This week in US police brutality
June 3, 2023 12:15 PM Subscribe
tw: violence, death
CDC Report Recognizes Police-Perpetrated Killing as Major Cause of Violent Death
About 961 of the violent deaths recorded in 2020 are classified by the CDC as “legal intervention deaths,” or deaths caused by “law enforcement and other persons” with legal authority to use lethal force. Experts say this is almost certainly an undercount that excludes many deaths in police custody, and the CDC notes that “legal intervention” is a technical term and does not imply that a police-perpetrated killing was legally justified.
[...]
Mapping Police Violence reports that around 1,200 people were killed by police in 2022, the highest annual number of deaths recorded over the past decade
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In related news:
The hidden toll of fatal police violence on some AAPI communities
"At sort of the regional level, Pacific Islanders are experiencing levels of police violence that are lethal, on par with Native Americans, on par with Black Americans.
And the lower Southeast Asian Americans whose countries of origin were affected by the U.S. war in Southeast Asia. Vietnamese, Cambodian, Lao, Hmong people, are all experiencing much higher levels than sort of other Southeast Asians even or East or South Asians."
The Toll of Police Violence on Black People’s Mental Health
“38% of Black people said they feel anxious when they see an officer."
“When I’m driving and my 6-year-old daughter sees a police officer and says, ‘Oh, Daddy, the police is going to get us. They going to arrest us,’ I’ve had to self check myself,” said Devine Camara, 42. “That’s how embedded that fear is into our community. Somehow I passed it on and I don’t even realize.”
US must tackle police brutality against Black people head-on, UN experts say
"Keesee said that they had witnessed a pattern that could be traced to what she called the “deep intrinsic legacy” of slavery and legalized discrimination. She said that across the country there remained “a lack of awareness and acknowledgment of the extent to which racial inequities” were still prevalent.
The result was a “culminating exhaustion in the Black community”, the UN expert said.
In the absence of a national database, Méndez said, police officers who had complaints of misconduct or excessive force filed against them were allowed to continue serving, in some cases going on to be involved in killings of Black people. He added: “The mechanism also received allegations of police officers who were previously guilty and or disciplined for misconduct, afterwards being hired by a different police department.”"
APD, GBI raid bail fund, arrest three organizers
"Police arrested three organizers with the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, a non-profit that provides bail and legal support to protestors who are arrested. The arrests are part of a wave of repression facing protestors who oppose the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, more commonly known as “Cop City.
If found guilty of the charges, the money laundering charge comes with a fine of $500,000, up to 20 years imprisonment, or both. The charity fraud charge carries a fine of $10,000 or the total amount of the fraudulent solicitations and criminal penalties of up to $5,000, a minimum of one year in jail with up to a five-year maximum, or both."
This is the Atlanta Way: A Primer on Cop City
"This is not the first time that police expansion has followed rebellion. As detailed in the 2022 documentary, Riotsville, U.S.A., the parallels between the response to the uprisings and rebellions of the 1960s and today are eerie. In the 1960s—following uprisings in areas like Newark, Watts, and Detroit—the U.S. military constructed mock cities on military bases. These bases were referred to as “Riotsvilles” where, much like the plans for Cop City, law enforcement could role play responses to uprisings and protests. [...]
In that sense, Cop City is meant to play a stabilizing role for Atlanta’s image in the wake of the uprisings; it is as much about the reality of Atlanta’s police capacity as it is the story told about Atlanta’s police capacity. Cop City is meant to communicate that Atlanta is a place that takes “public safety” and the protection of property seriously: a place where people with money can come and safely turn that money into more money."
About 961 of the violent deaths recorded in 2020 are classified by the CDC as “legal intervention deaths,” or deaths caused by “law enforcement and other persons” with legal authority to use lethal force. Experts say this is almost certainly an undercount that excludes many deaths in police custody, and the CDC notes that “legal intervention” is a technical term and does not imply that a police-perpetrated killing was legally justified.
[...]
Mapping Police Violence reports that around 1,200 people were killed by police in 2022, the highest annual number of deaths recorded over the past decade
---
In related news:
The hidden toll of fatal police violence on some AAPI communities
"At sort of the regional level, Pacific Islanders are experiencing levels of police violence that are lethal, on par with Native Americans, on par with Black Americans.
And the lower Southeast Asian Americans whose countries of origin were affected by the U.S. war in Southeast Asia. Vietnamese, Cambodian, Lao, Hmong people, are all experiencing much higher levels than sort of other Southeast Asians even or East or South Asians."
The Toll of Police Violence on Black People’s Mental Health
“38% of Black people said they feel anxious when they see an officer."
“When I’m driving and my 6-year-old daughter sees a police officer and says, ‘Oh, Daddy, the police is going to get us. They going to arrest us,’ I’ve had to self check myself,” said Devine Camara, 42. “That’s how embedded that fear is into our community. Somehow I passed it on and I don’t even realize.”
