task0778
Diamond Member
Maybe it’s finally time to consider the role that police unions play in perpetuating police brutality. NYC Mayor De Blasio has frequently tangled with his city’s powerful unions, but he’s never challenged their vast political power. And make no mistake, that power is often used to cover up and deflect charges of police misconduct. “The unions, at least in New York City, outright just protect, protect, protect the cops,” retired NYPD commander Corey Pegues wrote in his memoir, Once a Cop. “It’s a blanket system of covering up police officers.”
Same deal in Los Angeles. In 2012, Jackie Lacey made history. Not only did she become the first woman to serve as Los Angeles district attorney, she was also the first black person in the job. Lacey was born and raised in Crenshaw, and her victory appeared to represent a significant change for an office routinely criticized by community leaders for its slothful response to police brutality and corruption.
Since then there have been more than 500 officers involved in fatal shootings, and according to the Los Angeles Times, Lacey's office has only brought charges against less than 1% of them.
Fair or not, perhaps this reality helps explain why protesters in Southern California felt the need to shut down a major highway and flood the streets of downtown Los Angeles Friday night in solidarity with Minneapolis.
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There is an uncomfortable, symbiotic relationship between the nation's police unions and the district and county attorneys who are elected to hold the union's membership accountable. In the new light of the high-profile death of Floyd — and so many unarmed minority women and men at the hands of police officers — records like Lacey's 500-to-1 certainly raises an eyebrow.
In her case, we can juxtapose it against the millions of dollars sent to her campaign by law enforcement unions, and the $1 million dollars the LAPD union contributed to a PAC dedicated to defeating her most recent opponent (George Gascón, the one who has promised to toughen the standards for "necessary" use of force by police). You begin to wonder if there's a conflict of interest. After all, if grassroots leaders worry that powerful politicians with close ties to gun and oil lobbies are somewhat compromised, is it not fair to wonder the same here? [Not to mention teacher unions, but that's for another day.]
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To be clear, Lacey did not create this mess. Prosecutors must work closely with law enforcement in order to do their jobs effectively. It gets sticky when the job requires those prosecutors to investigate police officers, and downright seedy when prosecutors accept money from police unions, something that has occurred in cities and counties across the country for some time. As The Guardian notes: "Among the 95% of district attorneys who are elected, many ... receive valuable donations and public endorsements from police unions for their campaigns."
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Former presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar was the Hennepin County(MN) attorney, the chief prosecutor in Minneapolis, from 1999 to 2007. She has come under fire from some for not bringing charges against Derek Chauvin, one of six officers involved in a 2006 shooting of a man who stabbed multiple people.
Now Klobuchar, whose name has surfaced as a potential running mate for presumptive Democrat nominee Joe Biden, has called the suggestion that she had a role in declining to bring charges against Chauvin in 2006 as a "lie," according to the New York Times. (Chauvin had also accumulated several complaints before Floyd's death.)
However, what she can't deny is her record. In the more than two dozen cases in which people were killed by police, she didn't bring charges against any of them. She did, however, go hard after vandals and minors, which disproportionately affected minorities. And while the source of contributions made to her re-election campaign can no longer be found, she had a cozy relationship with — and public backing of — the police unions that endorsed her, according to a 2019 report from American Public Media and Minnesota Public Radio.
In and of itself, this does not indicate any wrongdoing. But given that Minneapolis paid $4.8 million in legal settlements related to 122 police misconduct incidents, and law enforcement was involved in 29 deaths during her tenure, according to the APM/MPR report, why must we be expected to believe it means nothing?
www.cnn.com
So - is all this just a coincidence? I doubt anything was illegal, but the appearance of a conflict of interest seems obvious. Ordinary people out there want justice, for themselves but also for the bad cops, and so far it looks like they are mostly 0 for 2.
At this point I have to ask: why in God's name do black voters keep voting into office the same people who are taking money from the police unions and allowing bad cops to continue to serve after 17 violations? Mostly all Democrats, in all the major cities where this is a problem. It's hard to understand, bitching and protesting hasn't gotten you very far since 1968, has it? So why the fuck don't you vote the incumbents out?
