Call and Respond

That is phrase often synonymous with Churches. Music, Schools or with in fact Police radios. The idea is that a Speaker’s words are punctuated by the audience/listeners. In music this is called antiphony and that is the act of responding to the singer as a way of affirming and communicating with them directly as a type of dialogue. It is a history rich in African Culture that has long extended itself into the mainstream with many doing this in Civic Affairs. See a Donald Trump MAGA rally for example. Ah the irony.

But there is another Call and Response associated with Law Enforcement when a call is made to Police through 911 it is transmitted to the local force in the area and with they are to respond to the code used for the call. A common one is 10-31 Criminal Act in process. Another is 10-16 – Domestic Problem. And today’s Police seem to arrive to most calls as if was 10-32 – Gun or Firearm. Yes that is our Police force today, armed and ready at all times to protect us from apparently ourselves. 

When I read the article I have printed below, another from my former home State, Washington, was in the news about a settlement that literally paid the Officers off for killing the man on his way home.  This from the Washington Post:

Ellis was on his way home after picking up a late-night snack at a 7-Eleven when Burbank and Collins stopped him and engaged in casual conversation, according to a report from Ferguson’s office. The two then wrestled Ellis to the ground. In video footage of the incident, Ellis can be heard telling the officers multiple times that he cannot breathe.

The officers had said that Ellis was violent and had tried to get into a nearby car, compelling them to use force, though witness testimonies and video footage called those claims into question.

Could not find the code for that one.

So the protests, the rage, the anger and the money spent to “defund Police” or at least attempt to get Police to stop the mass shootings a massive failure.  I would consider 1200 plus people killed by Police via a neck or a gun or a taser, a stun gun or by running into them into a car regardless of the incident and where it happened and why, I my definition it is akin to mass murder. A type of Genocide that Police commit across the Country at least 3 times a day. 

So the new year has begun and the month of January is now half over. How many have died already? Well there is this one, but I assume they will be busy the next few weeks in which to hit those numbers. So every time you call, you know they will respond. Say their name.

2023 saw record killings by US police. Who is most affected?

Officers killed at least 1,232 people last year – the deadliest year for homicides by law enforcement in over a decade, data shows

Sam Levin in Los Angeles The Guardian Mon 8 Jan 2024

Police in the US killed at least 1,232 people last year, making 2023 the deadliest year for homicides committed by law enforcement in more than a decade, according to newly released data.

Mapping Police Violence, a non-profit research group, catalogs deaths at the hands of police and last year recorded the highest number of killings since its national tracking began in 2013. The data suggests a systemic crisis and a remarkably consistent pattern, with an average of roughly three people killed by officers each day, with slight upticks in recent years.

The group recorded 30 more deaths in 2023 than the previous year, with 1,202 people killed in 2022; 1,148 in 2021; 1,160 in 2020; and 1,098 in 2019. The numbers include shooting victims, as well as people fatally shocked by a stun gun, beaten or restrained. The 2023 count is preliminary, and cases could be added as the database is updated.

High-profile 2023 cases included the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols in Memphis; the tasing of Keenan Anderson in Los Angeles; and the shooting in Lancaster, California, of Niani Finlayson, who had called 911 for help over domestic violence. There were hundreds more who garnered little attention, including Ricky Cobb, shot by a Minnesota trooper after he was pulled over for a tail light violation; Tahmon Kenneth Wilson, unarmed and shot outside a Bay Area cannabis dispensary; and Isidra Clara Castillo, killed when police in Amarillo, Texas, fired at someone else in the same car as her.

Here are some key takeaways from the data and experts’ insight into why US police continue to kill civilians at a rate an order of magnitude higher than comparable nations.

Police violence is increasing as murders are falling

The record number of police killings happened in a year that saw a significant decrease in homicides, according to preliminary reports of 2023 murder rates; one analyst said the roughly 13% decrease in homicides last year appears to be the largest year-to-year drop on record, and reports have also signaled drops in other violent and property crimes.

