We deserve better training for our police officers.

[Bill Cummings]

https://youtu.be/FOmh-sNHnV8

[Bill Cummings]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtOyW-R6ZwY

[Bill Cummings]

CHARGES BEING FILED ON LAPD OFFICER
[youtube]https://youtu.be/Bmq-4Q8bH64[/youtube]

[Bill Cummings]

In today’s paper is an article that the Supreme Court
has refused to hear a case reviewing qualified immunity
because each case is different and established law has
not been met.
YET THEY ALLOW QUALIFIED IMMUNITY RATHER THAN
HEAR EACH INDIVIDUAL CASE.
Questions Surround Palo Alto Police Officers'
Use of Force Captured - -
https://youtu.be/YE7iB9etSyo

[Frank Colver]

As a white person I've had a couple of incidents where I've felt that the cop was on the edge. If I had been black there would have been greater reason for concern and the situation might have gone bad. That said, I have always been gracious to any policeman that has pulled me over or questioned me for any reason, but I also understand when someone gets upset when their civil rights are being shoved aside.

I once participated in an Earth First! lock-on of big earth moving equipment, as a public witness to keep the police honest. For me it was an interesting study in the great variation in the attitude the police in attendance.

Watching the video of Brooks, who ended up shot in the back and killed a few days ago, I can understand why he started to struggle when they started to put cuffs on him. He knew that once those cuffs were on, then the cops could do anything they wanted to him and he could not defend himself. They could beat the crap out of him, kick and break his ribs, or choke him to death as they did to the handcuffed George Floyd. If I was a black young man and I was being handcuffed for being asleep in a car drive-through (I've almost done that) I would assume that things were about to get very bad for me. I would struggle also. Unfortunately he got the judge, the jury, and death sentence for his struggle.

Cops need to have strict rules on the use of force (all force not just deadly) and they need stiff penalties for shutting off their body or dash video cameras. That action should cost them in some manner, possibly loss of pay. They also need to be told in no uncertain terms to respect someone who is demanding that their civil rights be respected.

I have a lawyer friend who, along with many other lawyers, says to never give permission for your car to be searched. I've never had to do that but I fear a confrontation if I ever do. Or the cop will lie and say i gave permission when i didn't. The judge will tend to believe the cop. Thank God I'm not black if I ever need to refuse a search.

My sympathies are with the people of color in their fear of the police. And the statement "Black Lives Matter" does not mean that white or other lives don't matter it simply means that their lives should be respected also. Saying "All Lives Matter" takes the focus off of the unique problem between black people and the police. It's a dilution of concern to spread their unique problem evenly across all people and then move on without anything changing. Kudos to all of the people non-violently using their 1st amendment rights, and to hell with those trying to turn protests violent and take the people's minds away from the reason (police brutality, especially toward blacks) for the protests. Creating violence is a clever tactic, it's a gift to the police, and we all need to not fall for its ability to de-focus the problem.

[Bill Cummings]

My biggest fear is that the governments answer to the protests will be to
make executive decisions on choke holds or create laws against choke
holds. This is government doing what they do best and that is to look
like they are fixing the problem when they are maintaining their monopoly
on comply or die violence. The president met with the families to pretend
like he has fixed the problem when he hasn’t. The Supreme Court Monday
has passed on hearing cases during the next term in October that would
have them reviewing Qualified Immunity. This is where the protest should
go. There is no equal justice under the law when tyrants have blanket
immunity. Police are getting away with far more criminal wrong doing
than choke hold murder. If we as people are appeased with choke hold
laws then all that have died to bring this uproar to a head died in vain.
1) Strip the police of immunity.
2) Make each officer pay their own malpractice insurance.
3) No bodycam = case dismissed.
4) Complaint records and disciplinary records on line.
5) Strip police of their right to lie to the people.

[Frank Colver]

Agreed, Bill!

On the other subject of the "lives matter" issue there was a quote from a black man in Lancaster in the LA Times this morning that says it well:

“I wish some of the people who say ‘all lives matter’ actually believed it,” said Calloway, a 39-year-old Air Force veteran and president of the Democratic Club of the High Desert. “If a cop was found in a tree in Palmdale, there would be 600 cops scouring the neighborhood looking for answers.”

I will ad that those 600 cops would also be roughing up some young black men, picked up at random, while yelling: "Why'd you hang the cop"? Remember "In The Heat of the Night" movie, in the train station - "Alright boy, why'd you kill him"?

Arthur Calloway was speaking of the almost instant decision that, Fuller, a young black man found hanging from a tree in Palmdale, had committed suicide and no further investigation was being conducted, not even any yellow crime scene tape around the tree. I think now there is going to be a Federal investigation of the hanging.

Calloway himself has been pulled over so many times without explanation, in Lancaster, that he avoids certain streets now.

No honest, upstanding, person should have to live that way out of fear of the police.

Frank

[Bob Kuczewski]

On the other subject of the "lives matter" issue there was a quote from a black man in Lancaster in the LA Times this morning that says it well:

“I wish some of the people who say ‘all lives matter’ actually believed it,” said Calloway ...

Some of them actually do.    It's a bit arrogant for him to imply that he knows otherwise.

[Bill Cummings]

The police called in sick to protest the charging
of the Atlanta cops involved in the deadly shooting.
A complete waste of time since in the final analysis
after the appeals are done they will be granted
QUALIFIED IMMUNITY.
All talk of banning choke holds meant nothing to save
Eric Garner in New York where the choke hold was
already against police policy. Even a law against
using the choke hold would mean nothing if the
conviction is erased due to qualified immunity.
Qualified immunity means:
Policies do not apply.
Rules do not apply.
Statutes do not apply.
Codes do not apply.
Laws do not apply.
One thousand U.S. citizens per year die from
police shootings. Where is the equal justice under
the law when police harm and murder people?
We do need good policing.

[Bill Cummings]

Qualified immunity grants exceptions to
the constitution to the police that swore
to uphold the constitution.
Is it just me that can see how
absolutely absurd that is?
Why Won’t the Supreme Court Hold Police Accountable?
https://youtu.be/RWRUDURusyQ