News of the Day III

[pete]

Dabo wasn't being judged in a vacuum, though. Dabo was the guy who went on a really tone deaf rant about how if players were ever paid he'd just take his ball and go home. Mind you, he'd just signed a gazillion dollar deal. He plays up that folksy "aw shucks, I'm just a good ol' country boy, I don't really know nothin'" act real well yet was apparently cool with his assistants dropping the N-word in practices and meetings. ESPN barely covered it compared to a lot of other schools and their respective transgressions, so he's still getting major cover. The timing of the shirt, when he had yet to deliver any comment whatsoever concerning the allegations directed toward his staff, was just piss-poor.

There was also a BIG pro-confederacy rally through downtown Clemson recently, and I’ve seen at least one recruit say there’s no way they’ll play for Clemson after seeing the video of the parade. Clemson is and always shall be a redneck school, like most schools in the southeast. And as long as many programs are paying recruits under the table (consider how many top kids have gone to play for Ole Miss over the years) it may not matter a whole lot.

That said, I’m not sorry Tech’s coach is among the most progressive in the profession (not that that’s a high bar to clear) and I think a lot of the kids see and appreciate it.

[pete]

If they don't think you're a 'low class' whitey then you have a much greater chance of getting off with a warning.

I didn’t think the folks screaming in the faces of the officers at the Michigan capitol whilst armed like they were in Chuck Norris’ Delta Force looked all that classy and yet they still got very different treatment than some of the young folks we’ve seen in these protests... but I digress.

[pete]

After a 17 year hiatus, Trump’s DOJ is going to start executing people again.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-deathpenalty-idUSKBN23M36F

I’m sure this will play well with Catholics in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

[pete]

NEW: Martin Gugino, the 75-year-old protester who was pushed by two Buffalo police officers, has a fractured skull and is not able to walk, according to a statement his lawyer sent @CNN today.

https://twitter.com/pervaizistan/status/1272930711666900995?s=21

For an Antifa(!) super soldier he sure is brittle.

[Donnie D]

Trumps police executive order is, don’t kill someone - get a raise.

[Bolthed]

Speaking of police pay/pensions, here’s an interesting twitter thread from a former public defender now criminal defense lawyer named Emily Galvin-Almanza, who is executive director of an access to justice project:

So I was talking with my mom about #DefundThePolice. And she asked me a question: how could what happened to Rayshard Brooks happen, at this moment, in this uprising? How could police keep...doing this?

So this is what I said.

My mom is not steeped in these issues (I mean, she is more now, because, like, she has to be mother to yrs truly). So this thread isn't intended for folks who are already right there with us. I'm hoping this will be useful for folks who are wondering, and who share her questions.

Killings--murders--have continued, and will continue, because the police lack all accountability. It's not just qualified immunity, which protects them from being found liable for things that would bankrupt/jail the rest of us. It's the money.

Follow the money.

Derek Chauvin, the cop who murdered George Floyd, could *still get his million dollar pension* even if he is getting those checks while serving a sentence for homicide.

Police pensions are...generous. Many are raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, even if they've been dismissed for the kind of misconduct that would throw you or me into a cell.

So you can't get sued, you won't lose your $ no matter what you do, and, what's more, you're living in a culture where morality is upside down, bullies rule, and everyone is trained to be both extremely violent and extremely terrified all the time.

A lot of this has been said in a lot of places by a lot of people BUT what one years less about is that this insulation from consequences isn't just toxic on a macro (murder) level, but toxic every damn day.

Let's talk about overtime.

As a public defender, whenever I got a case that was just especially, stupidly made-up (think someone arrested for dealing drugs who was at home with no drugs, money, scales, paraphernalia, or baggies on them) the first thing I checked was the cop's schedule.

Inevitably--seriously, ask, like, any defense attorney about this--when you got a really stupid arrest, it would be within an hour or so of the end of the cop's scheduled shift.

Shift ends at 6pm? This really bad arrest would be at, like, 5:30.

Why? Well, because processing an arrest takes time, but it's also really easy. So you can make time-and-a-half for sitting in the precinct typing up some papers and waiting to talk to a DA.

This REALLY adds up.

Let's not forget that the end-of-shift arrest isn't just an inconvenience--arrests cost people jobs, homes, family unity, sometimes unraveling entire lives.

Some of these cops are making close to half a million dollars a year on the backs of the poor and innocent.

So when we look at police budgets that are bloated like this...it's not just military equipment and chemical weapons.

It's public officials lining their pockets with taxpayer money by doing terrible things to the people they're supposed to protect.

And uhhh it's a lot--A LOT--of the taxpayers' money.



So when you hear "defund the police" and you get worried about a world where there's no one protecting the public, please remember that EVERY MODEL for doing this envisions a world where someone is on the other end of the phone when you call 911.

She’s got a lot of good links in the thread reader: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1...664766976.html

She’s a good follow on this subject. Here’s her Twitter: https://twitter.com/GalvinAlmanza

[Hoek]

Woman, 15 friends test positive for coronavirus after night out at Lynch’s

Pretty hopeless when even friggin health care workers act this stupid.

