Thursday, April 16, 2015

Sorry is the easiest word to say.

The Field Negro education series continues.

Shout out to Philly's own David Love for giving us this thought provoking article.

"Is the policing of black men the new sport for white officers and wannabe cops?

This is a question worth asking, in light of this season of police killings, particularly the April 2nd fatal shooting of a black man named Eric Harris, 44, by Reserve Deputy Robert Bates. After officers brought Harris to the ground, an officer yelled “Taser” twice, after which Bates shot Harris with his gun and said, “Oh! I shot him. I’m sorry.” Apparently, Bates meant to shoot the man with his Taser rather than his gun.

As Harris yelled that he was shot, he said, “I’m losing my breath,” to which the officer responded, “f*** your breath.”  Harris died an hour later.

But oh well, what difference does it make, right? Whether it’s a Taser or gun, it’s just another dead black man we’re talking about. Plus, the man said he was sorry.

Robert Bates, 73, who has been charged with second-degree manslaughter in Harris’ death, is a prime example of someone who went out of his way looking for trouble. To put it another way, he volunteered to be in that situation, or rather, he paid a lot of money to volunteer. Now a man is dead from a situation that did not warrant using a Taser, much less a gun.

But who gave Bates this authority?

One has to ask why the 73-year old CEO of an insurance company — with one year of full-time experience as a cop back in the 1960s — would be allowed to be in the thick of it, in a major, high-stakes operation where he had the power of life or death over Eric Harris.

On the surface, it would appear Bates was a “pay-to-play” wannabe cop. It turns out Bates had donated video equipment, weapons and cars to the Sheriff’s Office, not to mention $2,500 to Sheriff Stanley Glanz’s reelection campaign in 2012. And he even served as the sheriff’s campaign chair. As Vox reported, as many as 130 reserve deputies in Tulsa are “wealthy people,” and it is not unusual for them to make donations. And as Salon had reported last year, some police departments openly ask for donations for a badge and gun permit.

Auxiliary police are nothing new. There are around 400,000 volunteer officers across the nation who, in a time of cash-strapped police departmentshelp fill in the gaps. But apparently, there is a wide discrepancy when it comes to what reserve cops can do. For example, in Los Angeles, they are allowed to do community relations and desk duty, while in the NYPD they are unarmed.

This state of affairs would give us the impression that anyone, at least in a department such as the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office, can play cop—at least if the price is right. It is also painfully evident that some individuals are all-too-eager to become police officers Just to take it a step further, it is exceedingly difficult to fathom that these folks would be allowed to carry on in white communities and “accidentally” fatally shoot white citizens the way this reserve deputy killed Mr. Harris. It would not be allowed.

It is a little harder to wrap one’s head around this Tulsa incident unless we understand this country’s history concerning the policing of black people. Some would suggest the concept of police volunteers goes back to the Wild West, when common folk were deputized to fight crime and catch the bad guy. Although this is a valid assertion, there is also another troubling legacy of policing in America that is implicated in the shooting of Eric Harris.

As for black people, our first experience with police were the slave patrols. As Brittney Cooper reminds us in Salon, American policing traces its origins to these patrols.

During slavery times, all whites were encouraged and sanctioned to exert control over blacks. White men were deputized as members of the slave patrols — both slave masters and non-slaveholders alike — which were a crucial part of the slavery police state and economic order maintained by wealthy whites to maintain control over blacks. According to Professor Carl T. Bogus of Roger Williams University School of Law, these patrols were militias under the Second Amendment, designed to protect whites against slave rebellion.

“Virtually all able-bodied white men were part of the militia,” Bogus notes of Southern men, “which primarily meant that they had slave control duties under the direction and discipline of local militia officers.” [Read more here]

Shooting: Deputy Thomas Gilliland, said that after the chase, two Houston police officers told the suspect to show his hands, but as they approached his car he reached back into his vehicle. Suspecting that he was reaching for a weapon, both officers opened fire multiple times, killing the man. (Cody Duty/Houston Chronicle via AP)So yesterday it was Tulsa, and today it's Houston.  Eh.

