To the surprise of no one, officer Darren Wilson has been found falsifying reports and acting outside the law before:
Video footage has emerged showing Darren Wilson – the police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri – threatening and arresting a resident who refused to stop filming him with a cellphone.
Wilson is seen standing near his Ferguson police SUV and warning Mike Arman: “If you wanna take a picture of me one more time, I’m gonna lock your ass up.” Arman, who had requested Wilson’s name, replies: “Sir, I’m not taking a picture, I’m recording this incident sir.”
The officer then walks to the porch of Arman’s home and apprehends him, after telling him that he does not have the right to film. The 15-second clip was uploaded to YouTube on Friday but recorded in 2013, according to police documents.
Arman, 30, was charged with failing to comply with Wilson’s orders. He claimed in an interview on Saturday that the charge was dropped after he told his lawyer he had video footage of the incident. Arman, who runs a small housing non-profit, has a criminal record and has previously been charged with resisting arrest.
“I was working on my porch with my toolbelt on and was being cordial,” Arman said of the incident. “But I wanted to safeguard myself by recording what happened.” Filming police officers carrying out their duties is widely considered to be legal and protected by the first amendment of the US constitution.
***Wilson wrote in his report that Arman became upset and said he wanted to record the encounter. Wilson said he told him “a voice recording would be acceptable” but Arman “refused to answer any questions or co-operate as he lifted the phone to begin a video recording of myself” and “stated that I must state my name to him” as Wilson asked for more information on the vehicles.
Arman disputed Wilson’s account of the start of their encounter, saying that he “began recording within moments of Wilson approaching the property” and that Wilson only mentioned a voice recording being acceptable after Arman had been arrested.
Despite being shown at the other end of Arman’s garden path, Wilson wrote in his report that he told Arman “to remove the camera from my face”. He claimed to have asked Arman to place his hands behind his back, which is not visible or audible from the recording. “I was forced to grab his wrists one at a time and secure them into handcuffs,” Wilson wrote.
He’s lucky Wilson didn’t kill him like he did Brown. Notice the nonverbals- hands on his hips, dismissive and disgusted, condescending and arrogant. Yeah, this guy would never slam his car in reverse to teach young black men a lesson for failing to “get the fuck off the road.”
J.D. Rhoades
Arman’s white, I’m betting.
skerry
@J.D. Rhoades: Definitely.
Amir Khalid
And yet Darren Wilson, this public menace in a police uniform, might still escape prosecution and return to the streets of St Louis, Missouri.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Sad sack grand (wizard) jury will cut him loose. And Jay Nixon will be all about law and order, paying homage to another Nixon.
samiam
What better way to spend a Sunday than to watch Cole indulge in his unhealthy obsession with all things Darren Wilson. At least until the next shiny cynical object comes along.
beth
He’s going to get off without even a trial and it’s maddening. I just hope that for the rest of his life whenever Wilson enters a room, everyone in said room lifts their hands and chant “hands up don’t shoot”. Hell I’d contribute to a fund to pay people to follow him around and do it.
greennotGreen
@samiam: I don’t think John’s obsession is so much with Darren Wilson as it is with murder-by-police apparently not being a crime. This is just a bit more evidence that Wilson’s description of his interaction with Mike Brown is suspect.
What I don’t understand is why the murder-by-police of John Crawford has been dropped from the public mind. There we have video footage of the whole thing. Dude is standing in Walmart minding his own business holding a piece of Walmart merchandise that happens to be a BB gun, the police race around the corner and shoot him dead. And the grand jury says…that’s fine.
The police in America should not be issued automatic Get Out of Jail Free cards for murder.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@greennotGreen: The problem is that the people signing off on this don’t feel that THEY are at risk. You will not see change until they feel as uneasy as we do. Not one nanosecond before.
Violet
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
When white people in the suburbs and exurbs feel just as much at risk as the browns and blacks, then things will change. Not a moment before.
Amir Khalid
@greennotGreen:
I don’t think samiam’s obsession is so much with John Cole as it is with attention-seeking.
Thor Heyerdahl
@samiam: What has brought you out to troll this Sunday Derf?
