I have posted a few articles about all of the police brutality we are reading about in the news. There are so many videos appearing and so many people watching these horrific videos over and over on TV and if they are anything like me when they see these videos it strikes a very personal nerve. This police brutality is not new…it is business as usual. The only thing different is the amount of smart phones and the public’s realization that social media is a powerful tool to get your voice heard.. “Drug war corruption and related violations of civil liberties are systematic – and will only be reduced by systematic reform.”DPA
Most people who are already “in the system” are acutely aware of how insane interactions with the police can be, but people that have not encountered the police often believe that we are Americans with rights. Inalienable rights! Anyone who is a victim of the drug war, minority, has an existing record understand that the police are frightening and do whatever they want to do —-regardless of your rights. They search without probable cause/ without warrants/ they obtain warrants illegally, they scare and intimidate whenever they can. The police are the worst organized criminal organization I have ever dealt with.
For years my mother believed in the system. She is a woman who is very educated, she works as an adjunct professor teaching history. My mother has never lived outside the law or even violated any laws…unless she has done it on accident (including speeding). I only know of one ticket my mother got and that was her failure to change lanes when an officer had someone pulled over on the shoulder of the road. This was a law that had just came to be and a Zero tolerance traffic trap was set up where many drivers were ticketed for this offense.
I have had more encounters with the police than I care to discuss ,but for years my mother handed me right over to the police if they came for me. She would NEVER dare lie to an officer. She would believe I must have somehow provoked the situation for me to end up in the trouble I would get in. She believed in America. She believed in the system, it had never failed or harmed her. It was not until a few years ago when I had the unfortunate experience of being targeted/stalked/ and harassed by a neighbor of my mother’s that things changed in her mind. It was at this time my mother begin to see just how insane, unfair and unprofessional the Greensboro police, probation officers, judges and others related to our legal system often behaved. It was at this time my mother changed in her behavior toward the police 100%. She began to warn me if she thought she saw police or anything suspicious. She had seen all she needed to see to believe in the systematic corruption …..and by the end of last year she became a victim of police corruption. A police search warrant was illegally obtained and used to raid her home. She lives in a beautiful neighborhood in a 40oK plus, beautiful home. The only thing she did wrong was let her daughter come to and stay at her house sometimes. My 70 plus year old mother with -ZERO criminal charges answered the door to police with battering rams and AR15s- -laser lights, dogs,, and the entire police force it seemed (20 plus police)- NO ONE WAS TAKEN TO JAIL THAT DAY! They stayed looked all over the house , handcuffed us all, took my minor daughter into a room away from us and lied to her and manipulated her into telling the officers about some of her behavior that could have had legal implications. It was awful for all of us and completely unnecessary as well as illegal.
POLICE BRUTALITY IS NOT a case of a few bad cops…..this is endemic, it is the norm not the exception. In all my interactions with the police my experiences mostly consist of illegal policing, violations of my rights, sexual misconduct, threats, violence, made up charges, charges for drugs that I did not have and told them I did not have. They have said to me on more than one occasion that some substance in my pocket book field tested positive for illegal drugs—–I know for a fact that this has been untrue. They have never let me see the tests and threatened that if I did not sign the paperwork that things would get much worse for me.
The police have been one group that I have lost all respect for. They should be feared they have too much unchecked authority. The DPA suggest the following:
While corruption and abuse are endemic to the drug war, there are a number of actions that policy-makers can do to reduce their occurrence and mitigate their harms, including: · Passing legislation preventing people from being convicted of drug offenses based solely on the word of an undercover officer, informant, or someone accusing others to get himself or herself a shorter sentence. No one should be incarcerated for a drug offense based solely on the word of another person, with no corroborating evidence. (The Texas legislature recently passed legislation, HB 2351, preventing a drug conviction based solely on the testimony of an informant). ·
Passing legislation mandating prosecutors to perform reliable tests of substances alleged to be illegal drugs before charging people with drug crimes. ·
Banning racial profiling and requiring law enforcement officers to document all traffic stops, searches, and arrests by race, ethnicity, age and gender. ·
Reforming civil asset forfeiture laws to prevent law-enforcement agencies from seizing and keeping property prior to filing of criminal charges or a conviction. Under current law in most jurisdictions, police can seize and keep property without even charging anyone with a crime. (Eight states have reformed their forfeiture laws since 1996, two by voter-initiative.) · Increasing federal funding for investigations into corruption and civil rights abuses by local and state law-enforcement
I THINK NWA MAY HAVE EXPERIENCED SOME POLICE BRUTALITY, POSSIBLY A FEW RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AND DEFINITELY EXCESSIVE FORCE ??? MAYBE THAT PLAYED A PART IN THE RECORDING AND RELEASING MUCH CONTROVERSIAL FUCK THA POLICE!
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