Police Brutality at LA

[Chris 62]

Originally posted by Kamrat X
It seems you are correct. Although I don´t know what´s worse; a racist cop or a power mad one...

Neither seems preferable.

True, unfortunately you can´t get rid of peoples xenophobia and latent racism with affirmitive action and similar measures.

It's a slow and painful process, but I can say I went in my lifetime from limited segregation in the USA to none leagally, a step in the right direction.

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Chris 62
Neither seems preferable.

Indeed.

It's a slow and painful process, but I can say I went in my lifetime from limited segregation in the USA to none leagally, a step in the right direction.

Yes, a step in the right direction is always nice. But there´s still a long way to go...

[moomin]

Originally posted by Kamrat X
True, unfortunately you can´t get rid of peoples xenophobia and latent racism with affirmitive action and similar measures.

Oh, AA works great as long as there are legal obstacles to equality. When those have been eliminated, however, it starts playing a much less constructive role - that of permanently establishing race or sex (or whatever property is being defined as worthy of defense this week) as an defining identity of the individual. It's not like whites or blacks are ever going to be able to forget about the differences of pigmentation as long as you can read a company rooster and think "token ******" or "token spic". This is the real evil of AA. After all, the longest-working, most elaborate and most diligently enforced AA program ever devised was called Apartheid.

[chequita guevara]

By definiation, AA cannot work while there are legal obstacles to equality. The obsticles are legal and therefore insurmountable. AA works against the legacy of racism, which is, that because of previous oppression, certain groups are viewed as incapable of doing the job and requires that candidates for employment of protected groups cannot be discounted merely on accout of their race.

[Caligastia]

This thread has been jacked so many times I forget what its even about...

[Zoid]

Lemmings!

[Pekka]

Cali, you're god damn right! Stop jacking the thread .
What do you think about the recent happenings in Oklahoma has to this case? Sounds to me that it was just a coincedence, BUT it happens too much as we see. And they beat that kid bad too. I don't believe that any of the cases were racially motivated, but just cops getting too angry. One more case and i put my money on rioting.

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by Pekka
Cali, you're god damn right! Stop jacking the thread .
What do you think about the recent happenings in Oklahoma has to this case? Sounds to me that it was just a coincedence, BUT it happens too much as we see. And they beat that kid bad too. I don't believe that any of the cases were racially motivated, but just cops getting too angry. One more case and i put my money on rioting.

If any riots come of this I will place the blame squarely on the media. Those race-baiters were the ones to blame for the LA riots IMO.

[Pekka]

I agree. Media is hyping it way too much. They should catch some clips with cops beating white guys, so then black and white could riot hand to hand . Or just go with the banners 'no more police brutality'.
I read from somewhere that the chief of that Oklahoma thingie said the cops did the right thing. Kind of bad statement considering the situation.

It was only few months ago when finnish cop got the boot when it came to newspapers that he had 40 counts of beatings. He was beating his wife though (even worse). He got to the police academy with accident, because you're supposed to have clean records and he didn't. I guess it just happens.

[chequita guevara]

The media catches trends, and right now its police abuse. This happened when Roddney King got beaten, too. Suddenly tapes of police abuse were popping up all over. Then the media got bored with it.

It wasn't the media that caused the riots, btw. What will cause riots is if the police invovled get away with it yet again. What happens is that the oppressed see a light at the end of the tunnnel ... maybe this will break police abuse wide open and it will be punished and stopped. Then the police get slapped on the wrist, and ll those hopes of not having to suffer at the hands of the police are crushed ... then they explode in a spasm of grief and rage and hopelessness.

You wanna stop a riot from happening, don't crush people's hope that something better will come of this.

[Sprayber]

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

This whole case is going to be cluster **** because people on all sides are gonna be more interested in TV exposure then getting to the bottom of this. This is not going to turn out good if people keep talking and acusing before all the facts are brought to light. In fact, I bet that some of you here are just waiting on who gets to post the riot thread.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020711/ts_nm/crime_police_dc_9

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The man who videotaped a police beating near Los Angeles that enraged black leaders and then dodged a grand jury inquiry into the matter was arrested on Thursday as he prepared to give a television interview.

Mitchell Crooks was arrested on warrants for petty theft and driving under the influence of alcohol issued in northern California by authorities who also served him with a subpoena to testify about his videotape before the grand jury.

A videotape of Crooks' arrest broadcast on local KCAL-TV showed undercover officers hustling him into a sports utility vehicle with tinted windows outside the studios of CNN as the 27-year-old man repeatedly screamed for help.

