Abuse of Power Thread (Cops, Governments, Etc.) - Part 1

[Teelie]

Guess it goes without saying. A man shot and killed by police in Florida under suspicious circumstances was black.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

UPDATE: 7,000 People Were Detained at Homan Square, Chicago PD's Secretive "Black Site"

In February, the Guardian published a deep investigation into Homan Square, a shadowy facility where the Chicago Police Department takes suspects without booking them, entering them into any official database, or giving them access to a telephone or their lawyer. A new Guardian report claims that more than twice as many people have been “disappeared” into Homan as officials initially disclosed.

The paper obtained documents showing that more than 7,000 people were detained at Homan between 2004 and 2015—about 6,000 of whom were black. Less than one percent of those detainees were allowed to see their lawyers during interrogations. Attorneys described a system that seems deliberately engineered to make it difficult to find their clients; others said that they were turned around at the door. “Try finding a phone number for Homan to see if anyone’s there. You can’t, ever,” an attorney named David Gaeger told the Guardian. “If you’re laboring under the assumption that your client’s at Homan, there really isn’t much you can do as a lawyer. You’re shut out. It’s guarded like a military installation.”

Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian’s earlier reporting on Homan detailed allegations of beatings and long, unexplained detainments with no access to counsel. One attorney described a client whose name was changed on his records before a transfer to Homan. He emerged from the facility with a head wound:

“He said that the officers caused his head injuries in an interrogation room at Homan Square. I had been looking for him for six to eight hours, and every department member I talked to said they had never heard of him,” Solowiej said. “He sent me a phone pic of his head injuries because I had seen him in a police station right before he was transferred to Homan Square without any.”​

And as unsettling as it is to think that 7,000 people were subjected to such treatment without even being formally booked, that number is almost certainly low: those who were taken to Homan but not ultimately charged with crimes do not figure into the records the Chicago PD has disclosed thus far, meaning that many more detainees may be missing for the record.

http://gawker.com/7-000-people-were-detained-at-homan-square-chicago-pds-1737347973

This is seriously messed up

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Even Police Chiefs Understand Mass Incarceration Is Bad

Plenty of people agree that America should stop throwing every last shoplifter or weed-smoker in jail. On the right they get to talk about reducing incarceration’s burden on taxpayers; on the left it’s a victory for civil rights. Now, even the country’s top law enforcement officials—those who you’d think would be driving mass incarceration in the first place—are getting in on the act.

This week, a new group called Launch of Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration, composed of 130 police chiefs and government prosecutors, announced its support for the criminal justice movement. Its members are no slouches: LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, and Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lanier all belong to the organization, and Chicago PD Superintendent Garry McCarthy is its co-chair.

Tomorrow, Law Enforcement Leaders will convene at the White House to speak about reducing imprisonment while “strengthening public safety” (these are still cops we’re talking about). Among their talking points are a more treatment-focused approach to offenders with drug or mental health problems, reclassifying some felonies as misdemeanors, and ending federal mandatory minimums—all old sa****ses of the activist movement to end mass incarceration.

It’s encouraging, and it’s also a little funny to see these particular people get behind this particular cause—like McDonald’s rallying against hamburgers. In a story about the new group, the New York Times acknowledges that police and prosecutors “have a great deal of discretion” in interpreting and carrying out the very policies they’re railing against, and makes the case that pressure to be tough on crime from the public and elected officials forces them into the current overly punitive model.

“Good crime control policy does not involve arresting and imprisoning masses of people. It involves arresting and imprisoning the right people,” McCarty said in a statement about Law Enforcement Leaders. “Arresting and imprisoning low-level offenders prevents us from focusing resources on violent crime.” It makes you wonder what inspired Bill Bratton to join. Through his tenures leading the NYPD and LAPD, and in his early advocacy for stop-and-frisk and broken windows policing, Bratton is something like the Michael Jordan of arresting and imprisoning low-level offenders. He must have been facing an awful lot of public pressure.

http://gawker.com/even-police-chiefs-understand-mass-incarceration-is-bad-1737782501

Kind of weird but if it has a positive effect on the USA as a whole then I will take it

 

[Asgard]

https://reason.com/blog/2015/10/26/school-cop-video-attack-spring-valley-hi

A school resource officer at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina, tackled a girl who was sitting in her desk, dragged her across the room, pinned her, and arrested her, according to video footage of the incident. WISTV reported that the girl refused an order to leave class:

According to Sheriff Leon Lott, the school resource officer was acting in response to a student who was refusing to leave class.
"The student was told she was under arrest for disturbing school and given instructions which she again refused," Lott said. "The video then shows the student resisting and being arrested by the SRO."
The video shows the officer approaching the girl sitting at a desk in a classroom. The officer grabs the girl's arm while putting his own arm around the student's neck.
​

I suggest watching the two videos. It may be true that the girl was in trouble, and she certainly disobeyed a police command. But it’s impossible to justify the act of violence that followed her refusal to move; the officer knocked her backward out of her desk and dragged her across the floor. To say she could have been seriously injured in the struggle is an understatement.

