The United Police States of America

[MajGenl.Meade]

I wish the three of you would take your shit out to the dumpster and stop screwing up this thread which has the subject of police brutality, not your petty squabbling.

[Lord Jim]

You're cordially invited to kiss my ass Gen'l...

You completely tanked your credibly with me when you accused me of saying that Black people should "keep quiet because that's their place. "...

The diversion in this thread began when BSG decided to get in my face (twice, the second time with dripping sarcasm) for daring to post a news story in this thread that didn't conform to her chosen narrative, and was rekindled when rube decided to leap in with gratuitous insults...

If you want to keep it going, I strongly suggest you reply.

[BoSoxGal]

Hey wesw, guess what I'm thinking right now?

[wesw]

cute pic....

that looks just like my neighbors dog.

I m not usually a fan of toy dogs, but how can you not love a little havanese? they are just so sweet and nice and cute.

[Jarlaxle]

Well, I see nothing has changed...this place is STILL a bunch of bickering children.

[Guinevere]

Says the one who dropped in simply to blow raspberries??

Read further, there has been some of the usual testyness but also some good discussions. Your choice if you stay or not

[TPFKA@W]

Nothing new there. How is Liz?

[rubato]

speaking of things conservatives lie about:



http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/won ... g-in-2015/

Police shot and killed people on all but 12 days of the year so far
By Christopher Ingraham July 17

Police officers have shot and killed at least 518 people so far this year, according to the Washington Post's database of fatal police shootings. Seventy eight people have been killed in the past 30 days. Since the start of this week, 13 people have lost their lives to police gunfire.

Police have shot and killed people on all but 12 calendar days so far this year. In other words, police shootings are basically a daily occurrence in the U.S. -- a simple fact of life when you live here. Here's how all those shootings have spread across the calendar year so far.

Last Tuesday was the deadliest day of officer-involved killings so far, with 8 people fatally shot. We haven't had a day without a police shooting since early June. On 26 days so far this year, officers have shot and killed five or more people.

Many of these shootings involved dangerous criminals. Many shootings involved suspects pulling a gun on police, or threatening the lives of other people.

But in 75 cases people were shot and killed who were unarmed, or who were armed with a toy weapon. 31 cases involved people in automobiles. Roughly 43 percent of the people shot were not armed with a gun.

It's important to know and understand these numbers, because official counts of officer-involved fatalities -- which come from the FBI -- undercount the true numbers by 50 percent or more. If we want to understand violence in America -- and how law enforcement responds to it -- we need to understand the scope of the issue.

Explore the numbers on your own using the Post's database, or download the data over at Github.

Once you've swallowed the lie that confederate troops "fought for a noble cause" you can accept any and all corrupt and evil acts.


yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

So of 518 people "shot", only 75 were unarmed? I hope the 75 cases are being properly investigated to see what the justification was.

So 443 were armed. And we're supposed to worry about the police shooting them, are we? Let's see.... no, not worried.

[Econoline]

http://www.vox.com/2015/7/16/8978183/sa ... estigation

Police say Sandra Bland was pulled over by a Texas officer Friday, July 10, for failing to signal before changing lanes. Three days later, she was found dead in her jail cell. Friends, family members, and activists have launched a campaign to challenge the sheriff's office's account that the 28-year-old black woman committed suicide, and to demand answers about how she died and who is responsible.

Details of Bland's life, and the insistence of people who knew her that she would not have killed herself — combined with a backdrop of well-documented police misconduct against African Americans — help fuel intense skepticism of the official version of events.

Police say Bland, a Chicago native who had recently moved to Texas to start a job as a college outreach officer, assaulted the officer who pulled her over during a routine traffic stop, Chicago's ABC-7 reports. Waller County Sheriff's office has said an autopsy determined that she later died in jail from "what appears to be self-inflicted asphyxiation."

Bland's friends have told reporters that things were going well for her and that she wouldn't harm herself, but that's not the only reason the case has drawn national attention. The police account hasn't been widely accepted, in part because it comes in the wake of a string of high-profile cases of African-American deaths at the hands of police officers — cases in which it took video footage to draw attention to what was later deemed misconduct to help prove that the officers' accounts were dishonest.

Just to name a few: There's Walter Scott, who was shot in the back by a Charleston, South Carolina, officer as he ran away, unarmed; 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was just killed seconds after a Cleveland officer approached him at the park where he played with a toy gun; and Baltimore's Freddie Gray, , who was thrown into the back of a police van while shackled, and later died of spinal cord injuries. That's to say nothing of the police officers who were caught on camera hitting Texas woman Brenda Hardaway, who told them she was pregnant, the California highway patrolman who beat 51-year-old grandmother Marlene Pinnock, or the cop seen manhandling a bikini-clad teenage girl at a McKinney, Texas, pool party in a video that went viral because of the over-the-top response.