Crooks had failed to appear on Thursday morning at Los Angeles Superior Court, where the grand jury was meeting, after telling a local radio program that he feared for his life.

"All we're doing is arresting him on the basis of a warrant. If there had not been a warrant, we would have escorted him to the grand jury," District Attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said.

"He is a witness and we need him to authenticate the tape recording, otherwise its value in court would be greatly diminished," she said. Crooks shot his videotape from a motel room across the street from the scene of the incident in Inglewood, which abuts south central Los Angeles.

Crooks called a KFI-AM talk radio show hosted by John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou on Wednesday to discuss the case and said he was afraid that officers would be "coming after" him for videotaping the beating of 16-year-old Donovan Jackson.

"I fear for my life," Crooks said. "They're going to kick my ass in a cell and take turns on me, probably."

CROOKS ELUDED PROSECUTORS

Deputy District Attorney Kurt Livesay, who was also a guest on the show, then told Crooks over the air that authorities did not want to hurt him, and asked that he give his address to investigators. Instead, Crooks hung up the phone.

Prior to his arrest, Crooks could not be reached for comment on Thursday and a recording on his cell phone said that his voice mail box was full and could take no more messages.

The videotape, which was first broadcast on Sunday, shows Inglewood Officer Jeremy Morse picking up Jackson by the seat of his pants and slamming him face-first onto the trunk of a patrol car. Several seconds later, Morse is seen slugging Jackson in the face with a closed fist.

The tape sparked cries of racism and comparisons to the incendiary 1991 beating of Rodney King, which was also videotaped. The acquittal of four Los Angeles officers in that case led to the worst urban riots in modern U.S. history.

Several local law enforcement agencies and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were investigating the altercation between Jackson and Morse, a three-year veteran of the Inglewood Police Department. U.S. Attorney John Ashcroft ( news - web sites) sent his top civil rights deputy to Los Angeles on the case.

Jackson and his father, Coby Chavis, who was also present during the incident, have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on Wednesday against the officers involved in their arrest, the city of Inglewood and the County of Los Angeles.

Black leaders, including congresswoman Maxine Waters, a Democrat who represents the area, and Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn have called for Morse to be immediately fired and brought up on state or federal charges.

Meanwhile, an attorney for Morse told the Los Angeles Times that his client has been vilified by public officials before the 24-year-old officer was charged with any crime, which could violate his rights to due process under the U.S. Constitution and make it difficult to find an unprejudiced jury.

"It's disturbing that elected officials, including the mayor of the city where (Morse) works, have already made up their minds about what happened," John Barnett, who represented an officer acquitted in King's beating, told the Times.

The paper also reported that Morse, in a report of the altercation written before the Crooks videotape surfaced, told his supervisors that he hit Jackson because the teen grabbed his testicles and would not release them.

[Ecthy]

Ri-ot! Ri-ot! Ri-ot!

Maybe (y)our people should be de-sensitive-ized about racial issues by education. I think all of our societies are hyped with that stuff.... because of WWII, because of slavery, the 60s, anything.

What we need is less hate, more love. And we only get there by more education. And more love.

[SpencerH]

Re: Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

Originally posted by Sprayber
This whole case is going to be cluster **** because people on all sides are gonna be more interested in TV exposure then getting to the bottom of this.

Theres nothing really to get to the bottom of is there? The cop used excessive force on a handcuffed kid. The only question is now how severe the punishment should be. If its a first offense, and he was provoked (since he was wounded in the untaped altercation) I think he should be suspended for a time. Unfortunately, I think he will be fired despite what may be mitigating circumstances and he will eventually sue the city for improper dismissal.

[Tingkai]

Re: Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

The cop apparently claims the handcuffed kid assaulted him.

From the LA Times:

"In a report written Saturday night, apparently before police became aware of the existence of a videotape, Morse acknowledged having punched Jackson, authorities said. He said he had done so only after the handcuffed boy grabbed Morse's testicles."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-inglewood11jul11.story?null

So the kid's hands are handcuffed behind his back and he manages to grab the cops balls.

[Ramo]

Carver, I completely agree that there desperately needs to be some major land reform in Zimbabwe. However, all Mugabe is trying to do is securing his own power by giving his "military verterans" free reign, without regards to a just policy. All he's managing to do is enriching his supporters at the expense of the farm workers (most of whom are foreign, BTW), the people who are the most bad off in Zimbabwe. IIRC, he's kicked upwards of 70,000 workers off of their homes, leaving them without any viable means of survival.