Police Brutality Protests Thread

[Jolene Benoir]

DOJ launches inquiry into Minneapolis police operations



About f*cking time

...and this, from the "less divisive" head of the Minneapolis police union after Knoll resigned. *sigh*


The MPD, and their union, has been the biggest provider of injustice in the city of Minneapolis for decades, I've known that since I was a kid riding bicycles and now I'm close to collecting social security. Bob Knoll (an avowed white nationalist) and Derik Chauvin and the people that let them rampage around the city deserve to DIAF.

I think it needs to extend to the entire metro area. The Twin Cities is rather spread out, with a metro population of 3.6 million (2017) while Mpls proper has a population of 425, 403 (2018). The systemic problems endemic to Mpls are also present in the entire metro.

 

[Kalel]

Protests erupt in Columbus after officer shoots and kills teenage girl armed with a knife

Protests erupt in Columbus after officer shoots and kills teenage girl armed with a knife

fox8.com

 

[Soen Eber]

About that church photo

The photo shows a church in Brooklyn Center that appears to be surrounded by a futuristic, post-apocalyptic Minnesota State Patrol stormtrooper operation.

Except the troopers weren’t guarding the church, they were guarding the police station next door — although it isn’t pictured in the photo.

“There just happened to be a church in the background,” she said.

Simeon Momanyi, pastor of the Kenyan Community Seventh-Day Adventist Church, said they opened their doors to volunteers to distribute food and supplies, but closed at curfew time. It wasn’t open when the photo was taken.

He said police were pushing protesters back from the police station — not the church — because it would be easy to break into the police station from the church parking lot, since the fencing on the church side is weak.

“They were preventing people from going into the parking lot,” Momanyi said.

The photo was taken by Scott Streble, an independent Minneapolis photographer, who said the photo “got loose.”

“I didn’t know what to make of it,” he said. “I’m bummed that there was so much misinformation about it. I felt like I was powerless after it got out.”

He tried responding to some people to set the record straight, but it was impossible. “It was too overwhelming. I quit.”

Asked about it, Coldwater said she wasn’t there when the photo was taken, and mistook the photo for a Lutheran church that she says was targeted by police. She said a journalist reached out to tell her of the mistake, and she linked to his thread in her thread.

Streble, the photographer, said it’s hard to figure out what’s going on in the photo, but he felt the troopers were using the space to stage and “look intimidating” before dispersing protesters. He saw some people claim the troopers were guarding a white supremacist church.

“I’m not sure how it happened but everyone used the photo to… further their agenda,” he said. “It seemed to work for all sides.”

 

[Cindy Claveau]

I had a long post all written out and for some reason it got swallowed before I could hit "Enter". (I blame my fumble fingers, not the software).

I'll just add this as a prime example of the kind of bullshit some sides in the US are producing in an effort to protect White Power:

Newt Gingrich: The Real Racists are People Who Make Your Kids Feel Bad About Being White

1. Fuck Newt. With a rusty screwdriver.
2. As long as there are loud and powerful voices promoting racism without consequence, this kind of stuff is going to continue to happen.
3. We are several generations away from actually accepting equal rights for everyone regardless of race. Two steps forward, one step back. If we're lucky.

following the Derek Chauvin verdict, Fox anchors have a new goal; convincing their viewers that racism doesn’t exist.

 

[Free]

What if Newt's opinions make me feel bad about being white?

 

[Cindy Claveau]

What if Newt's opinions make me feel bad about being white?

Newt's opinions make me feel bad about being an American and a human being.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

I just want to expand upon my belief that the entire Twin Cities areas *should* be subject to DOJ investigation. Every time something major happens, the ENTIRE metro area police force responds. They come and back each other up.

Given that and the fact that our suburbs are changing demographically with black folks trying (along with me) to get the hell out of the city, with a loss of poc in inner ciIy but an increase in suburbs, it means even more police brutality in the metro area. If anything the suburbs are even worse, believe it or not. It doesn't really matter if it happens in the city vs a burb as we saw last week with the Daunte Wright case. They all are trained the same exact way and come to areas to assist. That is extremely common. They all rush to help in a situation where an officer may be in danger or one in which they think the suspect is particularly dangerous. Doesn't even have to be that. They come, probably because 90% of policing is boring, mundane routine and it hits their excitement level.

This is something I wouldn't mind ALL metropolitan areas throughout the country facing. Nothing to hide as they say? Well, there ya go, noting to fear. But that isn't how it is going to go. It will be fought tooth and nail. It has to be done, across the country. Most American cities are comprised of a central city surrounded by larger and more populous metro areas.

I hope my thoughts make sense. Basically, what I am arguing for is a complete overhaul of all police depts regardless of whatever one did it most recently and to include metro areas as most major cites now encompass. that.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

I had a long post all written out and for some reason it got swallowed before I could hit "Enter". (I blame my fumble fingers, not the software).

I'll just add this as a prime example of the kind of bullshit some sides in the US are producing in an effort to protect White Power:

Newt Gingrich: The Real Racists are People Who Make Your Kids Feel Bad About Being White

1. Fuck Newt. With a rusty screwdriver.
2. As long as there are loud and powerful voices promoting racism without consequence, this kind of stuff is going to continue to happen.
3. We are several generations away from actually accepting equal rights for everyone regardless of race. Two steps forward, one step back. If we're lucky.

What if Newt's opinions make me feel bad about being white?

Newt's opinions make me feel bad about being an American and a human being.

Newt makes me feel bad for
1: having met him [my dad interviewed him for a local radio station he managed]
2: having wasted time sending him a letter telling him to stop legislating my body [sent one to my two senators too - only Sam Nunn and Newt responded - one letter was respectful, and Newt's wasn't it]
3: having had him as my congresscritter for entirely too long.

