Obama: Reform the Police Now

Former President Obama issued a statement today on the Daunte Wright killing by police in Minneapolis:

Our hearts are heavy over yet another shooting of a Black man, Daunte Wright, at the hands of police. It’s important to conduct a full and transparent investigation, but this is also a reminder of just how badly we need to reimagine policing and public safety in this country.

The fact that this could happen even as the city of Minneapolis is going through the trial of Derek Chauvin and reliving the heart-wrenching murder of George Floyd indicates not just how important it is to conduct a full and transparent investigation, but also just how badly we need to reimagine policing and public safety in this country.

Michelle and I grieve alongside the Wright family for their loss. We empathize with the pain that Black mothers, fathers, and children are feeling after yet another senseless tragedy. And we will continue to work with all fair-minded Americans to confront historical inequities and bring about nationwide changes that are so long overdue.

If you want to help, you can learn about the issues, connect with local and national organizations, find resources on trauma and mental health, and take action here:  www.obama.org/anguish-and-action

ABC News reported last night with newly released bodycam footage of the shooting:

   

What I Say: Much as I deplore yet another killing, the situation is not as simple as the headlines make it sound. It was not merely a traffic stop - Daunte had an outstanding warrant for a gun violation and had failed to appear in court. The police have a right and a duty to make an arrest in that situation. His second mistake was jumping back behind the wheel of his car while being handcuffed - at that point he is a danger to the public. So it seems clear to me that he bears some of the responsibility for what happened. This does not, of course, justify his killing. 

I have no background in law enforcement but it seems to me there must be a better way to take someone into custody. And firing a gun instead of a taser is a rookie mistake, not what is expected of a 26-year police veteran. So the police also were at fault for failing to handle the arrest peacefully - that's their job, and they are supposed to be professionals. 

And I blogged last year on the horrendous police training that makes automatic killers out of them. 

After 9/11, the federal government under George W. Bush effectively militarized the police all over this country.  Today, if we are not to live under a police state, law enforcement must be re-imagined and effectively reformed immediately. No more senseless killings! 

There's also this report from ABC News last night on the case of U.S. Army Lt. Caron Nazario that in my view is an even more egregious example of outrageously, horrifically bad policing over a mere traffic stop, though it did not result in a killing:

 

There are good people in law enforcement, a very necessary function of government - but these killer cops have got to be stopped. Along with a lot of other unconscionable things going on in this country. How, I don't know, but there must be a way.

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Notes from the Revolution, 6/22/20

. . . a revolution of hearts and minds . . .

Today in Talladega - see story below.
Click to enlarge.

An assortment of recent news stories that give food for thought and inform the conversation on the momentous issues now gripping this country. Your Head Trucker may have more to say about some of these things another time, but for now, take a look and see what you think.


Have Trump Voters Changed Their Minds?  CNN's Van Jones reports (June 19 2020):




Black Georgia Sheriff Justifies Shooting of Rayshard Brooks:  CNN's Brianna Kellar discusses the shooting with Burke County Sheriff Alonzo Williams (June 16, 2020):




I'm Gonna Talk about You, Connie: Local activist Gary Chambers calls out the Baton Rouge School Board in no uncertain terms last Thursday in Louisiana:



More video and background here. At the end of the meeting, the board did vote to change the name of the school.


Cuomo Fears Election Setup: Governor Andrew Cuomo believes Trump's objections to mail-in ballots are a ruse to ensure a contested election in November (June 22, 2020):




I Stand with Bubba:  Fellow NASCAR drivers and crews gave a massive, moving show of support to driver Bubba Wallace in Talladega, Alabama, today:

Richard Petty's statement of support.  Click to enlarge.

Update, 6/23/20: No Charges in NASCAR Noose Incident.  The FBI says that noose was the tied-up pullcord of a garage door, and had been hanging there that way since last fall.  Well, if it wasn't an act of hatred, it was certainly the occasion for a wonderful display of love and unity in Talladega.


Update, 6/25/20: NASCAR Releases Photo of the Noose. NASCAR president Steve Phelps said at a press conference that "a thorough sweep of the 29 tracks and 1,684 garage stalls at the speedway, authorities found 11 pull-down ropes tied in a knot -- but only one noose," the one found in Bubba Wallace's stall. "We further determined that the noose was not in place when the October 2019 race weekend began but was created at some point during that weekend," Phelps said. "Given that timing and the garage access policies and procedures at the time, we were unfortunately unable to determine with any certainty who tied this rope in this manner or why it was done."

