Entry tags:
Today's News (2020/7/10): Police Violence edition
This thread from the Seattle PD (see entry 13) is why we need to completely tear down law enforcement and start over.
----- 1 -----
Seattle City Council pressed to defund police, move 911 response dispatchers out of department
By Daniel Beekman
July 8, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-city-council-pressed-to-defund-police-move-911-response-dispatchers-out-of-department/
Representatives from a new coalition called Decriminalize Seattle pressed the City Council in a meeting Wednesday to immediately begin redirecting millions of dollars in funding from the Police Department to community-based solutions, affordable housing and a new approach to public safety.
In a letter, meanwhile, Mayor Jenny Durkan’s top deputy warned the council to hold off on major cuts until more analysis and planning can be done.
The council also heard details about how the city’s 911 system is used, with some members saying they would like to remove Seattle’s 911 dispatchers from Police Department control, as recommended by Decriminalize Seattle.
The types of 911 calls that Seattle police respond to most are reported disturbances, suspicious circumstances, parking issues, public assistance needs and car crashes, accounting for 41% of all calls. Those are mostly noncriminal issues.
The Police Department’s call center already is staffed almost exclusively by civilian dispatchers, rather than sworn officers, and has an annual budget of about $36 million (its dispatchers transfer some calls to the Fire Department).
“We believe 911 dispatch should be removed from SPD control,” partly because armed police responding to calls too often leads to killings of Black people, said Angélica Cházaro, a representative from Decriminalize Seattle invited to present to the council’s budget committee Wednesday. “911 calls should be referred, whenever appropriate, to non-police responders.”
Councilmember Andrew Lewis expressed “very strong support” for the idea, which Councilmember Dan Strauss characterized as a potential “quick win.”
----- 2 -----
Spek the Lawless
![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
spekulation
Seattle Police are out of control. They just arrested photojournalist, Brad Fox.
10 July 2020
https://twitter.com/spekulation/status/1281656761296936961
Police told Brad, "we know where you live"... So Brad repeated those words to his livestream audience, and police then arrested him for threatening an officer. This is retribution, pure and simple.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO AT LINK]
[NEXT]
For context, Brad is the person who recorded Seattle Police yesterday morning arresting a photojournalist in the middle of a protest. The video went viral, leading to nationwide criticism of SPD's heavy-handed, escalatory tactics.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
[SEE ALSO:
Spek the Lawless
twitter.com/spekulation
9 July 2020
https://twitter.com/spekulation/status/1281282336395411456
The brazen, violent escalations by Seattle Police, happening daily on our streets now, are a direct result of the failure of our local media, elected officials, and the public at large. We must keep pressure on this department and must not allow them to continue these abductions.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
]
[SEE ALSO:
Mike Alcazaren
twitter.com/MikeAlcazaren
9 July 2020
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1281554061972692994
Looks like twitter.com/SeattlePD just arrested a protestor for nothing. A peaceful #seattleprotest was outside our apartment, and the #Seattle police took someone, and then left. Black Lives Matter. (~20 sec in). Not sure if they took the protestor in.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
]
----- 3 -----
T. Greg Doucette
twitter.com/greg_doucette
9 July 2020
745: Chicago, IL: police trotted out the standard "YoU nEeD uS!" narrative and pointed to all the violent criminals they arrested
Except the arrests were publicly accessible via a database, and reporters found out the police lied
So CPD shut it down
[QUOTED TWEET]
Catalin Cimpanu
twitter.com/campuscodi
9 July 2020
https://twitter.com/campuscodi/status/1281362040339169281
The Chicago Police Department has shut down its Arrests API after reporters caught the PD lying about recent arrests.
Most arrests were for protest-related crimes, not violent crime.
If it walks like a cover-up and talks like a cover-up...
https://chicagoreporter.com/chicago-police-department-arrest-api-shutdown-is-its-own-kind-of-cover-up/
----- 4 -----
Chicago Police Department arrest API shutdown is its own kind of ‘cover up’
Blocking access to key law enforcement data hinders critical accountability efforts by journalists and researchers and ultimately limits discourse on public safety.
By Asraa Mustufa Asraa Mustufa and David Eads | July 8, 2020
https://www.chicagoreporter.com/chicago-police-department-arrest-api-shutdown-is-its-own-kind-of-cover-up/
With Chicago reeling this week from a bloody July 4 weekend that saw more than 80 shootings claim the lives of at least 17 people, including young children, police Superintendent David Brown doubled down on his approach to stemming the violence at a press conference Monday.
“We must keep violent offenders in jail longer,” Brown said, arguing that arrestees are getting released too quickly and that the electronic monitoring program is “clearly not working” and needs to be revamped. Mayor Lori Lightfoot agreed on the need to keep violent offenders locked up in order to reduce crime.
Brown had deployed an additional 1,200 officers on the streets ahead of the holiday weekend to break up “drug corners,” in a strategy not unlike that of police chiefs before him. His plan was criticized by civil rights advocates and criminologists, WBEZ reported.
