Reuters interviewed 25 African American male officers on the NYPD, 15 of whom are retired and 10 of whom are still serving. All but one said that they had been victims of racial profiling, which refers to using race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed a crime.
The officers said this included being pulled over for no reason, having their heads slammed against their cars, getting guns brandished in their faces, being thrown into prison vans and experiencing stop and frisks while shopping. The majority of the officers said they had been pulled over multiple times while driving. Five had had guns pulled on them.
Desmond Blaize (pictured above), who retired two years ago as a sergeant in the 41st Precinct in the Bronx, said he once got stopped while taking a jog through Brooklyn’s upmarket Prospect Park. “I had my ID on me so it didn’t escalate,” said Blaize, who has sued the department alleging he was racially harassed on the job. “But what’s suspicious about a jogger? In jogging clothes?”
The NYPD and the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the police officers’ union, declined requests for comment. However, defenders of the NYPD credit its policing methods with transforming New York from the former murder capital of the world into the safest big city in the United States.
Ex-Police Chief Skeptical.
“It makes good headlines to say this is occurring, but I don’t think you can validate it until you look into the circumstances they were stopped in,” said Bernard Parks, the former chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, who is African American.
“Now if you want to get into the essence of why certain groups are stopped more than others, then you only need to go to the crime reports and see which ethnic groups are listed more as suspects. That’s the crime data the officers are living with.”
I remember watching the clip below of MSNBC’s interview with the Cleveland police union who kept insisting that the police officer who murdered of 12 year old Tamir Rice was “justified,” and while watching, all these questions and comments started coming to mind as I listened to the unbelievable cops-are-always-right nonsense coming from the cop.
Apparently Cenk Uygur from The Young Turks had the same questions and comments, and he used his platform on YouTube and blasted the cop for his moronic response.
“Just, for Christ’s sake, be a human for a second,” Uygur challenged the man after watching a clip of the MSNBC piece. “And say, ‘We’re so sorry that [a] 12-year-old kid died, man. Obviously we didn’t mean that.’ Is that too hard to say? Is that too hard to say — ‘We didn’t mean to kill your 12-year-old son. We’re so sorry about that.’”
Uygur continued. “You killed him in two seconds — [Rice] didn’t have time to listen to what you said,” Uygur said in response. “This Orwellian prick; we just saw the video, we’ve seen the video a million times. You pull up and you shoot him. You pull up and you shoot him. One-one thousand, two-one thousand and he’s dead.”
Apparently, professional athletes cannot have an opinion and if they do, they should not make their opinions known.
That is the argument from the President of the Police Union in Cleveland, Jeff Follmer, who denounced Browns’ wide receiver Andrew Hawkins for wearing a “Justice for Tamir Rice” shirt during warm-ups. Follmer called Hawkins “pathetic” for expressing his views.
“He’s an athlete. He’s someone with no facts of the case whatsoever,” Follmer said on Sunday. “He’s disrespecting the police on a job that we had to do and make a split-second decision.”
Follmer demanded an apology from Hawkins and the Browns organization, causing the Browns to issue a statement.
“We have great respect for the Cleveland Police Department and the work that they do to protect and serve our city,” the statement says. “We also respect our players’ rights to project their support and bring awareness to issues that are important to them if done so in a responsible manner.”
Tamir Rice, 12 years old, was gunned down by a Cleveland police officer while holding what turned out to be a toy gun. At the time of the killing, the police officer said that Tamir was asked numerous times to drop his weapon and when he did not, he was shot and killed. The police also said that Tamir was about 20 years old.
But there is a video and according to the video, the 12 year old is seen getting shot less than 3 seconds after a police car arrived on the scene.
Baltimore Police, apparently trying to eliminate the threat of a woman and her cell phone camera, tased and arrested
the woman as she recorded them arresting another man.
Video of the March 30 melee surfaced online this week. Police erased the 135-second recording from the woman’s phone, but it was recovered from her cloud account, according to the Circuit Court for Baltimore City lawsuit (PDF), which seeks $7 million.
