#PoliceState Update: Another #OaklandPD thug arrested, charged in obstruction, prostitution case

Oakland police officer Ryan Walterhouse, 26, was arrested late on suspicion of engaging in prostitution and obstruction of justice. The latest jolt to a department roiled by scandals and the loss of its former chief.

Walterhouse had sex with a prostitute on Oct. 1 in a Castro Valley motel and paid her in cash, prosecutors said in court records. He warned her twice last week about undercover prostitution operations, the prosecutors said.

Walterhouse was arrested when he showed up for work Wednesday following a weeks-long investigation that involved surveillance of his home, officials said.

Walterhouse’s arrest comes weeks after District Attorney Nancy O’Malley filed charges against three current or former Oakland police officers in connection with their dealings with a sexually exploited teenager. Two others will be charged, prosecutors said. They said they are waiting for key reports from the Police Department before charging the pair.

The scandal spread to several Bay Area law enforcement agencies.

Enjoy your Police State.

Source: Oakland police officer charged in obstruction, prostitution case – San Francisco Chronicle

Amazing! The #PoliceState says it’s sorry, then denies they’re #racist jerks

The president of the country’s largest police chief organization formally apologized for the “historical mistreatment” of racial minorities — one of the strongest statements a national police figure has made to date on race.

Note the word “historical”…what they really mean is that everything is just fine now.

Law enforcement officers have been the “face of oppression for far too many of our fellow citizens,” Terrence Cunningham, president of the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, told thousands of police chiefs from across the country at the group’s annual conference in San Diego.

He said that police have had “darker periods” in their history, and that mistrust between police and minorities is the “fundamental issue” facing police today.

The association did not formally apologize today’s blatant racism among police.

Cunningham focused on apologizing for the past, when police carried out “many unpalatable tasks, such as ensuring legalized discrimination or even denying the basic rights of citizenship to many of our fellow Americans.” Cunningham said today’s officers are not to blame for the past.

As if everything is great now. Nice try but this isn’t going to fly on the street Chief.

For Delores Jones-Brown, a professor at the John Jay College Center on Race, Crime and Justice, the apology amounted to too little, too late.

“I am unimpressed and underwhelmed,” she said. “He fails to acknowledge the deplorable behavior of some modern-day police officers who are allowed to go from police agency to police agency after having been cited for misconduct within one or more departments. [He] fails to acknowledge the warrior mentality of many police agencies and police officers and commanders. There are bigoted cops today as there were when it was legal to be a bigoted cop.”

She’s absolutely correct.

Naturally, police union officials also criticized Cunningham.

Brian Moriguchi, president of the union that represents supervisors in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Cunningham was “pandering to political pressures” by apologizing for those historical sins in an attempt to address present-day problems.

“He’s using the past to legitimize the argument that there’s something wrong in police work today, and that is wrong,” said Moriguchi, who has said police are “far more ethical” today than they were decades ago. “His statements fuel the rhetoric about racist cops, certainly. Instead of fueling the anger and bias, he should be trying to find solutions to the problem.”

Moriguchi obviously thinks the brutal racist Police State is working just like it is supposed to.

Dustin DeRollo, a spokesman for the union that represents rank-and-file officers in the Los Angeles Police Department, said Cunningham’s comments support the “false narrative” that police officers are deliberately targeting black men.

DeRollo is obviously another Police State aficionado.

Source: Head of nation’s largest police chief group issues formal apology for ‘historical mistreatment’ of racial minorities – LA Times

A killer cop’s reign of terror at the @SacPolice Department

Albert Glenn Thiel was killed in a violent encounter with Sacramento police officers in 1997.

The white elites who run Sacramento really could have cared less.

His death may have resulted from a chokehold by John Tennis, a Sacramento police officer who fatally shot Joseph Mann, a mentally ill man, in North Sacramento in July.

A.J. Thiel was 15 when his father, Albert Glenn Thiel, was killed in 1997 in an incident involving John Tennis, the Sacramento police officer who fatally shot a mentally ill man in North Sacramento in July of this year.

Thiel, now 34, doesn’t remember much of that time except his rage and confusion and this: Tennis and the other six officers involved in the incident were laughing and “carrying on like nothing was wrong” in the lobby as Thiel and his family walked into a lawsuit settlement conference.

Marcus McGee of Southern California, here at the home of his brother in Elk Grove on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016, was a childhood friend of Albert Glen Thiel, who may have been killed by a chokehold by Sacramento police Officer John Tennis in 1997 during a struggle after a high-speed chase.

Tennis was one of two officers who shot and killed Joseph Mann in July after Mann brandished a knife and acted erratically.

In that conference, according to Albert Thiel’s father, Edward Bigham, Tennis stood, removed his jacket and re-enacted how he put Albert Thiel, 35, in a carotid choke hold that may have crushed his windpipe and killed him.

“We kind of got written off as if his life meant nothing. … His life did mean something to a lot of people,” said A.J. Thiel. “They didn’t tell us anything, just go about your life and forget about it.”

Thiel and his five siblings have not forgotten. They have questions they say police have never answered.

Source: Two police killings two decades apart leave same questions for Sacramento families | The Sacramento Bee

#BS lawyer says killer cops who executed mentally ill Sacramento man are really nice guys

The mentally ill man brutally executed by two Sacramento police officers in July yelled “Come on bitch” and “turned and confronted them armed with a knife” immediately prior to being shot, according to the officers’ attorney.

Speaking on behalf of officers John Tennis and Randy Lozoya, attorney Judith Odbert said in a three-page memo, “The character assassination of these two officers who have dedicated their lives to the protection of this community is unwarranted. They are not racist.”

That’s a load of b.s. In our opinion, not only are these two cops racists, they are brutal murderers who deserve to be behind bars. No amount of expensive lawyering can change the truth…we all saw the video.

Black Lives Matter Sacramento has been calling for greater investigation in the Mann case and other police shootings in recent months.

“It’s a systemic issue and it comes from racism and bias in the police department,” said Tanya Faison of Black Lives Matter Sacramento.

Read all the lawyer spin about how these two thugs are really nice guys at: Cops who killed mentally ill man were threatened, not racist, lawyer says – The Sacramento Bee

How the #Pasadena police brutally murdered a mentally ill African-American man

It is an understatement to suggest that Pasadena police officers used excessive force when they Tasered a black man with a history of mental illness and then kicked him in the head and hit him with a baton before he died at a northwest Pasadena apartment complex.

