(This post is from our new blog: Unofficial Sources.)
Only weeks before Freddie Gray’s death while in custody of Baltimore police, cops from around the state filled a committee hearing room in Annapolis to aggressively lobby against a wave of reform bills aimed at increasing police accountability in Maryland. The police won: every bill to make it easier to investigate and prosecute police misconduct went down to defeat, leaving the state’s extraordinarily cop-friendly laws in place. (It’s a measure of the egregious circumstances of Gray’s death and the public outcry afterward that six police officers have nevertheless been indicted.)
Civil rights advocates say they were heavily outgunned — metaphorically — by the police.
Police unions play a significant role in Maryland politics, from campaign endorsements to influence peddling. According to public records, the largest police associations, including the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police, donated $1,834,680 to state politicians over the last decade and retained several of the most prominent lobbyists in the state.
The Maryland State FOP organized its members to show up in force during the hearing on the police reform bills. The Facebook page for the group shows officers packing the legislative room when the reform bills were debated.
“It was not a level playing field, we’re not the FOP, we don’t have the same type of strong relationship with the delegates, the state legislators,” said Farajii Muhammad, one of the organizers of the reform effort.
“Our people said that the committee leadership was worried about the police reaction,” explained Thomas Nephew, an activist with the Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition, who was present at the March 12th hearing. “One of the legislative leaders said something like, if these bills go through, the cops will riot in the streets, which really tells you something.”
The police were simply more organized and had better relationships with the lawmakers, Nephew said.
A coalition including Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the ACLU, the NAACP and members of Maryland’s faith community pushed for changes to the “Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights,” a law that critics say sets a standard that makes investigating and disciplining police misconduct nearly impossible.
“We’re still going to have this fight,” said Muhammad in an interview over the phone. Muhammad, who has organized community efforts in Freddie Gray’s neighorhood and has worked with the American Friends Service Committee, says he is working on building a diverse coalition to force discussion of the issue.
“I think it’s a shame, it’s an absolute shame, given the nature of this issue, what we’re seeing right now in Baltimore and all across this country, that in a state like Maryland, we’re still using a very old era way of thinking,” said Muhammad.
A recent report from the ACLU of Maryland found that at least 109 people died in police encounters in Maryland from 2010 to 2014.
“We’re going to put some pressure on the governor to have a special session to address these bills,” said Muhammad. Still, he said he feels that community activists have limited power in the traditional political system. Muhammad’s group does not have any registered lobbyists and does not give money to the campaigns of lawmakers.
During the hearing last March several state legislators heard stories from witnesses about police misconduct, but were not swayed. Del. Deborah Rey said reforms were unnecessary because Maryland is not comparable to Ferguson, Missouri.
The House Judiciary Committee is stacked with politicians with close ties to law enforcement.
Judiciary member Del. Brett Wilson is a prosecutor. Del. John Cluster, another member of the committee, is a retired police officer who called for a new law this year that would hire 900 additional cops in Maryland to place an armed officer in every school in the state. Cluster, who was honored as the legislator of the year by the Baltimore County FOP in 2014, is also chairman of Maryland Correctional Enterprises. The MCE is a state-owned company that manages Maryland’s prison labor, a workforce that manufacturers Maryland flags and furniture for the legislature and University of Maryland, College Park.
But activists are not giving up hope.
“This tragedy has brought triumph in uniting people together, street organizations, Muslims and Christians, various neighborhoods,” said Muhammad. “There’s a new level of awareness, of consciousness right here in Baltimore.”
Photo: AP/Patrick Semansky
Of course the legislators were not swayed by the citizens…They were not swayed because they were not paid…off! It’s criminal what our elected folks are doing,
Why not try to reform how people run from the police?
The “money junkies” are around.
Sayed Ali Khamenei about police brutality against Blacks in the USA – ENG SUB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sIuuvzaFZ0
MAY 2, 2015
TO: COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS, BALTIMORE MD
15% SOLUTION / REPARATIONS FOR SLAVERY
WHILE AFRICAN AMERICANS ARE ARE 12% TO 15% OF THE POPULATION IN AMERICA, AND NEVER RECEIVED REPARATION FOR SLAVERY. (THE 40 ACRES AND A MULE THEORY). THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS, THE SUPREME COURT, AND THE EXCUTIVE BRANCH OF THE UNITED STATES SHOULD SEEK TO RECTIFY THESE 250 YEARS OF ECOMONIC, AND RACIAL INJUSTICE.
