Tag: police brutality

Spare the Rod, Spoil the Cop (Part 2/4)

Devon Thames

In June, New York Police Benevolent Association president, Mike O’Meara, stood before the press against a back drop of his fellow officers—and in his best rendition of the The Elephant Man’s ‘I am not an animal’ speech—querulously denounced the notion he and his colleagues should be seen as boogeymen to be feared. Footage began to emerge of faceless officers in riot gear assaulting press, peaceful protestors and the violent agitators shadowing them. Right wing pundits conveniently conflated the victims of black-on-black crime with police shootings, making wild deplorables the common denominator. And like sweet gas lighting preserves, officers were able to eclipse reality through voicing fear of violent retributions against them for “doing their jobs”—while a McIntosh Sheriff’s deputy broke down into the lens of her iPhone, debating the fate of her egg McMuffin in this social climate. A viral video better suited—perhaps, for the officers who actively soil her badge.

San Jose’s own chief Eddie Garcia had been confronted with an incident on May 29th in which a goading officer shot a life altering rubber bullet at peaceful protestor, inflicting internal damage. Garcia responded with disappointment but was quick to praise officer Jared Yuen as a “good kid”. I wondered if Garcia’s praise would have been so solicitous had one of his sons been at the receiving end of that rubber bullet, possibly rendering him unable to bare a grandchild. Garcia later apologized for the comment after backlash.

Perhaps it’s the inability to draw a line bolder and more defined than the established blue one—lest it not be the fault of police—but of those who empower and enable them to run unleashed. San Jose’s Mayor, Sam Liccardo, has drowned out his own proposals for procedural change of police with an unmerited and highly deceptive comment proclaiming most SJPD officers to be good. The former district attorney has clearly never had a frank chat with our city’s two former Police Auditors, LaDoris Cordell and Aaron Zisser—two individuals who have reviewed the most heinous of (and mostly unpunished) accusations against officers, including the supporting evidence. 

What I see in Liccardo can also be seen in those holding decisive position on police power, with common resistance to rock a boat of policing change into uncharted territory—the possibility of dire chaos. It will be the diligently naïve and intransigent public whose hesitation—or toe dipping—into a most perfect policing system—that will only encourage a more unethical chaos, breeding toxic cops. As a country, we are slow to needed progression. The conclusion of slavery (the very workforce this country was built on) wavered and contenged on the colonial fears of the disenfranchisement and financial upheaval it would cause to the lives of slave owners. Lincoln took a begrudged leap of common sense (among other things) towards progress and reform—and while results of that decision have not quite finalized, it has progressively materialized a better and more righteous union.

Despite the condemnation and distancing of ranking officers scrambling for damage control, they stop short of relinquishing the long-standing impunity officers enjoy. Perhaps it wasn’t the death of Floyd prompting a defiance of themselves, but the reaction his death garnered. Most of the officers I’ve spoken with over the past ten years would relate to Chauvin and Co.—and the decisive conduct inculcated with their profession’s high school-like peer pressure. They understand why not one officer intervened, but critical of Officer Thoa’s inability to intimidate on-lookers out of their first amendment right to spy. Why wasn’t one of the officers holding a digital blocker to prevent filming? And officer Chauvin—who killed in the light of day what a simple police flashlight could have blocked from cameras in the black of night.

By fall, it seemed the wave of change was no wave at all. Proponents of police and—more discretely—white supremacy, have, if anything, grown emboldened by the images of Floyd’s murder. Republican senators such as Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) walked away from the event with the opinion that police needed more power through legislation.

The Minneapolis Police union vowed to see the reinstatement of Floyd’s 3 remaining killers—before they too had been indicted alongside Chauvin.  Three Wilmington, North Carolina officers were fired after a recording captured the use of racist language and their desire for a race war. Three Aurora, Colorado officers photographed themselves mocking the murder of Elijah McClain at the sight of his death–so reminiscent of the days when hung black men were photographed and sold on post cards in the Deep South. And in a tribute to the nefarious lineage of racism running through the bloodline of policing—the New York City POA’s unsettling endorsement of notorious birther, Donald J. Trump.

Social media sites belonging to the family and friends of local officers went either silent or flagrantly indignant to the vitriolic public interrogations their loved ones faced.  Ignorance runs rampant within those close to officers, blind—and at times injudicious because the blood of the black and the disenfranchised stains different on a police uniform. Is it only in the criminality of a cop when his purpose is maintained?

