The Chase

I will be gone for the next few days attending the Newport Jazz Festival and with that I rarely read or follow news as it is harder and harder to find an actual physical copy of a New York Times and with that I simply just headline read to see if there is an issue of import I should read when I get back to the hotel and can sit on my Ipad to do so. But with that I am also better off as I often want to discuss what I have read and since few if any people actually read anything, let alone newspapers, it enables me to find less to talk about and less inclined to talk at all. I wrote about the strange encounters with the couples in Saratoga Springs, which only confirmed what I had long known, MAGA people are white, educated, professionals and they are afraid of “others” taking what they have earned and in turn be “given” what they were not. So this is about self interest and self preservation and with that it is seeded in two factors – Racism and Elitism. So as they drive off in their Mercedes which they are paying for via credit that also discriminates, they will never have to worry about the traffic stop and being found dead by the side of the road. I can assure you I used to drive a Mercedes, was stopped in Arizona and the State Police Officer, a woman, threatened to shoot my dog who was barking and afraid as stepped out of the vehicle to make it so there was no risk to Emma. Emma was not outside of the car she was fine in the back seat just doing what dogs do but this woman wanted me to be complacent and afraid, it worked. I sat down on the road and begged her to not do this leading the other Officer to intervene and proceed with the infraction portion of the ticket. Which I never paid and never heard a thing from the Arizona State Police again. Nor ever will ever go back there. They can fuck themselves. But my encounters with Police to this day are still highly charged and in turn things I go out of my way to avoid. Even if I saw a crime committed I am not engaging or getting involved, I fear the Police more. They too can go fuck themselves.

So with that I leave you with this article from the Guardian with regards to the majority of Police Shootings and how they end up with the stats that show 1 out of 3 end up dead in such a similar encounter and that they were fleeing from the scene. I cannot understand that mentality as I could not nor would not in any encounter as I could not outrun a cop, let alone a gun and I have never felt compelled to do so. Lay prone in the street, fall down on hands and knees begging yes, but run no. That said, it does not excuse the slime bag Police from shooting and killing these individuals. I have again no respect for this profession as again I point to Uvalde or to the Highland Park shooter stopped in traffic, the Buffalo shooter or in fact Parkland who was also stopped by Police in a parking lot. Bitch please had these boys been not white, the outcome would have been very different.

‘Hunted’: one in three people killed by US police were fleeing, data reveals

In many cases, the encounters started as traffic stops or there were no allegations of violence or serious crimes

Sam Levin in Los Angeles The Guardian 28 Jul 2022

Nearly one third of people killed by US police since 2015 were running away, driving off or attempting to flee when the officer fatally shot or used lethal force against them, data rev

In the past seven years, police in America have killed more than 2,500 people who were fleeing, and those numbers have slightly increased in recent years, amounting to an average of roughly one killing a day of someone running or trying to escape, according to Mapping Police Violence, a research group that tracks lethal force cases.

In many cases, the encounters started as traffic stops, or there were no allegations of violence or serious crimes prompting police contact. Some were shot in the back while running and others were passengers in fleeing cars.

Two recent cases have sparked national outrage and protests. In Akron, Ohio, on 27 June, officers fired dozens of rounds at Jayland Walker, who was unarmed and running when he was killed. And last week, an officer in San Bernardino, California, exited an unmarked car and immediately fired at Robert Adams as he ran in the opposite direction.

Despite a decades-long push to hold officers accountable for killing civilians, prosecution remains exceedingly rare, the data shows. Of the 2,500 people killed while fleeing since 2015, only 50 or 2% have resulted in criminal charges. The majority of those charges were either dismissed or resulted in acquittals. Only nine officers were convicted, representing 0.35% of cases.

The data, advocates and experts say, highlights how the US legal system allows officers to kill with impunity and how reform efforts have not addressed fundamental flaws in police departments.

“In 2014 and 2015, at the beginning of this national conversation about racism in policing, the idea was, ‘There are bad apples in police departments, and if we just charged or fired those particularly bad officers, we could save lives and stop police violence,’” said Samuel Sinyangwe, data scientist and policy analyst who founded Mapping Police Violence, but “this data shows that this is much bigger than any individual officer.”

‘Hunted down’

US police kill more people in days than many countries do in years, with roughly 1,100 fatalities a year since 2013. The numbers haven’t changed since the start of the Black Lives Matter movement, and they haven’t budged since George Floyd’s murder inspired international protests in 2020.

People in Newark, New Jersey, march demanding justice for Jayland Walker in July 2022. Photograph: Michael M Santiago/Getty Images

The law has for years allowed police to kill civilians in a wide variety of circumstances. In 1985, the US supreme court ruled that officers can only use lethal force against a fleeing person if they reasonably believed that person was an imminent threat. But the court later said that an officer’s state of mind and fear in the moment was relevant to determining whether the shooting was warranted. That means a killing could be considered justified if the officer claimed he feared the person was armed or saw them gesturing toward their waistband – even if it turned out the victim was unarmed and the threat was nonexistent.

As a result, very few police officers get charged. Adante Pointer, a civil rights lawyer, said it was not hard for officers to prevail when the case boiled down to what was going through the minds of the officer and victim in the moment: “The only person left to tell the story is the cop.”

In 2022 through mid-July, officers have killed 633 people, including 202 who were fleeing. In 2021, 368 victims were fleeing (32% of all killings); in 2020, 380 were fleeing (33%); and in 2019, 325 were fleeing (30%), according to Mapping Police Violence. The data is based on media reports of people who were trying to escape when they were killed, and it is considered incomplete. In roughly 10% to 20% of all cases each year, the circumstances surrounding the shootings are unclear.

Black Americans are disproportionately affected, making up 32% of individuals killed by police while fleeing, but only accounting for 13% of the US population. Black victims were even more overrepresented in cases involving people fleeing on foot, making up 35% to 54% of those fatalities

“If a person is running away, there is no reason to chase them, hunt them down like an animal and shoot and kill them,” said Paula McGowan, whose son, Ronell Foster, was killed while fleeing in Vallejo, California, in February 2018. The officer, Ryan McMahon, said he was trying to stop Foster, a 33-year-old father of two, because he was riding his bike without a light. Within roughly one minute of trying to stop him, the officer engaged in a struggle and shot Foster in the back of the head. Officials later claimed that the unarmed man had grabbed his flashlight and presented it “in a threatening manner”.

“These officers are too amped up and ready to shoot,” said McGowan, who for years advocated that the officer be fired and prosecuted. Instead, the officer went on to shoot another Black man, Willie McCoy, one year later; he was one of six officers who fatally shot the 20-year-old who had been sleeping in his car. The officer was terminated in 2020 – not for killing McCoy or Foster, but because the department said he put other officers in danger during the shooting of McCoy.

The city paid Foster’s family $5.7m in a civil settlement in 2020, but did not admit wrongdoing. A lawyer for McMahon previously said the officer was attempting to “simply talk to Mr Foster” when he fled, adding that McMahon “believed his actions were reasonable under the circumstances”.Vallejo police did not respond to a request for comment.

“Not only do these officers get away with it, they get to move on to bigger and better jobs while we’re left shattered and are still trying to pick up the pieces,” said Miguel Minjares, whose niece, 16-year-old Elena “Ebbie” Mondragon, was killed by Fremont, California, police.

Elena “Ebbie” Mondragon was killed by Fremont police in March 2017. Photograph: courtesy of Miguel Minjares

In March 2017, undercover officers fired at a car that was fleeing, striking Mondragon, who was a passenger and pregnant at the time. The officers faced no criminal consequences. One sergeant went on to work as a sniper for the department, though has since retired, and another involved in the operation continued working as a training officer, records show.

“You shoot into a moving car, which you shouldn’t have done, and you weren’t even close to hitting the person you were trying to target. And now you’re a sniper?” said Minjares. “When I hear sniper, I think of precision. It boggles my mind. It shows the entitlement of officers and the police department, they just put people where they want them, it doesn’t matter what they did. It’s confusing and it’s heart wrenching.”

In June, five years after the killing, the family won $21m in a civil trial, but it’s unclear if Fremont has changed any of its policies or practices.

A Fremont spokesperson declined to comment on the Mondragon case and did not respond to questions about its policies.

The push to prevent the killings

In the rare cases when prosecutors do file criminal charges against police who killed fleeing people, the process often takes years and typically concludes with victory for the officer, either with judges or prosecutors themselves dismissing the charges or jury acquittals.

Robert Adams, 23, was fatally shot by police as he ran away Photograph: Courtesy of family

In one Florida case where an officer was investigating a shoplifting and fatally shot a man fleeing in a van, prosecutors filed charges and then dropped the case a week later, saying that after a review of evidence, it “became apparent it would be incredibly difficult to obtain a conviction”. In a Hawaii case where officers killed a 16-year-old in a car, a judge last year rejected all charges and prevented the case from going to trial.

For the nine fleeing cases where officers were found guilty or signed a plea deal, the conviction and sentence were much lighter than typical homicides. A Georgia officer who killed an unarmed man fleeing on foot was acquitted of manslaughter in 2019, for example, but found guilty of violating his oath and given one year in prison. A San Diego sheriff’s deputy pleaded guilty earlier this year to voluntary manslaughter after he killed a fleeing man, but he avoided state prison, instead getting one year in jail. And a Tennessee deputy, found guilty of criminally negligent homicide after shooting at a fleeing car and killing the passenger, a 20-year-old woman, was sentenced to community service.