“Our endgame is arrests for the precursors to violence,” Brown said. “But when we clear the corner, we’re pleading with the court systems: Keep them in jail through the weekend.”
Brown’s remarks raise many questions. How did officers carry out this policing strategy? Did they make arrests for violent crimes or other charges? How long were arrestees in police custody? Do these defendants quickly bond out or remain detained? Do these kinds of arrests really keep violent offenders off the street and effectively prevent more violence? Queries like these are key to digging into Brown’s claims and gauging how effective CPD’s tactics are.
But it’s now substantially more difficult to check CPD’s claims and details about arrests. That’s because the department recently shut down its arrest API used by journalists and researchers. A data API, or application programming interface, provides access to structured information in a way machines can read, akin to the difference between getting data in a spreadsheet file versus copying it by hand into a spreadsheet.
----- 5 -----
Majority of Seattle council pledges to support Police Department defunding plan laid out by advocates
July 9, 2020
By Daniel Beekman
Seattle Times staff reporter
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/majority-of-seattle-council-pledges-to-support-police-department-defunding-plan-laid-out-by-advocates/
A majority of Seattle City Council members now say they agree with a high-level proposal by advocates to defund the Police Department by 50% and reallocate the dollars to other community needs.
Council members Lisa Herbold, Dan Strauss and Andrew Lewis added support Thursday to a road map set out by Decriminalize Seattle and King County Equity Now.
They joined colleagues Tammy Morales, Kshama Sawant, Teresa Mosqueda and M. Lorena González, who previously backed the push to reduce the Police Department’s annual budget by 50% and promised quick action, while Mayor Jenny Durkan has asked the council to slow down.
That means seven of nine council members are on board with the idea, though they have yet to say exactly how they intend to make the cuts; six votes are needed to pass budget-related legislation and to override a mayoral veto. Durkan has not backed a 50% reduction.
Decriminalize Seattle and King County Equity Now are new coalitions that have emerged during the recent Black Lives Matter protests and that count a number of community organizations led by Black people as endorsers.
In a presentation to the council’s budget committee Wednesday, they said the Police Department’s 2021 budget should be reduced by 50% from the status quo (its budget is $409 million this year). They also said the department’s remaining 2020 budget should be cut by 50% this summer.
----- 6 -----
Tana Hargest
twitter.com/TanaHargest
10 July 2020
“Some officers were...saving a bullet in case they needed to take their own life, rather than being beaten to death, he said."
MPD think they are in a zombie movie.
City residents lived through the same events, without military armor/weapons, and no medical leave.
[QUOTED TWEET]
FOX 9
twitter.com/FOX9
9 July 2020
https://twitter.com/FOX9/status/1281414209704808449
150 Minneapolis police officers seeking disability for PTSD following riots
https://www.fox9.com/news/150-minneapolis-police-officers-seeking-disability-for-ptsd-following-riots
----- 7 -----
Police Punish the ‘Good Apples’
Law enforcement needs to protect those who prioritize their sworn duties above loyalty to their peers.
July 1, 2020
Musa al-Gharbi
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/what-police-departments-do-whistle-blowers/613687/
Isaac “Ike” Lambert was a decorated detective who had served more than 24 years in the Chicago Police Department. In 2017, an off-duty officer shot a teenager named Ricardo Hayes, who had autism and whose caregivers had reported him missing hours before. Some officers, according to Lambert, then tried to charge Hayes with assault on the basis of a distorted police report. Lambert noticed that his colleague’s official narrative of the encounter was sharply at odds with eyewitness accounts and other evidence (including video of the incident). Lambert declined to press charges against Hayes, then repeatedly refused to sign off on the officers’ fraudulent report—despite higher-ups insisting he help bury the incident. For this, Lambert asserted in a whistleblower lawsuit, he was promptly “dumped” to patrol duty.
In a case like this, an understandable inclination would be to focus on the victim, an unarmed autistic kid who had committed no crime, or on punishing the police officer who assaulted him. (Officer Khalil Muhammad received a mere six-month suspension for shooting Hayes.) Lost in the discussion are principled officers like Lambert, who resisted attempted malfeasance by his colleagues and paid a price for it.
He is far from alone. Police officers in the United States engage in all manner of bad behavior, such as excessive force, sexual misconduct, financial impropriety, and the manipulation of evidence. Holding them to account criminally, civilly, or professionally is extremely difficult, even in cases involving blatant malpractice and misconduct. Yet, even as bad cops evade punishment for wrongdoing, those who stand up to corruption, report negligence or abuse, or decline to comply with bad orders are frequently marginalized, demoted, or outright fired.
----- 8 -----
‘This is a time bomb’—Leaked docs reveal homophobic, racist police instructors
'Your whole program would go down in flames.'
Jul 10, 2020, 7:44 am*
Colleen Hagerty
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/blueleaks-training-surveys/
In early September 2017, the Midwest Counterdrug Training Center (MCTC) hosted a course on “narcoterrorism.” By most accounts, it was a helpful few days of lessons on the drug trade and criminal organizations, led by an instructor with years of law enforcement experience.
