To Serve And Protect

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2015 is one of the safest years for police in 25 years, despite ‘war on cops’ media coverage
by theGrio | September 6, 2015 at 8:51 AM
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Members of the North Charleston Police department stand for the Pledge of Allegiance before a City Council meeting on April 9, 2015, in North Charleston, South Carolina. (Photo by Richard Ellis/Getty Images)

2015 may end up being the safest year for police officers in the past 25 years.

The Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP), which has been tracking officer deaths for the past 100 years, shows that this year, there have been 24 officers shot and killed by suspects this year. If the rate continues at this pace, the ODMP estimates 36 such deaths in the year 2015, which will be the lowest in 25 year, aside from 31 deaths in 2013.

Each one of these deaths is a tragedy and should not be taken lightly. However, this statistic does seem to throw a wrench into the works of people who are claiming that there is a “war on cops” mentality in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The rhetoric of the “war on cops” stems from highly-publicized incidents such as the recent death of Harris County sheriff’s deputy Darren Goforth, who was shot from behind while at a gas station in a senseless killing that many have tried to link to the Black Lives Matter movement, despite the fact that the suspect, Shannon Miles, never claimed to be affiliated with the movement.

In fact, the vast majority of the 24 deaths happened when police were engaged with violent suspects or were hit in an exchange of gunfire. Very few come close to the execution-style death in Harris County.

And yet, the idea of a “war on cops” persists."

“The police continue to be intentionally misleading about their rhetoric and openly hostile to anyone who questions them,” DeRay Mckesson, one of the most visible leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement, said. “It’s a profession that refuses any attempts for accountability and justice.”
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I don't know that I agree with DeRay here. I think people naturally get defensive when they feel attacked, and I can understand why police feel like they are being attacked, but they need to take a real honest look at why this is happening. People aren't making up videos of officers killing and beating people, officers are actually doing it, and you can't fix a problem till you admit there is one. The majority of officers being good doesn't excuse the ones that aren't, but the problem is that the ones that aren't good get protected and the culture doesn't allow for the good officers to tell on the bad ones.

 

I think Deray is a POS.

Media frenzy. Report every shooting. Reminds me of when pitbulls used to bite people every day and then they stopped.... or maybe the media found something else to report on.

 

I'm just gonna leave this here...

 

Cops don't snitch on other cops. Similar to the street mentality of those they're arresting.

Hopefully both sides stop that nonsense.

 

And the ones that do tell about what another cop does often get retaliation and can't get promoted.

 

They don't get backed up, which can lead to their death.

 

And to continue the story Weezy posted:

"Not only was tennis star James Blake innocent, so was the other black man NYPD said he looked like
byShaun KingFollowforshaunking


James Blake on the left, the man the NYPD claimed they meant to arrest on the right

Everything about this story is off.

On September 9, the New York Police Department assaulted and arrested James Blake—the former No. 4-ranked tennis player in the world—outside of his midtown Manhattan hotel as he was headed to the U.S. Open.

At first, the NYPD claimed it was a case of mistaken identity, and that James Blake looked like a "twin" of the man they intended to arrest. Someone even leaked a photo of the man Blake was supposed to look just like. Now it turns out that "twin" has absolutely nothing to do with the case, either. Thi admission was tucked deep in a few stories about the case:

The team of officers, looking for suspects in a credit card fraud ring, were relying on a courier who identified Mr. Blake as one of the buyers, the police said. The officers also had an Instagram photo of someone believed to be involved. That person, who Mr. Bratton said looked like Mr. Blake’s “twin brother,” turned out to have no role in the scheme.

Now this man's face is all over the internet, mostly mentioned with the words "suspect" and "theft." Who gave the them this photo of some other random dude off of Instagram? The courier? The NYPD now claims the company, GoButler, gave them the random Instagram photo of this man, but that still doesn't explain the self-serving reason they released it to the public.
What's crazy about all of this is that the entire case is supposed to be about identity fraud. Yet the NYPD continues to mangle the identities of innocent black men who had nothing at all to do with the case.

What's this all about? Keep reading for more.

This isn't about truth. This is about public relations, and the NYPD is incredibly good at PR. Let me explain.

Before NYPD Commissioner William Bratton ever spoke to the officer who assaulted James Blake, he publicly declared that the case had nothing at all to do with race. How did he come to that conclusion? Did he just have a hunch? Was it because the officer simply said it had nothing to do with race? If so, that's not enough.

We now know that Officer James Frascatore has had half a dozen use of force and racial profiling complaints filed against him. So actually, commissioner, you should reconsider what might have happened here. According to both Blake and an eyewitness who saw it, he wastreated like a violent criminal.

“I was standing there doing nothing — not running, not resisting, in fact smiling,” Mr. Blake said, explaining that he thought the man might have been an old friend. Then, he said, the officer “picked me up and body slammed me and put me on the ground and told me to turn over and shut my mouth, and put the cuffs on me.”
A man who sells newspapers near the entrance to Grand Central Terminal said he watched the police rough up Mr. Blake. “They were real aggressive, like he robbed a bank,” the man, Charlie Sanders, 55, said. “They were shoving him around.”

What we do know is this: Had that not been James Blake, the tennis star, being roughed up by police, if he were some other innocent black man? He might still be in jail right now."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/...the-other-black-man-they-said-he-looked-like#

 

So yeah, I'm not seeing how these guys are twins, I don't see a resemblance at all. Also, when is there ever a need to tackle a suspect who isn't resisting and is standing there smiling at you?

 

I see a resemblance. Agree he had no right to tackle him.

 

I can't see any, they look absolutely nothing alike. Guy on the right has quite a bit darker complexion, does not have a clean shaven head, appears to have a different head and neck shape altogether.



Pretty gross to me. Just standing there, taken to the ground. He resists going to the ground for a couple seconds, but I'd assume that's out of shock and confusion and instinct to protect himself. And people just walk by and look, like nothing, sad.

I really shouldn't get involved in this police talk, it just gets me angry and disgusted, but this one bugs me for different reasons. Like that article Barns posted said, what if this guy wasn't a famous tennis player, what if he was a regular dude? Would he have gotten off so lightly? Scary.

 

This s*** makes me so mad. He was just standing on the corner. What, did he swing his cane/golf club at her from a block away? Blatant b******* harassment racism right here.

At least this f***** got fired.

 

It's a weapon? Dude is just standing there, and he's so old it's practically a cane. How do these people become police, isn't there a mental health test they have to pass?

 

Great example of a cop doing a great job ensuring safety and law is upheld, while also respecting people as he is being respected

 

I have a friend that's been on the force 7 years out here in CT. He's a member of Swat and a Trainer for his department. Awesome guy and a really good officer from all my conversations I've had with him. He treats everyone with respect, deescalates situations, doesn't profile and teaches all his cadets to do the same. About two years back his own partner shot him accidentally in a Subway restaurant while they were getting lunch. The department's version of therapy after he got shot was literally a sergeant calling him up and saying "So uhh, you good?". That's it.

He had some terrible anxiety and PTSD trying to recover where he would start breathing hard and feel weird when in cramped spaces with officers doing firearms training. He told me that after 7 years on the job he needed to be promoted to training at the academy because the stress of the job was getting to him. He needed a break. Luckily he got that promotion, but think of how many officers in his position don't.

I really feel like some of these cops we see in these videos are just pieces of s***, but others are just stressed and have PTSD. You can only deal with seeing horrible scenes and worrying about your own life for so long before anyone, even the best cops, would be affected. A lot of those cops could be helped if departments just concentrated on mental health, but I get the feeling it's viewed as weak to need that help.

That's not an excuse though. Just a fact IMO.