Not only do these officers get away with it, they get to move on to bigger and better jobs while we’re left shattered and are still trying to pick up the pieces.

Miguel Minjares

With the criminal system deeming nearly all of these killings lawful, advocates have argued that cities should reduce the unnecessary police encounters that can turn deadly, such as ending traffic stops for minor violations and removing police from mental health calls. There’s also been a growing effort to ban officers from shooting at moving cars.

California passed a major law in 2019 meant to restrict use of deadly force to cases when it was “necessary” to defend human life, not just “reasonable”, and stating that an officer can only kill a fleeing person if they believe that person is going to imminently harm someone. The new law also dictated that prosecutors must consider the officer’s actions leading up to the killing, which police groups had arguedwere irrelevant under the previous standards.

But after its passage, police departments across the state refused to comply and update their policies, said Adrienna Wong, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of southern California, which backed the bill. That’s only now starting to change after years of legal disputes.

“I think we’re going to start to see prosecutors consider all the elements of the new law, but I’m frankly not holding my breath based on the track record of prosecutors in the state. We never thought this law was going to be a full solution.”

Ending on a Bang

It appears that even the holidays cannot end the need for gun violence, be it from individuals in crisis or by the Police. A shooting spree in Denver left 5 dead as he traveled between locations with Police in pursuit. And in this case the Police did fire and kill the man whose motives are unknown but the NY Post has claimed he had “extremist views”. What those were given the source could be he voted for Trump and it was stolen or he was a liberal and needed stimulus cash. Seriously I love that paper but it crosses into some bizarre shit at times.

And another Police shooting makes the news again showing that use of force is of course absolutely necessary at all times in all situations. Walking into the Burlington Store in California, the Police were told numerous versions of the events including that the maniac inside the store beating a woman had a gun, in others they said it was a lock. Well either/or neither/nor the Police came ready to shoot and kill, and they did, just not only the lock wielding maniac, but a 14 year old buying her holiday dresses.

Mother of 14-year-old girl killed in LAPD shooting held her daughter as she died

By Ruben Vives, Kevin Rector, Alejandra Reyes-Velarde, Hannah Fry Dec. 28, 2021 Updated 2:43 PM PT

Soledad Peralta closed her eyes, wrapped her arms around her teenage daughter and prayed for their safety inside the Burlington store dressing room.

They could hear screams and commotion around them as police searched for a man assaulting customers inside the North Hollywood store where Peralta and her daughter had gone to try on dresses two days before Christmas.

As they held one another, Peralta felt an explosion that threw them both to the ground. Her daughter’s body convulsed then went limp.

A Los Angeles police officer had shot a round through the dressing room wall, killing 14-year-old Valentina Orellana-Peralta. ADVERTISING

“She died in my arms. I couldn’t do anything,” Peralta said in Spanish. “Our sweet angel is gone forever.”

Peralta fought back tears while describing the harrowing scene as she and the girl’s father, Juan Pablo Orellana, stood outside LAPD headquarters in downtown L.A. on Tuesday to demand justice for their daughter.

Handmade paper signs reading “Justice for our daughter, Valentina” in English and Spanish hung over their chests as they tearfully spoke about their daughter, a girl who they described as being full of joy and someone who had big dreams for her future.

Valentina arrived in the U.S. from Chile about 6 months ago and was an exceptional student. On their way to the Burlington store on the day she died, Valentina told her mother about her desire to continue to make good grades and eventually become an engineer and a U.S. citizen. Those dreams will now never be a reality, her parents said.

Video from fatal LAPD shooting at Burlington shows officer open fire over bloodied victim

Orellana, a bank clerk who had traveled from the family’s native Chile to Los Angeles on Sunday, held back tears as he spoke about the devastation his daughter’s killing had brought.

“When I got a phone call and heard that my daughter had been killed by the Los Angeles Police Department, my world came tumbling down on me,” he said in Spanish. “I don’t have words to describe what I’m going through.”

Orellana held up a skateboard wrapped in clear plastic— the Christmas present Valentina had asked for and now will never receive. Instead of opening gifts with her, he said, he will place them in her grave.

“Look, it’s brand new, it hasn’t been opened,” he said, emotion etched on his face. “I won’t rest until my daughter gets justice.”

The parents spoke alongside several attorneys — including Ben Crump, a high-profile figure in excessive police force cases nationally, whom the father has retained to represent them.

Crump has represented other families caught in the spotlight after police killed their loved ones, including the family of George Floyd, whose killing by Minneapolis police in 2020 sparked global protests over police brutality.

Crump said Tuesday that Valentina’s family wanted the world to know that their daughter “was beautiful, intelligent and had the whole world ahead of her,” and that she “made exceptional grades at an English-speaking school even though English was not her native tongue.”

Crump also said the family wants justice — and will pursue it.

“We should not have to sacrifice innocent life in the name of safety when it was foreseeable that two days before Christmas, that there were going to be people in a shopping plaza shopping,” Crump said. “The family thinks things could have been done differently, to where Valentina wouldn’t have been collateral damage [and] would still be here getting ready to celebrate Christmas.”

Police officials have said that the shooting is under investigation and that the actions of all of the officers involved will be reviewed. They promised the investigation would be thorough, calling the girl’s death tragic. The California Department of Justice is also investigating the shooting.

The tragedy has sparked outrage and debate over how police should respond to scenarios like the one inside Burlington — especially when it’s unclear whether a suspect is armed and firing.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin said on Twitter that the use of force was unjustifiable. Police didn’t give verbal commands and the suspect was not armed with a gun nor was he advancing at officers or potential victims, he said.

“I’m hopeful an investigation will come to the same conclusion. If this is somehow found to be within LAPD policy and protocol, those policies and protocols must be changed,” he said.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Krekorian said in a statement that the “people of Los Angeles need to know exactly what happened and how it happened, and how Valentina’s tragic death could have been prevented.”

The shooting also killed the suspect, 24-year-old Daniel Elena-Lopez, who can be seen in video from the Burlington store attacking multiple people with a bike lock on a chain, seriously injuring one woman.

Elena-Lopez had just beaten that woman with the lock moments before police rushed in and an officer opened fire as Elena-Lopez moved away from them.

Christian Contreras, an attorney with League of United Latin American Citizens, said during a press conference Tuesday afternoon that his team has requested a meeting with Mayor Eric Garcetti and police Chief Michel Moore to discuss the LAPD’s tactics. So far, the organization has not received a response, he said.

“There is nothing that affects these officers when they shoot and kill,” Contreras said. “We’re here calling for meaningful reform and to tell LAPD and the city of Los Angeles to show some dignity.”

Valentina’s aunt, Carolina Peralta, in Chile, said Valentina was born and raised in the working-class neighborhood of Macul in Santiago, Chile’s capital. She was a shy girl but was happy reuniting with family and her older sister in the U.S., Peralta said.

“My sister does not understand how this tragedy could have happened just when they had managed to reunite the family,” her aunt said.

As the morning press conference came to an end, Valentina’s parents stood side by side near a large picture of their daughter framed by a circle of white roses. More than a dozen activists and supporters also gathered around, some holding “Wanted” signs for the officer who shot Valentina. Others held pictures of the young girl as they led a chant in her memory.

“Valentina’s life matters.”

And with that what more can one say, every fucking life taken by Police matters including the maniac. He clearly was in crisis and needed to be restrained and taken into a facility for evaluation and in turn proper punishment. Sorry folks I feel that way as we can let Kyle Rittenhouse roam free despite killing two people for no reason other than being afraid in a situation he elected to enter, with no training handling weapons or offering medical assistance as he claimed that is what he was there for and yet he walks free. Funny how that works out that a young white man can walk by Police immediately after killing two people and not get shot but a boy running down an alley can be. Or a Boy with a toy gun. Or a boy with his hands up. Or a boy walking home. Or a boy carrying scissors. Or riding a dirt bike. Makes no sense. None of it ever will.

As we enter the new year I cannot see much of this changing. I see the same rage, the same anger and the repression of manifesting itself through violence as the way for many to assuage said rage. It is the way of America, and one only needs to look to Jan 6th to remind oneself of that.

As the year closes out for me I have been busy trying to donate to the charities that matter and in my process of due diligence I found an article about the Red Cross and their own failures to serve those who work for them during a crisis. A yes more tales of the great resignation and with that I struggled to decide to donate and in spite of it I chose their disaster relief fund as it was the only way I could reach as many hands as possible, for how does on pick in a Nation ripped apart by many storms and crisis across America. But with that I did immediately send them a request to use the money wisely and to ask themselves is this a story you want to be a part of the legacy of the Red Cross. The United Nations, Doctors without Borders, the Human Rights Coalition among others too struggle with internal problems and yet they still serve but it is our choice to give or not and we are not always in a position to be able to give so I do so when I can with an open mind, and perhaps a less open wallet to those who are less likely to do the right thing. But again what is that? And that includes the endless hero worship and fretting about the Medical professionals on the “front line”. As I mentioned in what I thought would be my last post of 2021 I was billed by RWJ Barnabas for my Covid Vaccines. My bill was 60.01 with a deduction of 20, I assume as it was believed I was uninsured. I apparently was not the only one and sure enough the Washington Post did an article by a Journalist who lives here and visited the same facility I did, but her bill was higher. This ain’t over til its over and when it comes to Covid it will never be over. Learn to live with it and each other. I expect more bills to come as there is no such thing as the free lunch. Ah land of the FEE and home of the AFRAID.