In surveys, some later praised it as a “wake-up call,” a course with “virtually no room for improvement.”
...
And then, there was this: “I don’t know where to start – as someone who has worked full-time counter-terrorism for the past six years, this course was a complete disappointment. The instruction was long on rants and short on any actual substance. Any substantive material was outdated (some of it more than 20 years old). Much of the material taught is publicly available ‘conspiracy’ theory that has been disproved through investigation.”
The respondent continued, “While the instructor was open about his ‘anti-PC’ beliefs – this is the only time I have ever heard the [N-word] repeatedly used by instructors and students.”
The written review ended with a warning to the MCTC leadership.
“This is a time bomb – if anyone were to record [the teacher’s] rants and leak them to the media your whole program would go down in flames.”
...
“Something I was debating on even adding to the survey is that the instructor used a lot of sexual jokes,” another responder admitted. “There were also a lot of sexist jokes towards women. At the time, I was the only woman in the class.”
For example, in a 2013 class on statement analysis and interviewing, one instructor allegedly joked, “If a woman is crying, she is lying.”
In 2014, a reviewer likened their organized crime instructor to “Larry The Cable Guy,” due to his “inappropriate racial jokes, sexist jokes, and a barrage of profanity.”
...
Others criticized the actual course material and practical law enforcement learnings offered. A 2013 student mentioned their instructor, “suggested [criminal] subjects not be given a break to get a drink and use the restroom after several hours, which may be considered a civil rights violation.”
Following a 2017 course purportedly about “narcotics investigative skills,” one participant criticized the trainer for proposing similar tactics to be used on sexual assault victims.
“If you want to present info on sex assault investigations – look at ‘trauma informed’ approaches. But I suppose the best question is: why is a narcotics investigative skills conference presenting speakers that are commenting on sex assault?”
Numerous comments in this vein referred back to the “reputation of MCTC,” and fears that instructors like these would “degrade” its status or that of other law enforcement departments.
“I found myself embarrassed to admit being part of the National Guard during this class due to instructor’s association with a National Guard affiliated course,” read one 2018 response.
“As a Counterdrug person I was embarrassed that the course had our name on it,” mentioned another.
“If I ever had to testify in court to the amount of training I received in narcotics investigations and if the instructor taught me how to conduct … investigations and act professionally, etc, I could not say he [did] this, and I would say he was a bad example for law enforcement officers and I would recommend officers not act like him,” concluded one reviewer, commenting on one of the instructors still publicly linked to the program.
“He flat out said in class that he lied all the time in court to cover his partner’s asses. He said multiple times a badge and being a cop means ‘you can do whatever the fuck you want.’”
----- 9 -----
Dana Larsen: Toronto cops barrage fellow officers with porn and abuse
by Dana Larsen on July 5th, 2020
https://www.straight.com/news/dana-larsen-toronto-cops-barrage-fellow-officers-with-porn-and-abuse
As debate rages about violence and racism in policing, let's not forget the epidemic of intense sexual harassment, which is commonplace among Canadian police from coast to coast.
Last time, I wrote about how many female Calgary police officers have claimed sexual harassment from other officers, which included allegations of being sent masses of unsolicited dick pics and being ordered by superior officers to loudly fake orgasms in public places in front of children.
Now let's turn our attention to Toronto, where a number of female officers have alleged harassment, such as receiving hundreds of sexual images via text from other officers. Const. Heather McWilliam claimed fellow officers would often ask her about the colour of her underwear and begin phone calls by asking her what she was wearing.
Female officers were openly called dykes, cunts, and sluts at work. Some officers used hardcore porn images as screensavers.
When McWilliam's superior officer said to her in front of other officers that he was going to spank her, she considered complaining. Her unit commander at the time, Ron Taverner, convinced her not to say anything, told her she needed "tougher skin", and pointed to a poster in his office that read: “Loose lips sink ships.”
Taverner, who was briefly head of the Ontario Provincial Police last year and is described as "a close friend" of Ontario premier Doug Ford, coincidentally fell and got a "moderate concussion" just seven days before he was scheduled to testify in McWilliam's sexual-harassment case.
As a result, he got out of being questioned and the hearings concluded without his testimony.
An Ontario Human Rights Tribunal adjudicator recently ordered the Toronto Police Services Board to pay McWilliam $85,000 to compensate for injury to her dignity, feelings, and self-respect.
Many other Toronto police officers report the same thing as McWilliam, including Const. Effy Zarabi who claims she has received a steady barrage of unwanted sexually explicit and racist messages and sexual advances after she joined the force in 2008.