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Violet: Umm, yes?
greennotGreen
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): Doesn’t it come down to the definition of “we”? John Crawford was an American citizen, a human being! Doesn’t that count as “we”?
Cacti
The best part about this is, Ferguson PD spox says they don’t believe it’s Wilson on the video…
Even though Wilson’s name is on the incident report.
MomSense
@Amir Khalid:
That samiam, that samiam. I do not like that samiam.
Tommy
@greennotGreen: I live near Ferguson, so maybe easier to rant on that topic but Crawford. Oh I have not forgotten and I think a worse case. As you said the poor guy was walking around a store with a product the store was trying to sell, in his hands, and shot dead. If that is not a textbook definition of fucked up I don’t know what is.
ruemara
@greennotGreen: He was black. As a black woman, I can confirm that for many, we are not part of the “we”.
Bobby B.
From the PoliceOne blog, a comment (actual officer):
“If there is rioting the actions and level of force used by the police will be judged. Judged by the media, Obama, Holder, Sharpton, the ACLU, Sharpton, Gov. Nixon and Sharpton.
This is not a win situation for the police. If the shit hits the fan and there is micro management by the media, politicians and special interest groups I hope the brass shows a set of brass balls and pull the troops out to safety. This is not the time for the brass to play politics. The safety of your troops comes first. And by the way the silent unions and police associations better stand by the troops also.”
This one one of the less murderous comments I’ve seen on that blog. Note also casual use of military terminology (considering there are no military involved).
Cacti
@Bobby B.:
Indeed.
Police are not a branch of the military, but are thoroughly militarized in thought, word, and deed, and regard the citizenry as an enemy force.
Tommy
@Bobby B.: In the town I live in I fist bump the police when I see them in public. Or at least say hi! I treat them with respect and they do the same to me. Imagine how fast a pic would go viral of a cop in Ferguson hugging a protestor. I can’t believe they are all bad people and must have some empathy.
Mike in NC
Went to the movies the other day and they showed a preview of “Selma”. The audience — composed almost entirely of old white people — seemed to murmur approvingly of the scenes where the police (wearing hard hats and gas masks) brutalized the civil rights protesters. Fifty years of progress, right?
Daniel'sBob
@Tommy: Imagine how fast his fellow officers would decide to not have his back the next time he needed them. There are good cops, but when it’s “them against us” few have the balls to go it alone. Hard to blame them sometimes, but I do.
Corner Stone
@Mike in NC:
More likely they would rather not be confronted by the truth of what happened, and to who.
This preview was a lead in to which movie there?
Villago Delenda Est
@samiam: derp
derp
derp
Violet
@Tommy: Do you see the non-white people in your predominately white town fist bumping the police? Or even greeting the police?
Corner Stone
@Daniel’sBob: We already have a pic of that, by Capt Johnson. It seems, IMO, that he has since been severely curtailed in substantive efforts of community outreach.
Corner Stone
@Tommy:
Police where you live walk around on foot often?
Corner Stone
@Villago Delenda Est: I think you mean:
derf…derf…derf…
Gene108
@greennotGreen:
In America there is no such thing as “we”. There is “us” and there is “them”.
Villago Delenda Est
@Bobby B.: Damn.
We need to off some pigs. Seriously.
Corner Stone
@Bobby B.:
If the comment had said “troopers” I guess it could have been elided. But that does smack of some really awful connotations.
Corner Stone
Dog Dammit, JJ!
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid: He needs to seek some attention from a fire.
PhilbertDesanex
Correction: Ferguson has a Predator Force, not a police force.
Villago Delenda Est
If policemen rally around Darren Wilson, they are not members of a profession.
They are members of a gang.
Corner Stone
@Villago Delenda Est:
Oh, come the F on.
Corner Stone
Dammit.
El Caganer
The grand jury has probably seen that dumbass (and totally irrelevant) cigar-store video about 500 times. I doubt they’ve seen this one.
Tommy
@Daniel’sBob: As much as it pains me to write this I don’t think you are wrong. I live in a town that is 97.8% white and heard some terrible things said. Racist. I didn’t stand up and call those folks out. I have but maybe 50% of the time I didn’t. I don’t know why I rant on this but let’s just say anybody that thinks race isn’t still an issue in this nation might not have lived in said nation.
