US cop who paralyzed Indian granddad arrested, fired

[Bangkok Herps]

How is it "beating a dead horse" when it's been proven time and time again to be true? If you're going to dismiss every example of violence as "a few knuckle heads", or completely ignore all the stories of how Black men who have done nothing wrong are repeatedly stopped and harassed, then how about the statistics that show that Black people are pulled over at a completely different rate than White people, searched at a different rate, charged at a different rate, etc.?

After the Ferguson case, it came out that:

Black people in Ferguson were three times as likely to be pulled over than White people.

Black people who were pulled over were more than twice as likely to be searched than White people.

Black people who were searched were 40% less likely to have contraband found in their vehicles than White people who were searched.

Black people, despite being less likely to have contraband found during searches, were still more than twice as likely to be arrested and taken into the station after the search.

As far as "but there are minority police officers", do you really believe their numbers are remotely representative? In Ferguson, a city that was 70% Black was being policed by a force that was 95% White. That pattern repeats itself all across America. And when you look at the numbers for the police chiefs and those in authority, the distribution is even worse.

Erik Holder's civil rights division has been investigating the Ferguson PD since Michael Brown attacked the police officer.

If they haven't found any civil rights violations after some six months, perhaps there aren't any.

If that team of ACLU trained attorneys can find even the remotest hint of corruption, they will be all over it.

I suggest you relax and wait for breaking news.

My oh my, the breaking news you told me to wait for indeed came. I suppose you'll change your story now?

Justice Department to Fault Ferguson Police, Seeing Racial Bias in Traffic Stops

The Justice Department has nearly completed a highly critical report accusing the police in Ferguson, Mo., of making discriminatory traffic stops of African-Americans that created years of racial animosity leading up to an officer’s shooting of a black teenager last summer, law enforcement officials said

According to several officials who have been briefed on the report’s conclusions, the report criticizes the city for disproportionately ticketing and arresting African-Americans and relying on the fines to balance the city’s budget. The report, which is expected to be released as early as this week, will force Ferguson officials to either negotiate a settlement with the Justice Department or face being sued by it on civil rights charges.

[jayceenik]

If you're a US or foreign vacationer touring the US by car you could be stopped on the road at anytime for no reason by a police patrol car and have the US$ cash you carry with you for your holiday confiscated under the pretense that it is suspected drug money.

You'll not get it back even if you start an expensive court case.

[chuckd]

Erik Holder's civil rights division has been investigating the Ferguson PD since Michael Brown attacked the police officer.

If they haven't found any civil rights violations after some six months, perhaps there aren't any.

If that team of ACLU trained attorneys can find even the remotest hint of corruption, they will be all over it.

I suggest you relax and wait for breaking news.

My oh my, the breaking news you told me to wait for indeed came. I suppose you'll change your story now?

Justice Department to Fault Ferguson Police, Seeing Racial Bias in Traffic Stops

According to several officials who have been briefed on the report’s conclusions, the report criticizes the city for disproportionately ticketing and arresting African-Americans and relying on the fines to balance the city’s budget. The report, which is expected to be released as early as this week, will force Ferguson officials to either negotiate a settlement with the Justice Department or face being sued by it on civil rights charges.

Why do I need to change my story? I suggested you wait and we waited.

Now it seems Holder's army of trained civil rights lawyers have found some questionable traffic stops over the years. If that's all they found, that would seem rather inconsequential in the long run.

I would question this statement lifted from your link:

"The Justice Department has nearly completed a highly critical report accusing the police in Ferguson, Mo., of making discriminatory traffic stops of African-Americans that created years of racial animosity leading up to an officer’s shooting of a black teenager last summer, law enforcement officials said"

Exactly how did some questionable traffic stops influence Michael Brown to want to attack a police officer and what impact did the traffic incidents have on the thinking and actions of Officer Wilson?

Just curious if you can figure that out. It certainly baffles me.

Thank you for your patience in waiting as I suggested. The end result is what I predicted on another thread months ago.

[Bangkok Herps]

Erik Holder's civil rights division has been investigating the Ferguson PD since Michael Brown attacked the police officer.

If they haven't found any civil rights violations after some six months, perhaps there aren't any.

If that team of ACLU trained attorneys can find even the remotest hint of corruption, they will be all over it.

I suggest you relax and wait for breaking news.

My oh my, the breaking news you told me to wait for indeed came. I suppose you'll change your story now?

Justice Department to Fault Ferguson Police, Seeing Racial Bias in Traffic Stops

Why do I need to change my story? I suggested you wait and we waited.

Now it seems Holder's army of trained civil rights lawyers have found some questionable traffic stops over the years. If that's all they found, that would seem rather inconsequential in the long run.

I would question this statement lifted from your link:

"The Justice Department has nearly completed a highly critical report accusing the police in Ferguson, Mo., of making discriminatory traffic stops of African-Americans that created years of racial animosity leading up to an officer’s shooting of a black teenager last summer, law enforcement officials said"

Exactly how did some questionable traffic stops influence Michael Brown to want to attack a police officer and what impact did the traffic incidents have on the thinking and actions of Officer Wilson?