Reginald Thomas Jr., 35, a father of eight, died early Friday morning after six Pasadena police officers brutalized him inside an apartment in the 200 block of E. Orange Grove Boulevard.

In the wake of Thomas’s death, more than 500 people marched Friday night through the heart of Pasadena to complain about the use of what they perceive as excessive force on a man the family says struggled with a mental disorder.

More details of this hideous murder can be found at: Black man who died in struggle with Pasadena police was kicked in the head, struck with baton, family’s lawyer says

Ruthless @ElCajonPolice execute mentally ill African-American man

If you’re mentally ill, African-American, and in El Cajon, odds are good you’ll end up dead.

That’s what happened when El Cajon police officers met up with an African-American man earlier in the day.

The man has not been formally identified.

Chief Jeff Davis said a video taken by a bystander showed the incident but that the department declined to release it at this time.

One officer fired a Taser and another fired rounds from his handgun. No weapon was recovered at the scene.

The shooting sparked protests in the San Diego County city, with friends of the man’s family saying he suffers from a mental illness and did not pose a threat to the officers.

A crowd of about 30 people gathered at the shooting scene. By the evening, the crowd grew to about 100 people, including community leaders and members of local churches.

Most of the demonstrators voiced concerns that the shooting was racially motivated.

Police received three calls about a man acting “erratically” near a strip mall on Broadway near Mollison Avenue shortly after 2 p.m., El Cajon police Lt. Rob Ransweiler said. One caller told them the man was walking in traffic, he said.

El Cajon police officers are not equipped with body-worn cameras.

More at: Fatal shooting of black man by El Cajon police sparks outrage, protests – LA Times

Well done! #SanFrancisco approves funding for @GeorgeGascon’s effort to root out bad cops

Good news for citizens of San Francisco, and an “atta-boy” for George Gascón.

San Francisco officials have approved a final round of funding for a new unit in the district attorney’s office that will take the lead in the shootings.

The idea is not only to promote independent probes, officials said, but to help the district attorney’s office clear a backlog of 10 fatal shooting cases dating as far back as 2014 that remain open.

Pimps for the Police State, and the feckless SFPD bawl that giving prosecutors rather than homicide detectives the lead role could degrade the quality of investigations.

In other words, killer cops want police brutality investigations to be conducted by other killer cops. This is wrong, and it is why most people don’t trust the police in San Francisco.

The shift will test an uneasy relationship between police and Gascón, the district attorney and former police chief. Gascón has taken a courageous stand against the SFPD’s killer cops, and they hate him for it.

The funding of the new unit, which still must be staffed up, comes amid a growing call for expanded police accountability from civil rights activists and others in the Bay Area and across the nation. In modern history, only one police officer in the region — former BART Officer Johannes Mehserle — has been charged for an on-duty killing.

The fight over handling these cases has been intense in San Francisco, where officer-involved shootings in the past two years — in particular, the video-recorded killing of Mario Woods in the Bayview neighborhood — prompted a pending U.S. Department of Justice review of the police force.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Celeste Guap heads back to the Bay Area to testify against perv cops

The teenage woman whose allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of several police officers rocked the Bay Area law enforcement community will return to California to testify against them, her attorney said Wednesday.

Jasmine Abuslin, 19, of Richmond, was freed from the Martin County Jail in Florida on Wednesday morning after accepting a plea deal to settle allegations that she bit a security guard during a violent clash at a drug rehabilitation facility last month.

Pamela Price, an Oakland civil rights attorney who is representing Abuslin, said Abuslin now plans to return home, where she will serve as the key witness in the prosecution of at least seven current and former East Bay law enforcement officers.

Abuslin, who has previously used the pseudonym Celeste Guap, asserted during a television news interview earlier this year that she had had sex with at least a dozen Oakland police officers, and that some of the encounters occurred while she was underage. She also accused officers of leaking information to her about planned prostitution raids in exchange for sex.

The scandal soon widened to include accusations against members of four other East Bay law enforcement agencies.

Abuslin’s move by Contra Costa County authorities to a drug rehabilitation facility in Florida has come under heavy criticism. Price said her client does not have a drug problem, and accused the Richmond Police Department of engaging in witness tampering. Abuslin has been a victim of sex trafficking since she was 12, and said her client had sexual encounters with members of seven different Bay Area law enforcement agencies.

Four Oakland police officers have been fired and seven others were suspended in the wake of the scandal. Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent also resigned the same weekend the woman gave her televised interview.

Source: LA Times

@SFPD spins meth story to justify #DeathSquad killing of #JessicaWilliams

Here’s the latest SFPD spin on the execution of 29-year-old Jessica Williams who was gunned down last may May. The Police State proclaims that she had methamphetamine in her system.

This news will probably let the SFPD Death Squad that executed her off the hook.

Jessica Williams, also known as Jessica Nelson, died from a gunshot wound to the chest.

Williams was shot and killed inside an alleged stolen vehicle she was driving.  Actually more like parking when officers approached the car on foot.

According to the limited information made public by the Police State, “at some time during this event the officer discharged an unknown number of round into the vehicle, striking the subject.”

An “unknown number” Huh?

Her death at the hands of Sgt. Justin Erb prompted the resignation of former Police Chief Greg Suhr, and marked the third fatal police shooting since the death of Mario Woods on Dec. 2, 2015.

Williams also had blunt force trauma to her head along her hairline. WTF? They beat her up then shot her? Or was it the other way around?

Enjoy your Police State.

Source: The San Francisco Examiner

#UrbanShield: Where the #PoliceState goes to learn new ways to kill you

The extravaganza of weaponry and law enforcement gadgetry held at the Alameda County Fairgrounds is where the Police State goes to learn new ways to kill you.

Amid ongoing tension across the country over reports of police violence, including several shootings of African Americans police thugs flock to this event.

The 10th annual Urban Shield vendor display, is an annual trade show and training exercise that is designed to “prepare law enforcement and emergency workers for major emergencies”.

Emergencies like rousting the homeless, stopping African-Americans for minor traffic violations, and of course executing the mentally ill.

Sure some protesters show up, but hey, what does that matter to the Police State?

