Re: Police, prison and abolition
Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 11:43 am
Freedom Rider: The Truth About Defunding Police
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist 09 Jun 2021
Freedom Rider: The Truth About Defunding Police
“Defunding” the police has often turned out to be an accounting trick, but community control of police – a righteous demand – must also ensure that all government functions address human needs.
“The armed forces of Russia, Germany, France, the U.K. and Japan all receive less money than American police departments.”
One year ago, thousands of people engaged in protest in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer. A persistent protest demand was for defunding police departments. The appeal of this rallying cry was obvious. Police in this country are a law unto themselves, killing and brutalizing at will, and rarely being called to account. Often these fatal encounters occur after minor offenses are committed or in the case of black people, when a call for assistance instead leads to death.
The premise of defunding police is well intentioned but faulty. In the past year we have seen sleight of hand in cities like New York where alleged funding cuts amounted to nothing more than budgetary trickery. Even in Minneapolis, where the movement began, defunding became nothing more than a name change.
It isn’t hard to understand why change in this area is so difficult. As of 2018, police departments in this country received more than $118 billion in funding. Only the military in the United States and China receive more money. The armed forces of Russia, Germany, France, the U.K. and Japan all receive less money than American police departments. They are in fact a domestic military force.
“Defunding can become nothing more than a name change.”
Why then do so many people insist that police budgets have been cut? Because this particular trope gives credibility to racist politics and practice. When Democrats lost seats in the House of Representatives in 2020, the losers immediately claimed that the concept of cutting police budgets was to blame for their defeats. Republicans have leaped on the story and as usual engage in strict message discipline, insisting that the police are short of money and that increases in crime are the result.
The media adds to the drama with their usual determination to take the side of the powerful. William Bratton led police departments in New York and Los Angeles and in a recent New York Times interview said,“ They got what they wanted. They defunded the police. What do they get? Rising crime, cops leaving in droves, difficulty recruiting. Now, they’re waking up to the fact that our cities are unsafe.”
Not only should this propaganda be rejected, but the original questions about police funding should be revived. Police do have far more money than they need to do their jobs. Bloated budgets are a feature of police work in a society dedicated to racist practice. The modern day slave patrol is a racket that gives good paying employment to people who otherwise wouldn’t have it while simultaneously keeping Black people under physical control. But even if reducing funding were a realistic proposition, is that what the demand should be?
“Bloated budgets are a feature of police work in a society dedicated to racist practice.”
Community control of the police should be the goal but that can’t happen unless all government functions address human needs. Without real democracy and a true commitment to human rights, policing will not change. Of course, any discussion of law enforcement is inextricably linked to anti-Black racism, the controlling feature of many aspects of public policy in this country.
No one should allow themselves to be confused by racist pro-police propaganda or to be convinced that they should stop agitating for change. But questioning previous actions, even those made with the best of intentions, is always a positive step.
The United States as currently constituted can’t function without huge police departments and the big budgets that go with them. An increasingly stressed society must be kept under watch precisely because popular discontent may erupt at any moment. Last year’s protests prove that there are many very discontented people and the domestic military will be ready to keep them all under as much control as it possibly can.
“Without real democracy and a true commitment to human rights, policing will not change.”
We are left where we started out before anyone knew the name George Floyd. The struggle for change is difficult but it must continue with the knowledge that cutting police budgets or changing their practices in any way will be fought tooth and nail. Dishonest statements about rising crime or lost elections come with the territory.
The issues of police brutality and budgets cannot be approached as if they are separate from anything else. Community control of police cannot be separated from demands for peoples’ control over any other aspect of their lives. In short, revolutionary change is still what the people need. Everything from policing to housing to health care cannot be improved unless there is fundamental and systemic change. Of course that is a much bigger fight but it cannot begin without speaking truth about our condition and the difficult process of bringing about real justice.
https://www.blackagendareport.com/freed ... ing-police
*******************************************
Bad apples or bad system? Lying cops still on duty despite Brady list
Marlanna BullockJune 10, 2021 514 minutes read
Download PDF flyer https://flyer-generator.herokuapp.com/? ... osts/95454
“I really think we should not need a Brady list, because there should be no such thing as a police agency that keeps cops with histories of lying, or false arrests, or brutality, or fabricating reports, or other misconduct,” – Anita Khandelwal, director of the King County Department of Public Defense.”
Crosscut.com
Almost 200 Washington state law enforcement officers have been placed on the Brady list, a list of officers who may not be considered trustworthy in a court of law.
USA Today in an extensive investigation found that “thousands of people have faced criminal charges or have gone to prison based in part on testimony from law enforcement officers deemed to have credibility problems by their bosses or by prosecutors.”
Although these officers have proven themselves unsafe for the public, law enforcement agencies continue to employ and rehire untrustworthy officers and take no real accountability for the abhorrent and violent behavior committed by officers.
