Showing posts with label Para-Military Style Policing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Para-Military Style Policing. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Looks like there may be no indictment

October 29, 2014 Darren Wilson , Ferguson 0 Comments
Police In Ferguson Stock Up On Riot Gear Ahead Of Grand Jury Decision

Photo via Flickr
Ryan J. Reilly, Oct. 28, 2014, Huffington Post

The St. Louis County Police Department has stocked up on tear gas, less-lethal ammunition and plastic handcuffs in anticipation of massive protests in the suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, if a grand jury doesn't indict the police officer who killed 18-year-old Michael Brown. The jury is expected to reach its decision sometime in November.

Many protesters in Ferguson do not believe that Officer Darren Wilson will be indicted and contend that recent grand jury leaks are meant to prepare the public for that decision.

“It’s going to be a war because they’re not going to indict him,” one protester told The Huffington Post in October.

 Read more: www.huffingtonpost.com

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Friday, September 12, 2014

Think blacks hate cops?

September 12, 2014 Kristen West Savali , Para-Military Style Policing 0 Comments
Poll: Blacks, Like Whites, Support 'Aggressive' Policing

By Kristen West Savali, Sept. 2, 2014, Theroot.com

Despite the looming specter of police brutality, which casts shadows over street corners, neighborhoods and homes across black America, 56 percent of black voters in New York City support “broken windows” policing tactics, compared with 61 percent of the city’s white voters, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.

The controversial policing style frames community disorder and signs of neglect—such as broken windows, littering and loitering—as indicators of encroaching crime that will lead to more dangerous communities and must be addressed with the full force of the law.

In theory, broken-windows policing, and its variants stop-and-frisk, zero-tolerance and quality-of-life policing, are tactics used by officers who are hyperinvested in keeping communities safe, clean and crime-free. In practice, however, they provide opportunities for racial profiling and resulting antagonistic and abusive encounters between law enforcement and people of color.

This has been evidenced recently by the extrajudicial killing of 43-year-old Staten Island man Eric Garner, a father of six who died after being placed in an illegal choke hold by New York City police Officer Daniel Pantaleo. Garner’s crime? Allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes. He can be heard in the heart-wrenching minutes before his death telling officers that their continued harassment of him “ends today.” Moments later, the asthmatic man painfully wheezes his last words: “I can’t breathe.”

Read the full story:  www.theroot.com

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Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Oops!

September 02, 2014 Congressional Black Caucus , Para-Military Style Policing 0 Comments
If Democrats Seek to "Rally Blacks" Against Police Militarization, They Might Start with the Congressional Black Caucus

By Nick Gillespie, Sept. 1, 2014, Reason.com

The New York Times reports that, "At Risk in Senate, Democrats Seek to Rally Blacks." Specifically, the Times says

Democrats are trying to mobilize African-Americans outraged by the shooting in Ferguson, Mo., to help them retain control of at least one chamber of Congress for President Obama’s final two years in office....

“Ferguson has made it crystal clear to the African-American community and others that we’ve got to go to the polls,” said Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia and a civil-rights leader. “You participate and vote, and you can have some control over what happens to your child and your country.”

Lewis might want to start with his colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus, many of whom were blase about police militarization as recently as June. As Ed Krayewski has noted, in June, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) sponsored an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 4355) that would have prevented federal giveaways of military equipment to local police departments around the country. "My amendment," explained Grayson, "would prohibit the Department of Defense from gifting excess equipment, such as aircraft—including drones—armored vehicles, grenade launchers, silencers, and bombs to local police departments. Those weapons have no place in our streets, regardless of who may be deploying them."

Read the full story:  www.reason.com

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Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Not exactly Mayberry

August 26, 2014 Charleston Johnson , Crime Statistics 0 Comments
Ferguson: A History Of A Small Suburb With Big Violence Problems

Source:  Wiki commons / Gotnews.com
By Charleston Johnson, Aug. 21, 2014, Gotnews.com

A debate about police brutality and black urban crime was touched off by the tragic shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. Left unexamined is the history of violence within Ferguson’s black community as well as violence against the police, notably a 2012 killing of a St. Louis County police employee by a Ferguson man as well as numerous assaults on police officers.

GotNews.com examined the past assaults against police officers in Ferguson, MO and the history of violence in the St. Louis suburb relying only on Missouri news reports. The investigation shows that police officers and their lives are often under threat in the small town and might explain the behavior of Officer Wilson.

