Thank you! I so agree with all the excellent points you brought, though feel that ongoing psych support (check ups) and socialization should be required maintenance and mandatory even for the seasoned vets.
As well, the cameras need to be more clearly used as you said, and mandatory! So who polices the police as they continue to revel in their demi-god status? It appears that they think they are well 'above the law', as Der Gobsmacked Leader in the WH. ?
With much appreciation for your sword of justice and your fine mind, Allyn... hang in there!
( Hey have you checked out Unk-p's new garden thread yet?)
@allyn Again, this is excellent, and I hope that something good comes from this. I'm dismayed that the findings after the Watts riots described the inequalities between the black and white communities, and yet decades later, it's the same: except for video cameras. This crime, this murder, was taped by a teenage girl who stood her ground despite being threatened by these same police officers with mace. If not for that and public pressure, I fear everything you describe as being a routine excuse would be the dominating story. Thank you for your posts--I read every word.
@laura-f Not that I don't want to believe every word of this, but the drug use goes against so much of the reporting by David Cay Johnston, Tim O'Brien, and even Joe Scarborough. Why wouldn't Johnston and O'Brien have discovered this? Or even Michael Wolfe. Also, this means that White House doctors have covered up for him too. I know the first one did, but all of them? Finally, someone close to me was prescribed a very high dose of Adderall for Chronic Fatigue. He was able then to continue working for 8 more years as a result, but it causes high blood pressure, and creates a very high risk of stroke. It also wears off after awhile so he could no longer take it.
@dhyanaji and @allyn
Allyn, I always really appreciate your views as a defense attorney. It's interesting and helpful to know what really happens in the justice system. I feel the Orange nightmare has made it even harder and has contributed to the racial tensions and over reach from the police, thus making what you do even more important and even more difficult.
I think the problem with the bad apples in the police department has to do with particular officers having psychological power issues that stem from childhood. Every police department should have psych exams to determine which ones will have "power" issues. The more the crowd told that one officer in Minneapolis to stop choking that unarmed black man, the more he "showed them he was in power". Not all cops have this problem, and it should be part of an identification process by all police departments.
dhyanaji thanks for liking my saying of "Make sure you brains are loaded before you shoot your mouth off". A friend from childhood's father taught me that one!
@jeanne-mayell @deetoo To extend Eugene Robinson's perspective, I just heard a report on what the findings were after the Watts riots. While I do believe that we have made some progress (President Obama being a great example), I'm truly dismayed that the Watts report may prove to be identical to the report that will eventually come from all of this. PS: While Joe Biden was not my first choice or my second or third, I do believe that his nature and empathy for people in pain may be what is needed at this time.
There are several of us, including @Lawrence and I believe @TriciaCT, all from the NYC area originally, who crossed paths with Twitler or with people on his fringe*. I think in the past it was more about cocaine (the 80s) than Adderall, but when you hear story after story after story, all from people who don't know each other, it paints a picture of a behavior pattern. Additionally, I have a lot of life experience with addicts, especially stimulant addicted (cocaine, ADD drugs, crack, etc.). Orange Foolius' patterns of behavior, movement, speech, even taking into account his sociopathic narcissism, point to significant drug use both past and present.
The reason no one has "discovered" this is because it was common knowledge - everyone "on the street" has always known. What you could be wondering instead is why even the left leaning media didn't start pointing it out in 2015.
*Fringe for me in the present means a family business that had dealings with the tRump organization, going all the way up to "the boss". In the past it was friends who frequented parties in Manhattan.
To add to what @Allyn said - for the last few decades, there has been a militarization of local police entities. It's driven, like everything else in the US by exploitative capitalism. After 9/11 it accelerated, and the Patriot Act, while not really meant to address local policing issues, was taken to heart by many in police/sheriff departments around the country.
I think background vetting is mostly for show at this point. Many of the people who gravitate to police work are people with issues, including veterans with untreated PTSD, white supremacists (well that's not new...), psychopaths, narcissists, people who didn't qualify for military service. And unlike many other professions, there's no real continuing education. They do their training, which probably includes some lip service anti-bias training, and then they get their badge and gun and hit the street. There are few to no police departments that make their officers even take one conflict resolution course, which would go a long way towards preventing these abuses.
As long as there are capitalists selling the idea that "your police department needs more!" (tanks, body armour, tasers, guns, etc.), this won't change.
Bottom line, our whole system is f*ed up, and it's going to take a bunch of miracles to change that, but as long as the psychopathic capitalist cryptofascists are running the show, it won't.
@allyn, could you offer your perspective on why Officer Chauvin, who killed Mr. Floyd, was only charged with 3rd degree murder? I was expecting a 2nd degree murder charge. I am so angry by this that I can't see straight.
I just heard that the wife of Officer Chauvin is devastated by the killing of Mr. Floyd and filed for divorce as a result of this week's incident.
@deetoo- wait his name is actually Chauvin ? as in -ist Pig ? Wow