El Caganer
@Corner Stone: So the deal is, if Ferguson municipal government will sign a SOFA that any police accused of crimes are tried by their internal affairs units instead of an American court of law, they’ll show up. Otherwise, their commanders should ‘pull the troops to safety.’ Charming.
Joel Hanes
@Villago Delenda Est:
We need to off some pigs.
Unhelpful, unless done by the justice system itself.
Corner Stone
@El Caganer: I think the implication is that when the grand jury no bills Wilson, these commenters think the people in Ferguson are going to burn the whole place down.
And this commentor is essentially saying let it burn. Although on some levels I actually agree that a reduced or very limited police presence may be the best option if/when that happens.
Corner Stone
I like Brian “Steny” Hoyer just fine and all. But I really wish someone would drop him on his face a few times today.
Tommy
@Joel Hanes: That was a terrible comment. I’ve said some things here I wish I could take back. Not the smartest. But sure I’ve never suggested we kill somebody. As I have said in other comments the police I know are pretty stellar people. The folks I’d want come if I dial 911. I don’t think we should let a handful of assholes taint the entire profession.
Villago Delenda Est
@Tommy: The handful of assholes are being protected by the majority of cops.
That makes them not a profession, but a gang.
Some pigs need to be offed…into a job where they ask “do you want fries with that”.
They should NOT be in law enforcement.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: I bet all of your dealings with them have been social situations or situations where you are in need of help. I wonder how they would be if you were a suspect.
ETA: Or non-white. Or both.
Mike in NC
@Corner Stone: Interstellar
dmbeaster
@Tommy: It is likely such empathetic cops left voluntarily or were hounded out of a racist police force. Those who remain are self-selected to be the ugly ones.
Tommy
@Villago Delenda Est: I bet you mean fired. Then I can agree with you to a large extent. Where I come from “offed” mean putting a bullet into somebodies head. I am not so cool with that.
Roger Moore
@Corner Stone:
They’re right that they should pull police from Ferguson, but more because the police are going to trigger riots than prevent them. The police response has been the main problem in Ferguson, and it’s hard to see how a failure to indict would change that.
Corner Stone
Go Garrett, go Garrett, go Garrett.
Cluttered Mind
@Omnes Omnibus: A suspect, or non-white? You’re repeating yourself.
Roger Moore
@Omnes Omnibus:
Are there non-whites who aren’t suspects?
sharl
@greennotGreen:
I grew up very close to that Beavercreek, OH WalMart, and in fact have shopped there and in the surrounding Fairfield Commons stores while back visiting family. So I’ve been particularly interested in the responses to Mr. Crawford’s killing.
I just checked the Twitter TL for #JohnCrawford, and I’m glad to see there is still activity there by people properly outraged by the killing. If I scrolled down far enough to much older tweets, I could find those assholes proclaiming that Crawford “should have dropped the (pellet) gun when police ordered him to.” Yeah sure, in the ~5milliseconds he had, I’m sure Crawford could have responded, if he was The Flash from comic book lore. Assholes…
People of my tribe – semi-urban western Ohio white folk – reaaallly prefer to brush this sort of thing under the rug, rather than being out-&-proud about their racism, like so many in the STL area seem to be. Maybe it somehow comes from the taciturn nature of the 19th-early 20th century Germans who moved into that area…I dunno. But the possibility of something like this was always there, if you knew where to look for it.
As it is, they are following the same script as they are apparently doing with Michael Brown in Ferguson, and Rodney King in LA way back when. The locals let the complicit cops off the hook (grand jury decisions), then leave it to the Feds to come in and file civil rights violation charges. It’s WIN-WIN! Local yokels get to shirk their responsibilities – not to mention any semblance of moral behavior – then shout Fed’ral Gubmint Tyranny! when the DoJ has to come in and clean up after their homicidal-tragic-racist behavior.
FREEDUMB!
Tommy
@Omnes Omnibus: I knew somebody would say this.
They arrested me a few years ago for a DUI. So, so not proud of that. I did something dumb. I went to court and said I was guilty. Assumed never with an arrest or even a parking ticket I’d skate. I didn’t. Lost my license for three years. He saw me in my car and pulled me over. Said I should not be driving. Followed me home. Then did it again.