“The lists are not designed to track people who should not be officers. Rather they are a tool prosecutors use to identify those whose past conduct might raise questions about their fairness or truthfulness as a witness in a trial – and require disclosure to defendants.”
USA Today
These law enforcement officers are sometimes referred to as Brady cops, referencing the lists’ most commonly known name, but the list can also be referred to as the “Giglio” list and is officially known as the The Potential Impeachment Disclosure list.
The Brady list is usually compiled by a prosecutor’s office or a police department, containing the names of officers with sustained incidents of lying, minor convictions or other issue that place their believability into question.
In essence the Brady list is a record of the “bad apple” cops who’ve been found guilty of lying enough times that the state finds it necessary to document and alert defense lawyers and judges because their testimony cannot bear the same weight as that of others when they testify in court cases.
Brady list violations range from “untruthfulness” and “bias” to any crimes an officer commits other than domestic violence, driving under the influences and motor vehicle misdemeanors.That DV and DUI are not considered impeachable offenses is itself telling.
A recent investigation by Crosscut in Washington state found “at least 183 police officers flagged for issues such as dishonesty, bias and excessive force remain in law enforcement.” (Crosscut)
Two are currently working as law enforcement officers in Eastern Washington’s Benton and Franklin Counties.
In January, Washington States’ Benton County Sheriff Jerry Hatcher was placed on the Brady list. Though the Benton County Sheriff’s name has been legally placed on the list he still retains the authority and influence inherent to his law enforcement position.
Hatcher was placed on the Brady list this year for 26 different allegations including, “violating County anti-discrimination policy” “intimidating public servants” and “making false and misleading statements to law enforcement and the courts.” (LRIS)
These are serious charges that would get most of us fired from our jobs if we were to commit them. These charges would also likely lead to our arrests but not for police officers because “across the United States, prosecutors aren’t tracking officer misconduct, are skirting Supreme Court “Brady” rules and sometimes leading to wrongful convictions.” (USA Today)
Though the Benton County Sheriff’s name has been placed on the list, he still remains on the job, retaining his jurisdiction over the lives and safety of the citizens of Benton County.
According to the Benton County Sheriff offices’ website, similar to many other law enforcement websites, their mission is in part to “safeguard life and property, preserve the peace, prevent and detect crime, and protect the rights of all citizens” but this only raises the question: how can any of that be accomplished by the same law enforcement officers who are actively taking lives, disturbing the peace, and oppressing the rights of citizens?
Historically these behaviors have permitted and often justified by the law enforcement agencies that continue to employ them. By continuing to employ these officers, agencies proceed to impose on citizens dangerous officers who have proven themselves of such untrustworthy character and have been caught committing upon the public egrigious and illegal acts with frequency that lists must be compiled. How much protection can a system claim to be providing for its citizens when it allows for repetitive abusers to continue to maintain so much destructive authority over human lives?
Another Washington law enforcement officer, Franklin County’s Deputy Cody Quantrell, “had enough violations at his past job to warrant serious counseling from the police chief” and “on the day of the Deputy Quantrell counseling in Toppenish a motorcyclist registered a complaint against Quantrell for pulling a gun on him for alleged reckless driving.” (Tricities Observer)
Even after multiple complaints deputy Quantrell was allowed to continue working in law enforcement, eventually moving to a new precinct working in Pasco, Washington, when “on November 18, 2019, deputy Cody Quantrell shot to death former Marine and combat veteran Dante Jones in during a traffic stop in “circumstances similar to those he had been counseled about in Toppenish” as reported in the Tricities Observer.
Notwithstanding all of the evidence, Quantrell’s name hasn’t even been considered for addition to the Brady list, nor have any charges been filed against him as of yet. The rules that guide who gets placed on Brady lists seem arbitrary and decisions about who goes on the Brady list “rely too much on police agencies investigating themselves and issuing disciplinary findings against officers, which doesn’t always happen,” public defender Anita Khandelwal told CrossCut.
How effective are Brady lists if in the places where they do exist thousands of citizens are still being prosecuted based on the duplicitous testimony of Brady cops? How effective is the existence of the mandate for a Brady list when at least 300 prosecutors’ offices across the nation don’t take the needed steps to keep a list tracking dishonest or otherwise untrustworthy officers? (Crosscut)
Even though these officers have shown they are not safe for our communities, law enforcement agencies protect these officers. They are permitted to keep their jobs and to move to new jobs in new communities seemingly no matter their appalling behavior.
This situation raises questions such as: How can law enforcement’s mission be to safeguard the lives of the public when it is the same law enforcement apparatus that knowingly retains these bad actors? Can these officers just be “bad apples” if the entire system is set up to support violent, law-skirting officers via non-compliant prosecutors’ offices working in collusion with police departments and cop unions?
https://www.liberationnews.org/bad-appl ... rationnews
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist 09 Jun 2021
Freedom Rider: The Truth About Defunding Police
“Defunding” the police has often turned out to be an accounting trick, but community control of police – a righteous demand – must also ensure that all government functions address human needs.
