This has just got to Stop
US Army officer brutalized by police in Virginia. This has just got to stop.
April 10, 2021 By: El Jefe Category: Police Brutality
US Army officer brutalized by police in Virginia. This has just got to stop.
Welcome to The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc.
My name is Susan DuQuesnay Bankston. I live in Richmond, Texas, in the heart of Tom DeLay's old district. It's nuttier than squirrel poop here.
I am honored and privileged to know Miss Juanita Jean Herownself, hairdresser extraordinary and political maven. Since she does not have time to fiddle with this internet stuff, I type her website for her and you can read it if you want to. If you don't, she truly does not give a big bear's butt.
A lot of what I post here has to do with local politics, but you probably have the same folks in your local government.
This ain't a blog. Blogs are way too trendy for me. This is a professional political organization.
As both a veteran and a citizen I am appalled by this. I would hope (but cannot trust) that the Army itself will speak out against the police and support the officer. It’s deplorable, it’s digusting, it’s despicable behavior by men who clear delight in abusing their power–and probably with many more than him. Yes, it was a racist attack. But from the looks on their faces, they’ve done the same not just to Black men, but to women, to teenagers, to anyone they can vent their resentment and anger about anything onto.
Saying “it just has to stop” won’t stop it. They don’t care what people in Texas think, even if all people in Texas thought like we do, which (we know) they don’t. It’ll take good lawyers and good judges, over time, and unfortunately lots of money to win cases against those who abuse their power. It will take *reducing* their power, which they’ll scream bloody murder about (and maybe commit a few.)
1Was this yet another case where ‘qualified immunity’ protects officers from the financial repercussions of lawsuits filed due to their actions?
What argues against elimination of qualified immunity? Difficulty of retaining and/or recruiting officers?
2Yeah, that needs to stop. Unfortunately, parts of Virginia are every bit as full of redneck bigots as any other place in the South–and elsewhere. Police officers need to be fired and arrested. The Army needs to come to the defense of their officer, loudly. So does the ACLU. I hope the cops who decided to take out their frustrations on a non-white 2nd Lieutenant of the US Army get the book thrown at them–hard.
3The police officer said the driver was eluding him. I’d be curious what speed we’re talking about. If it wasn’t over the posted speed limit, or he wasn’t driving dangerously or erratically, then it’s more a case of a pissed off cop overreacting because the driver didn’t immediately comply.
Police officers with hair trigger anger management issues should be identified at the academy, and never offered a job with a gun.
4Long ago — during the 1990’s I think — Mother Jones Magazine ran an article that reported that white supremacists had begun a recruitment program urging their members to join the military and police departments across the country.
The rise in hate crimes among the police AND among the military are not an aberration. They are deliberate and planned.
How we get it to stop, I don’t know. The hate groups obviously stole a march on the rest of us over a generation ago and, by now, they are among the upper echelons of police departments across the country.
In other “law enforcement” too, I imagine. Remember all those judges who let people who rioted on Jan 6 out of jail on their own recognizance? And to go out of the country on vacation, for God’s sake?
This runs wide and deep.
5Take race out of it for a moment.
The officer at the time and subsequently said he would treat ‘other veterans’ specially. That’s wrong.
He pulled his gun over an offense of failure to display a license. That should be a firing offense, tout court.
Even without the guns, the behavior of the officers was abusive, disrespectful and stupid. Not what you want your town to be known for.
And speaking of the town, I worked on the Norfolk newspaper for 11 years and I never heard of the place. When I was there, its population was under 600 and today it’s 2,600, with a big jump in the ’90s.
That tells me it’s a bedroom community for people fleeing the darkness of Portsmouth for the whiter shades of Isle of Wight County, racially one of the most backward parts of the state.
The police force has 6 officers; neither of the 2 who assaulted the driver worked there 2 years ago.
6Used to drive through there many years ago. It a no-stoplight-town then and, apparently, still is. Just a wide spot in the road as you go west on US 58 from Norfolk. Redneck country then and apparently redneck country still.
7Both of those cops are still on the job. That should give one pause.
8Bob Boland’s description explains why Lt. Nazario didn’t stop at once but drove on to a gas station — it was well-lit. This they chose to call “eluding.” He also had the presence of mind to put his phone on the dashboard and record this “encounter.” Of course, video evidence didn’t save George Floyd.
For a historical perspective I recommend this:
https://www.wonkette.com/virginia-cops-not-even-sure-black-army-lives-matter
9You don’t have to wait for the most egregious examples of police psychopathy make it to the media. On YouTube and other social media sites are hundreds of videos made by Civil Rights ans Frist Amendment “Auditors” who walk around with cell phones on sticks and video record buildings from public spaces, drawing attention to the legality of such behavior.
Although they explain the legality of what they’re doing to whichever security guards or building managers come out to shoo them away, most of the time the police are called to make the auditors go away, typically through intimidation and actual arrest.
Many lawsuits have been filed, and won, the largest I know of being $900,000, usually for battery and false arrest. I recommend watching twenty or so of them. Delaware Defender is a good start. They cross-link each other. “Auditing the Auditor” gives full legal details including case law. He’s neutral, just the law.
These people are walking the walk. Some are jerks, but they’re amateurs doing Good Trouble. One of their moves is to identify officers by name and badge number, and then post the phone # of their department, with the admonition, firmly tongue-in-cheek to NOT call this number and report the misbehavior.
Some of these are live-streamed, and have hundreds of live viewers in real time. Some auditors have over 50 million views, and more than a hundred thousand subscribers, and monetized by views and subscribers by Google, they travel ALL over the USA and even the UK!
Sometimes the Internet works FOR us! Grab your camera and pester bad cops! Learn your laws, there aren’t that many.
10BarbinDC and others: NYT reporting today that Off. Gutierrez, the guy with the quick finger on the pepper spray, has now been fired. Well that was timely…
11Buttermilk Sky @ 9
That is where I find the story unclear to the point of incredibility. Windsor is only 600 acres. You can drive all the way across it in 2 minutes at 30 miles an hour.
From any point within it to any other point in 1 minute.
So where was this cop at the start? In the town?
I can say with confidence that I know what the cop was thinking. There are only about 200 black residents in Windsor, so maybe two dozen young black men.
The cops know them by sight and vehicle.
Officer Unfriendly sees a black guy in a new SUV and reasons thus: outsider, stolen car, carjacker or drug dealer, danger, chance to make my first big bust. (Windsor has an arrestable offense only every other day, mostly domestic assaults. The police annual reports are revealing.)
12I hope the good townsfolk of Windsor will be equally delighted by the large cash settlement that will undoubtedly be coming Lt. Nazario’s way.
13Today: ‘Oh shit! I shot him!’
It goes on and on and on…
‘Accidental discharge’: Minnesota police chief offers defense of cop who killed Daunte Wright as department releases Warning: Graphic bodycam footage!
https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/daunte-wright/
https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/daunte-wright/
14Ya, accidental discharge. Mistook a gun for a taser, but don’t hold it against him. And Chauvin mistook George Floyd’s neck for his arm. And the cop in Windsor didn’t know a new car dealer sticker is legal, therefore it’s ok to pull a gun and pepper spray a black guy that basically has his hands up. When will enough be enough. Put the bastard cops in jail with the really bad guys so they can learn a few lessons.
15This incident in Virginia occurred last December. Only recently was a lawsuit filed, and then the governor stepped in to request an investigation.
Today the town decides the appropriate action is to fire the officers involved. After four months of Southern business as usual.
16