HISTORY TEACHES US THAT AMERICA HAS RECTIFIED CERTAIN INJUSTICES INSTITUTED UPON MINORITIES IN THIS COUNTRY. IN 1980 THE SUPREME COURT ORDERED THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PAY EIGHT SIOUX INDIAN TRIBES $106 MILLION TO COMPENSATE FOR THE ILLEGAL SEIZURE OF TRIBAL LANDS IN 1887. ALSO IN 1988 CONGRESS APPROVED THE PAYMENT OF $20,000 EACH TO 60,000 JAPANESE-AMERICAN CITIZENS WHO HAD BEEN HELD IN PRISON CAMPS DURING WORLD WAR II.
THE SUPREME COURT AND THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES SHOULD COMPENSATE DESCENDANTS OF SLAVES IN AMERICA BY UTILIZING THE EMINENT DOMAIN PART OF THE 5TH AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.REPARATION FOR SLAVERY SHOULD AMOUNT TO 15% OF THE 50 STATES OF AMERICA, AND 15% OF THE WEALTH OF AMERICA. (AFRICAN AMERICANS ARE 12% TO 15% OF POPULATION OF AMERICA.)
THE TOTAL SQUARE MILES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ARE 3,806,00 SQ MILES.
NOTE: 15% OF 3,806,000 EQUALS 570,000 SQ MILES.
THESE ARE THE STATES THAT AFRICAN AMERICANS SHOULD REQUEST AS REPARATION FOR SLAVERY.
CALIFORNIA, FLORIDA, GEORGIA, MARYLAND, NEW JERSEY, NEW YORK, NEW MEXICO,NORTH CAROLINA, PENNSYLVANIA,SOUTH CAROLINA, VIRGINA.
THESE ELEVEN (11) STATES ARE 15% OF THE LAND IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
THE IRS WILL DETERMINE THE 15% OF THE WEALTH OF AMERICA.
THIS IS THE 15% SOLUTION/ THE 40 ACRES AND A MULE THEORY !!!!!!!!!
SINCERE,
JERRY WILKINS
Whenever police is caught abusing their authority, which they habitually engage in all the time without getting caught, the first thing that’s universally trumpeted is that most police officers are good people. I really fail to comprehend the logic behind this. Most people of most honorable professions are good people. Most teachers are good, most doctors are good, most engineers are good, most salesmen are good, most plumbers are good, etc. On the other hand, most people of dishonorable professions are bad. Most thieves are bad, most murderers are bad, most terrorists are bad, etc., etc. This latter category includes those parasitic professions where it’s more correct to say – few of them are good. Accordingly, few politicians are good, few bankers are good, few lawyer are good, few journalists are good, and few policemen are good – until they are caught doing something that they should not have done. Then overnight they turn into model citizens.
Police needs reforms. Without this they will become dysfunctional in the long run. Their alienation with the people they serve and who pay for their bread on the table is not sustainable. The earlier they realize this the better.
Folks need to be thinking along the line of major restructuring, something beyond reform. But to do that they’ll need to educate themselves about the historical roots of the police, develop a vision of how society should be and devise alternatives to the current criminal justice system. To do that all leaders within the social justice movement need to come together (they might even want to enlist the help of those in the environmental movement since social justice and environmental justice are linked). Pooling resources from across the country is critical to this kind of change. Otherwise the prevailing narrative is too strong. Here’s a bit about the historical roots of the police in this country. Goes way back to the 1870’s:
“In most of the liberal discussions of the recent police killings of unarmed black men, there is an underlying assumption that the police are supposed to protect and serve the population. That is, after all, what they were created to do.
If only the normal, decent relations between the police and the community could be re-established, this problem could be resolved. Poor people in general are more likely to be the victims of crime than anyone else, this reasoning goes, and in that way, they are in more need than anyone else of police protection. Maybe there are a few bad apples, but if only the police weren’t so racist, or didn’t carry out policies like stop-and-frisk, or weren’t so afraid of black people, or shot fewer unarmed men, they could function as a useful service that we all need.
This liberal way of viewing the problem rests on a misunderstanding of the origins of the police and what they were created to do.
The police were not created to protect and serve the population. They were not created to stop crime, at least not as most people understand it. And they were certainly not created to promote justice. They were created to protect the new form of wage-labor capitalism that emerged in the mid- to late-19th century from the threat posed by that system’s offspring, the working class.”
