"After NYC deaths, a surge of support for police" by David Crary, Associated Press December 25, 2014
NEW YORK — Well-wishers delivered home-baked cookies by the hundreds to police in Cincinnati. Rocker Jon Bon Jovi donned a New York Police Department T-shirt on stage. In Mooresville, N.C., police and sheriff’s officers were treated by residents to a chili dinner.
At a time when many in the nation’s police community feel embattled, Americans in cities and towns across the country are making an effort to express support and gratitude.
Imagine how the population feels!
‘‘I’m showing a little solidarity for my brothers in the NYPD and all of those who protect and serve us every day,’’ Bon Jovi told a cheering crowd at his concert Monday in Red Bank, N.J.
The surge of support is linked to two distinct but overlapping developments.
The immediate catalyst was the killings of two New York City police officers as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn on Saturday.
Related: NYPD Assassination a Psyop?
Sure is looking like one.
For many of those making appreciative gestures, there also was a desire to counter the widespread protests — steeped with criticism of police — that followed grand jury decisions not to charge white officers for their roles in the deaths of black men Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York.
Society's psychopathic managers would see nothing wrong with wasting two cops in order to accomplish this larger goal.
Becky Grizovic, of Walton, Ky., helps orchestrate a campaign called Cookies for a Cop that provides treats to officers in more than 200 departments in 23 states. She was joined by her husband, son, and a neighbor in delivering cookies to Cincinnati police stations Monday.
At the District 2 station house, Captain Jeffrey Butler said the gesture was especially appreciated in light of the deaths of the two officers in New York.
‘‘The reason that this started is that I’ve just been so disheartened by the news,’’ Grizovic said in a phone interview. ‘‘I wanted to do something positive to lift their spirits because this is so hard on all of them.’’
Rallies and vigils in support of police have taken place recently in several locations, including Nashville; West Orange, N.J.; Annapolis, Md., and New York City’s Riverdale neighborhood.
--more--"
I notice the same sympathy is hardly extended to those who have lost loved ones to police tyranny.
And now they are taking shots at firefighters?
"Police says firefighter injured in drive-by shooting" Associated Press December 25, 2014
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville firefighter was injured by gunfire in what the city’s mayor called a ‘‘cowardly attack’’ on a group of firefighters as they put fuel in a firetruck behind their station, authorities said.
Investigators say it appears the firefighters were targeted but added there’s no indication the shooting is connected to recent police shooting incidents in New York and Missouri, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Lieutenant Jackson Short told The Florida Times-Union.
How could it not be?
Because the firefighters may have been targeted, the sheriff’s office is going to send a car along with firetrucks on calls, Randy Wyse, president of the Jacksonville Association of Fire Fighters, said....
Yeah, they've ‘‘never seen this before.’’
STINK!
--more--"
"Officer kills armed 18-year-old in suburb near Ferguson" by Jim Suhr and Jim SalterAssociated Press December 25, 2014
BERKELEY, Mo. — The mayor of the St. Louis suburb of Berkeley urged calm Wednesday after a white police officer killed a black 18-year-old who police said pointed a gun at him, reigniting tensions that have lingered since the death of Michael Brown in neighboring Ferguson.
See?
After Antonio Martin was shot late Tuesday at a gas station, a crowd of about 300 people gathered at the site. Some threw rocks and bricks, but unlike the shooting of Brown, which was not captured on video, Berkeley Mayor Theodore Hoskins said, surveillance footage appeared to show Martin pulling a gun on the 34-year-old officer who questioned him and another man about a theft at a convenience store. Brown was unarmed.
‘‘You couldn’t even compare this with Ferguson or the Garner case in New York,’’ Hoskins said, referring to the chokehold death of Eric Garner, another black man killed by a white police officer in New York.
He also noted that unlike in Ferguson, where a mostly white police force serves a mostly black community, more than half of the officers in his city of 9,000 are black, including top command staff.
****************
The officer wasn’t wearing his body camera, and his cruiser’s dashboard camera was not activated because the car’s emergency lights were not on, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said.
Police released surveillance video clips from three different angles. The men can be seen leaving the store as a patrol car drives up. The officer gets out and speaks with them.