Various media reports notwithstanding, Ferguson isn’t as peaceful as its small size might suggest. The St. Louis suburb is remarkably violent for its small population (21,203 according to the 2010 census) and size 6.201 square miles.

While it’s technically true that there hasn’t been a murder in Ferguson this year, there were murders of Ferguson residents elsewhere and there was one late last year.

Authorities filed murder charges on Terry L. Simmons, 30, for fatally shooting Quinton Luckett, 28, in the head in the 200 block of South Barat Avenue in Ferguson. Simmons’ rap sheet included convictions for domestic assault and robbery and a pending charge for dealing crack cocaine. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 14, 2013).

And while there were no murders in Ferguson, it wasn’t for lack of trying.

In May, a Ferguson man drew a Tec-9 with an extended magazine holding 30 rounds on St. Louis County officers. An officer shot and killed the Ferguson man.

Also this past May a Ferguson teen shot a 47-year-old man in back after the man refused to buy the teen and his friend beer at a convenience store. Carlos Blue, 17, left his victim for dead and robbed him. He was charged with first-degree assault, first-degree robbery, and two counts of armed criminal action. (“Teen shot man who wouldn’t buy him beer at Pine Lawn store, police say,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 14, 2014)

Many of the killings in Ferguson revolve around the drug trade. In August 2, 2013, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported one such typical instance:

James D. Kinnard, 24, of the 5900 block of Hamilton Terrace, was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison in a drug-related 2011 fatal shooting in Ferguson. Kinnard pleaded guilty July 11 to charges of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the killing of Santauri Dixon, 29, of Ferguson… Police said Kinnard fatally shot Dixon on Oct. 22, 2011, outside an apartment building in the 1300 block of Sharondale Circle. Authorities said Kinnard shot Dixon because he believed Dixon had robbed his drug boss. Kinnard must serve 85 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for parole. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 2, 2013).

Other times the killings are identified with no suspect listed. Three days after Kinnard was sentenced police identified “a man found slain in Kinloch as Clement Sonnier, 31, of the 9200 block of Ellison Drive in Ferguson. Sonnier was found shot to death on Gregory Drive near Mable Avenue…” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 5, 2013).

There were many crimes to choose from but these are the ones that are truly heinous.

  • In September 2012, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published the following story with this headline: “Two women are killed in apartment shooting 1-year-old daughter of one victim was found near her body, unharmed.”

 Read the full story:  www.gotnews.com

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Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Armed citizens=less need for cops

August 19, 2014 Ferguson , Jamelle Bouie 0 Comments
The Militarization of the Police
By Jamelle Bouie, Aug. 13, 2014, Slate.com

he most striking photographs from Ferguson, Missouri, aren’t of Saturday’s demonstrations or Sunday night’s riots; they’re of the police. Image after image shows officers clad in Kevlar vests, helmets, and camouflage, armed with pistols, shotguns, automatic rifles, and tear gas. In one photo, protesters stand toe-to-toe with baton-wielding riot police, in another, an unarmed man faces several cops, each with rifles at the ready.

What’s more, Ferguson police have used armored vehicles to show force and control crowds. In one photo, riot gear-clad officers are standing in front of a mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle, barking commands and launching tear gas into groups of demonstrators and journalists.

This would be one thing if Ferguson were in a war zone, or if protesters were violent—although, it’s hard to imagine a situation in which American police would need a mine-resistant vehicle. But an episode of looting aside, Ferguson police aren’t dealing with any particular danger. Nonetheless, they’re treating demonstrators—and Ferguson residents writ large—as a population to occupy, not citizens to protect.

This is part of a broader problem.

In his book The Rise of the Warrior Cop, journalist Radley Balko notes that since the 1960s, “law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier. Driven by martial rhetoric and the availability of military-style equipment—from bayonets and M–16 rifles to armored personnel carriers—American police forces have often adopted a mind-set previously reserved for the battlefield.”

This process ramped up with the “war on drugs” in the 1980s and 1990s, as the federal government supplied local and state police forces with military-grade weaponry to clamp down on drug trafficking and other crime. And it accelerated again after the 9/11 attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, when the federal government had—and sent—billions in surplus military equipment to state and local governments. Since 2006, according to an analysis by the New York Times, police departments have acquired 435 armored vehicles, 533 planes, 93,763 machine guns, and 432 mine-resistant armored trucks. Overall, since Congress established its program to transfer military hardware, local and state police departments have received $4.3 billion worth of equipment. Accordingly, the value of military equipment used by these police agencies has increased from $1 million in 1990 to $324 million in 1995 (shortly after the program was established), to nearly $450 million in 2013.