“I don’t feel safe when the police are in my neighborhood,” said Megan Whelan, 29, of Oakland, who joined the protest, which started early in the morning and lasted into the afternoon. “I’ve seen and witnessed their terror. I’m standing with those families who are fearful.”

Megan is of course correct. The Police State cares nothing about Oakland, her, or her family.

Naturally, the event is funded by the federal Department of Homeland Security.

In reality, the conference is about selling weapons, and how to further dominate already terrorized communities. Enjoy your Police State.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

More bad news for the #racist #PoliceState: Kaepernick’s making lots of friends

A week after a current teammate joined Colin Kaepernick’s national-anthem protest, a college teammate followed suit.

Broncos inside linebacker Brandon Marshall became the fourth NFL player to not stand during the national anthem before Denver played Carolina tonight in the first game of the NFL’s regular season. Marshall joined 49ers safety Eric Reid and Seahawks cornerback Jeremy Lane.

On Aug. 27, a day after Kaepernick’s protest first gained national headlines, Marshall said he supported Kaepernick.

“I understand where he’s coming from,” Marshall told the Colorado Springs Gazette. “I definitely see what he’s saying. I support him on that. I’m not mad at him for that. Some people are bashing him on the Internet, but I’m not bashing him at all. I support him.”

Marshall took a knee during the anthem a day after Kaepernick said he thought job-security concerns could prevent a wave of players from adopting his stance.

“I think it’s something where there are a lot of players that really feel the same way,” Kaepernick said. “They’re just nervous about consequences that come along with it. A lot of them have families to feed and I think it’s a tragic situation where players aren’t comfortable speaking what’s on their mind or what’s right because they’re afraid of consequences that come along with it.”

And of course, he’s correct.

The NFL is in a real quandary…it will be interesting to see how they turn this whole situation into a money machine.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Report: Police routinely exterminate mentally ill citizens

Justice Department lawyers investigating police agencies for claims of racial discrimination and excessive force are increasingly turning up a different problem: officers’ interactions with the mentally ill.

It seems when the Police Death Squads encounter mentally ill citizens they pretty much go berserk and start blasting away.

The latest example came in Baltimore, where a critical report on that department’s policies found that officers end up in unnecessarily violent confrontations with mentally disabled people who in many instances haven’t even committed crimes.

No crime, no problem for the Death Squads. They’ll make up some “we feared for our lives so we fired 42 bullets into him” story and get off the hook.

Though past federal investigations have addressed the problem, the Baltimore report went a step further: It was the first time the Justice Department has explicitly found that a police department’s policies violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. Not to mention the U.S. Constitution.

The finding is intended to chart a path to what federal officials hope will be far-reaching improvements, including better training for dispatchers and officers, diversion of more people to treatment rather than jail and stronger relationships with mental health specialists.

We’d suggest disbanding Death Squads and forcing the Police State to adhere to the U.S. Constitution. After all, that’s why we have it.

Don’t expect much to change until the Justice Department comes to the realization that killer cops are not the victims, they are the perpetrators.

Source: San Jose Mercury News

U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals nails killer cops in Anaheim

A federal jury decision that absolved Anaheim police in a shooting of an unarmed man was influenced by inflammatory, graphic and irrelevant evidence and must be overturned, a federal appeals court decided unanimously.

The decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals revived a civil rights lawsuit by the family of Manuel Diaz, 25, who was brutally executed in 2012 by Anaheim police officers.

The shooting sparked days of violence and street protests.

The federal jury had returned a verdict in favor of police after six days of trial and only two hours of deliberation.

The 9th Circuit said the jury heard “runaway” evidence of Diaz’s gang affiliation and drug use, matters that were irrelevant to a decision on whether the police officer who shot Diaz acted recklessly.

Diaz had no weapon when police murdered him.

Source: The Los Angeles Times

U.N. official slams America’s racist #PoliceState

It’s not every day that a senior United Nations official reprimands the U.S. for its race relations, saying the country is “struggling to live up to its ideals” on equality, that “blunt discrimination” by police against black Americans has reached “crisis levels,” and that Congress is “dysfunctional” in how it responds to problems.

But after a 17-day visit that included cities that have become flashpoints in police and race relations, such as Ferguson, Mo.; Baton Rouge, La.; and Baltimore, that’s what Maina Kiai concluded.

A Kenyan human rights lawyer, Kiai is the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, and his trip last month was meant to examine how Americans handle protests.

He had planned his visit with the State Department for months and expected he’d have to search hard for demonstrations when he arrived. Instead, Kiai stepped into a country reeling from back-to-back police shootings of black men and attacks on police in Baton Rouge and Dallas where controversy over race and policing was front and center.

Source: The Los Angeles Times

Conservatives attack Glenn Beck for liking African-Americans

Among Glenn Beck’s revelations was that the Black Lives Matter movement had a point.

Beck, like many conservatives, had criticized the movement as racist and exclusionary. He had led a march in Birmingham, Ala., on the theme of “All Lives Matter.” His news site, The Blaze, had written dutifully about well-meaning people who said “All Lives Matter” and were hounded by the politically correct mob.

But since the police shootings in Dallas, where his programs are recorded, Beck had come to view “Black Lives Matter” differently.

Beck’s point is that white Americans simply did not understand what black people had been saying about police in America.

Source: The Washington Post

Commission will do nothing to stop @OaklandPoliceCA #DeathSquads

Oakland voters will get their say in November on whether an independent commission should oversee the city’s troubled Police Department, a proposal that has unanimous backing from the City Council and Mayor Libby Schaaf, and endorsements from several prominent public safety groups.

But despite the ballot measure’s popularity, some of those who advocate police accountability question whether it will create lasting reform, or restore residents’ trust in law enforcement after a string of misconduct cases and a national outcry over police violence against African Americans.

Basically it’s political eyewash to make it appear to voters that politicians are taking action against the brutal Oakland Police Department.

Though the commission would have the power to terminate police officers, including the chief, some people say the measure does not go far enough toward ensuring the board’s independence from City Hall.

Activists argue that the commission cannot be truly independent from either city government or the police union if some of its members owe their positions to an elected official.

And of course, they are correct.

“This isn’t groundbreaking legislation. It’s the same tired thing they have in San Francisco that doesn’t work, that continues to support police, that allowed the murder of Mario Woods.” – Cat Brooks.

Experts say such commissions accomplish little.

