Doing "what is evil".

   I think that we can all agree that being a police officer can be a tough job. It's certainly not easy being on the front lines of protecting law abiding citizens against lawbreakers out there who prefer to break the law instead bringing themselves to abide by it.

Having said that, police departments around the country are going to have to do a better job of getting rid of the bad apples among their ranks, like the police officer in the following story.

"Virginia police officials are investigating an incident captured on video that appears to show a black man complying with an officer's demands, yet the officer still uses a Taser on him. (Pictured above.)

The video, which was posted to Facebook, shows a Fairfax County officer, who was not identified, with his Taser out and aimed at the man. The officer tells the man to place his hands on the officer's car, which the man appears to do. The officer then fires his Taser, striking the man, who screams and falls to the ground.

The officer then begins yelling at the man to roll over. An onlooker yells to the cop, "What'd you do that for?"

'A gentleman just happened to be walking down the sidewalk, and the cop pulls up in front of him and tells him to turn over [sic]. And as soon as he has his back turned toward him, he Tasers him. He didn't see it coming," a witness told Fox 5. "He told him to turn around. He turned around, he complied. And boom, he popped out his Taser and he shot at him."' [Source]

These kinds of incidents are far too frequent in our society. And we all know that Usher could make a million videos about police brutality and it wouldn't change the real problem: The "color arousal syndrome" affecting many of the people who join police forces and end up becoming police officers.

With all due respect to Pastor Jay Dennis, police officers should not be worshiped, they should be praised when they do a good job, and held accountable when they act like the criminals who they are supposed to be protecting us from.

“Do you want to have no fear of authority?’” asked Dennis, reading from the modern language translation of the passage.” “`Do what is good and you will have praise from the same…. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing.’”

“When [the apostle] Paul speaks of `authorities,’ by application that includes law enforcement officers,” Dennis told the congregation. “So here is the idea: When you obey the law, you have nothing to worry about; however, if you do wrong, and if you break the law, you should be fearful. The sword here is the instrument of punishment, and today that would be their weapons. God has given to these officers great authority that must always be respected.”'

Whatever pastor. Besides, I think that you and some of your brethren take this punishment and authority thing a bit too far.

Finally, it would be nice to see someone in "authority" knocking at Dick Cheney's door to haul him off to jail.

This is just one of the reasons why.

"Yesterday, the former vice president of the United States and one of the architects of the American torture program explained why he was unconcerned about the torture of innocent prisoners.

CHUCK TODD: Let me go to Gul Rahman. He was chained to the wall of his cell, doused with water, froze to death in C.I.A. custody. And it turned out it was a case of mistaken identity. DICK CHENEY: --right. But the problem I had is with the folks that we did release that end up back on the battlefield. [...] I'm more concerned with bad guys who got out and released than I am with a few that, in fact, were innocent.
CHUCK TODD: 25% of the detainees though, 25% turned out to be innocent. They were released.
DICK CHENEY: Where are you going to draw the line, Chuck? How are-- [...]
CHUCK TODD: Is that too high? You're okay with that margin for error?
DICK CHENEY: I have no problem as long as we achieve our objective.

A reminder: some of the most egregious torture cases took place during preparations for the Iraq War." [Source]

Wow! He is all for torturing innocent people if it will "achieve our objective". 

It looks like Dick Cheney is helping to recruit some of our nation's police officers.

Dick Cheney is doing what is evil, but he is "not afraid".  



*Pic from nbcwashington.com

 

Tasered while praying.

I really wish I could get worked up over a latte salute like conservatives (I suppose a doggie salute would have been cool), or climate change and sustainable energy like my friends on the left, but as a black man in America I have more pressing things to worry about these days.


Not getting shot or tasered by the people who are supposed to protect and serve me is very high on my list as I write this post.


I mean even if you are a black man who serves the Lord you are going to have issues with the po po.

"A family told Channel 11 it is suing police after an alleged incident after their son was shot and died in the hospital.

The Rev. Earl Baldwin Jr. said when his stepson, Mileek Grissom, died in UPMC Mercy Hospital’s emergency room, police officers crossed the line.

“I needed to tell him his family was going to be OK.  I was going to do everything I could to make sure they were OK,” Baldwin said.

Video shows Baldwin being ripped away from Grissom by a group of police officers.  One officer used a Taser on Baldwin.