Don’t be afraid, be fearless, be a survivor, a giver and be a thinker.

To quote Haden Sixx; “As Bravery and Stupidity are the same thing, the outcome determines your label.”

Man Down

On Fox Media the description of 13 year old Adam Toledo is that of “man” while the 17 year old Kyle Rittenhouse was “boy”. This folks is white privilege. I think we think white privilege is about money and it is about skin color. It is about gender and whiteness. Then it trickles down to women who are pretty, sexually appealing and complacent. Any woman who does not meet those standards are further down the rung and that ladder is long when it comes to designing privilege in America.

As I have spent my life capitulating, defending and self deriding to make people feel better or safer or righter I am finally done with it. I have finally said “enough.” I have been too loud, too vulgar, I said this, should have said this, too independent, too sexual, too frigid, too much a bitch, not tough enough, not smart enough, too smart. Which the fuck is it? I am a Libra but even this makes me go WHAT THE FUCK? So whatever white privilege I had or have I am taking it. And I say this to any person of color, take whatever they offer free within reason as think of it as reparations as you won’t be getting a second chance. Qualify for Medicaid? Take it? Qualify for Food Stamps? Take it? Take the housing voucher, the affirmative action ranking, take whatever they have as that is the best if not only thing you are going to get. I lied to get my vaccine and fuck you I earned that right by surviving this mother fucker on my own. Not one person ever offered to help me, send me a card, give me a call or a shit when time passed. I have been good to many people and not one. So much for you are not alone. I was alone all right. But the lack of even an offer of kindess or concern was truly telling, more about them and less about me, but it told me I am done with it.

Adam Toledo died in an alley with his hands up facing a Police Officer but it was too late his fate was decided the minute his friend handed him that gun (as you know that is what happened) and the kid ran. I was stopped by the Police and I lay supine and threw my purse over and away for me when they asked what I was doing at a school I was going to work at. I had already had Police come to my home when Vanderbilt felt my anger about their asking about my private life and who was caring for me and I responded with rage, not an apology so that led them to make the call. And I had to subject myself to that interesting experience of a “wellness check” in my home when I did nothing to anyone except yell. (And when I yell I vent then I am done but if you don’t know me you would be perhaps disturbed but then again maybe the Police are not the answer, I mean I’m at the hospital, call a Doctor maybe?” ) So when I encounter Police I do it as if I am on an episode of Police Woman and I am the perp. Hands up, body down, and be afraid. Very afraid. And that is what Police want subjugation and deference.

So the little man-child, Adam, ran and was told repeatedly to stop. He tossed the gun over the fence and turned to face the Officer but again his fate was decided. The same with Duante Wright when he got back into the car, the Officer felt disrespected and disregarded and she wanted him to feel that pain and she ensured he did. Accident or Intent? Who the fuck cares she was determined to make him hurt. The same with Caron Nazario, who was in his fatigues, clearly indicating he was a person in service and because he did not pull over immediately and stop when demanded by the Officer he was going to pay the price via domination. It is what Police do. It is their training, their belief and their identity. It is their culture.

So when I read that once again the religious funding site, Givesendgo, is being used to fund Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense for his murder of two individuals in Wisconsin, where he at the time was a MINOR, in possession of an illegal gun, had crossed state lines to enter a community he did not live to offer protection or a service to those who did not contract, request or hire him to do so, is in fact if not criminal on some counts, bizarre on others, that donations are largely from Police Officers. Shocking, I know, not really.

And then we have a boy, not a man, he too 17, enter a school, with a gun, barricaded himself in a bathroom, get into a shootout with Police and subsequently was shot to death. The shooting in Knoxville is just a day’s work and the Officer who fired the fatal shot was declared a hero. Heard of Crisis Negotiators? Yeah they apparently did not either.

The shooting in Boulder managed to injure the suspect, but he is alive. He is not white but of Syrian descent. Is that white enough? What about Patrick Crusius, a 22-year-old from the Dallas suburb of Allen who authorities claim drove nearly 600 miles to target Hispanics; he allegedly posted a document online just before the shooting railing against immigrants and a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” He is still awaiting trial. White privilege there?

Or how about this one: Miles Jackson, a Black man, who arrived at a hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Officers had been searching him for weapons in preparation for a custody exchange over warrants he had out for his arrest. Officers conducting a routine pat-down him in a hospital emergency room found a gun in his waistband; Jackson began to struggle with the two officers after one of them felt the gun, spurring a struggle over the weapon and a standoff that ended in officers killing him, according to police body camera footage released Wednesday. Didn’t know about that one did ya?

And now there was another mass shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis and we know little about the shooter, the victims, or the motive. I am not bothering to speculate but let’s talk about what we do know. He had a gun, walked in, and shot people to death.

**ETA** Since this post this a.m., the gunman was 19, and is that a boy or man, man-boy or man-child? His Mother last year contacted the FBI thinking he was planning suicide by cop and he was a former employee of this FedEx facility which is why he went there as he knew the routine, the schedules, and the layout of the building.

This according to the Washington Post: According to FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Paul Keenan, the suspect was placed on an immediate temporary mental health detention by Indianapolis police. A shotgun was seized at his residence. Based on items observed in the suspect’s bedroom at that time, he was interviewed by the FBI in April 2020. No Racially Motivated Violent Extremism (RMVE) ideology was identified during the course of the assessment and no criminal violation was found, Keenan said.

The parallels to the Nashville Christmas Day bomber is not lost as that man was also reported by an ex as having bomb making equipment and the Police visited said residence and was sent away without so much as a citation or notation but a casual inspection. This folks is what is White privilege when it comes to men. Wives, Mothers, Girlfriends, Sisters call and ask for help and then they are the ones either found in a pile on the floor or cleaning up the mess. Ask the Sandy Hook Shooter’s mother, Nancy Lanza, about that. Oh, wait she was the first to die.

When women get shot we get “he was having a bad day”; when women get shot as they were at a Yoga studio the suspect had a “history of sexual misconduct that started in grade school.” The Isla Vista killer had a history of stalking, had a manifesto ranting about his loathing of women and his sexual frustrations, telling Police who arrived on a wellness check that was fine only to go out and later murder six people, three of them women. He is now released from prison as he was declared insane. I guess he is well now. He was white and of privilege. Go figure.

So is this racism, white supremacy, misogyny, mental illness or is this about guns, access, availability, and intent. Want one, you get one, and then you use it. Wow just wow. I am not sure I am lucky or privileged as I don’t want to be in that situation and yet it seems we are all coming perilously close. Guns are the real problem that contributes to the highly charged debate and political histrionics about them. And of course why the Police enter each situation armed and ready to kill. That is their fear factor, be afraid, be always afraid and that is your defense, excuse, explanation, and justification. And it has worked repeatedly.

And we could go on with the differences between those wellness checks on many who were of color and they ended up dead, at the hands of the ones sent there to check on said wellness. And that is why I was angry and pissed at Vanderbilt which is the right source of anger and kept my cool with the Police as I asked in my own home can they wait while I call my Attorney who will meet them at the door and we can proceed with said check when he arrives. They left and filed no report as those reports are filed and can be used against you. Again is that white or privilege or both? I am educated, informed, and keep calm in a crisis, that is my training. That training came from watching all of this and being informed, I don’t think anything about my skin color prevents me from being exempt from the madness of the Police and I have the trial records to support that. But that is for a long long book, not a blog. And ask Justine Diamond about her encounter with Police she called, only you can’t. They killed her too. Another Minneapolis shooting. Did they take to the streets about her?

So are we actually going to compete over who has it worse or are we going to do something about guns? Start there and then we can maybe work with Police about how that every encounter needs to not end with more dead. Try that.

Didn’t Get the Memo

I have been only reading the daily reports on the Chauvin trial, I truly do not need to see the footage, the photo or hear endless recaps of what ostensibly has become a snuff film. The man was killed on the street at the knee of an officer who restrained him in a technique that has contributed to numerous deaths in the past and regardless of their health or drug use this is abuse regardless. And I never want to hear the expression “take a knee” again as that only serves to bring that image up and not the one Colin Kaepernick intended as an act of protest. Let’s go back to raise a fist that came of age in the Mexico Olympics in 1968 to show a gesture of protest and unanimity.

