Call and Respond

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

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

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

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

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

Could not find the code for that one.

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

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

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

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

Sam Levin in Los Angeles The Guardian Mon 8 Jan 2024

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

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

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

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

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

Police violence is increasing as murders are falling

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

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

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

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

Many people were killed while trying to flee police

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

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

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

Sheriffs’ departments and rural regions are driving the increase

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

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

Black Americans were killed at much higher rates

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

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

Albuquerque and New Mexico had the deadliest rates

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

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

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

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

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

Few officers face accountability

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

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

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

Some cities experienced decreases in lethal force

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

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

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

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

Here we go again….

Yesterday the videos of the beating and ultimate death of Tyre Nichols of Memphis, TN was released. Of course the death loop and endless watching of this will accomplish little to nothing but will be used as evidence in the criminal trials of the four Officers who individually at some level contributed to his death, including clubbing him in the skull, tasing him, kicking him repeatedly and punching him then dragging his unconscious body to sit against the police vehicle and waited over 20 minutes for Medics to arrive. Ah those first responders that we so idolize right?

I write often about Nashville and my negative views of the State and that city in particular. I do want to say that Memphis is not a perfect city and there is immense poverty and of course there have been some hideous crimes that made the news, a serial shooter and the abduction, rape and murder of a Teacher on an early morning jog, but the reality is it is a city like many I have visited, both in the South, the North and the Midwest. And with that I have met amazing people and difficult people and come away with stories and a sense of a place that often is maligned and misrepresented in the media. And Memphis is one. It is a place of SOUL and much like the city down the river in Louisiana, New Orleans, it is complex polynomial. And I have found that in almost all my travels of said cities… Louisville, Cleveland, Baltimore. For the record Detroit has often been portrayed as such, but for the wrong reasons. I will never return there as there is nothing there.

I just returned from a day trip to Philadelphia and with that visited the Barnes Foundation and their Museum of Art to see two exhibits at each; Modigliani at the Barnes and Matisse in the 30s at PMA. Amazing venues, packed to the rafters with lovers of art and amazing individuals who were working the crowds that again lean to largely old white folks with varying ailments, disabilities and overall angst about being in public. A fun crowd. Okay but there were some younger and people of color at the PMA and they were expressing deep curiosity and interest at the art and the stories Matisse was telling in his work. The Barnes.. no. I am not sure that Modigliani was an artist that spoke to them in the way Matisse does in the popular culture. Sad really as he died at age 30 and his work is much more lush and complex than a simple viewing allows. The Barnes had taken X-Rays, Thermal Imagining and used other technologies to uncover a wealth of info and material on the artist. He reused other Artists canvas and painted over their work, he used cardboard and was also a painter who sketched and painted directly on the work only to revise it. Amazing exhibit and brilliant curation. My love of Matisse was only expanded by this exhibit at the PMA but it did not change my adoration that the MOMA accomplished with their amazing exhibit of the Red Studio last year. That will always be my most treasured exhibit as it was a “Where’s Waldo” moment to spot the art and the way the artist used a signature in all his works that at times is obvious and others less so. I learned a great deal so that knowledge came to use when someone asked what a yellow blob was in one work, and I said: “Flowers, Matisse loved flowers and they are in almost all his work these are just an Impressionist view.” And sure enough there were photos of the scene in the studio that showed the vase of flowers in their natural state. I owe that to MOMA.

The day in Philly was cold and I wandered the city and like many metro centers it was dead and many shops and businesses closed. I rode a largely empty subway to familiarize myself with their transit but basically it was an easy walk back to the Station after lunch at a recommended pub in the area. As always the people I met were charming and friendly and the food was well as most – average and expensive. I am becoming disappointed of late with the options of food and the lack of quality with regards to price. I see why the restaurants at the two Museums were packed and required reservations, as again options were few. But walking through Philly I saw charming blocks with restaurants and shops, not yet open but were there giving an indication that there are as always, pockets of activity tucked into corners worth exploring. I look forward to returning.

And I truly did not want to ruin that day with the images in that video, so this morning with my coffee I did and all I really did was focus on the sounds. The young man crying for his Mother, the Cops ranting and breathing heavily, their rage and ramblings and of course the last breaths of Tyre as he begged them to stop and they kept on beating him until there was nothing but silence. You see the red lights and hear the conversations between the Officers debate the condition of the man they have beaten to near death and with that you see others standing around watching, for who or what I am not sure but again it is very reminiscent of the Floyd killing only this is by five men of color repeatedly assaulting a man of color. They use every tool in their arsenal other than a gun, their feet, their hands, their clubs and their tasers. Did they think it was less severe or that a gun shot would be the final nail in THEIR coffin?

I leave it at that. I have little more to add and my rage, anger and sheer confusion about why this continues is not surprising. The protests will be less intense and fewer and we will go back to our homes, to our places of business, our places of congregation and we will do what we always do. Rage and rant and offer thoughts and prayers and nothing will change. Why? We simply cannot get guns out of the equation. No guns were found, nor shots fired and yet here we are, another death by the hands of the Police. They constantly complain they were in fear. I see none of that on display in that video, I see a man being yanked from the car, he being pushed to the ground, him managing to get up and run and they pursue him determined to find him and in turn determined to bring him to his knees. I saw the same video last week with the young Black Teacher on Wilshire in Los Angeles. And I will see it again in another city with another young Black man in the future. America we are a violent dangerous nation, obsessed with crime, obsessed with guns and in turn we see anyone as the enemy. I see the Police as mine but I have for years. I have been the victim of lies by Cops, their pursuit of lies and a Medic who enabled and assisted them in doing so. First Responders are the agents of death not of saviors. They can all go fuck themselves.