Kianga Mwamba was driving home from a family gathering in March. Stopped in traffic, she began filming the nearby arrest of a man who she says was kicked by police.
As a kid, I got used to being stopped by the police. I grew up in an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis. It was the kind of place where officers routinely roughed up my friends and family for no good reason.
Ihated the way cops treated me.
But I knew police weren’t all bad. One of my father’s closest friends was a cop. He became a mentor to me and encouraged me to join the force. He told me that I could use the police’s power and resources to help my community.
So in 1994, I joined the St. Louis Police Department. I quickly realized how naive I’d been. I was floored by the dysfunctional culture I encountered.
I won’t say all, but many of my peers were deeply racist.
At a news conference in Cleveland today, Samaria Rice, mother of the slain 12 year old boy shot to death by police a couple of weeks ago, called for justice for her son and revealed that her daughter was also handcuffed by police after they killed her son Tamir.
Rice said that when she got to the park where her son was shot, she found her 14-year-old daughter, who was also at the park that afternoon playing, handcuffed in the back of a police car. When Rice later reunited with her daughter, the young girl said police officers tackled and handcuffed her once she saw her younger brother lying on the ground, bleeding.
When Samaria arrived and saw her youngest child shot and her daughter in the back of a police car, police officers warned her that if she didn’t calm down, she’d be placed in the police vehicle as well.
The family’s attorney, Benjamin Crump, argued that if there is enough probable cause, “we don’t need to have another grand jury.”
No one seems to know how to deescalate a situation anymore. One person always go home to their family, which means the other person is more than likely making an unplanned, one way trip to the morgue.
The shooting occurred about 7 p.m. at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue in the heart of Hollywood’s entertainment and tourism district, Los Angeles Police Officer Jane Kim told BuzzFeed News.
Police were responding to a call for an assault with a deadly weapon when they arrived and found a suspect armed with a knife, Kim said. The man survived the shooting and was take to a hospital, but later died.
Police did not provide information about the suspect’s name, age, or ethnicity.
Lisa Bregman happened to be driving through the intersection at the moment the shooting occurred. Bregman said she heard a series of gunshots, then looked up and saw a man lying on the ground.
“It was more than one or two,” Bergman said of the number of gunshots. “Like maybe three or four.”
Bregman took a photo of the scene while police still had their guns drawn.
“It’s the same statement I made before,” James said after the Cavaliers finished shootaround Thursday before a 90-87 win over the New York Knicks. “It’s a sensitive subject right now. Violence is not the answer and retaliation isn’t the solution. As a society we just have to do better. I pray for the families of the lost ones.
“Obviously anytime you lose someone, it’s a downer for the whole family, and I’m not going to get too far involved in the logistics of the things because I’m not a part of it, but you pray for the families.”
Less than two weeks ago, James said the decision not to indict Darren Wilson, the officer responsible for the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, “hit home for me,” and he lamented the rioting, looting and overall violent reaction to the news.
Amar’e Stoudemire, speaking after the Knicks’ loss, said he was “pretty upset” that he wasn’t involved in any of the protests in New York.
“I think it’s something that’s, it’s very alarming in our country as far as that’s concerned,” Stoudemire said. “We have to be more conscientious of what the law enforcement’s job is, and that’s to protect and serve. Those two words are very strong when you think about that.
“Your first job is to protect, and your second job is to serve. Obviously it’s not happening that way. So we’ve got to figure out a way to create a better economic unity for all of the have-nots.”
New York Jets defensive end Sheldon Richardson — a St. Louis native — reaffirmed his position, as well, while discussing the issue at the team’s facilities in Florham Park, N.J.
“Destroying Ferguson is not what I wanted to come from the verdict of the grand jury,” Richardson said. “I wanted my whole city to stay intact. I don’t think we’ll bounce back from that — the area of Ferguson, anyway. That’s just how I feel about it. I just want my hometown to stay as peaceful as possible, but I don’t blame them. I know where they’re coming from, but that’s not the solution.”