“Violence is trending downwards at an unprecedented rate, but the exception to that seems to be the police, who are engaging in more violence each year,” said Samuel Sinyangwe, a policy analyst and data scientist who founded Mapping Police Violence. “It hits home that many of the promises and actions made after the murder of George Floyd don’t appear to have reduced police violence on a nationwide level.”

Some advocates say the lack of systemic reforms and continued expansion of police forces have helped sustain the high rates. Polls show most Americans believe crime is rising, and amid voter concerns about safety and violence, municipalities have continued to increase police budgets.

Monifa Bandele, an activist on the leadership team for the Movement for Black Lives, said that while state and local governments continue to rely on police to address mental health crises, domestic disputes and other social problems, killings will continue: “The more police you put on the streets to interact with members of my community, the greater the risk of harm, abuse and death.”

Many people were killed while trying to flee police

The circumstances behind the 2023 killings mirrored past trends. Last year, 445 people killed by police had been fleeing, representing 36% of all cases. There have been efforts across the country to prevent police from shooting at fleeing cars and people, recognizing the danger to the public. But the rates have been steady in recent years, with one in three killings involving people fleeing.

The underlying reasons for the encounters were also consistent. In 2023, 139 killings (11%) involved claims a person was seen with a weapon; 107 (9%) began as traffic violations; 100 (8%) were mental health or welfare checks; 79 (6%) were domestic disturbances; 73 (6%) were cases where no offenses were alleged; 265 (22%) involved other alleged nonviolent offenses; and 469 (38%) involved claims of violent offenses or more serious crimes.

“The majority of cases have not originated from reported violent crimes. The police are routinely called into situations where there was no violence until police arrived and the situation escalated,” Sinyangwe said.

Sheriffs’ departments and rural regions are driving the increase

In 2023, there were more killings by police in rural zip codes (319 cases, or 26% of killings) than in urban ones (292 cases, or 24%); the remainder of killings were in suburban areas, with a handful of cases undetermined. This marks a shift from previous years when the number of killings in cities outpaced rural deaths.

County sheriff’s departments, which tend to have jurisdiction over more rural and suburban areas and face less oversight, were responsible for 32% of killings last year; 10 years prior, sheriffs were involved in only 26% of killings.

Black Americans were killed at much higher rates

In 2023, Black people were killed at a rate 2.6 times higher than white people, Mapping Police Violence found. Last year, 290 people killed by police were Black, making up 23.5% of victims, while Black Americans make up roughly 14% of the total population. Native Americans were killed at a rate 2.2 times greater than white people, and Latinos were killed at a rate 1.3 times greater.

Black and brown people have also consistently been more likely to be killed while fleeing. From 2013 to 2023, 39% of Black people who were killed by police had been fleeing, typically either running or driving away. That figure is 35% for Latinos, 33% for Native Americans, 29% for white people and 22% for Asian Americans.

Albuquerque and New Mexico had the deadliest rates

Police in New Mexico killed 23 people last year, making it the state with the highest number of fatalities per capita, with a rate of 10.9 killings per 1 million residents, Mapping Police Violence found.

In one New Mexico case in April, Farmington officers showed up to the wrong house and killed the resident, Robert Dotson, when he opened the door with a handgun. In November, an officer in Las Cruces near the border fatally shot Teresa Gomez after he questioned why she was parked outside a public housing complex.

Albuquerque, New Mexico’s most populous city, also ranked highest in killings per capita among the country’s 50 largest cities. Albuquerque police killed six people in 2023, while many cities with substantially larger populations, including San Jose and Honolulu, each killed only one civilian last year. Some advocates have said gun culture in the state, particularly in rural areas, could be a factor in the high rates of police violence.

A spokesperson for the New Mexico governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, said in an email that she was “committed to promoting professional and constitutional policing”, and noted the governor signed a bill into law last year “aimed at increased accountability for those in this critical profession”. SB19 established a duty to intervene when officers witness certain unlawful uses of force; prohibited neck restraints and firing at fleeing vehicles; and required the establishment of a public police misconduct database.

Spokespeople for Albuquerque police did not respond to an inquiry on Friday.

Few officers face accountability

From 2013 to 2022, 98% of police killings have not resulted in officers facing charges, Mapping Police Violence reported.

