After 20 years of service with a perfect record, St. Louis County Police officer Sgt. Daniel O'Neil began receiving his first in a series of disciplinary infraction notices. Little BS reprimands, the kind a vengeful Lieutenant would fabricate to persecute an officer with a clean record who was exposing that corrupt Lieutenant's racist policing tactics
• not wearing his badge
• Failure to supervise
• allegedly entering incorrect codes on payroll documents
The targeted the intimidation continued and worsened:
• submitted Sgt. O'Neil to on the spot drug test
• revoked Sgt. O'Neils take home vehicle. Two officers arrived at Sgt. O'Neil's home demanding he immediately clean out his possessions while they stood watching, hands on weapons. They took the car
• Sgt. O'Neil was then suddenly transferred out of the district (where for years he had worked and lived) to another district farther away from his home and normal work district.
This campaign of intimidation began almost immediately after Sgt. O'Neil's identity became known as the whistleblower who had begun documenting and reporting overt racist practices within the St Louis county police department instigated primarily by a Lt. Patrick "Rick" Hayes.
Sgt. O'Neil then filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission:
Whistleblower in St. Louis County police racial profiling probe alleges retaliation - July 09, 2013 11:25 pm • By Christine Byers
ST. LOUIS COUNTY • For months, he's been known only as "Lonewolf" — the name he signed on a series of anonymous letters alleging a veteran police lieutenant ordered officers in the St. Louis County Police Department's South County precinct to target African-Americans at shopping destinations there.
On Tuesday, Sgt. Daniel O'Neil revealed his name publicly in a complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — the first step toward filing a discrimination lawsuit against the police department, which O'Neil says has targeted him ever since learning he wrote the letters.
Those letters triggered an internal investigation, and Lt. Patrick "Rick" Hayes was fired in May. He has denied the claims of profiling and vowed to defend his job.
Rachel Maddow and her team dig up some interesting history of Missouri and racial profiling in the police force
(short ad - sorry)
link to Rachel Maddow @ MSNBC | It is really worth a look see - imo: http://www.nbcnews.com/...
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The problem is not the lack of laws on the books, but a complete failure to implement them. A system that began in year 2000 was put in place to address racial discrimination:
Missouri Attorney General | vehicle stops by year (2000 - 2013):
Background
Concerns by the citizens of Missouri and the Missouri legislature regarding allegations of racial profiling by law enforcement prompted the passage of state law Section 590.650, RSMo (2000), which was enacted Aug. 28, 2000. Racial profiling has been defined as the inappropriate use of race by law enforcement when making a decision to stop, search or arrest a motorist.
Missouri’s state law requires that all peace officers in the state report specific information including a driver’s race for each vehicle stop made in the state. Law enforcement agencies are required to turn in the data to the Attorney General, and the Attorney General is required to compile the data and report to the Governor no later than June 1 of each year. The law allows the Governor to withhold state funds for any agency that does not comply with the law. State law requires that all information be reported to the Attorney General’s Office by March 1.
Missouri Attorney General | vehicle stops by county (search):
Last year, 93% of arrests following car stops in Ferguson were of blacks. Ninety-two percent of searches and 80% of car stops involved blacks
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So Missouri did the correct thing fourteen years ago. They took on the injustice of racial profiling, passed laws , and made it a requirement that every stop by a police officer was thoroughly documented so that there would be empirical evidence publically available. Data that would then translate into better law enforcement.
The problem now is that even with all this data, the racism continues without much change, as fourteen years of compiled data shows
If one looks at the level of racial profiling in the links (above) to the attorney Generals database, the problem remains.
I don't know if this kind of law (and the data collection), which seems to me to be an excellent idea has been passed in other states, but it should be - imo - but equally important then - the law must be followed
Now how to use that information for good?
First thing; the people need real representation. In their legislators, in their schools and in their police force | everywhere iow's in every state of this country. We don't have that, not even close:
• In Ferguson Missouri with a population that is 2/3 AA, out of 53 commissioned officers, only three are AA.
• zero AA on the school board
• Of the six City Council members, one is black
• Ferguson’s police chief and mayor are white
So in white communities, the peace officers protect and serve. In black communities..that is not the case. The evidence is overwhelming on this fact. The "lawlessness", the unequal representation, the voter suppression we see today is targeted, and can almost always be traced directly back to the republican party committing the many injustices when they are in control - it is their platform
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Meteor Blades, TomP, and Pluto have done excellent reporting on the current state of things:
Ferguson and St. Louis County police won't name officer in Brown slaying. Family lawyer displeased - MB | August 12, 2014
More protests, calls for justice and calm punctuate day's events in Ferguson, Missouri, Tuesday - MB | August 13, 2014
Witnesses Describe Murder of Michael Brown - TomP | August 13, 2014
UPDATE: Gentle Giant Michael Brown -- ANON releases Dispatch tapes from Brown murder. Live. - Pluto | August 13, 2014
And this nails it: The Seamy Underbelly Of Ferguson Starts To Appear(Updated) by Phoebe Loosinhouse
“Despite Ferguson’s relative poverty, fines and court fees comprise the second largest source of revenue for the city, a total of 2,635,400,” according to the ArchCity Defenders report. And in 2013, the Ferguson Municipal Court issued 24,532 arrest warrants and 12,018 cases, “or about 3 warrants and 1.5 cases per household.”
..with
this:
Ferguson’s police chief and mayor are white. Of the six City Council members, one is black. The local school board has six white members and one Latino. Of the 53 commissioned officers on the police force, three are black, said Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson.
So this is kind of a blast from the past Diary of Rachel Maddow and her team doing what they do so well; digging into the history of things and tying that history to the present I wanted to share about our "Post Racial" America
Thank you for stopping by - be back later on this morning
And another thing:
[Chief of police] Jackson acknowledged that the shooting had brought "an undertow... to the surface" and pledged "to fix what's wrong."
"I'm being advised now by the community relations, number of measures that we can use to improve race relations, community relations," he said. "Tell me what to do and we'll do it."
"Race relations" would go a lot better if fourteen years of
data was put to good use and the people were allowed true representation - fixing that wrong would be a very good place to begin - imo - that and
de-militarizing our "peace" officers who, if instead of protecting citizens are killing them, do hard time in prison for it.
This (August 13, 2014) another murder of an innocent by the police has to stop
- Spread the word