Special to the Mirror by Paul Plante
Every day, it seems, we hear about this group or that group, or this “community,” or that “community” screeching and hollering about “police reform,” without ever really saying what “police reform” is, or what it would look like once enacted or implemented, and in his speech to the Democrats on 28 April 2021 to celebrate Joe Biden making it through one hundred days of what is a four-year term, which is like celebrating someone making it through the first quarter mile of a marathon, Joe brought the subject up himself, as follows:
We have all seen the knee of injustice on the neck of Black America.
Now is our opportunity to make real progress.
Most men and women in uniform wear their badge and serve their communities honorably.
I know them.
I know they want to help meet this moment as well.
My fellow Americans, we have to come together.
To rebuild trust between law enforcement and the people they serve.
To root out systemic racism in our criminal justice system.
And to enact police reform in George Floyd’s name that passed the House already.
I know the Republicans have their own ideas and are engaged in productive discussions with Democrats.
We need to work together to find a consensus.
Let’s get it done next month, by the first anniversary of George Floyd’s death.
The country supports this reform.
Congress should act.
We have a giant opportunity to bend to the arc of the moral universe toward justice.
Real justice.
And with the plans I outlined tonight, we have a real chance to root out systemic racism that plagues American life in many other ways.
end quotes
Now, as we try to do what Joe said to do in his speech to the Democrats on 28 April 2021 where he told us that we have a giant opportunity to bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice, real justice, not some cheap fake or imitation justice, but the real deal, before we can actually do any of that actual bending of the arc of the moral universe towards real justice, not the horse**** version of “justice” Joe Biden is pushing, we first have to consider just what the word “justice” even means anymore, and to do that, we need to go back to August 10, 2020, just so many months before the farce of presidential elections in November of 2020, and the Washington Examiner article entitled “Biden now claims that Michael Brown was a victim of systemic racism” by Becket Adams, Commentary Writer, as follows:
Joe Biden this weekend tied the 2014 shooting death of Ferguson, Missouri, resident Michael Brown to the need to tackle “systemic racism” and corrupt law enforcement.
end quotes
Now, that is some very heavy-duty pure horse**** there, and it is right there that Joe Biden lost me with respect to any bending of any moral arcs, because Joe Biden, a “Willie Horton Democrat,” is trying to bend them the wrong way to benefit the law breakers and scoffers at rule of law and order who are his base to the detriment of civilized society who would be the victims of Joe Biden’s so-called “police reforms,” which reforms are not the province of a United States president in the first place, as we will see as I develop this topic further by making reference to a document submitted to The Urban League a bit ago entitled NATIONAL COPS EVALUATION ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE CASE STUDY: Albany, New York by David Thacher, Research Associate, Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University – Case Study Prepared for the Urban Institute, which is a very thorough report on the history of the Albany Police, which agency is now under serious political attack by the Common Council of Albany and the so-called “police review board,” and reforms over the years, and the fact that meddling by ignorant politicians just like Joe Biden into matters they know nothing about, but only have their feelings and emotions about, like Willie Horton and the fact that he couldn’t get out of prison on weekends so he could mingle with polite society is a big part of what is wrong with policing in America today, which argues for keeping Joe Biden totally out of the process after his stupid remarks in 2020 about Michael Brown, which takes us back to the Washington Examiner, as follows:
It is puzzling that he would link the one to the others, considering the Department of Justice under his boss, former President Barack Obama, concluded that Brown was no victim.
Rather, the 18-year-old black man was killed in the act of attacking a police officer and trying to take away his gun.
“It’s been six years since Michael Brown’s life was taken in Ferguson — reigniting a movement,” said the former vice president on the sixth anniversary of Brown’s death.
“We must continue the work of tackling systemic racism and reforming policing.”
It’s been six years since Michael Brown’s life was taken in Ferguson — reigniting a movement. We must continue the work of tackling systemic racism and reforming policing.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 9, 2020
end quotes
There is Joe on TWITTER, a social media site for morons and idiots who can’t read or understand more than a handful of words or pure gibberish at a time, proving that TWITTER is for morons and idiots by posting the stupid TWEET, which is why I am against Joe Biden bending the arc of the moral universe in his direction, which will be to the benefit of other Michael Browns who like Willie Horton, are a threat to civilized society, not a benefit to it, which again takes us back to the Washington Examiner, to wit:
Again, Obama’s Justice Department found that there was no credible evidence to support the claim that the white officer, Darren Wilson, had done anything illegal when he shot and killed Brown.
Rather, its independent investigation found Wilson had acted in self-defense.
So, why release a statement on the sixth anniversary of the justifiable shooting death of Brown and tie it to “systemic racism and reforming policing?”
What is Biden doing, if not deliberately inflaming passions and whipping up resentment?
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee seems to be playing footsie with the popular and false assertion that led to the torching of Ferguson at the time — that Wilson had “murdered” Brown.
It is a lie, and a persistent one at that.
Other top-tier Democratic officials, including Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have helped spread this bit of fake news, too.
And they know what they are doing when they spread it.
Harris said in August 2019, “Michael Brown’s murder forever changed Ferguson and America.”
“His tragic death sparked a desperately needed conversation and a nationwide movement.”
“We must fight for stronger accountability and racial equity in our justice system.”
Warren tweeted 35 minutes later, “5 years ago Michael Brown was murdered by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.”
“Michael was unarmed yet he was shot 6 times.”
“I stand with activists and organizers who continue the fight for justice for Michael.”
“We must confront systemic racism and police violence head on.”
But Brown was not “murdered,” as the Obama Justice Department made abundantly clear in its investigation of the matter.
The false story that Brown put his hands up and said, “Don’t shoot!” has been debunked thoroughly, and Biden and his campaign team really should know better.
end quotes
Sides are being taken, people, and lines are being drawn.
Which side will you be on?
Scotiagirl says
Well researched and well written, Paul. But you know as do I that Biden, Harris and their cronies will never admit the truth with regard to these matters. They need these falsehoods, conveniently spread by the media, in order to continue their campaign of derision and division.
Paul Plante says
Which is why we are so lucky and blessed to have the Cape Charles Mirror so that we can stand up to the bull**** the fawning media that will not question either Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.
Sorin Varzaru says
“America is far from being the HOLY LAND where all are pure as the driven snow”
No shit Sherlock
“especially with all the immigrants we get flooding this country ”
You are such fuc&^%$&$%ing xenophobe
“I’m not allowed to work in government over here because I’m deemed “honest to a fault” which then serves to make me untrustworthy as a gummint employee.”
My guess is you are not allowed to play with adults because no one wants to deal with you.
“So what do those people love, Sorin, that has them closing out an evening at the pub with the singing of the Irish national anthem?”
Beer.
Paul Plante says
You are a real trip, Sorin, the real deal all the way, and if I was truly a zenophobe, i.e. somebody like the Know-Nothings, originally a secret society that was primarily an anti-Catholic, Anti-Irish, anti-immigration, populist and xenophobic movement that briefly emerged as a major political party in the form of the American Party, the adherents to which were to simply reply “I know nothing” when asked about its specifics by outsiders, providing the group with its common name, and the supporters of the Know Nothing movement believed that an alleged “Romanist” conspiracy was being planned to subvert civil and religious liberty in the United States, and sought to politically organize native-born Protestants in what they described as a defense of their traditional religious and political values, which movement is remembered for this theme because of fears by Protestants that Catholic priests and bishops would control a large bloc of voters, I wouldn’t like you, Sorin, and wouldn’t accept that you too could be an American citizen, a term that really means nothing anymore considering who that appellation gets handed out to.
But I do like you, Sorin, and I don’t mind that you are over here.
Why would I waste emotional energy on that?
Paul Plante says
Said another way, armed with the knowledge that Biden, Harris and their cronies will never admit the truth with regard to these matters, or anything for that matter, because like all grasping politicians trying to amass power unto themselves, they need these falsehoods, conveniently spread by the media, in order to continue their campaign of derision and division.in a supposedly free country, being it is our duty as citizens to stand up to them, our job is made so much easier because their lies are not difficult to expose, but on the other hand, those who lie, and these politicians well know this, especially in today’s degenerated society where people in American can no longer read or comprehend words, so that they are incapable of engaging in critical thinking, have the advantage. because to debunk the lie, easily told, requires just what you see here – analysis, and there is where the battle tilts in their favor, because the lie is hears and assimilated and accepted by so many people who will never hear the rebuttals.
Sorin Varzaru says
”like transplanting my chard and Rosemary and basil and eggplant to bigger pots now that the danger of frost is pretty much over.”
your rosemary is not making through the winter? where do you live?
Paul Plante says
In a third-world, tin-pot dictatorship where the cold and dark winters are not kind to Rosemary, although the plant I lost this past winter had made it through the previous winter inside.
Stuart Bell says
MORE THAN 10,000,000 POLICE ARRESTS LAST YEAR – TEN MILLION!
If anyone is uncomfortable with the accuracy of these numbers you can research at Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program — FBI https://www.fbi.gov/services/ cjis/ucr
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Report and the Washington Post, last year there were 10 million arrests by police…10 Million!!
Out of those 10 MILLION arrests, there were 1,004 officer-involved fatalities.
Out of those 1,004 officer-involved fatalities, 41 were unarmed.
Out of those 41-officer involved unarmed fatalities (now you might find it hard to believe I know), but out of 41 deaths, now hear this…
19 were white – 9 were black.
Now 1 is 1 too many, but to me, 41 out of 10 million is a pretty small percentage! (.00041%)
Now ask me how many police officers were killed in the line of duty… c’mon, take a wild guess…
89 police officers, but where was the news media when those took place????
Just to bring it home, take a guess as to how many people were shot in CHICAGO just this last weekend. In Chicago last weekend 82 people were shot within a 48-hour period.
Of those 82 people 19 people died.
Yes, you got it. In Chicago last weekend alone, there were more black people killed by (wait for it..) black people than were killed by police in all of last year!
The hypocrisy is mind-blowing. BLM is a joke. Now go ahead, please do the research and see for yourself.
Thank you to Bernard Kerik, former NYPD Police Commissioner for sharing this information.
Sorin Varzaru says
>19 were white – 9 were black.
Whites are 76% of the population, blacks are 13%. 13% out of 19 is 2.4. If there was no racial component in policing the deaths would’ve been 2.4 blacks killed, not 9.
Stuart Bell says
Contact, Bernard Kerik, former NYPD Police Commissioner, with your issues. I do not care what you think, what you say or if you died since you wrote your reply.
I bet they were glad to see you move to Our country. Don’t ever forget you are a guest here as your family did not fight in our wars so that you can live here free to have diarrhea dripping from your tongue as you type.
Sorin Varzaru says
I replied to your comment not for your benefit, but for those who might possibly read it. I also don’t give a crap on what you think. I am a citizen of this country and have all the rights you do. Can’t be POTUS but don’t care about that either.
Everything in the way LE in this country is done in a bizarre way. LEs are mostly recruited from former soldiers, which tend to see everyone else as enemy combatants, minimal education is required, it’s nearly impossible to get rid of bad apples, etc. No wonder there are plenty of bullies and assholes in the ranks of LE.
Paul Plante says
Sorin, God bless you, dude, and I am glad you came over here myself, because you are a sure source of some very bizarre posts such as this one above where you say, to wit:
* Everything in the way LE in this country is done in a bizarre way.
* LEs are mostly recruited from former soldiers, which tend to see everyone else as enemy combatants, minimal education is required, it’s nearly impossible to get rid of bad apples, etc.
* No wonder there are plenty of bullies and assholes in the ranks of LE.
end quotes
Talk about a blanket indictment, Sorin, you’re right up there with “Corn Pop” Biden who believes all white cop are corrupt and are murderers, to boot.
You must be a Democrat.
According to my research, Sorin, there are some 17,985 U.S. police agencies in the United States which include City Police Departments, County Sheriff’s Offices, State Police/Highway Patrol and Federal Law Enforcement Agencies.
Have you interacted with all of them?
Do they stop you because they think you are Black?
Or is it because you are a law-breaking trouble-maker?
As to your statement that is it everything in the way LE in this country is done in a bizarre way, wouldn’t that be because like in Ferguson, the crooked and corrupt hack politicians who control the police and use them as political tools are using them in the bizarre manner you are commenting on?
Or do you think that because LEs are mostly recruited from former soldiers, which tend to see everyone else as enemy combatants and minimal education is required, that that is what makes them bizarre, because every Democrat knows that anybody who served in the military has to be some kind of mental defective?
As to there being plenty of bullies and assholes in the ranks of LE, there are even more in the body politic itself, and the Democrat caucus, for that matter.
My thoughts, anyway, and thank you for stepping up to the plate to share your opinions based on your extensive negative experiences with LE all across America.
Paul Plante says
And to complete Sorin’s thought for him, according to further research, there are more than 800,000 sworn law enforcement officers now serving in the United States, which is the highest figure ever and about 12 percent of those are female.
That would be minus the 4 killed by assault, the 23 killed by gunfire, the 2 stabbed to death, and the 6 killed by vehicular assault.
As to the countries with the highest proportion of police officers to citizens, the highest median of police officers – around 400 – was observed in West Asia, Eastern and Southern Europe.
And of the police officers in the US, 12.4% are Black.
Paul Plante says
And here we compassionate people in here, and that really is almost all of us, need to keep in mind that when Sorin, who is not from here, and so only knows about America from movies and such, says “(E)verything in the way LE in this country is done in a bizarre way,” he is talking about in comparison to Romania, which country, at least according to the Washington Post story “Thousands of Romanians protested corruption and police responded,” is one of the most corrupt countries in the European Union, according to Transparency International.
So of course everything here related to law enforcement would seem bizarre to Sorin, because it is so different from how things are done over there in the old country which brings us to Sorin’s statement that LEs are mostly recruited from former soldiers, which tend to see everyone else as enemy combatants and that takes us to a Reuters story entitled “Activist, diaspora groups in Romania call for investigation of police at 2018 anti-corruption rally” by Luiza Ilie and Octav Ganea on August 10, 2020, as follows:
(Reuters) – Romanian activist and diaspora groups called on state institutions on Monday to investigate riot police for using violence to quell an anti-corruption rally two years ago.
The Aug. 10, 2018 protest saw riot police repeatedly fire tear gas into the crowd, use water canons and beat non-violent protesters.
Hundreds required medical assistance, in the only violent protest in a series of peaceful anti-corruption rallies triggered by attempts by the then ruling Social Democrat Party to decriminalize several graft offences.
Prosecutors opened an investigation into the handling of the 2018 protest, but earlier this year decided to close it.
Activist groups challenged the decision and a Bucharest court must rule on whether to reopen the case.
The 2018 protest was partially organised by groups of Romanians working abroad, disillusioned by what they said was entrenched corruption and weak public administration in their home country.
An estimated 3 to 5 million Romanians live and work abroad, according to the World Bank, or about a quarter of the country’s population.