This contributes to the steady rate of violence, said Joanna Schwartz, University of California, Los Angeles law professor and expert on how officers evade accountability for misconduct: “Even with public attention to police killings in recent years and unprecedented community engagement, it’s really business as usual. That means tremendous discretion given to police to use force whenever they believe it’s appropriate, very limited federal and state oversight of policing, and union agreements across the country that make it very difficult to effectively investigate, discipline or fire officers.”

Problem officers with repeated brutality incidents or killings frequently remain on the force or get jobs in other departments, she noted.

Some cities experienced decreases in lethal force

Some cities with histories of police brutality had notably few killings in 2023. St Louis police killed one person last year, and there were no killings recorded by Minneapolis, Seattle or Boston police.

“It suggests that even places with longstanding issues can see improvement. It’s not fixed that they always have to be this way,” Sinyangwe said.

Bandele noted that community violence prevention programs have helped reduce reliance on police and limit vulnerable people’s exposure to potentially lethal encounters. Denver has received national attention for its program sending civilian responders to mental health calls instead of police. A Brooklyn neighborhood last year experimented with civilian responders to 911 calls.

“Every week, someone who needs mental health care ends up killed by police,” Bandele said. “But there are alternative ways to respond.”

As Rome Burns

Another Black man killed by Police, following another Black man killed by White Vigilante men who were doing what they do, kill black me or whatever as one was a former law enforcement officer so it is clear where he learned that skill. Ahmaud Arbery did not realize that was to be the last run of his life.  When does anyone think that?

It always begins with a 911 call where an aggrieved person/victim has been robbed and of course seen, suspected or believed that a large black man is behind the action that has prompted the call. With George Floyd it was no different and it ended no differently with Mr. Floyd dead.

I can’t breathe is a phrase we here in this area have heard before, Eric Garner was selling singles cigarettes outside a bodega so they called 911.Bystanders filmed the arrest on their cellphones, recording Mr. Garner as he gasped “I can’t breathe,” and his death was one of several fatal The federal civil rights investigation dragged on for five years amid internal disputes in the Justice Department, under both President Barack Obama and President Trump.

In the end, Mr. Barr made the call not to seek a civil rights indictment against Officer Pantaleo, just before a deadline for filing some charges expired. (the same Bill Barr, yes that one)

His intervention settled the disagreement between prosecutors in the civil rights division, which has pushed for an indictment, and Brooklyn prosecutors, who never believed the department could win such a case. between black people and the police that catalyzed the national Black Lives Matter movement.

 Then came the incident in Ferguson, Missouri that began when Michael Brown allegedly stole some Cigarellos he was shot and killed on Aug. 9, 2014, by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in Ferguson, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. The shooting prompted protests that roiled the area for weeks. On Nov. 24, the St. Louis County prosecutor announced that a grand jury decided not to indict Mr. Wilson. The announcement set off another wave of protests. In March, the Justice Department called on Ferguson to overhaul its criminal justice system, declaring that the city had engaged in constitutional violation

 On April 12th, 2015, a 25-year-old black man from the west side of Baltimore  was arrested for possession of a “switchblade,” put inside a Baltimore Police Department (BPD) transport van, and then, 45 minutes later, was found unconscious and not breathing, his spinal cord nearly severed.  His name Freddie Gray.  Following a seven-day coma, Gray died on April 19th; his untimely death and citizen video of his arrest, which showed Gray screaming in pain, prompted both the peaceful protests and headline-grabbing riots. The subsequent two-week police investigation ultimately concluded that Gray’s injury happened sometime during the van’s route – over six stops, with two prisoner checks, and another passenger pick-up.   On May 1st, 2015, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby stood on the steps of Baltimore’s City Hall to announce criminal charges against six police officers, an unheard of demand for police accountability. But over the next two years, four trials would end in defeat for the prosecution, the remaining charges would be dropped, and many leaders in Baltimore would retire, quit, or be fired.

January 2015, the day began with a swap: one boy’s cellphone for another’s replica of a Colt pistol.

