<p>Just watched this beautiful event and cried and cried. Beware of audio of Eric Garner at the very end, if you were trying to avoid that.</p>
<p><a href=“I Can't Breathe - YouTube”>I Can't Breathe - YouTube;
<p>Thanks for posting Greenwitch. Powerful. </p>
<p>Lord a’mighty, how do these type of people end up in our Police Departments? The officer in Cleveland was previously rated as quite mediocre and now we learn that an ex-chief in South Carolina who shot an unarmed man was fired by his prior department!</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.wral.com/sc-cop-charged-with-murder-in-unarmed-man-shooting/14244433/”>http://www.wral.com/sc-cop-charged-with-murder-in-unarmed-man-shooting/14244433/</a></p>
<p>The officer who killed Tamir Rice in Cleveland was rated a lot lower than mediocre. He was essentially fired from his previous job for being completely unfit to be a police officer. He was “distracted and weepy,” and “emotionally immature,” and demonstrated “a pattern of lack of maturity, indiscretion and not following instructions,” a “dangerous loss of composure during live range training” and an “inability to manage personal stress.” His superiors didn’t think further training would ever be able to overcome those liabilities.
<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/04/justice/cleveland-police-officer-timothy-loehmann/”>Cop who shot Tamir Rice called 'distracted and weepy' - CNN;
<p>Fortunately for Officer Mob-Hit, the Cleveland police department doesn’t check references.</p>
<p>That was the shooter. The driver in the Cleveland case, the shooter’s partner, was also not a model cop. He recently cost the taxpayers of Cleveland $100,000 in an excessive force settlement for putting a woman in a chokehold when she wasn’t even a crime suspect</p>
<p><a href=“Peter King says Eric Garner would not have died from chokehold were he not 'so obese'”>Peter King says Eric Garner would not have died from chokehold were he not 'so obese';
<p>I always love when politicians spontaneously become medical experts.</p>
<p>@greenwitch
Thanks for sharing. I forwarded it to 100 of my friends. </p>
<p>He might have resisted arrest initially… I bet he became more “resistant” when the cops jumped on him and starting choking him - he realized his life was in peril. I’d be fighting for my life, too. Also, it is possible that he was more vulnerable to suffocation because of the weight and medical conditions, but is it relevant? I am a healthy, fit, and relatively small woman. If a huge cop decided to detain me by sitting on my back and choking me, and I die, would his excuse be “If she had not been so small, she would not have died?!” Ridiculous! </p>
<p>@greenwich – that was beautiful. I’m also forwarding it. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Ahh, Peter King. No surprise there. He’s a staunch “LEO is never wrong”* type politician who represents a section of southern LI with strong presence of current/former NYPD and a staunch conservative political orientation. </p>
<ul>
<li>Especially if it involves White cops and victims who happen to be racial/religious minorities.<br></li>
</ul>
<p>Meanwhile, some dirty police officers were convicted of various types of corrupt activities:</p>
<p><a href=“2 San Francisco police officers convicted of corruption”>http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Two-San-Francisco-police-officers-convicted-in-5937963.php</a>
<a href=“S.F. police officers in corruption case face additional charges”>http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Addtional-charges-filed-against-SFPD-officers-in-5867201.php</a>
<a href=“Unlikely witnesses crucial to case against S.F. police”>http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Unlikely-witnesses-crucial-to-case-against-S-F-5281386.php</a>
<a href=“4 SF cops deny corruption charges as lawyer questions case”>http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/4-SF-cops-deny-corruption-charges-as-lawyer-5278515.php</a>
<a href=“Some indicted S.F. officers accused of wrongdoing in past”>http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Some-indicted-S-F-officers-accused-of-wrongdoing-5274888.php</a>
<a href=“http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/6-S-F-officers-indicted-over-residential-hotel-5273906.php”>http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/6-S-F-officers-indicted-over-residential-hotel-5273906.php</a></p>
<p>Things to note:</p>
<p>a. It was a federal investigation and prosecution in federal court (as opposed to county or state level).</p>
<p>b. The prosecution had to rely on somewhat unsavory witnesses – another dirty police officer who pled guilty, and various non-police criminals.</p>
<p>c. Over 100 criminal cases were dismissed due to these police officers’ misconduct.</p>
<p>d. Race and ethnicity were not factors, which probably kept the political heat down.</p>
<p>Seems like it is not easy to clean up dirt in a police department.</p>
<p>His wake is today. Another black male killed by a police officer. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/12/cop_who_shot_akai_gurley_texted_with_union_rep_couldn_t_be_reached_for_6.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr%3Acontent%26”>http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/12/cop_who_shot_akai_gurley_texted_with_union_rep_couldn_t_be_reached_for_6.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr%3Acontent%26</a></p>