Told me that was two strikes and he doesn’t do three.
Daniel'sBob
@Tommy: I’ve read enough of your posts here to understand that your town could be my town, your parents could be my parents and that we managed to grow up not filled with hate. I’m not patting us on the back for that accomplishment–I think the credit goes to our families. I recall someone suggesting a while back that your parents were evil just because they voted Republican after you described what decent people they are, and my first thought was that your parents are just like my parents and are definitely NOT evil. I think we can both be very thankful for the kind of example they set that helped keep us from being susceptible to the worst of the society outside our families.
pseudonymous in nc
“failing to comply with an order” is such a bullshit charge: it exists as a get-out clause for asshole “respect mah authoritay” cops, like most versions of resisting arrest.
Tommy
@Daniel’sBob: That is very nice of you to say. I know that comment thread you are talking about. It hurt.
I am stunned people do not get my parents raised a far left liberal.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Seems to me that if you are non white, you are automatically suspect, in the eyes of the cops.
I have taken the attitude that cops are all bad until proven otherwise. It’s just that the numbers are easier to count. I don’t even have to take off my shoes.
Suzanne
@sharl: I want every cop to wear a body camera while on duty. It is certainly not a remedy for the all-encompassing disease that is structural racism, but at the very least, it would be something to prove that the police certainly aren’t always behaving as they should. Most white people, myself included, haven’t ever witnessed incidents of police brutality first-hand, and that means that many people don’t believe they happen at all. More evidence can only help this issue.
Buddy H
@Villago Delenda Est: Reading the violent imagery in your comments, I wonder if you are kin to the undercover agents who would infiltrate peaceful movements and advocate aggressive actions. There is video evidence of undercovers who tried unsuccessfully to “blend into” occupy wall street demonstrations and throw rocks, etc., hoping to incite conflict and turn public opinion against the cause. Just my opinion, but that’s the impression your comments give me.
Corner Stone
@Tommy:
It can sometimes be difficult to discern linear relationships in your comments, so just so it is clear – he pulled you over and then you continued driving that same day/night after the first contact?
Roger Moore
@Ruckus:
I’m not sure that I’d say that all cops are bad until proven otherwise. It’s more a matter of the balance of consequences. If you’re dealing with a good cop and treat him like a bad cop, you will have an interaction that’s unnecessarily unpleasant because you were too suspicious, but things will probably sort out in the long run because the cop will prove himself to be a good one. But if you treat a bad cop with insufficient suspicion, you could wind up in the kind of trouble that can’t be sorted out later because there will be permanent bad consequences of your interaction.
Tommy
@Corner Stone: No another time.
Corner Stone
@Suzanne:
IMO, that’s a great idea. And I don’t have links handy but it seems studies show behavior changes dramatically when all parties know it’s being recorded.
So for both safety aspects and deterrent motivation, I think we should back any initiative for this, granted some basic privacy concerns/actions for people who are guilty of nothing other than having an interaction with LEO.
SatanicPanic
@Roger Moore: well, Bill Cosby, but he’s a special case, for some reason
Daniel'sBob
@Tommy: .
… my parents raised a far left liberal.
Yeah, mine too. You’d think that if all the Republicans who claim to be so much more “decent” than Democrats actually were, there would be a lot more of US. Or is that faulty logic?
Corner Stone
@Roger Moore:
Treat all police the same and give them absolutely nothing. The jocular, cajoling ones are just as dangerous to your well being as the flat assholes.
My LEO friends all tell me the same advice, which is to say nothing, agree to nothing and admit nothing.
Roger Moore
@Suzanne:
It would probably force a lot of cops to behave better in the first place. The root of a lot of their misbehavior- not just racism but general bullying of anyone they don’t like the looks of- is knowing that they can lie about their interactions with the public and their lies will be believed enough to clear them. Body cameras sharply decrease their ability to carry that off, so the smarter ones will shape up and stop bullying the public in the first place.
raven
offed don’t mean nuthin but killed, let’s try to keep it real here
TS
@Suzanne:
Needs to be a way to force them to be turned on – latest pronouncements seem to be “He was wearing a body camera but it wasn’t turned on. We do not know why it was off”
Corner Stone
Barkevious Mingo!