Samuel Walker, a police accountability expert in Omaha, Neb., says cities throughout the country — including San Francisco — have formed police commissions, task forces and oversight boards in the hope of giving civilians a sense of power over law enforcement. But many of these bodies have not been effective, Walker said.

“There have been a lot of commissions,” he said. “Most of them have not made a difference.”

In the end, the Oakland Police Department will continue to hunt down and execute citizens at will.

Enjoy your Police State.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

 

 

#SandraBland murder cover-up exposed!

A police officer in the small Texas town where Sandra Bland was pulled over and jailed says the county’s top prosecutors threatened to end his career if he came forward with what he says is evidence of wrongdoing.

The Police State responded quickly. Prosecutors deny any wrongdoing.

Prairie View officer Michael Kelley said this week that he wanted to tell a grand jury that Bland appeared to have been brutalized by the police while  in custody.

The culpret, state trooper Brian Encinia, who pulled her over last July for allegedly failing to signal while changing a lane.

It looks like to us that the brutal, psychotic Encinia beat the hell out of her.

Kelley said he was never contacted by special prosecutors handling the case, and the Waller County district attorney’s top assistant said there would be repercussions if he spoke to a Bland family attorney.

Bland was found dead three days after the traffic stop in a county jail cell. Authorities ruled it a suicide. Yeah, right.

In the end, this just another case of an African-American citizen standing up for her rights, who ends up dead at the hands of the police.

Enjoy your Police State.

Source: LA Times

The @SFPD thug who makes illegal assault rifles

As you would imagine, the SFPD thug who was arrested this week for allegedly building an illegal assault rifle has pleaded not guilty and has been released on his own recognizance.

So he’s back on the street and likely back at work making more illegal weapons.

His release terms require that he turn over all guns and weapons. Like we believe THAT will happen.

Thomas Abrahamsen has been charged with the manufacture of an assault weapon and one felony count of possession of an assault weapon.

No doubt he’ll get a slap on the wrist and be back in business in no time. If citizen Joe or Jane did this, they’d rot in prison forever. Enjoy your Police State.

Source: The San Francisco Examiner

Bottom line…@SuzyLoftus, like her boss @MayorEdLee, is owned by the police union

As the president of the San Francisco Police Commission, Suzy Loftus has been the face of Mayor Ed Lee’s major police reform efforts since the fatal shooting of Mario Woods, who was killed by police in the Bayview on Dec. 2, 2015.

Loftus, 41, at the helm of the commission since 2014 and a member since 2012, brings a lot to the table. Her approachable demeanor, experience, identity as a prosecutor and political training all lend themselves to her role during a tumultuous time for the San Francisco Police Department.

Over the course of Loftus’ tenure, the Police Department has been plagued by scandals that include two racist text messaging incidents, numerous fatal police shootings, a track record of racially imbalanced policing and the resignation of Chief Greg Suhr.

Behind Loftus’ mostly smiling public face is a political player with ties to inner circles in Mayor Ed Lee’s office. For much of her professional life, she worked for Attorney General Kamala Harris — then serving as San Francisco’s district attorney — for whom she still works as general counsel.

Despite her claims of having no political ambitions, Loftus’ name has been floated in recent years for a supervisorial appointment and even sheriff. And, like Harris, she is an alumna of Emerge California, which trains women to become politicians.

Loftus’ political allies were on display at her confirmation hearings in April before the Rules Committee. They included almost every sitting police commissioner, community activists, clergy and, perhaps most importantly, the police union.

Critics say the San Francisco Police Officers Association is the elephant in the room, and without the political will to cow the police union, no real reform of culture — let alone policy — is possible.

Bottom line…Suzy Loftus, like her boss Ed Lee, is owned by the police union.

Source: The San Francisco Examiner

Brutal @SFPD police union is crushing reforms – expect more #DeathSquads

San Francisco’s police union fights to save Death Squads.

San Francisco’s Police Department,  already may be on the brink of major change due to heated public concern over officer shootings, stricter rules on handling dangerous encounters, and a search for a new chief. Now comes a book-length study that faults its operations and training.

The report raked the department’s hidebound nature and suggested that it’s virtually run by an aggressive Police Officers Association, which intimidates inside critics and muzzles reform. Absent political will, say the study’s authors (three retired judges backed by legal research from eight downtown law firms), the list of recommendations will languish.

Right on cue, the report was denounced by the police union.

POA chief Martin Halloran went after District Attorney George Gascón, who put the study in motion, for “taking aim at police officers in San Francisco” and dubbed the report a “kangaroo court.”

That’s a disgraceful response to a measured look that’s so reasonable that parts have already been embraced during its yearlong preparation. The Police Commission has rewritten use-of-force guidelines to play down dangerous confrontations and launched wider bias training in a diverse city. But there’s more to be done, as the 250-page document detailed.

The impetus of the study came from a wave of racist and homophobic texts swapped by officers, a devastating revelation of deep-set discrimination that police brass must eradicate.

That scandal led to the report’s wider look at department practices and programs designed to weed out bias and improve community relations. The mission led to a confounding realization: Essential data are often missing.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Oakland can’t find an honest cop to be chief – state officials say no problem

After a day of confusion, state officials backed down late Monday on an assertion that Mayor Libby Schaaf’s plan to have the Oakland Police Department function without an acting police chief violated California law.

Officials at the state Police Officers Standards and Training agency, or POST, had said earlier Monday that Oakland’s plan to have police commanders report to City Administrator Sabrina Landreth was illegal.

They cited both California government code and a state attorney general’s opinion backing their argument that the city needed to name an acting chief to head the department, which is embroiled in multiple scandals and has gone through three chiefs in less than two weeks.

Acting Assistant Chief David Downing is in charge of day-to-day decisions for the Police Department, Schaaf’s office said, while Landreth is overseeing administrative and personnel decisions.

Late Monday, POST conceded it had made its argument before the city attorney’s office cited more recent federal case law, from 2011, exempting charter cities such as Oakland from the requirement.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Sick joke? Lee sees ‘consequences’ for SFPD thug in fatal shooting

Suddenly now Ed Lee has a problem with killer cops? What kind of sick joke is this?

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said Thursday that “there has to be consequences” for the city police sergeant who fired into a car last week near the Bayview neighborhood, killing an apparently unarmed woman and prompting the resignation of Chief Greg Suhr.

