As Police continue to murder more and more people of color each year, politicians across the political spectrum, republicans in particular, remain tone-deaf to the calls of the black and brown community that these killings [must] stop.
In a government of the people by the people and of the people, the people are the main subject, it follows; therefore, if those elected to make it stop refuse to act, the people must take the necessary steps to stop the killings.
Everyone that chose not to bury their head in the dirt has seen countless police citizen video interactions on varying social media platforms of police officers acting way outside the bounds of the laws in their dealings with members of the public, usually black and brown people.
It is also obvious that white support for police violence and the Supreme Court, the head of the judicial branch of government, stepping outside its remit and legislating a policy, not in the constitution, ‘qualified immunity, has created blanket impunity in American policing.
Consequently, police departments and their unions have become veritable separate governments onto themselves as they operate according to their own laws and practices. Accountability is not a part of that paradigm, even as they operate yearly with increased budgets financed by the tax-paying public.
As an arm of state governments, police departments have become unaccountable organs of state oppression and, sadly, state-sanctioned murder.https://mikebeckles.com/5‑fired-memphis-officers-charged-with-murder-in-death-of-tyre-nichols/
PRETEXTUAL TRAFFIC STOPS
Pretextual stops are traffic stops conducted by the police not because a member of the driving public has committed a minor traffic infraction per se’, but may have a broken taillight or failed to signal in time before a turn. It is impossible to avoid a pretextual traffic stop because whatever the reason the cop gives for the stop is made up and subjected to their standard after they had already decided to effectuate a stop on a motorist in the first place.
This unconstitutional policing mirrors the 2002 Tom Cruise movie ‘minority report’. The film, an action-detective thriller set in Washington, D.C. in 2054, depicted police utilizing psychic technology to arrest and convict murderers before they commit a crime.
Only pretextual stops and stop-and-frisk policing in the United States are not saving lives. It is a dangerous tool for criminal cops who are a grave danger to the public.
I say this with the heaviest of hearts, but as what obtained for normalcy unravels in the country, the courts, the entity entrusted to interpret the laws, have become a major reason for the unraveling.
From a woman’s right to choose, voting rights, dark money in politics, police violence, and on and on, the courts have been wrong on every issue.https://mikebeckles.com/cop-driving-unregistered-truck-drinking-beer-who-shot-teen-takes-the-stand/
The court has decreed that police can follow a motorist for as long as they want to find a reason to make a pretextual stop. (U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Whren v. United States (1996).
Police insist the stops are useful for investigating drugs and weapons possession, human trafficking, and drunken driving, among other crimes.
It is a lie!
Black motorists, especially young men, have long noted how often they get stopped for petty traffic or equipment violations — failure to signal, broken license plate light, tinted windows, etc. Studies have shown pretextual stops to be racially biased. Police stop and search Black motorists more often than drivers of other races, with little to no effect on crime.
Pretextual traffic stops are the equivalent of pedestrian stop and frisk. Technically they are tools that can help good police officers to do their jobs more effectively. However, when these tools are placed into the hands of racist, uneducated egomaniacs, they become terrifying weapons against minority communities nationwide. Studies have shown PRETEXUAL STOPS to be racially biased.https://mikebeckles.com/detroit-area-teen-files-federal-lawsuit-after-being-beaten-kicked-by-police/
POLICE LIE UNDER OATH IN COURT AND TO CITIZENS WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE/ALL LEGAL …
The Supreme Court has decreed that police are allowed to lie to citizens, yet citizens are imprisoned if they lie to the police. Frazier V Cupp (1969).
Time.com had this to say about the decision by the highest court. “Many Americans do not know that U.S. police are permitted to lie about evidence to someone they bring into the station for questioning. This is not lawful in most western countries. Incomprehensibly, they are even permitted to lie to children.
This deception has tricked countless innocent people into confessing to crimes they did not commit. Examples of their lies include, “We have surveillance footage of you that night,” “Your shoe prints were at the crime scene,” “Cell phone records prove you were there,” “You failed the polygraph,” “Your DNA was on the victim,” and “Your friend said she wasn’t with you like you said” are some all-too-common but real examples of police lying to citizens and gaining false confessions that land them in prison sometimes for decades.…
https://mikebeckles.com/3‑indianapolis-cops-shoot-man-apparently-asleep-in-his-car/
In 1993, 41-year-old Gary Gauger woke up on the family farm in Ill. and found his parents stabbed to death. Detectives said they found blood-soaked clothes in his bedroom and a bloody knife in his pocket — both lies. They also falsely claimed that he failed a polygraph. Gauger broke down and concluded that he must have killed his parents during an alcohol-induced blackout. After five years in prison, including time spent on death row, he was released; two motorcycle gang members were later convicted of the murders.
In 1973, a Conn. police sergeant accused 18-year-old Peter Reilly of killing his mother. No witnesses or physical evidence implicated Reilly, who had no history of violence. Yet after hours of interrogation and denials, the sergeant told Reilly he failed a polygraph exam. Eventually, this disorienting result led Reilly to question his own innocence. “This test is giving me doubts right now,” he conceded. Led to believe that he blocked the event from consciousness, Reilly later said, “Well, it really looks like I did it.” Later, he confessed to slashing his mother’s throat with a razor. After Reilly was convicted and imprisoned, the prosecutor discovered exculpatory evidence in his case file, and all charges were dismissed.
No sane person welcomes government intrusion into their lives. Police traffic stops are incidents of government intrusion. No sane citizen would be opposed to the police being able to stop motorists for legitimate reasons when there is a clear and blatant abuse of road traffic laws. However, the continued court-sanctioned assault on our fourth amendment rights against government intrusion into our sacred spaces continues unabated with increasingly deadly consequences as immune police officers act with increasing impunity. America’s traffic laws give police way too much power to violate the rights of American citizens.
We are dangerously close to a police state created by the Supreme Court; the unfortunate reality for black and brown people is that we are the collateral damage to bringing the country to a complete police state controlled by the filthy rich and powerful and their political underlings.
It is a three-tiered oligarchy system of the mighty rich at the top, the politicians, and the courts legislating and validating unjust laws. The police are on the bottom, executing unjust laws.
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.