Combine those with the Justice Department's report on Ferguson, Missouri, that found written evidence of racism by police and court officers and documented a widespread pattern of discrimination against African Americans in the city, the more recently released outrageously racist text messages by San Francisco cops, and the mountains of evidence about the way racial bias affects police treatment of African Americans, and it's not hard to understand the widespread assumption that Bland's death involved foul play that officials are now working to cover up.

ABC 7 released video of her arrest, which shows one officer on top of her and several officers restraining her as she screams that she's been hurt and questions why they are being so rough. But there's not yet any jail cell footage that could explain what happened between this time and when she was found dead three days later.

A statement released by law firm representing Bland's family reads, "The family of Sandra Bland is confident that she was killed and did not commit suicide. The family has retained counsel to investigate Sandy's death." A relative has asked Twitter users to use the hashtag #JusticeForSandra "so that our family cam get justice for her."

Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis has acknowledged the concerns of those who say she would not have committed suicide and suspect that her death involved foul play by law enforcement authorities.

"I will admit it is strange someone who had everything going for her would have taken her own life," he told NBC station KPRC in Houston. "That's why it's very important a thorough investigation is done and that we get a good picture of what Ms. Bland was going through the last four or five days of her life.

"If there was something nefarious, or if there was some foul play involved, we'll get to the bottom of that," he said.

An earlier statement from the sheriff's office statement said "any loss of life is a tragic incident," and announced that an investigation was being conducted by outside agencies, ABC 7 reports. A Change.org petition demands that the Department of Justice conduct an independent autopsy.

Death penalty for failure to signal a lane change? WTF?

[TPFKA@W]

I am sure shejust sat quietly and that is what moved the officer to cuff her. Because it's always like that. No one ever becomes provocative and mouthy.

[Econoline]

Advanced directives...? (Story)

Hashtag: #IfIDieInPoliceCustody (some tweets)

[BoSoxGal]

I am sure shejust sat quietly and that is what moved the officer to cuff her. Because it's always like that. No one ever becomes provocative and mouthy.

Not a justification for use of force. Period.


Appears the arresting officer violated policies & procedures and has been put on leave so maybe it's not the black girls fault after all.

[Lord Jim]

Death penalty for failure to signal a lane change? WTF?

Now who's jumping to conclusions?

[TPFKA@W]

Death penalty for failure to signal a lane change? WTF?

Now who's jumping to conclusions?

Not so much jumping as leaping while doing a double back tuck.

[Econoline]

Sheesh. It was a joke. A sick, dark joke. So sue me.

Can you honestly read that story and not think that almost everything about this case smells wrong?

[TPFKA@W]

Can you honestly read that story and not think that almost everything about this case smells wrong?

Yes. I can see this "lady" feeling like in all probability her arrest might have ruined her new situation and feeling like it was the end of everything.

[MajGenl.Meade]

It's a heritage thing

[rubato]

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-m ... tml#page=1

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-m ... tory.html#

It's the Heritage of being able to murder unarmed people of color.


yrs,
rubato

[TPFKA@W]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/23/us/sandra ... eath-main/






Sandra Bland was not murdered except by her own hand. It would seem that she was far more troubled than those who thought the knew her could realized.

Young people do impulsive things like this.

CNN)The cause of Sandra Bland's death was hanging; the manner of death was suicide, a prosecutor told reporters, citing preliminary autopsy results.

Warren Diepraam, a Waller County, Texas, prosecutor, provided new details Thursday to support those findings.

Bland -- a black woman whose arrest and, days later, death in custody stirred anger nationwide -- did not have injuries on her hands. Defensive injuries there are typical, though not always found, in cases of violent homicide, Diepraam said.

"There were no bite marks or other injuries on her face, on her lips, on her tongue, which would be consistent with a violent struggle," he said.

If there had been a violent struggle, the prosecutor said, examiners would most likely not expect to see a uniform and consistent mark around Bland's neck -- which is what they, in fact, observed. They also did not observe damage to her trachea and esophagus, which they might expect to see if there had been a violent struggle, he said.

She did have approximately 30 "cut marks," on her left wrist, according to Diepraam, which were in a state of healing. Bland also had lacerations or abrasions on her wrists, which are consistent with being handcuffed and struggling, he said.

Additionally, she had scabs on her back, on the right side of her shoulder blade, which could indicate that someone applied force there, or that she applied force against an object, Diepraam said. He told reporters Bland had marijuana in her system at the time of her death.

State report: Jail that held Bland did not make timely checks

The same day early autopsy results were released, CNN obtained a report that shows guards in the jail that held Bland violated policies by failing to do timely checks on inmates.

The formulaic, two-page "special inspection report" from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards does not mention Bland by name. But it was filed on July 16, three days after Bland's body was found in her cell, a death that authorities characterized as a suicide, but that family, friends and their supporters think is suspicious.