Coming from the Police State loving Mayor Lee this clearly is his attempt at some sick humor.

At the heart is the issue of whether the sergeant should have fired at the car. Cops love shooting at people in cars…for them it’s almost a sporting event.

Naturally, now that they’ve been caught doing something brutal and stupid, police have released few details about the circumstances that led to the shooting.  They need time to come up with a convincing story to justify the behavior of this killer cop who gunned down an unarmed woman.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Santa Clara County deputies chain man, then brutally beat him

In a scene right out of Django Unchained, two Santa Clara County jail guards were arrested and charged Monday with mercilessly beating a shackled inmate.

Deputies Phillip Abecendario, 27, and Tuan Le, 31, were charged with one count of assault by an officer, according to the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office.

At least 24 witnesses saw part of the assault.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Freddie Gray verdict proves once again that police officers can kill with impunity

It was one of the most closely watched cases in recent years of a black man dying after being in police custody.

With Baltimore reeling from demonstrations that sometimes had become violent, Marilyn J. Mosby, Maryland’s attorney for the city, acted within weeks of the death of Freddie Gray to bring murder and manslaughter charges against six police officers.

“I heard your call for ‘no justice, no peace.’ Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man,” Mosby said just over a year ago on national television during a news conference.

Civil rights activists praised the prosecutor for swift and comprehensive action.But the acquittal of one police officer Monday, just months after a mistrial of another, has left those activists deeply frustrated.

Legal experts said the outcomes suggested that the other officers in the case could also go unpunished.

Source: LA Times

Candidate @KamalaHarris says immigration is the “civil rights issue of our time”

U.S. Senate hopeful Kamala Harris, speaking to leaders of the United Farm Workers union, called for fixing the nation’s immigration system and protecting the rights of millions of immigrants in the country illegally.

Harris told union delegates gathered at Bakersfield’s convention center that immigration is the “civil rights issue of our time,” a phrase she has repeated often at campaign rallies. But the state attorney general offered few specifics on how she would work with the Republican leaders in Congress to pass legislation.

Harris received the loudest ovation when she said “an undocumented immigrant is not a criminal” in both English and Spanish.

Kamala Harris claims to support farm workers…we’ll see. Unfortunately it is more likely that Harris, like her Democrat colleagues, will side with the police unions who continue to murder Latinos at an alarming rate.

Source: LA Times

When killer cops investigate killer cops, nobody ever gets convicted

When a San Francisco police officer shoots someone, the investigation is headed up by the officer’s colleagues — a widespread law enforcement practice that has stoked mistrust both here and around the country.

Everybody knows that at this point the fix is in and the killer cops will wiggle off the hook.

It’s a practice that, from 2000 through 2015, led to no criminal charges against city officers in 95 shootings, including 40 that were fatal.

A U.S. Justice Department team dispatched to San Francisco after a fatal shooting in December is questioning whether the city force has too free a hand to police itself.

District Attorney George Gascón, meanwhile, is seeking funding to create a special unit in his office that would take the lead in investigating officer-involved shootings, from start to finish.

It’s about time!

Taking over the cases from the Police Department would be complicated, politically divisive and possibly expensive. Rank-and-file officers, backed by an outspoken union, may fight it. After all they love Death Squad killings.

Attorney Arnoldo Casillas, who is representing the family of Amilcar Perez-Lopez, a Guatemalan immigrant fatally shot by San Francisco police in the Mission District in February 2015, said he found it necessary to hire private investigators to dig deep in such cases because he does not trust the police probes.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Feckless @SFPDChiefSuhr isn’t the only @SFPD rat that needs to be fired

The head of San Francisco’s racist Police State deserves to be fired.

After months of intense protests demanding that Mayor Ed Lee fire Police Chief Greg Suhr, four city supervisors joined the chorus Wednesday and demanded a national search for a new chief.

Suhr’s political support is eroding, even as some moderate supervisors said they still supported him wholeheartedly.

Protests against the chief are driven by the racist text messages and the fatal police shootings of four minority men in the past two years.

None was carrying a gun.

Up until Thursday, no supervisor had called publicly for Suhr’s ouster.

But the preliminary findings released Monday of a blue-ribbon panel of three judges created by District Attorney George Gascón to investigate bias in the police force appears to have changed minds.

The panel found that the department is full of racist brutal thug cops who enjoy killing people of color, the homeless and the mentally ill.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Report from @GeorgeGascon: @SFPD is unaccountable – he’s absolutely right

The Gascon report paints a frightening picture of brutal racism within the ranks of the SFPD.

The San Francisco Police Department has outdated policies, engages in “stop and frisk” tactics on the street that have drawn outrage around the country, and does a poor job tracking officers’ conduct so it can root out problems, according to a blue-ribbon panel of judges created by District Attorney George Gascón to investigate bias in the police force.

And of course Gascón is absolutely right.

Feckless police officials said they hadn’t seen the panel’s preliminary findings, which were released publicly Monday evening at the African American Art and Culture Complex.

Martin Halloran is the driving force behind SFPD’s racism.

Martin Halloran, the head of the police officers union, called the panel’s report an “illegitimate work of fiction” driven by Gascón’s animosity toward police.

Halloran as CalNews.com readers know, is one of the biggest racists in San Francisco.

Ray Marshall, an attorney reviewing the department’s culture for the panel, said the problem is with Halloran’s Police Officers Association.

“We find that the San Francisco Police Department is insufficiently independent of the POA,” he said. “In addition to the blurred lines between the two, many believe that the POA’s influence inside and outside the department has been and remains an impediment to dialogue.”

Yup, that’s all true. All that’s missing from the POA are the white sheets and hoods.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

San Diego D.A. Bonnie Dumanis continues to defend the #PoliceState

Dist. Atty. Bonnie Dumanis has released video of three San Diego police officer-involved shootings, a reversal of her previous declarations that all such footage would be treated as evidence to be seen only in court.

“The position represents a major departure from historical practices, but we recognize the times have changed,” Dumanis said in a news briefing Friday at her offices. “This is really new territory.”

In other words…much as she’s like to, she can’t cover up all the crimes of San Diego’s killer cops any longer.

The police shouldn’t be worried…Dumanis still has plenty of leverage in the justice system to defend the Police State.

