U.N. rights experts seek review of U.S. police practices
Source: Reuters
United Nations human rights experts on Friday called for a halt to racial profiling by U.S. law enforcement officers and a review of laws allowing police to use lethal force.
The independent experts regretted that grand juries in the United States had failed to indict police officers for killing two unarmed black men in separate incidents that have led to mass protests.
Sending to trial the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York would have brought all evidence to light and allowed justice to take its course, they said in a statement.
"I am concerned by the grand juries' decisions and the apparent conflicting evidence that exists relating to both incidents," said Rita Izsak, U.N. special rapporteur on minority issues.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/05/us-usa-new-york-un-idUSKCN0JJ1E620141205
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Can't you see the pattern?
AllyCat
(16,135 posts)and the corporate fascists that run our country will thumb their noses right before they kill another human being. How do we fix this? It's making me crazy. No one is safe.
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)across the country. No stopping anyone on the street or in their car. Only answer calls from 911 on healthy related issues only. 911 operators must be in on this too. They must stop taking calls from the public and train on questions to ask before sending police. No more bull crap answering 911 calls on scary person reason. The days of police answering to 911 calls are over. In fact, the fire department should be primary responder. Fire in house? Ok go. Person having health issue? Ok go. That's it until training is done. The public is getting people killed......all these cases have one thing in common......nosey individual who has nothing to do with the situation. Police must ignore calls from nosey public. They cause police to overreact. 90 days without police will actually make our country safer as crazy as it sounds.
Trillo
(9,154 posts)I can't believe I read about "retraining" the cops the other day, forget which police force. I've been reading about training and "continuing education" in almost all career fields for years and decades, since the late 1970s.
Check this out, it appears to be Missouri legal code,
...
Every peace or reserve officer with the authority to enforce motor vehicle or traffic laws shall obtain at least three credit hours of continuing education training regarding racial profiling each reporting period. To meet this requirement, in-service racial profiling training courses must be pre-approved by POST or must be delivered by an Approved Provider.
Did you read that? They've been required to receive continuing education every "reporting period". So they've been retrained continually, year after year.
The "retraining" schtick is just a PR stunt to pacify the public.
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)911 calls would answered extremely rare. Only absolute necessity and only after a list of questions answered from nosy body.
Trillo
(9,154 posts)Last edited Fri Dec 5, 2014, 09:01 PM - Edit history (2)
Would there be a penalty for wrongly calling 911, if your idea came to pass? It's an idea to consider.
I'm tired of being interrogated wherever I go. If you make it too hard for folks to report 'real crimes', not just suspicion, you could end up with nobody reporting any crimes.
Perhaps we should stop having cops come to schools to train children that cops are good guys, although the truth is that a lot of cops are good guys, but this racism crap is evidently a real problem, one that appears somewhat institutionalized.
I think that the biggest part of the problem lies in the close relationship between prosecutors and the police. They're "buddies", while the rest of citizens, are, well, "unknowns" at best.
I remember once, years ago, going to a neighborhood grocery store everyday, the checkers and managers all knew me, I'd been shopping there mostly one evening everyday for several years, back when I tended to purchase that evenings meal and only that evening's meal. One day I was assaulted in the parking lot, and someone called the cops. The guy fighting me left, but I stayed. I wasn't injured. After the cops got there, I overheard the store manager say, about me, "We don't know him." I never shopped there again, they only knew me when I was handing them money, every damn day, but when a cop was there, a different "truth" appeared.
My point is, this "We don't know you" crap is not limited to just prosecutors and citizens, it seems a larger issue with corporations as well.
That's basically the same thing here. The folks that live in the towns served by the police all pay their taxes, the local, state, and federal government "knows" them, they know where they live, their names, their income tax or W-2 information, social security, the whole e-surveillance thing, etc. Yet, when it comes time for a cop-murdered citizen's family to get justice, "We don't know you." Let's collect the "evidence". blah blah blah. Government knows them just fine when the citizen is paying taxes.
Why isn't that enough for the citizen to have an equivalent "buddy buddy" relationship with the local DA? Instead, "We don't know you," and "Let's look at the evidence." Oh, damn, you gave away a cigarette on the street. Criminal. Death penalty. Oh, you maybe walked out of the store without paying. Criminal. Death penalty. Cop dislikes they way you look. Criminal. Death penalty. Etcetera.