And with that one would think that Police across the country would at least attempt to show some attempt at a new kind of restraint, and try to lessen their need to pull out guns and other tools to demonstrate their power and position in society. Given that the Chauvin trial for the first time has demonstrated that the Thin Blue Line is now fracturing, I am sure the dog whistle is out on what to do in encounters with Black suspects. I would say pull out their dicks but today brings a new element to the debate – how women police. Well it appears they do the same as the male. We saw this in Texas last year when a Police Officer went to the wrong apartment and went ballistic thinking a black man was in her home. And we have some women Officers who have also used guns to shoot suspects as they have an inability to wrestle some suspect down to the ground and shove their knee into the windpipe of a suspect. So tase away or shoot whatever that works there lady. And in of all place Minneapolis a woman Cop did just that. She “thought” it was her taser but whoops it was her gun. And now Duante Wright is dead. They will blame that he crashed his car after driving off, after he was shot, so that is why he died. See how that works there?

Oh that taser thing was what led to the death of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta at Wendy’s where he was sleeping off his drunk; but when he took the Taster and took off running, I mean shit that could do what to whom where and when? Well nowhere as it was now out of commission but fuck it, that asshole needs to die! I get that way over the last piece of pizza so I get it, I really do. The Officers were fired and are pending trial. I am sure that the drunk thing, then running off with a stolen taser will be the defense, trust me it is always the victim’s fault. I get it, I really do.

And then we have the Cop in Virginia who went all mental head case over a young Reservist, Caron Nazario, temporary tags that he could not see on the vehicle he was driving, and because the man is of mixed race he did what we should all do really, drive to a well-lit area a couple of miles up the road to a gas station. Fuck this if a Cop is going to pull me over I am going to drive 5 miles an hour to the nearest Police Station to get cited. Again this was not a high-speed chase it was for safety and security, irony even for the Cop. But fuck that fuckers we are not having it. That was one video that I threw up my coffee watching. The Reservist had the sense to tape the encounter but the dash and body cams were actually running and this was as if I watching a bad Bruce Willis movie. Pepper sprayed then forced down to the ground with the threat of the electric chair. Okay, overreact much? Well with Duante it was for those absurd air fresheners that hang from the rearview mirror and then when she ran the plates there was the outstanding warrant and from that point on it was game on and guns out. A young kid with his girlfriend in the car is the next Bonnie and Clyde, only black. But then if you ever look at the photos of that scene you can see Cops love guns and love shooting the shit out of people. Just now they do it to more Black/Brown people. Times change.

And yes we can say that Police do have dangerous jobs and a recent shooting death OF a cop during a traffic stop in New Mexico demonstrates how highly charged these encounters can get; however, they are not as common place as one believes. If you are curious as to how many Officers are killed annually, the FBI keeps that data. They don’t with regards to civilian casualties. IN 2019 48 were killed. In 2019 civilians were killed at much higher rates as according to the Washington Post who have been accumulating that data for the last few years and it was holding at 1,000 with 985 last year. Wow, just wow.

Yeah I don’t like Police and I don’t want to have anything to do with them. But they can be trained and educated and in turn work to get guns off the street and in turn that will end the overall violence that has enabled if not permitted them to go into these encounters with guns up. Let’s raise arms, just not those kind.

Shooting of the Day

Really at this point we have a shooting every day and the reality is some are larger in scope and scale than others.  The minute Police become involved the volley of bullets and collateral damage will be significantly larger thanks to the heavy artillery local forces have access to once used in military operations.   We have a militarized local police force without the training and resources needed to understand how to use and not use said weaponry but it damn sure looks good when out on the streets protecting people from crazed shooters.

What ends up is chaos and more deaths that may not have occurred had they not had such weaponry available and as we already know Police are trigger happy under the most minor of circumstances so ratchet it up when a Cop is killed and then game is on.

The UPS Shootout will I am sure reveal some ugly truths that the deaths of the UPS Driver and the Gentleman in the adjacent vehicle were likely killed by the Police.  The truth about the death of the first responder in the mass shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill. 

The Las Vegas Shooting that preceded it was also chaos, the Orlando Bar Shooting that lasted well over three hours another badly handled situation that went on far too long and labeled a hate crime for which it was not.   And my personal favorite the Waffle House shooting in Antioch that seemed to be utterly preventable had Police properly investigated the stolen vehicle from the day before but could not manage to find him less than a mile away from the Waffle House for over 23 hours and was found thanks to a citizen who called a hot line. Okay then.

Of course we have school shootings were incompetent School Security Officers failed to do their duty and shootings prevented by Coaches and Teachers who simply spoke to and more importantly listened to the Student stopping what could have been a fatal encounter.

So yesterday I sat though close to two hours of a Police Chief mispronouncing words and making up words to describe “Bad Guys.”  Early on the reports described a pair of individuals of mixed gender. Then the original report that it was random where the final shoot out commenced only hours later being declared a hate crime without any substantiative evidence to support this belief.  But it serves to highly charge a community and in turn make it all political on top of emotional for the loss of what appears to be three individuals who may or may not have been killed by the Gunmen that were not Police.  Again we may never find that fact out for many many months. But like all shootings the speculation, the histrionics and random accusations that will lay blame and point fingers that will resolve nothing and stop the real problem – access to Guns.

But again what I truly found appalling was actual local news and the misinformation and their contribution to the histrionics of what already was a serious situation.   I came home got off the Path train knew nothing about it, went for a walk in between the rain, stopped at a store did shopping errands and grabbed a coffee and found out there what was going on.  My Barista and I did laugh at some Instagram posts that had residents dancing to the bullet fire so there you go with that Mr. Roger’s in your neighborhood.  And that brings me to the Neighborhood.  The shooting began with the Police officer being killed in a Cemetery in the Greenville area about 15 minutes from where I write this.  Greenville is largely a minority community with heavy crime and violence problems then it moved into the West Bergen area which is slowly very slowly gentrifying.  This area is not served well by either light rail, buses or train system but has super cheap real estate and it is where I initially began my search for apartments when I arrived in JC in August.  It was one day in and after two days of talking to varying Lyft drivers that my conclusions and observations about the area were right – it is not safe, it is under change but about 5 years away from any type of real improvement.  I saw property after property that had been renovated to the top of the line while adjacent to abandoned houses, houses with bars on doors and windows, no grocery stores or services and maybe a block (where the shooting occurred) that had some small businesses that catered to the specific residents that resided in the area as in this case a Kosher market.   But it was not safe and not one that I a 60 year old white woman living on her own would seriously consider no matter how many gas ranges it had.

I had a conversation with a Real Estate Agent from of all places Sotheby’s convincing me this was the new “it.”  I have never been more insulted and abused by professionals outside of Nashville as I had with the Real Estate Shysters that work here in Jersey City.  Honestly that profession here is a con job with a quality of laziness that reminded me so much of Nashville I could not run away fast enough.  And then I just went to apartment after apartment building on my own contacting their own leasing agents and found utter professionalism, good natured intelligent individuals who followed up with my inquiries and were more than generous with their time.   I cannot say the same for the Sotheby’s woman who when I asked about her other properties she informed me that they were not as modern but if I wanted to see them she could meet me there. I see so take me and drive me there no and I am to pay a fee for that?  Yes you take yourself to the property, the agent may or may not meet you there, you may never speak to them ever as they rely solely on texting and then show you a property with no options or information about others that may be available. They don’t tell you anything about the neighborhood and expect you to pay them.  One asked me to drive by then text him what I thought and then we could arrange to meet there if I liked what I saw from the outside.  I actually did not do any of that instead I sat at the bank with my banker, we google searched the property looked at it on the map, knew instantly it was not a good area and then went back to our conversation.  He texted me during the meeting I informed him that I was “driving” by right now and it looked sketchy.  He then texted me and asked what time would I like to see it.  I said I am driving to the bank right now to get my finances and will text him later. And that ended that.  I did what I do best handled it on my own. 

Define Terror?

I am mystified by what defines the term “Terrorist?”

We have Police killing unarmed individuals that have totaled over 1000 annually for the past three years.  These are largely people of color and just this last week using night vision air search as you see the Military do hunting terrorists in Afghanistan, but no this was in America.   The Police of Sacramento tracked a young man who ostensibly was breaking into cars or doing some property damage then shot him numerous times as he was  holding a cell phone.  So who is the terrorist here?

Then we have the lunatic in Austin. The 23 year old boy who was delivering packages to individuals, the first two victims were black, but later trip wire, dropping off packages at FedEx with random addresses of prospective victims who were not black but the hysteria led many to conclude it was a race crime.  However, it was days of terror for the resident of the city of Austin as no one knew what the hell what was going on.

How about the serial killer/shooter in Tampa last year who wreaked havoc randomly shooting individuals in a largely minority neighborhood with no clear agenda.  What do we know now?  Well he is in custody at least.   But that was terror as a city went nearly on lockdown as a result.

Then we have still more info on the Las Vegas shooter who was apparently a big tipper and great guy until he wasn’t. That was some terror he caused on the strip that day.

And today again in France more crazy shit by a man who decided to be a terrorist holding a woman hostage and to exchange for her life a Police officer walked in, disarmed with only a cell phone and died to save another persons life.  Our Police have much to learn about what it is to be a terrorist and to be savior.     We have much to learn and we need to learn words and use them.  Terror is when you wreak fear and havoc.  So who are Terrorists?

And we watch a show called Survivor. Really why? The reality is we all are survivors when it comes to the moment an individual who decides to resolve an dispute, assuage their anger, or make a political statement by doing so in a  public forum.