In 2019, they sent home an estimated record high $7.24 billion, a lifeline for many families in Romania.
end quotes
So no wonder that Sorin would be conditioned by all of that to believe that all police everywhere are corrupt, and we should try to understand where Sorin gets his ideas about LE from.
As to what Sorin sees bizarre about how LE works here as compared to Romania, let us go to the website of the Virginia Attorney General where we have how things are done in America, to wit:
Virginia Rules is an educational program designed to help instructors, parents and students understand the laws that apply to Virginia teens in their everyday lives.
end quotes
And seriously, people, how bizarre is that, daring to tell the special teen-agers in this country that OUR laws actually apply to them, as well?
To the liberal/progressive mind, of course, it is very bizarre, speaking of personal responsibility for one’s actions, and that may well be another thing Sorin finds bizarre over here, but such it is, and while we are on the subject of what Sorin finds bizarre about LE in this country, let’s go the distance, to wit:
Learn how crimes are defined in law, categories of crimes, penalties for violating the law, and legal and hidden consequences for committing a crime.
What is a crime?
A crime is an act that violates the law either by doing something the law says you are not to do or by not doing something the law says you must do.
What if someone doesn’t know the law and commits a crime?
The person is still guilty of a crime.
The statement “ignorance of the law is no excuse” is an ancient legal doctrine.
If this seems unfair, think about what would happen: not knowing about the law could be used to excuse any action.
Are all crimes the same?
Crimes are not all the same.
Crimes are organized into two main classifications: felonies and misdemeanors.
Felonies vs misdemeanors
A felony is a serious crime punishable by death or a term of imprisonment in a state or federal prison for at least one year and a possible fine.
A misdemeanor is a lesser crime punishable by local jail time of not more than one year and/or a possible fine.
Some acts may either be a misdemeanor or a felony depending on the circumstances surrounding the crime and the degree of the criminal act.
What are the punishments for felonies in Virginia?
Felonies are organized into categories called classes for the purpose of sentencing. (Code of Virginia § 18.2-9)
Felony classifications are listed below in order of the seriousness of the punishment.
Felony classifications
Class 1 felony: Death, if the person so convicted was 18 years of age or older at the time of the offense and is not determined to be mentally retarded; or imprisonment for life, and a possible fine of not more than $100,000. If the person was less than 18 years of age at the time of the offense or is determined to be an individual with intellectual disability; the punishment will be imprisonment for life without parole and a fine of not more than $100,000.
Class 2 felony: Imprisonment for 20 years to life, and a possible fine of not more than $100,000.
Class 3 felony: Imprisonment for five to 20 years, and a possible fine of not more than $100,000.
Class 4 felony: Imprisonment for two to 10 years, and a possible fine of not more than $100,000.
Class 5 felony: Imprisonment for one to 10 years, or confinement in jail for not more than 12 months, and/or a possible fine of not more than $2,500.
Class 6 felony: Imprisonment for one to five years, or confinement in jail for not more than 12 months, and/or a possible fine of not more than $2,500.
(Code of Virginia § 18.2-10)
What are the punishments for misdemeanors in Virginia?
Misdemeanors are classified for the purposes of sentencing. (Code of Virginia § 18.2-9)
The four classes of misdemeanors are listed below in order of the severity of the punishment.
Misdemeanor classes
Class 1 misdemeanor: Confinement in jail for not more than 12 months and/or a possible fine of not more than $2,500.
Class 2 misdemeanor: Confinement in jail for not more than six months and/or a possible fine of not more than $1,000.
Class 3 misdemeanor: A fine of not more than $500.
Class 4 misdemeanor: A fine of not more than $250.
(Code of Virginia § 18.2-11)
Unclassified Offenses: Any misdemeanor for which no punishment or no maximum punishment is prescribed by statute shall be punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor (Code of Virginia § 18.2-12).
What is the difference between a prison and a jail?
Jails are local correctional facilities, operated by localities; regional jails are operated by groups of localities.
Persons in jails are either awaiting trial and/or final sentencing, or have been sentenced to confinement of no more than 12 months.
Prisons are correctional facilities run by the state or federal government.
Persons in state prisons have broken state laws and have been sentenced to more than 12 months.
Persons in federal prisons have broken federal laws.
What is a “capital” offense?
A capital offense, or “high crime,” is any criminal charge that is punishable by death, as in “capital punishment.”
Virginia is a capital punishment state.
This means offenders may be executed.
Examples of capital crimes include, but are not limited to, murder for hire, murder of a law enforcement officer, murder by a prisoner, multiple killings, murder arising from a drug distribution crime, and killing a child less than 14 years old by a person 21 years or older.
At what age can a juvenile be tried as an adult in Virginia?
A juvenile aged 14 or older may be tried as an adult if he or she commits a crime that would be a felony if committed by an adult. (Code of Virginia § 16.1-269.1)
In determining whether a juvenile will be tried as an adult, the court examines many factors including the seriousness of the crime and the juvenile’s role in the crime.
If tried as an adult and found guilty, the juvenile may be incarcerated in prison and his or her criminal records become permanent.
Are there other consequences for committing a crime?
There are many other consequences that are sometimes not recognized until later.
In addition to penalties imposed by the court, such as fines and jail or prison sentences, someone who breaks the law:
develops a criminal record;
embarrasses his or her family and friends;
loses the opportunity to hold certain jobs;
loses the opportunity to serve in the armed services; and
may lose driving privileges.
Adults convicted of a felony:
lose their right to vote;
lose their right to possess a firearm; and
lose their right to run for public office.
Juveniles who break the law:
embarrass their families and friends;
may have driving privileges suspended or delayed;
may be disqualified from receiving awards or scholarships;
may not be accepted at their colleges of choice;
may not be able to enlist in the armed services; and
may lose the opportunity to hold certain jobs.
end quotes
Yes, people, to anyone who doesn’t like the law or anyone telling them what it is that they can’t do, that sure is some real bizarre ****, alright, daring to tell the children that there are consequences to their actions.
Sorin Varzaru says
Hey Paul, do you do anything else but post here at CC? Hard to believe you got time for anything else.
Yes, I would not be surprised if Romanian cops are way more corrupt then here. But they tend to shoot less people. By the stats I found between 2013-2018 9 people were killed by cops in Romania. roughy 2 per year. cops in us kill about 100 people per month. Romania has 20 Times less people, which means at us population their kill rate would be 40 per year or 4 a month. us cops manage to kill 25 times more people per capita.
Paul Plante says
It takes me only minutes to post in here, Sorin.
That leaves me pretty much 23-plus hours to do a host of other things in my life, like transplanting my chard and Rosemary and basil and eggplant to bigger pots now that the danger of frost is pretty much over.
Stuart Bell says
I hope you run into a ‘bad apple’ one lonely night…and his partner too.
Paul Plante says
This is in response to Sorin’s comment that “(E)verything in the way LE in this country is done in a bizarre way,” because in his opinion, which is very likely the opinion of many uninformed people in this country who will make no effort to inform themselves, as going with the crowd is so much easier, LEs are mostly recruited from former soldiers, which tend to see everyone else as enemy combatants and minimal education is required:
I. THE ALBANY POLICE DEPARTMENT THROUGH 1994
II. THE EVOLUTION OF COMMUNITY POLICING IN ALBANY
3. Reforming the APD
Bringing a Neighborhood Focus to the Patrol Force
A newly-promoted Sergeant at the time, Signer had recently completed her Master’s degree in criminal justice at SUNY Albany on a competitive scholarship for police officers.
end quotes
Not all cops are morons is the message I get from that, but hey, that is just me.
Sorin Varzaru says
“Not all cops are morons is the message I get from that, but hey, that is just me.”
I agree, not all cops are morons.
Sorin Varzaru says
“I hope you run into a ‘bad apple’ one lonely night…and his partner too.”
I feel sorry for you. Brainwashed by the GOP, blame your shitty life on the Democrats. Let me guess, you’ve never been outside US? Considering how small minded you are, hard to believe you stepped out of your small world.
Stuart Bell says
soon
Publius Americanus says
Yezzz, Stuart….you have no European cosmpolitism to ignore reality and see through rose colored glasses the HOPED FOR result of your policies, stoopid Amerikancanski only seeing actual results of socialist policies.
Go to Romania, where all crimes committed against Gypsy never reported.
Got to France, where your 3rd generation French born chikld will NEVER be considered French.
Go to Italy, where Bureaucracy take you 3 years to get phone installed.
Travel, Stuart!!! See where family of 5 gets all of 900 square feet apartment!!
Where food so expensive, you learn to travel 3 countries away to buy things!!!
VAT Taxes of %20!!
Stoopid Amerikanski, with your freedom and individualism and well stocked stores!!
Sorin Varzaru says
“Stoopid Amerikanski, with your freedom and individualism and well stocked stores!!”
Not stupid, just ignorant and proud of it. If you traveled, you would get a broader perspective and see how idiotic some American laws, beliefs and customs are. Like the idiotic “War on drugs” (travel to Portugal), the absurd approach to healthcare (travel … almost anywhere and compare your bill for an ER visit to one in US), the obsession with guns (travel to England) and so on. But then again, you won’t probably learn anything. If Trump thought me anything is that once people are in a cult, they won’t recognize reality if it slapped them over the face.
Paul Plante says
Er, not to put too fine a point on it, but the so-called idiotic “WAR ON DRUGS” was something the hack politicians who we, the people have no control over, cooked up on their own, as a way of keeping the Black man down …
Sorin Varzaru says
The war on drugs was started, not surprisingly to me, by Nixon, a Republican president.
Paul Plante says
Okay.
Sounds right to me.
So you have studied some of our history then, it seems.
Paul Plante says
I did some serious fact-checking last night, and you are right, Sorin – according to what I could unco9over, yes, it does appear as if Nixon were a Republican, although I myself have no definitive proof of that myself, not really knowing what a Republican even is in real life.
It seems to be a pejorative term cooked by up liberals to smear those they don’t like with.
Ray Otton says
A Trump cult? Eh, no.
He was not the cause normal Americans pushed back against the left. He was the RESULT of the totalitarian tendencies of big government we’ve been experiencing for a half century which accelerated during Mr. Obama’s eight years.
In fact, one could make a pretty strong case if there’s a cult to be found in today’s America it is the Left, with their continued obsession over a man who is no longer in office.
As for the guns, isn’t it funny how what WE don’t like but other do, we label obsessions.
For example, the Left considers race to be the number one characteristic of a person’s make up while the Right considers racial identity to be an obsession.
Objectively speaking, there’s a heck of a lot more truth to our belief in your obsession than there is to your belief in ours.
Sorin Varzaru says
I like guns just fine. It’s fun to shoot guns. Got one, I’ll maybe get another. I’m not obsessed with them though. I don’t let it define my identity like many on the right do. But my point was, before you keep repeating the mantra “America is the greatest”, maybe you should travel around and have a frame of reference. You will find out that America is good at some things and very bad at others. And maybe learn what would can do to make it better.
Ray Otton says
“I don’t let it define my identity like many on the right do.”
No, YOU identify us that way, in nearly every discussion right here at the CCM.
I conceal carry every where I go. That doesn’t mean I’m a gun nut. It certainly doesn’t define who I am. It simply means I’m not an idiot. I recognize we live in a dangerous world and I won’t be caught wishing I had my side arm if the need arises.
“Before you keep repeating the mantra “America is the greatest”, maybe you should travel around and have a frame of reference”
I duuno, seems like a shit ton of people keep trying to come here. Must be SOME reason, no?
Also worth noting that communist countries are where you’ll find armed forces facing inward to keep their own citizens from leaving.
“You will find out that America is good at some things and very bad at others. And maybe learn what would can do to make it better.”
We recognize that nowhere on this earth will we find perfection. However, we are constantly trying to improve ourselves. We call the process “fair elections”.
Publius Americanus says
So tell em Sorin, when you ski the Tatra’s, do you prefer Zakopane of the smaller Koscielisko?
How about Ireland? Wanna go visit my buddy in Sligo Town, where I’ve watched many a Giants game at 3am? Maybe stay with me as I travel around there staying with friends?
Or, would you like to accompany me back to see Nasir, in Amman? We can go see Petra!
Kiddo, you ain’t got half the miles I do.
And one tenth the brains.
Sorin Varzaru says
All that traveling and you learned nothing. That 10 times bigger brain of yours is already so full with the right wing nationalist propaganda there is no space for anything else.
Stuart Bell says
No, Thank You, I will go where I damn well please.
I do not need to contract cancer to know it will kill me.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/05/21/report-emails-show-ex-fbi-chief-gave-joe-bidens-grandkid-trust-seeking-future-work/
Sorin Varzaru says
The fact that you think breitbart is a legitimate source of information tells me you are already lost for good. It’s like trying to reason with someone believing in elves or … aliens invasions.
Bob says
You can start by
Voting for a Republican Governor
Here in Virginia
Dave Moore says
WE had better!
Marsh Hen says
They just stole our presidential election and propped up an old fool guarded by a standing army and everyone talks about…’The Next Election’ ?
WOW!
Paul Plante says
And staying with the subject of the supposed “need” for “police reform” in the United States of America as was stated by Joe Biden in his speech to the Democrats on 28 April 2021 to celebrate Joe Biden making it through one hundred days in office where Joe made the specious, reckless and inflammatory statement “We have all seen the knee of injustice on the neck of Black America,” let us for a moment go back to 9 August 2019, where we have a mindless, senseless, reckless and inflammatory (tending to excite anger, disorder, or tumult: seditious: tending to inflame or excite the senses) TWEET on mindless TWITTER, a website for people in America with weak intellects and not much sense, and no ability whatsoever to engage in the type of critical thinking demanded of an American citizen in order to keep our REPUBLIC strong, from now-Biden vice president Kamala Harris identifying herself in the TWEET as “United States government official,” which makes her TWEET an official government TWEET, which means it has to be true and cannot possibly be false, as follows:
“Michael Brown’s murder forever changed Ferguson and America.”
“His tragic death sparked a desperately needed conversation and a nationwide movement.”
“We must fight for stronger accountability and racial equity in our justice system.”
end quotes
Except as we clearly see from a VOX article entitled “Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris’s controversial Michael Brown tweets, explained – The tweets claimed a police officer “murdered” Michael Brown. But that’s not what investigators, including those from the Obama administration, concluded” by German Lopez on Aug, 12, 2019, that is not at all true, and not only is it not true, but further, United States government official Kamala Harris would have known she was lying when she told the blatant lie in her TWEET that Michael Brown was murdered, to wit:
Warren and Harris reiterated the protesters’ narrative in two separate tweets on the five-year anniversary of the shooting, using the moment to call for action against systemic racism and police violence.
But the Justice Department’s 2015 report contradicted many of the protesters’ claims, finding that Wilson likely did have reason to fear for his life and didn’t violate the law in shooting Brown.
After Wilson stopped Brown for walking in the middle of the street, the officer reportedly realized Brown was a robbery suspect who stole cigarillos from a nearby convenience store.
Wilson attempted to stop Brown, and both men had a physical altercation at the officer’s SUV.
Wilson then opened fire from his vehicle.