It takes incredible audacity to wear membership to the murders of Botham Jean, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Stephon Clark, Philando Castillo and Alton Sterling—or to the negligent handling of Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, and Akai Gurley—only to then claim officers are the truly misunderstood victims of these crimes. A Modus Operandi magic trick eliciting sympathy from the public that they are far more oppressed than those they silence—through no amount of rationality but plenty of entitlement.

Lynching victim Will Brown in life, and in death, year 1919. (source nebraskastudies.org)

During her time, it was the likes of Jesse Washington (a mentally ill youth), Will Brown, Marie Thompson, Mark Charles Parker—and the 3,446 dead by 1968 for their melanin deformity—who compelled journalist Ida B. Wells to state in 1909: “This is the never-varying answer of lynchers and their apologist. All know that it is untrue. The cowardly lynchers revels in murder, then seeks to shield himself from public execration by claiming devotion to woman. But truth is mighty and the lynching record discloses the hypocrisy of the lyncher as well as his crime.” Simply replace “devotion to woman” with more modern claims such as “I thought he had a gun”, same shit—different century.

If only those typified within the words of Well’s had existed at a better time and place—a decade later, I say the same of the black and brown today.

While researching this piece I recalled the murder of Daniel Shaver, a white plumber from Granbury, Texas who the nation watched—through the lens of a body camera—beg for his life before being mercilessly obliterated by a Mesa, Texas cop in a hotel hallway. These are the things nightmares are made of—the parental fear President Obama (a black man) and Mayor Bill DeBlasio (the father of a black man) express out loud against criticism. These executions are the quiet part being spoken out loud—lauding distortedly depths of depravity as acts of bravery by sworn men.  Murder isn’t murder. Privilege isn’t bad. Injustice is justice. We are to revere officers as human beings yet we are coached to survive a police encounter by way of our local bear attack survival guide.

How many officers, standing in the wings gauge their invincibility against the biblical ‘shall nots’? Officer Philip Brailsford was acquitted of Shaver’s murder in 2017 and reinstated to his department. He has reportedly since retired.

The accurate intent of law enforcement is to be the resolute factor of a situation, not the incendiary of it. One is not supposed to determine the decisions of a cop and therefore should not be blamed for the escalation of their behavior. And until this is realized, one shall not be shamed for their fear of those who claim the image of hero but the disposition of monster. And a department’s bill of guilt shall not be paid by the tax paying public—but to be made clear, those irrational enough to think that taking a police officer’s life is an appropriate reply to police brutality will find themselves working against any logical, mature solution!

Bad cops make for the best criminal justice instructors, because when listened to with a sensible ear–they tell the truth. An officer’s firearm training–I once presumed–at best called for the temporary incapacitation of a life—which to that, in 2011, a senior San Jose police officer shook his head. “You wanna take out the computer”, he said—taping a finger to his temple.

Spare the Rod, Spoil the Cop (Part 3/4)

Devon Thames

The REPUDIATION OF RACE: Modern day policing descended from the 1760’s initiation of the slave patrol—their fundamental function was to keep black slaves oppressed and in their place through apprehension, discipline and terrorization. To work on a slave patrol was considered a civic duty, much as policing is today. Slavery may have taken a bow to the 13th amendment, but remnants of the institution are still allowed to persevere. African Americans are still disproportionately targeted more so than other races.

Surely there is still an advantage to race supremacy in police culture. Much like the recent incidents in Minnesota and South Carolina, news surfaced in June by The Medium, (a watchdog group) of retired and current San Jose Police officers utilizing a Facebook page to air racist comments towards Muslims and Blacks, those they viewed as the noxious variety. California is among 14 states identified by the FBI where officers have been observed actively participating in white supremacy groups. A disconcerting sort of Blue Nationalism where those inclined are cops first—and husbands, daughters, parents—or any other societal member—thereafter.

In 2016, white officers represented nearly 72% of law enforcement (and in 2019, 43% of the San Jose police), and though their numbers are declining, they’re still the largest racial group represented in policing. While that percentage may have altered, policing is still a white, male sport—and perhaps even more so a state of mind. Chauvin was white —and without rank, but years of experience, he dominated the scene of Floyd’s murder. (If slave patrollers failed in the slave duties, they faced retribution, something to consider when judging the actions of the other three officers.) But do non-white officers, through indoctrination, develop white cop state of mind. Decades post the civil war, a minimal amount of blacks were permitted to join exclusively white police departments because they were thought to control blacks better, but were not readily allowed to arrest whites. Police departments of today may be the greatest connection to the heinous traditions of the Jim Crow era—and may be the reason so much of the privileged cheer them on.