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17505/police_and_poor_people
~ Our good, brave, honest police officers and agents with integrity deserve not only better training and standards, but leaders that lead by good example in their agencies for their officers to follow. It is up to the management to weed out the bad apples and when one of their own breaks the law or their own code of conduct or ethics, or even a mistake, it is their superiors that have to take responsibility and hold them accountable. The lives of all law enforcement officers are in their care. As are the lives of the public. People want the Truth.
~ Bad cops lie, falsify reports, plant evidence, use excessive force, flat out lie under oath in a court of law. And never even blink.
~ And good ones sometimes feel like they have to also and break their own code of ethics and conduct to cover for the bad ones. Or otherwise be labeled a rat and face retaliation. If any officer breaks the Law, Code of Conduct or Ethics, he should not be shielded by the Police Bill of Rights.
~ What is more concerning and a national security threat, is what the bad apples do off duty, or on duty but off camera……………….?
~ Yes, polygraphs can be beat. Yes, the are inadmissable in court. Yes, they are only as good as the examiner. But if used as a tool to weed out the bad apples, and protect the good cops, maybe they would think twice before breaking the very laws they were sworn to uphold.
~ All Levels of Law Enforcement have for decades felt that the polygraph is a much needed and essencial part of the hiring process. Why not change Policy that Polygraphs and Psych Evals for new Hires expire every 5yrs? (Including applicants for higher ranking positions)
~ National Institute of Ethics: Police Code of Silence – Facts Revealed http://www.aele.org/loscode2000.html
~ Police Corruption and Misconduct legal definition http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Police+Corruption+and…
~ National Instititute of Justice: Police Discipline: A Case for Change http://www.nij.gov/publications/pages/publication-detail.aspx?ncjnu…
~ The Cato Institute’s National Police Misconduct Reporting Project http://www.policemisconduct.net/
~ Police Misconduct and ‘Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights’ Laws | Cato @ Liberty http://www.cato.org/blog/police-misconduct-law-enforcement-officers…
~ Center for Investigative Reporting ~ “Crossing the line: Corruption at the border” – http://bordercorruption.apps.cironline.org/
~ DoD: Random Lie-Detector Tests Increase Personnel Security https://sm.asisonline.org/Pages/dod-random-lie-detector-tests-incre… (the polygraph is the single most effective tool for finding information people were trying to hide.”)
~ Federal, State and Local Governments (including police) are excluded from the Polygraph Act of 1988. http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs36.htm
~ Break the Code. Break the Culture.
The way I look at it, police should face extra charges if they commit ANY crime while doing their jobs! It’s protect and serve, NOT BE IGNORANT, STUPID, AND CORRUPT!!! They work for us, not the other way around. If they want to get respect they need to give it, and have accountability. It’s time for actual change.
When the “leaders” of any community express fear of the police and their unions, it is time to replace those so called leaders and disband the unions. It is time for the police to become answerable to the community they are “protecting”. The only law enforcement agencies left in this country that are still required to answer to the people are the county sheriffs. All other agencies are quickly turning into gangs of jack booted thugs armed with badges, guns, a license to kill, and union protection. We are quickly coming to a point where the cops are a far bigger danger to unarmed civilians that any common criminal.
90 people killed by cops in April
Killed by Police “which documents the names, age, gender, and race of people killed by police every day, as well as the circumstances leading up to officers’ use of lethal force, recorded more than 90 people who died at the hands of officers in April. Indeed, Freddie Gray’s death was one of many egregious use of force cases in April. Here’s a recap of some of the police encounters that gained national attention.”
(continued at link)
“Civil rights advocates say they were heavily outgunned — metaphorically — by the police.”
The bigger elephant in the room is that it isn’t metaphorical.
““OUR PEOPLE said that the committee leadership was worried about the police reaction,”
That right there is the real indictment. OUR society has devolved into an “us against them” paradigm. It’s always been there, but not as noticeable as these revelations have shown it to be. Thanks Lee.
“OUR society has devolved into an “us against them” paradigm. ”
Actually it’s Us against Ourselves, since we are all Brothers and Sisters.
Bad Policing hurts the Community, and the Police and their Families live in the Community.
Bad Policing puts the Innocent in Prison, while the Perpetrators continue to cause Harm.
& Bad Policing puts the Honest Police Officers at Risk, by leaving the Dishonest Officers in the Police Force.
“OUR PEOPLE said that the committee leadership was worried about the police reaction,”
Leaders within the social justice movement across the country need to come together to address this problem. They need to talk about coming together publicly.They need to focus their resources and people on the most entrenched areas of police corruption, one of which is apparently Baltimore. They need to elect folks who will act on principle (rather than because of their connections) or shine a light on those who refuse to do so. The only reason the police are able to act with impunity is because leaders permit them to do so. But the public does as well, primarily through apathy. And they (the social justice movement) needs to come up with alternative models of policing and then put pressure on the system to adopt those principles. They might begin by getting up to speed the historical roots of policing in this country: http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17505/police_and_poor_people. Time to disciplined and understand it’s a long term effort.