The reality is you never recover from what happens to you when you are a victim of violence.  These are children’s stories about mass shootings;  Read these survivor stories and ask yourself if this is not terror what they felt at that moment?

‘Something About Parkland Has Been Different’: Survivors From 20 Years of Mass Shootings Speak

We spoke to survivors of mass shootings and others affected by them about the demonstrations planned for Saturday.

By Jonah Engel Bromwich
The New York Times
March 23, 2018

The attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., last month was the latest in what seems like an inescapable pattern to proponents of gun safety: gunfire, thoughts and prayers, funerals and public mourning, until the next time.

But the survivors of past shootings say that the students in Parkland have given them hope.

Many of those students will be in Washington on Saturday leading the March for Our Lives demonstration. We spoke this week to a tiny sampling of the thousands of people whose lives have been affected by past mass shootings.

Ms. Strassner was a freshman at Columbine High School in April 1999 when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 of her classmates and a teacher, before turning their guns on themselves.

“In so many regards, we were the first,” she said. “We thought the change was going to be immediate because it was so horrific.”
Now 33, she has spent the majority of her life working to get past that day.

Ms. Strassner is married with four children and lives in Colorado. Over the years, she has been broken anew by other school shootings. She gave up on gun control after the 2012 shooting in Newtown, Conn., when the deaths of 20 children did not lead to effective federal legislation.

“But something about Parkland has been different,” she said. “Those wonderful children have taken a stand, and they have done it with courage and eloquence. They truly have inspired a nation. They’ve inspired a nation and they have inspired me.”

She will be marching in Colorado on Saturday, wearing a class of 2002 Columbine sweatshirt.

“Since Parkland, my boxing gloves are back on,” she said. “I had them off after Sandy Hook. I just have this feeling that we are in a moment where change is possible.”

Mr. Thunder was 15 in 2005, when his classmate Jeff Weise killed five students at Red Lake Senior High School. Mr. Thunder was shot in the hip. (Mr. Weise also fatally shot two school employees, his grandfather, his grandfather’s companion and himself in a wave of violence on the reservation of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians.) Mr. Thunder had been one of a few people at the school who reached out to Mr. Weise and tried to make conversation with him.

Mr. Thunder said that he has been trying to forget about what happened ever since. But he pays close attention to news of mass shootings.

“I’ll sit there and watch live coverage and find out what happened,” he said. “I get pretty interested in it, but I try not to let it bring me down.”

Mr. Thunder is struck by how often shooters have histories of being bullied and wishes, every time, that they had known someone they could talk to.

He said that he hopes the marchers on Saturday reach troubled children who are thinking about perpetrating a shooting, “so that they know there’s help out there.”

Mr. Thunder will not be attending a march. But he said that he was planning to watch the coverage closely.

Reema Samaha was 18 in the spring of 2007. She was a freshman at Virginia Tech University, where she planned to major in urban planning and minor in French. She was one of 33 people killed by Seung-Hui Cho in what is still the deadliest school shooting in modern American history.

Her father, Joseph, says that every shooting since rewinds the videotapes, bringing him back to 2007. Mr. Samaha, who is the president of the Virginia Tech Victims Family Outreach Foundation, says that the Stoneman Douglas students have followed a trajectory that is familiar to him.

Mr. Samaha favors “practical and actionable solutions.”

“I’m looking for common ground, what we can work on together without yelling and screaming at each other,” he said. “I personally focus on getting to the root of what the issue is and trying to resolve the problem in a nonpartisan fashion.”

Mr. Sullivan was not an especially political person until July 20, 2012. It was his son Alex’s 27th birthday, and to celebrate, a dozen of Alex’s co-workers from Red Robin took him to a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises.” There, James Eagan Holmes fatally shot 12 people, including Alex, and injured 70, including 58 who were hit by gunfire. It was the deadliest mass shooting in decades.

Mr. Sullivan became active in Democratic politics immediately following his son’s death. He lost a bid for Colorado’s State Senate in 2016, and is embarking on a bid for the statehouse in November. He said he hopes this weekend’s march will reach people who can make a difference.

He happened to be in Las Vegas last fall when 58 people were killed and hundreds more were injured at a country music concert. He bought a local newspaper “to read each and every name, look at their faces, know a little bit about them, because some of those people could have been doing the same thing the day after Alex was murdered.”

The paper ran a list of the deadliest mass shootings in the United States. Aurora was not on it.

Shortly after the shooting in Newtown, Conn., Ms. Basch, a novelist who lives in the town, wrote about the rawness of her feelings. She did not have children at the school, nor were her relatives directly affected by the shooting. Mindful of the grief of those who had lost their children, she placed an essay in a small literary magazine, N+1, hoping that she could communicate to the outside world what her town was going through.

In the essay, she recalls telling one of the reporters who flooded Newtown after the shooting: “Everyone is connected here. There are concentric circles of grief. But no one, not one person, is untouched.”

And then, when she finishes talking, she immediately feels ashamed:

“Why can’t I keep my mouth shut?”

Ms. Basch said this week that when she was young, she was determined to clean up the mess adults had made of the world. She believes that the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School may be able to succeed where she said her generation failed.

“I really hope they don’t get to be this age and feel the way I feel,” she said. “It feels terrible that we’ve let our children down.”

Ms. Arnold will be marching in Washington on Saturday, the city where her husband, Michael, was killed on Sept. 16, 2013. Eleven others were murdered that morning at the Washington Navy Yard, and the gunman, Aaron Alexis, was killed by the police.

For Ms. Arnold, every mass shooting from then on brought back the devastation of that day. She thinks of the families and friends of those killed, and of how shootings reverberate outward, affecting hundreds.

But she has been heartened by the students of Stoneman Douglas.

“They could have all crawled in a hole and said, ‘Oh, poor us,’” she said. “They really haven’t. Instead, they’ve said: ‘We’re not going to take this. The adults may go, “O.K., fine,” but we’re not going to take this.’”

Ms. Whitney, a senior at Stoneman Douglas, and the other organizers of the March for Our Lives have concrete aims. They hope to raise awareness about gun control, making it a central issue in the November midterms. Ms. Whitney hopes to encourage three of every five people between the ages of 18 and 23 to vote.

When the fire alarm went off at the school last month, she began to leave her classroom. But something was off; there had already been a fire drill that day. Seconds later, she heard gunshots and ran back inside, huddling with 64 other students hidden in a storage closet for two hours.

Asked what she hopes to accomplish this weekend, she paused.

“No one should ever have to go through what we went through,” she said, finally. “I’m going to do everything in my power and all my friends are — we’re going to try our best to make sure that this isn’t normal. It shouldn’t be normal, and we’re not going to let it be normal.”

Dukes of Hazzard

So the first messages you get from Waylon Jennings’ theme song are also the most essential: Bo and Luke were “good ol’ boys” and not kissing cousins but they were boys who were also “fightin’ the system.” They were traditionalists, but they were also rebels. The Duke boys weren’t political, but they were at least small-c conservative–they stood for old ways and ancient traditions.   The cousins’ primary mode of transportation is an orange 1969 Dodge Charger that the boys affectionately refer to as the “General Lee”  pained with a charming Confederate flag theme naturally.  On their journey the family is tormented by corrupt Hazzard County Commissioner Jefferson Davis Hogg, widely known as “Boss Hogg”), and his willing but dimwitted henchman, Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane.  It seems so charming now doesn’t it or it doesn’t?

I live in Tennessee where I have seen many vehicles and many stickers, flags and other accoutrements that identify and horrify anyone having the tragedy of being behind them at a stop line.  In other words I see many Hogg’s and the like on my daily travels. 

Do I loathe living here. No, I am bored here. I have things that I like and could do anywhere and when I realized that my dental reconstruction was going to push a year into more of an 18 month process I reconciled that quite easily.  I see the finish line and I will get there and in all honesty I am bored, exhausted talking, working and thinking about the public schools and working in them. If I had a part time gig doing something such as working in a hotel and meeting travelers I might be “happier” but that is not an option with a schedule that needs flexibility.

So to make it work to coin a Tim Gunn phrase I rent cars I try to plan things to do that can keep me sane and that too sometimes backfires but laughing helps.  Watching our local news is usually sufficient.  The freaks that run for office or are in office boggle the mind with their stupidity.  We are gunning up for a Governor race and I am inundated with ads that profess family and god as their qualifications. And today a Legislator is working towards bill to have “IN GOD WE TRUST” prominently displayed in all public schools throughout the state.  The phrase – Separation of Church and State is another anomaly here, like hospitality.

And then I read this and went yeah.. Three Billboards anyone?   Because that is the only way anyone would know of this. Again if I want a laugh I watch our local news stations as this is not a story they would cover as Law Enforcement is sacrosanct.

Tennessee sheriff taped saying ‘I love this shit’ after ordering suspect’s killing

Oddie Shoupe is being sued for excessive force after telling deputies to shoot unarmed Michael Dial rather than risk damage to police cars

Jamiles Lartey
UK Guardian
Tue 6 Feb 2018 1

A Tennessee sheriff is being sued for using excessive force after he was recorded boasting he had told officers to shoot a man rather than risk damaging police cars by ramming him off the road.