Read the full story:  www.slate.com

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Monday, August 18, 2014

And Now This...

August 18, 2014 And Now This... , Para-Military Style Policing 0 Comments
Police Cameras Protect And Serve


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Sunday, August 17, 2014

Solution to "militarization"--CCW's!

August 17, 2014 CCW , Ferguson 0 Comments
ARISE Stages Demonstration In Springfield To Protest Ferguson Shooting, Racism, Police Militarization

People hold signs on State Street on Thursday 

afternoon in Springfield to 
protest the events of Ferguson, MO. 
Credit: Dave Roback / The Republican
By Patrick Johnson, Aug. 15, 2014, Masslive.com

SPRINGFIELD — People from Western Massachusetts on Thursday night took to the streets of Springfield to protest what they called an injustice 1,100 miles away in Ferguson, Missouri.

In a demonstration at the intersection of State, Federal and Walnut streets, protesters held signs and chanted, while passing motorists blared their horns in support. Roughly 20 people positioned themselves at each of the four corners and on the two traffic islands at the intersection.

The demonstration, planned by the Springfield-based organization ARISE For Social Justice, was called to protest not only the shooting death of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man, by police in Ferguson, but also to protest what they called heavy-handed militarized tactics used by police to quell the civilian protests that have sprung up in the wake of Brown’s death.

“If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere,” said Ellen Graves, the Peace and Anti-Violence Organizer for ARISE. “It can happen anywhere."

Brown, who was due to start his freshman year at college, was shot and killed Saturday by a police officer after the officer told him and a friend to use the sidewalk instead of walking in the road.

Read the full story:  www.masslive.com

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Saturday, August 16, 2014

The answer to Ferguson

August 16, 2014 Body Cameras Dashboard Cameras , Para-Military Style Policing 0 Comments
Calif Police Use Of Body Cameras Cuts Violence And Complaints

By Rory Carroll, Nov. 4, 2013, Theguardian.com

The occupant was said to be violent, so officer Carlos Ramirez approached the apartment warily. A dank smell wafted from inside. Ramirez bristled with body armour, radio, gun and Taser, but before knocking on the door he adjusted just one piece of equipment: a tiny camera on his collar.

A tubby, barefoot man with broken teeth and wild eyes opened the door. He appeared to be high. Ramirez questioned him about allegedly beating and evicting his stepson, a mentally disabled teenager. The man shifted from foot to foot and babbled about death threats.

The encounter, tense but polite, ended inconclusively, a routine police foray into family dysfunction – except for the fact it was all recorded. As he returned to his patrol car and next assignment, Ramirez tapped an app on his phone and uploaded the video. "Somewhere down the line something could happen and what that guy said, his demeanour, could be evidence."

Rialto, a small, working-class city that bakes in the San Bernardino foothills outside Los Angeles, appeared in the films Transformers and The Hangover. Among law enforcers, however, it is becoming better known for pioneering the use of body cameras on police officers.

Over the past year all 70 of its uniformed officers have been kitted out with the oblong devices, about the size of stubby cigars, and the results have emboldened police forces elsewhere in the US and in the UK to follow suit.

The College of Policing recently announced plans for large-scale trials of body-worn video in England and Wales, saying Rialto's experiment showed big drops in the use of force and in public complaints against officers. David Davis, a former shadow home secretary, has backed the idea. It follows "plebgate's denting of public trust.

Rialto has also become an example for US forces since a federal judge in New York praised its initiative.

"I think we've opened some eyes in the law enforcement world. We've shown the potential," said Tony Farrar, Rialto's police chief. "It's catching on."

Body-worn cameras are not new. Devon and Cornwall police launched a pilot scheme in 2006 and forces in Strathclyde, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, among others, have also experimented.

Read the full story:  www.theguardian.com

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Friday, August 15, 2014

Cops put in tough spot

August 15, 2014 Danielle Cadet , Ferguson 0 Comments
9 Powerful Photos That Show Ferguson Is Pretty Much Being Treated Like A War Zone

By Danielle Cadet, Aug. 13, 2014, Huffingtonpost.com

Since the fatal shooting of unarmed, black teen Michael Brown at the hands of a local police officer, the town of Ferguson, Missouri, has erupted in unrest as citizens have taken to the streets in outrage for more than three days.

