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solarbirdThe police keep giving us more reasons to demand they be defunded, disbanded, and the very concept of law enforcement rebuilt from the ground up. Particularly how they're threatening to react to any budget cuts, or accountability - by saying they'll stop investigating murders, assaults, and rape.
Defund and disband is the only reasonable response.
As of time of posting (end of day 2020/6/17), this is the end of Greg Doucette's thread of police violence.
- Minneapolis PD surrounded by badly-built four-level-tall cement-block barricade
- Ex-Atlanta police officer who shot Rayshard Brooks charged with murder
- [DISPUTED IN STORY] Atlanta Police walkout following murder charge against officer who shot Rayshard Brooks
- Atlanta Police disputes rumors of mass walkouts
- LAPD’s union explicitly says the first thing they’d cut is 911 response times and rape investigations, not the millions they spend on military machinery and spying. They agree with us: their purpose is never protecting communities.
- The LAPD has managed to roll back decades of hard-fought reforms, writes Joel Rubin, who covered that struggle for the Los Angeles Times
- King County Labor Council expels Seattle police union
- A couple of specific Portland police attacks on people, included here because they asked people share it
- Portland police repeatedly shoot into the backs of protesters complying with orders to depart. Again: while complying, they are repeatedly shot in the back by police with "crowd control" munitions, at least some of which appear to be smoke grenades
- Inside The Dangerous Online Fever Swamps Of American Police: Cops have a far-right media ecosystem of their own, where they post racist memes, spread disinformation and call for violence against antifa.
----- 1 -----
Kiya Edwards [KARE Channel 11]
twitter.com/kiyaedwards
17 June 2020
https://twitter.com/kiyaedwards/status/1273212405909204993
Downtown Minneapolis twitter.com/MinneapolisPD #sunrisers
[EMBEDDED IMAGE of police department with badly-built four-level-tall cement-block barricade topped with barbed wire. Emphasis on badly built: they didn't stagger the bricks on the top level so they had to add metal braces.]
----- 2 -----
Ex-Atlanta police officer who shot Rayshard Brooks charged with murder
Rayshard Brooks, 27, was fatally shot in the parking lot of a Wendy's restaurant on June 12.
June 17, 2020, 1:03 PM PDT / Updated June 17, 2020, 1:55 PM PDT
By Minyvonne Burke
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-atlanta-police-officer-who-shot-rayshard-brooks-charged-murder-n1231305
The former Atlanta police officer who fatally shot Rayshard Brooks in the parking lot of a Wendy's restaurant has been charged with felony murder, the district attorney's office announced Wednesday.
The man, Garrett Rolfe, who was fired by the Atlanta Police Department after the June 12 shooting, faces 11 total counts, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said at a news conference.
A second officer, Devin Brosnan, was placed on administrative leave. Brosnan, who is a cooperating witness for the state, faces three charges, including aggravated assault and violation of oath.
Howard said that after the shooting, Rolfe said, "I got him." Brosnan stood on Brooks' body as he was lying on the ground and Rolfe kicked him, according to the district attorney.
----- 3 -----
Atlanta Police walkout following murder charge against officer who shot Rayshard Brooks
George Chidi
Jun 17, 2020
This story has been updated.
https://decaturish.com/2020/06/atlanta-police-walkout-following-murder-charge-against-officer-who-shot-rayshard-brooks/
Atlanta, GA — The head of Atlanta’s police union confirmed Wednesday that officers from the Atlanta Police Department in Zones 3 and 6 walked off the job Wednesday afternoon.
Vince Champion, southeast regional director of the International Brotherhood of Police officers, said that police officers had stopped answering calls midshift, in response to charges against Officer Garrett Rolfe who is accused of murdering Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta.
“The union, we would never advocate this. We wouldn’t advocate a blue flu,” Champion said. “We don’t know the numbers. Apparently we’re learning that command staff are asking outlying counties for support and aren’t getting it.”
Decaturish has calls out to public affairs officers in Gwinnett, DeKalb and Cobb counties for confirmation. A message to the spokesperson for Atlanta Police was not immediately returned.
A spokesperson for APD called reports of a walkout “inaccurate.”
“Earlier suggestions that multiple officers from each zone had walked off the job were inaccurate,” the spokesperson said. “However, the department is experiencing a higher than usual number of call-outs with the incoming shift. We have enough resources to maintain operations and remain able to respond to incidents throughout the city.”
----- 4 -----
Atlanta Police disputes rumors of mass walkouts
11Alive has received numerous calls and tips from viewers about the rumors, but police say they aren't accurate.
Adrianne M Haney
17 June 2020
https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/atlanta-police-disputes-rumors-of-mass-walkouts/85-78ea71bc-3f36-4ce8-9557-86bfa2353c7c
ATLANTA — Atlanta Police is addressing rumors of walk outs of officers with the department Wednesday night.