[WaiverWire]

Unfortunately, the BLM used the terms defund and disband the police rather than police reform. Defund and disband is going to cause every cop to go into defense mode and eliminate any possible conversation. If your occupation and job were threatened any of us would react that way.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard a cop say, “I’m not a social worker”, I could have retired 5 years earlier. WW can weigh in on this, but the cops I knew hated dealing with the social service aspect of the job. They would gladly get out of working with the homeless, noice disturbances and complaints between neighbors.

Approached correctly, I think you would find the line officers receptive to a reorientation of the role of police. The problem is the union. They are going to fight to the death for funding. Face it the police union is still backing the officers involved in the Minneapolis and Atlanta shootings.

We have always been social workers as most of the time we are the first to a scene/call and I started in 1975.

Problem is that small agencies do not have the funding for the training. In my 6 years at a small agency the only training I had was I had to qualify with my service weapon every 2 years.

When I was in the academy, which was 16 weeks long, I can't even tell you how much time we spent on domestic scenarios, but it was a ton. So even back then we were "social workers".

When at HCSO we had 40+ hours of training every year. Problem there was that after the firearms training, drivers training, swimming and new law/court case updates little time was left for any thing else. We did manage to train culture diversity several times. The first year we spent about 20 hours additional to the annual training.

We had HCSO instructors teach the courses. I would had rather had someone from that outside and of the ethnic group we were learning about.

But it does work both ways. I would also like to see members of our community ride for a week or so to see what we have to deal with and why we react the way the we do when confronting someone.....anyone.

Several years a go a preacher from a community around Ft. Myers was always complaining that the police were far too aggressive. A local PD got him to go through a "shot, don't shot" scenario. He agreed and went through several encounters. It was shown on TV. Twice he did not see the firearm and was killed. Afterwards he said that he had a whole different outlook on what a LEO faces on the street. He clearly was visibly shaken from that experience.

Law Enforcement Officers do need more and better training. But also the community also has to understand that if there is one thing they can do to stop something from going good to bad is that you should never resist, no matter how wrong you think the officer is. With the number of cell phone cameras and the increase use by the police of body and dash cameras it is getting harder and harder for that 1% to hide the truth.

[RSchmitz]

Are there any examples of defunding the police actually working? The example that I've seen thrown out a lot is Camden, but upon further inspection it would seem that police presence actually increased and was simply imported from outside of the community. Isn't that the opposite of what most "defund" the police advocates are asking for, less police and more community involvement?

https://whyy.org/articles/camden-residents-city-not-a-model-for-defunding-police/

https://www.inquirer.com/news/camden-police-defund-minneapolis-george-floyd-protest-20200609.html

The city police force was replaced by a county-operated department in 2013. Longtime city activists say the result was an increased police presence by majority white officers

The county does not require its metro police officers to reside within Camden city limits.

[Puckhead]

Speaking of police pay/pensions, here’s an interesting twitter thread from a former public defender now criminal defense lawyer named Emily Galvin-Almanza, who is executive director of an access to justice project:



She’s got a lot of good links in the thread reader: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1...664766976.html

She’s a good follow on this subject. Here’s her Twitter: https://twitter.com/GalvinAlmanza

Good stuff. Thanks. And poor Baltimore!!! Sarasota may be able to handle 6 figure salaries and pensions, but Baltimore?? Those numbers are obscene.

[WaiverWire]

Are there any examples of defunding the police actually working? The example that I've seen thrown out a lot is Camden, but upon further inspection it would seem that police presence actually increased and was simply imported from outside of the community. Isn't that the opposite of what most "defund" the police advocates are asking for, less police and more community involvement?

https://whyy.org/articles/camden-residents-city-not-a-model-for-defunding-police/

https://www.inquirer.com/news/camden...-20200609.html

The problem with Camden PD and the reason they were closed down was flat out corruption.

https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle...amdens_dirty_c

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/...ice-corruption

[RSchmitz]

The problem with Camden PD and the reason they were closed down was flat out corruption.

https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle...amdens_dirty_c

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/...ice-corruption

I understand. Sounds like defunding never actually happened there.

[dannybolt]

Woman, 15 friends test positive for coronavirus after night out at Lynch’s

Pretty hopeless when even friggin health care workers act this stupid.

FFS people, this is why we can't have nice things.

Why did we shelter in place for 2+ months, and only slowly reopen if you idiots are going to treat COVID like it doesn't exist? Put on a GD mask and keep your distance. It isn't that hard, it isn't that cumbersome.

So annoying.

[pete]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the old Trumpster might be in some trouble in Michigan. Two new polls today.

#Michigan:
Biden 50% (+13)
Trump 37%

TIPP/American Greatness 6/9-12

https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1272858266838671361?s=20

MICHIGAN
Biden 55% (+16)
Trump 39%

EPIC-MRA 5/31-6/4

https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1272852901350658048?s=20

Bear in mind that Michigan, like North Carolina and Wisconsin, have Democratic governors this cycle unlike 2016 to put the kibosh on voter suppression shenanigans.

If Michigan is solid blue, I believe this is the current map:



That would mean Biden starts just 21 EV's shy of a tie, which with House control this time around would win him the White House.

https://www.270towin.com/maps/dDvyv

You might also have difficulty toddling down a ramp or drinking water under the pressure.

[pete]

NEW POLL FROM
@ppppolls

GEORGIA

President:
Biden: 48%
Trump: 46%

Senate:
Ossoff: 45%
Perdue: 44%

https://twitter.com/AdamJSmithGA/status/1272913242633928710?s=20