Source: LA Times

The @SFPD’s #racist killer cops remain in the spotlight

Five activists who refused to eat for 17 days, along with hundreds of their supporters, plan to hold a general strike at City Hall in their push for the removal of San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr, raising the specter of disrupted city business and renewed clashes between sheriff’s deputies and protesters.

The demonstrators known as the Frisco Five ended their hunger strike Saturday after being hospitalized for deteriorating health.

The move came one day after 33 people were cited inside City Hall for allegedly trespassing and failing to follow dispersal orders.

Community demands for Suhr’s removal came after the fatal police shooting of Mario Woods in December. Video footage of the shooting was captured and widely shared online, as was footage last month in the death of Luis Gongora, leading to allegations of excessive and unnecessary force.

In both incidents, the SFPD defended the Death Squad executions.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Witnesses come forward to confirm 2015 @SFPD #DeathSquad killing

Two witnesses who saw SFPD officers shoot a man in the back last year in the Mission have come forward.

The two male witnesses did not want to come forward, but were convinced that their testimony would help right a wrong.

Pastor Richard Smith at St. John The Evangelist said the witnesses “were basically traumatized by what they saw.”

Smith said the witnesses, who worried the police would come after them if they testified. “‘What would they do to us if we now come forward?’” Smith said the men asked him.

They are right to be afraid.

Source: The San Francisco Examiner

Texts provide convincing evidence of @SFPD’s hideously #racist culture

The text messages compared blacks to animals and made light of shootings. They called Latinos “beaners” and targeted gay officers. And all of them were sent by San Francisco police officers.

Such are the contents of the latest bigoted text messages to come out of the San Francisco Police Department — released in detail Tuesday — which are one more piece of evidence that the SFPD has a culture that condones bias, said Public Defender Jeff Adachi.

Adachi released the texts after receiving them through discovery in a related criminal case from the District Attorney’s Office, which first made the existence of the texts public last month.

The details of the texts could throw more fuel on the fire surrounding police misconduct, bias and use of force in San Francisco. Last year another group of officers was discovered to have sent similarly offensive text messages, but the department waited too long to discipline them and the one year statute of limitations ran out.

Like there’s a statute of limitations on racism…??? WTF!

Source: The San Francisco Examiner

San Francisco’s Prop. D targets @SFPD’s #DeathSquad killings

The least-controversial part of San Francisco’s very controversial discussion about law enforcement reform is a ballot measure expected to pass in the June 7 election.

Proposition D, spearheaded by Supervisor Malia Cohen, would require the civilian agency that looks into complaints of police misconduct to investigate every officer-involved shooting, instead of just shootings when a complaint is made.

The Office of Citizen Complaints investigates only about half of police shootings because investigators cannot open a case unless someone files a complaint — even though they respond to the scene whenever an officer fires a gun.

Cohen said that she believes many people don’t know they may file a complaint and that changing the process sends “a clear message to everyone near and far that we value transparency and accountability.”

“Proposition D is one step that brings us closer to rebuilding trust, and we are going to do that through transparency,” she said.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

#Brutal #racist @LASDHQ deputy gets a slap on the wrist

A jury Friday acquitted an L.A. County sheriff’s deputy of a series of felonies in the beatings of inmates, but convicted him on three misdemeanor counts of simple assault.

Prosecutors accused Jermaine Jackson of beating inmates in the Compton courthouse lockup and Twin Towers jail and said he later lied on reports about the incidents. He was charged with three counts each of assault by means likely to produce greatly bodily injury, assault by a public officer and filing a false report.

Jurors deadlocked on one of the counts of assault under the color of authority and will return Monday to continue deliberating.

During opening statements in the trial, as Deputy Dist. Atty. Ann Marie Wise said Jackson ruled the jail “with an iron first,” Jackson shook his head and sighed.

Enjoy your Police State.

Source: LA Times

Thugs at @SFPD have to be forced to process rape-kits

The SFPD could care less about you being raped.

The San Francisco Police Department will be required to submit public semiannual and annual reports regarding the agency’s collection and analysis of rape kits, according to a resolution passed unanimously by the Police Commission.

Under this resolution, the police department will be held to adhere to deadlines recommended by the state Sexual Assault Victims’ Bill of Rights, which calls for law enforcement agencies to submit forensic evidence to a crime laboratory within five days of collecting it and for the crime lab to finish processing and uploading the evidence to national crime databases within 120 days of receiving it.

The resolution came after the police department was criticized for its backlog of unprocessed rape kits.

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

#PoliceState Update: Prison doc exposes #killercops in Cali’s gulag

A psychologist who spent seven years working inside California’s correctional system filed a federal lawsuit against state prison officials, alleging they routinely covered up how inmates died.

The suit, filed in federal court in Sacramento by Dr. Eric Reininga, 63, also alleges that he was fired last year after he leaked information to The Sacramento Bee about an inmate who died after being pepper sprayed in the face and left in his cell.

Reininga said that he had conducted about a dozen inmate death reviews in his time in the job and that all of them ended up being edited by higher-ups to place the department in a more favorable light.

“I couldn’t live with it,” Reininga said. “I couldn’t live with myself being part of the code of silence, and I’m furious about it. I lose my job, and yet they’re the ones who did the wrong thing.”

Source: The Sacramento Bee

Ruthless @SCCgov: A roll model for the #PoliceState

Brutal cops, high-tech spy gear. You can say “adios” to your Constitutional Rights if you live in Santa Clara County.

Santa Clara County officials are poised to approve sweeping rules governing police use of cell phone trackers and other spying technology.

County Supervisor Joe Simitian’s proposal for an electronic surveillance ordinance has been in the works since late 2014.

Such privacy concerns have garnered greater scrutiny in Santa Clara County since then because of the sheriff’s plan to quietly acquire a cellphone tracking device commonly called a Stingray.

Similar conflicts over police spying and privacy have arisen numerous times locally and around the nation.

Examples include the San Jose Police Department’s acquisition of a drone, the use and retention of information captured on license plate readers and the creation of a “Domain Awareness Center” electronic information aggregation hub in Oakland.

You live in Santa Clara County? Enjoy your Police State.

Source: San Jose Mercury News

With orders from @MayorEdLee, @SFPD #DeathSquads begin exterminating the homeless

We’re confused…we thought liberals wanted to help people, not send them to gulags to be killed.

The systematic extermination of San Francisco’s homeless has begun.