Jeb Bush says the system works.
The System:
Cop shoots black man;
Cops praised;
Buildings burn;
Cops charged with murder.
After reading of yet another death of another black man——this country is seeming to be a lot like what citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq and Lybia and Palestine must feel like like when they go outside.
They never know if they will ever return home in one piece again. The news is so sad and ridiculous too. The death sof people in a war zone often becomes described as the death of an insurgent or terrorist, and in America, the dead seem to be described so often as thugs!
Then comes the news where the police, and often the people who are supposed to be journalists, seem to make up stories which very often end to be lies.
The rule of law seems so very flexible, and many of the police are not trustworthy, nor are news sources———-Somewhere along the way freedom has been exchanged for a free for all —-and we all lose, because—— when there is no trust–there is no realtionship with people or with governments.
Then of course, if we throw in the current congress, it’s no wonder so many states are going crazy. I bet the “founding fathers” never thought that this America would lose the first 10 amendments so quickly and so all at once.
If the cops riot in the streets, call in the National Guard with orders to shoot to kill.
Problem solved!
~ Our good, brave, honest police officers and agents with integrity deserve not only better training and standards, but leaders that lead by good example in their agencies for their officers to follow. It is up to the management to weed out the bad apples and when one of their own breaks the law or their own code of conduct or ethics, or even a mistake, it is their superiors that have to take responsibility and hold them accountable. The lives of all law enforcement officers are in their care. As are the lives of the public. People want the Truth.
~ Bad cops lie, falsify reports, plant evidence, use excessive force, flat out lie under oath in a court of law. And never even blink.
~ And good ones sometimes feel like they have to also and break their own code of ethics and conduct to cover for the bad ones. Or otherwise be labeled a rat and face retaliation. If any officer breaks the Law or Code of Ethics, he should not be shielded by the Police Bill of Rights.
~ What is more concerning and a national security threat, is what the bad apples do off duty, or on duty but off camera……………….?
~ Yes, polygraphs can be beat. Yes, the are inadmissable in court. Yes, they are only as good as the examiner. But if used as a tool to weed out the bad apples, and protect the good cops, maybe they would think twice before breaking the very laws they were sworn to uphold.
~ All Levels of Law Enforcement have for decades felt that the polygraph is a much needed and essencial part of the hiring process. Why not change Policy that Polygraphs and Psych Evals for new Hires expire every 5yrs? (Including applicants for higher ranking positions)
~ Police Corruption and Misconduct legal definition of Police Corruption and Misconduct http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Police+Corruption+and…
~ National Institute of Ethics: Police Code of Silence – Facts Revealed http://www.aele.org/loscode2000.html
~ National Instititute of Justice: Police Discipline: A Case for Change http://www.nij.gov/publications/pages/publication-detail.aspx?ncjnu…
~ The Cato Institute’s National Police Misconduct Reporting Project http://www.policemisconduct.net/
~ Police Misconduct and ‘Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights’ Laws | Cato @ Liberty http://www.cato.org/blog/police-misconduct-law-enforcement-officers…
~ Center for Investigative Reporting ~ “Crossing the line: Corruption at the border” – http://bordercorruption.apps.cironline.org/
~ DoD: Random Lie-Detector Tests Increase Personnel Security https://sm.asisonline.org/Pages/dod-random-lie-detector-tests-incre… (the polygraph is the single most effective tool for finding information people were trying to hide.”)
~ Federal, State and Local Governments (including police) are excluded from the Polygraph Act of 1988. http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs36.htm
~ Break the Code. Break the Culture.
It is amazing how police abuse of power is the norm. I remember when professors William Gates had to break into his own house and someone called the police. Police came and verified that professor owns the home he is breaking in. Yet apparently Prof. Gates said something that angered the cop and he arrested the professor for resisting arrest. This was a big issue and media and president Obama got involved, yet nobody dared to suggest that the cop should be punished for what is clearly the abuse of his power.
Police abusing power a nationwide problem. No accountability. Police investigate one of their own. Police and prosecutors have close relationship. Unions have politicians in their pockets
Yes it’s sad that the Police didn’t offer to call a good locksmith for the Professor.