One of the boys went to play in a nearby park, striking poses with the lifelike, airsoft-style gun, which fired plastic pellets. He threw a snowball, settled down at a picnic table and flopped his head onto his arms in a perfect assertion of preteen ennui, a grainy security video shows. Because of multiple layers in Cleveland’s 911 system, crucial information from the initial call about “a guy in here with a pistol” was never relayed to the responding police officers, including the caller’s caveats that the gun was “probably fake” and that the wielder was “probably a juvenile.”

Seconds later, the boy lay dying from a police officer’s bullet. “Shots fired, male down,” one of the officers in the car called across his radio. “Black male, maybe 20, black revolver, black handgun by him. Send E.M.S. this way, and a roadblock.”

But the boy, Tamir Rice, was only 12. Now, with the county sheriff’s office reviewing the shooting, interviews and recently released video and police records show how a series of miscommunications, tactical errors and institutional failures by the Cleveland police cascaded into one irreversible mistake

July 2016, it took just 40 seconds for an ordinary traffic stop to turn deadly — from a police officer saying, “Hello, sir,” to him firing seven shots at a seated motorist.

But the police dashboard camera video released Tuesday adds a visceral element to what police witnesses had described — unnerving even in the context of other police shootings and after a video taken by Philando Castile’s passenger went viral.

It was July 6 when Officer Jeronimo Yanez killed Castile in Minnesota. It was shown in court during Yanez’s trial. and hew  was acquitted  of one count of second-degree manslaughter and two counts of intentional discharge of firearm that endangers safety.

A scant two weeks later July 15 in another city in another state a woman was arrested after a traffic stop.  Her name was Sandra Bland.  She  died three days after her arrest at the Waller county jail. It was ruled a suicide after she was found hanging in her cell.  But Bland’s family have long remained suspicious of the circumstances, and the newly released camera footage prompted calls for a new investigation.

I recall my first realization that there was a problem in 2008, with Oscar Grant at Fruitvale Station. His story was made into a major motion picture but even 10 years later more questions few answers and little change. 

There was a valid attempt to count the number of deaths at the hands of police officers and that was 1,000 a year.  The data is here in the Washington Post nor the first riot in the streets but this time will be any different? Well that depends. 

In  2017,  and unlike the stories above, and the many I have not listed, this ending was different. Mohamed Noor, who is black, Somali and Muslim, became the first Minnesota police officer convicted of murder in an on-duty killing, when a jury found him guilty in the fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk, who was white.

Legal action against police officers involved in fatal shootings is exceedingly rare. 

But there have been others in the Minneapolis area and we the same results as Mr. Castillo:  In 2016, ,Mike Freeman, the Hennepin County prosecutor, chose not to charge officers in the shooting death of Jamar Clark, who was black, saying Mr. Clark had grabbed one officer’s holstered gun.  The year prior he did not charge the officers who pursued and shot at Thurman Blevins, killing him; Mr. Freeman said Mr. Blevins, who was also black, had a gun and did not follow the officers’ commands. In the killing of Travis Jordan this January, the prosecutor said the police officers had faced a deadly threat because Mr. Jordan, who was Hawaiian, had a knife and was coming toward them.

Since 2005, 101 nonfederal officers have been charged with murder or manslaughter in shootings while they were on duty, according to Philip Stinson, a criminologist at Bowling Green State University. About 36 percent of those officers have been convicted, but only four of them on murder charges; the others were for lesser offenses.

Yes race matters, depending on who is holding the gun.  I end this comment with this:

Mustafa Diriye, a community organizer working in Minneapolis, said he had advocated vigorously for justice for Ms. Ruszczyk, just as he had for black victims of police shootings. He was pleased with the verdict, he said. 

Yet he could not help but be bothered that the system had worked so well for a white woman when it had failed so many black people, he said. 

“‘I fear for my life’ — that’s what all white cops get away with,” said Mr. Diriye, who is originally from Somalia. “That only works for white officers. They can fear for their life. But if you are black, no, no you cannot be fearful.” 

Mr. Diriye said he felt that if white people would demand justice for black police-shooting victims the way they did for Ms. Ruszczyk, things could be different. 