The officer can also be heard threatening to arrest students for complaining about the girl’s treatment. “I’ll put you in jail next,” he said in response to a student who quite reasonably exclaimed, “what the ****?”

According to activist Shaun King’s Twitter feed, the SRO has a history of violence toward the students, who are all terrified of him.
School and police officials are investigating the incident. Parents and students are outraged. They should be. Students do not lose their right to humane treatment merely because they are compelled to attend public schooling.

There's two vids of the incident, which you can watch per the links in the article. Here's one of them from youtube.

 

[KevanG]

I saw the video on the news. Seriously, WTF?

 

[Kar]

Already people are asking "well what did she do?"

Nothing calls for that type of aggressive force on a child.

 

[KevanG]

People should be asking that.

Then dealing the same to him.

 

[Teelie]

Saw that last night. I wonder how the cop will defend his behavior. I can't think of a reason to react as he did and in front of so many students, the teacher and with someone recording it on their phone shows he thought he had impunity to do so.

There are cops who claim to be afraid to do their jobs because they are being recorded. If this is how they do their jobs, they should be afraid.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

I saw that last night as well, crazy that cop that it was appropriate. It's insane what he did to that poor girl. I don't care what she did, she damn sure didn't deserve that

 

[Docker2.0]

That was dead wrong. No justification at all. But if I'm her parents, I'm whooping her ass because she should have left the class when she was told. But her parents will probably kiss the ground she walks on because she is going to make them some money.

 

[SuperT]

Sickening. Absolutely sickening. There's no excuse for anything like that to ever happen to a teenager. Ever.

 

[Lasirius]

Reading comments online about this incident is enraging. Huge influx of people saying she deserved it because she didn't have any manners and disrespected authority by not complying with his instructions. People are using their kids as an example by claiming their own children would never do this because "they were raised right". ****ing A.

 

[Teelie]

LOL, "raised right" is something I see so often when parents defend the deplorable actions of their children. Often the kids learn their bad behavior from their own parents or from permissive parents who blind themselves to the poor behavior of their children.

 

[Docker2.0]

Whenever I hear parents say that, they always have the worst kids. I remember this one woman bragging about her daughter not needing a sorority to feel important because she installed values into her young and is a good girl. She didn't know that her daughter was one of the biggest ho's I've ever seen! A lot of parents are in denial concerning their kids.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Former St. Louis Prosecutor Admits to Covering Up Police Beating of Handcuffed Man

A former St. Louis prosecutor has pled guilty to Misprision of a Felony for covering up the vicious beating of a handcuffed suspect by a veteran St. Louis cop, according to a report from The Huffington Post.

Bliss Barber Worrell was assistant circuit attorney for the city of St. Louis in July of last year, when a veteran officer with whom she had a close friendship reportedly beat the hell out of a man arrested for allegedly fraudulently using the credit card of the police officer’s daughter. The beating was severe enough that the officer injured his own foot and may have chipped one of the suspect’s teeth by shoving his handgun “down the throat” of the handcuffed victim.

In the plea, Worrell says that she did not intend to bring any charges against the suspect in the incident, but that she was present when the arresting officer showed up at the warrant office and decided to help a new prosecutor file charges against the suspect. The report from the arresting officer did not match what she had heard from the veteran officer, but she failed to tell her supervisors what she knew about the incident and filed charges against the suspect anyway for receiving stolen property, for fraudulent use of a credit card and for allegedly attempting to escape while resisting arrest.​

The veteran officer isn’t named in the plea, but a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report notes similarities between the details in the plea and the circumstances of Worrell’s resignation from her position in the circuit attorney’s office, when officer Tom Carroll was accused of assaulting 41-year-old Michael Weller after Weller allegedly stole and fraudulently used Carroll’s daughter’s credit card.

Worrell’s plea explains that she was told by the veteran officer that other officers had participated in the beating, including the shift commander on duty that night.