Brown ran, turned around, and Wilson fired more shots, supposedly out of fear that Brown was charging at him.
Brown died about 150 feet from Wilson’s vehicle.
He was shot six times.
No gunshot was confirmed to hit Brown from behind.
The physical evidence suggested that Brown reached into Wilson’s car during their physical altercation and, very likely, attempted to grab the officer’s gun.
The most credible witnesses agreed that Brown moved toward Wilson before the officer fired his final shots — and there simply wasn’t enough evidence, especially given the struggle at the car, that Wilson wasn’t justified in fearing for his life when he fired the shots that killed Brown.
Although some credible witnesses suggested Brown raised his hands up before he died, witnesses who disputed major parts of Wilson’s side of the story were discredited by the physical evidence and when they changed their accounts.
The report said all this was “corroborated by bruising on Wilson’s jaw and scratches on his neck, the presence of Brown’s DNA on Wilson’s collar, shirt, and pants, and Wilson’s DNA on Brown’s palm.”
The report concluded:
Given that Wilson’s account is corroborated by physical evidence and that his perception of a threat posed by Brown is corroborated by other eyewitnesses, to include aspects of the testimony of Witness 101 [Brown’s friend], there is no credible evidence that Wilson willfully shot Brown as he was attempting to surrender or was otherwise not posing a threat.
Even if Wilson was mistaken in his interpretation of Brown’s conduct, the fact that others interpreted that conduct the same way as Wilson precludes a determination that he acted with a bad purpose to disobey the law.
The same is true even if Wilson could be said to have acted with poor judgment in the manner in which he first interacted with Brown, or in pursuing Brown after the incident at the SUV.
These are matters of policy and procedure that do not rise to the level of a Constitutional violation and thus cannot support a criminal prosecution.
end quotes
So there we have Kamala Harris being made out for what she really is – a lying politician.
Michael Brown was not murdered and vice president Kamal Harris is a liar for having said so.
So do we need “police reform?”
Let’s go back to the VOX article once more where we have as follows on that particular subject, to wit:
Another report released at the same time uncovered a pattern of racial bias in the Ferguson Police Department, and it argued that the disparities could only be explained, at least in part, by unlawful bias and stereotypes against African Americans.
In particular, the police department largely seemed to be used by the local government as a revenue-generating operation that disproportionately stopped, ticketed, and fined black residents.
It’s these kinds of racist operations that likely fueled local resentment toward the police department, making Ferguson a tinderbox for protests and riots — one that ignited when news of the Brown shooting spread.
end quotes
HUH?
What?
The police department in Ferguson largely seemed to be used by the local government as a revenue-generating operation that disproportionately stopped, ticketed, and fined black residents?
Well how about that now will you!
So what really needs to be reformed here, people?
It is corrupt and lying politicians, is it not?
Paul Plante says
What is interesting about this incendiary 9 August 2019 TWEET on mindless TWITTER by now-Biden vice president Kamala Harris identifying herself in the TWEET as “United States government official” where she said “Michael Brown’s murder forever changed Ferguson and America” is that she was very publicly calling out Obama’s attorney general Eric Himpton Holder, Jr., a Black man, and without a shred of evidence to support her position, and against all the known evidence refuting her position, and publicly accusing him of being a liar who covered over the murder of Michael Brown by a white police officer by blaming Michael Brown for causing his own death, and never once was she called on it either by TWITTER or the media.
Can anyone imagine the furor that would have erupted if it had been Trump instead who TWEETED that Eric Holder was a liar as did Kamala Harris on 9 August 2019?
Trump would have been banned by TWITTER for even suggesting that and the merciless media, which gave a pass to Kamala Harris, would have been excoriating Trump for making false claims without any evidence to back them up, and for going against the body of evidence that did exist.
Oh, how they would have howled and bayed!
So why did they let Kamala Harris slide, then?
David Moore says
It’s been said for YEARS….This country has a “young black thug problem” Police reform my ass!
Paul Plante says
“Reform,” David, as I am sure you know or have figured out by now, is an empty word that can mean any thing under the sun you want it to mean, and here, “reform” means essentially gelding the police to make them meek and humble when confronted by the criminal “segment” of the population for whom Kamala Harris and Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren speak.
The classic Democrat “reform” of the criminal justice system has to be the case of Willie Horton, whose name figured prominently in the presidential race between Big Bush and Michael Dukakis in 1988.
For those today unfamiliar with the name of Willie Horton, a true Democrat Icon (a person regarded as a representative symbol or as worthy of veneration), William R. Horton, born August 12, 1951, is an American convicted felon who, while serving a life sentence for murder without the possibility of parole, was the beneficiary of a Massachusetts weekend furlough program.
Now, to a Democrat, it is grossly unfair to keep a Black man like Willie Horton away from polite society just because he happened to murder some white boy, who was probably already a racist, white supremacist/white nationalist with implicit bias against Black people like Willie Horton, so the Democrats let him out of prison on the weekends so he could, well, you know, get out among people and socialize.
And then what happened?
Willie did not return from his furlough, and ultimately committed assault, armed robbery, and rape before being captured and sentenced in Maryland where he remains incarcerated.
Now based on Willie’s past history, people, who would ever have thought the dude would act like a criminal again if he got out among society so he could commit his crimes, and then have the Democrats cry over him, how unfair racist white society is to poor Willie?
So what did poor Willie do in the first place to get landed in the slammer so the Democrats could feel sorry for him and let him back out on weekends to socialize?
Let’s go see:
On October 26, 1974, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Horton and two accomplices robbed Joseph Fournier, a White 17-year-old gas station attendant, and then fatally stabbed Fournier nineteen times after he had cooperated by handing over all of the money in the cash register.
His body was stuffed in a trash can so his feet were jammed up against his chin.
Fournier died from blood loss.
But he was white and probably a racist/white supremacist/white nationalist as a result because everybody knows that if your skin is white, well, you probably have implicit biases in your DNA going back to the beginning of time, when only white people were allowed in the Garden of Eden, so to the Democrats, Willie did the world a favor by murdering the dude.
So poor Willie Horton was convicted of murder, sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, and incarcerated at the Northeastern Correctional Center in Massachusetts, but as said above on June 6, 1986, he was released as part of a weekend furlough program but did not return.
Then, on April 3, 1987, in Oxon Hill, Maryland, Horton twice raped a woman after pistol-whipping, knifing, binding, and gagging her fiancé.
He then stole the car belonging to the man he had assaulted.
He was later shot by Corporal Paul J. Lopez of the Prince George’s County Police Department and captured by Corporal Yusuf A. Muhammad, also of the Prince George’s County Police Department, after a pursuit.
On October 20, Horton was sentenced in Maryland to two consecutive life terms plus 85 years.
The sentencing judge, Vincent J. Femia, refused to return Horton to Massachusetts, saying, “I’m not prepared to take the chance that Mr. Horton might again be furloughed or otherwise released.”
“This man should never draw a breath of free air again.”
end quotes
That is who will be walking the streets again if the Democrats are successful with this “police reform” of theirs.
David Moore says
Great example! These POS DO NOT want the legal gun owning, law abiding citizen to police them because there is nothing more deadly. ESPECIALLY when laws don’t work!
Paul Plante says
And getting back to the subject of this thread which is so-called “police reform,” a nebulous term if ever there was one, a very slippery, amorphous (without a clearly defined shape or form; lacking a clear structure or focus) term, a Progressive Democrat term, for necessary background, let us go back to 9 August 2019 and the mindless, senseless, reckless and inflammatory (tending to excite anger, disorder, or tumult: seditious: tending to inflame or excite the senses) TWEET on mindless TWITTER, a website for people in America with weak intellects and not much sense, and no ability whatsoever to engage in the type of critical thinking demanded of an American citizen in order to keep our REPUBLIC strong, from now-Biden vice president Kamala Harris identifying herself in the TWEET as “United States government official,” which makes her TWEET an official government TWEET, which means it has to be true and cannot possibly be false, where she posted as follows:
“Michael Brown’s murder forever changed Ferguson and America.”
“His tragic death sparked a desperately needed conversation and a nationwide movement.”
“We must fight for stronger accountability and racial equity in our justice system.”
end quotes
That conversation she is talking about, however, is based on a lie, and any conversation that starts out based on falsehood as is this one is fatally flawed right from the very outset.
Michael Brown was not murdered.
And that brings us further back in time to an article in THE WRAP on 28 August 2014, where we see Democrat Hillary Clinton pandering to the Black folks by propagating the lie that Michael Brown was a “victim” of anti-Black police violence, as follows:
Former U.S. Secretary of State and potential 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spoke out about the events in Ferguson, Mo.
On Thursday, Clinton made her first remarks on the tense and racially charged situation that followed the fatal police shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown on Aug. 9.
“This is what happens when the bonds of trust and respect that hold any community together fray,” Clinton said at a tech conference in San Francisco.
She also sympathized with Brown’s family.
“Losing a child is every parent’s greatest fear and an unimaginable loss,” Clinton said.
“Watching the recent funeral for Michael Brown, as a mother, as a human being, my heart just broke for his family.”
As recently as Aug. 24, Clinton was silent on the ongoing strife in Ferguson, even as reporters shouted questions at her while she left a book signing in Westhampton, N.Y.
end quotes
Yes, people, pandering, hack politicians like Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden himself all peddling blatant falsehoods about Michael Brown that have brought forward to this time we are in today with these calls from the pandering Democrats for police reform.
Should blatant falsehoods and outright lies from Kamala Harris and Joe Biden serve as the basis for a rational conversation on police reform?
But wait!
Can there ever be a rational conversation based on lies?
Silly me, of course not.
So why are we talking about police reform then?
Because Joe Biden said so based on a blatant lie by Kamala Harris?
Paul Plante says
And here, to get a glimpse of what the future looks like with regard to Progressive “police reform” in the United States of America, let us go to the Wall Street Journal article entitled “Philadelphia’s Progressive DA Faces a Primary Test Amid Crime Surge” by Scott Calvert on 15 May 2021 to see what kind of miracles the Progressives, who are the smartest people on the planet, which is why they are called “Progressives,” since they have progressed so much further up the scale of overwhelming intellectual horsepower than the rest of us who aren’t Progressives, have wrought in Philadelphia with regard to that subject of “police reform,” to wit:
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, one of the highest-profile progressive prosecutors in the U.S., faces a re-election challenge that will test support for his reformist policies at a time of soaring homicide and shooting levels in the nation’s sixth-largest city.
end quotes
But you see, people, even though the dude’s “reformist policies” seem to have resulted in soaring homicide and shooting levels in the nation’s sixth-largest city, we can’t really pin the blame on him, because, ah, well (stall for time), well, we just can’t that’s why, because it’s not fair, because maybe something else caused the support for the soaring homicide and shooting levels in the nation’s sixth-largest city, and it probably was the fault of Trump.
So let’s go back to the Wall Street Journal to see if we can learn anything more about the PROGRESSIVE REVOLUTION in crime-ridden Philadelphia, to wit:
Mr. Krasner is one of a wave of progressive prosecutors elected in recent years who ran on a platform of reducing prosecutions for low-level crimes, changing bail conditions and not seeking the death penalty.
How he fares will be an early gauge of their support, as cities nationwide grapple with an increase in murders and shootings.
One of Mr. Krasner’s early moves as DA was to fire more than 30 prosecutors, including Mr. Vega, who joined the office in 1982 and went on to become the state’s first Latino homicide prosecutor.
end quotes
Now, there is a curious thing, indeed, people, and it’s name is “criminal coddling.”
Get rid of all the prosecutors!
They are the ones really causing all the problems, people, not the criminals, who are only criminals because there are prosecutors to call them that while prosecuting them, which of course makes the criminals feel bad about themselves, mas opposed to all warm and squishy inside, which in turn makes the Progressives feel bad about themselves in sympathy for the criminals the Progressives like to coddle, because in the end, they are kindred spirits.
Getting back to the story, we have:
Mr. Krasner, 60, says he has kept key campaign promises by not seeking the death penalty, not prosecuting most simple drug-possession cases and moving away from cash bail for minor crimes.
end quotes
And there, people, is an interesting phenomena – a man runs for office as a prosecutor on a platform of not prosecuting people which gives him an election win that he then calls a mandate from the people to not prosecute other people, which seems to me a descent into anarchy, but hey, that is just me, so moving right along here, back to the story, we go:
He talks up the fact that he has brought criminal charges against dozens of police officers, but also says he works closely with the Police Department.
end quotes
BINGO!
There we have it, people – the police are really the criminals in Philadelphia and they need to be slapped down real hard, and this Progressive dude is just the dude to do so, which makes the Progressives and the criminals love the dude for his tough stance against the police!
Getting back to the story:
The rising murder toll poses a political liability for Mr. Krasner, said Caren Morrison, associate professor of law at Georgia State University, who has researched prosecutor races across the U.S.
Philadelphia had 499 homicides last year, the second-highest total on record, and this year has recorded 191 killings through Wednesday, a 39% increase from the same point in 2020, police figures show.
end quotes
Yes, people, a Progressive miracle, indeed, but let’s not stop there, because there is more yet to come, as follows:
Mr. Krasner says shootings and killings have risen in many U.S. cities during the coronavirus pandemic, which caused social upheaval, disrupted police work and largely shut down courts.
The election is “really a choice between the past and the future,” Mr. Krasner said in an interview.
“And this is a city with a very troubling past when it comes to prosecution, and when it comes to policing.”
end quotes
That’s why they call them “Progressives,” people, because they have progressed to the point of realizing that the real problem isn’t the criminals, it is the police and prosecutors who con spire to give criminals a bad name, when everybody, er, well, all Progressives, know that the criminals are really good people, which takes us back to the Wall Street Journal, as follows:
But the police union’s energetic support for Mr. Vega could benefit Mr. Krasner in a city where Black Lives Matters protests last year drew throngs to the streets.
During his 30-year career as a defense lawyer before becoming DA, Mr. Krasner filed 75 civil-rights lawsuits and represented Black Lives Matter activists.
end quotes
Which made him the ideal candidate for BLACK LIVES MATTER to put in office as the prosecuting attorney to insure that they woulkd be immune from prosecution, which takes us back to this, to wit:
Billionaire investor George Soros backs Mr. Krasner.
The Soros-funded Safety and Justice political-action committee pumped $1.7 million into the 2017 race and had spent $270,000 as of Friday on this year’s campaign, said Whitney Tymas, the PAC’s president.
“We continue to support Larry Krasner because he is making Philadelphia fairer and more just,” Ms. Tymas said, citing the exonerations, a decrease in racial disparities and a shift to treating nonviolent drug crime as a public health issue.
end quotes
Yes, people, the future is now!
Which side are you goin g to find yourself on?