“The hypocrisy is there,” he said. “That is my frustration.”

Cop Talk

The entire center of Black Lives Matter is with regards to how Police elect to encounter Black Men and in turn ends with usually the black man being killed. True we have had some women and in turn we have had white individuals killed as well by Cops who were called to investigate someone with a gun, someone driving erractically or without proper licensing, a mental health check or just ’cause.

When a Police Officer sees an individually doing anything they deem irregular be it illegal or not the encounter can largely fall on how the Officer perceives you and how they elect to do so.  This weekend I was not paying attention to the lights and ran a red light.  I jumped out of the car as my purse was in the trunk he immediately goes “Don’t jump out of the car!” The irony was I stopped in front of a Church on a Sunday morning and chose that location to stop as the presumption could be I was going to Church, they would be witness to anything or it just seemed like a good idea.  My encounter ended up to be a positive one.  I received no ticket and he could tell I had been crying. I had long before the stop and hence the running the light.  He was actually quite gracious and I was appreciative but I am white, over 50 and was driving a rental car as that is where I was headed to return the vehicle.   But I am lucky for two reasons: I could have been seriously hurt when I ran that light and I did not get a ticket which would have seriously damaged  my driving record which I want to keep squeaky clean.

But my first encounter with Police was when the bucket of shit Patient Coordinator called the Police on me to do a mental health check when I ranted to her about the billing issues that I had encountered.  Funny once again I received a bill for 1900 bucks and this time I just threw it in the trash and told my Dentist directly that I had gotten a bill which I am not paying and to fix it whenever.  I said we don’t need Cops on this one as I did nothing to invite them.

The last few days have seen the protests in St. Louis and another death gone unresolved.  But I can assure you that if a Black man had killed a white man the outcome would be different. Then we had the Georgia Tech shooting, a man in Oklahoma killed by Police, and the release of the video of the Bronx man holding a fake knife killed by Police.

Then I read the article below about Police learning about Autism and how to connect and in turn relate and respond to those who are on the spectrum.  I think they will follow the status quo and shoot first diagnose later.

Police are not Social Workers, Mental Health Workers, Drug Treatment Agents or Physicians,  Psychologists or any kind of licensed professional familiar with learning disabilities or behavioral disorders nor any kind of physical disability such as deafness or even vision issues that can lead people to neither respond nor act in ways that are defined as “normal.”  And even that concept of normal runs wide when it comes to people when they encounter the Police or any stressful situation.

And yet we continue to call them and they are the ones sent by the morons who work 911 often giving the Officers misinformation or insufficient information to lend them to make rational decisions and in turn calling for appropriate back up or support in the situation.  Cops are not geniuses they are law enforcement. Good for traffic bad for social issues.

The Police Need to Understand Autism

By STEVE SILBERMAN
The New York Times
Sept 19, 2017

Diane Craglow was caring for a 14-year-old autistic boy named Connor Leibel in Buckeye, Ariz., one day in July. They took a walk to one of his favorite places, a park in an upscale community called Verrado. She was not hesitant to leave Connor alone for a few minutes while she booked a piano lesson for his sister nearby, because he usually feels safe and comfortable in places that are familiar to him, and he learns to be more independent that way.

When Ms. Craglow returned, she couldn’t believe what she saw: a police officer looming over the now-handcuffed boy, pinning him to the ground against a tree. Connor was screaming, and the police officer, David Grossman, seemed extremely agitated.

As Ms. Craglow tried to piece together what had happened, more officers arrived, spilling out of eight patrol cars in response to Officer Grossman’s frantic call for backup. Soon it became clear to Ms. Craglow that the policeman was unaware that Connor has autism, and had interpreted the boy’s rigid, unfamiliar movements — which included raising a piece of yarn to his nose to sniff it repeatedly — as a sign of drug intoxication.

As a graduate of Arizona’s Drug Evaluation and Classification program, Officer Grossman is certified as a “drug recognition expert.” But no one had trained him to recognize one of the classic signs of autism: the repetitive movements that autistic people rely on to manage their anxiety in stressful situations, known as self-stimulation or “stimming.” That’s what Connor was doing with the string when Officer Grossman noticed him while he was on patrol.

