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When Roger West first launched the progressive political blog "News From The Other Side" in May 2010, he could hardly have predicted the impact that his venture would have on the media and political debate. As the New Media emerged as a counterbalance to established media sources, Roger wrote his copious blogs about national politics, the tea party movement, mid-term elections, and the failings of the radical right to the vanguard of the New Media movement. Roger West's efforts as a leading blogger have tremendous reach. NFTOS has led the effort to bring accountability to mainstream media sources such as FOX NEWS, Breitbart's "Big Journalism. Roger's breadth of experience, engaging style, and cultivation of loyal readership - over 92 million visitors - give him unique insight into the past, present, and future of the New Media and political rhetoric that exists in our society today. What we are against: Radical Right Wing Agendas Incompetent Establishment Donald J. Trump Corporate Malfeasence We are for: Global and Econmoic Security Social and Economic Justice Media Accountability THE RESISTANCE

Thursday, September 3, 2015

“BLUE KOOL-AID”

Prior to yesterdays trial start of six officers accused in the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, outspoken former Baltimore officer and anti-police brutality activist Michael A. Wood, Jr. discussed the need for fundamental changes in American policing.

The officers are facing a slew of charges, including second degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Gray, 25, who died with massive injuries he sustained in a police van in April. His death led to widespread protests and civil unrest which was quelled when the indictments were announced.

Wood, who retired with a medical injury, has since spoken out about his time as an 11-year Baltimore PD officer and his observations about what’s broken in the criminal justice system.

In an interview with the Real News Network, Wood said the very basis of police work is wrong. Police are measured by the number of arrests they make, not by their success in deescalating and resolving situations peacefully.
“So, you have the metric in policing, which is arrest,” he said. “So every officer is judged upon their arrests. So you don’t get credit for deescalating a situation. Say it takes an hour to deescalate a situation but you could have moved on in 5 minutes by making an arrest, well then the easy route is that you’re going to get credit for the arrest… so you may as well do it.”



Wood said there are no “official” arrest quotas, but officers that don’t make enough arrests are seen as not working hard enough, he said. As a supervisor, Wood expected his officers to make about 10 arrests a month.
“Certainly that’s part of the problem, I was pushing them for arrests,” he said. About 90 percent of what he did as an officer was “go chase drug arrests.”
He was “brainwashed” by the “blue Kool-Aid,” but began to break out of the mindset doing surveillance. That’s when the “us versus them” mentality broke down, because Wood said he was watching the people he was targeting having normal, human lives.
“We planted a tree of criminal justice in this evil soil, so everything we get out of it is going to be bad as well,” he said. “It’s the proverbial fruit of a poisonous tree, because we’re starting from a bad foundation.”




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