A Seattle-area high school teacher who was pepper-sprayed by police at a rally on Martin Luther King Jr. day has filed an intent to sue the city and its police force for $500,000.
Hagopian's lawyer, however, doesn't have much faith in the city's ability to hold itself accountable.
"They're not going to respond," Bible said on Friday afternoon. "I would not be surprised if the city of Seattle finds yet another way to absolve itself of any wrong-doing. They've made a mockery of accountability and until that changes, we're not holding our breath."
I can't wait to find out how much paid leave and workers' comp money this fine officer ends up being punished with.
It was the mom part that really pissed off the cops.
He did swear at her. You don’t say “OH FUCK!” to your moms!
It was the mom part that really pissed off the cops.
SFPD arrests Public Defender for advising her client to remain silent, removes her to a holding facility, continues to question and photograph her client. All in the literal hallways of justice.
http://youtu.be/7qhzdxYnwhg
Client was in a public space, and therefore photographable, but jeez.
It's her sworn duty to represent her client, and advise him to be silent if that is the best advice, and to politely ask for photographs not to be taken (even if they can be taken), and she broke no laws in doing all of that.
And yet, she was "arrested for resisting arrest." (Apparently, the Catch-22 was not ever elucidated in the detective's lifetime of experience.)
Cops are mentally ill. I think it's a combination of the job attracts sick people, and it makes them sick. And then puts them in an echo chamber of similarly sick people defensively telling each other than they are not sick, it's everyone else that's fucked up.
Also, as a Seattle resident, this is a perfect example of how I can expect my local police to act.
Court OKs Barring High IQs for Cops.
Relevant.
Police departments as civilian jobs programs for returning veterans of our various imperial misadventures overseas + frequent undiagnosed/untreated PTSD + police weapons procurement becoming YA tentacle of the greater "defense contracting" hydra + rampant steroid abuse + a siege mentality = one big circle jerk of awful. Expect no improvements until some idiot finally starts hosing down (white) civilians with machine gun fire.
Wow. That article is just full of joy!
When is an automatic weapon ever necessary in police work? Name me one instance where a long rifle is insufficient, and where a fully-automatic weapon is a better choice.
So, everything.
Magnanimously,
NYPD faux-clarified almost immediately:
Chief of Department James O’Neill pretended to retract the Commissioner's statements, saying,
"Ish," he did not add out loud. Rather, he couched his "clarification" in separate phrases the audience wasn't intended to put together:
To further spin NYPD's story and make sure officers' actions are not bound by inconvenient rules of engagement, a spokesman told The Intercept,
You know, like a zone defense. The spokesman did not define "counter-terror work," nor did he say what percentage of New York City these "posts" would cover, nor did he clarify whether officers issued machine guns would be permitted, as a training exercise, to shadow officers serving warrants or responding to ordinary 911 calls.
For anyone concerned that NYPD will utilize machine gun enforcement in a racially biased manner, Commissioner Bratton's earlier statement can assure you this will in fact happen:
Hot times, summer in the city.
Why do none of the other cops reinforce her behavior or shut her down? Is that the SPD version of "I don't want to get involved"?
Someone pointed out that a more zoomed-out video shows that she was reacting to one of her fellow cops being assaulted; they were trying to clear the area so that medics could come in and help him.
That doesn't excuse it, of course. She could have used, I dunno, her voice, before beginning to just spray random people who were nowhere near the officer who was hurt, and probably weren't even aware of it.
I guess this is the video. You can see the high school teacher being sprayed at 00:33 just left of centre near the top of the video.
What's the guy being detained for at about 00:45 in the centre of the video? Moving too slowly after taking a pepper spray shot to the eyes?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ6s-U1dKuk
Remember when the only problem you really had to worry about when walking along obvlivious to the world was that you might walk into a phone pole? What would possess someone to walk right along a police line like that? It's not his fault he got sprayed or anything, but a little situational awareness would have probably prevented that.
I like how after he passes the cop, she lets off another blast into the general area where nobody's standing, and becomes the first woman to learn why you don't pee into the wind.
It's like they want the Federal Justice Department to continue to monitor them in perpetuity.
It's like they want the Federal Justice Department to continue to monitor them in perpetuity.