----- 10 -----
I was arrested, jailed and assaulted by a guard. My ‘crime’? Being a journalist in Trump’s America
In his 30-year career, The Independent’s Chief US Correspondent Andrew Buncombe has filed dispatches from across the world. Last week, while reporting on protests in Seattle, he was arrested for the first time. What he saw next throws the spotlight on a broken criminal justice system
by Andrew Buncombe
July 10, 2020
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/journalist-arrest-seattle-chaz-protest-police-prison-black-lives-matter-a9606846.html
Seattle’s protest in support of Black Lives Matter was established just days after the killing of George Floyd. To the participants and their supporters, the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) was a living experiment in how a community might exist without police. To their detractors, most vocally Donald Trump, who denounced them as anarchists and terrorists, the protesters and the six city blocks they had been ceded were proof of liberals gone mad. It was quirky and it was controversial.
For a month, as demonstrators marched in cities around the world, demanding racial justice and the defunding of police departments, Seattle’s protesters existed in an uneasy half-life, partly tolerated by a mayor keen to avoid more violence, and despised by those who thought the police had been wrong to abandon the area.
Then, on July 1, the city decided the experiment was over. It was time to clear the protesters.
How badly did Seattle need to retake those streets? Enough to arrest a journalist covering the operation?
Were the authorities so deaf to what protesters had been saying about police overreach and use of excessive force they were prepared to shackle that reporter, charge him with “failure to disperse” and then assault him?
Were they so oblivious to how jails across the nation had become hotspots for coronavirus they would put that person in a dirty, overcrowded cell where efforts to counter the disease were minimal?
Apparently so.
As police swept through Cal Anderson Park and the streets around it, officers with long sticks, backed up by armoured vehicles, were retaking the buildings of the East Precinct. They arrested dozens of people. I was among them.
----- 11 -----
Ursula
twitter.com/blearyeyedduty
8 July 2020
https://twitter.com/blearyeyedduty/status/1280865825222729728
Remember when cops found and arrested a protestor by tracking down her Etsy review of the t shirt she was wearing
[QUOTED TWEET]
twitter.com/YDSABloomington
7 July 2020
Bloomington Police Department says the registration on the car who plowed through protests leads nowhere. Shoutout to the twitter.com/idsnews for coverage.
[LINKS TO:
https://idsnews.com/article/2020/07/police-have-not-yet-found-driver-who-hit-protesters-due-to-invalid-address-on-registration
]
----- 12 -----
Court: Officer who stomped on suspect’s ankle cannot be sued
9 July 2020
https://apnews.com/f4b80d7c57acb2b0ff0ac47b923a84c4
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A Davenport officer who stomped on the ankle of a suspect used unreasonable force but cannot be held liable for doing so, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
The 2015 stomp by officer Brian Stevens allegedly broke the ankle of suspect Juan Shelton, who was pinned down by five officers at the time.
Shelton had been wanted for a man’s beating at a Davenport strip club, and led officers on a chase in which he was armed.
Eventually officers caught him after a foot chase, and pinned him down. As he refused to surrender his hands, Shelton was put in a chokehold that briefly made him unconscious, punched in the ribs, struck in the head by an officer’s radio and stomped on by Stevens.
----- 13 -----
Spek the Lawless
twitter.com/spekulation
10 July 2020
https://twitter.com/spekulation/status/1281747281557909504
I don't think "if you defund us then we'll only keep the white officers," is the convincing argument they think it is. It is this kind of abusive hostage-taking that has enabled Seattle Police to avoid accountability for so long.
"Hold us accountable and we'll have to hurt you."
[EMBEDDED IMAGES: Tweets from Seattle PD saying cuts would mean a much whiter police force.]
----- 14 -----
$23 million cited as Portland protest damages was mostly tied to coronavirus closures
Updated 6:09 PM; Today 3:33 PM
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/07/coronavirus-closures-inflated-23-million-reported-in-downtown-portland-protest-damages.html
A widely touted $23 million hit to downtown Portland businesses mostly attributed to nightly demonstrations was almost entirely tied to lost sale figures from Pioneer Place mall, survey data and independent analysis shows.
Portland police cited the figure during a news conference Wednesday to help illustrate the historic and damaging toll levied by six weeks of demonstrations over police brutality. National media repeated the estimate, which came from a Portland Business Alliance survey of 91 businesses from June 1 to June 18 about protest-related damages.
Almost 90% in reported damages and lost business came from one respondent, which reported $2.5 million in damages and $18 million in lost sales because of business closures for repairs from May 31 through June 18. The respondent said the business lost $1 million every day during that time period, according to the survey. The respondent wrote that the financial hit came after retail shops and restaurants had already been “devastated” by COVID-19.
- SEATTLE: Seattle City Council pressed to defund police, move 911 response dispatchers out of department
- SEATTLE: Seattle Police arrest photojournalist Brad Fox, who photographed them arresting a protestor for doing, apparently, nothing.
- CHICAGO: The Chicago Police Department has shut down its Arrests API after reporters caught the PD lying about recent arrests.
- CHICAGO: Chicago Police Department arrest API shutdown is its own kind of ‘cover up’
- SEATTLE: Majority of Seattle council pledges to support Police Department defunding plan laid out by advocates
- MINNEAPOLIS: MPD think they are in a zombie movie.
