9/8/15

RCJ: cops' lives suck

Following up on the previous post, the Rapid City Journal agrees with me: cops' lives suck.
Gunfire deaths of police officers in 2015 are actually down over the same period in 2014, but over the last year, six officers appear to have been targeted specifically because they worked in law enforcement, according to the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which tracks officer deaths. TV coverage has been extensive on a number of racially charged incidents, including the killing of black teenager Michael Brown by a white officer in Ferguson, Mo.; the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody in Baltimore, Md.; and the shooting of Walter Scott by a white police officer in South Charleston, S.C. Those incidents, some of which led to criminal charges against officers, have fueled an atmosphere of backlash, with some fringe groups calling for retaliation against police. [With officers killed, and suspect deaths, it's a tough time to be a cop]
Tim Giago sees little difference between Rapid City and Ferguson, Missouri where Michael Brown's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against that police department.
Much of what creates the poisonous, vicious-cycle relationship between young black men and the police is that the War on Drugs brings cops into black neighborhoods to patrol for drug possession and sale. Without that policy—which would include that no one could make a living selling drugs—the entire structure supporting the notion of young black men as criminals would fall apart. White men with guns would encounter young black men much less often, and meanwhile society would offer young black men less opportunity to drift into embodying the stereotype in the first place. [John McWhorter, National Review. links added.]
But, Americans already know this, right?

Daniel Tiger chose to take out two enemy police personnel with him rather than be gunned down in cold blood like Christopher Capps was.

Lakota Country Times editor Karin Eagle spoke out after another American Indian was killed in Rapid City.
"There's a lot of antagonizing factors that people aren't taking into consideration, that this isn't the first death by police," Eagle said. From Eagle's prospective, the mayor and city council are blatantly ignoring the issue. "At the city level no acknowledgement of the problem even exists. There can be no change unless somebody addresses it. The people in power need to address it," Eagle said. [KOTA teevee]
South Dakota's attorney general, Marty Jackley, is a hypocrite.
The video of Officer Michael T. Slager firing eight shots at a fleeing Walter Scott was captured by a bystander, and the incident has re-ignited a nationwide debate about racial profiling, police brutality, the filming of police activity by bystanders and the growing role of body cameras in police departments. Slager has been charged with first-degree murder. "I was appalled at the conduct and was satisfied to see that the prosecutors moved in the right direction," Jackley said. "Division of Criminal Investigation agents record conversations. Sometimes, the recorder's not on. If it's not on, you have to simply explain why it's not on," Jackley said. [Sioux Falls Argus Leader]
People concerned about police violence against persons of color know that Slager would have been exonerated had there been no video of Walter Scott's alleged murder just like a Pennington County deputy was after killing unarmed Lakota man, Christopher Capps.

A federal judge has ruled that Capps' family can sue for wrongful death.

The cop who managed 'a bunch of racists' became Rapid City's mayor.

As for Jackley: he is probing white pockets for enough cash to finance a run for higher office.

State officials are scrambling to address a problem that they created at Statehood.

After another high profile racism incident the Rapid City Rush will have an alcohol-free family section in the civic center next season.

When Garrison Keillor opened A Prairie Home Campanion in the Rapid City Civic Center Theatre on November 20, 1999 he cited a statistic that Pennington County has the highest per capita gun ownership in the United States. A nervous chuckle rolled through the audience.

The number of experiences that i have had in gun and pawn shops in Rapid City that have taken me aback are too numerous to count. Two are vivid: a fifteen year old with mother in tow pointing at a Glock in a case saying: "that one" and a man buying five AK-47s with cash.
Christopher J. Capps, 22, who died of multiple gunshot wounds on Sunday night at Rapid City Regional Hospital, had been accepted by the University of South Dakota – Vermillion. Described as a “very outgoing” young man, Capps was well known around the neighborhood where was shot in a hail of bullets that may have ranged as high as five or six shots from Sheriff Department deputy David Olson, a nearly five-year veteran of the department. [Native Times]
The South Dakota Republican Party thrives on violence.

The people involved in this skirmish are not the first casualties of this war; nor are they the last.



at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Republican is simply another word for Earth hater but comments intended to troll the author or other readers will not be published so use a handle or even your real name and don’t be an asshole.