Atlanta Police spokesman Sgt. John Chafee told 11Alive that suggestions that multiple officers from each of the department's zones had walked off the job were "inaccurate."
"However," Chafee said, "the department is experiencing a higher than usual number of call outs with the incoming shift."
He added that the department has "enough resources" to be able to respond to incidents throughout the city and maintain regular operations. 11Alive has asked for specifics about the number of officers who have called out
The statement comes as rumors grow online about reports of officers walking out of certain zones and officers not answering the radio. 11Alive has also received numerous calls and tips from viewers about the rumors, but police say they aren't accurate.
The claims come just hours after Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced fired Atlanta Police Officer Garrett Rolfe is charged with murder and several other counts in connection to the fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks, who was killed during an encounter with police at a Wendy's restaurant off University Avenue Friday night.
----- 5 -----
Shakeer Rahman
twitter.com/srahrman
13 June 2020
https://twitter.com/srahrman/status/1271887232249413632
[THREAD]
I love this: LAPD’s union explicitly says the first thing they’d cut is 911 response times and rape investigations, not the millions they spend on military machinery and spying. They agree with us: their purpose is never protecting communities.
[QUOTED TWEET]
LAPPL [The Los Angeles Police Protective League | PD union ]
twitter.com/LAPPL
June 8, 2020
https://twitter.com/LAPPL/status/1270057916943314944
Cutting the #LAPD budget means longer responses to 911 calls; officers calling for backup won’t get it; rape, murder & assault investigations won’t occur or will take forever to complete. An arbitrary cut of $150m will have a huge impact on our community. https://video.foxnews.com/v/6161928131001#sp=show-clips
[NEXT]
This is what they're saying about a "cut of $150m." LAPD's budget is $1.8 billion. If that's reduced by 1%, "rape, murder & assault investigations won't occur."
----- 6 -----
Mitchell Landsberg
twitter.com/LATlands
14 June 2020
https://twitter.com/LATlands/status/1272284721003655168
The LAPD has managed to roll back decades of hard-fought reforms, writes twitter.com/joelrubin, who covered that struggle for the twitter.com/latimes.
[LINKS TO:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-14/lapd-protest-history-criticism-heavy-tactics
LAPD violence against George Floyd protests erodes a decade of reforms
A decade ago, LAPD won praise for its handling of protests. What happened?
[IMAGE]
Loomis, Rick –– Los Angeles, Ca. –– KCBS cameraman Carl Stein was hit twice by the LAPD, once in the ribs with a baton when he stopped to shoot with his video camera, the second time he was steamrolled by the police when he stopped to photograph them firing. The LAPD used batons and rubber bullets to control a crowd at MacArthur Park that had gathered at the end of an immigrant rights...
----- 7 -----
King County Labor Council expels Seattle police union
The vote comes amid ongoing protests and weeks of pressure from community advocates and some union members.
by David Kroman
June 17, 2020
https://crosscut.com/2020/06/king-county-labor-council-expels-seattle-police-union
Amid heightened scrutiny of police unions and their place in the labor movement, the King County Labor Council voted Wednesday to expel the Seattle Police Officers Guild, which represents roughly 1,300 officers, from its ranks.
The vote comes two weeks after the council, an affiliate of the national AFL-CIO, passed a resolution calling on SPOG to acknowledge and address racism within its ranks and law enforcement more generally, and to commit to negotiating collective bargaining agreements that do not evade accountability.
The police union’s board of directors acknowledged in a letter this week that “institutional racism exists not only in the criminal justice system but more broadly,” and its president, Mike Solan, met with members of the council’s executive committee to discuss a path forward.
Speaking to council delegates Wednesday, Solan said the police union wanted to remain involved in the labor coalition.
"We see a future, one that engages in these robust conversations, in particular with race and how the institution of racism impacts all of our labor unions, not just law enforcement," he said.
But the efforts fell short. A majority of delegates concluded the union should be removed from the council.
"We can’t both stand with a police system that’s set up to hurt our Black community and stand up for our people of color who are oppressed by police," said Jane Hopkins, executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW.
----- 8 -----
Tuck Woodstock
twitter.com/tuckwoodstock
16 June 2020
https://twitter.com/tuckwoodstock/status/1272788511117021184
[THREAD, up and down]
And this, my friends, is when police were aiming guns at a protester next to me, and I got caught in the protester’s umbrella and then slammed into by police and then dropped my phone and then picked it up to see the protester get jumped on by many police. So. Content warning.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
[NEXT]
And this is, uh, like 30 police officers sprinting at 2 unarmed teenagers who were literally just standing in the street.
