Continuation The behaviour of US police officers - part 2

[SuburbanTurkey]

Update on a previous story, pigs getting charged for brutalizing elderly woman with dementia and lying about it on official reports.

Originally Posted by Associated Press

A police officer who pushed a 73-year-old Colorado woman with dementia to the ground after she left a store without paying for items worth about $14 is facing charges of using excessive force, while a second officer is accused of failing to stop or report his actions, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Austin Hopp is facing charges of second-degree assault, attempting to influence a public servant and official misconduct in last year’s arrest of Karen Garner in Loveland, a city about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Denver. Daria Jalali, who arrived after Garner was handcuffed, is facing charges of failing to report use of force, failing to intervene and official misconduct.

https://apnews.com/article/co-state-...ign=SocialFlow

Another example that shows that "internal processes" are totally inadequate to police the police. This case only became a scandal when video footage was publicized through a civil rights lawsuit.

Prosecution is the solution. Take things out of these corrupt pig pens and into the public eye. It's still tough getting DA's and juries to care about police misconduct, but there's better odds this way then letting the police decide whether or not their actions are appropriate.

[SuburbanTurkey]

Quote:

Noel “Crook” Lopez, a member of a Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department gang called the Banditos, has been arrested and booked for felony perjury. This was for a 2018 incident where two East LA residents were framed. Read more about him here:
https://knock-la.com/banditos-kenned...d-shot-caller/

https://twitter.com/cerisecastle/sta...53380471296000

She has to specify which murderous street gang of LASD deputies this is, because there are 18. Even within the context of our out of control police in the US, the LASD is a standout for being uniquely corrupt and brazenly violent.

[Bob001]

For contrast, a fascinating account of good cops doing good work despite institutional obstacles and bad management.
https://www.propublica.org/article/w...ontent=feature

[Belz...]

Originally Posted by SuburbanTurkey

She has to specify which murderous street gang of LASD deputies this is, because there are 18.

I'm sorry, what? You'll have to explain that to me because I'm both fascinated and puzzled. What's a police street gang?

[SuburbanTurkey]

Originally Posted by Belz...

I'm sorry, what? You'll have to explain that to me because I'm both fascinated and puzzled. What's a police street gang?

It's exactly what it sounds like. There are gangs of LASD deputies within the department. They have all the trappings of a traditional street gang: they have matching tattoos, they engage in criminal conspiracies involving violence, they wield unofficial power within the department to ensure they get good assignments and other privileges, and they use violent intimidation to keep other deputies in line. Like street gangs, the LASD deputy gangs are often organized by race and neighborhood. There are skinhead nazi deputy gangs, latino gangs, and so on.

The Banditos:

Quote:

The Banditos consist primarily of Latinx LASD personnel, and allegedly do not allow women to become full-fledged members. Members have a common tattoo on their legs of a skeleton with a bushy mustache wearing a sombrero and bandolier holding a pistol, all of which are sequentially numbered. Members have gang nicknames and use slang like “ese” and “homes” when speaking with each other. One deputy alleges in a complaint against the County that activities like fundraisers, training parties, and staff barbecues at the East LA station must be “roundtabled” by the Banditos. The gang also established a culture at the station where deputies “work backwards,” meaning they arrest civilians then later come up with probable cause by planting and manufacturing evidence.

Current leaders include Rafael “Rene” Munoz AKA Big Listo, Gregory “G-Rod” Rodriguez, David “Silver” Silverio, Michael “Bam Bam” Hernandez, Silvano “Cholo” Garcia, Vincent Moran, and Raymond Mendoza, who call themselves shot callers. Banditos meetings are held at the home of Deputy Noel “Crook” Lopez. The group embraces the tradition of violence passed down by the gangs that came before them and turns on anyone who questions them.

https://knock-la.com/banditos-lasd-g...al-harassment/


The Compton Executioners explicitly celebrate when one of their gang kill a member of the public.

Quote:

Since at least 2016, a gang of deputy sheriff’s called the Executioners have prowled the streets of the City of Compton. WitnessLA reports that the Executioners were founded by former 2000 Boy Andy Toone, who appears to no longer be working at the Compton Station. Members each have a tattoo of a skeleton wearing a Nazi helmet emblazoned with the letters CPT. The skeleton holds a rifle marked with the Roman numeral for 28, surrounded by flames. Sweeney says that an expert tattoo artist testified the design appears to come from a stencil. “The Executioners have the symbol, the Jump Out Boys have the symbol, and several other people have the symbol, which is a skeleton, a symbol of death.”