- Police Punish the ‘Good Apples’
- ‘This is a time bomb’—Leaked docs reveal homophobic, racist police instructors. “He flat out said in class that he lied all the time in court to cover his partner’s asses. He said multiple times a badge and being a cop means ‘you can do whatever the fuck you want.’”
- TORONTO: Dana Larsen: Toronto cops barrage fellow officers with porn and abuse
- SEATTLE: I was arrested, jailed and assaulted by a guard. My ‘crime’? Being a journalist in Trump’s America
- BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA: Bloomington Police Department says the registration on the car who plowed through protests leads nowhere.
- DAVENPORT, IOWA: Court: Officer who stomped on suspect’s ankle cannot be sued
- SEATTLE: Seattle PD says budget cuts will "make" it go whites-mostly.
- $23 million cited as Portland protest damages was mostly tied to coronavirus closures
----- 1 -----
Seattle City Council pressed to defund police, move 911 response dispatchers out of department
By Daniel Beekman
July 8, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-city-council-pressed-to-defund-police-move-911-response-dispatchers-out-of-department/
Representatives from a new coalition called Decriminalize Seattle pressed the City Council in a meeting Wednesday to immediately begin redirecting millions of dollars in funding from the Police Department to community-based solutions, affordable housing and a new approach to public safety.
In a letter, meanwhile, Mayor Jenny Durkan’s top deputy warned the council to hold off on major cuts until more analysis and planning can be done.
The council also heard details about how the city’s 911 system is used, with some members saying they would like to remove Seattle’s 911 dispatchers from Police Department control, as recommended by Decriminalize Seattle.
The types of 911 calls that Seattle police respond to most are reported disturbances, suspicious circumstances, parking issues, public assistance needs and car crashes, accounting for 41% of all calls. Those are mostly noncriminal issues.
The Police Department’s call center already is staffed almost exclusively by civilian dispatchers, rather than sworn officers, and has an annual budget of about $36 million (its dispatchers transfer some calls to the Fire Department).
“We believe 911 dispatch should be removed from SPD control,” partly because armed police responding to calls too often leads to killings of Black people, said Angélica Cházaro, a representative from Decriminalize Seattle invited to present to the council’s budget committee Wednesday. “911 calls should be referred, whenever appropriate, to non-police responders.”
Councilmember Andrew Lewis expressed “very strong support” for the idea, which Councilmember Dan Strauss characterized as a potential “quick win.”
----- 2 -----
Spek the Lawless
spekulationSeattle Police are out of control. They just arrested photojournalist, Brad Fox.
10 July 2020
https://twitter.com/spekulation/status/1281656761296936961
Police told Brad, "we know where you live"... So Brad repeated those words to his livestream audience, and police then arrested him for threatening an officer. This is retribution, pure and simple.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO AT LINK]
[NEXT]
For context, Brad is the person who recorded Seattle Police yesterday morning arresting a photojournalist in the middle of a protest. The video went viral, leading to nationwide criticism of SPD's heavy-handed, escalatory tactics.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
[SEE ALSO:
Spek the Lawless
twitter.com/spekulation
9 July 2020
https://twitter.com/spekulation/status/1281282336395411456
The brazen, violent escalations by Seattle Police, happening daily on our streets now, are a direct result of the failure of our local media, elected officials, and the public at large. We must keep pressure on this department and must not allow them to continue these abductions.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
]
[SEE ALSO:
Mike Alcazaren
twitter.com/MikeAlcazaren
9 July 2020
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1281554061972692994
Looks like twitter.com/SeattlePD just arrested a protestor for nothing. A peaceful #seattleprotest was outside our apartment, and the #Seattle police took someone, and then left. Black Lives Matter. (~20 sec in). Not sure if they took the protestor in.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
]
----- 3 -----
T. Greg Doucette
twitter.com/greg_doucette
9 July 2020
745: Chicago, IL: police trotted out the standard "YoU nEeD uS!" narrative and pointed to all the violent criminals they arrested
Except the arrests were publicly accessible via a database, and reporters found out the police lied
So CPD shut it down
[QUOTED TWEET]
Catalin Cimpanu
twitter.com/campuscodi
9 July 2020
https://twitter.com/campuscodi/status/1281362040339169281
The Chicago Police Department has shut down its Arrests API after reporters caught the PD lying about recent arrests.
Most arrests were for protest-related crimes, not violent crime.
If it walks like a cover-up and talks like a cover-up...
https://chicagoreporter.com/chicago-police-department-arrest-api-shutdown-is-its-own-kind-of-cover-up/
----- 4 -----
Chicago Police Department arrest API shutdown is its own kind of ‘cover up’
Blocking access to key law enforcement data hinders critical accountability efforts by journalists and researchers and ultimately limits discourse on public safety.