DEFUNDING THE POLICE is a logical aspiration—meant not to be the first but final step of resounding change for all. In 2019, the city of San Jose made the better part of its annual public safety budget (45%) rain on the police department’s luxury brick and mortar. Most cities budgets pay a hefty hostage fee too but I remember hearing a rumor back 2008—during the national recession—that while the bureaucratic department members were taking pay cuts and furloughs, our police union had negotiated pay raises. The concept of taking one for the team doesn’t apply when you’re a cop. This situation would lead to a huge pension battle between the department and our then mayor, Chuck Reed. It looked like the most calculated revolt of all time. Eligible officers rushed to retirement while others took up offers at neighboring departments eager to pick up the scraps. Officers saw demotions, recruitment declined and there had even been an allegation claiming an officer instructed a class of recruits to apply someplace else after finishing the academy.

Mayor Sam Liccardo

Most importantly, morale declined. The attenuated department showed a decrease in response to calls, accenting their despair by mobilizing personalized RV campers in the department lots, claiming officers were so overworked, they used the convenience of an oversized, empty lot to sleep in their personal pricey RV’s. While pensions improved, salaries rose and city/department negotiations restored the quality of blue lives, the pricey mobile living facilities once meant to capture the attention of bleeding-heart citizens are still there.

But! I hear the reasons to defund and raise you some examples. In researching police calls conducted by the San Jose Police, calls involving a mentally ill subject became as cringe worthy as taking motor oil for a cold. On February 11, 2015, a distraught 23-year-old man choose the SJPD as his method of suicide, calling them to his home with the fabricated story of an intruder. It’s hard to contend that police can be more than a Jack Kavorkian invention to end life—despite CIT training, and I think law enforcement would agree, as long as the admission did not mean turning away extra government change.

Officer Wakana Okuma

I’ve watched San Jose Police Officer Chris Jolliff wrestle a clearly mentally ill, transient woman to the ground in handcuffs. I once called in a scene where a homeless man walked into a church and punched a man, unprovoked, sitting calmly next to him. Watching Officer David Sanchez (former SJPD) do what he was trained to do—as he pinned the disheveled, and clearly mentally ill man to the back of his car—felt sorely counterproductive. They needed help these officers were incapable of giving them—and death is not a remedy. Could a common-sense plan to reallocate funds by 2015 prevented Officer Wakana Okuma from shooting a bipolar 19-year-old wielding a painted drill in front of her father’s home? A number of these shooting end up in million-dollar settlements—monetary doses that could have served a prophylactic plan rather than an appraisal estimate on a person’s life. But even with recent changes implemented by departments across the country (San Jose included), the solution may continue to be a near miss—none of those dead should have met a cop that day.

AND THEN THERE’S THE KICKING AND SCREAMING. By law, cops can’t strike—but they can mobilize and delay, consequently monopolize public safety—a common practice synonymous with the Blue Flu, a concept very easily applied when the general public doesn’t know, understand, or care how you do your job. Delay of call response is a claim attributed to high call volume—and a low number of available officers. However, in San Jose, it’s never been uncommon to see too many officers at one incident, making some calls or debrief meetings look more like a holiday party. Call response for us is still an issue despite SJPD’s influx in hiring numbers. I recall one sunny afternoon, when a call went out over my radio while studying inside a coffee shop. One of the two officers dispatched (we’ll call him Officer Cano) sat feet away from me on the other side of glass. I watched him sip coffee for 18 minutes with a woman before he finally departed for the call. The reality is that delays happen because they’re permitted to, and it happens a lot, for both valid—and not so valid reasons.

San Jose is one of many corrupt police departments across the country—something I was warned about by a career journalist and those familiar with the department while attending university.  Now being able to confirm it, I’m left to ask: Is that a bad thing—particularly to those governing the department? I’m sure members of the POA and those flipping burgers over a grill at officer hosted bar-b-ques I once had the pleasure of attending as a youth would say no—perhaps preferring to give “corrupt” a more inoffensive label. Maybe “pride”—and self-perseverance, the selling points drawing recruits through the door.

Chris Jolliff and David Sanchez are two very different officers, who conducted themselves contrastively (I’ve observed both and interviewed one). To generalize the quality of both—only to list them in the default category of ‘good cops’, would be a degradation to one, by the other—especially when not keen to their entire histories. Outside of this moment of clarity, the analysis of all departments and all officers cannot be ubiquitous but the expectations of them can be—and still a uniform remedy is called for.