“They said ‘we’re ramming him,’” Sheriff Oddie Shoupe of White County said on tape in the aftermath of the killing of suspect Michael Dial. “I said, ‘Don’t ram him, shoot him.’ Fuck that shit. Ain’t gonna tear up my cars.”

Shoupe arrived on the scene shortly after police had shot Dial at the conclusion of a low-speed chase, clearly upset he had missed the excitement.

“I love this shit,” Shoupe said, apparently unaware that his comments were being picked up by another deputy’s body-worn camera. “God, I tell you what, I thrive on it.

“If they don’t think I’ll give the damn order to kill that motherfucker they’re full of shit,” he added, laughing. “Take him out. I’m here on the damn wrong end of the county,” he said.

Shoupe’s comments have prompted a federal lawsuit from Dial’s widow, Robyn Dial, alleging the use of excessive force against her late husband, who was unarmed.

“It was not only inappropriate but also unconscionable for Defendant Shoupe to give the order to use deadly force,” the filing states, calling his decision proof of a “malicious and sadistic mindset”. The suit also names the county, the city of Sparta and the two officers who fired their weapons.

“The comments as seen on the video are extremely disturbing. I’m not sure how anybody can thrive on the taking of a life, let alone somebody in law enforcement,” Dial’s attorney David Weissman told the Guardian.

Police had initially attempted to pull Dial over in April last year for driving on a suspended licence. He drove away, but the fact that he was driving a 40-odd-year-old pickup truck with a fully loaded trailer severely restricted his speed.

DeKalb County deputies, who began the pursuit before White County deputies took over, told investigators it was “more like a funeral procession” than a highway chase, with speeds topping out around 50mph.

Deputies tried using a PIT (Pursuit Intervention Technique) maneuver to slow Dial’s car, a common police tactic involving a police car nudging another vehicle to turn it sideways.

But Shoupe radioed officers to tell them to stop attempting to do that, instead ordering them to shoot the driver.

When a deputy had successfully nudged Dial off the road, Reserve Deputy Adam West, who was in pursuit in his own personal vehicle, fired three shots as the vehicle went down into a ditch. Dial died of a gunshot wound to the head.

In June, the county district attorney declared the shooting justified.

Dial told Tennessee’s News Channel 5 that she believed her husband had tried to drive away from the police because he was scared, and said she could not make sense of the order to shoot. “I feel with every part of me that’s exactly what they wanted to do was kill him.”

The sheriff’s office declined to comment to the Guardian.

##Old Lives Matter, sort of, kind of, not really

There will be no protests, no ##, no indignant ire and Police Chief and/or Mayor’s resigning.  When Grandma got run over by a Reindeer she got a song at least.

A couple of years ago in Seattle on my way to the gym I witnessed an elderly black man who was walking with a golf club as a cane get stopped by Police.  I saw only the verbal encounter between he and the lady Cop but in the hour I was in class he was arrested and thrown in a holding cell in the Precinct literally at the other end of the block.  Later the arrest was of course just another bizarre attempt to have lawsuits filed by innocent citizens towards the Police Department as that is the only means of restitution and apology. As a taxpayer I paid for that settlement and many others before and since which only adds to the insanity of trigger happy cops.

Today in Minneapolis the blaming the victim or some random other woman for slapping the Police Car, which led to the moron shooting Ms. Damond to death.   Of course this case has ensued in the same way the Police blamed Charleena Lyes in Seattle  for being mentally ill and having the audacity  to call the Police 23 times before so fuck that we shoot that bitch!

And we have the many wellness checks and other calls to Police be they crime related or not that have ended up with innocent people dead or seriously injured as Police are sure that their lives are in constant danger and under threat so its you  versus them in almost every encounter.

But I will say that when Oldsters are arrested or killed little is ever mentioned or discussed as the reality is that we are better off dead.  Thanks, I think. No wait I am repeatedly told I am not old.  I am 58 years old and probably am in the last third of my life, with no family, no friends and no support system in place if I become seriously ill.  And given how I have been treated in the last five years by the Medical Industrial Complex I am afraid of them as much as I am with regards to the Police.  This is not living in America it is dying in it.

Another Possible Indignity of Age: Arrest

Paula Span

THE NEW OLD AGE
THE NEW YORK TIMES
JULY 21, 2017

It was the sort of incident that happens at facilities that care for people with dementia.

At a residence for older adults in San Francisco last summer, Carol King momentarily left a common sitting area. When Ms. King returned, she found that another resident had taken her chair, a nurse who witnessed the episode later reported. She grabbed the usurper’s wrist.

Though staff members intervened promptly and nobody appeared injured, the other resident (who also had dementia) called 911 to say she had been attacked. Soon, Ms. King’s son, Geoffrey, was summoned and four police officers arrived.

Over objections from staff members and her son, the officers decided to place Ms. King on an involuntary psychiatric hold, which allows a 72-hour detention when an officer believes someone is unable to care for herself or poses a danger to herself or others.

As they searched and handcuffed Ms. King and placed her in a patrol car, “she started crying,” Mr. King recalled.

At the Psychiatric Emergency Services department at San Francisco General Hospital, a psychiatrist found Ms. King “calm and cooperative,” showing no evidence of psychiatric illness, and released her after seven hours after she was detained.

Such episodes may become increasingly common. The ranks of the elderly are growing, and with them the number of people with dementia. As a result, older people and law enforcement officers are crossing paths more frequently, recent data suggests — sometimes with terrible consequences.

Consider arrest rates. From 2002 to 2012, the rate fell by 11 percent among those ages 18 to 64, according to federal data analyzed by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco.

But the arrest rate rose by 23 percent for people over 55. It rose even more markedly — by 28 percent — among those over 65, more than 106,000 of whom were arrested in 2012, the last year for which statistics are available.

“These contacts are occurring more frequently,” said Dr. Brie Williams, a geriatrician and director of the university’s Criminal Justice Aging Project.

Arrests constitute only one measure of involvement, of course. The police are asked to find people with dementia who wander and to bring them home. They stop in for safety checks when family or doctors worry about elders’ welfare.

Especially when people have dementia, “they may be disrupting a neighborhood or engaging aggressively with someone they don’t know, and the police end up being called,” Dr. Williams said. Nursing home staff members, too, may call 911 when they feel unable to handle belligerent patients.

Such interactions can be helpful — or they can go very wrong. For Mr. King, a civil rights lawyer, it’s clear which category his mother’s detention fell into. “This was such a profound breakdown of procedure and good sense,” he said.

The acting police chief disagreed, saying last summer that the officers had acted within department policy and state law, and had “a duty and obligation to take action to protect the other residents from assaultive behavior.”

Mr. King has filed a complaint with the San Francisco Police Department’s accountability division, accusing officers of excessive force, unlawful detention and violations of disability law.

Yet Mr. King recognizes that “as bad as it was, it could have been a lot worse,” he said.

And that’s certainly true. In other high-profile cases last year:

■ A county sheriff’s deputy in Minneapolis, Kan., used a Taser on a 91-year-old nursing home resident with Alzheimer’s who refused to get into a car for a doctor’s visit.

■ After a 65-year-old in San Jose, Calif., was arrested and charged with trespassing, a judge — informed that the man had Alzheimer’s — dismissed the charge. But deputies at the jail released him before a friend arrived to pick him up, and he wandered onto a highway, was hit by a car and killed.

■ In Bakersfield, Calif., a 73-year-old man with dementia was walking in his neighborhood late at night when a woman he approached noticed something in his pocket that she thought might have been a gun. When the police arrived and told him to raise his hands, he ignored their shouts, walked toward them and was shot and killed. The object in his pocket proved to be a crucifix.

To Dr. Williams, these episodes underscore the need to improve the way police officers react when they encounter older citizens. “This is a specialized group in need of specialized responses,” she said.

There’s no definitive explanation for why arrest rates are climbing among old people. (And they remain far higher among younger groups.).

But beyond dementia, which Dr. Williams hypothesizes accounts for much of the increase, she points out that older adults can behave impulsively because of transient medical issues like delirium, dehydration, infection or the effects of medications.

Hearing loss becomes common among those in their 60s. When the police shout commands, can older people understand what they’re saying? Mobility declines, too. If they’re told to get down on the ground, or to climb into a patrol car while handcuffed, how quickly can they comply if they’re frail? Will their attempts lead to falls and injuries?

When an older person is spotted urinating in public, “is there a medical reason for engaging in what’s traditionally seen as criminal behavior?” Dr. Williams asked.

Since 2011, the San Francisco Police Department has incorporated a two-hour course on dealing with older residents, developed by geriatricians at the University of California, San Francisco, into its weeklong crisis intervention training.

Trainees learn about aging and use kits that replicate its effects, including glasses that impair vision as glaucoma or cataracts might, and popcorn kernels placed in shoes to mimic the discomfort of diabetic neuropathy.

“People generally have a hard time putting themselves in others’ shoes,” said Sgt. Kelly Kruger, who helped develop the training. “This brings it home.”

Officers also receive a guide to local programs and services for older adults, so they can refer those who need help.

A study published this year by U.C.S.F. geriatricians showed that the officers’ knowledge, including their understanding of age-related health changes that can affect safety during police interactions, increased significantly after training.