One of the all time great football names.
Corner Stone
Man, the entirety of the NFC just looks like a fucking mess at this point in the season.
Suzanne
@TS: Concur. The officers need to be responsible for the cameras being on. Having the camera be off in the absence of real technical failure needs to be a firing offense.
Tree With Water
Amen to that, because Ferguson is an isolated case. To listen to Cole , you’d think what happened there was a common occurrence. As if black Americans are routinely targeted by racist cops, or otherwise unjustly treated by police as a matter of routine in all 50 states. Ha ha ha…
But seriously. Doesn’t the fact that “Wilson wrote in his report that he told Arman “to remove the camera from my face” while standing many yards from the cameraman tell you anything at all about the man? Not about the shooting itself, but rather about the man that fired the shots? Minutes after killing that kid, he was rousting a guy standing in his own yard holding a camera, while peppering him with orders and questions he had no right to demand. Wilson should have felt shattered, and behaved accordingly. But he didn’t, did he? And what the hell were the other cops doing while their colleague went off half cocked? Where were they?
Roger Moore
@Suzanne:
At the very least, we should assume that the officer turned his camera off because he had something to hide.
joel hanes
@Villago Delenda Est:
To most of us, the verb “to off” means to deliberately murder.
You’re way way way over the line, amigo.
Corner Stone
@Tree With Water:
The Arman video was in 2013. Are you referring to some other incident? Any LEO related shooting would have the officer off the street immediately until after a review.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
Exactly why it’s easier and better to treat them all like they are bad cops until proven otherwise. They want me to reverse that, at this time and given the evidence, I need to see some major changes in their work and ethics. Like the person who won the election for LASD, Jim McDonnell, who appears to be a good cop. Maybe he can turn around an agency that for sure has good cops, it also has some real shitty ones. And until the good ones quit hiding/protecting the bad ones how can anyone know who the good ones are? It’s way past time to look at the hiring practices, the oversight, the wide blue line. Cops have been out of control as a group for well, ever. Maybe that’s what a lot of people want, that doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t have to be that way to work.
Corner Stone
Big stop by Texans!
Plantsmantx
At around 7:15 on this video, a black teenager describes what happened when he was pulled over by Darren Wilson.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Ruckus:
It’s not just hiring, it’s also training. When you train cops that they should expect instant compliance with any and all instructions, and that physical force should be used if there isn’t instant compliance, you’re basically giving cops a license to injure or even kill anyone who’s mentally or physically ill. Plus it means that even your witnesses and bystanders are going to be angry and defensive when they didn’t have to be.
Corner Stone
INT TEXANS!
Corner Stone
RG Cheese got beat by the hapless (sorry Betty) Bucs.
He simply is not an NFL QB talent.
Violet
@Corner Stone: Johnny Manziel is bitter.
Ben Cisco
@greennotGreen: I’ll feel more like part of a “we” when “WE” quit getting shot down in the damn street without recourse.
Tree With Water
@Corner Stone: Thank you, I stand corrected. I tend to skim read at times, and did think the camera incident occurred in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. If I had stopped to think, it would have dawned on me that such a scenario obviously didn’t play out, as it would have been common knowledge within days (if not hours). My abiding point that that the man has no business carrying a badge and gun still stands.
Corner Stone
@Violet: I’m not sure I would’ve watched a single game if they had picked him and then named him starting QB. Maybe ironically to see how many times he got dropped flat on his ass by opposing defenses.
gian
@Ruckus:
He comes from long beach. That’s the PD that failed to announce their presence hid behind cover and shot douglas zerby to death for sitting in a chair and twirling a garden hose nozzle while drunk.
They paid about 5 million to the family but there were no charges
Violet
@Corner Stone: My favorite thing during the pre-season games (or even before that?) was when Michael Sam took out Manziel and did the “money” sign. If/when Manziel gets to play, I hope every player who takes him out does that.
Corner Stone
Brian Cushing jacked Hoyer up a couple times this game. Clean hits to the torso, no head shots. But still really brutal shots.