Paul Plante says
This is in response to Sorin’s comment that “(E)verything in the way LE in this country is done in a bizarre way,” because in his opinion, which is very likely the opinion of many uninformed people in this country who will make no effort to inform themselves, as going with the crowd is so much easier, LEs are mostly recruited from former soldiers, which tend to see everyone else as enemy combatants and minimal education is required:
I. THE ALBANY POLICE DEPARTMENT THROUGH 1994
II. THE EVOLUTION OF COMMUNITY POLICING IN ALBANY
3. Reforming the APD
Bringing a Neighborhood Focus to the Patrol Force
A newly-promoted Sergeant at the time, Signer had recently completed her Master’s degree in criminal justice at SUNY Albany on a competitive scholarship for police officers.
end quotes
Not all cops are morons is the message I get from that, but hey, that is just me.
Paul Plante says
And staying with the subject of this thread, which is so-called “police reform,” a nebulous term if ever there was one, a very slippery, amorphous (without a clearly defined shape or form; lacking a clear structure or focus) term, a Progressive Democrat term, and this study of reforming the Albany, New York Police Department made a part of the record in here as essential background, which study was conducted as a NATIONAL COPS EVALUATION ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE CASE STUDY: Albany, New York by David Thacher, Research Associate, Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University for the Urban League, let us for the moment go to an ABC News article entitled “Biden’s 1st 100 days: Promises kept, broken, or in progress – Here’s a look at how Biden measures up against markers he, himself, set” by Ben Gittleson, Molly Nagle, Sarah Kolinovsky, and Justin Gomez on April 26, 2021, where we have as follows to consider:
The promise: Create police oversight commission
Status: Not kept
In June, about one week after George Floyd’s death while in Minneapolis police custody, Biden vowed to create a national police oversight commission within the first 100 days of his administration, to study paths for police reform.
“We need each and every police department in the country to undertake a comprehensive review of their hiring, their training, their de-escalation,” Biden said in Philadelphia.
The Biden White House, however, frequently highlighted its support for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, passed by the House of Representatives in early March, rather than announcing the creation of the commission.
On April 12, White House Domestic Policy Adviser Susan Rice said the White House was officially scrapping any plans for a commission.
“Based on close, respectful consultation with partners in the civil rights community, the administration made the considered judgment that a police commission, at this time, would not be the most effective way to deliver on our top priority in this area, which is to sign the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act into law,” Rice said.
Both the Obama and the Trump administrations had formed commissions to study police reform and oversight, but neither commission led to any measurable change.
end quotes
How about because as we see from the Harvard study of the Albany Police Department, the reforms were done long ago?
And thankfully, the police here in the United States of America, at least not yet, anyway, do not answer to an American president, or take their orders and direction from an American president.
And before we go further into that study, let us take a look at exactly who the Urban League really is, so we can in turn judge whether the Harvard study of the Albany Police Department is a valid study, or a cover-up of rampant white nationalism and white supremacy and implicit bias against the “communities of color,” to wit:
The National Urban League is a historic civil rights organization dedicated to economic empowerment in order to elevate the standard of living in historically underserved urban communities.
The Urban League is the oldest and largest community-based organization of its kind in the nation.
Founded in 1910 and headquartered in New York City, the National Urban League spearheads the efforts of its local affiliates through the development of programs, public policy research and advocacy.
Today, there are nearly 100 local affiliates in 36 states and the District of Columbia, providing direct services that impact and improve the lives of more than 2 million people nationwide.
In 1970, a small group of citizens from Greenville met in the basement of Springfield Baptist Church with one goal in mind.
To create a community-based organization committed to the principle of equal opportunity for all citizens in housing, education, employment and economic development without regard to race or socioeconomic status.
From these meetings, the Greenville Urban League was established in 1972 with Theo Mitchell as its first President.
In 1997, understanding the needs of the Upstate Region, the name was changed to reflect the population served to Urban League of the Upstate.
Today, under the leadership of the Interim President and Chief Executive Officer Reverend Sean Dogan, the Urban League of the Upstate continues to support and advocate for the economic equality for African Americans by building strong and stable communities.
end quotes
Support and advocate for the economic equality for African Americans by building strong and stable communities?
My goodness, people sounds like something I would be for, and who in their right mind wouldn’t be?
So, would the Urban League then be having any kind of study conducted of the Albany, New York Police Department in order to cover over white nationalism, or white supremacy in the Albany Police Department?
Which is really a very stupid question when you think about it, because of course they wouldn’t.
As to that study, which with the good graces of the Cape Charles Mirror I would like to spend some time on with regard to this slippery issue of “police reform” as it is being bandied about today by those who call themselves “Progressives,” as if that name gave them some type of superiority with respect to intellectual capacity, it starts as follows, to wit:
Case Study Prepared for the Urban Institute
Introduction
Albany, New York is a city of just over 100,000 residents and a rich political history.
Though it has been the state capital since 1797, it is Albany’s local politics that have truly distinguished the city: Albany hosted the most enduring political machine in modern American history, one that kept a strong hold over most city affairs well into the 1970s and even the early 1980s.
But towards the end of this period the party’s hold on civic affairs began to weaken: Although Democratic voters still outnumber Republicans better than 10-to-1 in Albany, the Democratic organization no longer holds the iron grip on power that it once held, and today party leaders share power with employee unions, neighborhood groups, civil service boards, and independent administrators.
The Albany Police Department has evolved over the past two decades in response to these changes, and recent reforms labeled “community policing” have played a part in that evolution.
In some ways, community policing has meant a return to the past in Albany: Well into the 1980s, local police maintained a neighborhood-oriented force that emphasized foot patrol, and it was not until reform Mayor Thomas Whalen cut department staffing radically — from a patronage-swollen 415 in the 1970s to 300 by 1993 — that the APD shut down its popular neighborhood substations.
In part, community policing simply reversed these recent reforms by re-instituting foot patrol and by promising to re-open neighborhood substations.
But it also promised the city something different: Whereas in the past local police had taken guidance mostly from the formal political system, under community policing they pledged to listen to Albany’s newly-powerful neighborhood and business groups, and also to unorganized residents.
This case study chronicles the history of the APD community policing efforts in three stages.
Section I sets the context for change by reviewing the recent history of Albany’s police and its government more generally.
Section two, the heart of the study, then chronicles the reforms of the past four years in some detail, focusing on the strategies APD administrators and others used to put community policing in place.
Section three then sums up the consequences of change by briefly reviewing how the APD operates today.
end quotes
So, if the Albany Police Department has already been “reformed,” what reforms are Joe Biden and the Democrats asking for today?
What is wrong with the reforms to the Albany Police Department done yesterday?
Does Joe Biden even know those reforms took place?
Frankly, I seriously doubt it, and anyway, Joe’s blather about a police commission was bull**** talk all along.
Paul Plante says
And staying on the subject of this thread which is so-called “police reform,” we must not forget as we engage in this analysis that all the cries and howls of the Progressives today for “police reform” are based on a blatant lie, an intentional falsehood made by then-Senator Kamala Harris, now Joe Biden’s vice president, God help the nation, in a mindless, senseless, reckless and inflammatory (tending to excite anger, disorder, or tumult: seditious: tending to inflame or excite the senses) TWEET on mindless TWITTER, a website for people in America with weak intellects and not much sense, and no ability whatsoever to engage in the type of critical thinking demanded of an American citizen in order to keep our REPUBLIC strong, who identified herself in that 9 August 2019 TWEET as “United States government official,” which makes her TWEET an official government TWEET, she posted her blatant lie leading to these Progressive calls for police reform, as follows:
“Michael Brown’s murder forever changed Ferguson and America.”
“His tragic death sparked a desperately needed conversation and a nationwide movement.”
“We must fight for stronger accountability and racial equity in our justice system.”
end quotes
As has been said before, that conversation she is talking about is based on a lie that Michael Brown’s death was tragic in some way because he was “murdered” by police, and any conversation that starts out based on falsehood as is this one is fatally flawed right from the very outset, and can lead nowhere.
So, who are the police, anyway?
Why do we have them?
To catch run-away slaves?
And who really do they answer to?
Do they operate independently of politics?
Or are they in fact an arm of politics?
For a glimpse into that answer, let us go back to the study of the Albany, New York Police Department prepared for the Urban League, as follows:
I. THE ALBANY POLICE DEPARTMENT THROUGH 1994
1. Relationship to the Environment
All public agencies submit to some form of public oversight, often distributed among elected officials, public-minded professionals, community groups, and administrative law.
But in the decades leading up to community policing, what was distinctive about the Albany Police Department was the degree to which this oversight was informally centralized in the hands of local politicians.
end quotes
Now, that is an important insight, right there about the role of political interference in the operations of municipal police departments, and if anything needs to be reformed, it is that, which takes us back to the study, to wit:
The near monopoly of control that elected officials held over city agencies began to weaken in the 1980s, but many observers maintain that up until the 1970s, Albany government was firmly in the hands of a unified Democratic machine.
The Albany County Democratic Committee is the stuff of legends.
Presided over for some five decades by party leader Dan O’Connell, Albany Democrats held tight control over everything from elections, to taxes, to the criminal justice system, using their influence over those spheres to earn loyalty and maintain their hold on power.
end quotes
And in that maintaining of a hold on power, the Democrats wielded the police like a political weapon.
Getting back to the study, it continues thusly:
Although a few veteran city officials downplay the influence of the machine, most report that as late as the early 1980s, the party’s appointed ward leaders held sway over many important decisions — including where code inspections would be made, whether or not the city would collect on a parking ticket, and who the police department would hire and promote (civil service tests were widely considered toothless in Albany, one of the few large cities in New York to administer the test locally, and the state repeatedly admonished city officials for lax administration of hiring regulations).
Indeed, the special role of jobs in the patronage system led to an enlarged police department of some 415 officers in the 1970s, when LEAA funds boosted APD staffing considerably.
end quotes
For those unfamiliar with the LEAA, that stands for The Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA), which was a U.S. federal agency within the United States Department of Justice that administered federal funding to state and local law enforcement agencies and funded educational programs, research, state planning agencies, and local crime initiatives as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “war on crime” program.
end quotes
Yes, people, that is how far back this all goes – to the “war on crime” of Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson, which takes us back to the LEAA, as follows:
The LEAA was established by the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 and was abolished in 1982.
Its predecessor agency was the Office of Law Enforcement Assistance (1965–1968).
Its successor agencies were the Office of Justice Assistance, Research, and Statistics (1982–1984) and the Office of Justice Programs.
LEAA included the National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, which had its functions absorbed by the National Institute of Justice on December 27, 1979, with passage of the Justice System Improvement Act of 1979.
The Act, which amended the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, also led to creation of the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
LEAA included the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals.
In March 1973, the LEAA ordered any police department receiving federal funding to end minimum height requirements, which most women could not meet.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the LEAA promoted policing initiatives such as the STRESS (Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets) in Detroit and CRASH (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) in Los Angeles.
end quotes
And these cries and howls for “reform” today, people, are coming from those who advocate for the street hoodlums, who have gained considerable political clout now that the internet and cell phones enable them to call together “flash mobs” at the drop of a hat to engage in “civil disobedience” and other acts of political violence, until the public officials cave and give them what they want, which is free rein and gelded police, which takes us back to the Albany study, to wit:
Ward leaders, of course, did not exercise their influence independently.
O’Connell and Albany Mayor Erastus Corning — whose 42-year tenure made him the longest-serving mayor in America — exercised strong discipline over party members: Well into the 1970s, it was highly unusual for any political position to be contested within the Democratic party, and to win the Democrats’ endorsement meant certain victory in open elections.
(Even in 1985, after the machine’s inexorable decline had taken root, Democrats outnumbered Republicans by 16 to 1 in Albany.)
Indeed, “loyalty” has long been the watchword of Albany politics, and observers both credit it with making the system work and blame it for making it unbearable.
On the one hand, loyal party members — even those of the most modest means — could often expect immediate responses when they brought neighborhood or personal problems to the attention of their ward leaders, who gave Albany government a strong neighborhood focus that so-called “professional” city halls around the country could rarely match.
On the other hand, dissent was not welcome in Albany, and those who sought to organize their own power bases met with stiff resistance.
end quotes
Yes, people, dissent is not tolerated in Albany, New York!
Getting back to the study:
One example of this dynamic comes from repeated attempts by police to unionize, which did not succeed until the mid-1970s after a bitter fight with the Corning administration.
Another example emerged during the same period as neighborhood associations began to form in the city: Many observers report that Corning fought the groups and their proposals every step of the way, seeing them as an affront to the consolidated power of the political machine.
Finally, Corning also resisted organizing attempts in Albany’s black community, which was scantly represented in the Democratic Committee.
Indeed, Albany blacks have long had a contentious relationship with city hall — particularly the police department, which faced widespread accusations of brutality towards African-Americans.
end quotes
So, as I say, this study of the Albany Police is not a whitewash.
Rather, it is a very candid look into the necessary background history so that we can understand better exactly who it is today that is crying and howling for police reform of police departments that have been previously reformed by the federal government to give us safe streets, supposedly.
Paul Plante says
And here, since this subject of “police reform” is a serious subject affecting all of us in the United States, what I would ,like to do at this point is to take us back in time in our political history to March 9, 1966 and a “Special Message to the Congress on Crime and Law Enforcement” by Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson, which is where this subject of “police reform” in America properly begins, to wit:
To the Congress of the United States:
Crime–the fact of crime and the fear of crime–marks the life of every American.
end quotes
1966, people, which is fifty-five (55) years ago, and where have we gotten to since then?
Think about it, as these calls for “police reform” swell around us based on a blatant falsehood by now-Biden vice president Kamala Harris when she was a senator that Michael Brown was murdered by the police.
Getting back to LBJ on March 9, 1966:
We know its unrelenting pace:
–a forcible rape every 26 minutes,
–a robbery every five minutes,
–an aggravated assault every three minutes,
–a car theft every minute,
–a burglary every 28 seconds.
We know its cost in dollars–some $27 billion annually.
We know the cost it inflicts on thousands–in death, injury, suffering and anguish.
We know the still more widespread cost it exacts from millions in fear:
–Fear that can turn us into a nation of captives imprisoned nightly behind chained doors, double locks, barred windows.
–Fear that can make us afraid to walk city streets by night or public parks by day.
These are costs a truly free people cannot tolerate.
end quotes
Now, again, think about those words, people – “These are costs a truly free people cannot tolerate.”
Is that still true?
Or have the times truly changed to where we now have to accept those costs a truly free people would not tolerate, because we are no longer a truly free people?
Getting back to LBJ, he goes on as follows:
The war against crime may be slowing its increase for the moment.
The most recent report of the Federal Bureau of Investigation show a 5% increase for 1965, compared to a 13% increase for 1964.
But we can take little comfort from such facts.
We must not only slow, but stop–and ultimately reverse–the rate of crime increase.
The entire nation is united in concern over crime.
end quotes
But is that still true today?
Is the entire nation really united in concern over crime today?
Or is there a segment of the population that is really more concerned about the criminals, and how they feel about themselves?
For that answer, simply consider Kamala Harris and her TWEETED falsehood about the police “murdering” Michael Brown, which takes us back to LBJ, as follows:
The entire nation shares in the resolution to deal effectively with crime.
end quotes
And that is not at all true today – Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and Biden Elector Kathy Sheehan of the sanctuary city of Albany, New York want to coddle the criminals to make them feel good about themselves and all warm and squishy inside, which again takes us back in time to a much different day in America than exists now, to wit:
But national concern is not enough.
