quote:

ORIGINAL: FelineRanger

Instant fail right in the second paragraph: " ... calls of racism and unequal treatment in the era of Obama ... " Blaming Obama for the simple fact that cops are finally being caught carrying out summary executions in the streets is nothing more than political nonsense. Especially when you factor in that the militarization of the police began under the aegis of the Patriot Act.

quote:

ORIGINAL: FelineRanger

Instant fail right in the second paragraph: " ... calls of racism and unequal treatment in the era of Obama ... " Blaming Obama for the simple fact that cops are finally being caught carrying out summary executions in the streets is nothing more than political nonsense. Especially when you factor in that the militarization of the police began under the aegis of the Patriot Act.

quote:

ORIGINAL: cloudboy


https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/04/29/david-simon-on-baltimore-s-anguish

In some ways this comports with Kana's posts that are now missing after the thread got yanked.

According to Simon, the drug war lowered policing from the higher art of investigation / serve and protect to occupation, harassment, crime stat stuffing, and a total bypass of probable cause. What he describes also mirrors the revenue collection tactics we saw in Ferguson.

I can't say I heard anything like this commentary in the national TV news or in other print sources that I read.

quote:

ORIGINAL: cloudboy

The police are having continuing problems in BALTO:

We have to send in multiple units just to do basic police work, which says we have to work on community engagement.
- Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts


>Officers tell me and their supervisors, any time they pull up to respond to a call, they have 30 to 50 people surrounding them," Batts said. "We have to send in multiple units just to do basic police work, which says we have to work on community engagement.

The comments were Batts' first on the state of his embattled agency and the surge in shootings and homicides that began about the time Gray was arrested and fatally injured.

Batts said police are trying to investigate killings in West Baltimore, but have been slowed by the large crowds that often surround them.

It makes it very difficult to follow up on violence that takes place there," he said. "Clearly, they're not holding back. They're getting to those locations and getting surrounded. You have many citizens with hand-held cameras that they're sticking in the faces of officers, an inch off the officer's face."

Batts said police do not want to cause a "bigger issue" by sending in backup, but they want to "make sure the officers are safe and citizens are safe.<

quote:

ORIGINAL: cloudboy


Well, according to this article, it's completely spurious that the victim was carrying a "switchblade" or illegal knife. Next, although the knife was alleged as reason for probable cause, the Police never knew he had it when they arrested him. The prosecutor, instead of making excuses for this, is actually holding them accountable as liars.

The subplot is, can you weed out bad policemen without compromising the police as a whole?

quote:

ORIGINAL: cloudboy


Only when you look for probable cause in hindsight, as in this case. The prosecutor has called the knife-claim spurious.