By Asraa Mustufa Asraa Mustufa and David Eads | July 8, 2020
https://www.chicagoreporter.com/chicago-police-department-arrest-api-shutdown-is-its-own-kind-of-cover-up/
With Chicago reeling this week from a bloody July 4 weekend that saw more than 80 shootings claim the lives of at least 17 people, including young children, police Superintendent David Brown doubled down on his approach to stemming the violence at a press conference Monday.
“We must keep violent offenders in jail longer,” Brown said, arguing that arrestees are getting released too quickly and that the electronic monitoring program is “clearly not working” and needs to be revamped. Mayor Lori Lightfoot agreed on the need to keep violent offenders locked up in order to reduce crime.
Brown had deployed an additional 1,200 officers on the streets ahead of the holiday weekend to break up “drug corners,” in a strategy not unlike that of police chiefs before him. His plan was criticized by civil rights advocates and criminologists, WBEZ reported.
“Our endgame is arrests for the precursors to violence,” Brown said. “But when we clear the corner, we’re pleading with the court systems: Keep them in jail through the weekend.”
Brown’s remarks raise many questions. How did officers carry out this policing strategy? Did they make arrests for violent crimes or other charges? How long were arrestees in police custody? Do these defendants quickly bond out or remain detained? Do these kinds of arrests really keep violent offenders off the street and effectively prevent more violence? Queries like these are key to digging into Brown’s claims and gauging how effective CPD’s tactics are.
But it’s now substantially more difficult to check CPD’s claims and details about arrests. That’s because the department recently shut down its arrest API used by journalists and researchers. A data API, or application programming interface, provides access to structured information in a way machines can read, akin to the difference between getting data in a spreadsheet file versus copying it by hand into a spreadsheet.
----- 5 -----
Majority of Seattle council pledges to support Police Department defunding plan laid out by advocates
July 9, 2020
By Daniel Beekman
Seattle Times staff reporter
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/majority-of-seattle-council-pledges-to-support-police-department-defunding-plan-laid-out-by-advocates/
A majority of Seattle City Council members now say they agree with a high-level proposal by advocates to defund the Police Department by 50% and reallocate the dollars to other community needs.
Council members Lisa Herbold, Dan Strauss and Andrew Lewis added support Thursday to a road map set out by Decriminalize Seattle and King County Equity Now.
They joined colleagues Tammy Morales, Kshama Sawant, Teresa Mosqueda and M. Lorena González, who previously backed the push to reduce the Police Department’s annual budget by 50% and promised quick action, while Mayor Jenny Durkan has asked the council to slow down.
That means seven of nine council members are on board with the idea, though they have yet to say exactly how they intend to make the cuts; six votes are needed to pass budget-related legislation and to override a mayoral veto. Durkan has not backed a 50% reduction.
Decriminalize Seattle and King County Equity Now are new coalitions that have emerged during the recent Black Lives Matter protests and that count a number of community organizations led by Black people as endorsers.
In a presentation to the council’s budget committee Wednesday, they said the Police Department’s 2021 budget should be reduced by 50% from the status quo (its budget is $409 million this year). They also said the department’s remaining 2020 budget should be cut by 50% this summer.
----- 6 -----
Tana Hargest
twitter.com/TanaHargest
10 July 2020
“Some officers were...saving a bullet in case they needed to take their own life, rather than being beaten to death, he said."
MPD think they are in a zombie movie.
City residents lived through the same events, without military armor/weapons, and no medical leave.
[QUOTED TWEET]
FOX 9
twitter.com/FOX9
9 July 2020
https://twitter.com/FOX9/status/1281414209704808449
150 Minneapolis police officers seeking disability for PTSD following riots
https://www.fox9.com/news/150-minneapolis-police-officers-seeking-disability-for-ptsd-following-riots
----- 7 -----
Police Punish the ‘Good Apples’
Law enforcement needs to protect those who prioritize their sworn duties above loyalty to their peers.
July 1, 2020
Musa al-Gharbi
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/what-police-departments-do-whistle-blowers/613687/
Isaac “Ike” Lambert was a decorated detective who had served more than 24 years in the Chicago Police Department. In 2017, an off-duty officer shot a teenager named Ricardo Hayes, who had autism and whose caregivers had reported him missing hours before. Some officers, according to Lambert, then tried to charge Hayes with assault on the basis of a distorted police report. Lambert noticed that his colleague’s official narrative of the encounter was sharply at odds with eyewitness accounts and other evidence (including video of the incident). Lambert declined to press charges against Hayes, then repeatedly refused to sign off on the officers’ fraudulent report—despite higher-ups insisting he help bury the incident. For this, Lambert asserted in a whistleblower lawsuit, he was promptly “dumped” to patrol duty.
In a case like this, an understandable inclination would be to focus on the victim, an unarmed autistic kid who had committed no crime, or on punishing the police officer who assaulted him. (Officer Khalil Muhammad received a mere six-month suspension for shooting Hayes.) Lost in the discussion are principled officers like Lambert, who resisted attempted malfeasance by his colleagues and paid a price for it.