Police have fired tear gas at protesters and the Federal Aviation Administrationbanned flight travel under 3,000 feet in the airspace over the town to "provide a safe environment for law enforcement activities" from Aug. 12 to Aug. 18. This news coupled with these powerful images from the St. Louis suburb paint a troubling picture that the town is being treated like a war zone.


See all nine photos:  www.huffingtonpost.com

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Monday, August 11, 2014

Investigate, but when blacks kill other blacks=crickets?

August 11, 2014 Michael Brown , Para-Military Style Policing 0 Comments
'Another Dead Unarmed Black Man In America'

Source:  www.huffingtonpost.com

By Philly.com, Aug. 10, 2014


It didn't take long for the gunmen to return to the scene of the crime. And when they came back, to say they were armed to the teeth would be an understatement. Some rolled through the streets of a working-class American suburb in an armored personnel carrier, while others clutched onto to ferocious dogs that kept the citizens of the town at bay. The images were frightening -- as if Bull Connor's henchmen in Birmingham's civil rights struggles of 1963 had been dropped into the geographic center of America 51 years later -- but the militarized cops of Ferguson, Mo., accomplished their mission.

They kept the public from getting the answers they need, the answers they deserve.

Why was yet another unarmed young black man -- this one just 18 -- shot and killed? Why did it have to be a solid kid like Mike Brown, a young man who made it through high school and was supposed to start his college classes tomorrow morning? When is excessive police force in this country -- which is clearly unchecked and out-of-control -- finally going to be reigned in, in a land that pledges allegiance to liberty and justice for all?

After all, the Missouri slaying of Mike Brown -- reportedly hands-up, without a weapons and running away from the cops -- is outrageous, and yet it is yet hardly an isolated incident. It comes as activists in New York City are still pressing for action in the case of Eric Garner, an African-American who was arrested on Staten Island for the lowest-possible-level crime of selling untaxed cigarettes, placed in a chokehold -- a move supposedly banned years ago -- and (according to the medical examiner's office) murdered.

Read the full story:  www.philly.com

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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

War Gear Flows to Police Departments --Bad guys find a way

June 10, 2014 Department of Defense , Matt Apuzzo 2 Comments
By Matt Apuzzo, Jun. 8, 2014, Nytimes.com

NEENAH, Wis. — Inside the municipal garage of this small lakefront city, parked next to the hefty orange snowplow, sits an even larger truck, this one painted in desert khaki. Weighing 30 tons and built to withstand land mines, the armored combat vehicle is one of hundreds showing up across the country, in police departments big and small.

The 9-foot-tall armored truck was intended for an overseas battlefield. But as President Obama ushers in the end of what he called America’s “long season of war,” the former tools of combat — M-16 rifles, grenade launchers, silencers and more — are ending up in local police departments, often with little public notice.

During the Obama administration, according to Pentagon data, police departments have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft.

The equipment has been added to the armories of police departments that already look and act like military units. Police SWAT teams are now deployed tens of thousands of times each year, increasingly for routine jobs. Masked, heavily armed police officers in Louisiana raided a nightclub in 2006 as part of a liquor inspection. In Florida in 2010, officers in SWAT gear and with guns drawn carried out raids on barbershops that mostly led only to charges of “barbering without a license.”


Read the full story:  www.nytimes.com

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Saturday, April 19, 2014

United States of SWAT? Military-style Units From Government Agencies Are Wreaking Havoc On Non-Violent Citizens

April 19, 2014 BLM , Bundy Ranch Stand-Off 0 Comments
By John Fund, Apr. 18, 2014, National Review

Regardless of how people feel about Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s standoff with the federal Bureau of Land Management over his cattle’s grazing rights, a lot of Americans were surprised to see TV images of an armed-to-the-teeth paramilitary wing of the BLM deployed around Bundy’s ranch.

They shouldn’t have been. Dozens of federal agencies now have Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams to further an expanding definition of their missions. It’s not controversial that the Secret Service and the Bureau of Prisons have them. But what about the Department of Agriculture, the Railroad Retirement Board, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service? All of these have their own SWAT units and are part of a worrying trend towards the militarization of federal agencies — not to mention local police forces.

“Law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier,” journalist Radley Balko writes in his 2013 book Rise of the Warrior Cop. “The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop — armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties.”

The proliferation of paramilitary federal SWAT teams inevitably brings abuses that have nothing to do with either drugs or terrorism. Many of the raids they conduct are against harmless, often innocent, Americans who typically are accused of non-violent civil or administrative violations.

Read the full story:  www.nationalreview.com


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