For once I’m happy not to be writing about Trump, but it still somewhat Trump-Adjacent to point out this his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, is just now calling for an ending to the discussion of institutional racism among our police. Excuse me, but exactly when did we begin that discussion in a serious way?
COLORADO SPRINGS — GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence called on the country to end debate about "institutional racism" among law enforcement officers as protests in Charlotte flared this week following the shooting of another black man by a police officer.
"We ought to set aside this talk, this talk about institutional racism and institutional bias," Pence said during a roundtable with pastors in a Colorado Springs church on Thursday afternoon.
"Police officers are human beings and in difficult and life-threatening situations, mistakes are made and people have to be held to strict account," the Republican vice presidential candidate continued, noting, though, that "there will be a thorough investigation and that justice will be served and high standards will be upheld."
Pence called the riots in Charlotte "heartbreaking," and asserted that "too much of our politics in recent years has been about dividing the American people."
Our “politics” is dividing people? No, I think it’s the big pile dead bodies with police bullets in them that’s done that. According to the Guardian’s The Counted police killed 230 unarmed people in 2015. If that’s a representative figure then they’ve killed 3.450 people in the 15 years since 9/11 which is more Americans than were killed on that day.
That’s not a few “bad apples” problem. That’s a few bad baskets of apples problem. Deplorable baskets.
Look it is good news that the Tulsa DA has decided to charge Officer Betty Shelby with First Degree Manslaughter in the death of Terence Crutcher, but the bigger question is would that have even happened if the shooting hadn’t been caught on camera?
When former Officer Michael Slager murdered Walter Scott he attempted to cover up his crime with multiple lies on his police report.
Moments after the struggle, Officer Slager reported on his radio: “Shots fired and the subject is down. He took my Taser,” according to police reports.
But that’s not what happened.
Officer Slager wasn’t completely alone when this occurred. There was another Officer there within seconds, and he didn’t raise any alarm, he didn’t protest or file a negative report about Slager’s actions which would have brought Slager’s own lies on his report into question. If not for the video he would have gotten away with it.
When an Ohio University Office shot an unarmed motorist in the face, he falsely claimed he was being dragged by his car, a claim he almost immediately repeated — without being questioned or challenged — to his fellow officers following the incident. It even became part of the official police response.
CINCINNATI — A University of Cincinnati police officer who fatally shot a man he stopped over a missing license plate said he was being dragged by the man's vehicle and had to fire his weapon, according to a police report and the officer's radio call released Thursday.
The university released the police report and audio from Officer Ray Tensing's call after Sunday's shooting of Samuel Dubose. Tensing can be heard on the call yelling "Shots fired. Shots fired" and asking for a medic for a gunshot wound to the head.
…
The police report released Thursday said Tensing told officers responding to his radio call that he was attempting a traffic stop when "at some point, he began to be dragged by a male black driver who was operating a Green Honda Accord."
"Officer Tensing stated that he almost was run over by the driver of the Honda Accord and was forced to shoot the driver with his duty weapon," according to the report.
But that report, was a lie as his own body-cam footage showed.
This officer murdered Sam Dubose. Murdered. Yet he apparently had no qualms or compunctions about lying about it, writing a false police report over it and having all the other officers on the scene support his lie. If not for this footage this officer would have walked away from this scott free, instead he was charged with murder. Again, that’s not just a problem with one single officer.
When Laquan McDonald was shot down in the streets of Chicago by Officer Jason Van Dyke, he and other Officers claimed he had “charged them with a knife” the video footage showed he was walking away, and further several other officers tampered with the surveillance footage from a nearby Burger King to help cover it up.
That’s not just one bad apple, that’s an entire bushel. Fortunately five officers involved with this incident were fired after a “thorough investigation”, but Van Dyke has been charged with first degree murder the others weren’t prosecuted for obstruction of justice so I’d argue justice clearly wasn’t served. Not completely.
The DOJ report on the Baltimore PD said this.
In many of those cases, the victims of the violence had come forward to file a complaint with the police department. One of the DOJ's findings is that the Baltimore police actively worked to discourage and suppress complaints from citizens. (As MSNBC's Trymaine Lee put it, the investigation took 14 months "to reveal what black folks in the city of Baltimore have known for generations.")
...
"Lock up all the black hoodies," a commander once ordered.
Another officer wrote on Facebook, "Do not treat criminals like citizens."
Then there was a template, supplied by a shift commander to a sergeant and patrol officer, for reporting the arrest of someone for standing near a public housing unit without a "valid reason." That's a "facially unconstitutional detention," the DOJ wrote:
"Equally troubling is the fact that the template contains blanks to be filled in for details of the arrest, including the arrest data and location and the suspect's name and address, but does not include a prompt to fill in the race or gender of the arrestee. Rather, the words 'black male' are automatically included in the description of the arrest." (emphasis added)
That’s not just one officer here and there, that’s systemic, that’s institutional.
There were similar finding with the Cleveland Police Department.
The investigation, launched in March, 2013, assessed use of force practices of the Cleveland Division of Police following a number of high profile use of force incidents and requests from the community and local government to investigate the division. The investigation concluded that there is reasonable cause to believe that Cleveland police officers engage in a pattern or practice of unreasonable and in some cases unnecessary force in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. That pattern or practice includes:
- The unnecessary and excessive use of deadly force, including shootings and head strikes with impact weapons;
- The unnecessary, excessive or retaliatory use of less lethal force including Tasers, chemical spray and fists;
- Excessive force against persons who are mentally ill or in crisis, including in cases where the officers were called exclusively for a welfare check; and
- The employment of poor and dangerous tactics that place officers in situations where avoidable force becomes inevitable.
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And the Ferguson Police Department.
Ferguson’s law enforcement practices are shaped by the City’s focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs. This emphasis on revenue has compromised the institutional character of Ferguson’s police department, contributing to a pattern of unconstitutional policing, and has also shaped its municipal court, leading to procedures that raise due process concerns and inflict unnecessary harm on members of the Ferguson community. Further, Ferguson’s police and municipal court practices both reflect and exacerbate existing racial bias, including racial stereotypes. Ferguson’s own data establish clear racial disparities that adversely impact African Americans. The evidence shows that discriminatory intent is part of the reason for these disparities. Over time, Ferguson’s police and municipal court practices have sown deep mistrust between parts of the community and the police department, undermining law enforcement legitimacy among African Americans in particular.
These are not just a few officers here and there. This is systemic, this is institutional. The time to end this discussion is when we have concrete and effective safeguards and solutions in place that prevent this from happening, not when we’ve just begun to fully uncover it due to the unflinching eye of video and intense DOJ investigations, Governor.
This discussion is just starting.