The Other Chuck
@Villago Delenda Est:
I don’t care what your justifications or thought process are here. You do not write this fucking stuff down. I think Cole needs to give you a few weeks enforced time out at least. Or are you going to threaten my life for that?
Ruckus
@gian:
So maybe not.
Still think he was better than the others running for the job.
I think this is why people who try to defend even “good” cops are a bit off base. Way too many departments are rotten from the head down. It seems to me today the type of person who wants to be a cop today is someone who is looking for any job and will do whatever is necessary to go along and keep that job when they do land one, and people with authoritative issues, bullies. A very liberal friend who put in 30 yrs as a CHP confirms that in his experience these are the types now being hired and they are the types that move up in the ranks.
ETA. I keep hearing this in the background after of a lot of police incidents. “We paid you off, what more do you want?”
Mike G
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
This is the Republican mentality — It’s not a problem until it’s MY problem.
And if it’s happening to one of THOSE people, the more problems they have the better.
sm*t cl*de
@Suzanne:
A firing offense for police? Is there such a thing?
Woodrowfan
@Mike G:
I have noticed how many of my friends who are righties can not seem to put themselves into others’ shoes. They really can not step outside themselves to look at the world thru other people’s eyes.
Corner Stone
@Woodrowfan: My exposure to righties around here is that they can’t even understand that people with those other shoes even exist. Much less how those shoes would fit on their feet.
TS
@Suzanne:
When an officer isn’t fired – and continues to be paid – and does not submit a report – and every other stupid – when he shoots an unarmed teenager – there would be zero likelihood of him being fired for having a camera turned off – he would probably get promoted
Woodrowfan
@Corner Stone: “If they have no shoes, they should life themselves up by their bootstraps!”
PIGL
@Corner Stone: well, at least it would give their cowardly obsession with force protection something to go on. If they are going to act like an army of occupation, they should receive some of the benefits that go with it.
PIGL
@Joel Hanes: That would be preferable. I’d also like to see some state governments disbanding forces, and dissolving civic charters in cases like this.
PIGL
@Buddy H: I can see this, and VDE is a little repetitive. But what is the appropriate response of a population when they can be executed in broad daylight with no recourse? What is the appropriate response of the American citizenry when the GOP can achieve a lock on state government and the House with skullduggery, and then undermine the Civil RIghts legislation by stacking the courts?
The Civil War was officially over 150 years ago. Should we tell people: just be patient for another 150 years and the good liberal white people of the USA will sort this out though the undying efforts of the Democratic Party? At what point would the evidence that things Will Not Get Better be considered overwhelming enough to justify Direct Action?
I honestly do not know the answer to questions like this, but I do believe that while the center and left claim to trust in the law and democratic institutions, the freikorps and the death squads are being mobilised.
Another Holocene Human
@Tommy: Tommy, maybe race is a teeny tiny part of the reason that cops and “citizens” aren’t fist-bumping each other on the MO side of the border?
Another Holocene Human
@Corner Stone: What has he ever done that there is to like, aside from voting with the Democratic caucus when required?
Seriously, fuck that guy.
Another Holocene Human
@Daniel’sBob: My mother IS evil but for some reason between my father’s Irish Catholic liberalism and the social movement that was the 70s, I didn’t hear any racist claptrap from my mother until I was way too old for that to have made an impression. I grew up in a happy (and more homogeneous than I realized) bubble for many many years but fortunately at school I was given some tools to deal with life when I left it and avoided becoming a reactionary, racist jerk even when stuff didn’t exactly go my way.
I didn’t even know how to pronounce the n-word as a kid. (I was aware of the controversy over Mark Twain’s writings, so I knew it existed.) Which is a good thing. That is a word that goes off like a rifle shot in your mind, and repeats itself. An ugly, ugly, evil word. And I’ve learned even worse words in the South. I wish they could be exorcized from my brain. I fear that some day with mental decline, I will repeat them. And they aren’t mine. They were forced on me.
sharl
@Mike G:
While I don’t disagree with the general point of this observation – on average, Republican behavior is worse than that of Democrats – I would be careful about making too big a connection between structural racism in this country and partisan background of individuals and groups. It is wildly uneven across the country.