He is far from alone. Police officers in the United States engage in all manner of bad behavior, such as excessive force, sexual misconduct, financial impropriety, and the manipulation of evidence. Holding them to account criminally, civilly, or professionally is extremely difficult, even in cases involving blatant malpractice and misconduct. Yet, even as bad cops evade punishment for wrongdoing, those who stand up to corruption, report negligence or abuse, or decline to comply with bad orders are frequently marginalized, demoted, or outright fired.
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‘This is a time bomb’—Leaked docs reveal homophobic, racist police instructors
'Your whole program would go down in flames.'
Jul 10, 2020, 7:44 am*
Colleen Hagerty
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/blueleaks-training-surveys/
In early September 2017, the Midwest Counterdrug Training Center (MCTC) hosted a course on “narcoterrorism.” By most accounts, it was a helpful few days of lessons on the drug trade and criminal organizations, led by an instructor with years of law enforcement experience.
In surveys, some later praised it as a “wake-up call,” a course with “virtually no room for improvement.”
...
And then, there was this: “I don’t know where to start – as someone who has worked full-time counter-terrorism for the past six years, this course was a complete disappointment. The instruction was long on rants and short on any actual substance. Any substantive material was outdated (some of it more than 20 years old). Much of the material taught is publicly available ‘conspiracy’ theory that has been disproved through investigation.”
The respondent continued, “While the instructor was open about his ‘anti-PC’ beliefs – this is the only time I have ever heard the [N-word] repeatedly used by instructors and students.”
The written review ended with a warning to the MCTC leadership.
“This is a time bomb – if anyone were to record [the teacher’s] rants and leak them to the media your whole program would go down in flames.”
...
“Something I was debating on even adding to the survey is that the instructor used a lot of sexual jokes,” another responder admitted. “There were also a lot of sexist jokes towards women. At the time, I was the only woman in the class.”
For example, in a 2013 class on statement analysis and interviewing, one instructor allegedly joked, “If a woman is crying, she is lying.”
In 2014, a reviewer likened their organized crime instructor to “Larry The Cable Guy,” due to his “inappropriate racial jokes, sexist jokes, and a barrage of profanity.”
...
Others criticized the actual course material and practical law enforcement learnings offered. A 2013 student mentioned their instructor, “suggested [criminal] subjects not be given a break to get a drink and use the restroom after several hours, which may be considered a civil rights violation.”
Following a 2017 course purportedly about “narcotics investigative skills,” one participant criticized the trainer for proposing similar tactics to be used on sexual assault victims.
“If you want to present info on sex assault investigations – look at ‘trauma informed’ approaches. But I suppose the best question is: why is a narcotics investigative skills conference presenting speakers that are commenting on sex assault?”
Numerous comments in this vein referred back to the “reputation of MCTC,” and fears that instructors like these would “degrade” its status or that of other law enforcement departments.
“I found myself embarrassed to admit being part of the National Guard during this class due to instructor’s association with a National Guard affiliated course,” read one 2018 response.
“As a Counterdrug person I was embarrassed that the course had our name on it,” mentioned another.
“If I ever had to testify in court to the amount of training I received in narcotics investigations and if the instructor taught me how to conduct … investigations and act professionally, etc, I could not say he [did] this, and I would say he was a bad example for law enforcement officers and I would recommend officers not act like him,” concluded one reviewer, commenting on one of the instructors still publicly linked to the program.
“He flat out said in class that he lied all the time in court to cover his partner’s asses. He said multiple times a badge and being a cop means ‘you can do whatever the fuck you want.’”
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Dana Larsen: Toronto cops barrage fellow officers with porn and abuse
by Dana Larsen on July 5th, 2020
https://www.straight.com/news/dana-larsen-toronto-cops-barrage-fellow-officers-with-porn-and-abuse
As debate rages about violence and racism in policing, let's not forget the epidemic of intense sexual harassment, which is commonplace among Canadian police from coast to coast.
Last time, I wrote about how many female Calgary police officers have claimed sexual harassment from other officers, which included allegations of being sent masses of unsolicited dick pics and being ordered by superior officers to loudly fake orgasms in public places in front of children.
Now let's turn our attention to Toronto, where a number of female officers have alleged harassment, such as receiving hundreds of sexual images via text from other officers. Const. Heather McWilliam claimed fellow officers would often ask her about the colour of her underwear and begin phone calls by asking her what she was wearing.
Female officers were openly called dykes, cunts, and sluts at work. Some officers used hardcore porn images as screensavers.
When McWilliam's superior officer said to her in front of other officers that he was going to spank her, she considered complaining. Her unit commander at the time, Ron Taverner, convinced her not to say anything, told her she needed "tougher skin", and pointed to a poster in his office that read: “Loose lips sink ships.”
Taverner, who was briefly head of the Ontario Provincial Police last year and is described as "a close friend" of Ontario premier Doug Ford, coincidentally fell and got a "moderate concussion" just seven days before he was scheduled to testify in McWilliam's sexual-harassment case.
As a result, he got out of being questioned and the hearings concluded without his testimony.