“They shoved us out, and then we came back,” said Markael Raybon, 38. “They did it again and we came back. The guy last night said, ‘Man, you guys aren’t getting the memo.’”

Mayor Ed Lee announced a crackdown on the city’s homeless encampments following the fatal shooting of Gongora, declaring them safety hazards and saying that it was “time to focus on why the police were called to the scene in the first place.”

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Clearly @MarkLeno is right…we can no longer trust the police

California has some of the strictest laws in the U.S. against publicly releasing information about officer discipline.

State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) says recent high-profile clashes between police departments and the communities they serve show that now is the time to change the rules.

Leno has introduced SB 1286, which would unravel some of the protections against releasing officer information.

His push for transparency is generally supported by police reform advocates as a way to improve police-community relations.

“We can begin to rebuild the critically needed trust between law enforcement and community members,” Leno said. “I don’t think it’s at all debatable that that trust has come into question.”

Source: LA Times

The brutal @SFPD moves to block reforms…the #PoliceState thrives in #SanFrancisco

Brutal police, disappointed activists and befuddled officials.

Such is the state of San Francisco’s plans for police reforms sparked by recent police killings and the reaction to those deaths by Black Lives Matter protesters, among others.

Mayor Ed Lee’s package of police reforms — meant to reduce the number of people killed by police — are in danger of foundering.

Another man was shot and killed by a SFPD Death Squad late Thursday morning in the Mission.

Source: The San Francisco Examiner

San Francisco continues to bungle Sanctuary City law

San Francisco Sheriff Vicki Hennessy said Thursday that city jail officials should be allowed to turn over some serious criminal offenders to federal immigration agents — a proposal she put forth at a public hearing during which Supervisor John Avalos introduced legislation seeking to make sure there is almost no such cooperation.

Avalos’ measure, which was forwarded by the supervisors’ public safety committee to the full board, would further tighten the city’s sanctuary-city laws, which are cherished by advocates for immigrants but have drawn controversy nationally.

The measure would prohibit the jail from telling immigration agents who want to deport a person when he or she will be released from local custody, except in very limited circumstances.

But Hennessy set up the parameters of a coming debate, saying, “A blanket policy of no notification is not consistent with my responsibility to provide public safety.”

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Jury convicts #PoliceState @LASDHQ thug #PaulTanaka

A federal jury on Wednesday convicted former Los Angeles County Undersheriff Paul Tanaka of deliberately impeding an FBI investigation, capping a jail abuse and obstruction scandal that reached to the top echelons of the Sheriff’s Department.

Jurors spent less than two hours deliberating.

Tanaka, who also serves as mayor of Gardena, faces as long as 15 years in federal prison.

U.S. Atty. Eileen Decker said the jury had sent a clear message that corruption within law enforcement would not be tolerated, “particularly when it comes from the very top of those organizations.”

“In addition, they’ve sent a message that those who are being housed in our jails are entitled to civil rights and it is our job to protect that right,” Decker said.

Source: LA Times

It’s about time! @MarkLeno bill would open access to police misconduct records

Investigations into police shootings and other serious uses of force by law enforcement in California would be made public under new legislation.

Senate Bill 1286, announced Friday by state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, would also open access to findings of officer misconduct or job-related dishonesty. Law enforcement personnel records are strictly protected in California.

“The public has a right to know when officers apply deadly force and when serious cases of misconduct have been confirmed,” Leno said in a statement. “Failing to disclose such important information can fuel mistrust within our communities and threaten public safety.”

Source: California bill would open access to police misconduct records – The Sacramento Bee

The @SFPD becomes The City’s embarrassment at #SB50

Anti-police protesters seeking to disrupt a Super Bowl party and banquet inside City Hall on Thursday night never got past a phalynx of police who outnumbered them by a considerable margin.

The protesters, about 40 members of the Justice for Mario Woods Coalition, stood for an hour or so beside a yellow carpet on the Polk Street steps of the building and demanded an impartial investigation into the December 2 shooting death of Woods by five police officers.

“To put a Band Aid over a gunshot wound ain’t gonna work,” said protester Vance Meredith, 49, of San Francisco.

Inside City Hall, city dignitaries were dining with NFL officials and it was not clear if any were aware of the protest outside the ornate front door.

Source: SF cop shooting protest outside NFL dinner – San Francisco Chronicle

DOJ investigation of @SFPD will be a joke unless #Racist #KillerCops go to prision

The announcement of the U.S. Justice Department’s “comprehensive review” of the San Francisco Police Department’s training and practices is both timely and essential.

The death squad assassination of 26-year-old Mario Woods by five officers — documented in a bystander video that went viral — is just one of the recent issues that has shaken public confidence in the department’s culture and professionalism.

The bigoted department also has been rocked by a scandal involving the exchange of racist and homophobic messages by police officers in 2012.

To nobody’s surprise in San Francisco, those racist officers were allowed to keep their jobs and avoid discipline.

The Chronicle review of the department’s own data showed significant racial disparities in the rate of police arrests in homicide cases. An arrest is nearly twice as likely if the victim is white or of Asian descent instead of African American or Latino.

It seemed that an outside review by an unimpeachably independent and credible source was desperately needed to provide clarity and context to the situation. Now we have it.

Source: S.F. should welcome feds’ review of police – San Francisco Chronicle

She called the #OaklandPD for help, a #DeathSquad arrived and killed her brother

It was a shameful and callous death — carried out by the very authorities Biocini called for help when she heard noises coming from her brother’s bedroom that made her think an intruder was trying to get into her house.

“At the same time I was calling the police for help, I was calling the guys who were going to kill my brother in the street,” she said.

She is racked by guilt, and there are family members who blame her for her brother’s death, she said.

Source: Can there be lesson for police in senseless death? – San Francisco Chronicle

New #PoliceState policy: If you’re driving a car, #KillerCops consider you armed and dangerous

Now cops “fear for their lives” if you’re merely driving down the street.

Janet Wilson didn’t have a gun in her possession when she was fatally shot Wednesday by police in Dearborn, Mich., after a car chase.

But that doesn’t mean Wilson was unarmed, Michigan State Police First Lt. Michael Shaw told the Detroit Free Press.

“Armed or unarmed, what does that mean exactly?” Shaw said. “I think everyone wants it to be clear-cut, but more police officers are killed during the year with a vehicle than guns. … So was she armed? Absolutely.”

