I rarely blog about my personal cases for obvious reasons, but I feel comfortable writing about a client of mine (I will call him Mr. B) because he assured me that it was alright to do so.
Mr. B wants attention brought to his situation because he feels that a great injustice was done to him.
Here is his story:
Mr. B owns a small bordega in a very rough part of Philly.
On the evening of May 30th he was in his store tending to his day to day business when a gentleman came in and started harassing him over a transaction that was made in the store.
Mr. B alleges that the man gave him a five dollar bill and insisted that it was a twenty, and he wanted more change than Mr. B was willing to give him after he made his purchase.
The man became loud and abusive and started threatening Mr. B and his young daughter who was in the store at the time.
Mr. B called the police and they arrived on the scene in three marked cars. After much discussion, and evidence gathering, the police decided that the man should go on his way and there was not enough evidence presented to take any further action.
But then it got interesting. A police supervisor (we call them white shirts here in Philly) came on the scene and asked Mr. B if he had a gun. Mr. B said that he did and had a permit to carry it in his store as he carries large amounts of money from time to time, and his store is in a rough area of town.
Mr. B gave the officer his gun and his permit, and he was held and questioned for over two hours while officers prevented anyone from coming into the store.
The officer left with his firearm and permit, and did not write an incident report or give him a receipt for his permit.
This is when Mr. B contacted your truly, as he is now worried about everything that transpired that evening.
Anyway, I am doing what lawyers do, and hopefully Mr. B will have his firearm back real soon.
The thing is, though, I am thinking of contacting the NRA. I am thinking that this is the type of individual that they should be fighting for.
I have been all over them in the past, but I am going to give it a shot and give them a call on behalf of my client, Mr. B.
I will keep you posted.
I thought about folks like Mr. B when I read the article that I am about to drop on you.
Folks like Mr. B never seem to get the type of justice and proper policing that they deserve.
And yes, here it comes:
Do you think that if Mr. B was in another part of town and looked a little different than he does, that the police superintendent would have reacted in this way when called to his store?
I know; neither do I.
So on to the article.
"On the morning of March 11, 2008, shortly after the bus picked up his twin brothers for preschool, Emill Smith stopped by the house of his mother, Valerie Maxwell, in Chester, Pennsylvania. At 22, he was stocky and athletic, with dark eyes, faint facial hair, and a cursive tattoo on his right hand: "R.I.P. James," in memory of his father, who died in his sleep when Emill was 12. They talked for a while, and he asked if he could pick the twins up from school that afternoon so they could spend time together.
That afternoon, Emill took the four-year-olds to McDonald's and his place before dropping them off at Valerie's: "They almost set the apartment on fire," he joked. "Here, you can have them." As he walked out, he stopped.
"Mom."
"Yes?"
"I love you."
"I love you more."
At 7:15 p.m. that night, Valerie dialed Emill's number to make sure he was home in time for his 7:30 curfew, part of his probation for disorderly conduct in a domestic dispute. No answer. A few minutes later, one of Emill's friends rushed in and collapsed.
Emill had been to a neighborhood bar, where a security camera recorded him dancing, hanging out by the pool table, and kissing an old friend on the forehead before leaving. As he got into his car, someone walked up and shot him several times. No one was ever arrested in connection with the crime, and odds are no one will be. That's because, while Chester has one of the nation's highest homicide rates, it has a far lower than average "clearance rate." Not even one-third of last year's 30 homicides have been solved, a rate less than half the national average. Since 2005, 144 killings have gone unsolved.
For generations, black frustration with policing has been best described in a two-part statement: Cops don't care enough to solve crimes in our neighborhoods—they just come and harass our kids. Novelist Walter Mosley even built a best-selling detective series around a tough private investigator who does all the serving and protecting that cops won't do on the black side of town.
The bitter irony is that it was this same complaint that helped spawn the aggressive policing tactics now under attack from Ferguson to New York City. In the 1980s, when crack and heroin syndicates swept through black neighborhoods, black parents and pastors were some of the first and loudest voices to demand a war on drugs. What they got was "broken windows" policing—an emphasis on curbing petty offenses to prevent more serious crime.
What they also got were mandatory minimum sentences for shoplifters, indiscriminate stop-and-frisk sweeps, and deadly choke holds on men selling loose cigarettes. There's little evidence that these tactics contributed much to the national decline in crime. But they did erode trust in law enforcement across many communities—leaving places like Chester increasingly bereft of the protection they badly need. With residents both fearful of police and worried about being targeted for talking to them, detectives can't find the witnesses they need to solve crimes, breeding further distrust and a vicious cycle of frustration. A 2014 New York Daily News investigation found that in 2013, police solved about 86 percent of homicides in which the victim was white. For black victims, the number was just 45 percent. And in high-minority communities like Chester, says David Kennedy, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, clearance rates for murder—and even more so for nonfatal shootings—can get "pathetically low. They can easily fall down to single digits."