US must tackle police brutality against Black people head-on, UN experts say
"Keesee said that they had witnessed a pattern that could be traced to what she called the “deep intrinsic legacy” of slavery and legalized discrimination. She said that across the country there remained “a lack of awareness and acknowledgment of the extent to which racial inequities” were still prevalent.
The result was a “culminating exhaustion in the Black community”, the UN expert said.
In the absence of a national database, Méndez said, police officers who had complaints of misconduct or excessive force filed against them were allowed to continue serving, in some cases going on to be involved in killings of Black people. He added: “The mechanism also received allegations of police officers who were previously guilty and or disciplined for misconduct, afterwards being hired by a different police department.”"
APD, GBI raid bail fund, arrest three organizers
"Police arrested three organizers with the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, a non-profit that provides bail and legal support to protestors who are arrested. The arrests are part of a wave of repression facing protestors who oppose the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, more commonly known as “Cop City.
If found guilty of the charges, the money laundering charge comes with a fine of $500,000, up to 20 years imprisonment, or both. The charity fraud charge carries a fine of $10,000 or the total amount of the fraudulent solicitations and criminal penalties of up to $5,000, a minimum of one year in jail with up to a five-year maximum, or both."
This is the Atlanta Way: A Primer on Cop City
"This is not the first time that police expansion has followed rebellion. As detailed in the 2022 documentary, Riotsville, U.S.A., the parallels between the response to the uprisings and rebellions of the 1960s and today are eerie. In the 1960s—following uprisings in areas like Newark, Watts, and Detroit—the U.S. military constructed mock cities on military bases. These bases were referred to as “Riotsvilles” where, much like the plans for Cop City, law enforcement could role play responses to uprisings and protests. [...]
In that sense, Cop City is meant to play a stabilizing role for Atlanta’s image in the wake of the uprisings; it is as much about the reality of Atlanta’s police capacity as it is the story told about Atlanta’s police capacity. Cop City is meant to communicate that Atlanta is a place that takes “public safety” and the protection of property seriously: a place where people with money can come and safely turn that money into more money."
For Black drivers, a police officer's first 45 words are a portent of what's to come
Eighty-one of these stops ultimately involved searches, handcuffings, or arrests. That kind of outcome was less likely when a police officer's first words provided a reason for the stop.posted by tonycpsu at 8:15 PM on June 3, 2023 [4 favorites]
[...]
Over 15% of Black drivers experienced an escalated outcome such as a search, handcuffing, or arrest, while less than 1% of white drivers experienced one of those outcomes.
"They're not drawing any conclusions from that, but these are things we should just be paying attention to," says Meares. "It strains credulity that there are that many more traffic violations."
Rho says in planning this study, they had initially set out to look at patterns related to traffic stop escalation for white drivers too, but realized that it happened so infrequently for white drivers that there just weren't sufficient numbers to even include them in the analysis.
Because I am an urban stream ecologist in Atlanta (and a resident of unincorporated South DeKalb County and the South River watershed), I have had a front row seat to the levels of corruption involved in pushing Cop City through against the will of the people. I am too involved at this point to make an FPP, but a few more links from local news sources that have not made the national news:
U.S. agency quietly shuts down monitoring device key to training center pollution debate, sewage control
Georgia Tech emails about ‘Cop City’ post censorship read like an unfunny sitcom
Geography professor's map shows police training facility supporters don't live nearby
Please note that these are all from "alternative" news sources because our local newspaper is owned by the biggest donor to Cop City.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:23 AM on June 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
U.S. agency quietly shuts down monitoring device key to training center pollution debate, sewage control
Georgia Tech emails about ‘Cop City’ post censorship read like an unfunny sitcom
Geography professor's map shows police training facility supporters don't live nearby
Please note that these are all from "alternative" news sources because our local newspaper is owned by the biggest donor to Cop City.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:23 AM on June 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
Left out the link to The Xylom's amazing fact check of the city's propaganda (the article which started the unfunny sitcom situation at Georgia Tech).
posted by hydropsyche at 4:26 AM on June 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by hydropsyche at 4:26 AM on June 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
"The police are not here to create disorder, they're here to kill people." - Richard Q. Daley
posted by neuron at 10:40 AM on June 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by neuron at 10:40 AM on June 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
@hydropsyche - there's also Andre Dickens (ATL's mayor for those out of the know) centering a police-driven response to the mass shooting at Northside hospital that resulted in the tragic death of Amy St. Pierre in spite of Amy having been an active participant in class conscious and anti-racist organizing, in community and organizing with people who have been openly against Cop City since its initial ideation years ago
Atlanta politics is infuriating to point of absurdity
posted by paimapi at 10:46 AM on June 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
Atlanta politics is infuriating to point of absurdity
posted by paimapi at 10:46 AM on June 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
I think it would be interesting to know how much surplussed military gear was handed to the Atlanta police and sheriff's departments, as well as the state patrol and local units of the national guard during the Trump administration.
I read story after story about that kind of thing on Techdirt, and we all laughed at how useless armored personnel carriers, Humvees with gun mounts and other such equipment would be for the police, yet Tiananmen Square somehow never came up in the conversation. Cop City makes all that a lot less funny from any point of view.