National resolution is not enough.
We must match our will with wisdom.
We must match our determination with effective action.
The safety and security of its citizens is the first duty of government.
end quotes
Now, there is an interesting thought, is it not – the safety and security of its citizens is the first duty of government.
But again, is that really true today?
Or has the philosophy of government so radically changed in the intervening years to where that is no longer true, and instead, according to Joe Biden and Kamal Harris and Biden Elector Kathy Sheehan of Albany and the Democrats, the safety and security of its citizens is the last duty of government, while the first is coddling the criminals?
Going back in time to a different age, we have LBJ continuing as follows:
Today, therefore, I call on the Congress and the nation to join in a three-stage national strategy against crime, welding together the efforts of local, state, and federal governments.
end quotes
And today, under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, what do we have?
Cries from them that the police are the criminals?
Cries from them that the police are corrupt and in need of reform?
Based on what?
Paul Plante says
March 9, 1966, people!
Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson delivers a “Special Message to the Congress on Crime and Law Enforcement” which is where this subject of “police reform” in America properly begins, to wit:
To the Congress of the United States:
Crime–the fact of crime and the fear of crime–marks the life of every American.
end quotes
So, fifty-five (55) years later, in 2021, where have we gotten to since then?
Does crime – the fact of crime and the fear of crime – still mark the life of every American?
For that answer, let us go to the Democrat-controlled sanctuary city of Albany, New York, where it is the police who are under siege, not the criminals, and the Albany, New York Times Union story “Albany police: 2 dead, 5 injured in two shooting incidents a few hours apart” by Steve Barnes on May 22, 2021, where we have an answer to that question, as follows:
ALBANY — Two men are dead and five others were injured by gunfire in two unrelated incidents that happened within 1 mile and a few hours of each other Friday, Albany Police Chief Eric Hawkins said at a news conference Friday night.
The first shooting, which occurred around 2:30 p.m. at the corner of Quail and First streets in the city’s West Hill neighborhood, left one dead and five injured, Hawkins said.
He described the 35-year-old homicide victim as an innocent bystander who was caught in a drive-by shooting.
The man was shot in the back and transported to Albany Medical Center Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Hawkins said.
end quotes
Yes, people, an innocent bystander, which is why I do not go to Albany, New York, because I value my life too much to take a chance on having it taken from me in that lawless city under Democrat Biden Elector Kathy Sheehan, who wants us all to embrace BLACK LIVES MATTER, which takes us back to her city, as follow:
The second shooting took place at 6:30 p.m. near Henry Johnson Boulevard and Central Avenue, where a bloody 39-year-old man stumbled into the street and later died at Albany Med after being shot in the torso, Hawkins said.
In the hours after the first shooting, five men sought medical attention at area hospitals for gunshot wounds that police believe are connected to the drive-by, according to Hawkins.
A 23-year-old wounded in the torso, a 28-year-old with a leg wound and a third, age 29, shot in the buttocks, all were treated at Albany Med; Memorial Hospital in Albany saw a 29-year-old who had been shot in the foot; and, at Samaritan Hospital in Troy, a 21-year-old man arrived with a bullet wound to the hand, Hawkins said.
Nothing to be concerned about, just another typical day in Kathy Sheehan’s sanctuary city where she does her level best to assure that the criminals are protected from the police, not society being protected from the criminals, which takes us back to that story, as follows:
Characterizing the people involved with the First and Quail drive-by as having “no regard for human life,” Hawkins said, “One common theme that we’re seeing with these homicides is that they are involving young men who are not resolving conflicts in nonviolent, peaceful ways.”
end quotes
Wow, no kidding.
And why would that be, does anyone think?
Why would young men having “no regard for human life” in a sanctuary city where the police are under siege by the administration of Kathy Sheehan resolve conflicts in nonviolent, peaceful ways?
What incentive is there for them to do that when there is no disincentive for them resolving their tribal conflicts in violent, non-peaceful ways?
Which thought takes us to another Times Union story entitled “Arbitrator’s exoneration of Albany officer draws Sheehan’s ire – Mayor writes letter criticizing ‘racially biased conclusions’ in First St. case” by Steve Hughes on March 16, 2021, to wit:
Updated: March 16, 2021 7 p.m.
ALBANY — An independent arbitrator exonerated city police officer Matthew Seeber of all charges last week for his role in an incident on March 2019 on First Street.
In response, Mayor Kathy Sheehan wrote a letter to the state board that handles police arbitration, criticizing the arbitrator’s “racially biased conclusions,” and asking the board to stop using him.
Robert J. Rabin, the arbitrator who heard the case, said at its core it was about a judgment call by Seeber.
He wrote that the department failed to provide enough evidence that Seeber acted improperly or against his training.
In his decision, Rabin cited Deputy Chief Edward Donohue, who testified on behalf of the department.
Donohue admitted under cross-examination that his personal opinion was that Seeber shouldn’t have been fired.
Rabin agreed with that assessment and suggested that Seeber’s firing was the result of public outrage.
“I’m fairly confident that this is what the department would have done if this incident had not gone viral,” he wrote.
On Monday, Sheehan wrote a letter to the state Public Employee Relations Board, asking it not to use Rabin as an arbitrator anymore.
Sheehan wrote not only did she disagree with Rabin’s decision but that she believed racial bias played a role in it.
Sheehan took issue with Rabin’s general description of the surrounding neighborhood and the people in the home itself.
“One need only look to the first paragraph of the opinion to see he skipped the dog whistle and went right to clear bias and racial animus,” she wrote.
In the opening of his decision, based off six days of testimony from city police officers and department leaders, Rabin calls First Street a rough part of town and those inside 523 First St. “dangerous.”
“This was not simply a raucous college party, like many in the nearby neighborhood, or a book club celebrating its final meeting of the season.”
“No, these were dangerous criminals, including drug dealers, who had committed violent acts in the past…”
“Most of the participants were probably armed,” he wrote.
In a phone call Tuesday, Rabin said that summary was based on testimony and evidence entered into the record and that focusing on that paragraph ignored evidence he used to draw his legal conclusions.
He denied that racial bias played a role in his decision.
“People may disagree with my decisions, but nobody’s ever questioned my integrity or my motivations,” he said.
In an interview Tuesday, Sheehan said the decision to exonerate Seeber makes it more difficult for Hawkins and other city leaders to create a culture change in the police department.
“I was so shocked and offended by the tone,” she said.
“I believe that the officer in this case benefited from an arbitrator who shared his racial bias.”
The city is bound by state law and its union contract to use the board and its panel of arbitrators when it comes to discipline appeals.
Sheehan said the city did not have a viable route to appeal the decision.
Councilman Jahmel Robinson, who represents the West Hill neighborhood, said the decision would only serve to cause further pain in the neighborhood.
“It’s a clear example of systemic racism that permeates our legal system,” he said.
“Because if they could do this to one house, what is to say it can’t happen to the next-door neighbor.”
end quotes
Which brings us back to today, as follows:
He said the brazenness of Friday’s two daytime shootings, coming less than three weeks after 18-year-old Chyna Forney was shot in the back and killed at 2:30 p.m. on a school day in Albany, were evidence of a disturbing escalation and indicative of larger social problems that require sustained, comprehensive measures beyond immediate police response and stepped-up patrols.
Other elected officials at the news conference, held outside Albany police headquarters on Henry Johnson Boulevard, echoed Hawkins’ sentiment, including Mayor Kathy Sheehan, who called the shootings “traumatizing to the community,” and Albany Common Council members Joyce Love, whose Third Ward includes the site of Friday’s Central Avenue shooting, and Jahmel K. Robinson of the Fifth Ward, where the drive-by took place.
“Gun violence is symptomatic of systemic issues,” Robinson said.
end quotes
Hey, Jahmel, dude, no kidding!
And that is on you, not the Albany Police you people are trying to geld and hamstring to protect those same criminals.
Paul Plante says
And while we are on the subject of “THE BIG LIE” as a daily part of our lives in America today, never in my life do I recall getting barraged by so much pure BULL**** as is the case with this topic of Progressive “police reform,” as stated above, a nebulous term if ever there was one, a very slippery, amorphous (without a clearly defined shape or form; lacking a clear structure or focus) term so typical of the terms the Progressives us, like “systemic,” which calls for “reform” by the Progressives are based on nothing more than an intentionally false and mindless, senseless, reckless and inflammatory (tending to excite anger, disorder, or tumult: seditious: tending to inflame or excite the senses) TWEET on mindless TWITTER, a website for people in America with weak intellects and not much sense, and no ability whatsoever to engage in the type of critical thinking demanded of an American citizen in order to keep our REPUBLIC strong, on 9 August 2019 by now-Biden vice president Kamala Harris identifying herself in the TWEET as “United States government official,” which makes her TWEET an official government TWEET, as follows:
“Michael Brown’s murder forever changed Ferguson and America.”
“His tragic death sparked a desperately needed conversation and a nationwide movement.”
“We must fight for stronger accountability and racial equity in our justice system.”
end quotes
It continues to amaze me that Kamala Harris could openly tell such a brazen lie and not get called for it in any way by either the American people, who are so used to getting lied to by people like Kamala Harris that they just accept the lies as their due for being ignorant and not knowing the difference, or the media, which not only accepts the lies, but helps to propagate them without question, which thought takes me back in time to these words of wisdom from the immortal Dr. Martin L. King, who should be an inspiration to us all, to wit:
“Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.”
end quotes
Now, seriously, people, is there anyone out there who can dispute that – that education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction?
Asked another way, would anyone in their right mind who was rational and lucid make any attempt whatsoever to dispute that?
So why does that not seem to apply to the main-stream media?
Getting back to Dr. King, we have further as follows:
“The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.”
end quotes
And amen to that say I as an older American, which raises this existential question, to wit:
IF the function of education truly is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically, why are so many people in America today incapable of doing either?
And that question takes us back to a Daily Caller article entitled “Hillary Tells Black Church White People Must End ‘Systemic Racism’” by Alex Pfeiffer, White House Correspondent, on April 20, 2016, where we had Hillary Clinton, one of Joe Biden’s “Electors” in the “Electoral College,” whose electoral vote for Joe Biden was being counted in the empty ritual in the Capital on 6 January 2021, long after Joe had been declared the president by Nancy Pelosi, being quoted as follows with respect to how Hillary, whose Electoral College vote put Joe Biden into the white house, views “racial justice,” to wit:
PHILADELPHIA — In a visit to a black church Wednesday, Hillary Clinton told the predominately African-American audience that it is the “responsibility of white people” to end systemic racism and incorrectly stated a popular hip-hop phrase in saying we will “ride and die.”
Clinton was visiting the St. Paul’s Baptist Church along with “The Mothers of the Movement” and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
The Mothers of the Movement consisted of mothers who had lost loved ones in police shootings.
The panel included the mother of Sandra Bland and the fiancee of Sean Bell.
The stated topics of the event were police brutality, mass incarceration, gun violence and racism.
“We have to be honest about systemic racism and particularly the responsibility of white people, not just people in public life but all of us,” Hillary said.
She later said at the event, “We all have implicit biases.”
“They are almost in the DNA going back probably millennia.”
“And what we need to do is be more honest about that and surface them.”
Clinton added, “I don’t have the answers, I’m not a behavioral psychologist or anything, but I think that needs to be done in every community kind of setting we can find that is open to doing it.”
end quotes
And acting in strict accordance with the admonition of Dr. King to use our education to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction by thinking intensively and critically with regard to this political horse**** from Hillary Clinton that “(W)e all have implicit biases; they are almost in the DNA going back probably millennia.” to show how much ignorant bull**** that is, I want to go back even further in time to November 15, 1787 and the Brutus III political essay to the Citizens of the State of New-York where we have as follows:
“In a free state.” says the celebrated Montesquieu, “every man who is supposed to be a free agent, ought to be concerned in his own government.”
“Therefore the legislature should reside in the whole body of the people, or their representatives.”
But it has never been alledged that those who are not free agents, can, upon any rational principle, have any thing to do in government, either by themselves or others.
If they have no share in government. why is the number of members in the assembly, to be increased on their account?
Is it because in some of the states, a considerable part of the property of the inhabitants consists in a number of their fellow men, who are held in bondage, in defiance of every idea of benevolence, justice, and religion, and contrary to all the principles of liberty, which have been publickly avowed in the late glorious revolution?
If this be a just ground for representation, the horses in some of the states, and the oxen in others, ought to be represented — for a great share of property in some of them consists in these animals; and they have as much controul over their own actions, as these poor unhappy creatures, who are intended to be described in the above recited clause, by the words, “all other persons.”
By this mode of apportionment, the representatives of the different parts of the union, will be extremely unequal: in some of the southern states, the slaves are nearly equal in number to the free men; and for all these slaves, they will be entitled to a proportionate share in the legislature — this will give them an unreasonable weight in the government, which can derive no additional strength, protection, nor defence from the slaves, but the contrary.
Why then should they be represented?
What adds to the evil is, that these states are to be permitted to continue the inhuman traffic of importing slaves, until the year 1808 — and for every cargo of these unhappy people, which unfeeling. unprincipled, barbarous, and avaricious wretches, may tear from their country, friends and tender connections, and bring into those states, they are to be rewarded by having an increase of members in the general assembly.
end quotes
Ask yourselves this question, people, if there really were implicit biases almost in the DNA going back probably millennia as Hillary Clinton would have us believe, why would Brutus give a damn about them in his essay, given that Brutus was alive in the real time of slavery?
Stuart Bell says
Sorin, sounds like a Tolkien name for a weird-a$$ dwarf. Understand that no matter how low you stay here, you will always be a foreigner. You should be thankful we allow people like you in our country. If we had the pleasure of having you in public school, here on the shore…you would have been picked on, bullied and berated on a daily basis. You would do well to learn some humility. You want Christians to lick door knobs and when confronted by a man you talk of hiding with a sniper rifle. You Sir, are a damned fool.
Sorin Varzaru says
“Understand that no matter how low you stay here, you will always be a foreigner.”
To you. Guess how much I care about what you think.
“You should be thankful we allow people like you in our country.”
You should be thankful people like me do come in this country. Otherwise your lead in any science and technology would be inexistent.
“If we had the pleasure of having you in public school, here on the shore…you would have been picked on, bullied and berated on a daily basis. You would do well to learn some humility. ”
The fact that you brag about the bullying is not surprising to me. Those were your best years, right? When you had the power to bully the smarter kids who kept studying and are now the ones who tell you what to do. You are pathetic.
Publius Americanus says
Sorin, you came here because there was horrible. So, in your infinite wisdom you wish to turn her into there.
Yup, you is be smarter than I.
So tell me Sorin, how come in Spanish countries I pay the Cops La Mordida?
Or in Asian ones, heyung yah, the ‘fragrant grease’ that makes the wheels turn?