Founded as the settlement of Upland in 1644, Chester once thrived on industry—its shipyard supplied Union soldiers, its steel mills sustained residents through both world wars, and factories, including a Ford plant, offered good jobs for black and white residents through the 1950s. Residents flocked to movie theaters and nightclubs, and legends like Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played streetball at "The Cage."
But in the 1960s and '70s, companies left Chester for other parts of the county, and the city starved for jobs and tax revenue. Toxic-waste processing plants were among the few businesses moving in as middle-class families headed to the suburbs, leaving the city with nearly half its postwar population. And in the '80s, Chester, like nearby Philadelphia, became a hotbed for organized crime and drug trafficking.
Today, smoke still drifts from the stacks of the Kimberly-Clark plant on the Delaware River, where workers make Scott tissue and paper towels. Up the hill are clusters of well-kept redbrick houses around Crozer Medical Center, the city's largest employer. Across Chester Creek are boarded-up homes and the city's Ruth L. Bennett and William Penn housing projects. Some 75 percent of Chester's residents are African American, a third live below the federal poverty line, and unemployment is at 7.5 percent, nearly 2 points higher than the national average. In 2013, the homicide rate here was more than four times that of Philadelphia and Chicago. And in a city of a little more than 34,000, each death sends ripples throughout the community.
There are at least 120 churches in Chester, including the Temple of Brotherly Love, presided over by the Reverend Calvin Williams. Williams lost a son and a nephew to gun violence, and over the last decade, he and his wife, Patricia, have been visiting crime scenes as often as possible, offering prayer and reflection behind the yellow caution tape. "When brothers and sisters can't get jobs, or this little guy is trying to take care of his mother, he's going to find a way," Williams says. "So it becomes territorial. He's trying to make a living, so he's going to do whatever's he's gotta do."
When Williams heard that Emill Smith, whom he knew from volunteering at Chester High School, had been killed, he headed to his mother's house immediately. When she opened the door, Williams held her tight and said nothing. "He let me cry," Valerie says. "Calvin knew, he just knew how I felt about my children. My children mean everything to me."
Just five months after Valerie buried Emill, police found her aunt Sherrice Alexander-Hill's son Karim Alexander dead in the street behind her home—the first of what would be six homicides that week. Some of the killings seemed to involve retaliatory violence between warring neighborhood crews, according to local news reports. But that's conjecture, because cops haven't solved Karim's murder either.
What determines the likelihood of a murder case being solved? One factor appears to be police response in the hours and days after a killing: According to a study published in the National Institute of Justice Journal, the faster officers secure the scene, notify homicide detectives, and ID witnesses, the more likely it is the killer will be brought to justice.
But that can be hard in a place like Chester, says Cory Long, a community leader who worked on the city's anti-violence task force, because the relationship between police and community is so strained that residents are often reluctant to come forward. Witnesses not only fear police won't protect them from retaliation, they simply don't believe law enforcement will help them find justice.
"Some of these issues have been going on with the same neighborhoods," Long says. "You know, generations under them. One guy gets locked up. His younger brother or cousin or relative will take [the retaliation] on, as they get a little older. It just keeps recycling and recycling." There was a time when homicides mostly resulted from turf wars between neighborhoods, but now, he says, "it has spiraled a little more out of control. It's a free-for-all."
Homicide, at its core, is an intimate crime. In any given city, criminologist Kennedy points out, gun violence is concentrated among a small number of residents in struggling neighborhoods. When someone gets shot, the news travels quickly. "People know what happened," Kennedy explains. "So if the criminal-justice system isn't taking care of this, the likelihood that you'll get your friends and a gun and take care of this goes up." [More here]
Yes, my frustration with how the police do their work continues, and the situation in places like Chester, Pennsylvania justify my frustrations.
Poor policing and the lack of police involvement will always lead to a breakdown of police and community relationships.
Just ask Mr. B.
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
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32 comments:
Retarded comments beginning in 1...2...3...
Gee Field, black people won't cooperate with police, riot when they do their job, and then complain that they don't solve every crime in
the hood.
Are black people completely unable to think logically?
@9:15 Retarded comments started with yours, yak face!
NO 10:07, JUST YOU!!
Great work Field!!
"Poor policing and the lack of police involvement will always lead to a breakdown of police and community relationships."