Killer Cops - The Why and the How

Well, this explains everything.

I have found a couple of horrifying videos that confirm what I have suspected for some years now: the police have been systematically trained to kill as an automatic response, without hesitation and without remorse: human killing machines. And they have been loaded up with tons of military gear just like soldiers going into battle. No wonder all these simple traffic stops and sidewalk arrests result in cold-blooded murder of civilians. No wonder.

And has there ever been one single city, county, or state official or administrator, not a law enforcement officer, who reviewed these brainwashing practices and said, "Oh no, this is so wrong, we can't have this"--? And if not, WHY NOT?

A policeman is not an executioner. This is so simple and so obvious, it shouldn't even need to be said. And further I will say, without consulting any lawbooks, that from the moment an arrest is made, the police have a bounden duty to protect that suspect and deliver him safely - and alive - into the hands of the justice system. No other interpretation of their duty is possible - unless the "rule of law" is merely an empty phrase.

The videos that follow go to the heart of what is catastrophically wrong with the police forces in this country.  I'm sure there are still plenty of good cops doing the necessary work they were hired to do - and it is imperative that they be recognized and rewarded and encouraged in a dangerous, difficult, but honorable profession.  The bad ones must be expelled or reprogrammed, starting right now.

It's late at night as I post this, so I will skip further commentary and just put these videos out here for everyone to see - and I hope every citizen of the United States does.


The Police Trainer Who Teaches Cops to Kill (2017), from the New Yorker:




Trailer for Do Not Resist (2016), independent film by Craig Atkinson:




It all makes sense now - and what a ghastly picture it is - the utter perversion of the duty to "protect and serve."


How George Floyd Was Killed in Police Custody (June 1, 2020), from the New York Times, brings together films of the murder from several vantage points:




Thank God for Darnella Frazier and her courage - MSNBC report (May 30, 2020) on the teenager who stood her ground and filmed the murder for all the world to see:

Notes from the Revolution, 6/5/20

. . . a revolution of hearts and minds . . .

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo: "Who are we?  Where are we?  How did we get to this place?
Cuomo lays out a plan for police reform, and the necessity of avoiding false dilemmas.



This is the clearest, most intelligent response to the current crisis I've heard yet. Damn, why is Cuomo not President?

I should also tell you that when I first saw the video of 75-year-old Martin Gugino being violently knocked down by bully-boy police, I thought, "That could be me." I'm not all that much younger than he, and subject to stumble and fall on my own without any help from others. Though I must also say that your Head Trucker would not have the temerity to step in front of a marching phalanx of armed men as he did.


Unconscionable: California: Vallejo police kill unarmed 22-year-old, who was on his knees with his hands up



This, of course, is just one of many stories of egregious,sickening police savagery occurring, with most grievous irony, during this week of nationwide protests against police brutality. Unfortunately, I can't find videos of all of them in a format I can post here. But likely you have seen some on TV or the internet already. Police reform must be the first step of reformation and healing in this country. I can tell you, even from my very mild, infrequent brushes as an old white man with traffic cops in the last two decades, police in Texas have gotten very heavy handed and mighty damn arrogant. Who taught them to behave like that? I shudder to think what they have been like with blacks and other minorities, here and across the nation. No more!


Interesting:  Suddenly, Public Health Officials Say Social Justice Matters More Than Social Distance  Excerpt:

The experts maintain that their messages are consistent—that they were always flexible on Americans going outside, that they want protesters to take precautions and that they're prioritizing public health by demanding an urgent fix to systemic racism.

But their messages are also confounding to many who spent the spring strictly isolated on the advice of health officials, only to hear that the need might not be so absolute after all. It’s particularly nettlesome to conservative skeptics of the all-or-nothing approach to lockdown, who point out that many of those same public health experts—a group that tends to skew liberal—widely criticized activists who held largely outdoor protests against lockdowns in April and May, accusing demonstrators of posing a public health danger. Conservatives, who felt their own concerns about long-term economic damage or even mental health costs of lockdown were brushed aside just days or weeks ago, are increasingly asking whether these public health experts are letting their politics sway their health care recommendations.

Also:  In reversal of position, WHO tells public to wear masks if unable to distance

The WHO’s emergencies director Michael Ryan stressed that putting on a fabric mask is primarily about preventing the wearer from possibly infecting others, rather than self-protection.

Lester Holt of NBC News summarizes the day's events:

Notes from the Revolution, 5/31/20

Photo by Dan Aasland, via Wikipedia

Wikipedia map of weekend protests with more than 100 participants.
Minneapolis is marked with a red circle.
You can see the interactive map and more at List of George Floyd protests.

