How Helpful Are The Police Really?
They ain’t the Avengers
Despite what cop shows lead you to believe, the police don't patrol the streets actively preventing crimes before they happen. They are more often an occupying force in marginalized communities. Join us as we dismantle the propaganda that helps make cops almost immune from accountability and sensible reform.
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Please Don't Call The Cops On Kids Smoking Pot In The Park, Okay?
White Cops Just *Hate* Don't-Be-Racist Training
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Please Don't Call The Cops On Kids Smoking Pot In The Park, Okay?
I don't know who needs to hear this, but ...
If there is anything people love more than complaining about how kids never go outside anymore and are always on their phones, it is kicking kids out of public spaces like parks and malls.
On Friday, a Twitter account that posts things heard over Chicago police scanner tweeted that someone had called the cops about a group of about 15 teenagers smoking pot in a park.
\u201cPrinters Row Park: caller says approximately 15 teens are smoking weed in the park. #Chicago #ChicagoScanner\u201d— Spot News (@Spot News) 1676067456
I have to know. What kind of person does this? What is it that they wanted to have happen here? Did they want these kids arrested and thrown in jail? Were they frightened? Were they scared the teens may have caught reefer madness? Who looks at a bunch of kids just hanging out, smoking pot in a park and thinks "Oh, I'd better call 911! Surely the solution to this problem is sending these kids to prison for however many years." Weed is legal in Illinois (though only for people over 21), but the kind of person who would call 911 to report kids in a park smoking pot probably doesn't know that.
I have many questions here. But mostly i'd like to know what this person would have done if the police had killed one of those kids.
I am sure this was just a regular old busybody, someone who thought they were being a Good American Citizen by reporting such dreadful juvenile delinquency to the police. I realize that a lot of people's heads are in a different place than mine (at this point omertà is my default status) is as far as this goes and that they are accustomed to thinking of the police as their friends. But in the world we live in, when you call the cops on people — people of color in particular — you put their lives at risk. Police have killed unarmed people over much less than a joint.
It's also worth considering whether or not the punishment for the crime one is reporting would be just or if it would itself be a worse crime. In Illinois, minors won't get arrested for smoking pot, but they can be fined $100-$200. Do you even want a teenager to have to come up with $100-$200 for smoking pot in a park? Is this something you really care about and think is important and beneficial for society? In the case of other drugs or minor crimes, does the punishment fit the crime? Is it the best thing for society to lock someone up for maybe 20 years because they sold drugs as a teenager?
We have the largest prison population in the world and we put people away for a very long time in this country, in prisons that are unsafe, for relatively minor and often victimless crimes, derailing their lives and making it harder for them to support themselves when they get out.
Judges will happily consider the "bright futures" of well-off white rapists like Brock Turner, but that doesn't go for everyone.
It's impossible to know what the statistics are on prison rape — about 4 percent of prisoners actually report being sexual assault, but some peer-reviewed studies say it could be that as many as 41 percent of prisoners are sexually assaulted while they are incarcerated, and this is an especially big risk for juveniles. This, too, should be taken into consideration when reporting crimes. I'm not saying "If you report a crime you are causing someone to get raped in prison," but it's not something people should put out of their heads, either.
We have an ethical obligation to consider what calling the police on someone actually means. Calling the police and then figuring "whatever happens, happens — I've done my part and I'm not responsible for what happens afterwards!" is not an acceptable position in a society that does what we do.
Apart from this, there are a lot of other situations where one does not necessarily need to call the cops and another service would suffice. For instance, if someone is having a severe mental health episode, maybe instead of calling people who could very well decide to handle that by putting a bag over their head and pushing it into the ground until they die of suffocation, you might want to call people better equipped to handle such a situation — like a crisis intervention unit that is actually trained to do so. For such occasions, there are a lot of resources at Don't Call The Police, a handy website that lists community-based alternatives to calling the cops in a bunch of metropolitan areas around the country.
It's one thing if you're being chased down an alley by a psycho killer with a machete. In that case, by all means, call the cops. If you or someone else is in immediate physical danger — go ahead, dial 911. Although you might want to be aware that there's a 95 percent chance they won't get there in time to do anything about it or even catch the attacker — and that they are not constitutionally obligated to do anything to protect you. If someone robs you and you need to file a police report for insurance purposes? Knock yourself out.
However, if it's a victimless crime like, say, a bunch of teenagers smoking pot in a park? If you see something, don't say something.
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Monster Memphis Cop Texted Trophy Photos Of Tyre Nichols's Battered Body
There's no reforming this.
Five Memphis police officers viciously beat Tyre Nichols and propped him up against a police car like he was a bag of used beer cans. He was bleeding, barely conscious, but still handcuffed, presumably to protect the cops who’d seen too many slasher films where the seemingly vanquished killer suddenly roars back to life.
The Memphis Police Department confirmed this week that former officer Demetrius Haley, whose name should become an epithet, admitted taking a photo of Nichols slumped against the police car. At this point, Nichols was probably already dying from his injuries, but Haley considered this as good a time as any for some non-consensual modeling.
\u201cThis shit cannot be reformed.\u201d— Shannon Watts (@Shannon Watts) 1675814017
PREVIOUSLY:
Memphis Cops Who Killed Tyre Nichols Lied Their Asses Off In Police Report
Are Cops Just Too Broke, Stressed Out To Avoid Killing Black People?
Haley was the cop who shouted obscenities while yanking Nichols out of the car. He apparently wasn’t so pissed he couldn’t stop to commemorate the occasion. He’d also pepper sprayed Nichols, which caused him to run off in obvious pain. Haley wasn’t present for most of the beatdown, and when he arrived, Nichols was already lying on the ground moaning in pain. So, obviously, this peace officer ran up and kicked Nichols in the head or upper body. I’m not watching that video again to confirm.