Fortunately the Officers working 100 meters from me as I type this will unlock your car for you, if you show them proof of ownership, like your drivers license and valid license plate, but then they actually Protect and Serve the Community as they should.
America needs gun control to take the guns away from a run-a-way government and the out of control police departments across the US !
These cops are a bunch of lily-livered cowards, hiding behind their guns and their so-called “Bill of Rights”. They’re obviously deathly afraid of interacting with citizens, esp. black people, in a non-confrontational manner.
Sigh. We need balance, and this kind of knee-jerk reaction isn’t balance. Cops have been knocked out by thrown bricks, had broken bones, and as we should recall, some have been out and out shot dead by “protesters”. Truth is, there are bad cops and bad protesters. Worse, there are good cops acting on bad procedures and bad laws… and good protesters accommodating, apologizing for, even helping violent criminals because they are following misguided tactics and bad ideology. Of all these, the worst on both sides is the laziness of the “he’s one of them” way of thinking. It’s bad enough that someone decides to shoot a cop, or give Freddie Gray a “rough ride”; but far worse when it is done not out of genuine and long-held malice based on bad blood with that one individual, but simply because, well, “he’s one of them” so he deserves whatever he gets.
Denouncing all cops as “cowards”, even as they really do risk their lives, is not as bad as that, of course, but it is still the kind of carelessness we should avoid.
To have a society where the police do not arbitrarily invade and uproot people’s lives is to plan for a perfect anarchy. But perfect anarchy and perfect law are the same thing, because anything that can be written as a law can be written as a right, and vice versa. To replace the police and to reform the police are two different paths which, if done properly, lead to the same place: a world without unjust laws, without unnecessary cruelty. But if done improperly – if police can be corrupt so can anarchists, if police can be murderers so can protesters. At the core of everything is the need for a philosophical understanding of the true natural law, of the nature of the inalienable and God-given rights of Man. When people can perceive and objectively agree on any part of this, however small, however obvious, even if it is as simple as avoiding genocide, that has immediate and far-reaching effect in the world.
Which cops have been shot dead by protesters? If you’re referring to the double-homicide in NYC, that guy wasn’t a protester, and there wasn’t a protest occurring at the shooting location.
Also, fisherman and other professions risk their lives more than cops do. It sounds like by “balance” you mean “we” should just play the subservient role and accept the status quo, while the cops get millions in lobbying money and paid-for politicos (that’s what this particular article is about btw, in case you haven’t read it).
You’re full of it, WNT. You’ve been posting bull shit post after bull shit post. This latest one of yours is one of the worst yet.
“Cops have been knocked out by thrown bricks, had broken bones, and as we should recall, some have been out and out shot dead by “protesters”.
I’ve called you out before on some of your misinformation and your out right lies. But your agenda is to continue repeating lies and malarkey. You’re contemptuous. Cops have been murdering people with impunity. These six cops are going to at least have to face a trial. The cop in South Carolina remains in jail awaiting his trial for murder. In the meantime you intend to post lies about protesters killing cops. Class Grade A Asshole.
This post by Lee Fang is about how completely out of balance the criminal justice system is with regard to holding cops responsible for their actions. So I have to conclude that you’re a raving lunatic to have supposedly just read that article and then post a comment in reply about needing balance … In The Other Direction.
WTF Wnt???? You obviously haven’t been the victim of corrupt cops/prosecutors!!!! Your post is b.s.
Obvious unwillingness to hold each other accountable = cowardice. Ignoring the rights of the citizens that cops have supposedly sworn to protect = cowardice.
I don’t have the exact figures but it was something like 425 people killed by police last year, 27 police killed in the line of duty. Out of that second group, I’m betting 15-20+ of the cops killed in the line of duty were hit by a car on the side of the road. Police doesn’t even crack the top 10 for dangerous professions. As for getting shot by them, you’re now 58 times more likely as a U.S. citizen to be killed by a member of law enforcement than a terrorist.
“I don’t have the exact figures but it was something like 425 people killed by police last year”
Likely to be much higher than 425. A study was done based on news reports alone and the figure was 1100+:
“Killed by Police had listed more than 1,450 deaths caused by law-enforcement officers since its launch, on May 1, 2013, through Sunday. That works out to about three per day, or 1,100 a year.”
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/another-much-higher-count-of-police-homicides/
Obviously minorities are at much higher risk, especially African-Americans. If you’re a minority, poor or mentally troubled or have some infirmity (even deafness) that could be construed as non-mainstream in the US, don’t come into contact with the police. It’s a ticket to an early grave.