Tag: brutality

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President, Press and Governor speak out: police brutality must be condemned and controlled

Alton Sterling
Alton Sterling Source: YouTube
No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

– John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions Meditation XVII

This week saw the police murder father of five children Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana not long before school lunch supervisor and student mentor Philando Castile was murdered by a policeman near St. Paul, Minnesota.

New York Times writer Michael Eric Dyson offers a sizzling condemnation of white people for failing to hold brutal police accountable for killing people of color. Because ultimately, they don’t want to see that their greed for privilege has created and supports the social environment in which it is OK for this to happen. What a read: read more

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23 yo is handcuffed, shot, sat on by police until he becomes late


Sad day for the United States as a young Los Angeles man is shamefully murdered by two police who shoot him repeatedly after handcuffing him, then sit on him while he writhes in pain crying for help until he ascends to meet his ancestors. In his lust to kill 23 year old Noel Aguilar, one of the policeman shoots his partner.

A bystander captured the whole episode on video but be warned: it is graphic, sad and extremely disturbing.

May the blessings of God cover us all in holy light and peace. Please Lord, bring comfort to the soul and family of Noel and enfold them in your loving embrace. With God’s help, let us act to end the violence raging out of control in the beautiful world that is His gift to us. read more

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Release of video showing 17 yo Laquan being killed have Chicago police all jittery

Chi police on high alert pending shooting video release
Facebook post by Cynthia OneDay Flood
Facebook wouldn’t let me share Cynthia Flood‘s post about Chicago police gearing up for a high-alert, increased police presence in readiness for today’s release of the patrol car dashboard cam video footage of 17 year old Laquan McDonald being fatally shot 16 times by a police officer on 20 October 2014. A judge ordered the video to be released by Wednesday.

Poor boy. He was apparently high on PCP but exhibited no violent behaviour.

The officer who mercilessly and without provocation executed Laquan is being charged with murder. I wish for Laquan’s mother, family, friends and community – peace, comfort and healing. read more

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I can’t stop crying, thinking about police brutalizing girls in classrooms. We must vote.

SC police officer brutalizes student
From video on CNN website
I just read José Luis Vilson’s piece giving his opinion on why adult complicity through inaction – sitting quietly by while big, strong, heavily armed policemen brutalize girls in school classrooms – is inexcusable. And I started crying again. This time I haven’t been able to stop, tears are running down my face as I’m writing.

Edited to add: I just learned that the assault victim is a girl who was recently orphaned.

Where did we go wrong, my friends and neighbors? I want to ask, to scream, to demand answers. How did we get to the point where we not only allow armed law enforcement officers into our children’s schools to serve as para-security guards … but beyond that point, to where we are today: where the same men who shoot pudgy grown men in the back because they failed to pay child support and band together to choke the life right out of a New Yorker for selling loose cigarettes, are let loose in our babies’ classrooms to brutalize, terrorize and humiliate them and after they do haul them off, no doubt, to lock them up in jails or detention schools or juvenile halls – to make them look the wrongdoers. read more

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New York Times calls for firing of brutal officer & systemic change to NYPD

James BlakeNot being exactly known as the champion of the average New Yorker makes the New York Times’ scathing editorial calling out the NYPD for brutality all the more remarkable. In an uncommon act of public representation, the NYT Editorial Board calls for the dismissal of the latest officer caught in a brutal and illegal act of racism and demands that systemic changes be made to the police department’s operating policies.

…the New York City police officer who jumped and assaulted an innocent man, James Blake, in Manhattan last Wednesday, has disgraced the department. Commissioner William Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio should make an example of him. They should make it clear that his unprovoked aggression — caught by a security camera, so there is no doubt about what he did — reflects everything that causes people to distrust and hate the N.Y.P.D. The officer’s further transgressions — not identifying himself to Mr. Blake, not apologizing, failing to void the arrest in follow-up paperwork — speak to an appalling lack of judgment by someone unfit for the job. read more

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When police become revenue agents to keep towns fiscally solvent

cash-strapped-cityThe community policing model becomes completely distorted when policeman – the civil servants you’re most likely to see and interact with in the course of a normal day – are turned into revenue producing instruments by the cities they work for. When a police officer’s job depends on whether s/he can generate enough revenue to keep his employer out of bankruptcy, a lot of people are going to be unhappy. And some of those unhappy people are going to be people grievously harmed, or excessively fined, for behaviour that shouldn’t be a big deal. read more

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Is increasing police violence the consequence of a conflicted society?


I’ve had strong responses on Facebook to the photo I posted showing Rhode Island Police Officer Edward Krawetz kicking a handcuffed and seated, White woman in the head. Krawetz was convicted but served no time due to a suspended 10 year sentence.

Police violence against citizens is truly a problem for society, an issue we need to think about, discuss and interact with. One comment I read really caught my attention: in a democracy, police must remain under civil control. So I did a bit of searching on this topic and found a thought-provoking article examining the question of what democratic policing actually is. MIT Sociology professor Gary T. Marx writes: read more