Cui bono! The politicians, the police who don't earn their salaries, ie steal from the public and the criminals who terrorize the citizenry.
And of course the news media that feeds the frenzy with speculation, innuendo and misinformation.
I don't know anyone who riots when the police do their jobs. Just a guess, many of the white racist posters don't know any blah people and rely on cheap stereotypes.
Good call on the NRA getting involved. They may have one hundred protesters outside of that police station tomorrow. They hate government confiscation of firearms. This will be interesting.
Brother Field and FN fans, this racism on FOX NEWS has gone too far tonight. Bill O'Reilly went after my minister, Creflo Dollar over an airplane! Can you believe it? When FOX starts going after black ministers who are men of God, it's time to take a stand.
Brothers and Sisters, I am asking for your support in this very important matter that is racially motivated.
I am so sick of these white folks meddling in our affairs. Who do they think they are?
Brother Field, can I get a post about this?
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/index.html#/v/4289157939001
"Do you think that if Mr. B was in another part of town and looked a little different than he does, that the police superintendent would have reacted in this way when called to his store?"
Honestly, it feels like something is missing from this story. Even if the cops were racist, your client's being black would not adequately explain their behavior. They must suspect your client of having done something wrong, or else I doubt they would have wanted his gun.
Did your Mr. B take out his gun or talk about using it during this argument with his customer? If not, there is still something strange going on here. In any event, he was right to contact an attorney. He may need one.
If I were Mr. B, I would be less concerned with the speedy return of my gun and more concerned with why the cops are looking at me, or at least my gun, in connection to a crime.
"I don't know anyone who riots when the police do their jobs. Just a guess, many of the white racist posters don't know any blah people and rely on cheap stereotypes."
By "doing their jobs," he means "beating/killing black people who are impolite to the cops." This is his idea of proper police work.
Hope you caught FLOTUS' graduation speech at King High. Great words that many need to hear. That was just up the street from my house. Gotta love Michelle.
In a meeting between Colonel Sanders and his joint staff at 0630 hours on 10.6.2015, a comprehensive Five Point Plan, hidden in his cane, was reviewed and implemented. The strategic purpose of this plan is to bring back black customers from Popeye's Chicken. First, watermelon will now be added to the menu. Second, grape soda will replace Coca Cola. Third, each customer will earn points per visit towards the purchase of a framed 48x36 velvet picture of a tiger. Fourth, restrooms may now be used for drug sales and/or sex. Fifth, white police officers will be banned from all KFC corporate properties.
Acrually @12:44,the gentleman in this anecdote is Hispanic. And did u read the part about the police investigating before the white shirt came on the scene and finding that there was no crime committed?
"Do you think that if Mr. B was in another part of town and looked a little different than he does, that the police superintendent would have reacted in this way when called to his store?"
Law abiding White and Hispanic gun owners are more often than not to have their guns taken and be detained by the police. Especially in blue states and cities. If you spent more time understanding what the NRA does and less time watching MSDNC and reading Liberal blogs, you would know this.
A better question to ponder is if Mr. B was in a red state or city would this have happen? The answer would be no.
" Cops don't care enough to solve crimes in our neighborhoods—they just come and harass our kids"
Black "kids" are the ones doing the most crimes in black neighborhoods.So when black kids are harassed, i.e. arrested for their criminal acts, the police are solving crimes.
"What they got was "broken windows" policing—an emphasis on curbing petty offenses to prevent more serious crime"
The broken windows theory reduced crime and has resulted in the lowest crime rates in decades. History proved social scientists and liberals wrong.
"Poor policing and the lack of police involvement will always lead to a breakdown of police and community relationships.'
Police are doing the best they can given the difficulties in policing major black areas. It's hard policing and building relationships with people who feel privileged. People who feel like they don't have to abide by laws and have no respect for their fellow humans.
Relationships between cops and blacks will only get better when society starts holding blacks accountable for their actions. Ending black privilege and teaching blacks there are consequences for their actions will go along way to making America a more perfect union.
"Acrually @12:44,the gentleman in this anecdote is Hispanic. And did u read the part about the police investigating before the white shirt came on the scene and finding that there was no crime committed?"
You implied that his ethnic background was the cause of the cops' behavior and black people are your usual concern, so naturally I assumed your client was black.
And I didn't miss the part where the cops decided no crime was committed in the altercation between your client and his customer. What I'm implying is that perhaps the cops suspect your customer of some completely different, unrelated crime. Or they are just taking every available opportunity to snatch up every gun in the neighborhood and run the ballistics against some other crime they are working on. (Which sounds like an illegal practice to me.)
All I'm saying is, there's something fishy going on here.