The tattoos are allegedly awarded for killing a civilian, and given out at parties. Recruits are reportedly chosen for the gang based on their propensity for violence against members of the community. Black people and women are not allowed to join. Samuel Aldama, a tattooed member of the Executioners, testified under oath that he had ill feelings towards African Americans. Sweeney says that the gang is racist.

Violence committed to further the gang’s agenda is rewarded with permission to skip shifts. Those who don’t comply with the gang’s way of doing business receive non-preferential assignments. Membership is estimated at around 80 people. Of 100 patrol deputies in Compton Station, 40 are alleged to be affiliated with the gang. The Executioners have cost the County of Los Angeles at least $7 million, and the tab and body count continue to grow.

https://knock-la.com/the-compton-exe...dres-guardado/


A very brave reporter, Cerise Castle, has done extensive reporting on the issue. I very much expect she'll be murdered by one of these police gangs because her reporting is causing a lot of unwanted attention on this long ignored problem. She wears a bulletproof vest when she leaves her home.

https://knock-la.com/tradition-of-vi...-gang-history/

[Bob001]

Originally Posted by Belz...

I'm sorry, what? You'll have to explain that to me because I'm both fascinated and puzzled. What's a police street gang?

Pretty clearly, a group of cops who behave like a criminal gang, sometimes working with actual criminal gangs.
https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2021...-report-finds/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...es/ar-BB17p2f3

[Belz...]

And so... no one is doing anything about it?

This is cyberpunk type stuff.

[SuburbanTurkey]

Originally Posted by Belz...

And so... no one is doing anything about it?

This is cyberpunk type stuff.

People are doing stuff about it. Cops are making sure they don't suffer any consequences, it's a lot of work but they are pretty diligent.

Edit for clarity, thanks Belz

[Belz...]

Originally Posted by SuburbanTurkey

People are doing stuff about it. Cops are making [sure] they don't suffer any consequences, it's a lot of work but they are pretty diligent.

Yeah but if it's well known they isn't there an outcry and political pressure to break these up?

Damn, the US has a terrible police problem.

[SuburbanTurkey]

Originally Posted by Belz...

Yeah but if it's well known they isn't there an outcry and political pressure to break these up?

Damn, the US has a terrible police problem.

Beats me. Makes you think you're crazy that other people are screaming from the rooftops about this issue.

[SuburbanTurkey]

New day, same routine. DA uses Grand Jury to launder the decision not to prosecute a murder committed by police.

Quote:

William Jennette begged for help as he sprawled facedown on the floor of a Tennessee jail last May. Half a dozen officers were piled on top of him, pinning his manacled arms, twisting his legs and kneeling on his back.

“I can’t breathe!” the 48-year-old father of five gasped, in a moment captured on video and shared by WTVF. “I can’t breathe!”

One of the officers yelled back, “You shouldn’t be able to breathe, you stupid b------.”

Minutes later, Jennette was dead. A medical examiner found that he had died of a combination of asphyxiation and the interaction of drugs, including methamphetamine — and ruled his death a homicide.

Despite that finding, WTVF reported, a grand jury declined to charge any of the officers involved. Now Jennette’s daughter is suing in federal court, alleging that the video show officers repeatedly ignoring his warnings that he couldn’t breathe — and even laughing out loud at his pleas for help.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...l-death-video/

[Belz...]

Originally Posted by SuburbanTurkey

New day, same routine. DA uses Grand Jury to launder the decision not to prosecute a murder committed by police.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...l-death-video/

WeLL oBViouSLy hE cOUld BreATHe sINce He SaID hE COUldn'T breAThe!

[gnome]

Originally Posted by SuburbanTurkey

New day, same routine. DA uses Grand Jury to launder the decision not to prosecute a murder committed by police.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...l-death-video/

Perhaps the famous saying should be changed to say that you can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich but not a police officer accused of homicide captured on tape.

[Checkmite]

I believe all criminal cases where the accused is a police officer should automatically be assigned Special Prosecutors. It would solve the problem of interested DAs sabotaging cases against police officers at the Grand Jury stage.

[Craig4]

And there should be inspectors general who report directly to the senior civil servant or professional staff officer, unaffiliated with the police agencies or the district attorneys and insulated from the elected leadership.