UPMC claims Baldwin was interfering with attempts to revive his stepson.

“Watch the video.  Not only was the child not being treated.  The child was dead,” said the Baldwin’s family attorney, Joel Sansone.

According to Sansone, police stopped Tori Baldwin in front of the hospital, refusing to let her see her son.

“I wanted to rub his head.  I wanted to kiss him.  I know he was calling for his mom,” said Tori Baldwin.

Pittsburgh police did not comment Thursday after Channel 11 talked to the family.  Police will be required to publicly respond to the lawsuit claims in a matter of days." [Source]

Now let's be clear, the Baldwin family might not have been acting according to the rules of the hospital while their son lay dead. But I think the police could have been a bit more sensitive in the situation.


Speaking of "people of faith", I am saddened to see that  my white evangelical brothers and sisters believe that they are being
discriminated against more than the Negroes, the Jews, and the evil Moooslims.

"The Pew Forum has released a doozy of a poll about religion in public life in the United States showing that white evangelical Christians possess grossly overdeveloped feelings of victimhood. Given that the voting bloc evangelicals comprise is one of the most heavily pandered to in American politics, and given the fact that evangelicals themselves are the cause of some very real discrimination, there is thus a mountainous irony at play here.


In a survey of 2,002 Americans, Pew found that 72% believe that religious influence is waning in the country, and sadly, 56% regard this as a “negative development.” A disturbing 59% of Americans say they want members of Congress to “have strong religious beliefs.” When it comes to discrimination, believe it or not, more Americans think that evangelicals are discriminated against than atheists. " [Source] 


I feel their pain. But somehow I don't think that they have to worry about being shot or tasered after they leave a prayer- meeting or choir practice.

 

"Post racial" blues.

More tales from "post-racial" America. These unbelievable stories come to us from the land of gumbo and brass bands.

The set up for the first story goes like this: An African American female contractor is down in Grand Isle, Louisiana, monitoring hurricane clean up and...well read it for yourself. (h/t Cedric for this story) 

"GRAND ISLE- A contractor from Plaquemine monitoring hurricane cleanup in Grand Isle was spit on and called the "N" word, and captured the entire assault on her cell phone.

"It was humiliating," Brandi Worley told News 2. "It was just so hurtful."
Worley said two of her other coworkers were also hit by the man, who was arrested after the incident. Grand Isle Police identified him as Josh Jambon, and said he was charged with battery.

As Worley began recording the racial slurs on her phone, Jambon noticed she was recording him with her phone. That's when the video shows him going into a rage.

"I'm pleading with him not to touch me and leave me alone," Worley said. "Nothing was said to him to upset him, then he goes and spits in my face. He did the cruelest thing he could think of to demean me, break me and make me feel less than human."

When News 2 reached Jambon by phone, he defended his character but acknowledged his arrest.

"I'm a really good guy," Jambon said. "I'm a really good businessman."
When asked if he used racial slurs and the "N" word, he said, "I'd like to talk to you in front of my attorney."

When asked who is attorney was, the line disconnected.
Attorney Cleo Fields in Baton Rouge watched the video News 2 obtained. He said it clearly shows a hate crime.

"There's no place in our society for that type of behavior," Fields said. "I think he acted totally inappropriate."

As Worley tried to forget about what happened, she said her family is helping her get through the bigotry she encountered in Grand Isle.
"I'm crying today because I'm upset," Brandi's mother, Susan Worley said. "I haven't slept all night and the fear is just in me."

Police Chief Euris Dubois said further charges against Jambon could be coming." [Source & Video]

Then there is the following story from the Big Easy. (h/t Nordette)

"The I-Team first reported on the existence of the video recordings late last year. At the time, they were under seal by order of a federal judge overseeing a wrongful death case filed by the family of Brian Harris.

 

That seal was lifted late Friday when Judge Sarah Vance dismissed the case, finding "the use of deadly force objectively reasonable" and citing legal precedent.

 

The attorney who filed the lawsuit said he would appeal that finding.

On April 10, 2010, Harris was fatally shot by NOPD officers in his bedroom in the 7700 block of Allison Road in New Orleans East.

 

Harris' wife had called police, saying her husband needed medical help and noting that she was concerned for his safety.

