UNTITED STATES OF WHAT THE FUCK

What police problem you ask? So bad is the Cleveland police department, that once again, a second time in ten years, Cleveland's entire police department is directed to be under an entire reform to be conducted by the Department of Justice.

In a grotesque 59-page report released by the United States Department of Justice on Thursday reveals widespread, excessive use of force by police officers in Cleveland. Cleveland is the city where cops recently killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice while he was carrying a toy gun on a playground, and just before that, Tanesha Anderson died in police hands when cops were supposed to be transporting her for mental health treatment.

DOJ STEPS IS ON CLEVELAND PD Video Courtesy of MSNBC




The overarching conclusion of the report is that Cleveland police “too often use unnecessary and unreasonable force in violation of the Constitution,” and that “supervisors tolerate this behavior and, in some cases, endorse it.” The report points to a “pattern or practice of using unreasonable force in violation of the Fourth Amendment,” including the “unnecessary and excessive use of deadly force,” similar use of non-deadly force, and “excessive force against persons who are mentally ill or in crisis.”


CLEVELAND OFFICER FOUND TO BE INCAPABLE OF POLICING, GETS TO POLICE AND KILL. Video Courtesy of MSNBC

A press release accompanying the report announces that “the Justice Department and the city of Cleveland have signed a statement of principles committing them to develop a court enforceable consent decree that will include a requirement for an independent monitor who will oversee and ensure necessary reforms.” A consent decree is an agreement negotiated between DOJ and the city that can be overseen and potentially enforced by a federal court once it is finalized.

These above scathing reports show a police department so corrupt, that its unfathomable that in circa 2014, that this type of shit can be ongoing. What police problem?

If this blog is not proof positive that police forces have issues, if after reading this blog and viewing the horrible policing videos in Cleveland - that you say this is OK, that these actions are indeed acceptable in our towns and cities, then you are dumber than I give credit for.

In no way shape or form is the acceptable, we don't even treat our enemy combatants this horrible.

Pro-tip to all officers of law, maybe just maybe, let me suggest to you, the practice of letting unarmed citizens live.

I sit ashamed shaking my head.

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” ~ Ben Franklin

"I CAN'T BREATHE"!


NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief
Roger West

GEORGE ZIMMERMAN "GOT AWAY WITH MURDER"

JUROR B29 "MADDY" SAYS ZIMMERMAN "WALKED AWAY WITH MURDER"

In an exclusive interview airing Thursday night and Friday morning on ABC, the only minority juror on the six-person panel that acquitted George Zimmerman expresses remorse that Zimmerman was found innocent on all charges, saying he “got away with murder.” But, she adds, she determined after deliberation that Florida law dictated that result. In excerpts released in advance by ABC, Juror B29, who identifies herself only as “Maddy,”

Video courtesy of ABC




The only explanation of “self-defense” in the 27-page instructions given to the jury was in the section on the “Justifiable Use Of Deadly Force,” which describes Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, and reads:

If George Zimmerman was not engaged in an unlawful activity and was attacked in anyplace where he had a right to be, he had no duty to retreat and had the right to stand his ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he reasonably believed that it was necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.

Juror B29 is the second to speak out since Zimmerman’s acquittal. Last week, another juror who spoke anonymously to CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 referred specifically to the Stand Your Ground law, saying the provision was a major factor in their deliberations. She also expressed more sympathy than Maddy toward Zimmerman, however, saying she felt sorry for him, and that Trayvon Martin was partly responsible for his own death. Four other jurors later issued a statement distancing themselves from these comments.

Maddy's words:

“George Zimmerman got away with murder, but you can’t get away from God. And at the end of the day, he’s going to have a lot of questions and answers he has to deal with,” Maddy said. “[But] the law couldn't prove it.” 

When the jury of six women—five of them mothers—began deliberations, Maddy said she favored convicting Zimmerman of second degree murder, which could have put him in prison for the rest of his life. The jury was also allowed to consider manslaughter, a lesser charge. 