Sorin, I do not come to your house and tell you how to live, please don’t do that to my country.
Assimilation made this Nation….Great. Diversity Destroys.
And there ain’t nothing wrong with loving your Country. That thing you call nationalism.
Paul Plante says
What exactly are people without a country?
Wandering nomads, going hither and thither as the winds of time blow them?
Pastoralists following their ever-wandering herds?
People with no roots and no history beyond they have always been wandering, looking for some kind of promised land that is always just over the next hill?
People like the Roma in Romania, or the traveling folk in Ireland?
I don’t know about anyone else, but I am an American citizen which makes the United States my nation.
Why should I be ashamed of that?
Sorin Varzaru says
“Sorin, you came here because there was horrible. So, in your infinite wisdom you wish to turn her into there.”
I came here because I was naive and I thought here was great. I was 27. In the 25 years since I got wiser. Not everything “there” was terrible as not everything here is great.
“So tell me Sorin, how come in Spanish countries I pay the Cops La Mordida? Or in Asian ones, heyung yah, the ‘fragrant grease’ that makes the wheels turn?”
How come in US companies bribe politicians to pass laws that favor them? Oh, wait, that’s not bribe, it’s “campaign contributions”. How come in US politicians decide their own salary and benefits? There is corruption in every country.
“Assimilation made this Nation….Great. Diversity Destroys.”
What you call assimilation? What do you call diversity? For instance, I’ve worked in US and paid taxes since 1997. I speak fluent English. I vote. How am I not assimilated? Because I don’t subscribe to your opinions on guns, abortion, medical care, education, police reform, etc?
“And there ain’t nothing wrong with loving your Country. That thing you call nationalism.”
I don’t get what does it means to “love your country”. What exactly do you love? The people? I live here. Do you love me? If not, which people? The dirt? What is US the best at that matters to you? Just curious.
Paul Plante says
Sorin, God love you, dude, but if you truly do not know why someone would care for the well-being of the nation or Republic they were a part of by this time in your life, you never will understand and you will not accept anyone’s explanations, since you do not even believe in the concept.
Whether you know it or not, you are the perfect example of the indoctrinated Utopianistic Marxist who believes a golden age for people will emerge only when national boundaries cease to exist along with the machinery of government, so you are trained, whether you know it or not, to look askance at anyone who doesn’t share that view as a Philistine.
And I am totally cool with that, Sorin.
Personally, I think Marxists who believe that bull**** about a Utopian paradise arising on earth after national boundaries are gone and we are all in solidarity as good Commies are deluded, because they cannot go back into history and find any examples of where that has ever been so, and they eliminate the actual history of how national boundaries came to be formed in the first place from the narrative.
Not believing in something like being a citizen of a country precludes understanding what it is you already do not believe in.
Thus, your mind is closed
So what happens when people tear down national boundaries?
Here is one example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kqFwVuQ-Hg
Have you ever read Riverworld by Philip Jose Farmer?
That is a story about a world with no national boundaries.
And it is interesting that a Thai I met also did not understand pledging allegiance to a country, as he could not get out of his head that a country is not simply the land is occupies.
As a Thai his allegiance was to the king, no matter where the king was.
To him, the king was the country.
America, Sorin, is and always was nothing more than a concept, and never will be more than a concept, and if you do not know our history starting back in the 1600s and coming forward year by year to understand exactly how it was we became a country, then you will never understand the love of liberty people like myself have as an American citizen as opposed to a subject in some ****hole like Zimbabwe or Ethiopia or Guatemala.
Sorin Varzaru says
“dude, but if you truly do not know why someone would care for the well-being of the nation or Republic they were a part of by this time in your life, you never will understand and you will not accept anyone’s explanations, since you do not even believe in the concept.”
You got some comprehension issues, don’t you. I care about the wellbeing of this nation. But when someone says “I love my country” I am curious to know what is it they love? In this case, do they love cops killing unarmed citizens? Do they love controlling women and making sure they make babies and clean the houses?
“Whether you know it or not, you are the perfect example of the indoctrinated Utopianistic Marxist”
It’s all black and white with you, isn’t it? If I am not a right wing nut, I am a Marxist. You know who sees the world in black and white? Children and clearly, senile citizens.
“America, Sorin, is and always was nothing more than a concept, and never will be more than a concept, and if you do not know our history starting back in the 1600s and coming forward year by year to understand exactly how it was we became a country, then you will never understand the love of liberty people like myself have as an American citizen as opposed to a subject in some ****hole like Zimbabwe or Ethiopia or Guatemala.”
I find it funny that you never compare US with UK or France or Germany. Only with ” Zimbabwe or Ethiopia or Guatemala.” Nothing like comparing with 3rd word countries makes you feel better about US, does it?
Paul Plante says
Sorin, you have some serious bile built up in there.
You really need to get your spleen vented, if you know what I mean.
Having all that hatred and anger bottled up inside yourself is doing some serious damage to your liver and it is stripping years off your life, just like that.
And Joe Biden loves America because of the people in it like me.
Paul Plante says
Certainly I do compare the US with Germany and France, Sorin, quite often, actually.
Remember?
Germany had the Nazis; we fought the Nazis?
There is a comparison.
As to France?
Hmmmmm!
They fell to the Nazis in three days.
We defeated the Nazis and saved France’s bacon for it by liberating them from the Nazis when they were unable to do so themselves, being French, and all.
So there is another comparison.
Paul Plante says
When someone says “I love my country,” do they love cops killing unarmed citizens?
Do they love controlling women and making sure they make babies and clean the houses?
Sorin, there are 330 million people in this country, and half of them are mentally ill, and I do suppose that you could find a lot of those mentally ill people out there who would say they love the dickens out of America for those reasons, assuming someone who is mentally ill can actually use reason, which I frankly doubt.
And you are the perfect example of the indoctrinated Utopianistic Marxist, Sorin, based on the philosophies you espouse in here, so no, Sorin, it is hardly all black and white with me, as there are infinite shades of grey between the twain, so that if you are not a right wing nut, you are automatically a Marxist.
What I said is that you are an EXAMPLE of an indoctrinated Marxist.
Paul Plante says
Bribes are bribes the world over, Sorin, regardless of what names you want to put on them, be it “campaign contributions” or fragrant grease” or whatever, and a politician in any country, and we are loaded up with them over here, who solicit bribes or take bribes are scumbags, plain and simple.
America is far from being the HOLY LAND where all are pure as the driven snow, especially with all the immigrants we get flooding this country from places where bribes are a fact of life.
People make a country and corrupt people make a corrupt country.
Seventh grade civics!
American bidnessmen want people over here to take bribes because in every other country they do bidness in, they know the cost of the bribes beforehand and are willing to pay them, because they know they will get results, because once bribed, an honest politician stays bribed, as opposed to looking for someone else to put in a higher counter-offer.
I’m not allowed to work in government over here because I’m deemed “honest to a fault” which then serves to make me untrustworthy as a gummint employee.
And while I like you, Sorin, because I am not a hater as are so many in this sick nation today, I have to say that people like yourself who only know about America beforehand from the ****** stupid movies put out by Hollywood are as real pain right in the ***, because you think reality is like that fantasy portrayed in the movies you watched before coming here, thinking all the women are whores and the streets are paved with gold.
Having been subjects, you do not and cannot comprehend “citizenship” and the duties and responsibilities that go with it, as JFK said: “Don’t ask what the country can do for you, ask what you can do for the country.”
That sails right by your head, doesn’t it, uncomprehended?
And if you really want to see love of country, Sorin, go to the west of Ireland, say County Clare, and I will guarantee you that in every country pub where there is a nightly music session, the last song of the evening will be the Irish national anthem, sung in rousing tones by everyone there who knows the words, and everybody stands, including myself when I was there, and yes, Sorin, Ireland is a foreign country I have been in and enjoyed very much.
So what do those people love, Sorin, that has them closing out an evening at the pub with the singing of the Irish national anthem?
Freedom from the Brits, for one, n’est-ce pas?
Paul Plante says
And while we are on the subject of Progressive “police reform” in America, which term is shorthand for emasculating the police to empower the criminals so they can feel better about themselves and all warm and squishy inside as a result, knowing that the police have to abase themselves before the criminals or risk getting fired or worse, incarcerated, I would like to take these words of wisdom from the immortal Dr. Martin L. King, who should be an inspiration to us all, that “(E)ducation must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction,” and “(T)he function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically,” and apply them to the Albany, New York Times Union story “Albany police: 2 dead, 5 injured in two shooting incidents a few hours apart” by Steve Barnes on May 22, 2021, where we had Councilman Jahmel K. Robinson of Albany, New York’s Fifth Ward saying that gun violence in Albany, New York, a sanctuary city where criminals are coddled and the police are under siege, is “symptomatic of systemic issues” in order to enable us to sift and weigh the evidence to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction by thinking intensively and critically, something I am quite good, having been educated from the time I was young to employ critical thinking in all phases of my life, by going after that word “systemic” that the Progressives and Black folks like to use, so that quite literally, we are daily barraged by the word, as compared to when I was young, and the word was never heard, because there was no need for it.
For an example of how I understand the word “systemic,” let us go to a Reuters article entitled “Special Report: U.S. military’s new housing plagued by construction flaws” by M.B. Pell and Deborah Nelson on 23 December 2018, where we have as follows:
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Oklahoma (Reuters) – Here, near the heart of America’s “Tornado Alley,” an Air Force contractor built 398 new homes less than a decade ago, bankrolled as part of the U.S. government’s vow of safe shelter for the men and women who serve.
Today the collection of cookie-cutter duplexes is showing declines more typical of aged and neglected housing.
Last spring, just six years after landlord Balfour Beatty Communities finished construction, the company was forced to start replacing every foot of water line in each house to fix systemic plumbing failures.
end quotes
Systemic plumbing failures, people.
Across the system.
All inclusive.
So, is Jahmel Robinson then saying that gun violence in Albany, New York is symptomatic of systemic plumbing failures, which is certainly a systemic issue, and I suppose a politician like Jahmel could make a case the two are connected – systemic plumbing failures drive the Black folks crazy so they go out and gun down each other in cold blood as a result.
It’s a stretch in my mind, but then, I am not a politician like Jahmel.
But wait, let us not be hasty and attribute gun violence by the lawless savages in Albany, New York to bad plumbing when we have Lawrence H. Summers, who worked in the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama telling us how to use the word “systemic” in the Marketwatch story “Opinion: Setting the record straight on secular stagnation” by Lawrence H. Summers, published Sept 6, 2018, as follows:
It is also important to recall that we pursued the 2000 legislation not because we wanted to deregulate for its own sake, but rather to remove what the career lawyers at the Treasury, the Fed, and the Securities and Exchange Commission saw as systemic risk arising from legal uncertainty surrounding derivatives contracts.
end quotes
Now, again, people, there is how I understand the use of the word “systemic,” meaning infecting a whole system.
So is that what is causing gun violence in Albany?
Or is gun violence in Albany really just caused by violent savages armed with guns?
Paul Plante says
And taking a real good look at how Progressive “police reform” is working out for Democratic Socialist mayor Kathy Sheehan of the criminal sanctuary city of Albany, New York where the BLACK LIVES MATTER flies high above city hall to proclaim it as BLACK LIVES MATTER turf, this while we continue to apply the wisdom of the immortal Dr. Martin L. King that “(E)ducation must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction,” and “(T)he function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically” to the Albany, New York Times Union story “Albany police: 2 dead, 5 injured in two shooting incidents a few hours apart” by Steve Barnes on May 22, 2021, where we had Councilman Jahmel K. Robinson of Albany, New York’s Fifth Ward saying that gun violence in Albany, New York, a sanctuary city where criminals are coddled and the police are under siege, is “symptomatic of systemic issues” in order to enable us to sift and weigh the evidence to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction by thinking intensively and critically, let us go to an Albany, New York Times Union story entitled “Shaker High student killed in Albany gunfire – Tenth-grader Destiny Greene’s killing – the city’s ninth this year – prompts police chief to ask other police agencies for help” by Pete DeMola, Rachel Silberstein and Robert Gavin on May 25, 2021, to wit:
ALBANY — The 15-year-old high school student killed in a shooting Monday night — the city’s ninth homicide victim this year — died after men opened fire on the car she and three others were sitting in on Wilbur Street, police said.
end quotes
And there, people, is exactly what Jahmel is talking about when he says gun violence by the lawless savages in Albany, New York, a sanctuary city where criminals are coddled and the police are under siege, is “symptomatic of systemic issues,” which the criminal sanctuary city of Albany, New York has a plethora of, those “systemic issues” that allow these lawless savages in Albany to run amuck, which are systemic of corrupt and inept government more than anything, which takes us back to the story, as follows:
Destiny Greene was with two adults and another child for what police Chief Eric Hawkins described as a social media meet-up when they had a confrontation with two or three men who opened fire on the vehicle.
Authorities said the four were on Wilbur Street to complete a transaction on worked out Facebook Marketplace when the gunshots hit the car.
The girl, who lived in Colonie and attended Shaker High, was driven to Albany Memorial Hospital where she died.
She was the third person gunned down in Albany since Friday.
Shot just blocks from the governor’s mansion, Destiny’s death brought a vow to increase police patrols as the city confronts a surge of violence that threatens to surpass last summers startling increase in violence that pushed Albany toward 15 homicides.
end quotes
Now, there is something in a criminal sanctuary city where they really want the police defunded and emasculated – now they want more police patrols, which will have them screeching about police brutality if and when the police ever find the savages who shot that girl in cold blood and go to arrest them.
Getting back to the story, it goes on as follows:
Hawkins says he’s now working with Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple and the State Police to bolster patrols.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo later said his administration was prepared to send in more troopers to help quell the violence.
“We will have a significant increase in police presence,” Hawkins said.
While the logistics are still being worked out, Hawkins envisions several configurations, including pairing city police with detectives, and outside law enforcement performing solo patrols.
“Right now, we’re working out exactly (what) this is going to look like,” Hawkins said.
end quotes
What a cluster****!
Getting back to that story of what happens when Progressives involve themselves with “police reform,” which is really “police gelding,” we have:
District Attorney David Soares noted the dramatic spike in fatalities.
Most of the recent violence, he said, involve retaliatory, street-level crimes.
end quotes
Most of the recent violence in Albany, New York is caused by tribal warfare between various tribes of savages.
Getting back to the story of how well Progressive “police reform” is working out in Albany, New York where mayor Kathy Sheehan is a Biden Elector, we have:
“Albany is an aggressive city where vulnerable children and families are having to live in unacceptable conditions,” he said.
“Bullets have flown daily this week, with a 600 percent increase in fatalities compared to last year’s rate.”
Hawkins said his department has taken 40 guns off the streets this year, eclipsing last year’s pace.
Mayor Kathy Sheehan said she has spoken with Acting U.S. Attorney Antoinette T. Bacon to request federal action on guns spreading in the city.
