Ohio, which has a very bad record when it comes to violent cops is once again in the spotlight. One Cleveland officer has been indicted for negligent homicide, and two former officers have been indicted for kidnapping and assault (East Cleveland). What’s different in these cases is that all three officers are black men. Because of that, I expect there will be convictions in these cases. This comes after a very long string of white cops being kinda sorta indicted, then allowed to walk. That was certainly what happened in the case of Tamir Rice. So far, there’s been precious little justice to be had in all the cases of white cops viciously beating and murdering non-white people. People come oozing out of the woodwork to defend one white cop after another. It will be interesting to see if that holds true in the case of non-white cops.
In Columbus, Ohio, cops shot an innocent 13 year old to death, and they are busy blaming another black youth for that murder. If the cops who gunned Tyre King down are white, I expect nothing will happen. Okay, back to Cleveland.
In the Cleveland case, officer Alan Buford, who is black, was indicted for misdemeanor negligent homicide in the 2015 death of unarmed-breaking and entering suspect Brandon Jones, 18, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty said in a statement Friday.
“It is not reasonable for a police officer to use deadly force if he or she does not believe a suspect poses a threat of death or serious bodily harm to the police or the public,” McGinty said.
Interesting how using deadly force against a suspect who does not pose a threat of death or serious bodily harm is all manner of reasonable when the cop in question is white.
In the East Cleveland case, two former officers, Denayne R. Davidson-Dixon and Gerald A. Spencer II, were indicted on three counts of kidnapping, two counts of dereliction of duty and one count each of felonious assault, conspiracy, obstructing official business and interfering with civil rights for the July 2016 beating of Jesse R. Nickerson, a prisoner in their custody.
The two officers are black, as is Nickerson.
According to prosecutors the officers arrested Nickerson and after arguing with him drove to a park near the police station, pulled him from the squad car and assaulted him.
Davidson-Dixon and Spencer were fired shortly after the incident.
Oh look, some cops were actually fired! Ah, but they are black. White cops, no matter how vicious, bigoted, and violent they are, seem to manage to hang onto their jobs without much problem. Oh yes, I know two or three are fired now and then, but most aren’t. They are allowed to keep their job, so they can murder again. So as non-white people continue to die at the hands of cops, it’s been confirmed that the only way there might be justice is if the bad cops happened to be people of colour too.
Via Raw Story.
I hope I don’t get blocked for this, but I think you’re wrong. Of the officers prosecuted for use of deadly force since 2005 to early 2015, 43/54 were white and 9/54 were black. Of those convicted 10/11 were white (I can’t find information on the race of the last convicted officer).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings/
I think what’s more striking is not the race of the police officers who are convicted, but rather the incredibly tiny sample size. Only 11 officers were convicted over an entire decade. The problem seems to be related more to the entire profession, rather than to a discrepancy among black and white officers.
No, of course you won’t be blocked. Disagreement is fine, and correction is always welcomed here. You do make a good point, Jessie, and I thank you for being more clear than I was. I agree that many white officers are indicted, but the majority of those indictments are meaningless, because there are no convictions.
In the meantime, cops continue to murder people of colour in appallingly high numbers, and the message which is sent is pretty much always the same, they are allowed to get away with it.
Meeeeanwhile, down in sunny Gainesville, Florida: Grand jury: Fatal police shooting of Gainesville teen justified.
And that speaks to societal attitudes about police officers. Many people are likely to side with an officer who claims self defense, and this is reflected in juries convicting officers at a significantly lower rate than the general populace. Unfortunately, short of denying indicted officers the right to trial by jury, I don’t think there’s much you could do to change this. The attitudes and biases of members of a jury will always be a weakness in our justice system.
That’s why I think body cameras are so important. They’ll make it easier to convict guilty officers, and they’ll also protect innocent officers.
Jessie Foster:
Oh, I agree. Already though, cops have shown themselves to be untrustworthy with body cams. They have been “mysteriously switched off” in more than one murder by cops, and a whole lot of cops shops are violently against body cams. I think they should be worn by all cops, and I think they should have no ability to shut them off.
White cops, no matter how vicious, bigoted, and violent they are, seem to manage to hang onto their jobs without much problem. Oh yes, I know two or three are fired now and then, but most aren’t.
And, as we already have discussed, there’s a whole network where a cop getting fired can expect to be picked up by another force, or even “fired” and re-hired by the same force a few months or a year later. It kind of reminds me of the Roman Catholic Church: “oh, father McShooty? He’s at the diocese in Africa where nobody gives a shit what he does.”
A body cam being “mysteriously switched off” should count as circumstantial evidence of the cop acting “in mens rea”, at least if any corroborating evidence is there.
Then there’s this:
https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-future/police-accidentally-record-themselves-conspiring-fabricate-criminal-charges-against
The good news: Police don’t tend to come from the smart end of the gene pool.