police abuse | Hip-Hop and Politics

As I watched this video of a young Latino brother being detained and kicked in the head while a white officer makes hurls some sort of racial epithet at him, the first thing that came to mind is what may be in store for all those folks in Arizona who may find themselves in similar situations…It’s one thing when an elderly person is pulled over, but when young teenagers are stopped and detained in way too many instances the cops go off.. For those apologist and disbelievers who think what I’m saying is far fetched..I invite them to look at the policies that started under LA police chief William H Parker where he recruited officers from the South who held racist attitudes and made it a point to make sure officers engaged young Black and Brown folks by age 15 to make sure they understood the police were the ones in charge.

Those policies continued under police Chief Daryl Gates who passed away two weeks ago. Both Gates and Parker are seen as iconic and many departments adapted their policing policies. How this relates to this Seattle situation is that what is shown on this video is outrageous to some but all too familiar to folks in the hood, many who can tell you horror stories of being roughed up by police at young ages. We see this here in the video where the man in question is innocent and yet offered no apology or medical attention. What’s gonna happen with detainees in Arizona?

The other thing that was disturbing was seeing a Black and woman office on the scene doing nothing. The woman officer actually partakes in the brutality. The Black officer doesn’t do anything. It would be interesting to see what he and other officers reported. Did they note the abuse or lie in their reports? Should there be some sort of law on the books to make it a crime if an officer sees another officer commit a crime and not say anything? In any case many of us fought to have more women and people of color on the force thinking they would bring a sensitivity and attitude that would help change entrenched cultural practices… Not seeing those two officers intervene makes you wonder if all those efforts were wasted..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g1uvG5WoX0

Seattle Detective Apologizes for Racial Epithet

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/seattle-detective-shandy-cobane-apologizes-for-racial-epithet-beating/19469856?ncid=webmaildl1

(May 8) — A Seattle police officer offered a tearful apology after being caught on camera kicking an innocent man and using a racial epithet.
The video shows a group of officers standing around three men who are lying on the ground. Seattle Police Detective Shandy Cobane shouts, “I’m going to beat the [expletive] Mexican [expletive] out of you homey! You feel me?”

Cobane later kicks the man in the head and another cop kicks him in the hand.

The detective sobbed as he gave a news conference on Friday to apologize to the Latino community, his colleagues and the city of Seattle, The Seattle Times reported.

“I know my words cut deep and were very hurtful,” Cobane said. “Please know that I am truly, truly sorry.”

The video was shot by a freelance videographer at around 2 a.m. on April 17.

The incident in question took place as officers were investigating an armed robbery in Seattle’s Westlake neighborhood. The 911 call reporting the crime had described the suspects as Hispanic

The man attacked was not involved in the robbery. After officers let him go, the freelance videographer asked the unidentified man why he had been beaten.

“I don’t know. They knocked me down and kicked me in the head,” he responded.

Cobane and another officer have been placed on administrative leave. The city’s police department is carrying out an internal investigation, according to the Times.

Seattle police learned of the event a few days after the incident, and launched the investigation soon after, according to the AP.

Cobane, a 15-year veteran of the police force, said he never imagined he would “do anything to bring such notoriety to my department. Sadly, I did.”

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

As folks read this story and peep the video, keep in mind some sort of law needs to be put in place to reign in the abusive power of District Attorney’s especially when they are in small towns, like Kenneth. Mo. There are literally hundreds of stories around the country of how DAs rule entire counties with an iron fist. One of the more notorious ones is the case involving Regina Kelly in Hearne Texas. Folks may wanna rent the movie American Violet to get a better understanding of how out of control things can get with ruthless district attorneys. We are including the interview we did with Regina to further illustrate our point.

-Davey D-

————————————————————–

Woman Faces 15 Years for Cutting Line at Walmart, KKK Involved

by Boyce Watkins, PhD

Heather Ellis of Kennett, Mo., has quite a story to tell. It all started nearly three years ago in a local Wal-Mart.

Ellis was shopping in the store with a cousin, and the two temporarily parted ways to find the shortest line. Seeing that the other line was moving faster, Ellis went to get in line with her cousin.

She was accused of cutting the line by a store employee, who then notified the security guard. According to Ellis, she was shoved by another customer, had her items pushed to the side and was shortchanged when she finally checked out. The police affidavit states that Ellis was belligerent, loud, abusive and cursing when she was told to leave the store by the assistant manager.

Ellis’ aunt, Lily Blackmon, received a frantic call from her son and claims that when she arrived, her daughter’s head was being repeatedly banged against the police car as she told officers that she wasn’t resisting arrest. Blackmon, who was a probation officer in the town for 11 years, asked the officers why her niece was getting such rough treatment.

“I said, ‘What is going on?’ And all [the officer] could say was, ‘She cursed,'” said Blackmon.

Ellis was charged with disturbing the peace, trespassing, resisting arrest and two counts of assaulting a police officer. She was then offered a plea deal by Dunklin County Prosecutor Stephen Sokoloff. The prosecutor offered to drop the felony counts to one misdemeanor of disturbing the peace, as long as Ellis signed the plea deal. Her aunt claims that the deal was offered so their family wouldn’t file a lawsuit.

Ellis refused to take the plea deal, claiming that she wasn’t willing to admit to something she didn’t do; however, 11 months later, the misdemeanor counts were dropped, which seemed to be good news. The good news, though, was replaced with something even more disturbing.

It turned out that the misdemeanor counts had been replaced by felonies. Ellis now faces 15 years in prison if convicted. When her aunt went to prosecutor Sokoloff to find out what happened, Sokoloff allegedly told her, “Mrs. Ellis, when you get through, I don’t care what you say. You may as well take my way out. My way was the plea bargain. If you don’t take that way, I can assure you, you’ll never win in here.”

Ellis claims that her pending convictions have cost her two jobs and the chance to enter medical school, but she still refuses to sign the plea deal. Racism recently entered in to the story when Ellis was handed KKK cards from a Kennett police officer warning her about her actions. The cards stated, “You’ve just been paid a social visit by the Ku Klux Klan; the next visit will not be social.” The officer claims that he only showed the family the cards to make them aware of the situation. Since that time, and after a dramatic plea for support, people have come to help Heather. The site www.SaveHeatherEllis.com has emerged, and her father appeared on CNN on the 15th of October to tell her story.

Dr. Towanna Freeman, a management consultant, argues that Walmart was to blame for the unfortunate sequence of events: “No matter what angle you take on this case, it all started when Walmart failed a valued customer and it’s Wal-Mart that owes Ms. Heather Ellis a written apology.”

Dr. Freeman goes on to argue that Walmart should have cleared up the disturbance as soon as it occurred, rather than allowing it to get out of hand.

When it comes to the trial of Heather Ellis, the bottom line is this: This young woman’s future should not be in jeopardy over this incident. If the prosecutor’s office could drop significant felony counts down to one misdemeanor, then they can drop the charges altogether. This may also be a case of what I call, “You got the wrong black person syndrome,” in which police treat a black suspect a certain way because they believe the person is either uneducated or without influence. Most cases of police abuse go unreported or without accountability by the police department. Once they found out that Ellis was a college student, this may have led to the surprisingly generous concessions made in the original plea deal. There appears to be a power trip in this case, in which the prosecutor (like the one in the Jena 6 case) seems to feel that he has the right to destroy this young woman’s life over an argument at Wal-Mart. I don’t think we should let that happen. Rev. Sharpton and I will have something interesting to talk about this week.

source: http://www.bvblackspin.com/2009/10/12/woman-faces-15-years-for-cutting-line-at-walmart-kkk-involved/

To watch video about the incident, please click the image below: