The Day Ferguson Cops Were Caught in a Bloody Lie [GRAPHIC IMAGE AT LINK]

[justiceischeap]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/15/the-day-ferguson-cops-were-caught-in-a-bloody-lie.html

Police in Ferguson, Missouri, once actually charged a man with destruction of property for bleeding on their uniforms while four of them allegedly beat him.

“On and/or about the 20th day of Sept. 20, 2009 at or near 222 S. Florissant within the corporate limits of Ferguson, Missouri, the above named defendant did then and there unlawfully commit the offense of ‘property damage’ to wit did transfer blood to the uniform,” reads the charge sheet.

The address is the headquarters of the Ferguson Police Department, where a 52-year-old welder named Henry Davis was taken in the pre-dawn hours on that date. He had been arrested for an outstanding warrant that proved to actually be for another man of the same surname, but a different middle name and Social Security number.

“I said, ‘I told you guys it wasn’t me,’” Davis would subsequently testify.

The story only gets worse from there. I can't believe how bad things have been there for so long. For all we know, the cop involved in Brown's shooting could have been involved in this as well.

[riqster]

1. Easy to believe, sad to say. America is a hugely racist country.

Yeah, progress has been made in some areas. But there is much remaining to be done, and Ferguson is proof.

Good article, thanks for posting.

[WestSeattle2]

17. And it's not isolated to specific regions; Seattle cops are just as bad, in fact they're being

monitored by the Justice Department. It's pathetic really. Not sure why police departments need to hire sociopaths when so many citizens of professional caliber are available. There are millions of men and women in this country who would make excellent police officers, instead they hire punks who may be 30 years old, but still retain the mentality of junior high school punks. And then the Feds put military weapons in their hands and dress them up as militias. What a truly bizarre country this is.

[johnlucas]

28. Nobody should be surprised. America was built on racism

The entire existence of the political parties dealt with the slave issue.
I go over the whole history in this old post of mine called A long story about The Southern Strategy.

The Southern Strategy didn't start in the 1960's after the Civil Rights Act got passed.
The Southern Strategy is at the root of the country.
The names of the parties themselves reflect these origins.

Slavery & Subjugation of Africans and the Economic Exploitation therein is how the American system was designed to work.
It's the engine of it all.
There are those who will be equated with Black (the Africans) & treated thusly.
So the pull is to separate from the Black & align with the White so as not to get the treatment Blacks get.
I might be picked on but if I help pick on the Blacks they won't pick on me as much.
How many ostracized ethnic groups have employed this strategy to get higher on the totem pole?
You can start with the Irish but it goes much further as we all know.
Jew could be the new Black. Muslim could be the new Black. Gay could be the new Black.
But whatever is equated with that status gets that treatment & subjugation.

And all because of an old disagreement whether the Fighters for Liberty™ should own slaves or not.
They reached a compromise, of course. 3/5 being the first one.
The Civil War was inevitable & here's the fun part.
The Civil War is not really over.

Officially maybe but Unofficially it has been fought from the very beginnings of this nation & is still being fought today.
The same group still bitter about the Civil War is the same group still bitter about Civil Rights.
Not a coincidence these things have that same 'Civil' name.
And when you see what happens to these young Black boys getting shot down, choked out, beat down, you recognize the schizo nature of this country.
Talking about 'all men are created equal' on one side of the mouth & practicing a society that is the total opposite of that philosophy on the other side.

Hypocrisy was embedded in the nation from day one when Slaveowners ironically talked about Freedom & Liberty.
The fight for what America REALLY stands for continues...
John Lucas

[riqster]

30. The government never really settled what it was going to be.

It's an unsettled matter, as are many compromises. Doesn't help.

[JustAnotherGen]

2. Reading the article at the link

It seems that these folks in this PD have been behaving rotten for some time now . . .

[gratuitous]

5. Surprising, isn't it?

The situation in Ferguson didn't just spontaneously combust in the wake of the Michael Brown murder. It's been building, incident by incident, police encounter by police encounter, for years. This is the sort of thing that responsible journalists will dig into, and find out about so they can bring good information to the public and perhaps apply some remedies to a very bad situation. Since a couple of journalists were actually rousted this time around, it may even happen, sort of.

[JustAnotherGen]

6. I never believed it was a spontaneous combustion

And - I think from face to face real time conversations in a group of black American women? This was triggered last summer.