The police say that they feared the  man in Houston was reaching for a gun. But as of me writing this post they have not said whether a gun was actually "found at the scene."

Of course that incident was not all caught on video tape, soo.......oh look, there is a Glock under his seat.

Stay tuned.


46 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:33 PM

    Brother Field, why was he reaching back into his car under the seat? What's up with that? All that does is insure that he will be shot.

    Nobody but an African American man or Yisheng would do something like that in Houston.

    Must be due to Dominant Black Genetics.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:51 PM

    That's called 'good ole boyism'

    Good ole boys following the "slave patrol" model.

    2015 is it?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous11:53 PM

    I'm sorry those crackers didn't pick their own damn cotton. That's the most expensive mistake the white man ever made.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous12:04 AM

    I believe the man was truly sorry. Most rich or wealthy Whites are not racists to the extent they would intentionally shoot a Negro.

    This reminds me of the Oscar Grant incident where the BART policeman accidentally shot Oscar in the back and killed him. The cop did a little under two years in jail for his mistake.

    Considering the laws of Oklahoma are this wealthy wm won't do ONE day in jail. I mean, let's face it. It was a mistake that unfortunately kill a bm who was running from the police.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous12:06 AM

    Brother Field, was the bm an African American man or was he an African from the islands or Africa? I think the penalty the DA will hand out will depend on this.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous12:28 AM

    "The police say that they feared the man in Houston was reaching for a gun. But as of me writing this post they have not said whether a gun was actually "found at the scene." "

    Trust me, a gun was found at the scene. There was no video to back it up so you will just have to take their word for it.

    Cops are honest and honorable people.

    Aren't they?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous1:35 AM

    What was Dick Cheney doing playing cop anyway. Didn't he already shoot his homeboy in the face?

    Also, I hear the cop in S.C. might get the death penalty. Have you heard anything about that?

    PX

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous5:05 AM

    Yīshēng said...

    I haz an educashun.

    ReplyDelete
  9. LOL@PX.

    Anon@12:28, you tell me.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Field, you and everyone else in the country should read what Ta-Nehisi Coates says in the Atlantic about the whole sickening mess, and why our expectations of "policing" are so outrageously out of whack:

    http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/the-myth-of-police-reform/390057/?utm_source=btn-facebook-control

    Also, Charles Pierce is good:

    http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a34321/this-is-all-very-strange-police-work/

    ReplyDelete
  11. Dr. Ramos, PHD7:51 AM

    "Is the policing of black men the new sport for white officers and wannabe cops?"


    Neither filed nor David Love offers any facts that would answer their racist question.


    On the topic of sports, violence has always been the sport of blacks. Here we have another black man, who, shockingly, is a convicted felon breaking the law and running from cops.


    Blacks should look at themselves and ask why are we so violent? Why do we fail to act like humans when dealing with other humans?

    Instead, blacks will do what they often do. Externalize their issues and blame everyone else.




    ReplyDelete
  12. Yisheng8:03 AM

    Goat shit said:

    Howdy Bubba, ima jelus of Dr. Yisheng, 'causin ya'lld know I dun learnt nuthin' frum ma biodiabolical techa' buk.

    Yisheng

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous8:33 AM

    The real question is why blacks are so violent compared to other races. If Mike brown, trayvon, the illegal gun seller et al would have obeyed the law they wouldn't be dead. Why do blacks murder people at 8 times the rate of white people. Why do they rape women at exponentially higher rates than other races. Why is the violent crime rate in Africa higher than the rest of the world. Blacks should be asking these questions and trying to find answers instead of complaining about police trying to protect the rest of us from their violence.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Of the roughly 100,000,000 white men in America, how many are deputized against blacks? Hell, throw Zimmerman in as "white" if it helps one bolster the numbers.

    To say it's fucked up. Okay.
    To say it's a problem. Okay.
    To say something needs to be fucking done about it. Okay.
    To liken it to slavery and put blacks of today up against actual fucking slaves? Holy shit, mate. Take it down a peg.

    Seems to me black folks have all the necessary tools available today to transform these things into a nationwide cause: Real victims (often enough), a huge platform, bleeding-heart progressives making up a huge swath of our society, and an ongoing precedent on which to refer.