(I have video proof of them doing nothing but it’s boring because they’re doing nothing)
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
[NEXT]
This is how i leave the park every night now, by the way. Just walking backwards trying not to eat shit while filming a row of baton-wielding officers.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
[THREAD CONTINUES AT UPPER LINK]
----- 9 -----
T. Greg Doucette
twitter.com/greg_doucette
https://twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/1273442002219208705
541: Portland, OR: police repeatedly shoot protestors in the back as they're walking away – complying with police orders to leave
Lawlessness
[IG: https://instagram.com/tv/CA9pRwWpXwR/ ; full video is 4min+]
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
----- 10 -----
Inside The Dangerous Online Fever Swamps Of American Police
Cops have a far-right media ecosystem of their own, where they post racist memes, spread disinformation and call for violence against antifa.
By Jesselyn Cook and Nick Robins-Early
17 June 2020
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/police-protests-floyd-law-enforcement-today-rant_n_5ee3ef5fc5b699cea53196b4
Around the time news broke on Monday afternoon that the New York City Police Department would disband plainclothes anti-crime units that had been tied to several high-profile police shootings, someone calling themselves “ltdad613” started a thread on Thee Rant, a police message board that purports to host current and former NYPD employees. “I wouldn’t want to be a [Commanding Officer] for the next few compstats,” ltdad613 wrote. “This is right from [New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio]. I feel for anybody still on the job.”
Elsewhere, the posts on Thee Rant were much darker. In one Monday thread, “dominop” wrote that “A Firing squad would be a good cure for ANTIFA!!!” Other users chimed in to say snipers or napalm might be more fitting.
Thee Rant is just one node in a wider web of right-wing police media. On similar message boards, in Facebook groups and on news sites such as Law Enforcement Today — a sort of Breitbart-like outlet written by and for police — there is a fervent narrative that police are under nonstop siege, and that antifa in particular is a constant threat.
This police media ecosystem is not necessarily a broad representation of what most cops believe. But inside this echo chamber, which has thousands of users and readers, extremist views dictate the narrative. Wild misinformation and bigotry are rampant, with people who claim to be current and former officers posting debunked falsehoods and racist stereotypes about protesters.
Intense public focus on police behavior in recent weeks, following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, has led to the termination of several law enforcement officers who posted conspiratorial or racist messages on their personal social media pages. When these posts are singled out for scrutiny and have a real officer’s name attached, opprobrium comes quickly, but most of those posts would be right at home in right-wing police media.
...
Law Enforcement Today claims to be the largest law enforcement-owned and -operated media company in America. It has repeatedly promoted far-right conspiracy theorists and authoritarian policies, particularly during the recent mass demonstrations against police violence.
Founded by Robert Greenberg, a Florida police captain who has called his outlet “a platform for the voice of law enforcement,” LET has more than 800,000 followers on Facebook and runs a syndicated radio show. Much of its content is provided by former or current police officers, and it offers paid memberships of $75 a year to gain access to “the patriotic content that the social media giants don’t want you to see.”
The site’s articles often bear only a passing resemblance to reality. Earlier this month, Law Enforcement Today published an article calling for the arrest of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, accusing him of aiding and abetting “antifa” terrorists. The post cited numerous far-right media activists, including anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, and suggested that Democratic officials including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.) are antifa sympathizers. It also baselessly attacked Tlaib and Omar, who are Muslim, as “arguably anti-Semites and ISIS supporters (if not in words, in actions).”
“Law Enforcement Today supports Laura [Loomer]’s demand that Dorsey be arrested and prosecuted for promoting an insurrection against the United States,” the article says. It also suggests that politicians such as Omar who have expressed support for the current protests against police brutality and systemic injustice should be arrested as well.
The article is published under the pseudonym “Sgt. A. Merica” and claims to be “written by several staff writers, including retired and wounded law enforcement officers.” Law Enforcement Today says it verifies the identity and background of its authors before publishing.
When it isn’t stirring fear of antifa, much of the site’s coverage focuses on law enforcement officers who have been harmed in the line of duty. It also regularly criticizes elected officials who are seeking to curb police powers, part of what the site calls a “war on law enforcement.” The consistent message is that police are perpetually under attack, and that the government — with the exception of President Donald Trump — does not have their back.
...
Thee Rant, formerly NYPD Rant, bills itself as a salon of “New York City Cops speaking their minds,” though often the extremist rhetoric on the site more closely resembles 4chan. Edward Polstein, who was fired from the NYPD in 2004, created the site to give verified members of the force — both current and former — an outlet to anonymously vent about their jobs without fear of retribution.
The message board is a cesspool of disinformation, bigoted memes and far-right propaganda, and regularly lights up with racist comments after publicized incidents of police brutality against people of color. Lately, users have been targeting protesters participating in the nationwide Black Lives Matter marches sparked by Floyd’s killing.
Thee Rant posts in the past three weeks have described Floyd as a “mutt” and a “worthless thug,” Black people as “Negroids” and “ghetto rats,” and protesters as “scum.” Various posts call for violence against protesters and spread debunked conspiracy theories that are often sourced to far-right media outlets, including Breitbart, One America News Network and The Federalist.
