If the police were afraid of being falsely accused of brutality, they’d be actively demanding to be filmed at all times. But they don’t.
If the police didn’t want to be seen as a gang, they’d be demanding the repeal of all laws against victimless actions so their only focus would be on violent criminals. But they don’t.
If the police feared for their lives in every encounter with civilians, they’d do everything they could to reduce the number of encounters. For example, they’d demand the repeal of quotas, and they’d feel relieved when social workers want to take over some of those encounters. But they don’t.
If the police didn’t want to be judged as a group when one of them does something bad, they’d be actively and openly condemning the bad police officers and making sure everyone witnesses that. But they don’t.
It’s almost as if everything the police say is a lie.
MINNEAPOLIS—Shaken by the guilty verdict delivered in the trial of Derek Chauvin, local police officer Edward Margolin took comfort Tuesday by remembering that this outcome wasn’t representative of the system at large. “Moments like this can be tough, but it helps to take a step back and remember that this is the exception that proves the rule,” said Margolin, confirming that despite the conviction he still believed in the justice system’s fundamental purpose of exonerating police officers. “In these trying times, I remember everything I have to be grateful for—qualified immunity, powerful police associations, massive budgets, and all the officers I know who have done similar stuff to Chauvin and gotten away scot-free, and it starts to make me calm down. It’s important not to let a little hiccup like this make you lose sight of the big picture.” At press time, a cheerful Margolin had fully regained his faith in the system after taking out a baton and breaking a demonstrator’s arm.
If you were found guilty of raping a drunk woman in a company vehicle, while wearing your company uniform, do you think you’d get to keep your job?
If a few years later you were caught on-video bragging about using a company car to run over anti-racist protestors, do you think you’d still get to keep your job?
No? Well, I guess you’re not Sargeant Clifton McHale of the Boston Police Department! He wasn’t even demoted after doing both of those things.
Sgt. Clifton McHale of the Boston Police Department – who was previously suspended after being accused of raping a drunk woman in a police car while in uniform – brags on-camera about running over anti-racist protestors and is still on-duty.
Caron Nazario was driving his newly purchased Chevy Tahoe home when two police officers pulled him over in Windsor, Virginia, whipped out their guns, and started barking orders.
With their weapons raised, the officers demanded that Nazario, a Black and Latino man, get out of the SUV. Nazario looked in the mirror and saw he was being held at gunpoint, then placed his cellphone on his dashboard to film the December 5 encounter. He repeatedly asked to know what was going on. At one point, he even admitted to being afraid to leave the vehicle.
“Yeah, you should be,” one of the officers responded.
Nazario, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, was coming home from work and in full uniform at the time.
“I’m serving this country, and this is how I’m treated?” Nazario told the officers, according to his cellphone video.
By the end of the incident, the cops would threaten Nazario, pepper-spray him in the face, and knee-strike him in the legs, according to body camera footage, Nazario’s cellphone video, and legal filings. Later, when Nazario was in tears and on the ground of a gas station parking lot as officers put him in handcuffs, he repeated, “This is fucked up, this is fucked up.”
The officers allegedly told Nazario if he were to complain, they’d charge him with crimes like obstruction, eluding, and assault on a law enforcement officer—potentially destroying his military career.
[…]
The incident ostensibly began after an officer believed Nazario was driving on U.S. Route 460 without a rear license plate, according to the lawsuit. While the SUV was new to Nazario, meaning he hadn’t gotten permanent plates yet, he still had a temporary plate taped to the inside of his rear window, the lawsuit notes. The temporary tags are visible in the body camera footage.
Nazario slowed down his vehicle within seconds of the police pursuing him and activated his turn signal. Because it was dark, Nazario also drove for less than a mile—below the posted speed limit—until he reached a well-lit BP gas station, where he pulled over. In all, it took about 1 minute, 40 seconds for Nazario to pull over after Crocker initiated the stop, according to the lawsuit.
Still, the cops claimed in a report Nazario was “eluding police,” had a dark window tint, and lacked plates, so officers treated the incident as a “felony traffic stop,” or a traffic stop they believed to be risky. One of the officers admitted later that they knew why Nazario had pulled into the BP—it happened all the time, and was a maneuver often used by people of color, according to the lawsuit.
Once he was in the BP parking lot, Nazario was ordered to put his hands out of his car window and turn the vehicle off, according to body camera footage. He was also ordered to get out of the vehicle multiple times by both officers as he asked, “What’s going on?”
Lt. Caron Nazario, a biracial Black and Latino US Army man, was brutalized by Windsor, Virginia Police on video on December 5th, 2020.
We’re gonna have to get our shit together cos the descent into fascism is gaining pace and the only meaningful opposition is gonna come from working class people
The fact that a prosecutor could see this and still prosecute the victim says a lot. Cyrus Vance has been a problem in New York for a very long time now. Vance is the same guy who let the Trumps off the hook for shady housing deals, and who repeatedly looked the other way for convicted rapist, Harvey Weinstein.
Context: A Portland Fred Meyer lost power for many hours due to bad weather and decided they had to throw out a shit ton of perishable but package sealed food. An employee tipped off local activists who showed up to retrieve and distribute this perfectly good food to people in need. Then cops showed up an guarded a literal dumpster with guns because that food Fred Meyer decided was garbage was their “property.”
ACAB and fuck Fred Meyer too for calling the cops and for trying to fire the employee who tipped off activists.
If most cops were good, they’d be offended by someone even suggesting that they do this.
Okay but like don’t count the BLM movement as a 2020 disaster. The US prison system, cops, and white supremacy are the disasters. If one of the things you count in your ‘Why 2020 sucked’ posts is the riots, you’re victim blaming.
To paraphrase Micky Dolenz, media outlets are calling the BLM movement “Riots” because they don’t know how to spell “demonstration.”
The BLM movement is NOT RIOTS. These are civil rights protests.
I’ve seen several media outlets count the BLM movement as something that was “wrong” with 2020. Honestly the ability to organize and protest is one of the only things that’s gone RIGHT. It’s the counter protesters that are fucked up.
They’re called protests when they accomplish nothing and riots when they’re effective.
Stop fucking shying away from the word “riot”, this summer saw a police precinct burned to the fucking ground – it was a riot, and rioting works, and rioting is good.
Rioters could be looting department stores for a hundred years and still they would not have taken back what has been stolen from us by the ruling class, stop moralising revolt.