Now this is something you probably haven’t heard in, like forever! On Wednesday, the same day a New York grand jury refused to hold police accountable in the choking death of Eric Garner, another grand jury in South Carolina brought charges against a white cop who shot and kill a black man in 2011!
Richard Combs worked in Eutawville when 54-year-old Bernard Bailey came to Town Hall to argue about his daughter’s broken-taillight ticket. Combs and Bailey briefly fought, and the police chief shot Bailey twice in the chest.
A grand jury indicted Combs on Wednesday, the same day a New York grand jury refused to indict an officer in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man. It’s more than a week after a grand jury refused to indict an officer in the death of unarmed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Combs’ lawyer says the officer feared for his life. Prosecutors say he was the aggressor. He’s no longer with the police department.
According to Sgt. Trent Crump, spokesman for the Phoenix Police, the officer who has not been identified, “was doing exactly what we want him to do” when he shot and killed 34-year-old Rumain Brisbon. Friends and family said Brisbon was simply delivering dinner to his children on Tuesday night when the deadly encounter with police happened.
Crump told reporters that the officer and his partner were responding to a burglary call about 6 p.m. Tuesday (8 p.m. ET) when a local resident told them that men in a black sport-utility vehicle were dealing drugs. The license plate number given by the resident matched a vehicle owned by a resident of a block where police were already investigating a report of loud music, Crump said, so the officer approached the SUV, whose driver got out.
When the officer told the driver, later identified as Brisbon, to show his hands, the driver instead put his hands into the waistband of his pants, at which point the officer drew his gun, Crump said. Brisbon began to run away, but the officer chased him down, and they began struggling, Crump said.
“The officer believed he felt the handle of a gun while holding the suspect’s hand in his pocket,” Crump said. Unable to keep his grip on Brisbon’s hand, the officer fired two shots, Crump said. The object in Brisbon’s pocket was later discovered to be a bottle of pain pills.
I’m so tired of writing about this crap. I’m sure you are tired of reading about it. None of us are surprised another grand jury didn’t indict a cop. Grand juries indict 99.9 percent of time. The .1 percent of the time they don’t is because a cop is on trial. The entire grand jury system needs to be scrapped. There is simply no need for it. They do exactly what the prosecutors want. If they want an indictment, they hand it down, if they don’t, they vote “no true” bill, whatever the hell that means or meant back in 1787 when maybe the grand jury system was necessary. They are now worthless, chocked with people who don’t think on their own, and just march in lock step with the orders they are given. They are just slaves to their prosecutor masters. It is time for the entire system to go.
In the Eric Garner case we have a video. Much like in the Ray Rice case. Before we had the Rice video many people were saying his punching out his fiancee wasn’t a big deal. After the video many wanted to hang Rice. Same case, same offense, but there was video. In the Michael Brown case there is no video. Imagine the difference if there had been. Now I don’t mean a difference in the outcome of the grand jury. We have all seen Eric Garner choked to death. It’s clear to see and it didn’t make a difference. Therefore there is data now that tells us police wearing cameras will not make much of a difference. Yes like with Garner, there would be a difference with public opinion but not where it counts most, in the justice system. Because a grand jury simply will not indict a police officer.
We all saw what happened. There really is no excuse to not get an indictment for probable cause. Which brings up another issue. An issue which is so glaringly unfair, such an obvious conflict of interest that the fact it had not been remedied decades ago proves that our justice system is not the best in the world. People can scream and yell about how it’s the best as much as they want, just like they scream and yell that everything in this country is the best, it still doesn’t make it a fact. In this case I’m talking about having an ordinary prosecutor take cases involving police shootings or misconduct. The same prosecutors who are on the side of the police, who work with them daily and need them to make their cases. The same prosecutors who are buddy buddy with cops, who go out and drink with them and socialize with them. This is the greatest injustice of all injustices. Any case which involves law enforcement needs to be assigned immediately to a special prosecutor that has NO connection with the cops involved. If the federal government needs to be involved then so be it. Any country that is serious about its judicial system being the best and most fair would have had this in place already. It’s that simple.