To date, nearly 750 officers, of about 1,800 total, have gone through the program, said Sgt. Laura Colin, one of the trainers. Though the Police Department has added more classes recently, training every officer — the goal — will take another six years.

While other cities have contacted the university to express interest, Dr. Williams knows of no other police departments that have adopted training programs about aging.

A pity. Police interactions with old people are likely to increase, she pointed out, simply because there are more old people. When officers better understand how to respond, “they are so relieved,” Dr. Williams said, adding

“They just want to know what to do.”

Call 911

Seattle is in the 6th year of debating use of force and the Judicial oversight that was to place body cams on the force and that still has not happened thanks to the Police Union.  And while the use of force has declined thanks to the Judicial Oversight set by the Courts there is still work to be done.

Under the new Administration of Forrest Trump the use of Federal Justice oversight will come to an end and clearly it shows that with or without it there is little change.  And you complain about the Teacher’s Union.  Have any Teachers killed any kids lately?

Seattle Police Shooting May Show Limits of Crisis Training

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS JUNE 21, 2017

SEATTLE — On a weekday afternoon in March, Seattle police officers fenced off a city block as they tried to persuade a suicidal man in the middle of a downtown street to drop a knife.

Pedestrians were cleared, traffic was rerouted, and more than two hours later, the man surrendered — without injury to himself or anyone else.

It was a textbook case in how police can calm volatile situations, and it reflected the extensive emphasis the department has placed on crisis intervention training under a 2012 settlement with the Justice Department.

By contrast, Sunday’s fatal shooting of a pregnant mother, who police say was armed with two knives, after she called in a burglary at her apartment illustrates the potential limits of such training.

It also threatens to undermine the strides Seattle police have made in regaining public trust since a series of troubling events, including the unnecessary killing of a Native American woodcarver by an officer in 2010, prompted the DOJ’s investigation.

Two officers, one a specialist in handling people in crisis, responded to the burglary. They knew the woman, Charleena Lyles, had struggled with mental illness and earlier this month had menaced police with metal shears in her apartment. But they nevertheless found themselves with little time to react when she suddenly snapped about two minutes after they began taking her report.

“If the officer has time, space and cover, they have more options than using deadly force, but that’s not necessarily going to be the case,” said Sue Rahr, a former sheriff and the executive director of the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission. “The suddenness of the threat in some cases precludes de-escalation.”

The killing has prompted outrage among many, including Lyles’ family, who questioned why the officers couldn’t use nonlethal methods to subdue the diminutive 30-year-old and suggested that race played a role. Lyles was black; the officers, identified as Steven McNew, a 34-year-old who joined the force in 2008, and Jason Anderson, 32, who joined in 2015, were white.

Neither officer had a stun gun, but they did have other options, either a baton or pepper spray. Like all Seattle officers, both had crisis intervention training, and McNew had volunteered for additional training to become a certified crisis intervention specialist.

In April 2011, McNew was one of three officers who received a commendation from their patrol sergeant for how they responded to a suicidal person armed with a knife.

Hundreds of people turned out for a protest march Tuesday night, and responses from the city’s mayoral candidates after Lyles was killed included calls for improved mental health systems, further changes in police training and demands for transparency in the shooting’s investigation.

James Bible, a lawyer for the Lyles family, noted that on an audio recording released by police, one officer asks the other to “Tase” Lyles, but the other responds that he doesn’t have one. If they had time to discuss that, they weren’t in immediate danger, Bible insisted.

“She’s actually the one to dial 911 and … she ends up dead on the floor in front of her children,” he told the crowd Tuesday night. “The system in Seattle is responsible to wealthy white people but not the rest of us. And that’s why we have to say, once again, murder is murder is murder is murder.”

Two officers, rather than one, responded to take Lyles’ burglary report because of her prior history with police. According to audio recordings released by police, the encounter Sunday was calm and professional for about the first two minutes: Lyles allowed them into her northeast Seattle apartment and told them someone had taken a video game console.

Suddenly, though, a confrontation erupted. There are sounds of rapid movement, the woman yelling “Get ready, (expletive)!” and the police radioing for help and repeatedly warning her to get back before five shots are fired.

Sgt. Sean Whitcomb, a Seattle police spokesman, said Wednesday that officers are trained to focus on “time, distance and shielding” in protecting themselves and others from a threat: “What is my need to intervene at this very moment? What is my sense of urgency? How close am I and how close do I need to be?”

That doesn’t mean the officers shouldn’t have entered Lyles’ apartment to investigate the burglary, he said.

“Everything’s normal, the officers are acting appropriately, taking her info,” Whitcomb said. “This is your right as someone who lives in the city: If you’re the victim of a crime the police will come out and investigate. Just because someone has interaction with the criminal justice system one day doesn’t mean they’re deprived of service the next day.”

Whitcomb said the department is “grieving for her children and her family” and struggling with the notion that earlier mental health or other support for Lyles, a pregnant mother of four who had been a victim of domestic violence, might have prevented what happened.

Lyles had been in counseling, with and without her children, and she had obtained housing last year after fighting homelessness for a decade, court records indicate.

“There will be a thorough investigation,” Whitcomb said. “We’ll continue being transparent. Nothing absolves us from how this ended. Our goal is to get to the truth.”

And this brings me to the issue of calling Police when an individual is suffering a mental health crisis. They are not trained licensed mental health care professionals.  They are law enforcement not rescue crews nor should they go to any scene where this is an issue.  From Domestic Violence to Suicide the Police are the last people who need to be there and should only be back up to those individuals skilled in the area of conflict resolution. 

I use my own recent experience to this and to say I was scared shitless was one, to say I was angry was another.  When I recount that I have had few here agree with me that it was unnecessary or overkill. They all remind me that I used the expression “blow my brains out.”  When I point out that they showed up 4 days AFTER my rant in the dental office they go, “Well at least they cared.”  Yes if they cared they would have actually dealt with it at that time, by getting me to a mental health counselor or calling the cops that minute to restrain me in the office! If I was truly that of a risk I think waiting 4 days to send Cops who arrived at 7 am when I could have already left for work, was getting ready for work or even making breakfast with knifes puts me in a position of risk.  Interesting to resolve the issue that I may be at risk they put me in it. And if I was they didn’t exactly get right on that.  So not that big of risk I guess!  But that encounter has changed me in relation to the Dental office.  As for expressing myself no.  But to whom I let my guard down is few and none in between.  That is what really puts one at risk – social isolation.  But I had to choose that to move on and survive here in Nashvile. 

But  it goes with the idea that two well armed and suited men could not extricate themselves from a situation where a woman is brandishing a knife is laughable.  Oddly two men died walking towards a man brandishing a knife and they had no training, no weapons only their willingness to aid others. 

We have had Police here and in England stabbed and have survived and these are injuries sustained by determined individuals who want to kill.   So a mentally ill broad really you are that afraid?

I know of Ms. Lyles she has three children and I am almost certain I taught one of them.  I recall a little girl who  was living with her Grandmother or Aunt (that I cannot recall which) who informed me she was Bi-Polar and that her Mother was.  I immediately informed her that all kids are at some point (have you met 13 year olds?) and I laughed and said that is why I don’t have kids!  And that without her Mother here to explain about her illness and her care she should not be repeating this as it can lead to misunderstandings and confusion.  She was a very troubled young girl not in SPED but should have been and due to the lack of Parental guidance and health care I struggled to find ways to help her make it though the Semester.  I as always do just pass them with the bare minimum and hope that the cracks don’t become any bigger.  (They do but it is just the reality of being a Teacher in public schools – denial.)

I had many children of similar backgrounds and stories as homelessness is a raging problem in the Seattle area.  As a Teacher you a given only the basic information and unless they are on an IEP and in Special Ed they receive no services so accommodation becomes one of a matter of a Teacher’s choice and that is not always easy as the last thing you want to do is draw attention to that and make exceptions for a child who does not want to be exceptional.  I had another Student who was and he was well liked, popular and charming. I never worried about him nor felt that his work load was any different than the rest of the class.  I am not big on homework in general and preferred kids to read and if there was  major project I used class time to enable them to use school resources as tools to complete and that yes homework might have to be done but it was optional.  This is not a popular position but that is why I remained a Sub as I had that out.  But living here in Nashville I just want out and never to set foot in their schools again as here the cracks are chasms. 

The children who witnessed their Mothers murder will not recover.  She was Pregnant and that child died that day. Funny how those against Abortion want to charge Women with a crime if they elect that as a means to resolve their pregnancy are the same people who want Medicaid cut that provides health care and moderate mental health and are the same people who want to reduce funding to Planned Parenthood that could counsel and care for women and provide birth control to prevent unplanned Pregnancies and of course the whole issue of housing as this family was living in transitional housing that did not have the resources needed to provide mental health care for a woman with a history of problems.   This Simba is the circle of life for the poors.

Charleena Lyles Needed Health Care. Instead, She Was Killed.