Wilson, Shaw said, was “armed with a three-ton vehicle” when she was brutally gunned down in Dearborn.

The incident in Michigan is hardly the first time law enforcement officials have argued that a vehicle can be considered a weapon.

Last year, for example, police in Colorado were cleared for their role in the fatal shooting of a teenage girl; officers said they opened fire on a car driven by 17-year-old Jessica Hernandez.

Source: Police: Woman killed by cops was ‘armed with a three-ton vehicle’ – The Washington Post

Gascón says @MayorEdLee, @SFPDChiefSuhr stonewalling investigion into @SFPD #DeathSquads

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Police Chief Greg Suhr refuse to cooperate with the district attorney’s efforts to investigate police misconduct and departmental culture — even as they claim to be committed to transparency and accountability in the wake of the fatal shooting of Mario Woods.

After the mayor declined to fund the district attorney’s police misconduct task force, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón launched a blue ribbon panel to look into the culture and practices of the Police Department. However, he said in the letter that the panel was having difficulty getting Suhr and other officers within the department to cooperate with the review.

The department and the police union have “engaged in a dizzying array of stonewalling tactics.” Gascón said.

“This is not the type of transparency and collaboration we could expect from a department and a chief eager to improve,” Gascón said.

Source: SF’s DA says Ed Lee, Greg Suhr uncooperative in police misconduct probe – San Francisco Chronicle

#Racist #killercop indicted

A grand jury has indicted a white police officer caught on video using a stun gun on a black city council member in Prairie View, the same southeast Texas town that drew national attention over the death of Sandra Bland in July.

Bland, who was black, was found hanging in her cell at the Waller County Jail three days after being pulled over and arrested by a state trooper.

Her death became a high-profile exhibit in a growing national debate about racial profiling and use of force by police. The only charges brought by a grand jury were against the state trooper for misdemeanor perjury related to his testimony.

The stun-gunning of Jonathan Miller, a 26-year-old city council member, in October returned attention to Prairie View, a largely black college town about 55 miles west of Houston.

Source: Texas officer indicted in stun gun incident – LA Times

The feckless @SFPD’s “#MarioWoods was Superman” defense.

The first beanbag round, shot from a 12-gauge weapon, “had no effect,” August’s partner wrote.

Right, no effect.

Police then hit Woods with two more rounds, including one that struck his leg, causing the limp that Woods displayed in the videos of the police confrontation. Still, Woods wouldn’t drop the knife.

Amazing the powers the mentally ill have, isn’t it.

When a fourth beanbag was fired using a more powerful 40mm gun, the officer said, “The subject appeared to be stunned and crouched to one knee but still refused to drop his knife. … (He) quickly regained his balance and stood back up.”

At that point, another officer tried to subdue Woods using pepper spray. He didn’t appear to react, the police accounts say.

The SFPD want’s us to believe that Mario Woods was Superman. We’re not buying it…and neither should you.

Source: Mario Woods’ last moments: ‘You better squeeze that … and kill me’ – San Francisco Chronicle

#MarioWoods family lawyers call for independent federal investigation

While protesters shouted down Mayor Ed Lee Monday at a celebration commemorating the birth of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., lawyers for the family of Mario Woods made renewed calls for an independent investigation into Woods’ killing.

The attorneys also asked for a federal review of the San Francisco Police Department’s culture of biased policing.

“We believe the mayor has made a mistake,” said John Burris about the mayor’s call for the police chief to review the department’s use of force policies.

“It’s very much like the fox protecting the hen house.”While there are three parallel investigations into the Dec. 2 killing of Woods at the hands of police, Burris said Monday that the track record of Police Chief Greg Suhr gives him no confidence that any deep look at the department will take place.

That assessment will be worth little, said Burris, unless an outside agency heads the effort.

Source: Mario Woods family lawyers call for independent federal investigation into the December police killing – The San Francisco Examiner

Ed Lee sides with Suhr, killer cops, Mario Woods’ mom calls off meeting

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee says he has been working to reduce tensions in the African American community over the fatal police shooting of Mario Woods — including taking up an offer from Bayview leaders to meet with Woods’ mother.

The sit-down was to have happened Friday, but when word of it leaked out, Gwen Woods backed away.

It doesn’t take much to figure out why.

“I still have great confidence in Chief Suhr, and I’m sticking with him,” Lee said. “I believe that he has the trust of the police officers. I believe that he has the trust of many people in the community and me.”

Source: Mario Woods’ mother calls off meeting with mayor – San Francisco Chronicle

@Chicago_Police, top city pols, tried to spike Laquan McDonald murder facts

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has said he didn’t understand the gravity of Laquan McDonald’s shooting death at the hands of a Chicago police officer until just before the city settled with the teen’s family last spring, and that he wasn’t aware other officers may have falsified reports about the shooting until just after the video was released to the public.

But interviews, official city calendars and emails show in both cases the mayor’s closest aides and City Hall attorneys knew much earlier than that.

Source: Top Emanuel aides aware of key McDonald details months before mayor says he knew – Chicago Tribune

San Francisco leaders need to retake control of the brutal @SFPD

After initially responding to the San Francisco Police Department’s various crises with his signature caution, Mayor Ed Lee has stepped in forcefully, setting a Feb. 15 deadline for “any reforms that require new laws or expenditures.”

He also pledged to institute reforms, including de-escalation training, implicit bias training and cultural sensitivity training.

The mayor has also directed the Police Department to enroll in a federal police data initiative, in the hopes of increasing internal accountability and public transparency.

“We all agree that we must reduce the number of unnecessary officer-involved shootings in San Francisco,” Lee wrote.The mayor is right to take on a more public role in response to departmental turmoil.

Source: City leaders need to stay on top of policing reforms – San Francisco Chronicle

Police need to rely more on science, less on their ‘gut’

Tamir Rice, Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Laquan McDonald. To the list of deceased who represent dysfunction and distrust in American law enforcement, we add Quintonio LeGrier and Bettie Jones, Chicago residents shot by police on Dec. 26 during a domestic disturbance call.

Why did it happen? With 1,136 people killed by police in 2015, it’s a question often asked but seldom answered to our satisfaction.

Source: Police need to rely more on science, less on their ‘gut’ – The Sacramento Bee