Images from Officer Grossman’s body camera show how the encounter turned into a situation that rapidly escalated beyond Connor’s ability to make sense of what was happening to him.

When an unfamiliar policeman rushed up to Connor and asked, “What are you doing?” he was honest, as autistic people usually are. “I’m stimming,” the boy said brightly. But Officer Grossman was unfamiliar with the word. On the body-cam audio, you can hear the officer’s uncomprehending response: “What?” You can also hear Connor try to calm himself down by saying “I’m O.K., I’m O.K.,” as he sustains abrasions on his back, arm and cheek by being held on the ground by the officer.

This is basically a worst-case scenario for anyone who cares for someone with a developmental disability, as well as for disabled people themselves, who live every day in fear that their behavior will be misconstrued as suspicious, intoxicated or hostile by law enforcement. And the encounter could have ended up a lot more tragic. Imagine if instead of being fair-haired and rail-thin, Connor had been powerfully built and black or Hispanic. A tense police officer, approaching a young man he thought was a threat to himself or others, might have been tempted to reach for his Taser or service weapon instead of his handcuffs.

That’s precisely what happened last year in North Miami, Fla., when a young autistic man named Arnaldo Rios briefly wandered from a group home to play with his toy truck on the street, and a passer-by called the police to report an “armed and suicidal” man sitting in the road.

When Officer Jonathan Aledda arrived, he had no idea that Mr. Rios had autism; no idea that the black man trying to calm him down, Charles Kinsey, was his behavioral therapist; and no idea that the flashing silver object in Mr. Rios’s hands was a toy, not a weapon. Officer Aledda fired at Mr. Rios. The bullet missed him, but struck Mr. Kinsey in the leg. The therapist survived, but the trauma of the incident resulted in Mr. Rios’s being placed into more restrictive institutions. He was unable to eat, suffered from night terrors and said to himself over and over, “I hate the police.” In April, state prosecutors charged Officer Aledda with attempted manslaughter and culpable negligence.

Studies show that these kinds of interactions between disabled people and law enforcement are terrifyingly common, and often go unreported. A white paper published last year by the Ruderman Family Foundation reported, “Disabled individuals make up a third to half of all people killed by law enforcement officers.”

Connor Leibel’s mother filed a complaint about her son’s treatment that resulted in an internal investigation by the Buckeye Police Department. It not only cleared Officer Grossman but also came to the unsatisfying conclusion that because the autism label covers a large spectrum of symptoms and behaviors it “would be very difficult to teach officers to recognize them all.”

That’s certainly true: Another way to frame the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s estimate that one in 68 American schoolchildren is on the spectrum is that autistic people make up a large and extremely diverse minority population. But police officers do not have to become experts in every aspect of autism to learn how to recognize people on the spectrum and treat them with respect.

Last year I attended a presentation by Rob Zink, an officer from the St. Paul Police Department in Minnesota, who started the Cop Autism Response Education Project to train his fellow officers how to interact with autistic people, inspired by his experience of having two sons on the spectrum. Officer Zink pointed out that sirens and flashing lights alone can be catastrophic sensory overload for people with autism, while a calm voice and a reassuring demeanor can go a long way toward de-escalating a tense confrontation.

He also stressed that law enforcement personnel should not expect autistic people to behave in the ways that non-autistic people do. For example, officers should not regard a refusal to look them in the eyes as a sign of guilt, as Officer Grossman did with Connor Leibel. In fact, many autistic people find it easier to interpret spoken instructions if they’re not compelled to simultaneously look the speaker in the eyes.

Similar programs are underway in several police departments across the country and around the world, but they are still too few and far between. The scarcity of these programs is a sad legacy of the decades when autism was mistakenly believed to be a rare condition, and many autistic people lived out their lives in state-run institutions.

Now that we know that autism is common, and comes in all the hues and shades of a broad human spectrum, we need to give law enforcement officers the knowledge that they need to avoid turning a routine call into a life-altering calamity.