Police After George Floyd

After George Floyd was murdered as a completely casual act by the Minneapolis Police, America was literally lit up by protestors. People of color, especially Black folks, had hundreds of years of brutality and oppression burst out in the form of uncontrollable crowds. Crowds wanted justice for Floyd and punishment for Officer Chauvin, the cop who murdered Floyd and his three fellow cops who just stood there, not intervening for all of the nine minutes during which Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck, preventing him from breathing. Around four minutes after the knee was first applied, one cop checked Floyd for pulse and said he found none, yet neither he nor any of the other two officers, did anything to stop Chauvin.

How and why do these terrible things continue to happen at the hands of Police officers all across the nation?

What things need to be changed before a change in Police culture can be seen and felt?

Seattle Police “Reform” and Fed Court Supervision

The residents of Seattle and its Police are approaching a point where the Police may simply be allowed to continue with their present behavior rather than undergo serious changes.

The Federal Courts decided that Seattle Police Department (SPD) required direct Federal oversight in order to bring it into standards that are unbiased and not hostile to the public. In 2014, a Consent Decree  was put together by the Community Police Commission (CPC), that laid out reform recommendations but the Federal Judge halted implementation of those recommendations until he could decide whether it was acceptable under the terms of the Consent Decree. At this time, the CPC is asking “stakeholders” to step forward and present any other revisions to the final documents before the courts have their hearing on June 28^th at 9:00 a.m. in the 7^th & Stewart courthouse in downtown Seattle. If the courts permit, then the control over the Police shifts to the Seattle Council’s legislative processes.

Our Police or Killer Militia?

This article explores Police in America, where are they heading and what makes them so violent. We will also seek some solutions as to how to change the culture of violence in our Police.

Planting Prejudice In Our Defenders

For the story behind this commentary, please  read from this link.

 

 

Prejudice goes a long way. After it infects the primary person, it is passed on the others at the same level, to juniors and to other impressionable people, until very soon, its effects can be seen across the board

 

Prejudice is corrosive at all levels, it is bad when parents share their prejudice with their children who make it their own, it is bad when friends share their prejudice with each other and exercise it against others, but it is especially bad when it is shared in training of people who have the power of freedom or prison; life or death.

 

Prejudice travels best when it is unopposed and when it is disguised as beneficial to neighbors or, to society, thus causing irretrievable damage.

This is how genocidal movements get their energy and how they succeed; just ask Hitler, Milosevic, Habyarimana…ask anybody who is in the hate-business and they will share their prejudice, cloaked as a blessing to humanity. The justifications for spreading prejudice, almost always include the protection of the innocence of a society against an inexorable evil.

 

One unintended consequence of promoting prejudice is, that once unleashed, it becomes uncontrollable and attacks the originators and the spectators, just as easily as the targets.

The Germans who watched silently as Jews were marched off to death camps, soon found themselves rubbing shoulders with the same Jews in the same camps; the Sunni Muslims who stayed on the sidelines as extremist Sunnis bombed Shia gatherings, soon found themselves and their own loved ones also being targeted and victimized by the same fanatics.

 

There has always been a latent prejudice against Muslims in the West and

The Tender Touch of Seattle Police

“I am going to beat the fucking Mexican piss out of you homey, you feel me?”

By now most people must have read or heard the words coming out of Seattle Police officer Shandy Cobane as he kicked a Hispanic suspect…who turned out to be an innocent man. Apparently, a King 5 poll (although not statistically sound) discovered that 70% of the respondents see that the reaction by the authorities is not enough, a startling 30% see that it IS enough!

Any bets on the ethnicities of the said 30%?

Officer Sandy Cobane then showed up at a press conference in tears, “remorseful and ashamed“, according to the reporter.

Cobane was in tears because, as he said, “…my comments have not only embarrassed myself, but have truly let down my colleagues. Colleagues who, without thinking twice, would lay down their lives for me“. He goes on through his blue tears, “To my brother detectives, I offer my sincerest apologies. I hope you will not allow my insensitive comments to taint what the department and the community have worked so hard to build.”

Wonderful! We can all cry with our contrite Police officer and salute the Blue Wall of Police uniforms as they move to protect their own. Politicians being gutless and true to form haven’t yet murmured any words of disgust; the Seattle Council said in a statement that the video of the man being beaten was, “troubling”, Mayor McGinn called the video, “disturbing”.