In STL County, for example, a lot of the major political powers appear to be mostly Democrats – at least before the recent election – including Democrat Gov. Jay Nixon’s problematic political ally, supporter, and former cop Jeff Roorda, a lame-duck Democratic representative in the MO legislature (he just lost an election for the state Senate). Mr. Roorda has a rather murky history, including bad performance as a cop – no surprise there – as well as being a shady player in the shady fundraising for Darren Wilson.
Folks like these, and their older, whiter, and often more union-friendly constituencies, are losing power and/or dying off at fairly substantial rates, but will still be potent factors in 2016 elections. They show up at the polls, and because they are “the right kind of people”, they are minimally impacted by voter disenfranchisement efforts. It will be grim work – for Hillary or whomever – to keep their support while trying to get people of color and other traditionally less privileged folks enthusiastic enough to show up on Election Day. It wouldn’t surprise me if they go the way of the traditional Appalachian Democrats and abandon the party no matter what the Dems do. I hope the Dems hire on some really good advisers and pollsters (e.g., NOT Mark Penn, and NOT whatever chumps were doing that work for Dems here in Maryland), since they’ll need to figure this stuff out early on.
Mike G
@Ruckus:
In my job I occasionally work with a state university police department and I’ve noticed this change in mentality. The more experienced cops are recognizably human and semi-reasonable to talk to, but many of those hired in recent years are like killer robots, very military in their bearing, full of themselves and walking around cocked and locked like they’re on patrol in Fallujah.
Another Holocene Human
@pseudonymous in nc: In a sane world there would be 97% less “resisting arrest” charges and probably about 300% more obstruction of justice charges.
Another Holocene Human
Even the dumbest criminals have figured out you can game the “English” system by refusing to talk. You get less time, maybe even don’t get convicted at all. In Australia they’ve started sending people to prison for destroying evidence but in the US they just sit around looking stupid (I guess because they get so many “wins” putting people of color away for stupid or jacked up shit with threat of drug conviction prison time, since the accused effectively don’t have legal assistance, so when the powers that be get a suburban murder case they don’t know what to do).
Expecting criminals to ‘fess up assumes a conscience or a lack of cowardice they don’t possess by definition.
Beatings to obtain “confessions” were the rule, not the exception, prior to interrogation room recordings. Little better than trial by ordeal.
Another Holocene Human
@Suzanne: I’ve witnessed police venality first hand.
And was told “there’s nothing you can do.”
Another Holocene Human
@Corner Stone:
That’s what they do when they get caught.
Another Holocene Human
@PIGL: Because incitements to violence helped take down the radical left the last time, set the liberals into chaos, and ushered in 30+ years of radical Republican Christian dominionist, winner take all the spoils rule that has made racism WORSE because people who have lost everything they and their forebears ever worked for (through neoliberal policies) are angry and raging and looking for someone to blame. The recession had nothing to do with this racist resurgence? Just look at Europe and think again. Works every time.
Corner Stone
@Another Holocene Human: Brian Hoyer is the QB for Cleveland Browns. I like to insert similar sounding names into sports ball players, for fun.
I’m never sure what part of the scale you’re on in your comments so I thought I would wait a while before making this silly joke clear.
In case you were making some kind of abstruse counter joke, I have no way of knowing how the QB Hoyer votes.
Honestly, your comments are usually nonsensical to me so meh in any event.
Corner Stone
@Another Holocene Human: Guy I grew up living next door to is a big wheel in a large Constable Precinct in the area. He hates DUI stops but never in his life would he stop somebody, assess them as having too much to drink and drive and then allow them to operate a vehicle as he follows them somewhere. If they hurt someone his ass would be very finely sliced and fried for breakfast sausage, and probably be facing charges.
So, again I find the previous comments related to this scenario to be bullshit.
PIGL
@Another Holocene Human: Oh, so the current state of affairs is the Liberals fault? The dirty hippies were to blame all along. Isn’t that what you are saying? There was minimal resort to violence in North America, certainly compared to the Red Brigades and Action Direct in Europe, or the events in Bolivia and Uruguay during the 60s and 70s.