Also, second and third that he needs a rusty screwdriver followed by DIAFF.

I went to the college he'd taught at. Not ONE of my professors had ANYTHING good to say about him, and neither did the daughter of the founder, who was a retired college professor herself, that I helped out with all her rescue kitties.

NOT.A.ONE.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Wasn't quite sure where to put this, but here seems appropriate

Bones of Black children killed in police bombing used in Ivy League anthropology course

Remains of those killed in 1985 Move bombing in Philadelphia serve as ‘case study’ in Princeton-backed course

www.theguardian.com

The bones of Black children who died in 1985 after their home was bombed by Philadelphia police in a confrontation with the Black liberation group which was raising them are being used as a “case study” in an online forensic anthropology course presented by an Ivy League professor.

It has emerged that the physical remains of one, or possibly two, of the children who were killed in the aerial bombing of the Move organization in May 1985 have been guarded over the past 36 years in the anthropological collections of the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton.

The institutions have held on to the heavily burned fragments, and since 2019 have been deploying them for teaching purposes without the permission of the deceased’s living parents.

To the astonishment and dismay of present-day Move members, some of the bones are being deployed as artifacts in an online course presented in the name of Princeton and hosted by the online study platform Coursera. Real Bones: Adventures in Forensic Anthropology focuses on “lost personhood” – cases where an individual cannot be identified due to the decomposed condition of their remains.

ETA

Ivy League colleges urged to apologise for using bones of Black children in teaching

Bones of children who died in 1985 police bombing used in anthropology course – but some bones now appear to be missing

www.theguardian.com

 

[Romana]

Colorado Cops Injured a 73-Year-Old Woman With Dementia, Then Joked About It On Video

"Ready for the pop?"

reason.com

 

[Free]

Justice Department to launch probe of Louisville policing practices in wake of Breonna Taylor’s death

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Monday that the Justice Department will launch a civil investigation into policing practices at Louisville Metro Police Department.

www.valleycentral.com

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Monday that the Justice Department will launch a civil investigation into policing practices at Louisville Metro Police Department.

Garland said the Justice Department would investigate if there is a pattern of unconstitutional or unlawful policing and practices at LMPD. The new investigation is known as a “pattern or practice” — examining whether there is a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing — and will be a more sweeping review of the entire police department.

This announcement comes more than a year after the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in her home during a botched police raid.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I think this should be prosecuted as murder, or as homicide with so many aggravating factors it makes little difference when it comes to sentencing.

California man dies after police pin him to ground for five minutes

Body-cam footage shows arrest earlier in April by police in Alameda of Mario Gonzalez, 26, which ended in his death

www.theguardian.com

Once they had him handcuffed, he was sufficiently restrained and subdued that they longer needed to use any force at all on him, and certainly didn't need to keep on kneeling on his neck for five minutes (guess they haven't been keeping up with the news).

They should have allowed him to stand, or at least, sit, while summoning medical assistance prior to taking him into custody (which they should have done far earlier).

That's what they're supposed to do here, anyway, and I can't imagine what legal excuse there could be in the US for they way they treated this poor man.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

I think this should be prosecuted as murder, or as homicide with so many aggravating factors it makes little difference when it comes to sentencing.

California man dies after police pin him to ground for five minutes

Body-cam footage shows arrest earlier in April by police in Alameda of Mario Gonzalez, 26, which ended in his death

www.theguardian.com

Once they had him handcuffed, he was sufficiently restrained and subdued that they longer needed to use any force at all on him, and certainly didn't need to keep on kneeling on his neck for five minutes (guess they haven't been keeping up with the news).

They should have allowed him to stand, or at least, sit, while summoning medical assistance prior to taking him into custody (which they should have done far earlier).

That's what they're supposed to do here, anyway, and I can't imagine what legal excuse there could be in the US for they way they treated this poor man.

Don't they ever learn? The biggest case in the country just finished up and what do they do; similar restraint. They also pulled the same lie that the ones in Mpls did by filing a false report stating that he had a medical emergency. Oh yeah, caused by them.

 

[Lady Darnk Juniorette]

 

[Romana]

 

[Veritable Quandry]

New York has a fairly strong SLAPP law. The officer will be paying legal fees for the defendant.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I don't know if he has a case in law, but it seems to me that Detective Cheung's complaint is neither baseless nor trivial

At the news conference last week, at the headquarters of his union, the Detectives Endowment Association, Detective Cheung said he had often encountered verbal abuse before, but that he was surprised that during a demonstration for racial justice and equality, Mr. Harper had gone on what he called “an Anti-Asian beratement for over 15 minutes.”

“That type of hate directed towards myself as an Asian-American is just disgusting,” he said.

The lawsuit said that Detective Cheung had suffered severe emotional distress and was permanently and seriously injured by Mr. Harper’s conduct, which, it said, had incapacitated him from his usual duties and required him to seek medical attention. It asked that the court compel Mr. Harper to pay unspecified monetary damages.

In interviews, Mr. Harper, 39, apologized for what he acknowledged were racist comments. He said the video had been taken out of context, and that he typically uses racist remarks as part of a broader explanatory monologue to demonstrate what racism looks and feels like.

“I’ve got to change my method, and I came out and apologized for that,” he said.

Why This N.Y.P.D. Detective Is Suing a Protester (Published 2021)

In an unusual move, Detective Vincent Cheung is suing a man who hurled racist insults at him. The lawsuit raises thorny questions about free speech.

www.nytimes.com

Evernote link because paywall

 

[Innula Zenovka]