The veteran officer also offered up a particularly cruel detail: that “everyone” was laughing at the suspect, who was “screaming for help” when he was brought into the police station, likely because the suspect was told during transport that he was going to get beaten.​

Tammy Dickinson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, is prosecuting the case, and has indicated the investigation is ongoing and extends beyond “this defendant’s role in covering up an egregious civil rights violation.”

http://gawker.com/former-st-louis-prosecutor-admits-to-covering-up-polic-1738864026

Disgusting

 

[Teelie]

And that is only one incident we know of being uncovered.

 

[Greeneyes]

As long as all incidents of people being mistreated are reported on and made viral then that's fair. If this kind of horrible incident is only going viral and getting awareness because the 14 year old student was black, then that would be wrong.

It was a shocking thing to see a child being treated like that, although myself and some of my friends have been in incidents almost as bad with crazy teachers back in the day who pretty much assaulted us.

My mate got picked up by the throat off the ground and slammed up against windows behind him! He had thrown a snowball at the teacher and hit him in the face and the teacher just lost it completely. Another teacher had to grab him to release my strangled friend. We tried to help him but we were only 12 and 13 year olds and couldn't do much against the raging adult.

We did take the piss out of my mate for ages after though lol. He had gone a bit reddish blue in the face during his strangling so we called him purple snowball for years on and off. I often wonder how snowball is doing these days.

The teacher never even got warned by the school, let alone any police involvement.

God, how times have changed.

 

[Teelie]

The sheriff has said the girl assaulted the officer before the video picked up and it was allegedly recorded on another video not yet seen but was quick to add the actions depicted by the officers were not acceptable and he's on leave without pay, a rarity for once.

 

[Kar]

But if I'm her parents, I'm whooping her ass because she should have left the class when she was told.

Eh, I can't tell you how to raise your kids, but I don't think beating her after she got assaulted by an officer sounds like a good idea.

Being disruptive in class does not call for all that. If you're asked to leave and you don't, I'm sure that properly trained professional can find a way to escort her out of the classroom without force. She didn't lash out at him or anything, spit in his face or nothing.

It just bothers me when I saw comments on the Internet saying "well she should have listened." I can't imagine someone showing me this video and my first initial thought is "baby girl, why didn't you just listen?" I'm going to be pissed if I saw that. Her being disruptive or whatever she was doing is a matter that can be handled in so many other ways.

I think it was an ego thing with that cop. You got a badge and authority, so you don't want kids (or anyone) disrespecting you. But that's not the answer. And the look on those kids faces....you can tell this is something they're used to. I read that this isn't the first time he's acted like this (the cop.)

I'm more disappointed in the teacher for not stepping in or saying something.

 

[RockSP]

And on top of that they arrested one of the students who filmed the incident for "disturbing the school"

 

[Retroman]

There's simply no justification for the police officer abusing the girl like that.None. You wouldn't even treat an animal like that!

Why even call the cops on a disruptive/non-violent child? You're just escalating a bad situation into something criminal.

And on top of that they arrested one of the students who filmed the incident for "disturbing the school"

The other girl that was arrested (why?) said on CNN Tonight that she didn't even know the name of the girl who was flung through the class like a ragdoll. It seemed like she was a very quiet girl (fairly new) who didn't socialize much with her other classmates.Maybe she was having some issues in her personal life?

 

[Teelie]

The inclusion of police in schools was meant to quell any violent outbursts or dangers. Obviously it worked out well.

Poorly trained police dealing with angsty, rebellious teenagers. What could go wrong?

 

[Teelie]

He's been fired.

The South Carolina deputy who slammed a disruptive student on the floor and tossed her several feet has been fired.

Other students in the classroom at Spring Valley High School caught the incident on video.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott suspended Deputy Ben Fields without pay, and then fired him Wednesday.

Fields violated police regulations when he threw the girl, the sheriff said.

Fields was the Spring Valley High School resource officer whose actions Monday were recorded by students and ignited a firestorm on social media. Among the criticisms: his admitted use of "muscling techniques" to get the student out of her chair.

But that's only one part of the story. Federal investigators have gotten involved. Another student arrested from the classroom has spoken out. And the sheriff is criticizing a South Carolina law that he says muddles the role of school resource officers.

 

[Marvolo]

Good.

He had a record of violence to begin with. He never should have been working in a school.

I understand that teens can be some of the most infuriating annoying beings on this planet, but as an adult he should have responded sensibly. Throwing the girl and the desk around the room like the Hulk tossing Loki wasnt only irresponsible and dangerous. It was downright childish.

 

[Teelie]

He was known as "Officer Slam" by the students to give some idea of his attitude.