The recession, to offer by the most obvious of counterarguments, did not cause the Ferguson affair, nor the broader state of institutionalised racism and economic oppression which it exposes.
gian
@Ruckus:
Hard to not be an improvement from Baca. Sending deputies to threaten an FBI agent investigating LASO misconduct happened on his watch.
The misconduct (cough) and the threats
Mnemosyne
@gian:
IIRC, McDonnell’s opponent for sheriff this time around was a LACSD lifer who was named in the recent corruption probe. So, yeah, McDonnell’s record as LBC police chief isn’t unmarked, but AFAIK, he wasn’t the subject of a corruption probe like the other guy.
Patricia Kayden
@Amir Khalid: “Might”? Of course, he will.
Cliff in nh
@Corner Stone:
it’s called driving without a license – the punishment for getting a DUI being no license for 3 years.
mclaren
@greennotGreen:
If police in America weren’t issued with automatic Get Out of Jail Free cards for murder, they wouldn’t be able to enforce the brutal and sadistic laws that make stealing people’s property a non-crime (asset forfeiture), loansharking students into a lifetime of debt legal (with sudden balloon penalties that turn a $20,000 college loan into a $180,000 lifetime of debt undischargeable by bankruptcy), and stealing people’s land and houses to benefit wealthy developers a good solid business model instead of a crime (Kelo v New London).
How ya gonna run an oligarchy if your hired killers with badges have to worry about little things like getting indicted when they gun down striking workers or beat homeless Occupy demonstrators into hamburger?
mclaren
@Corner Stone:
I have the links handy. Study after study of communities where the police are required to wear body cameras show that complaints against police drop dramatically — and also that violent interactions with citizens as reported by police also drop dramatically.
http://www.nc4worldwide.com/Pages/Study-Fewer-complaints-when-officers-have-body-cameras.aspx
The solution is not to “kill some pigs.” The solution is to require all police to wear audiovisual recording devices at all times.
It works. Moreover, this change is coming. It’s inevitable. Only a matter of time.
Corner Stone
@Cliff in nh: What is called that?
Paul in KY
@raven: Being that it is VDE, I think killed is what he meant.
Captain C
@Suzanne: Along with Obstruction of Justice and Destruction of Eviidence if anything goes down while the camera is off.
dopey-o
@samiam:
Unhealthy to wonder why Darren Wilson fired 11 shots at an unarmed teen? The real question is “Was this guy even qualified to carry a badge and a gun?”
J R in WV
@Mnemosyne:
“LACSD” and “LBC” – what the hell does this mean? I have no idea, and so your comment is totally meaningless to me, and everyone else not from your neighborhood.
No offense, but there it is…
cmm
Very late to this thread, but I’m really glad John posted this video. I can’t stand cops who act like this around cameras, and I am a cop. I tell my guys all the time, let them record. Give them your name. Most of the time people getting in my face and demanding my name and badge number are in the wrong in the situation and are trying to intimidate us. I don’t react with anger or by escalating. I tell them my name, offer to write it down for them, point out my name pin if they are writing it down or give them a business card if I have one at that moment. I can count on one hand the number of complaints that have come my way in over 10 years of handling confrontational people like that. The one time I threatened to lock someone up while they were video recording, he kept walking up right behind me, loudly narrating his voiceover to the video while I was trying to speak to the other parties in the fight we were called about, after I had told him several times that he was free to record but needed to stand back. I had listened to his side of the story and the other folks had the same right to tell their side without him talking over them. He finally did step back and stay there after a supervisor showed up and backed me up. I never told him to stop recording, just to stop doing it RIGHT IN MY EAR. And if he had gone to jail, that would have been the order he was obstructing/resisting. He could have kept recording the entire arrest and left the camera running all the way to the jail if he wanted.
In the end, he never complained either. And he had me on video spelling my name for him so it’s not like he forgot who I am.
I totally get people recording their interactions with us, especially after Ferguson. I empathize that people feel so threatened and nervous around us that they want to cover their asses. I”m not scared of that because I know I’m not crossing any lines. There are too many cops like Darren Wilson and too many Darren Wilsons have made it up the chain of command to be in a position to protect the ones in the ranks who are just like them. I have loved a lot about being a cop but this tendency is one of the reasons I’m ready to get out and do something else.