And it wasn't triggered in MO. And finallly - maybe America will admit we aren't living in a post racial society. It is anything BUT post racial. We are hip deep in a new Civil Rights movement. . .

[riqster]

31. I think we are hip deep in causal agents for a new civil rights movement.

[barbtries]

35. and a new women's movement, and a new peace movement...

we're going backward and it sucks.

[riqster]

36. Hopefully people will get pissed off en masse in time.

[raouldukelives]

3. Like when they adminsiter thousands of volts to your ass and then admonish you for having reflexes.

Taze! "Stay still!" Taze! "Stop resisting!" Taze! "Why are you still moving?" Taze! "See that? He tried to kick me! Shoot to kill!"

[MurrayDelph]

25. If I was resisting

then the Taser wouldn't work, would it?

[Fantastic Anarchist]

26. Exactly!

I've seen videos (and COPs) where they don't even give the victim the time to respond to barked out (often contradictory orders)! Or, they'll leverage victim's arm behind their back and expect them to get up, or do other things the body wasn't meant to do. Then they taze you for not complying, then charge you with resisting arrest.

I'd call them neanderthals, but neanderthals actually had brains and are thought to have had empathetic personalities.

These assholes don't belong to any animal group that I can recognize.

[Savannahmann]

4. What is interesting is that the Daily Beast is usually considered RW Tools.

But here is one of those events, one of those issues in which the Right and the Left converge. These issues are normally not very numerous, but they do exist.

My suggestion is not to act like superior A-Holes at this time. The RW types know we've been opposed to this shit a lot longer than they have, and they know we were here longer. If we act like A-holes we may win the minor political point, but we'll lose what we really want, reform of the police. Deng famously said it doesn't matter if the cat is white, or black, so long as it catches mice. Will we be Mao and declare it matters what color the cat is? The people just want the mouse caught, they don't care who does it.

Let's move on this, propose an end to the Pentagon Program that allows this gear the Army has to go to the cops declaring it surplus or whatever. We can make a change, or we can try for political points. I think that the results of the change will be better for Democrats in the long run than the desire to score points, but that may be moot. Because if we don't go for change now, while the iron is hot, we won't get anywhere and will lose both the reform and the points.

[valerief]

16. The Ferguson PD are acting like assholes. Stop accusing the left of their crimes. nt

[Savannahmann]

21. I honestly have no idea what you are talking about

I'm talking about joining with the RW to make reforms and get this militarized crap away from the cops. I'm talking about being smart in doing it. I'm talking about not doing what we usually do which is to scream we knew about it all the time. I'm talking about not announcing that we can't do anything about the militarization of police until we have a majority in the house and senate. I'm talking about getting things changed.

Here's why.

"We knew all the time that the cops were racist and abusing young Black men." That makes the other side defensive and instead of working with us to make the reforms, they dig in their heels and get stubborn. By avoiding statements like that, we can get some reforms through. Even I who detest the abusive police don't say that they are all racist, or all brutal. Even I say that a majority are complicit because they remain silent and tell lies to back up the corrupt officers.

"Once we get a majority in the House of Representatives we'll take action on this." We aren't going to get a majority in the House, and those reforms are needed now, not some fuzzy headed hope and wish time in the future. Frankly, we'll be lucky to keep a majority of the Senate. So we have to join hands across the isle and just get along with the Rethugs if we want to end the militarization of Police.

So my goal is to end the militarization of the police. I haven't accused the Left of doing anything in Ferguson, and I won't because those of us on the left support the ACLU and they have been railing against it for years. I do accuse the left of having some knee jerk responses that are not helpful right now. What we can accomplish is reforming the system that provided 93,000 military grade machine guns to the police last year. Or we can devolve into partisan bickering. I want change, and I want this military crap out of the hands of the cops.

We can be smart, and get the reforms that many on the left have been saying for many years are needed. Or we can watch this opportunity waste away and lose those reforms. You tell me what about that is attacking the left? I want us to play smart, because there are too many people being brutalized, and murdered by the police. I'm sorry if stopping that is somehow attacking the Left in your mind.