“The armed forces of Russia, Germany, France, the U.K. and Japan all receive less money than American police departments.”
One year ago, thousands of people engaged in protest in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer. A persistent protest demand was for defunding police departments. The appeal of this rallying cry was obvious. Police in this country are a law unto themselves, killing and brutalizing at will, and rarely being called to account. Often these fatal encounters occur after minor offenses are committed or in the case of black people, when a call for assistance instead leads to death.
The premise of defunding police is well intentioned but faulty. In the past year we have seen sleight of hand in cities like New York where alleged funding cuts amounted to nothing more than budgetary trickery. Even in Minneapolis, where the movement began, defunding became nothing more than a name change.
It isn’t hard to understand why change in this area is so difficult. As of 2018, police departments in this country received more than $118 billion in funding. Only the military in the United States and China receive more money. The armed forces of Russia, Germany, France, the U.K. and Japan all receive less money than American police departments. They are in fact a domestic military force.
“Defunding can become nothing more than a name change.”
Why then do so many people insist that police budgets have been cut? Because this particular trope gives credibility to racist politics and practice. When Democrats lost seats in the House of Representatives in 2020, the losers immediately claimed that the concept of cutting police budgets was to blame for their defeats. Republicans have leaped on the story and as usual engage in strict message discipline, insisting that the police are short of money and that increases in crime are the result.
The media adds to the drama with their usual determination to take the side of the powerful. William Bratton led police departments in New York and Los Angeles and in a recent New York Times interview said,“ They got what they wanted. They defunded the police. What do they get? Rising crime, cops leaving in droves, difficulty recruiting. Now, they’re waking up to the fact that our cities are unsafe.”
Not only should this propaganda be rejected, but the original questions about police funding should be revived. Police do have far more money than they need to do their jobs. Bloated budgets are a feature of police work in a society dedicated to racist practice. The modern day slave patrol is a racket that gives good paying employment to people who otherwise wouldn’t have it while simultaneously keeping Black people under physical control. But even if reducing funding were a realistic proposition, is that what the demand should be?
“Bloated budgets are a feature of police work in a society dedicated to racist practice.”
Community control of the police should be the goal but that can’t happen unless all government functions address human needs. Without real democracy and a true commitment to human rights, policing will not change. Of course, any discussion of law enforcement is inextricably linked to anti-Black racism, the controlling feature of many aspects of public policy in this country.
No one should allow themselves to be confused by racist pro-police propaganda or to be convinced that they should stop agitating for change. But questioning previous actions, even those made with the best of intentions, is always a positive step.
The United States as currently constituted can’t function without huge police departments and the big budgets that go with them. An increasingly stressed society must be kept under watch precisely because popular discontent may erupt at any moment. Last year’s protests prove that there are many very discontented people and the domestic military will be ready to keep them all under as much control as it possibly can.
“Without real democracy and a true commitment to human rights, policing will not change.”
We are left where we started out before anyone knew the name George Floyd. The struggle for change is difficult but it must continue with the knowledge that cutting police budgets or changing their practices in any way will be fought tooth and nail. Dishonest statements about rising crime or lost elections come with the territory.
The issues of police brutality and budgets cannot be approached as if they are separate from anything else. Community control of police cannot be separated from demands for peoples’ control over any other aspect of their lives. In short, revolutionary change is still what the people need. Everything from policing to housing to health care cannot be improved unless there is fundamental and systemic change. Of course that is a much bigger fight but it cannot begin without speaking truth about our condition and the difficult process of bringing about real justice.
https://www.blackagendareport.com/freed ... ing-police
*******************************************
Bad apples or bad system? Lying cops still on duty despite Brady list
Marlanna BullockJune 10, 2021 514 minutes read
Download PDF flyer https://flyer-generator.herokuapp.com/? ... osts/95454
“I really think we should not need a Brady list, because there should be no such thing as a police agency that keeps cops with histories of lying, or false arrests, or brutality, or fabricating reports, or other misconduct,” – Anita Khandelwal, director of the King County Department of Public Defense.”
Crosscut.com
Almost 200 Washington state law enforcement officers have been placed on the Brady list, a list of officers who may not be considered trustworthy in a court of law.
USA Today in an extensive investigation found that “thousands of people have faced criminal charges or have gone to prison based in part on testimony from law enforcement officers deemed to have credibility problems by their bosses or by prosecutors.”
Although these officers have proven themselves unsafe for the public, law enforcement agencies continue to employ and rehire untrustworthy officers and take no real accountability for the abhorrent and violent behavior committed by officers.