“I was the juror that was going to give them the hung jury. I fought to the end,” she said.
However, on the second day of deliberations, after spending nine hours discussing the evidence, Maddy said she realized there wasn't enough proof to convict Zimmerman of murder or manslaughter under Florida law. 

Zimmerman concedes he shot and killed Martin in Sanford on Feb. 26, 2012, but maintains he fired in self-defense. 

“That’s where I felt confused, where if a person kills someone, then you get charged for it,” Maddy said. “But as the law was read to me, if you have no proof that he killed him intentionally, you can’t say he’s guilty.”

As a mother, Maddy said she has had trouble adjusting to life after the verdict, and has wrestled with whether she made the right decision. 

“I felt like I let a lot of people down, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Did I go the right way? Did I go the wrong way?’” she said. 

“As much as we were trying to find this man guilty…they give you a booklet that basically tells you the truth, and the truth is that there was nothing that we could do about it,” she said. “I feel the verdict was already told.”

I am not sure what's more disturbing, the fact that Zimmerman walked, or to know that a juror failed to stand her ground with her guilty verdict. Certainly a lesson learned would be to have more than six jurors and certainly the jury should be as diverse are the country itself.

Clearly most Americans with an IQ above 3 agree that Florida's Stand Your Ground law is severely flawed. This miscarriage of justice is what's wrong with this "great system". I have said over and over in my blogs, "I'd never want to leave my fate in the hands of 6 people too stupid to get out of jury duty".

I have come to the conclusion that reason has no antithesis like a jury in session!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

The Facts On Blacks And The Criminal Justice System

George Zimmerman killed one boy, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Although a Florida jury found Zimmerman not guilty, his attitude — that a young black male is an object suspicion and contempt — not only cost Martin his life but has infected the entire United States criminal justice system.

Law Professor Michelle Alexander makes the point powerfully:

It is the Zimmerman mindset that must be found guilty – far more than the man himself. It is a mindset that views black men and boys as nothing but a threat, good for nothing, up to no good no matter who they are or what they are doing. It is the Zimmerman mindset that has birthed a penal system unprecedented in world history, and relegated millions to a permanent under caste.

The statistics back up Alexander’s point. Minorities, especially the six million young black men in America, get much worse outcomes from the criminal justice system for the same conduct:

A black male born in 2001 has a 32% chance of spending some portion of his life in prison. A white male born the same year has just a 6% chance. [Sentencing Project] 

 In major American cities, as many as 80% of young African-American men have criminal records. [Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow] 

African-Americans who use drugs are more than four times as likely to be incarcerated than whites who use drugs. African Americans constitute 14% of the population and 14% of monthly drug users. But African-Americans represent 34% of those arrested for a drug offense and 53% of those sentenced to prison for a drug offense. [American Bar Association] 

 In seven states, African Americans constitute 80% or more of all drug offenders sent to prison. [Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow] 

 Black students are three and a half times as likely to be suspended or expelled than their white peers. One in five black boys receive an out-of-school suspension. Education Secretary Arne Duncan who commissioned the study, said “The undeniable truth is that the everyday education experience for too many students of color violates the principle of equity at the heart of the American promise.” [New York Times] 

Black youth who are referred to juvenile court are much more likely to be detained, referred to adult court or end up in adult prison than their white counterparts. Blacks represented 28% of juvenile arrests, 30% of referrals to juvenile court, 37% of the detained population, 35% of youth judicially waived to criminal court and 58% of youth admitted to state adult prison. [National Council on Crime And Delinquency] 

The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. [Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow]

In 2004, the American Bar Association created a commission which produced recommendation to address “racial and ethnic bias in the criminal justice system.” Thus far, their recommendations have been largely ignored in much of the country.


RELATED: Is There Racial Bias in “Stand Your Ground” Laws?

With Racial Roles Reversed, Three Self-Defense Cases That Went The Other Way


When the facts and data stack up likes this, it no wonder that the George Zimmerman's of the world walk Scott free of murder. How is it circa 2013, that we still oppress human beings - a country who professes itself to the world that civil rights are at the forefront of its democracy - Tell this to the 6 million Trayvon Martin's.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West