<p><a href=“EXCLUSIVE: Rookie NYPD officer who shot Akai Gurley in Brooklyn stairwell was texting union rep as victim lay dying”>Brooklyn News - New York Daily News;
<p>If it weren’t so tragic, these stories would be comic. These cops sound like comic-book villains. Shooting someone and then getting out the cellphone to text while the person is bleeding to death? Shooting a 12-year-old in a gangland-style drive-by shooting? Detaining a guy for walking with his hands in his pockets?** A bunch of cops standing around while a guy gasps, “I can’t breathe” and then dies?</p>
<p>We need Dick Tracy or Batman to deal with these guys.</p>
<p>** The proper response to a caller who is asking you to investigate someone who is walking with his hands in his pockets is, “We’re not going to investigate that, sir. It’s not illegal to walk with hands in pockets.”</p>
<p>CF, my sister lives ~10 miles from where that happened (the hands in his pocket) and is friends with the guy. I’ve met him a few times. Very good guy. Very over this crap. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, once the police have been dispatched, they have to respond. IMO, I think the officer knew it was a ridiculous situation but had to do it anyway. He seems like he doesn’t want to be there either. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Huh? So, calling the police dispatcher for any reason whatsoever requires that an officer be sent to respond? There’s no minimum standard of credible threat that has to be reached? I can merely say, “Hey, there’s a suspicious black guy walking down my street with his hands in his pockets.” and they have to send a cop out to question this “suspicious” person? Ridiculous.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Exactly.</p>
<p>Why were the police ever dispatched to investigate a guy with his hands in his pockets?!</p>
<p>Why were a half a dozen cops and a team of supervisors sent to haul in a guy selling illegal cigarettes? This was not one cop in a small town driving around. This one came from headquarters.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why such an army of law enforcement had to the sent to address a guy in the subway station selling cigarettes by the each either. I also don’t see why the situation required physical enforcement. It’s a fairly petty crime, is it not? Couldn’t they have cited him and summoned him to appear in court? The response just seemed entirely too heavy-handed for the offense. It’s not something one should expect police to kill you for. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>There is a difference here:</p>
<ol>
<li> Someone calls the police about something.</li>
<li> Dispatcher tells an officer to respond.</li>
<li> Officer responds.</li>
</ol>
<p>romanigypsyeyes is referring to 2->3 being mandatory. poetsheart is referring to 1->2, which perhaps may allow some discretion. However, even if dispatchers have some discretion, I would not be surprised if, in 1->2, dispatchers err on the side of sending an officer, because a lot of trouble can ensue if it is known that they failed to send an available officer to a situation when a crime actually was taking place.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If you mean this incident:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.wxyz.com/news/tense-police-stop-in-oakland-county-caught-on-camera”>http://www.wxyz.com/news/tense-police-stop-in-oakland-county-caught-on-camera</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>McKean may have been racially profiled by the store manager who called 911.</p>
<p>The store in question had been robbed seven times in the last two years, so perhaps that may have caused the manager to also have a hair trigger on calling 911.</p>
<p>The weird thing about this as our department (Seattle, not burb) have recently been in trouble for NOT responding to calls. I’m not sure if it was just at the dispatch level or the department level or who decides, but they were not going out for property crimes such as things stolen out of cars. Finally a columnist wrote about it in the paper because in this day and age everyone can track their stuff and they know where their phone or laptop is. I don’t know if it is some lag in the probable cause and search laws or what but the idea of gratuitous calls (and a response) for just looking wrong seems so strange.</p>
<p>@poetsheart - UCB is correct in what I meant. Once an officer is dispatched, (s)he must go. At least around here- I know this because I’ve had to call the cops many times in my old job and then would call and say “nevermind”. Every time, without fail, the cops still showed up and did a quick sweep of the area. </p>
<p>It is not surprising to me that he was dispatched given that there’s been a string of broad daylight, high-profile robberies over the last week. People are very much on edge. Note: I am NOT saying that excuses calling in because a black man has his hands in his pockets. I AM saying that that the dispatcher probably said people were seeing something “suspicious” and the officer needed to check it out. </p>