A timeline from the Waller County Sheriff's Office of what's seen in video from the jail states that a male guard stopped and briefly talked with Bland shortly after 7 a.m., but no one came back to check on her until 8:55 a.m.

That's when jail personnel found her not breathing and hanged with a trash bag from a metal barrier that separated the bathroom from the rest of her cell, a death the sheriff's office said "appears to be self-inflicted asphyxiation."

The state report notes that there should be a "visual, face-to-face observation of all inmates by jailers no less than once every 60 minutes." Not nearly two hours, as was the case in Bland.

In fact, the inspection report found that "documentation ... revealed that Waller County is not completing (such checks) as required by Minimum Jail Standards."

That's not the only apparent violation.

The same report states county officials didn't provide proof that jail staff had two hours of annual training with "the local mental health authorities ... in accordance with their approved Mental Disabilities/Suicide Prevention Plan."

"The training is to include the recognition, supervision, documentation and handling of inmates who are mentally disabled and/or potentially suicidal," it says.

What we know about the controversy in Sandra Bland's death

Conflicting info about suicidal thoughts on documents

A form that appeared to be filled out by hand after her arrest states that Bland tried to overdose with pills in 2014 after losing a baby. And there are check marks next to "yes" on these questions:

• Have you ever been depressed?

• Do you feel this way now?

• Have you had thoughts of killing yourself in the past year?

• Have you ever attempted suicide?

Yet a separate document, which appears to be from a computer, has "no" answers next to questions about mental illness and attempted suicide. A reason for the apparent discrepancy was not immediately clear.

"I have a hard time dealing with inconsistency and that seems to have been the theme over the last couple of days here," Bland's sister, Sharon Cooper told CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront."

Says Waller County Sheriff R. Glenn Smith: "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind (Bland committed suicide)."

Separately, an inmate who was held in a cell adjacent to Bland told CNN she did not hear any commotion or screaming that would suggest foul play before the 28-year-old woman was found dead.

The woman, who asked not to be identified, said Bland was emotional and often crying during her three days in the jail.

The inmate says she spoke with Bland twice, and that Bland told her she was worried about not being able to talk with her family members, and was stressed about missing her first day of work at her new job.

Minister: Family doesn't accept narrative Bland was suicidal

If Bland was suicidal, author and activist DeWayne Charleston said the blame lays on Smith, his office and his jailers for not doing more to keep her alive.

"Maybe they didn't have information about her mental state -- it doesn't matter," Charleston, a former Waller County justice of the peace, told CNN. "She was in (Smith's) care, custody and control, and he bears responsibility."

Yet Charleston and many others don't buy the idea that Bland killed herself.

Who was Sandra Bland?
Sandra Bland's sister: Police should take accountability

Sandra Bland's sister: Police should take accountability 03:54


Theresa Dear -- a long-time minister at DuPage AME Church outside Chicago, which Bland attended growing up -- noted that, as Bland tried to get money to post $5,000 bail, she had a bright future to look forward to and looked likely to be released soon.

"How could someone go from a place of being excited about the future to now wanting to take their own life?" Dear told CNN's "New Day," accusing officials of selectively putting out "crumbs and morsels," but not the full story. "We, as a family and a community who love Sandra Bland, do not accept ... this narrative that the Texas authorities are putting in the media that she had suicidal tendencies."

Friend: 'Something went terribly wrong'

Another thing that has angered Bland's supporters, and raised their suspicions even more, is how and why she was arrested in the first place.

The charge she faced was assault on a public servant. Yet this only happened after she was pulled over for allegedly failing to use her turn signal on July 10.

What started as a seemingly normal conversation got testy after Texas state Trooper Brian Encinia asked Bland to put out her cigarette.
Sandra Bland left friend voicemail from jail

Sandra Bland left friend voicemail from jail 02:19
PLAY VIDEO

She asks why, at which point the officer tells Bland to get out of the car. She refuses, and dashcam video shows the officer reaching in, threatening Bland with a Taser: "I will light you up!"

In his arrest warrant affidavit, Encinia wrote that Bland became "combative and uncooperative" and that she was placed in handcuffs "for officer safety."

What are your rights during a traffic stop?

Bland's family doesn't think the traffic stop over a turn signal should have escalated to an arrest.

"I simply feel like the officer was picking on her, and I believe that is petty," her sister Sharon Cooper told CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront."

LaVaughn Mosley, who says Bland left him a voicemail after her arrest indicating she was "at a loss for words" but not hinting about suicide, said it is all a shame -- especially her death.

"Here is a young black female who was on her way to being successful," Mosley said. "I don't know what happened in that jailhouse, but obviously something went terribly wrong."

CNN's Mary Helen Young, Shawn Nottingham, Ryan Young, Jason Morris and Ed Payne contributed to this report.