Just curious if you can figure that out. It certainly baffles me.

Thank you for your patience in waiting as I suggested. The end result is what I predicted on another thread months ago.

Oh look, the goalposts are moving. What a surprise.

Since I hadn't been talking about Michael Brown at all, and was specifically referring to the traffic stops, and since you specifically replied, "perhaps the reason they haven't found anything was that there was nothing to find", your attempt to weasel out is ineffective.

As far as your bafflement, if you really don't understand the atmosphere that these police stops created and how it was a contributing factor, then you're not going to suddenly see the light by reading the logic of a few comments (especially if you continue to be so effective at moving your goalposts around). I suggest you listen to the two-part series I posted a few comments earlier, in full. That should give you a more vivid description of the mentality that is created when a department goes bad.

[CMNightRider]

How is it "beating a dead horse" when it's been proven time and time again to be true? If you're going to dismiss every example of violence as "a few knuckle heads", or completely ignore all the stories of how Black men who have done nothing wrong are repeatedly stopped and harassed, then how about the statistics that show that Black people are pulled over at a completely different rate than White people, searched at a different rate, charged at a different rate, etc.?

After the Ferguson case, it came out that:

Black people in Ferguson were three times as likely to be pulled over than White people.

Black people who were pulled over were more than twice as likely to be searched than White people.

Black people who were searched were 40% less likely to have contraband found in their vehicles than White people who were searched.

Black people, despite being less likely to have contraband found during searches, were still more than twice as likely to be arrested and taken into the station after the search.

As far as "but there are minority police officers", do you really believe their numbers are remotely representative? In Ferguson, a city that was 70% Black was being policed by a force that was 95% White. That pattern repeats itself all across America. And when you look at the numbers for the police chiefs and those in authority, the distribution is even worse.

Erik Holder's civil rights division has been investigating the Ferguson PD since Michael Brown attacked the police officer.

If they haven't found any civil rights violations after some six months, perhaps there aren't any.

If that team of ACLU trained attorneys can find even the remotest hint of corruption, they will be all over it.

I suggest you relax and wait for breaking news.

My oh my, the breaking news you told me to wait for indeed came. I suppose you'll change your story now?

Justice Department to Fault Ferguson Police, Seeing Racial Bias in Traffic Stops

The Justice Department has nearly completed a highly critical report accusing the police in Ferguson, Mo., of making discriminatory traffic stops of African-Americans that created years of racial animosity leading up to an officer’s shooting of a black teenager last summer, law enforcement officials said

According to several officials who have been briefed on the report’s conclusions, the report criticizes the city for disproportionately ticketing and arresting African-Americans and relying on the fines to balance the city’s budget. The report, which is expected to be released as early as this week, will force Ferguson officials to either negotiate a settlement with the Justice Department or face being sued by it on civil rights charges.

Did you notice that Officer Wilson was not found guilty of any wrong doing?

[Bangkok Herps]

Do you see Officer Wilson's name anywhere in that big block of text you just quoted? I don't.

I have been discussing the systemic problems in the Ferguson PD, not Officer Wilson.

Seriously, didn't we waste almost half a page going over that already? Just scroll up and you could have figured that out yourself.

Officer Wilson's case could only go federal if the feds could put together proof that he killed Michael Brown because he was Black. Unless Officer Wilson volunteered that information himself (and he never claim any closer than saying, "He looked like a demon"), that would be just about impossible to prove. No one, at any point, seriously expected the feds to charge Officer Wilson with any sort of federal hate crime.

However, what they can see is systematic discrimination in the Ferguson PD. That's what we've been talking about this entire thread. And that's exactly what they found.

Like the other police departments across the country that have had such problems exposed, the Feds will now come up with a list of recommendations, the department will start trying to implement them, and they will be under close watch for some time now.

If you listen to the link I posted up, you can hear an example of the Miami Gardens PD screwing up about as badly as possible, and the Las Vegas PD screwing up in the same way, but then making a real turnaround.

Here's hoping that Ferguson follows in Las Vegas's footsteps.

Edited March 5, 2015 by Bangkok Herps

[Bangkok Herps]

Has anyone who had doubts about the systemic problems read the Ferguson report yet? http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/ferguson_police_department_report.pdf

Listened to the Milwaukee report? http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/547/cops-see-it-differently-part-one

Listened to the report on Miami Gardens and Las Vegas? http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/548/cops-see-it-differently-part-two

There's a chance here to learn something, if your mind is open to the fact that communties you've never been a part of may really have experienced systematic abuse from the police. Most police do a good job. Most police departments do not have systemic oppression like these do. But the problem is very real in some places, it has a huge impact on the communities it affects, and a simple listen or read would make the indisputable evidence of that clear.

Of course, I've been demonstrating this for three weeks, and as far as I can tell not a single person who disputes this claim has yet bothered to listen or read a single one of the reports. Maybe the idea of being forced to change one's mind about an idea so close to one's heart is truly frightening.

Edited March 7, 2015 by Bangkok Herps

[dietergerhard]

About time