Rant engage: Im glad the TFP finally said something about this, since weve been talking about it non-stop for years. That said, the tone of the article still shows their endless deference to authority. They put out damning evidence, and follow it with 100% police commentary trying to convince us its okay. 13 percent sustained is NOT okay, especially when the majority of the outcomes of the 13 percent are written or verbal reprimands, or no action at all! Of 358 complaints lodged with the Chattanooga Police Departments internal affairs division by residents and officers during the last five years, just 47 resulted in officers being found guilty of misconduct... Thats about 13 percent. Most of the internal affairs investigations -- 67 percent -- ended without finding the accused officer at fault. The remaining 20 percent ended either without enough evidence to make a decision or with no action taken, records show. 79 allegations of excessive force were made and 7 were sustained between 2009 and September 2014. [Thirteen percent] is average. Members of the public often make complaints without fully understanding police policy, [Haberfeld] said, which can skew the percentage of sustained cases The public in general does not understand police work or what policing is all about, she said. The most common complaint is excessive use of force. Any force that doesnt look right is perceived by the public as an excessive use of force. So this is where the deference to authority starts in, in the most Paternalistic way. Its absurd to dismiss folks mistreatment by saying they dont understand the law, when the reality is that policy and procedures simply arent effective at preventing or punishing excessive force! We remember Emmer and Cooley, watched on video beating Adam Tatum viciously with dozens of baton hits and punches, while he was on the ground fearing for his life. THAT WAS WITHIN POLICY AND PROCEDURES! I was in the room as IA officials current and past said it was perfectly fine. The state judge ordered the city to rehire them. The citys settlement was they were allowed to resign with back pay (tens of thousands of dollars), keeping their certification, so that they would have no problem simply moving to another police department. A warning sign is no complaints, [Haberfeld] said. To me that means there is something wrong. Complaints are an indication that the department has trust and people are reporting more because they feel that if there is something wrong, the department will take it seriously. No! People reporting only means that there is no other possible path to receiving justice, as bullshit and ineffective as this path is! I talk to more people who dont file complaints because they see it as a dead end and/or theyre afraid of retaliation than people who seriously believe the police will police themselves. We need community control of the police, not just better relations and cops rolling deep on bikes instead of cars. Better relations will come from more just relations of power, not the CPDs PR campaign with the TFPs tacit help. #thinblueline #codeofsilence #nosnitchingculture #stoppolicebrutality
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 16:36:31 +0000
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