An Ontario Human Rights Tribunal adjudicator recently ordered the Toronto Police Services Board to pay McWilliam $85,000 to compensate for injury to her dignity, feelings, and self-respect.
Many other Toronto police officers report the same thing as McWilliam, including Const. Effy Zarabi who claims she has received a steady barrage of unwanted sexually explicit and racist messages and sexual advances after she joined the force in 2008.
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I was arrested, jailed and assaulted by a guard. My ‘crime’? Being a journalist in Trump’s America
In his 30-year career, The Independent’s Chief US Correspondent Andrew Buncombe has filed dispatches from across the world. Last week, while reporting on protests in Seattle, he was arrested for the first time. What he saw next throws the spotlight on a broken criminal justice system
by Andrew Buncombe
July 10, 2020
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/journalist-arrest-seattle-chaz-protest-police-prison-black-lives-matter-a9606846.html
Seattle’s protest in support of Black Lives Matter was established just days after the killing of George Floyd. To the participants and their supporters, the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) was a living experiment in how a community might exist without police. To their detractors, most vocally Donald Trump, who denounced them as anarchists and terrorists, the protesters and the six city blocks they had been ceded were proof of liberals gone mad. It was quirky and it was controversial.
For a month, as demonstrators marched in cities around the world, demanding racial justice and the defunding of police departments, Seattle’s protesters existed in an uneasy half-life, partly tolerated by a mayor keen to avoid more violence, and despised by those who thought the police had been wrong to abandon the area.
Then, on July 1, the city decided the experiment was over. It was time to clear the protesters.
How badly did Seattle need to retake those streets? Enough to arrest a journalist covering the operation?
Were the authorities so deaf to what protesters had been saying about police overreach and use of excessive force they were prepared to shackle that reporter, charge him with “failure to disperse” and then assault him?
Were they so oblivious to how jails across the nation had become hotspots for coronavirus they would put that person in a dirty, overcrowded cell where efforts to counter the disease were minimal?
Apparently so.
As police swept through Cal Anderson Park and the streets around it, officers with long sticks, backed up by armoured vehicles, were retaking the buildings of the East Precinct. They arrested dozens of people. I was among them.
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Ursula
twitter.com/blearyeyedduty
8 July 2020
https://twitter.com/blearyeyedduty/status/1280865825222729728
Remember when cops found and arrested a protestor by tracking down her Etsy review of the t shirt she was wearing
[QUOTED TWEET]
twitter.com/YDSABloomington
7 July 2020
Bloomington Police Department says the registration on the car who plowed through protests leads nowhere. Shoutout to the twitter.com/idsnews for coverage.
[LINKS TO:
https://idsnews.com/article/2020/07/police-have-not-yet-found-driver-who-hit-protesters-due-to-invalid-address-on-registration
]
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Court: Officer who stomped on suspect’s ankle cannot be sued
9 July 2020
https://apnews.com/f4b80d7c57acb2b0ff0ac47b923a84c4
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A Davenport officer who stomped on the ankle of a suspect used unreasonable force but cannot be held liable for doing so, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
The 2015 stomp by officer Brian Stevens allegedly broke the ankle of suspect Juan Shelton, who was pinned down by five officers at the time.
Shelton had been wanted for a man’s beating at a Davenport strip club, and led officers on a chase in which he was armed.
Eventually officers caught him after a foot chase, and pinned him down. As he refused to surrender his hands, Shelton was put in a chokehold that briefly made him unconscious, punched in the ribs, struck in the head by an officer’s radio and stomped on by Stevens.
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Spek the Lawless
twitter.com/spekulation
10 July 2020
https://twitter.com/spekulation/status/1281747281557909504
I don't think "if you defund us then we'll only keep the white officers," is the convincing argument they think it is. It is this kind of abusive hostage-taking that has enabled Seattle Police to avoid accountability for so long.
"Hold us accountable and we'll have to hurt you."
[EMBEDDED IMAGES: Tweets from Seattle PD saying cuts would mean a much whiter police force.]
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$23 million cited as Portland protest damages was mostly tied to coronavirus closures
Updated 6:09 PM; Today 3:33 PM
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/07/coronavirus-closures-inflated-23-million-reported-in-downtown-portland-protest-damages.html
A widely touted $23 million hit to downtown Portland businesses mostly attributed to nightly demonstrations was almost entirely tied to lost sale figures from Pioneer Place mall, survey data and independent analysis shows.
Portland police cited the figure during a news conference Wednesday to help illustrate the historic and damaging toll levied by six weeks of demonstrations over police brutality. National media repeated the estimate, which came from a Portland Business Alliance survey of 91 businesses from June 1 to June 18 about protest-related damages.
Almost 90% in reported damages and lost business came from one respondent, which reported $2.5 million in damages and $18 million in lost sales because of business closures for repairs from May 31 through June 18. The respondent said the business lost $1 million every day during that time period, according to the survey. The respondent wrote that the financial hit came after retail shops and restaurants had already been “devastated” by COVID-19.