton is a violent murderer who belongs on the gallows. Yesterday the Appellate court that does not answer to the Jamaican people ordered Linton released on a technicality. Jamaica continues to follow its Colonial British master, so violent killers are allowed to stay in Jail and record music, throw parties, use drugs, smoke weed, and drink expensive whisky. At the same time, the taxpayers are stuck with the bill for their incarceration. And that is in the rare instance that they are caught and convicted for their heinous killings. Linton and a cohort were serving a 15 years prison sentence for shooting at two police officers; they were appropriately convicted in 2013. The Court of Appeal on Wednesday handed down a decision that the evidence in the case, where identification was concerned, was unreliable and ordered their release from prison. This ruling challenges the discretion of the trial judge/jury without proof of prejudice or malfeasance. It releases two dangerous killers back onto the streets, putting the lives of Tavern Saint Andrew residents, where Linton lived, and other areas in terrible danger. Opens the police up to more attacks from the two and their cronies. It now exposes the taxpayers to have to pay huge sums of money to two violent murderers under the guise that they were wrongly convicted and incarcerated. Neither of the robed ignoramuses who made the decision feel endangered from their ivory tower positions, but ordinary Jamaicans are now in greater danger today than yesterday due to their recklessness. Ya, please spare me the shit about the process, spare me the yadda, yadda about regardless of who he is, he is deserving of this kind of deference. Tell that to the people these vermin kill and terrorize, tell that to the children left behind traumatized by their terror. Our country is engaged in a fucking existential war against these maggots, so spare me the bullshit. Since the courts continue to stand in the way of removing these dangerous killers from the streets effectively, the police department has strategic decisions to make on how it implements & executes strategies when it apprehends these violent murderers. This is particularly important when it comes to those who would attempt or kill members of the department. There are many ways to skin a cat. This monster will make sure that the streets of the Tavern community run red with the blood of the innocent. The next time the police come in contact with him under any circumstances where he violates the law, there should be no doubt about the outcome. Whatever he does, whomever he hurt, the blood is on the hands of the members of that court that set him free, and they should be held accountable. This has got to stop!!!
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.Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.
Two police cops chased a Black man in a red hoodie across a street in Kinston, N.C., on Monday, April 12th; after the man fell to the sidewalk, one officer pummeled him repeatedly with his fists. The two have been suspended pending an investigation after the video of the incident went viral. Kinston Police Chief Tim Dilday on Tuesday identified the officers involved as McKinley Jonesand Kevin Page. The beaten man has been identified as 36-year-old David Lee Bruton Jr.
The video, which was shot and uploaded to Facebook by the bystander, sparked an outcry among local advocates and politicians.
Petland and his wife harassed the young man, while Petland assaulted and threatened him with even more harm.
This happened On Monday in Richland County, South Carolina, as a young African-American man walked through a neighborhood; he was confronted by a white man who harassed and assaulted him, then threatened him with even more violence.
The internet did what it does, and soon, the aggressor was identified as a soldier stationed at Fort Jackson. Jonathan Pentland has been arrested and charged with third-degree assault and battery. That charge carries a maximum penalty of a $500 fine or 30 days in jail. The video is being investigated by police, Fort Jackson military officials, and the Department of Justice and has drawn protesters to the neighborhood, according to WISNEWS 10.
Jonathan Pentland and his wife are seen harassing a young black man, and Pentland shoves him at one point. Pentland aggressively questions the black man, named Deandre, about why he is in the neighborhood, what he’s doing, and where he lives. His wife encourages him. A third white woman is seen on the phone, and it appears as though she is calling the police.
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