[Darat]

Originally Posted by Craig4

And there should be inspectors general who report directly to the senior civil servant or professional staff officer, unaffiliated with the police agencies or the district attorneys and insulated from the elected leadership.

I do think this is a major issue for USA governance in many areas and it certainly does influence areas such as policing. Policing should be as far removed from politics as possible.

[Darat]

Don't know if this is accessible to folk outside the BBC areas - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06...pisodes/player

It's a comedy series by an ex-UK police officer who is now a comedian and his show is a humorous look at policing incidents he has been involved in. Whilst it is a comedy show what he takes you through with each "case" is actual police procedure, the laws involved and so on.

The latest was about a traffic stop, and in that he explains his actions with reference to Peel's principles of policing - for those unfamiliar USA site : https://lawenforcementactionpartners...ng-principles/

I'd say in every single case in this thread and in the UK version can be explained by a failing to follow the principles. When the police do follow them, they might not be liked but they can police with consent.

Two of the principles that seem to have been totally shattered, shredded, and incinerated in the USA are 7 and 8:

"... 7 To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.

8 To recognize always the need for strict adherence to police-executive functions, and to refrain from even seeming to usurp the powers of the judiciary of avenging individuals or the State, and of authoritatively judging guilt and punishing the guilty. ..."

[Bob001]

Originally Posted by Darat

I do think this is a major issue for USA governance in many areas and it certainly does influence areas such as policing. Policing should be as far removed from politics as possible.

I dunno how far you want to go down that road. At present, police chiefs are appointed and supervised by elected mayors and city governments, and sheriffs are usually elected directly. If you take politics out of it, how would they take office, and who would they answer to? Seems to me that eliminating politics would make them even more unaccountable.

[Bob001]

More deadly abuse: "hobbling" and "hogtying:"

Quote:

Hogtying is a troublesome word and a dangerous act. It involves putting a person on his stomach and tying his cuffed hands to his bound feet behind his back with an adjustable nylon belt, a device known as a "hobble." Police officers have said the hogtie position is used to restrain individuals who can't be restrained any other way and would otherwise pose a danger to themselves and those around them. The hobble device can be used to restrain someone's legs without placing them in the compromised hogtie position.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/he...out&li=BBnb7Kz

[JoeMorgue]

Police dump out urn containing ashes of black man's daughter, insisting that it is drugs.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/dyv7...tm_source=digg

[Belz...]

Originally Posted by JoeMorgue

Police dump out urn containing ashes of black man's daughter, insisting that it is drugs.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/dyv7...tm_source=digg

Quote:

Field tests are regularly used to determine the suspected presence of illicit substances by police departments across the country, despite being often horribly wrong.

That's what happens when law enforcement is not accountable. They find ways to "catch" people who don't deserve it.

How does one mistake ashes for anything else?

[JoeMorgue]

Originally Posted by Belz...

That's what happens when law enforcement is not accountable. They find ways to "catch" people who don't deserve it.

How does one mistake ashes for anything else?

Okay that question has to be answered in two ways.

1. How does one actually mistake ashes for anything else? Answer: You don't.
2. What excuse have they given us? Answer: They claimed that a notoriously unreliable brand of field drug testing kits came back positive when they tested the remains. No I still don't know why, even in their own narrative, they were testing the remains.

[Belz...]

Originally Posted by JoeMorgue

Okay that question has to be answered in two ways.

1. How does one actually mistake ashes for anything else? Answer: You don't.
2. What excuse have they given us? Answer: They claimed that a notoriously unreliable brand of field drug testing kits came back positive when they tested the remains. No I still don't know why, even in their own narrative, they were testing the remains.

Well I didn't check but what was the race of the driver?

[JoeMorgue]

Originally Posted by Belz...

Well I didn't check but what was the race of the driver?

You got three guesses.

But don't worry he did actually have some weed on him so "he wasn't no angel" and that is the most important thing to remember and the one thing to focus on.

[Belz...]

Originally Posted by JoeMorgue

You got three guesses.

But don't worry he did actually have some weed on him so "he wasn't no angel" and that is the most important thing to remember and the one thing to focus on.

Oh, absolutely. Everything is justified in that case.

[ponderingturtle]

Originally Posted by JoeMorgue

You got three guesses.

But don't worry he did actually have some weed on him so "he wasn't no angel" and that is the most important thing to remember and the one thing to focus on.

Wait was it in a state with legal weed or not?

[Belz...]

Doesn't matter. Weed is BAD.