    However, folks jump the shark and people just lose interest. Enter TPC calling me a racist over it, or one of the anon trolls updating the blog on my life as a prostitute, but this is a fact that too many folks are ignoring.

    You fucking have the hearts and minds if you can keep things grounded, factual and not jump the shark. But when normal folks are bombarded with "hands up, don't shoot" and other memes and shit that's just ridiculous about the situation, folks shake their heads.

    Why should anyone care about innocent human beings murdered by police? Oh, let us count the ways. And let us also not forget that there are a shit-ton of white libertarians who will gladly join the charge to see these cops dealt with, in a factual, level scenario with which they can get on board.

    Why should anyone care about the hyperbole of modern-day slavery and carrying it as if white men in general are just out there shooting black slaves? There's not a single fucking reason to get anyone else on board who wouldn't be on board with boycotting a grocery store because the black olives are kept in a can and the green ones aren't.

    When the language turns that hyperbolic, what you have is basically niche marketing.

    Somebody might wanna work on that.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Quote:Dr. Cunt PhD

    "Here we have another black man, who, shockingly, is a convicted felon breaking the law and running from cops."

    Would you like to tell us the full shocking details of his felony record? Spare us nothing.

    Oh and is running away from a cop a capital offence now?

    Is this how it goes?

    1. Murder
    2. Treason
    3. Black Man Running Away from a Racist Cop.



    ReplyDelete
  16. Quote: Josh-The-Racist

    "Enter TPC calling me a racist over it..."

    Calling you a racist over what?

    ReplyDelete
  17. FP might want to put down her "good" book and start using me as the oracle.

    Thus it is written.

    I can guide you through life's ills, FP and other religions loo...umm, believers. Just hit me up with the 10% tax...sorry, tithe, and we can make this work.

    I have wine in the basement and a bunch of crackers in the cabinet. Let's do this.

    Religions have been started over less. Just ask 34,999 of the 35,000 Christian sects.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Dr. Ramo, PHD12:16 PM

    Right on cue a black person comes along and blames everyone else.

    Name calling doesn't help you either. Shows a lack of intellect on your part.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous1:09 PM

    "Just to take it a step further, it is exceedingly difficult to fathom that these folks would be allowed to carry on in white communities and 'accidentally' fatally shoot white citizens the way this reserve deputy killed Mr. Harris. It would not be allowed."

    This statement is nonsense. Reserve officers aren't only involved with black suspects. It doesn't work like that.

    It's absolutely absurd that an untrained 73-year-old was given a gun and assigned to field work on serious felony cases. That sort of thing should never happen. But it wasn't some sort of intentional plan to "hunt" black people.

    This was stupidity on the part of the local sheriff, pure and simple.

    ReplyDelete
  20. McFred1:14 PM

    By the way, Yisheng, thank you for continuing to prove my point that you are just a classless whore. Every single time.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous1:15 PM

    "What was Dick Cheney doing playing cop anyway. Didn't he already shoot his homeboy in the face?"

    Dick Cheney is far too busy trying to convince everyone that the Iraq War was a brilliant idea, contrary to all available evidence. He doesn't have any spare time anymore to go around shooting random people (although I'm sure he misses it).

    ReplyDelete

  22. It is strange that Quanell X had a change of opinion after having the opportunity to engage in some police training.

    Quanell went through four live-action scenarios that were all based on things that have actually happened.
    ...
    Quanell says race never entered his mind, but he does admit this: "If I'm in a high-crime area that I've worked, and I know it's a high-crime area and I know the kind of calls we get, I could easily see me pulling my gun quicker, on a simple call, I hate to say it."
    ...
    "Please brothers and sisters, if they tell you to do something, do it," said Quanell. "When the suspect started being combative or argumentative, I want to pull my gun."

    He's shocked at how many shots he fired, something he so often questions in police shootings.

    http://www.khou.com/story/news/local/2015/02/04/quanell-x-trains-with-the-missouri-city-police-department/22901953/


    "high-profile community activist Jarrett Maupin" also had the same experience.