The Memphis Police Department confirms that Haley used his personal cellphone to take the photo. Officers are prohibited from using personal cellphones while performing such duties as driving a police vehicle, handling calls for service, or conducting traffic stops. Presumably, officers can't use a personal cellphone when committing homicides, either.
Haley sent the photo to at least five people, including two fellow officers, a civilian employee of the department, and a woman he knew. A sixth person might’ve also received the photo. At this rate, you should check your own phone for photos from Haley, but for God’s sake delete without opening.
I don’t believe All Cops Are Bastards, but I certainly don’t think All Cops Are Brilliant. Maybe Haley was dumb enough to send around repulsive photos that implicate him in a violent crime. That's a more pleasant option than the more likely one: Haley thought he was untouchable as a cop. Like one of the droogs from Clockwork Orange, he realized that the badge and uniform let him continue reveling in the old ultra violence without any accountability. No one would stop him. No one would care. They'd all appreciate the sick humor.
The "good news," I suppose, is that this is now part of a report sent to the Tennessee Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission. Chief Cerelyn Davis has requested that the five officers, who were quickly fired, be officially decertified, which would make them ineligible to ever work again as police officers in the state. They'e also charged with second-degree murder, but it's best not to take chances. It's very hard to fire a cop, and even when you succeed, they often come roaring back like that slasher film killer. They return with back pay and maybe a sequel deal.
It's Black History Month, and I'm reminded that Haley's grotesque actions aren't that dissimilar from how a giddy audience would behave at a lynching. They pointed and laughed, and yes, they even took souvenir photos of the Black people dying in front of them. Haley, like the other officers, is Black, but psychopathy knows no color. He'd stared into the abyss at some point and found himself in Memphis on May 22, 1917, when Ell Persons was lynched after he was accused of raping and killing a teenage white girl. A large crowd gathered for the event that was reported to have the "atmosphere of a carnival."
Persons' body was decapitated and dismembered, and his remains were scattered and displayed across Beale Street—the centre of the African American community in Memphis—where his head was thrown from a car at a group of African Americans. According to Charles W. Cansler, a spokesman for the local black community, his head was thrown into a room which contained black doctors. His remains were taken as souvenirs, and photographs of his head were sold on postcards for months after the event. The Commercial Appeal's headline the day after the lynching read: "Thousands cheered when negro burned: Ell Persons pays death penalty for killing girl", and their editorial on 25 May described the lynching as "orderly. There was no drunkenness, no shooting and no yelling."
Rather than honoring the ancestors, Haley simply took his turn inflicting misery.
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Memphis Cops Who Killed Tyre Nichols Lied Their Asses Off In Police Report
But how could that be?
When Memphis police officers savagely beat Tyre Nichols on January 7, they deliberately crafted a self-serving work of fiction describing the encounter. CNN reports that the initial police report filed in the hours after the fatal traffic stop "suggested he was violent and made claims that were contradicted by video."
The cops whaled on Nichols even after he was subdued on the ground, but the initial police report stated that Nichols "start[ed] to fight" with the cops and at one point grabbed one of their guns — a classic for justifying lethal force against an unarmed suspect. Police videos released last week substantiate neither of those claims.
PREVIOUSLY: The Minneapolis PD's Wondrous Tale Of Kind Cops' Merciful Treatment Of Sick George Floyd
It wasn't much of a fight: Five armed cops punched and kicked Nichols repeatedly, which the police report doesn't mention. Instead, the report identifies Nichols as the suspect in an aggravated assault. It might've been all that blood he got on their clean uniforms.
The report describes one of the officers delivering the ass whooping — later charged with second-degree murder — as a "victim."
According to the New York Times, the police claimed that they'd stopped Nichols for reckless driving, and Nichols, "irate and sweating profusely," had refused a "lawful detention" and fought the officers at the scene. There's zero evidence that Nichols ever struck the cops. There's not even much evidence that he was driving recklessly. The videos show that the cops approached Nichols car with their guns drawn, shouting profanities at him before yanking him out of the car. Then the lynching began.
Mr. Nichols, sounding distressed, says “You don’t do that, OK?” and then tries to follow officers’ contradictory and rapid fire commands, which included ordering him to get on the ground while he was already lying down. “All right, I’m on the ground,” he says, before responding to another demand: “Yes, sir.”
But the police continued to be aggressive, with one threatening to fire his Taser at Mr. Nichols and another threatening to “break” his hands. Mr. Nichols pleaded with them to stop, and said at one point, “You guys are really doing a lot right now.”
They were indeed.
I've compared the cops who killed Nichols to wild animals but they were actually quite rational and methodical when it came time to cover their tracks.
Cops lying in official reports is not new. Marvel movies are more grounded in reality than the police report detailing George Floyd's death. CNN reported in 2020 that video often contradicted what police say in reports. This is why the media should stop treating the police as objective sources.
Philip Stinson, a criminologist and professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University, conducted research showing that "out of more than 10,000 officer arrest cases, about 6.3 percent involved false reports or statements. About a quarter of those cases involving false reports or statements also involved alleged acts of police violence." Stinson believes the problem is probably even more common than the data reveals.
And this isn't just a difference of perspective. These are often bald-faced lies. Former Balch Springs, Texas, officer Roy Oliver was sentenced to 15 years for the shooting death of unarmed Black teenager Jordan Edwards. Oliver had fired into a car full of teenagers leaving a party, but the police report originally claimed that the car had moved "aggressively" toward officers. The body camera footage showed that the car was actually moving in the opposite direction.
Cops lie in police reports to keep their jobs and save their own skins, and in the process they willingly defame the names and memories of the people they've killed, who can no longer defend themselves.
[CNN]
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