By PHILLIP ATIBA GOFF and KIM SHAYO BUCHANAN
THE WASHINGTON POST JUNE 20, 2017

On Sunday morning, two Seattle police officers shot and killed Charleena Lyles in her apartment. She was pregnant, and three of her four children were home. She had called the police to report a burglary. According to the officers’ account, shortly after they arrived, Ms. Lyles, who the police knew was mentally ill, pulled a knife. Both officers shot her. Societal failure to care for mental health, which leaves the police as mental illness first responders, may well have been one deadly ingredient in this tragic encounter.

According to her family and police records, Ms. Lyles wrestled with significant mental health issues. An audiotape reveals officers discussing her police and mental health history immediately before the shooting. Seattle Police Department officers had been called to her residence more than 20 times before this Sunday, with mental illness often figuring in those encounters. The department had placed an officer caution on her address for this reason, meaning officers should be on alert for dangerous behavior from her. Despite repeated previous mental health referrals and the involvement of Child Protective Services, she was alone with her children on Sunday, in distress and with nowhere to turn but 911.

Ms. Lyles’s situation is not unique. People with untreated mental illnesses are disproportionately likely to attract police attention. The combination of mental illness, racial segregation and poverty is particularly likely to result in police contact, often leading to arrest. In fact, a 2006 Bureau of Justice Statistics study revealed that 24 percent of state prisoners report a history of mental illness, with other sources reporting rates in some larger facilities as high as 70 percent. But it was not always the case that mental illness would result in the cycle of catch and release that evidently plagued Ms. Lyles.

What changed over the past half-century is that the United States has seen a stunning decline in resources devoted to public mental health — during the same time the nation adopted mass incarceration. A 2009 International Association of Chiefs of Police review reported that the available hospital beds for persons suffering from mental illness dropped by 95 percent from 1955 to 2005, to 17 beds per 100,000 persons from 340. From 1985 to 2005, the nation’s incarceration rate tripled.

The shift away from hospital treatment of mental illness was not matched by an offsetting commitment to fund the health care people needed to live on the outside. Medicaid reimbursement rates are so low that it is difficult to find providers who will accept it. As a result, many people with mental illness are functionally uninsured for their most urgent health care needs. That is, state support for mental health retreated at the same time state investment in incarceration exploded — and both with disastrous results for vulnerable communities.

The consequence of the disinvestment in public mental health has also not affected all vulnerable communities equally. African-American people are at least as likely as white people to experience mental health distress but are half as likely to receive mental health treatment. This helps to explain why it’s easy to recall other high-profile cases of police use of deadly force involving black victims with documented histories of mental illness.

To be sure, the disproportionate rate of law enforcement violence against African-Americans has a host of contributing factors, including racial bias, both implicit and explicit. There is most likely no single explanation for the tragedy that occurred when Seattle Police Department officers shot and killed Ms. Lyles. But in her case and others like it, the failure of public mental health services appears to have been one important ingredient in a mix of forces that ultimately proved deadly. Without this failure, Sunday’s encounter might never have occurred.

If we are to protect families in similar situations, we must extend the lens of our concern beyond police-community interactions — even in cases where the police pull the trigger. A reinvestment in public mental health resources — including hospitals and, yes, better health care coverage for vulnerable Americans struggling with mental illness — are urgent necessities.

Of course, the cure for these too frequent police-involved shootings must include serious changes within law enforcement. But we must also recommit to changing how we manage mental health if we are to reduce the chances that illness will be treated with gunshots. It is what we owe to Ms. Lyles and to the children who survive her.

The Spectrum

I have worked with kids for a long time now and kids who are disabled, physically or intellectually, are usually my favorite, with English as a Second Language a close second.  But all kids regardless fall on some type of spectrum be it official or not.  And that takes time and knowledge and training to understand the concept and what that means in relating to and connecting to that individual.

Cops, like Teachers, have to wear multiple hats and it does a disservice frankly to the individual wearing said hat but more importantly to the one whom they serve while wearing said hat.

Today I am in an ELL class in an elementary school and one child is not ELL but in fact on the Spectrum. Yes he is clearly also a child where English is his second language but not to the point where he needs or could benefit from it, he is Autistic and that should be the priority.  Why? Because the needs and demands of that type of student are highly specialized and he should have a full time aide if he is at all in any mainstream class so as not to take away that precious resource that all students and teachers need – time.

He has two buddies who mind him and these kids are great. They take his stuff, talk to him and encourage him in between subsequent meltdowns and confusion and that is building something no lesson plan could ever do; however, they need time themselves to build skills and it is not their extra duty to mind their peer that is an adult’s gig.  And this is Nashvile, (yes I call it that when I want to speak negatively about the city/town) where education is a mishmash of programs and half baked concepts that do little but frustrate and confuse everyone.

Yesterday, the Doctor I saw had a son who used to teach at one of the few acclaimed Middle Schools here and he lasted three years and decided to become a Cop. Well at least he may have some experience when it comes to this as the story below illustrates.

Again, few Cops if any understand mental illness, physical disabilities and especially intellectual ones. We have had Cops shoot deaf men as they did not respond to commands, to disabled individuals physically abuse and to mentally ill they have repeatedly assaulted and/or killed.  This is just another death in the line of fire from a Cops gun. 

His Asperger’s video was inspiring. His death by police was ‘nonsensical,’ a lawsuit says

By Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
The Washington Post
February 9 at 6:47 AM 

Kayden Clarke let the world see him at his most vulnerable.

In the video he uploaded to YouTube in 2015, he’s in the middle of an Asperger’s meltdown, sobbing and smacking himself in the face. The only thing that calms him is his service dog Sampson, a 4-year-old Rottweiler that paws at Clarke’s hand, then nuzzles in close as his sobs subside.

More than 2.5 million people viewed the video, getting an unfiltered look at a bad day for someone struggling with mental illness. Posted positive comments poured in, thanking Clarke for his courage.

But Clarke’s illnesses continued to plague him. A year after his video went viral, police were sent to his house for a bigger crisis.

It was Feb. 4, 2016, and Clarke wanted to kill himself.

According to a lawsuit, which was filed Friday in Arizona Superior Court by his mother, Clarke was suicidal and had a knife. He had emailed a friend with a final request: Take care of Sampson, the dog seen in the viral video.

The friend called the police.

The lawsuit said the Mesa, Ariz., police department had dealt with Clarke before and knew about his mental issues, including Asperger’s syndrome, bipolar disorder and depression. But instead of talking Clarke down, “the situation escalated dramatically and nonsensically.”

One responding officer went outside to retrieve a bean bag gun, a painful but nonlethal weapon. Two other officers approached the darkened room where Clarke was hiding.

Through the doorway, officers glimpsed Clarke holding the knife. They shouted at him, ordering him to give himself up, the lawsuit says.

Clark was “clearly confused and terrified” and screamed at the officers that he “would not be taken back to the psychiatric ward or be medicated,” the lawsuit says.

Officer Stephen Shannon flicked a light switch, and the sudden brightness frightened Officer Joseph DeMarco and Clarke, according to the suit. Clarke, still armed with the knife, started walking toward the officers.

Shannon fired his service weapon, but his bullet went through a wall.

DeMarco fired a single bullet that struck Clarke in the abdomen. He died later that night.

“They cornered [Clarke] in a small darkened room. Instead of trying to calm (him), the officers drew and pointed their guns in the dark and shouted demands, terrifying [Clarke],” the lawsuit said.

The shooting happened “for no good reason whatsoever,” it argues.

The Mesa Police Department didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment. In a video uploaded by the Arizona Republic after the shooting, a police spokesman said Clarke appeared to be a threat.

Clarke “lunged, extending the knife towards the officers from a very close distance,” Detective Esteban Flores said. “The officers felt threatened at that point,” and so they shot him.

His legal name at the time was Danielle Jacobs, but Clarke was transitioning from a woman to a man, his friends said. Legal documents and police reports list him as Jacobs.

Clarke’s fatal shooting came as police departments are increasingly under scrutiny for using deadly force instead of de-escalating situations. Many, including the Mesa Police Department, have been criticized after disastrous encounters with the mentally ill.

Last year, 241 of the 963 people who were killed by police were having some kind of mental-health episode, more than 1 out of every 4, according to a Washington Post analysis of police shootings in the United States.

As The Post’s Peter Holley and Wesley Lowery reported, the problem is bigger than simply trigger-happy police officers.

“These shootings are tragedies for everybody involved,” Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, told The Post. “Too often these calls come in and officers understandably think they need to take action right away. But in a medical emergency, slowing it down, getting additional resources and perhaps even stepping back is the direction that many are advocating.”

“You don’t blame the officers; you blame the training they receive,” Wexler said.

People with untreated mental illness are 16 times as likely to be killed during a police encounter as other civilians approached or stopped by law enforcement, according to a study by the Treatment Advocacy Center.

After Clarke’s shooting in Mesa, the police department changed how it handled cases involving the mentally ill. The department created a crisis-intervention team to handle similar situations and a mental-health board to review policies, officials said.

“My goal will be to have Mesa Police Department above the national standard by the end of this year,” then-chief John Meza said at a news conference.

In the suit, Clarke’s mother is asking for unspecified damages for the wrongful death of her child — and for “emotional pain, distress, hardship, suffering, shock, worry, anxiety, sleeplessness and suffering.”

She and her attorneys did not respond to calls seeking comment.