Commanders of Missouri National Guard saw protesters in Ferguson as “enemy forces,” “adversaries,” “hate groups”

by Steve Watson

Documents obtained by CNN reveal that the Missouri National Guard referred to Americans in Ferguson as ‘enemy forces’ and adversaries’ in briefings as they prepared to quell protests.

The internal briefing documents, secured under a Freedom of Information Act request, reveal that the National Guard, called in to Ferguson under already tense circumstances, used heavily militarized language to describe protesters, many of whom were merely lawfully executing their First Amendment rights. Complete article

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Tension in Madison: Role of Police

Chief Says Madison Not a Ferguson

The above is a recent interview (Apr/3/2015) in which I talk a bit about tension in Madison and that while there is tension in my old city, it is not a Ferguson. The shooting of a young black man by a Madison officer on March 13th initially sparked both grief and anger in the community. As I mention, my hop is that Madison can continue its role as a learning organization and teach others how best to respond to all-to-common incidents like these — and keep them from happening in the future.

The department stayed true to its decades-old “Madison Method” of properly responding to the protest that boiled over after the shooting that night. The department responded with tolerance and control during the many marches and demonstrations which occurred in the city in the aftermath.

Now the city is in an interim period in which an outside agency investigated the shooting; the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI). Complete article

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A Warning to Our Nation’s Police

A Warning to Our Nation’s Police

Many of you know that I am a person who has put a number of years into the discipline of policing a free society — and I do say “discipline” because policing consists of the multiple disciplines of psychology, sociology, law, emergency medicine, rhetoric, martial arts, history, education, and philosophy (and a few other as well).

And since my retirement, I have been watching, analyzing, writing, and listening to and about police matters. I have recently come to a conclusion about what is going on and a prediction for the future — deep-down, I do hope I am wrong!

Since Ferguson, I have felt a sense of urgency in the nation — and I know that when I write and talk about that urgency has rubbed many of you the wrong way. Agitated or not, police need to look outside themselves and into the cities and communities they serve.

Here’s what I think is going on…

The future of American policing today rests on how well and how quickly its police can regain the trust and support of poor people and people of color.

Trust and support are essential in order to fairly and effectively police a multi-cultural, free society like America.

Without that trust and support, policing will have to use fear, force, and repression to maintain a semblance public order, not the consent and support of the people themselves. Complete article

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Philadelphia’s Killer Cops Prove the Necessity of Black Community Control of Police

Philadelphia’s Killer Cops Prove the Necessity of Black Community Control of Police 03/25/2015

In response to the Black Lives Matter movement, the U.S. Justice Department has attempted to position itself on the side of “reform.” Its new report on the Philadelphia police is one example. However, their version of reform is designed to perfect the system of mass Black incarceration, and to derail the movement. “It is critical that the movement put forward its own proposals that would fundamentally alter the power relationships between the police and the Black community.”

“Integrated city halls and diversity in police hiring have not altered the core police mission in Philadelphia or anywhere else in the United States.”

The Black experience in Philadelphia shows, definitively, that conventional assumptions undergirding “reform” of policing have no basis in the racial realities of the United States. Over the past eight years, Philadelphia cops shot at “suspects” 390 times, a rate of once a week, killing 65 of them. Fifty-nine of the human targets were unarmed and 80 percent of them were Black, according to a newly-released report by the U.S. Justice Department.

Philadelphia cops are five times more likely than New York City police to use deadly force against citizens. Despite having agreed four years ago to federal court monitoring of its stop-and-frisk policies, Philly cops made 200,000 such stops last year – about twice as high as the rate recorded in New York before that city’s program was officially halted. Ninety percent of those frisked in Philadelphia are minorities. Yet, the majority Black and brown city boasts a Black district attorney, a Black police commissioner and a 35 percent Black police force, and has had a mayor-appointed Police Advisory Commission since 1993. (Its first such board was set up in 1958.) Complete article

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Beating Trial of LAPD Officer Begun, Then Delayed By “Peace Officer's Bill of Rights”

Beating Trial of LAPD Officer Begun, Then Delayed By “Peace Officer's Bill of Rights”

The case of People v. Mary O’Callaghan began in a Los Angeles courtroom last Wed., Feb. 25, but was halted and delayed till April 2 as the court moved to hear new evidence in the case. Approximately 50-60 perspective jurors who had been sworn in were dismissed.

Mary O’Callaghan is the LAPD officer who kicked/stomped 33-year old Alesia Thomas seven times in the groin/vaginal area in July of 2012. She was charged with Abuse Under Color of Authority by the L.A. County District Attorney’s office after a recommendation from an internal LAPD hearing. If convicted O’Callaghan could face a maximum of one year in county jail and/or a fine of $10,000 if convicted.

At issue appears to be statements made by an unidentified police officer to O’Callaghan on the night Alesia Thomas was arrested: that the officer told O’Callaghan to “stop it; cut it out.” Complete article

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Police: No More Excuses

Police: No More Excuses 03/21/2015

To Our Nation’s Police:

What are you going to do?

When are you going to do it?

Two important questions for them to answer as we go beyond our nation’s Fergusons.

Having been a member of the police for many years, and now a writer and commentator, I am intrigued by these questions. How will our police answer? Will Ferguson be their new norm? This would not be an unusual as “hunkering down,” protecting the status quo, and castigating detractors is what many police have done for decades when faced with change. And when the fire wains and the smoke settles, nothing has changed. Complete article

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US Refuses To Seriously Tackle Police Brutality and Racism

US Refuses To Seriously Tackle Police Brutality and Racism 03/16/2015

The report released in early March by a panel President Obama appointed to examine serious shortcomings in police practices across America, including the shooting of unarmed people, mostly non-white, listed problems and proposed solutions that are hauntingly similar to those found in a report on police abuses released 47 years ago by another presidential panel.

The March 1968 report of the presidential panel popularly known as the Kerner Commission noted with dismay that many minorities nationwide regarded police as “an occupying force” – a presence that generated fear not feelings of security.

The March 2015 report from President Obama’s panel made a similar finding, noting that perceptions of police as an “occupying force coming in from the outside to rule and control the community” had sabotaged the ability of law enforcement to build trust in many communities. Complete article

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What’s Happening in Madison?

What’s Happening in Madison? 03/10/2015

From this morning’s Wisconsin State Journal:

“Students from throughout Madison left school and took their rage, sorrow and demands to the city’s power centers on Monday, rocking the state Capitol rotunda with chants of ‘Justice for Tony’ then demanding a meeting with Mayor Paul Soglin and Police Chief Mike Koval while massed outside the City-County Building.

“In loud, well-choreographed voices, they vowed to press public officials and police for consequences in the death last Friday night of Tony Robinson, an unarmed 19-year-old shot by a police officer after an altercation on the Near East Side. Complete article

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Federal Study: US Gov (police) Killing apprx. 1,000 of its Own People Per Year

Federal Study: US Gov (police) Killing apprx. 1,000 of its Own People Per Year 03/10/2015

The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that, on average, US police piled up the bodies of 928 US citizens per year between 2003-2009 and 2011.

And Tom Hall notes: “A list compiled on the website Killed by Police of every police killing mentioned in the American media includes more than 2,000 deaths since May 2013.”

Killings by police in the US “reached a record high last year [461 was the number thought to be a record before the new study was published], while the number of officers killed in the line of duty fell to its lowest level in decades [27].” (By comparison, police in the UK, Germany, Japan, and Australia killed under ten people each, and some years kill none.) Complete article

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