 

Harris locked himself in a bedroom and is seen in the video holding a pocket knife. NOPD officers fired a Taser to subdue Harris twice, then shot him as he lay in his bed.

 

Attorney Jason Williams, who represents Harris' family in a lawsuit against the city, said he has wanted the public to see the two videos from the incident, which "clearly shows what transpired."

 

One video from the Taser's camera was given to WDSU Friday afternoon." [Source & Video]

 

Poor Mr. Harris found out the hard way what living in "post racial" America can mean.

 

BTW, I don't even know if these rogue cops were black or white. It doesn't really matter. Self hate is just as a insidious and harmful as the hate brought on by others.

 

Finally, how can we teach our children  to cope and survive in "post racial" America when the very people charged with teaching them are a bunch of cheaters?

 

"ATLANTA -- Juwanna Guffie was sitting in her fifth-grade classroom taking a standardized test when, authorities say, the teacher came around offering information and asking the students to rewrite their answers. Juwanna rejected the help.

"I don't want your answers, I want to take my own test," Juwanna told her teacher, according to Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard.
On Friday, Juwanna – now 14 – watched as Fulton County prosecutors announced that a grand jury had indicted the Atlanta Public Schools' ex-superintendent and nearly three dozen other former administrators, teachers, principals and other educators of charges arising from a standardized test cheating scandal that rocked the system.

Former Superintendent Beverly Hall faces charges including conspiracy, making false statements and theft because prosecutors said some of the bonuses she received were tied to falsified scores. Hall retired just days before the findings of a state probe were released in mid-2011. A nationally known educator who was named Superintendent of the Year in 2009, Hall has long denied knowing about the cheating or ordering it.

During a news conference Friday, Howard highlighted the case of Juwanna and another student, saying they demonstrated "the plight of many children" in the Atlanta school system.

Their stories were among many that investigators heard in hundreds of interviews with school administrators, staff, parents and students during a 21-month-long investigation." [Source]

Good for Juwanna. At least we know that she will be able to deal with the Josh Jambons of the world.

*Pic from Bilgrimage blog.

Hey, that ain't Chase Utley.

Looks like philly sports made the national news again, for, as usual, all the wrong reasons. Here in town all the talk is about the young man who must have had one too many and decided that he wanted to live out his life long fantasy and play ball with the Phillies. Bad move. Philly's finest tasered his ass and now we are back in the news with another black eye. Here in Philly folks seems to be split down the middle: "Serves him right" some are saying. "He got just what he deserved." Some, on the other hand, are saying that the po po should have shown more restraint.

Of course this taser stuff is nothing new. Afrospear bloggers have been crying foul about the po po and their taser tactics for some time now. And, as is always the case, it takes some suburban kid getting his ass shocked by the po po for some people to get up in arms about the po po going high tech. For the record, I thought that the po po over- reacted, that kid did not present a threat to anybody. But maybe next time his ass will think twice before he starts pretending that the Phillies signed him to a major league contract.

And finally, at least that kid is still alive to consider his silly actions. Unfortunately for Howard Williams, he is not. An off duty Philadelphia police officer is facing murder charges for allegedly shooting the young man execution style after a domestic dispute.

"The fatal shooting of Howard Williams, 22, happened about 6:30 p.m. on a crowded South Philly block where at least 50 people were engaged in "an all-out water fight" with squirt guns, hoses and balloons, Shanae Williams said.

Gary, 26, and his girlfriend had driven to Hoffman Street near 19th to pick up the 8-year-old son he and Shanae Williams share custody of, she said.
Their car windows were down and Gary's girlfriend became enraged when Williams' niece sprayed her with water, Williams said.

An argument ensued between the women and then between Gary and Howard Williams, according to witnesses.

Gary then went to his car, grabbed a handgun and shot Howard Williams in the neck at point-blank range, Shanae Williams said.

Howard Williams' brother, Antwion "Demetrius" Strickland, 19, said he went to run to his fallen brother's side, but Gary stood over Williams' convulsing body and fired four more shots into his chest.

"When I seen the blood just squirting up in the air, I knew it was serious" Strickland said.
Shanae Williams said Gary then grabbed their son, threw him in the car, locked the doors and put a gun in her face before he sped away." [Article]

Oh well, one more to add to the murder count. Maybe Philly's finest should only be allowed to pack tasers while they are off duty as well.