"blah people".................can anyone tell me what/who 'blah people' are? Some terms used on this blog I am not familiar with.
The irony of all the outrage coming from the left(especially you, field) over what Jerry Seinfeld said is proving Seinfeld right.
Of course the left is too outraged to notice.
About Mr. B. How you like your big liberal government now, field?
RIP Saxophonist extraordinaire Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930-June 11, 2015)
The FieldNegro said...
The thing is, though, I am thinking of contacting the NRA.
The NRA has been whining bout the Obama government seizing guns without cause for a while. I'm surprised you are taking the extreme right-wing side that he should have been able to keep his gun.
carries large amounts of money
Civil Asset Forfeiture
He's lucky the Obama government hasn't also seized his $ yet.
field negro said...
Acrually @12:44,the gentleman in this anecdote is Hispanic.
I remember the old days when it was cool for dumbocrats to call them "white hispanics."
When did the dumbocrat talking points change?
BREAKING NEWS
LOUISVILLE, KY Per Colonel Sander's order, the Original Recipe, under international moratorium since 1987, was unilaterally reintroduce at 05:00 this morning resulting in the deaths of 288 chickens. The head cook re-oiled his deep-fryer and lowered the first chicken parts into the vat at 06:00. It was the first major operation conducted by Colonel Sanders since his death in 1980. The KFC Federation, operating within the jurisdiction and approval of the FDA, has now expanded the operation to all locations, beginning with those closest proximity to Popeye's Chicken. The death toll of chickens is expected to go even higher.
A spokesman for Popeye's Chicken said "We will stand our ground against this original recipe. Our restaurants are fully stocked and we are fully prepared to respond disproportionally by introducing a new secret sauce if necessary. This option is certainly on the table."
In response to this secret sauce threat, Colonel Sanders, Supreme Commander of the KFC Federation, designated Joint Task Force, code name Cluck, Cluck Cluck and which is comprised of multiple culinary research special forces units to stand on high alert. Fast-food fighting continues and both parties have completely broken of diplomatic relations.
"About Mr. B. How you like your big liberal government now, field?"
There are literally no liberals demanding the government seize people's rightfully licensed guns via extralegal procedures. None. This is a conservative fantasy.
If, someday, hypothetically, certain guns are banned, it will happen through an above-board law change, not rogue cops taking it on their own initiative to snatch people's property without any warrants. (And even the most hardcore gun control advocates don't want to ban ALL guns, just certain types of guns and certain types of owners.)
As for all that civil asset forfeiture garbage, that makes liberals furious. But you can thank conservatives for the Drug War that allowed all that property-snatching. The Drug War (and all the rest of that "tough on crime" shit) is their baby, not liberals'. When it comes to law enforcement, the Republican Party is the party of Big Government.
Don't like it? Complain to the ghosts of Nixon and Reagan.
I find this news about the Colonel disturbing. He seemed like a nice man.
Stop accepting the white man's handouts then.
Aahahahaaa! Check this out everybody! You're gonna love it!!! LOLOL!
http://www.theroot.com/blogs/the_grapevine/2015/06/twitter_hilariously_drags_the_man_who_called_911_on_the_pool_party_teens.html
and this little tidbit of info!
http://www.alternet.org/media/sean-toon-who-called-cops-mckinney-pool-party-teens-murdered-animals-his-own-youth?=fb
He wasn't the animal whisperer, he was the animal torturer! Ahahaha! What a piece of work!
Lilac said, "He wasn't the animal whisperer, he was the animal torturer! Ahahaha! What a piece of work"!
Thanks for the link, Desert. While I feel elated that the social media is slamming this fat racist creep. I hope it continues. I am sure he is surprised and in a lot of pain. And it's in Texas, of all places.
Have you found anything about the racist ww who slapped the black teenager? That's the racist "b" I'd like to see thoroughly humiliated and charged with child abuse.
She's all over the internet too! Was put on leave from her job at a bank I think. But I'm also wondering why she hasn't been officially charged as there are many witnesses that say she slapped one of the young girls, which is what began the initial fight. She def should, and I'm sure will be charged.Because that's assaulting a minor.
These people instead of welcoming these teens who were all spiffy and brand new. The bathing suits,t shirt's sneaks,socks, hair, they were all done up for that pool party, just as our family outfitted the grandkids for their pool party! And these people, instead of welcoming the opportunity to love these children and welcome them to the fold, setting a good and loving example, look what they do!!! They, a grown woman drunkenly starts a fight with a child! ! Shame! Shame! Shame!
Anon@1:59, Jerry Seinfeld must be writing your jokes.
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