    FOX 10 asked Maupin what his biggest take-away from the exercise will be. "I didn't understand how important compliance was, but after going through this; yes my attitude has changed, this happens in 10-15 seconds. People need to comply for their own sake," said Maupin.


    http://www.fox10phoenix.com/story/27788056/2015/01/07/activist-critical-of-police-undergoes-use-of-force-scenarios


    There must be a good reason that activists that fight against police shootings both want people to comply and do as they're told to be safer after they put themselves in the shoes of officers.

    ReplyDelete

  23. What happened to the Duke college noose?

    There must be a good reason the story has been thrown under the bus.


    It's almost as if dumbocrats are trying to make racism go away by making a joke of it by crying wolf.

    ReplyDelete

  24. Gilliland said that after the chase, two Houston police officers told the suspect to show his hands, but as they approached his car he reached back into his vehicle. Suspecting that he was reaching for a weapon, both officers opened fire multiple times, killing the man


    FieldNegro, when you get pulled over in your vroom vroom car, do you comply with the officers?

    I joined a search & rescue group that worked with the local lapd and got one of those "police volunteer cards." Ended my collecting of tickets for driving my vroom vroom car. When I move out of la la land, I will go back to driving a vroom vroom car.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous2:17 PM

    Anonymous Anonymous said...
    The real question is why blacks are so violent compared to other races. If Mike brown, trayvon, the illegal gun seller et al would have obeyed the law they wouldn't be dead. Why do blacks murder people at 8 times the rate of white people.

    ---------------
    Blacks asked the same question of Whites after they were freed from slavery. Whites burned, pillaged, raped and lynched Blacks. American history is full of White violence, which no American law would prosecute.

    So, it's no wonder Blacks are scared to death of cops. They know about the injustices of the criminal-justice system geared to incarcerating and killing them.

    Of course, you being White makes you holier and free-er in America because Whites don't encounter such abuse.

    Wretchedly evil Whites will never approve of Blacks no matter how docile or compliant they may be. Being compliant with Whites only get you shot in the back multiple times until you are dead.

    THEN THEY LAUGH ABOUT IT....like the White cop in S.C. did. You have to be wretchedly evil to be like that.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Limbaugh4:34 PM

    The guy seems like a George Zimmerman. Maybe being old and not suited for police work were factors, but he is a wanna be cop who killed someone. Racism is more obvious in some cases than in others. I would say the cop who shot the guy who was running away in the park was racist, and racism wasn't as apparent when a cop ran over the guy with a gun. Driving too slow or not running the guy over could have led to him or a bystander getting shot. But those are just guesses with limited information. Trials would help sort stuff out. One of Jesse Ventura's positions is to try cops just we would anybody else.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous4:59 PM

    Believe me in Houston no wm is going to prison or jail for killing a bm. Blacks in Texas are accustomed and trained to not expect prosecution of Whites when Blacks are involved.

    ReplyDelete
  28. US police killed more people in the month of March 2015 than UK police killed in the entire 20th century.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Anonymous5:44 PM

    The UK must be short on niggers.

    ReplyDelete
  30. "The UK must be short on niggers."

    Looks like moron, asshat, cunty anons don't just direct their attentions toward me; they're equal opportunity chadrools.

    Hey, here's a fun experiment to try, Anon. Go wave a gun at the police. Field might make a post about your Swiss cheese remains.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous8:53 PM

    Josh, "Looks like moron, asshat, cunty anons don't just direct their attentions toward me; they're equal opportunity chadrools."

    What are chadrools? speak English, fool.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Anonymous9:02 PM

    I can't find "chadrool" in my College Websters Dictionary from school. Josh probably made it up. He makes up a lot of shit.

    But then again, it could be a code word for Negroes like Yisheng.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I can hardly get through typing this, I'm laughing so fucking hard. You anon bitches will literally nitpick the fuck out of anything I say.

    "Chadrool" is Italian slang. Representing the Calabrese side of my heritage. But I should know better. White people don't have "heritage." You gotta be POC to have color or culture or heritage. So, that's my bad.

    And lol @ "my College [sic] Websters [sic] Dictionary from school." Take it easy, Yisheng! No need to prove yous be edumacated, yo. We believes you.