About 90 seconds later, one appears to raise his arm, though it’s difficult to see what he’s holding because they were several feet from the camera. Belmar said it was a 9mm handgun with one round in the chamber and five more in the magazine.
Police were searching Wednesday for the other man, who ran away.
Belmar said Martin had a criminal record that included three assault charges, plus charges of armed robbery, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon.
Phone messages left for his parents were not returned.
***********
His was the third fatal shooting of a young black man by a white police officer in the St. Louis area since Brown was killed by Ferguson officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9. Kajieme Powell, 25, was killed Aug. 19 after approaching St. Louis officers with a knife. Vonderrit Myers, 18, was fatally shot on Oct. 8 after allegedly shooting at a St. Louis officer.
I will leave it to you to find the relevant links here.
Each killing has led to protests, as did a grand jury’s decision last month not to charge Wilson in Brown’s death. A crowd quickly gathered late Tuesday in Berkeley. The demonstration involving about 300 people turned violent.
More than 50 police officers responded to protests Tuesday. Belmar said officers used pepper spray but not tear gas. Four people were arrested on charges of assaulting officers.
Thank whoever for small victories.
--more--"
And remember, readers, you don't take the law into your own hands, you take 'em to court!
"Civil rights case to proceed against police officer" by Jeremy C. Fox, Globe Correspondent December 25, 2014
A federal judge allowed a civil rights case to proceed Wednesday against a Framingham police officer who in 2011 shot and killed an unarmed man who was lying facedown on his kitchen floor.
US District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV said the estate of Eurie Stamps Sr. could proceed on two counts against Officer Paul K. Duncan, on allegations that he used excessive force in violation of Stamps’s Fourth Amendment rights.
Saylor found that Duncan was not shielded from the suit by qualified immunity protecting public employees from liability for actions performed as part of their official duties.
That needs to be rethunk.
Duncan accidentally shot Stamps in the face during a drug raid at Stamps’s apartment in Framingham on Jan. 5, 2011, according to court filings.
Wrong apartment?
Duncan was part of a SWAT team executing a search warrant that was obtained based on a report that Stamps’s stepson and others were selling crack cocaine from the apartment, the judge said in a memorandum issued Wednesday.
Stamps, 68, was a retired MBTA maintenance worker who had no criminal record and was not suspected of any crime, nor did he “do anything or say anything to suggest that he was a threat to the police or anyone else, or to suggest that he was not cooperating,” Saylor said. The SWAT team was told specifically that the retiree “posed no known threat to the police during the execution of the warrant,” according to a deposition quoted by Saylor.
Saylor granted summary judgments in favor of Duncan on several counts, and in two counts ruled in favor of the Town of Framingham, named as the officer’s co-defendant, but a wrongful death count against the town remains.
The judge’s decision comes at a time of heightened attention to police killings of unarmed black men, following the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., Eric Garner in Staten Island, N.Y., and others.
Duncan was not charged in the Framingham case after a 2011 investigation by the Middlesex district attorney’s office and State Police determined that he had lost his balance and fallen, causing him to accidentally fire his weapon.
“While falling, Officer Duncan removed his left hand from his rifle, which was pointing down towards the ground, and put his left arm out to try and catch himself. As he did so, he heard a shot,” then-Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. said at the time. Leone said Duncan summoned medical assistance as soon as he realized he had shot Stamps.
Oooops!
--more--"
Related: Drug War Making a Killing in Boston
That should put a stamp on the police state in Boston.
I'm wondering what they got me!
I'm going to return the shoes, thanks.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
Change of heart in NYC after officers’ deaths
A little more than a week ago, City Council members were taking to the streets in New York to block traffic in solidarity with the demonstrators demanding changes in policing. In an instant, criticism of the police seemed out of touch. “Die-ins,” which had become a staple of demonstrations in Grand Central Terminal, City Hall, and elsewhere, suddenly struck a discordant note.
It is exactly what I have been saying it is.
Looks like all you protesters pulled the trigger, too. At least that is the tone coming from my mouthpiece for the 1% and its slavish authorities, as well as the "support the troops" stuff from controlled opposition.
For student protests, use discipline sparingly
The kids should stand down, haven't you heard?
Three people shot in Dorchester on Christmas night