[ponderingturtle]

Originally Posted by Belz...

Doesn't matter. Weed is BAD.

Unless you are a white guy selling it like former Republican speaker of the house John Boehner. Then it is just good business.

[Belz...]

Of course. That goes without saying.

[SuburbanTurkey]

Arizona police made up a fictitious "ACAB" gang in order to maliciously prosecute anti-police protesters and enter them into a gang database.

Quote:

“ACAB” was never a real criminal street gang in Phoenix.

But as part of an effort to overcharge and suppress a group of police protesters, city officers and county prosecutors made it up in late 2020.

The fictional gang, an acronym for the common protest chant “All Cops are Bastards,” was created by officials using wild exaggerations, lies, and an informant with a documented history of lying.

https://www.abc15.com/news/local-new...-gang-database

[ponderingturtle]

Originally Posted by SuburbanTurkey

Arizona police made up a fictitious "ACAB" gang in order to maliciously prosecute anti-police protesters and enter them into a gang database.



https://www.abc15.com/news/local-new...-gang-database

Come on you have to ask yourself would a bastard frame people?

[SuburbanTurkey]

Originally Posted by ponderingturtle

Come on you have to ask yourself would a bastard frame people?

Data is lacking for the claim that all cops are bastards.

All we can say with any certainty, at this time, is that all the cops involved with this decision are bastards.

#skepticism

[quadraginta]

Originally Posted by SuburbanTurkey

Data is lacking for the claim that all cops are bastards.

All we can say with any certainty, at this time, is that all the cops involved with this decision are bastards.

#skepticism

I don't necessarily believe that all cops are bastards, but my general Rule Of Thumb is to assume that any given cop might be, at last until abundant evidence otherwise is provided.

Yes, this is somewhat harsh, and, no, I don't treat everyone with the same low expectations. But the fact that they have taken the job in the first place counts as a strike against them in my view.

I feel much the same way about politicians.

And preachers.

[gnome]

Originally Posted by SuburbanTurkey

Arizona police made up a fictitious "ACAB" gang in order to maliciously prosecute anti-police protesters and enter them into a gang database.



https://www.abc15.com/news/local-new...-gang-database

Upon receiving an anonymous tip that ACAB was a short form of a longer slogan, "All, Basically All, Cops Are Bastards", and immediately issued an arrest warrant for Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford.

[Bob001]

Man loses hand to too-tight cuffs.

Quote:

Loyola went to the hospital immediately after his release and was referred for surgery. He had two of his fingertips removed but continued to wake up with pain and noticed his fingers were turning colors. Over the next several months, he underwent four more operations, including his hand amputation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...la-amputation/

[SuburbanTurkey]

Cop worship is weird.

A whole city is lowering their flags to half staff because a cop died of heart attack while in his squad car. A school in a nearby city is dismissing students early to accommodate a funeral procession.

The dude died of a heart attack, but it's being treated like he was gunned down in the line of duty or something. Bootlickers are weird.

https://kfgo.com/2021/05/19/update-o...olice-officer/

https://twitter.com/FargoNDSchools/s...88923135717378

[Belz...]

Originally Posted by quadraginta

I don't necessarily believe that all cops are bastards, but my general Rule Of Thumb is to assume that any given cop might be, at last until abundant evidence otherwise is provided.

That's sad. In Canada I don't need to make this assumption. All of my (rare) interactions with police have been cordial and entirely professional.

[SuburbanTurkey]

Originally Posted by Belz...

That's sad. In Canada I don't need to make this assumption. All of my (rare) interactions with police have been cordial and entirely professional.

There are probably a lot of people who would say the same thing about Chauvin, and it would likely be true. These people aren't drooling monsters lashing out at everyone around them, they're human beings.

Perspective matters. Just because you're treated fairly and with dignity doesn't mean that experience is universal.

[Belz...]

Originally Posted by SuburbanTurkey

There are probably a lot of people who would say the same thing about Chauvin, and it would likely be true. These people aren't drooling monsters lashing out at everyone around them, they're human beings.

Perspective matters. Just because you're treated fairly and with dignity doesn't mean that experience is universal.

Please don't assume that Canada is the same cesspool as the US.

[pgwenthold]

Originally Posted by gnome

Upon receiving an anonymous tip that ACAB was a short form of a longer slogan, "All, Basically All, Cops Are Bastards", and immediately issued an arrest warrant for Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford.

I like this