Same deal in Los Angeles. In 2012, Jackie Lacey made history. Not only did she become the first woman to serve as Los Angeles district attorney, she was also the first black person in the job. Lacey was born and raised in Crenshaw, and her victory appeared to represent a significant change for an office routinely criticized by community leaders for its slothful response to police brutality and corruption.
Since then there have been more than 500 officers involved in fatal shootings, and according to the Los Angeles Times, Lacey's office has only brought charges against less than 1% of them.
Fair or not, perhaps this reality helps explain why protesters in Southern California felt the need to shut down a major highway and flood the streets of downtown Los Angeles Friday night in solidarity with Minneapolis.
.
.
There is an uncomfortable, symbiotic relationship between the nation's police unions and the district and county attorneys who are elected to hold the union's membership accountable. In the new light of the high-profile death of Floyd — and so many unarmed minority women and men at the hands of police officers — records like Lacey's 500-to-1 certainly raises an eyebrow.
In her case, we can juxtapose it against the millions of dollars sent to her campaign by law enforcement unions, and the $1 million dollars the LAPD union contributed to a PAC dedicated to defeating her most recent opponent (George Gascón, the one who has promised to toughen the standards for "necessary" use of force by police). You begin to wonder if there's a conflict of interest. After all, if grassroots leaders worry that powerful politicians with close ties to gun and oil lobbies are somewhat compromised, is it not fair to wonder the same here? [Not to mention teacher unions, but that's for another day.]
.
.
To be clear, Lacey did not create this mess. Prosecutors must work closely with law enforcement in order to do their jobs effectively. It gets sticky when the job requires those prosecutors to investigate police officers, and downright seedy when prosecutors accept money from police unions, something that has occurred in cities and counties across the country for some time. As The Guardian notes: "Among the 95% of district attorneys who are elected, many ... receive valuable donations and public endorsements from police unions for their campaigns."
.
.
Former presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar was the Hennepin County(MN) attorney, the chief prosecutor in Minneapolis, from 1999 to 2007. She has come under fire from some for not bringing charges against Derek Chauvin, one of six officers involved in a 2006 shooting of a man who stabbed multiple people.
Now Klobuchar, whose name has surfaced as a potential running mate for presumptive Democrat nominee Joe Biden, has called the suggestion that she had a role in declining to bring charges against Chauvin in 2006 as a "lie," according to the New York Times. (Chauvin had also accumulated several complaints before Floyd's death.)
However, what she can't deny is her record. In the more than two dozen cases in which people were killed by police, she didn't bring charges against any of them. She did, however, go hard after vandals and minors, which disproportionately affected minorities. And while the source of contributions made to her re-election campaign can no longer be found, she had a cozy relationship with — and public backing of — the police unions that endorsed her, according to a 2019 report from American Public Media and Minnesota Public Radio.
In and of itself, this does not indicate any wrongdoing. But given that Minneapolis paid $4.8 million in legal settlements related to 122 police misconduct incidents, and law enforcement was involved in 29 deaths during her tenure, according to the APM/MPR report, why must we be expected to believe it means nothing?
How can prosecutors taking police union money deliver justice for black victims? | CNN
Eventually the protests over George Floyd's killing will subside, but no one should hope for a return to 'normal.' 'Normal' got us here, and keeps us here, writes LZ Granderson. A first step forward is ending the symbiotic relationship between the nation's police unions and the district and...
www.cnn.com
So - is all this just a coincidence? I doubt anything was illegal, but the appearance of a conflict of interest seems obvious. Ordinary people out there want justice, for themselves but also for the bad cops, and so far it looks like they are mostly 0 for 2.
At this point I have to ask: why in God's name do black voters keep voting into office the same people who are taking money from the police unions and allowing bad cops to continue to serve after 17 violations? Mostly all Democrats, in all the major cities where this is a problem. It's hard to understand, bitching and protesting hasn't gotten you very far since 1968, has it? So why the fuck don't you vote the incumbents out?