I have to love those right wingers who are now feigning bewilderment at the Garner case. Because there is a video they cannot dispute. Well, most of them. I’m not talking about the disgusting Rudy Giuliani or abhorrent Peter King. They both have enough white ethnic cop apologists (some who are indeed racists) among their followers and constituents that they can be as grotesque as they want with no consequences. The others are, all of a sudden, shocked and amazed that a grand jury didn’t indict. As though this was the first injustice ever. Even though we just had one before this. Of course they still won’t admit any kind of racism was involved. You see it’s all just a coincidence that these are white cops killing blacks, time after time.
Timothy Loehmann, the cop in Cleveland who killed 12 year old Tamir Rice was rejected by the NYPD. The same department that allowed Daniel Pantaleo, the cop who killed Eric Garner, (and who already had one civil case against him settled for tens of thousands of dollars), onto the force, rejected this guy. That’s how bad he is. He was also thrown off a previous police force due to emotional and other issues. He has been reported to have said that he wanted to join the Cleveland police department because he wanted “action.” Action? I thought cops just wanted to go home at night? Oh, and by the way, citizens deserve to go home at night as well. Even more so actually because they aren’t willingly taking a job that can be dangerous and getting money and a pension for it. But this cop was obviously nuts, so why was he hired? Because they never checked into his background. Disgraceful. And the police unions, willing to defend everything and anything a bad cop might do, make this liberal want to hate unions.
Police departments not checking backgrounds before they hire. Cops with no ability to relate on a human, emotional level to another person. When a child puts a chokehold on another, when they are just doing horseplay, and the other child screams or says they can’t breathe, the other child releases. Why? Because human nature kicks in and makes them care about the other kid, to understand that causing distress is bad and wrong. But our cops seem to lack this most basic human ability. Time after time. Whether it’s someone with their hands up or someone who has already been shot two or three times, or a child with a toy gun, or a guy gasping for air, saying 11 times, “I can’t breathe.” Several cops just stood around while Garner was choked to death, both during and after the act.
Too often these cops have no emotional or ethical conscience. There is something sociopathic about it and that’s frightening. Not only do we need police departments to do the BASIC operations of checking backgrounds but we also need better psychological screenings or people wanting to be cops. We need police officers with true concern for the lives and well being of the citizens they are sworn to serve and protect. Not just the old deli owner who serves them lunch, that’s easy, but the people they encounter daily who might be breaking the law as well. That the lives of these people are as important as their own. That they have families they want to go home to as well.
The mentality of the warrior cop must be expunged from the police force. It must be replaced by the human cop.
Rep. Peter King has said some dumb things in the past, so who do you go to if you want to hear dumb things about the Eric Garner murder? You go to Peter King of course.
After the grand jury decided not to indict any of the police officers involved in Garner’s murder, Peter King went on CNN and praised the officers for a job will done, and at the same time, the Republican managed to cast blame on the victim for the victim’s death.
“You had a 350-pound person who was resisting arrest. The police were trying to bring him down as quickly as possible,” King said in an appearance on CNN’s “The Situation Room.” “If he had not had asthma and a heart condition and was so obese, almost definitely he would not have died from this. The police had no reason to know he was in serious condition.”
The confrontation between Pantaleo and Garner was also caught on video that showed Garner repeatedly telling the officer he couldn’t breathe. King said police hear that kind of thing all the time.
“But if you can’t breathe, you can’t talk,” he argued.
The Long Island congressman also dismissed the idea that any racial animus played into Garner’s death.
“I have no doubt, if that were a 350-pound white guy, he would have been treated the same,” King told CNN.
Earlier Wednesday, the congressman tweeted his thanks to the grand jury for not indicting Pantaleo.
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