“Guns are coming into the community from somewhere,” she said.
end quotes
Now, that is a very profound statement, people, which again takes us back to that sad story, to wit:
Greene is the latest shooting victim in Albany, which is in the midst of a rash of violence that has so far killed in people in less than five months.
And while homicides in many U.S. cities have increased significantly over the last year, Albany is near a record rate while places like New York City are still far off the pace of the early 1990s, when killings regularly topped 1,900 a year, far ahead of last year’s 462 homicides.
The spate of violence comes as the Albany, like other localities, is attempting to balance calls to “defund” the police by activists who want more funds for community resources and adhere to calls from community residents who want more police to bolster public safety.
Hawkins said he consistently hears people want to see a bolstered police presence in the neighborhoods paired with a great sense of respect.
“That balance is making sure we give people in Albany what they want, which is an increased presence,” Hawkins said.
“But we need to make sure we do it in a way in which they feel respected by the police, know that they’re valued, and know that the police department is transparent and open about activities in the neighborhood and holding ourselves accountable if something is not done right.”
Officials need to convey that that presence isn’t seen as an occupying force, Sheehan said, and involves deeper engagements with residents of violence-prone neighborhoods that relies on more than just officers simply sitting in their patrol cars.
However, budget shortfalls as a result of the coronavirus pandemic have resulted in fewer officers with both the Albany Police Department and the county Sheriff’s Office, Sheehan said.
end quotes
Not to mention an experienced detective sergeant who resigned after Kathy Sheehan sicced internal affairs on him for giving testimony in an arbitration hearing where an officer illegally fired by Sheehan in response to calls from the howling mob for his head was reinstated because the sergeant exposed Sheehan’s serious blunder, which resulted in retaliation by the mayor and his subsequent retirement.
How to go, mayor Kathy!
Paul Plante says
And as we witness the results of Progressive “police reform” in the criminal sanctuary city of Albany, New York, the capital of the state that has been made into BLACK LIVES MATTER turf by Democratic Socialist mayor and Biden Elector Kathy Sheehan, to see where actual police reform began in that city before Kathy Sheehan and the Applyers Junto or Applyers Gang came along to swing the pendulum back in favor of the lawless savages that now rule the streets of that pathetic city, let us go back to a case study of reform of the Albany Police Department conducted as a NATIONAL COPS EVALUATION ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE CASE STUDY: Albany, New York by David Thacher, Research Associate, Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University for the Urban League, where we have the following information to consider, to wit:
I. THE ALBANY POLICE DEPARTMENT THROUGH 1994
II. THE EVOLUTION OF COMMUNITY POLICING IN ALBANY
3. Reforming the APD
4. A Focus on Quality-of-Life
If decentralization and problem-solving were one strand of the APD’s community policing efforts, a second and equally important strand centered on quality of life enforcement.
end quotes
Quality of life enforcement, people – let us keep that term in mind, as that is the root cause of all the problems in Albany today – those who are and were the cause of a lack of quality of life for others have gained the ascendant in Albany, New York, and it is they who now have the backing of the office of the mayor, and here, to see the source of their political power, which does come essentially from the muzzle of a gun, let us go back for a moment to a Newsweek article entitled “BLM Leader: We’ll ‘Burn’ the System Down If U.S. Won’t Give Us What We Want” by Meghan Roos on 6/25/20, where we had a real bad-ass BLACK LIVES MATTER dude named Hawk Newsome discussing the use of mob violence to achieve political goals in our times today, to wit:
A leader of Black Lives Matter’s New York chapter on Wednesday said the movement was prepared to “burn down this system” if the U.S. does not work with participants to enact real change.
“If this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it,” said Hawk Newsome, chairman of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, during an interview with Fox News.
“This country is built upon violence,” Newsome said, pointing to the American Revolution and modern American diplomacy as examples.
“The moment people start destroying property, now cops can be fired automatically.”
“What is this country rewarding?”
“What behavior is it listening to?”
“Obviously not marching,” Newsome said.
end quotes
Obviously not marching indeed, people!
The moment people in Albany, New York started destroying property in Albany, now cops can be fired automatically, so what is Albany rewarding, what behavior is it listening to?
You’re right, people – the threat of further violence, which BLACK LIVES MATTER has no qualms whatsoever about dishing out, which has Kathy Sheehan crapping in her pants and down on her knees in submission to BLACK LIVES MATTER, which submission in turn has empowered the lawless savages in Albany who revel in violence to get their kicks, as savages are wont to do, which takes us back to the police study, to wit:
This shift in priorities was a dramatic one for the APD: As noted earlier, the department has had a long tradition of what James Q. Wilson called a “watchman” style of policing, in which officers on patrol paid little attention to minor violations like traffic offenses, gambling, and other misdemeanors.
As one department veteran puts it: “Twenty years ago, if you brought that stuff into the station house — if you arrested somebody, say, for an open container — people would have said, ‘Get out of here.'”
“‘We’re not going to book this guy on a charge like that.’”
One APD manager attributes this sentiment directly to the desires of upper management, explaining: “I don’t want to throw rocks, but with the command staff that was here before, nobody cared [about quality of life offenses].”
But the advent of community policing began to change this situation markedly.
As already described, early training for the community outreach unit and later for the sector officers and the directed patrol unit began to stress the importance of quality-of-life offenses.
Tuffey reiterated this message with his command staff, who in turn took it to their subordinates to emphasize with patrol officers.
One crucial link seems to have been with the Sergeants, who were addressed as a group by the command staff and told that what had long been considered “low-level” offenses should in fact be treated seriously.
Sergeants, in turn, have repeatedly stressed that message at roll calls and sector meetings for the patrol force.
“I’m trying to convey that to them, that all these things all add up to dissatisfaction,” one APD supervisor explains.
“The poor man didn’t get a night’s sleep because somebody was waking him up with their boom box in the middle of the night.”
“And then he goes outside to get his paper and he steps in a pile of dog poop.”
“And then he comes out and his car has been vandalized.”
This message about the seriousness of “low-level” violations came directly from Albany’s political leadership — most notably Jennings’s two campaigns for mayor, when he made quality of life a major theme.
end quotes
My goodness, people – look at that!
It wasn’t the Albany Police who cooked up this “quality of life” stuff on their own – the message about the seriousness of “low-level” violations came directly from Albany’s political leadership.
And now, Albany’s new Progressive political “leadership” is swinging the pendulum the other way, by being concerned about quality of the life of the criminals, which takes us back to the study, to wit:
“Basic policing is getting to know the community [and] dealing with issues that are quality of life,” Jennings explains.
“Then hopefully the larger crimes will dissipate and diminish.”
end quotes
Except they obviously haven’t.
Getting back to the study:
Once in office, Jennings’s very public pronouncements on the subject, his high-profile tours of some of Albany’s most deteriorated neighborhoods (sometimes accompanied by Tuffey), and his specific directions to department heads all apparently fed a growing emphasis on quality-of-life issues not just in the police department, but in many Albany agencies.
More general public sentiment also pushed the APD to re-emphasize quality-of-life problems.
A few high-profile incidents, like a shooting associated with a craps game gone bad, created some public pressure to take formerly neglected categories of crime seriously, as some city residents began to believe that minor violations could escalate into serious crime.
end quotes
And hey, people, now there is a real radical thought, alright – some city residents began to believe that minor violations could escalate into serious crime.
And guess what – thanks to Kathy Sheehan and the Applyrs Gang, the fears of those city residents have come true, and here we go back to a Times Union story entitled “Arbitrator’s exoneration of Albany officer draws Sheehan’s ire – Mayor writes letter criticizing ‘racially biased conclusions’ in First St. case” by Steve Hughes on March 16, 2021 about an independent arbitrator exonerating city police officer Matthew Seeber of all charges for his role in an incident on March 2019 on First Street after he was fired by Kathy Sheehan who was caving in to demands of the lawless howling mob for his head, where we have mayor Kathy defending the savages, as follows:
Sheehan took issue with Rabin’s general description of the surrounding neighborhood and the people in the home itself.
“One need only look to the first paragraph of the opinion to see he skipped the dog whistle and went right to clear bias and racial animus,” she wrote.
In the opening of his decision, based off six days of testimony from city police officers and department leaders, Rabin calls First Street a rough part of town and those inside 523 First St. “dangerous.”
“This was not simply a raucous college party, like many in the nearby neighborhood, or a book club celebrating its final meeting of the season.”
“No, these were dangerous criminals, including drug dealers, who had committed violent acts in the past…”
“Most of the participants were probably armed,” he wrote.
end quotes
Mayor Kathy calls those same people “good people.”
Getting back to the study, we have:
But as community policing brought police into greater contact with neighborhood groups, they simply began to hear about low-level offenses more often.
“A lot of those issues,” Tuffey explains, referring to concerns about quality-of-life, “we hear from community groups, whether it be CANA, Council of Area Neighborhood Associations [a citywide umbrella organization for Albany neighborhood groups]; Beverwick, which is part of Washington Park; Park South; or Mansion Hill.”
“That’s a big issue for them, [and] if it’s a big issue for them, then it’s our big issue.”
Finally, police themselves began to feel that it made sense to target these low-level offenses in order to get at their underlying goal of reducing serious crime.
In this vein, many Albany officers recite something like the “Broken Windows” theory to explain how left unchecked, low-level disorder can escalate into serious crime — and indeed, department training tried to make this link explicit, both through in-service sessions with officers and through the Citizen’s Academy for residents. 42
As explained by Commander William Bowen, who oversaw the department’s training division during the early months of community policing:
What we tried to do was to show the rank and file, the officers on the lowest level, that it was a partnership with the community to make life better [when we were] talking about quality of life issues.
You know, many times the officer would think . . . “That bag of garbage out on the street on a night that it doesn’t belong out there, that’s not a big deal.”
And we tried to show them that that was a big deal when it came to the overall philosophy of quality of life.
That is, if a place looks bad, it’s going to get bad — the broken window theory and that kind of thing.
Using a somewhat different logic, many officers also argue that enforcing misdemeanor laws can have a more direct relationship to the control of serious crime, for offenders stopped on minor violations often turn out to have signs of serious criminality like drugs, concealed weapons, outstanding warrants.
Finally, one Albany officer argues that by citing people on minor violations, police effectively alert the courts to a potential pattern: If police fail to write these citations, a first offense for robbery may look like a forgivable aberration, when in fact it is the culmination of years of unrecorded petty crime.
end quotes
There was one side of the pendulum swing.
And now, we are clearly over onto the other side as Progressive police reform undoes all that was done before to make Albany, New York a crime-free city with good quality of life for those who are not violent, lawless savages.
Which side would you rather be on?
Paul Plante says
And here I cannot pass up a story from Fox News that just came out entitled “Atlanta ‘defund the police’ backer has car stolen — by kids in broad daylight: reports” by David Aaro on 27 May 2021, to wit:
An Atlanta city councilman – who is aiming to be the city’s next mayor – had his car stolen by children in broad daylight Wednesday, according to reports.
Councilman Antonio Brown was attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony at an event in northeast Atlanta around noon when at least four kids jumped into his car and took off, FOX 5 of Atlanta reported.
“You don’t immediately think, ‘Oh, these kids are going to steal my car,’” Brown said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The incident occurred amid a recent crime wave in the city.
end quotes
Yes, people, it is really the police who are the problem, not the criminals, so let us punish the police by getting rid of them and all will finally be right in the world again, at least according to the Progressives like this Antonio Brown dude who is himself under indictment on federal fraud charges related to alleged incidents that occurred in the years prior to him winning the council seat in 2019, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which is probably as good a reason as any to him to defund the police, which takes us back to that story as follows:
Brown, who joined the city’s mayoral race less than three weeks ago, is running on a campaign of “reimagining public safety,” the paper reported.
end quotes
Yeah, right, people, and this is what “reimagining public safety” looks like in real life, which takes us back for more, as follows:
Last year, he voted in support of an ordinance to withhold $73 million from the budget of the Atlanta Police Department.
end quotes
And this year, his precious Mercedes-Benz got stolen by some lawless hoodlums!
Justice, anyone?
Getting back to this saga, it continues as follows:
Brown said the thieves jumped in his vehicle Wednesday after he got out to speak with community leader Ben Norman.
He noted his white Mercedes-Benz coupe has keyless push-to-start ignition and he failed to realize it had been started, reports said.
The councilman described the kids as being between ages 6 and 12, FOX 5 reported.
end quotes
The thieves who stole his Mercedes were between the ages of 6 and 12?
Did somebody say something about insanity is overwhelming us here in America as this wave of progressivism overpowers rationality?
Getting back to that story of what happens when Progressives defund the police, we have:
“One kid was in the driver’s seat.”
“Ben attempted to open the door to get him out of the car.”
“He fought with Ben.”
“I then engaged and tried to get him out of the car.”
“The three other kids were trying to figure out how to get in the car or stay out of the car.”
“He started to hit on the gas,” Brown said.
Brown added that he held on to the car in an attempt to stop them and was dragged about a block down the road before letting go.
“As he started to speed up, and I knew that if I had not let go, I knew I probably could have killed myself because he was going so fast, I would have started to tumble.”
“And I would have hurt him,” the councilman said.
Brown doesn’t plan on filing charges against the kids, who he says acted out of desperation, Atlanta’s WSB-TV reported.
“This is a generational poverty issue.”
“These kids, it’s 12:30 in the afternoon.”
“Why aren’t they in school?”
“Why aren’t we enforcing systems to ensure that if they are not in school, they’re in recreational centers?” he said.
end quotes
Now, people, there is a damn good question, and why is he asking us for answers when it should be him providing them?
Paul Plante says
And as we watch violence increasing in these Democrat-controlled “defund the police” criminal sanctuary cities like Albany, New York and Atlanta, Georgia in the name of “police reform,” which is really police emasculation, let us go back to the study of the Albany, New York Police Department reform conducted for the Urban League, a group whose goals I find laudable, keeping in mind that when Albany mayor Gerald Jennings left office, he was replaced with the present mayor Kathy Sheehan, who has proclaimed Albany, New York, the capital of the state, as BLACK LIVES MATTER turf, to wit:
I. THE ALBANY POLICE DEPARTMENT THROUGH 1994
II. THE EVOLUTION OF COMMUNITY POLICING IN ALBANY
3. Reforming the APD
Building Support for Quality-of-Life Enforcement
Thus for all these reasons, the public and political pressures on APD officers to take low-level violations seriously did not strike all of them as unreasonable demands, and some had wanted to enforce these laws all along — they had simply felt constrained by organizational norms.
But none of this is to say that APD officers took to the new style of enforcement without pause, nor that all APD officers embraced it wholeheartedly.
Officers had a number of reasons for resisting the idea of quality-of-life enforcement at the outset, ranging from distaste for the required paperwork, to a belief that it was not “real police work,” to a firm conviction that it was counterproductive.