“The lists are not designed to track people who should not be officers. Rather they are a tool prosecutors use to identify those whose past conduct might raise questions about their fairness or truthfulness as a witness in a trial – and require disclosure to defendants.”
USA Today
These law enforcement officers are sometimes referred to as Brady cops, referencing the lists’ most commonly known name, but the list can also be referred to as the “Giglio” list and is officially known as the The Potential Impeachment Disclosure list.
The Brady list is usually compiled by a prosecutor’s office or a police department, containing the names of officers with sustained incidents of lying, minor convictions or other issue that place their believability into question.
In essence the Brady list is a record of the “bad apple” cops who’ve been found guilty of lying enough times that the state finds it necessary to document and alert defense lawyers and judges because their testimony cannot bear the same weight as that of others when they testify in court cases.
Brady list violations range from “untruthfulness” and “bias” to any crimes an officer commits other than domestic violence, driving under the influences and motor vehicle misdemeanors.That DV and DUI are not considered impeachable offenses is itself telling.
A recent investigation by Crosscut in Washington state found “at least 183 police officers flagged for issues such as dishonesty, bias and excessive force remain in law enforcement.” (Crosscut)
Two are currently working as law enforcement officers in Eastern Washington’s Benton and Franklin Counties.
In January, Washington States’ Benton County Sheriff Jerry Hatcher was placed on the Brady list. Though the Benton County Sheriff’s name has been legally placed on the list he still retains the authority and influence inherent to his law enforcement position.
Hatcher was placed on the Brady list this year for 26 different allegations including, “violating County anti-discrimination policy” “intimidating public servants” and “making false and misleading statements to law enforcement and the courts.” (LRIS)
These are serious charges that would get most of us fired from our jobs if we were to commit them. These charges would also likely lead to our arrests but not for police officers because “across the United States, prosecutors aren’t tracking officer misconduct, are skirting Supreme Court “Brady” rules and sometimes leading to wrongful convictions.” (USA Today)
Though the Benton County Sheriff’s name has been placed on the list, he still remains on the job, retaining his jurisdiction over the lives and safety of the citizens of Benton County.
According to the Benton County Sheriff offices’ website, similar to many other law enforcement websites, their mission is in part to “safeguard life and property, preserve the peace, prevent and detect crime, and protect the rights of all citizens” but this only raises the question: how can any of that be accomplished by the same law enforcement officers who are actively taking lives, disturbing the peace, and oppressing the rights of citizens?
Historically these behaviors have permitted and often justified by the law enforcement agencies that continue to employ them. By continuing to employ these officers, agencies proceed to impose on citizens dangerous officers who have proven themselves of such untrustworthy character and have been caught committing upon the public egrigious and illegal acts with frequency that lists must be compiled. How much protection can a system claim to be providing for its citizens when it allows for repetitive abusers to continue to maintain so much destructive authority over human lives?
Another Washington law enforcement officer, Franklin County’s Deputy Cody Quantrell, “had enough violations at his past job to warrant serious counseling from the police chief” and “on the day of the Deputy Quantrell counseling in Toppenish a motorcyclist registered a complaint against Quantrell for pulling a gun on him for alleged reckless driving.” (Tricities Observer)
Even after multiple complaints deputy Quantrell was allowed to continue working in law enforcement, eventually moving to a new precinct working in Pasco, Washington, when “on November 18, 2019, deputy Cody Quantrell shot to death former Marine and combat veteran Dante Jones in during a traffic stop in “circumstances similar to those he had been counseled about in Toppenish” as reported in the Tricities Observer.
Notwithstanding all of the evidence, Quantrell’s name hasn’t even been considered for addition to the Brady list, nor have any charges been filed against him as of yet. The rules that guide who gets placed on Brady lists seem arbitrary and decisions about who goes on the Brady list “rely too much on police agencies investigating themselves and issuing disciplinary findings against officers, which doesn’t always happen,” public defender Anita Khandelwal told CrossCut.
How effective are Brady lists if in the places where they do exist thousands of citizens are still being prosecuted based on the duplicitous testimony of Brady cops? How effective is the existence of the mandate for a Brady list when at least 300 prosecutors’ offices across the nation don’t take the needed steps to keep a list tracking dishonest or otherwise untrustworthy officers? (Crosscut)
Even though these officers have shown they are not safe for our communities, law enforcement agencies protect these officers. They are permitted to keep their jobs and to move to new jobs in new communities seemingly no matter their appalling behavior.
This situation raises questions such as: How can law enforcement’s mission be to safeguard the lives of the public when it is the same law enforcement apparatus that knowingly retains these bad actors? Can these officers just be “bad apples” if the entire system is set up to support violent, law-skirting officers via non-compliant prosecutors’ offices working in collusion with police departments and cop unions?
https://www.liberationnews.org/bad-appl ... rationnews