To me, Cop City is indistinguishable from a fort meant to pacify a hostile population during an occupation. Sort of a Fort Apache East, if you will, and the optics of having such an installation just outside the 'metro area with the highest proportion of middle-income African-Americans in the country' could scarcely be worse.
Joe Biden is replacing all US Attorneys except two apparently, and I hope the toughest one of them all might end up in Atlanta. They are certainly needed.
posted by jamjam at 11:59 AM on June 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
I read story after story about that kind of thing on Techdirt, and we all laughed at how useless armored personnel carriers, Humvees with gun mounts and other such equipment would be for the police, yet Tiananmen Square somehow never came up in the conversation. Cop City makes all that a lot less funny from any point of view.
To me, Cop City is indistinguishable from a fort meant to pacify a hostile population during an occupation. Sort of a Fort Apache East, if you will, and the optics of having such an installation just outside the 'metro area with the highest proportion of middle-income African-Americans in the country' could scarcely be worse.
Joe Biden is replacing all US Attorneys except two apparently, and I hope the toughest one of them all might end up in Atlanta. They are certainly needed.
posted by jamjam at 11:59 AM on June 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
I think it would be interesting to know how much surplussed military gear was handed to the Atlanta police and sheriff's departments, as well as the state patrol and local units of the national guard during the Trump administration
Atlanta PD has been a corrupt, hateful institution for a very long time (see also, also, also, also, etc)
the Black political and economic elites in Atlanta have also been colluding with white leaders in Atlanta for a very long time (see also, also, also, etc)
one of my biggest pet peeves are the claims that things became substantially worse or broke bad under Trump rather than the white supremacist roots inside of all levels of US politics stretching back throughout history to its very founding as a nation run by slavers
posted by paimapi at 4:00 PM on June 4, 2023 [6 favorites]
Atlanta PD has been a corrupt, hateful institution for a very long time (see also, also, also, also, etc)
the Black political and economic elites in Atlanta have also been colluding with white leaders in Atlanta for a very long time (see also, also, also, etc)
one of my biggest pet peeves are the claims that things became substantially worse or broke bad under Trump rather than the white supremacist roots inside of all levels of US politics stretching back throughout history to its very founding as a nation run by slavers
posted by paimapi at 4:00 PM on June 4, 2023 [6 favorites]
Atlanta City Council has approved the funding for construction of a controversial public safety training center despite nearly 15 hours of fiery public comment from opponents.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:01 AM on June 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by hydropsyche at 4:01 AM on June 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
hydropsyche: “Please note that these are all from "alternative" news sources because our local newspaper is owned by the biggest donor to Cop City.”The coverage of the public comments last night on the news at 6 on WSB TV-2, part of the same media empire, was infuriating.
I've struggled to write something in this box for the last hour. I think I'm going to have to invoke, "Please insert one of my signature Class V Profane Tirades™."
posted by ob1quixote at 8:22 AM on June 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
234 comments against Cop City
4 comments for Cop City
not counting the 100+ people who signed up and ceded time to others
posted by paimapi at 12:45 PM on June 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
4 comments for Cop City
not counting the 100+ people who signed up and ceded time to others
posted by paimapi at 12:45 PM on June 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
"One important point: this was us using the “right” channels that the powerful always tell us to use. And doing so in a historic way. And still being ignored. So Council only has itself to blame when people decide to use channels that are not condoned by the powerful."
posted by paimapi at 12:49 PM on June 6, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by paimapi at 12:49 PM on June 6, 2023 [5 favorites]
No elected official in the city government should know a moment's peace for as long as the continue to live here. They shouldn't be able to buy a stick of gum in this town.
posted by ob1quixote at 4:27 PM on June 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by ob1quixote at 4:27 PM on June 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
I admit from the behind the scenes stuff that I saw, I really still had some hope. I didn't think I could get more cynical, but I woke up today just finally ready to admit that no, the process does not work, and yes, everything is completely fucked, and yes, there really is a vast corporate-government conspiracy that stretches from the exurbs to Buckhead to Atlanta City Hall across the street to the Capitol, and apparently all the way up to the federal government such that they got USGS to hide the data for them. I'm just a scientist trying to tell the truth, and I now really believe that the people in power are absolutely not interested in the truth, only staying in power.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:36 PM on June 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by hydropsyche at 5:36 PM on June 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
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"Racial inequities"?
If you have any interest in words that actually fit the situation, try 'genocidal fascism'.
Genocidal fascism has been simmering along in police authorities across the US since at least the end of the Civil War. Right now it’s in one of its periodic boil over phases, but the kitchen is already on fire, and it feels like optimism to say that it’s not clear whether the house will burn down.
And if you want to reach back to the '60s for unnerving parallels, try the 1860s. The Civil War ended in 1865, and the US had its Red Summer in 1919.
posted by jamjam at 2:03 PM on June 3, 2023 [12 favorites]