We can get in front of this issue, or we can cede it to Rand Paul, and he can use it as part of his platform to get elected President. Because the public is sickened by the scenes coming out of Ferguson. They are asking why the cops have so much military gear. Now is the time to change it, unless you would rather see Rand in the White House with a Rethug Senate and House.

[Enrique]

22. I agree with your point

the one thing I'd say is, if the Daily Beast is considered RW tools, that's a shame. Because they're not, and this article is a good example. We need more reporting like this.

I do remember being annoyed by things I've read there, but I could say that about any source.

[sabrina 1]

33. Good post. I know I don't care about political points right now. Already had this discussion right

here on DU. Rand Paul eg, perhaps the wrong 'color cat', has come out demanding an end to the Pentagon program re the civilian police. Great! That's ONE Senator on board, 99 to go. Then we heard Claire McCaskill say the same thing, that's TWO Senators on our side, 98 to go. If ten Repubs start saying the same thing, I will applaud them.

But here on DU what I saw was 'fuck Paul'. No thank you, he has a vote in the Senate, I don't care what 'color cat' he is, it's his vote we need right now.

[Jim__]

7. It's more than just the police.

The police involved should have been thrown off the force for making a ridiculous charge like that. The fact that they weren't involves everyone else who supported them in taking that bullshit to court.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

27. Great point. It sounds like something from the Onion. How can authority figures who let this

sort of thing pass expect any respect whatsoever?

[Enrique]

8. and Ferguson didn't riot after that

and the RWers won't give them any credit. Their restraint must be infinite.

[justiceischeap]

9. Just a nitpicky bone of contention for me: protest, they didn't riot

There's a huge difference between a riot and a protest (sorry, I worked for an organization in the past that did numerous protests).

The media would love to frame what happened in Ferguson as rioting but it wasn't (unless you can't the cops)--the majority of the community was protesting.

[progressoid]

10. Jesus H.

[marble falls]

11. Racism is as strong as ever. I am ashamed I ever thought for a moment "it was getting better".

[Fantastic Anarchist]

12. This is getting beyond fucked up ...

This is getting beyond fucked up. Somewhere, someplace, a tree is providing too much oxygen for these fucking fascists to breathe.

[paleotn]

13. That's damn scary....

....it's such a shame that it took the murder of an innocent young man to bring national attention to this cesspool. Beating the shit out of detainees, false imprisonment and trumped up charges didn't bring any, and I guarantee Mr. Davis is but one of many who've been abused and possibly murdered by this department over the years.

[kirby]

14. Wow...

Another maddening read of injustice.

[Android3.14]

15. ferguson needs a major cleaning

This cleaning should also include the judicial personnel.
This is beyond anything remotely acceptable.

[frylock]

32. DOJ needs to get involved in a big way here..

This dept needs to ne razed to the ground and started afresh.

[WCLinolVir]

18. A breeding ground for insanity.

[suffragette]

19. Clearly shows a pattern of being abusive and covering it up

And getting away with it, even when caught blatantly lying.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/15/the-day-ferguson-cops-were-caught-in-a-bloody-lie.html

“Was there any way to identify any officers who had completed several use-of-force reports?”

“I don’t recall.”

But however lax the department’s system and however contradictory the officers’ testimony, a federal magistrate ruled that the apparent perjury about the “property damage” charges was too minor to constitute a violation of due process and that Davis’ injuries were de minimis—too minor to warrant a finding of excessive force. Never mind that a CAT scan taken after the incident confirmed that he had suffered a concussion.

[Rose Siding]

20. That piece also explains why Wilson's use of force record wouldn't be complete

He was with them for 6 yrs but "for his first two and most formative years the officer might have been writing his own force reports and that none of them went into his file."

Hard to believe that this was the former policy at that dept.:

Davis' lawyer "got another unpleasant surprise when he sought the use-of-force history of the officers involved. He learned that before a new chief took over in 2010 the department had a surprising protocol for non-fatal use-of-force reports.

“The officer himself could complete it and give it to the supervisor for his approval,” the prior chief, Thomas Moonier, testified in a deposition. “I would read it. It would be placed in my out basket, and my secretary would probably take it and put it with the case file.”

No copy was made for the officer’s personnel file."

[frylock]

34. unbelievable

[tea and oranges]

23. Rogue Police Department

They all need to be replaced, every single last one of them.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

24. Infographic on the event (so-called 'meme') (disturbing image):

Copy as desired: