I finally finished and here is my question: What does "misconduct in office" mean? It's one of the charges.
How the DOJ defines it:
"Police Misconduct Provision"
This law makes it unlawful for State or local law enforcement officers to engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives persons of rights protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States. (42 U.S.C. ยง 14141). The types of conduct covered by this law can include, among other things, excessive force, discriminatory harassment, false arrests, coercive sexual conduct, and unlawful stops, searches or arrests. In order to be covered by this law, the misconduct must constitute a "pattern or practice" -- it may not simply be an isolated incident. The DOJ must be able to show in court that the agency has an unlawful policy or that the incidents constituted a pattern of unlawful conduct.
Huh. I figured it was simply not following policy (ie not buckling him in)
Post by cookiemdough on May 2, 2015 6:37:58 GMT -5
Wait. It is still a race issue when you consider the demographic of the communities this happens in most frequently. The stereotypes of the residents, largely because of their skin color, frequently makes their concerns unheard. This happens because society at large doesn't care about these people. Not just poor people, but poor BLACK people. Stuff is still happening like ignoring the 24 hour hold by the governor and the heavy fines being placed on those involved with the protests. So yes this is absolutely about race even if it wasn't the cops mindset to say I am going to kill a black man today. Police overreach is absolutely a universal problem but they can go unchecked in THESE communities. Unless of course something has changed in the last week and they have been filling jails across the country with people from poor white trailer parks cooking meth.
Suggesting this isn't a race problem because some of the cops is black is like saying racism is dead cause we have a black president. No people. Just no.
Maybe now the media will focus on cop brutality instead of just the race issue. Maybe we can actually make some head way on fixing that issue.
Erm. No.
the officer who pursued him for running away from eye contact (ie pursued him for nothing) was white. The officers who pursued and detained him, used a leg lock on him that seemingly injured him enough to prevent him from walking properly, failed to establish probable cause, confiscated a legal knife, arrested him unlawfully, and seemingly falsified their report by stating the knife was a switch were the 3 Caucasian officers. This terrible event started with the same systemic problems / interactions we have been talking about since before Ferguson.
I don't think anyone here is saying race is not a factor. Just that it is more complicated than that. If anything it just illustrates that cops of all colors can fall into the same pattern of brutality and that it is a systemic issue.
I read somewhere the black Baltimore residents feel the black cops are tougher verbally and physically to them than the white.
I remember an article being posted here several months ago to this effect. It was something along the lines that black cops feel they have to be extra hard on other blacks because it gives them more legitimacy with their white colleagues. To prove they aren't biaised or something. The details are fuzzy.
It will make it a little bit harder for wingnuts to complain that black people don't care about black on black crime.
I'm sure they will distort the narrative in their own hateful way though.
Yep. if it isn't the black officers, it'll be why did he run?, he shouldn't have resisted, he should've remained calm, or my favorite passive agressive-you can't form an opinion because we don't have all the facts
the officer who pursued him for running away from eye contact (ie pursued him for nothing) was white. The officers who pursued and detained him, used a leg lock on him that seemingly injured him enough to prevent him from walking properly, failed to establish probable cause, confiscated a legal knife, arrested him unlawfully, and seemingly falsified their report by stating the knife was a switch were the 3 Caucasian officers. This terrible event started with the same systemic problems / interactions we have been talking about since before Ferguson.
I probably am not explaining myself well because I agree with you. The systemic problems are exactly what I hope will be addressed which somehow gets lost in the "black people need to stop complaining about racism" nonsense that is dominating the storyline right now.
Not so much correcting you as giving a comment for everyone to keep handy when we hear that black officers involved = no race issue.