    A "chadrool" is like a drooling, helmet-wearing, slip-and-fall retard.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Anonymous9:55 PM

    Yisheng is a chadrool.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Anonymous10:38 PM

    So now they go recruiting at the nursing/old folks home do they?

    ReplyDelete
  36. Lt. Commander Johnson10:38 PM

    "Anonymous said...
    What was Dick Cheney doing playing cop anyway. Didn't he already shoot his homeboy in the face?

    PX

    1:35 AM

    This is an idiot, stooped myth. If you've never been quail hunting, you would understand why & how they shoot. They use bird shot. #6 or #7. Not 00buck, like your homies.

    They march through the fields, in a line, with retriever dogs, which cost more than you
    do, you get out of your position, you might catch a few pellets.

    Hell, we used to shoot 7 or 8 shot

    across the dove fields, when the birds weren't flying, just to irritate them.

    Feels like rain.

    ReplyDelete
  37. lilacpr2000 said...
    So now they go recruiting at the nursing/old folks home do they?
    >>>>

    Apparently, the only "credentials" needed to legally target practice with Black folks is being White and Male.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Anonymous12:00 AM

    When you linked Yisheng as a Chadrool, I got the meaning instantly. It means stupid, dumb and crazy. An idiot.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Given that my household consists of an Engineer and a future Engineer, I MUST give a "shout out" to this Black Attorney featured on BlackEngineer.com:

    http://blackengineer.com/artman2/publish/Awards_amp_Lists_32/Black-Inventors-Author-is-named-Top-100-Black-Lawyer.shtml#at_pco=tst-1.0&at_si=5531da106c4e4dd3&at_ab=per-2&at_pos=1&at_tot=2

    ReplyDelete
  40. Thanks fake military guy. Should have known you'd get your jollies shooting defenseless little birds. Psychos usually start with animals. Get some help, stat!

    ReplyDelete
  41. Josh is a whiner9:45 PM

    "Looks like moron, asshat, cunty anons don't just direct their attentions toward me; they're equal opportunity chadrools."

    Wow, self absorbed much Josh? Are you some kind of attention whore or something?

    "You gotta be POC to have color or culture or heritage. So, that's my bad."

    More victimology. Jeez.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Josh is a drama queen9:47 PM

    "Chadrool" is Italian slang. Representing the Calabrese side of my heritage. But I should know better. White people don't have "heritage." You gotta be POC to have color or culture or heritage. So, that's my bad."

    You can have all the culture you want Josh but don't expect anyone else to give a shit. What a drama queen Josh is.

    ReplyDelete
  43. "but don't expect anyone else to give a shit."

    The odd ways of the troll: Claim not to give a shit, but cannot resist habitually commenting as if they're addicted to it, thus proving unequivocally that they give a shit -- a monstrous, over-flowing, ate-nothing-but-carbs-yesterday mud-butt shit.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Josh is a drama queen11:28 AM

    "thus proving unequivocally that they give a shit"

    No Josh, I don't give a shit about you or what you think and if you stopped posting forever the world would be a better place. Then again a self-centered drama queen like yourself can never understand that you are not the center of attention. Sad. But hey whatever helps you get through the day.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Nah, I'm not the center of the attention. Not at all.

    You certainly can tell so by the way you people just ignore what I say.

    I mean, if you gave a shit, then perhaps you'd habitually respond, no matter what, and even change your fucking names around in an attempt to make me the center of attention.

    Whereas if you didn't give a shit, you wouldn't.

    Look which we're dealing with...

    Guy: "I'll change my name to your name, follow you around the entire fucking blog and make sure I troll whatever you write with an insult. But, trust me when I say, I don't give a shit! I don't. I don't!! I FUCKING DON'T! FUCK YOU, JOSH, I FUCKING DON'T YOU FUCKING DRAMA QUEEN SELF-CENTERED FUCKER! NOBODY GIVES A SHIT ABOUT ANYTHING YOU DO! I CERTAINLY DON'T. I JUST CAN'T STOP STALKING YOU!!"

    ReplyDelete