I have no faith that politicians will do much, if anything, to tackle police violence against the defenseless. Let’s face it, politicians — like prosecutors — have neither the inclination nor the will to hold law enforcement officers accountable for their crimes.Theirs is an interdependent relationship. Republican office seekers gush about the police and can see no wrong. Our politicians, on the other hand, talk a good talk but I see no evidence that police brutality will be anywhere near the top of their list of priorities. Just listen to them [politicians] talk and never ever getting around to calling a bloody racist spade a spade. The problem is police officers from the majority community killing at will and with impunity. I am tired of shouting at my television set that poverty did not kill Tamir Rice; a police officer acting under the aegis of the state did. It wasn’t the lack of economic development in Ferguson that murdered Michael Brown; Darren Wilson did that all by his lonesome.
“We have to restore policing that will actually protect the communities police are sworn to protect,” Clinton said, noting that most of this reform will take place at the state level.
From Senator Sanders:
“I think we can all agree that we are sick and tired of seeing videos on the television of unarmed African-Americans shot and killed,” he said adding that “any police officer who breaks the law will be held accountable.”
Sounds good, but history teaches that we cannot depend on politicians to effect change on their own volition. Change will only come from a determined and sustained effort from We the People: through our votes, our protests, or our forcing them to change laws. We see proof of the difference people power can make in what has been happening of late. A slew of cops have been charged with crimes or disciplined by their departments for having abused their authority in one way or the other and all credit should go to the self-sacrificing activism of #BLM. The loud, irreverent, in-your-face protest of members and affiliates of the Black Lives Matter movement has managed to grab the attention of the media and the threat of protest at their doorsteps has forced some PDs to act. It was pressure from fearless protesters that forced the DOJ to sue the city of Ferguson. But we need to do so much more, and with an even greater sense of urgency. Lives are at stake.
Investigators said Peter Gaines, 35, was damaging a traffic sign Saturday afternoon at the intersection of Eastex Freeway and Collingsworth when an officer tried to stop him. HPD said its possible Gaines was on PCP.
Police said the officer walked up to Gaines, asking him to calm down, but the man wouldn't stay back. The officer used a Taser twice to stop him before pulling out his gun and shooting, police said.
Investigators said Gaines had no weapon, and the officer involved was unharmed.
I re-read that last paragraph and had to take a break. I thought about the mothers, fathers, and other loved ones who have been plunged into the worst kind of unending heartache. Unnecessary heartache. How do we get cops to see people as precious human beings with the right to live?
Members of our group are doing what we can to make a difference. Our aim is to change the culture of policing; to equip ordinary citizens with the legal means to police the police. To force law enforcement officers to treat members of the public with respect, with restraint, and that they be punished to the full extent of the law if they dare to use lethal force other than when it is AB-SO-LUTE-LY necessary.
That knife-wielding man did not die that day. Surely those cops felt fear. Surely they knew that their lives were in danger. But yet they managed to show patience and restraint. Those are the hallmarks of sophisticated, strategic policing befitting a First World country. We should accept no less from our law enforcement officers.
We are rapidly approaching the signature collection phase of our campaign to get the Over-Policed Rights Act on the California ballot. We will be needing your help.
This is a screengrab of the Summary and Title of the Ballot Initiative sent to us by the California Department of Justice:
Our Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act as seen through the eyes of the California Justice Dept
We await word from the Secretary of State who will be sending us a schedule with the maximum filing deadline and the certification deadline.
Remember the classic case of over-policing when a state trooper followed a black man into a gas station and then pulled him over for not wearing his seat belt?
Sean Groubert, 33, faces 20 years in prison for striking Levar Jones in the hip during the Sept. 4 traffic stop in Columbia.
This is what accountability looks like.
The most frightening aspect of the attack against the protester at Trumps rally is how police worked with the avowed racist to brutalize Rakeem Jones. Nobody called a meeting, there were no furtive whispers or signals, but yet all parties knew exactly what their roles were. The cops and the racist knew that they were on the same side and that Rakeem was the enemy.
I am running to be the 50th Mayor of Baltimore in order to usher our city into an era where the government is accountable to its people and is aggressively innovative in how it identifies and solves its problems.
This is satisfying on some level, but Synder really needs to be in jail.
(Wordcloud composed of Support the Dream Defenders, Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act, Expand Medicaid, Freedom of Information Act Project, Combat Racism, Demand Equality.)
Members of the Daily Kos group Support the Dream Defenders launched four ongoing projects:
1. We came together to support the Dream Defenders in Florida and their mission, our first project and the origin of our name. The Dream Defendersdefend the Dream of Martin Luther King Jr. by "develop[ing] the next generation of radical leaders to realize and exercise our independent collective power; building alternative systems and organizing to disrupt the structures that oppress our communities." Please donate here.
2. Our Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act, crowd-sourced at Daily Kos in the fall of 2014 after the death of Michael Brown. Our bill quickly earned endorsements from the NAACP and the ACLU. The NAACP forwarded our bill to members of Congress, and we distributed it to members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other progressive members of Congress. President Obama signed into a law a small piece of our bill in December 2014. The Department of Justice included parts of our law in their reports on Ferguson, Missouri, in 2015. Our state version of the MBOPRA is currently in committee in the Kansas legislature.
3. Our Freedom of Information Act project. Nineteen Republican governors chose to kill poor people by not expanding Medicaid. Ebola has killed about 9000 people in total; Republican governors kill 23,000 people PER YEAR by refusing federal support for Medicaid, a story ignored by traditional media. Our project forces those governors to out themselves, clapping them in a Catch 22. With the support of readers, we publicize our results through letters to the editor, press releases, and petitions.
You can receive all future diaries of Support the Dream Defenders in your Daily Kos Stream by clicking here. Then click "Follow," which will make all STDD diaries appear in "My Stream" of your Daily Kos page.
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You are also welcome to join us on The Porch over at the Black Kos Community group on Friday afternoons at 4 p.m. ET."