For example, one Albany resident, echoing the sentiments of some department members, argues that some officers had a deep-seated aversion to enforcing the laws against minor crimes, feeling that it is “beneath them” to do things like write parking tickets — even when neighbors feel strongly about the issue.
end quotes
Now, there is some essential background that never seems to get mentioned these days, when it is all about the criminals and how our hearts should bleed for them instead of their victims – quality of life law enforcement is imposed on the police by the community, not the other way around, which takes us back to that study, to wit:
Officers themselves sometimes insist that it is inappropriate to crack down on minor violations in some neighborhoods, which will view such actions as harassment, and they sometimes interpret management directions to the contrary as naïve to the point of being dangerous.
(When asked why the department did not crack down on disorderly behavior in one Albany neighborhood, one officer explained: “You would have a riot on your hands.”)
end quotes
And all these years later, with the encouragement of Democratic Socialist mayor Kathy Sheehan and the Applyers Junto or Applyers Gang as it is more commonly known, which has the Albany Police under siege and in its crosshairs, that is even more so today in this day and age of social media where the criminals can muster a flash mob seemingly in a matter of minutes in the event the police were foolish enough to try and make an arrest in the wrong part of Albany, which takes us back to the study, as follows:
Moreover, even those officers who agree with the principle of “zero tolerance” in the abstract find many exceptions in practice.
For example, one officer who insisted that he would unequivocally cite people for open container violations admitted that he excluded a certain group of corner drunks from the rule, since they had useful knowledge about what was going on in the neighborhood, and “they aren’t bugging anyone” anyhow.
Support for quality-of-life enforcement clearly varies considerably around the department.
For example, most department members argue that the 18 APD foot patrol officers are very willing to cite people for minor offenses, while other officers who are less in tune with community sentiment are less enthusiastic.
“Our outreach guys, they know a lot of people in their neighborhoods,” one department manager explains.
But the guys in the cars, they really don’t know [residents].
And I want them . . to go to the community meetings.
And I want them to be on the hot seat like I’ve been on the hot seat: You know, “How come this hasn’t been corrected?”
“How come they’re still dealing out of twenty-one Main Street?”
And I think if the officers go to these meetings — the regular uniform patrol officers, not just the foot patrol officers — if they start [going], they will take a little more responsibility for what’s going on in their areas: The junk cars, the refrigerators left out somewhere.
All these things all add up to aggravation.
“We have a lot of young, new police officers here that are learning it,” Tuffey explains.
“But you know what the nice part about it is?”
“They believe in it, they really do.”
“You can see that by a lot of the quality of life issue arrests.”
In any case, many community members noticed and appreciated the new emphasis on these matters.
To be sure, some decried stronger enforcement as harassment, arguing that police were singling out the homeless, the poor, and minorities for attention (a charge that police invariably deny).
“No one is happy when their children are arrested for drugs,” one department member explains.
“Nobody likes a speeding ticket.”
“No one likes parking tickets.”
“Nobody likes to get an open container ticket.”
“These are unpopular things.”
Another explains:
Pretty regularly [we’ll put] intensive manpower on one single corner, or one single block — sort of sweep that area for a few hours. . . .
And you go to a neighborhood meeting and you tell them that you are going to do it, it’s all “Rah, rah!” until a few of them have gotten tickets for not having their seat belt on. . . . .
And I always tell them whenever we move from one block or one neighborhood to another, that some of the problem people are friends, maybe relatives.
So be prepared.
You know, justice is blind: We are going to come in and identify the problems and eliminate them.
But they are likely to be closer to home than you think.
So when they are, don’t blame us.
Such mixed messages from the community clearly create a dilemma for police, and Albany managers like this one recognize the complexity of their situation and do not take the decision to “crack down” lightly:
If a problem is a problem for a neighborhood, if it’s a problem for the majority, then it’s dealt with.
If it’s the kind of situation that only arises to the elevation of problem for a few, then we try and work something out. . . .
Generally speaking, those problems [where we crack down] are neighborhood wide.
They are not usually small problems. . . . .
You may get one or two chronic pains in the neck in that respect that are constantly calling every time someone else turns their radio on in their house.
But generally speaking, when problems get to that elevation, they are serious problems.
And then we apply whatever is necessary to deal with them.
In any case, the manager continues, when backlash does arise, it is necessary to “take some action.”
Especially if the perception is that it’s racial issue.
Then the potential for that problem to be bigger than life, than it really is, is huge.
end quotes
And there we go, people, because all these years later, EVERYTHING under the sun is a “racial” issue because the pandering hack politicians on the make can get so much mileage out of it, which takes us back to that study as follows:
And I think that’s my feeling, that you’ve got to step right in . . . and take some action: Either reduce enforcement, disperse enforcement, [or] get involved and get to the people who see themselves as the victims. . . .
You need to get to the leaders in the community, . . . be that the clergy, or community activists, or neighborhood association activists.
You need to get to them.
You need to have a dialogue with them.
Because they are the ones with credibility amongst the population, whatever that population is.
And you now are in a position where your credibility is in question.
Many of these situations have arisen in Albany, as vigorous enforcement has pleased some groups who called for it but alienated others — or even the same ones — who feel harassed.
In a few cases, like the department’s crackdown on underage drinking, some APD members believe that the department has faced political pressure to back down entirely, both from parents of the underage youth and from well-connected tavern owners.
But in other cases the department has resisted efforts to rein in quality-of-life enforcement by explaining the rationale behind it.
In any case, for most department members these concerns do arise, but the opposite message predominates.
For example, asked if complaints about harassment have been common at the community meetings he attends, one department manager responds that they have not been, pointing out that “usually the people that are at these meetings are the people who want arrests made: They want enforcement of the difference ordinances.”
And when asked the same question, Jennings insists that most citizens he hears from do not complain about stepped-up enforcement: “I hear about us not enforcing it,” the Mayor explains.
end quotes
And now his successor in office Kathy Sheehan, who has surrendered the city to BLACK LIVES MATTER, has taken the opposite tack because the “citizens” she listens to and takes the knee to in submission do not want the law enforced against them, and mayor Kathy is doing her level best to keep that from happening.
Paul Plante says
And going back to the criminal sanctuary city of Albany, New York under the rule of Biden Elector Kathy Sheehan, a BLACK LIVES MATTER city where it is the police who are under siege by the politicians, for the latest gun violence in that sick city, we have from the Albany, New York Times Union this story entitled “Gun violence takes another life overnight in Albany – 29-year-old is city’s ninth homicide of 2021, the fourth in the past nine days” by Brendan J. Lyons and Pete DeMola on May 30, 2021, as follows:
ALBANY — A 29-year-old man was shot and killed early Sunday on Quail Street, the latest victim in a month marked by gun violence in the city, police said.
The man, a Hamilton Street resident with ties to Schenectady, may have been the victim of an apparent robbery, according to police sources, and he became the city’s ninth homicide victim of the year and the sixth this month.
The killing happened amid a surge of gun violence in the city that’s prompted police to seek outside help and activists to call for more broad efforts to improve the quality of life in the city and bring about long-term declines in violence.
end quotes
Quality of life?
Seems like we have heard that term before in connection with Albany, New York, have we not?
And that takes us in turn to another Times Union story entitled “Albany mayor backs police chief as police name the latest homicide victim” by Paul Nelson on May 31, 2021, as follows:
ALBANY — As police revealed the identity of the latest victim of an explosion of deadly gun violence in the city, Mayor Kathy Sheehan said she had “complete confidence” in Police Chief Eric Hawkins’ ability to lead the response and blamed the bloodshed on the proliferation of guns on the streets of Albany and other American cities.
end quotes
Whether or not Kathy Sheehan has “complete confidence” in Police Chief Eric Hawkins, who she brought in from the midwest as a “token” to appease the Black community in Albany is immaterial, because nobody has confidence in Kathy Sheehan to maintain law and order in the capital city of the state, which Sheehan treats as her personal possession, after she was quoted in the same Times Union as telling everybody in America it was time for them to take the knee in submission to BLACK LIVES MATTER, as she had the chief do when he very publicly “took the knee” in solidarity with BLACK LIVES MATTER.
As to guns coming into Albany, when haven’t they been?
Let’s go back to a New York Times story on Dec. 25, 2003, Section B, Page 9 of the National edition with the headline: “Metro Briefing | New York: Albany: Police Lieutenant Is Shot In Chase,” where we have as follows with respect to guns in Albany, to wit:
By The Associated Press
Dec. 25, 2003
A police officer was shot twice late Tuesday night while chasing a robbery suspect, officials said.
The officer, Lt. John Finn, was in critical condition yesterday after more than nine hours of emergency surgery, officials said.
He was shot in the leg and back after investigating a report of an armed robbery at a convenience store shortly after 11 p.m., the police said.
The suspect, Keyshawn Everett, shot Lieutenant Finn while the police chased him through the streets of Albany’s South End neighborhood, Detective James Miller said.
Officers then returned fire and wounded Mr. Everett, Detective Miller said.
Both Lieutenant Finn and Mr. Everett underwent surgery at the Albany Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman, Wenda Howard, said. Mr. Everett was also listed in critical condition.
end quotes
In an article in the Times Union entitled “Albany, NY Police Lieutenant seriously wounded in gun battle” By Brendan Lyons on December 25, 2003, we learn further as follows about that shooting, to wit:
Lt. John Finn was less than an hour away from finishing his late shift patrolling some of Albany’s roughest neighborhoods.
Then he could return home, where he expected to celebrate Christmas with his wife and two young daughters this morning.
But shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday, police radios crackled as an armed robbery unfolded at a neighborhood convenience store on the edge of the city’s South End.
Moments later, the 37-year-old patrol supervisor was pulled into a gun battle that has left him clinging to life and the robbery suspect gravely wounded.
“It’s been very, very difficult,” said Mayor Jerry Jennings.
“I’ve known him for years, and he’s a great representative of this department.”
end quotes
Jennings is the predecessor to Kathy Sheehan as Albany mayor.
Getting back to that story, it continues as follows:
The 26-year-old man who allegedly exchanged gunfire with Finn, Keshon Everett of Albany, is an ex-convict with a lengthy criminal history and who is currently on federal probation for a 1996 drug conviction.
He allegedly fired 12 shots at Finn with an outlawed rapid-fire pistol — a knockoff of the banned TEC-9 assault pistol.
The gun holds 20 rounds and can fire a spray of bullets.
end quotes
So yes, mayor Kathy, guns coming into Albany!
Who knew!
Paul Plante says
And here I would like to go back to the Albany, New York Times Union story entitled “Albany mayor backs police chief as police name the latest homicide victim” by Paul Nelson on May 31, 2021, as follows:
Sheehan acknowledged morale within the (Albany, N.Y.) police force is “very challenged” but she insisted the police department could confront the violence, noting arrests were made in several of the recent killings.
end quote
And my goodness, people, why wouldn’t morale within the Albany, New York Police Department be challenged, when it is the police in Albany who are being made out to be the criminals in Albany, as opposed to the real criminals who are coddled in that sick, sanctuary city, and that takes us to another Times Union story to see the further source of that “challenged morale,” this one entitled “AG James, lawmakers introduce bill reforming police use of lethal force – Proposal unveiled as nation approaches one-year mark since death of George Floyd” by Chris Bragg on May 21, 2021, where we have from “Tish,” the New York State Attorney General, as follows:
ALBANY — State Attorney General Letitia James and state lawmakers announced Friday the introduction of legislation designed to raise the legal standard under which members of law enforcement can employ lethal force.
The bill would change the standard in New York from “simple necessity” to an absolute last resort.
“If there is a way to accomplish the officer’s objective without the use of lethal force, we should absolutely demand they take the other path,” James said.
end quotes
Now, think about that sentence for a moment, what it really is saying: If there is a way to accomplish the officer’s objective without the use of lethal force, we should absolutely demand they take the other path.
And what pray tell, might the officer’s objective in fact be?
More to the point, what should the officer’s objective be?
And who is going to be the judge of that?
Tish?
And this is the same Tish who was featured in a New York Times story entitled “Letitia James, With Cuomo’s Help, Raises $1 Million in Attorney General Race” where we learned that Letitia James, the New York City public advocate, will have raised $1 million in campaign funds in her race for attorney general, a sign that her partnership with Gov. Andrew Cuomo is paying off.
And that is the same Andrew Cuomo who unilaterally determined that all police agencies in New York state should be “reformed,” so Tish is going to be the reformer, which is kind of unique, given the appearance of Tish in a story in the New York Post entitled “State politicians accepted illegal donations from corporations” by Anna Sanders on July 28, 2018, to wit:
Public Advocate Letitia James accepted at least $5,000 in illegal corporate contributions to her state attorney general campaign, filings show.
end quotes
And hey, people, get off her back – it’s New York and that’s the way things are done, so everybody just shut up about it, which takes us back to the Post as follows:
“This law has been routinely violated,” said veteran Albany watcher Blair Horner, of the good government group NYPIRG.
“I don’t know of anyone punished for doing this.”
For her AG campaign, James took $10,000 from Slate Property Group on May 18, her corporate filings show.
She also took $7,500 each from Climatech HVAC Corp. and Ipex Plumbing And Heating Corp. this year.
The James campaign claimed Slate’s campaign contribution reflected sloppy bookkeeping, with the money actually coming came from a limited-liability company of the same name.
LLCs have much higher contribution limits, though government watchdogs decry the loophole for allowing the fat contributions.
James spokeswoman Delaney Kempner said the campaign will return $2,500 to both Climatech and Ipex and will conduct a “full review of donations to make sure there aren’t others over the limit.”
Violations are supposed to be policed by Cuomo appointee Risa Sugarman, the chief enforcement counsel at the Board of Elections.
She is viewed as an ally of the governor.
Sugarman refused to answer questions about enforcement on Friday.
end quotes
So no wonder Tish doesn’t like the police!
Which thought takes us back to the Times Union story, to wit:
The bill, which is being sponsored by state Assemblyman Nick Perry and Sen. Kevin Parker, both of Brooklyn, would require officers to consider whether the same outcomes could be possible through the use of non-lethal force.
end quotes
Again, what outcomes?
And how much time exactly is the officer supposed to spend meditating on that question?
Getting back to the Times Union, it goes on as follows:
James said the bill would create “real consequences for when an officer crosses the line” through “clear and concise and objective standards.”
Perry said that more than 960 Americans were killed after encounters with police over the past year, and cited statistics that Black citizens were proportionately much more likely to die in such an encounter.
Perry believed there was “significant support” in the Assembly for the idea, while Parker said there was a “big appetite for justice” in the Senate.
Both houses are controlled by Democrats, and have passed other criminal justice reforms in recent years.
The leader of New York City’s largest police officer union reacted unfavorably to the proposed legislation.
“This sweeping proposal would make it impossible for police officers to determine whether or not we are permitted to use force in a given situation,” said Police Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch.
“The only reasonable solution will be to avoid confrontations where force might become necessary.”
“Meanwhile, violent criminals certainly aren’t hesitating to use force against police officers or our communities.”
“The bottom line: More cops and more regular New Yorkers are going to get hurt.”
end quotes
Will Tish care?
Will Andy Cuomo?
Will Biden Elector Kathy Sheehan of the criminal sanctuary city of Albany, New York?
One must seriously doubt it.