The NBA is banning Donald Sterling for Life for his outrageous remarks which they know and fear could manifest into abusive behavior and policy effecting the team and the overall image of the league. It’s pretty straight forward. People are cheering and saying this is a good way to go.
With this being the case, lets’ imagine and then push for similar zero tolerance policies for police officers who are abusive and over the top with their attitude and behavior toward innocent citizens. We all heard the stories and saw the disturbing pictures when NYPD brass decided to do a feel-good PR blitz and took to twitter asking people to send photos of them with a NYPD officer.
The brass thought they would be inundated with photos of smiling police officers standing next to jovial tourists. Instead they were bombarded with thousands of photos showing NYPD beating or choking out people. They were blitzed with endless amounts of videos showing NYPD in unsavory, abusive situations. There is no doubt many of the people pictured in those videos were hoping that what befell Sterling and his ban for life, could be applied to rogue police officers. Sadly in many places that won’t happen..
For the past two years we have been alerting people to an insidious law that shields police from being held accountable. It’s called the Policeman’s Bill of Rights… The law is on the books in many states, but its strongest and most impenetrable in California.
In the past when we’ve written about POBOR, many have dismissed the conversation and called it overacting and conspiracy theory. It’s hard for many to accept that those they trust with authority would routinely cross the line. It’s either that or they mistakenly think such abuse will only visit ‘those Black and Brown folks who they feel probably ‘deserve it’..
Well that was backwards thinking and now we are seeing such practices are habitually happening to good ole white bred citizens who like to profess they have nothing to hide, have done nothing wrong and thus should not be wary of the cops having ‘too much’ power. Here’s what prompted an in depth investigative news report on NBC affiliate KNTV. SFPD went HAM on two techies and unjustly arrested them. Here’s an excerpt from their report:
Tech entrepreneurs Peretz Partensky and Ben Woosley came up against POBOR when he complained about what he says was an unfair arrest. He says he saw two bicyclists injured along Folsom street in San Francisco near his house. He didn’t even know the two bicyclists, but he called 911 for medical help.
“The next thing I know, [the police] grabbed me from behind and wrenched my arm back,” said Ben Woosley. He said he and Partensky were trying to get answers from the police, but the two were handcuffed and set on the ground.
“Since then,” Partensky said, “I’ve not actually been able to get any information about the incident.”
It’s not an uncommon story. Retired Marine Garret Bondaug was also left with unanswered questions when police unexpectedly showed up at his mother’s Santa Clara home one night.
“We were literally watching PBS,” Bondaug said. That’s when the police showed up at about 11pm. “As soon as we ask ‘what for?’, [the officer] whipped out his ASD, aluminum baton, and started beating me.”
What was described here is just the tip of the iceberg. A former elected official is pushing for new laws to scale back the Policeman’s Bill of Rights, which last year was strengthened with more provisions added, making it virtually impossible for anyone to know if a cop has shoddy record of abuse.
Check out the story below and lets re-imagine what a just community looks and feels like when abusive people who we pay with our tax dollars are banned after coming at folks sideways… http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/State-Law-Hides-Investigations-of-Police-Misconduct-from-Public-Scrutiny-257080571.html