I use that title for this post because something has got to change in America - now, for real, for ever:  a revolution of hearts and minds.

While there may be many problems and many issues to consider, the police in this country MUST be reformed immediately. Far too many times in the last ten years or so - since the advent of ubiquitous phone cameras - we have seen white policemen killing unarmed, unthreatening black civilians. And the brutal, deliberate murder of George Floyd, which has sickened every decent American and horrified the entire world - is the last straw. It MUST be the last straw - or I'm afraid the country will simply fall apart, or rather, be torn apart in a terrible way.  We can't let the haters win.

You know, when I was a little boy, my mother - a teacher who had worked with what we would now call "school resource officers" where she taught in a large urban school - used to tell me, "Don't be afraid of the police. The policeman is your friend." Who tells their children that today? And whom can you trust, if you can't trust the police? Of course there are still many good cops - but the bad ones are out of control, it seems to me. That's got to change NOW.

I certainly don't want to live in a country where any sadistic brute with a badge on his shirt can wantonly and openly kill someone, and get away with it scot-free - while his cohorts just stand around watching a man die in prolonged agony, and don't lift a finger to stop it, a scene out of a Nazi concentration camp.

THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THAT.  NONE.  It might be the black dude down the street today - but tomorrow, it just might be YOU. And apart from any personal considerations it is simply and unarguably wrong - EVIL - by any moral code, no ifs, ands, or buts about it: Thou shalt not kill.  Not even the extensive police power of the state extends to cold-blooded murder for no good reason.

The moral imperative to respect the dignity of human life transcends all questions of race or politics. I believe in one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for ALL. If it's not for ALL, it's not America, and anyone who doesn't stand up for equal justice for ALL is not an American.

That's my considered opinion. And this is me, old, decrepit, and virtually housebound, doing what I can to help. You look at these videos and see what you think you can or should do about it.

CNN's Van Jones tells it like it is, plain and clear:






St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter decries the "incredible insult to humanity" of George Floyd's murder:




On Saturday, Sheriff Chris Swanson in Flint, Michigan, just might have started something big when he laid down his baton and joined the protesters:



Now that's a real man.

No Room at the Inn in Duarte Square

Bishop George Packer being arrested in Duarte Square on Sunday, December 18


Somehow in my daily, and rather cursory, scan of the news I failed to pick up on the failed attempt on Sunday by Occupy Wall Street to re-establish itself at Duarte Square, owned by the historic Trinity Church, in the Episcopal diocese of New York.  Thanks to Grandmère Mimi at Wounded Bird for alerting me to this very interesting event, in which retired Bishop George Packard, a former Army chaplain in Iraq and bishop for the Armed Forces, took part along with his wife - the Bish was, in fact, first over the fence; both he and his wife were subsequently arrested, along with the rest of the occupiers, but while police treated the bishop nicely (he was wearing a very visible purple cassock), they kneeded his wife in the chest three times while putting her under arrest in a different part of the crowd.

Please check out Mimi's post about the incident, to which I add the following videos of the scramble over (and under) the fence, along with a short conversation with Bishop Packard while riding in the back of the NYPD paddywagon.  His comments about the church's motive in turning down the Occupy request to use the park are most revealing; and being a high-ranking insider of the Church, he should know.

Family Values

Excerpt from a mother's account (by filmmaker Susanna Styron) of trying to find her daughter after she was arrested during the police round-up of Occupy Wall Street on November 15:

But I didn’t expect that she had thirty-two hours of jail time ahead of her, and I had thirty-two hours of trying, mostly in vain, to find out where she was and what was going to happen to her. . . .

[After her daughter was finally released:] On our way home, Lilah told me that when she was arrested, she had simply been standing in the street. She was asked to move, but she couldn’t, because it was packed with people and there was no room. She was shoved backward with a nightstick poke to the stomach. Then she was pepper-sprayed. Then she was forced to the ground, zipline cuffed, and pulled by her wrists so hard it felt as if her shoulder was about to dislocate. She was given no information about her charge or her status for the thirty-two hours she was in custody—not a thing, not until she walked into her arraignment.

After we got home, Lilah went to the doctor. She has nerve damage to her wrist. She’s wearing a wrist brace. She has bruises all over her arms. So she has her battle scars. Lilah’s great-grandmother marched as a suffragette, her grandmother marched against the Vietnam War, I got arrested protesting nuclear weapons, her sister has attended every OWS protest in New York. We’re a traditional family.