From the “Awww, Poor Baby” Files:
Reacting to five members of the St. Louis Rams coming onto the field for Sunday’s game displaying the ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ gesture, a St. Louis police officers fraternal organization is demanding the team discipline the players, and that the team and league issue a formal apology, reports KSDK…
Responding to the display, the statement reads, “The St. Louis Police Officers Association is profoundly disappointed with the members of the St. Louis Rams football team who chose to ignore the mountains of evidence released from the St. Louis County Grand Jury this week and engage in a display that police officers around the nation found tasteless, offensive and inflammatory.”
You know what ELSE is “tasteless, offensive and inflammatory”? Subverting a grand jury process so a cop doesn’t have to face charges. Conducting a secret trial designed to exonerate said cop. Announcing grand jury results well after sundown and calling a state of emergency a week before the decision. Smearing the kid’s parents. Burning down the kid’s father’s church. These are all things that, in my opinion anyway, are a lot more “tasteless, offensive and inflammatory” than a few football players expressing their opinion.
Also, too, I find that the St. Louis policemen’s misunderstanding of how the First Amendment works to be “tasteless, offensive and inflammatory”:
[SLPOA Business Manager Jeff Roorda said] “I know that there are those that will say that these players are simply exercising their First Amendment rights. Well I’ve got news for people who think that way, cops have first amendment rights too, and we plan to exercise ours. I’d remind the NFL and their players that it is not the violent thugs burning down buildings that buy their advertiser’s products. It’s cops and the good people of St. Louis and other NFL towns that do. Somebody needs to throw a flag on this play. If it’s not the NFL and the Rams, then it’ll be cops and their supporters.”
Somebody call the waaaahmbulance, because I think Jeffy’s gonna make a poopoo in his diaper.
Yeah too bad they’re “profoundly disappointed” at a brief symbolic protest by a professional football team.
Proportionality?
Hey, if the neo-fascist cops don’t like the “hands up” gesture, perhaps a compromise could be reached.
Say, only ONE finger per hand.
And man, have they ever earned it.
Once I considered moving to St. Louis. No more.
PHUCK ‘EM
It’s the special cops-only part of their 2nd Amendment rights that’s the problem.
“A well regulated populace being necessary to the privileges of white males, the right of the police to shoot unarmed black men shall not be infringed.”
Interesting to me, well pitiful really, that they’re taking it as Wilson was exonerated by the grand jury.
Well he was. The Grand Jury said there was no credible evidence that a crime was committed. If the Grand Jury followed their oath, and I have no reason, at this time, to believe they didn’t, then they made their decision based solely on the evidence presented to them ignoring anything they may have heard outside the court. That’s the standard oath. The blame is on the prosecutor who violated his oath to fairly uphold the law and acted in the interest of the defendant and his own prejudice. I propose a corollary to “A prosecutor can get a Grand Jury to indict a ham sandwich”, namely “A prosecutor can get a Grand Jury to not indict Adolph Eichmann.”
This case as well as the case of Trayvon Martin shows that people should really place more attention to the kind of people they are electing as State’s Attorney and Attorney-General.
like your corollary
I guess what I’m saying is “no credible evidence” just means there’s no evidence, not that there was no crime
actually the credible evidence was drowned in the slop (witness #40 the person who can’t distinguish what she actually did and what she thinks she did because she read it on the internet)
No credible evidence because the prosecutor didn’t present it and because the prosecutor presented the incredible evidence of the contradictory Wilson testimony without question.
yes
Wasn’t the man that shot Trayvon Martin indicted and wasn’t a criminal trial held? Public outrage and/or protests probably facilitated the indictment of the cop that shot Oscar Grant and cops that beat up Rodney King, but the jury decisions in those cases were hardly more accepted than the GJ decision in Michael Brown’s case. Should plaintiffs we don’t like be denied effective counsel? A reason why so many minority men are convicted isn’t because the prosecutors are so damn good, but because their defense counsel is so damn bad.
IIRC, the prosecutor threw that trial (Trayvon Martin) also. And also, IIRC, wasn’t the Rodney King cop trial held in a suburb with a high percentage of cop[s and ex-cops?
When did we dispense with “a jury of one’s peers?”
Let’s get real. Between the strength of police unions and police being a part of the criminal justice system, there is a very high bar for indicting and convicting a police officer in any shooting. The Texas Observer has a good article on the killing of James Whitehead. White victim shot by an off duty, out of uniform Black cop. Whitehead’s family was very upset that the cop wasn’t indicted, but only fired. The family accepted an out of court settlement for $630,000. The cop appealed his dismissal and was awarded $600,000 to settle.
Just because someone disagrees with a DA’s decision not to indict or a jury’s decision not to convict doesn’t automatically indicate misconduct on the part of the prosecutor. I recall talking to a friend the evening OJ Simpson was being arrested for the murder of Nicole Simpson. Didn’t have much doubt as to his guilt then, later, or now. However, back then I pointed out that it would be a waste of money to try him because the very best the prosecutor could get out of an LA jury would be a mistrial. Okay, so I overestimated the skill of the prosecutor and the quality of the evidence collected and underestimated the skill of the defense team he could get. But he still walked; so, I got close enough to the final outcome that I paid no attention to the subsequent two year circus that seem to mesmerize much of the public.
We’re not going to resolve our national racism one incident and criminal trial at a time. Sweeping legal changes that result from the injustice in one criminal case, such as Gideon and Miranda, are extremely rare. And we can assume that none will occur with the Roberts court. Racism is embedded in who we are. Recommend reading Chris Mooney’s Mother Jones article (link is in my latest diary) for a fuller understanding of the challenge.
Jury of one’s peers. An English concept that commons should be tried by commons and aristocrats by aristocrats. We are supposedly all commoners here.
Your own example of the black cop and white victim shows the issue isn’t racism. It’s the “blue wall”.
Please don’t misunderstand what I wrote and my reference to the Whitehead killing. Black men are far more likely to be shot by cops than white men. And that’s not because whatever those Black victims did that led to an encounter with a LEO was different from what white men did. Racism is a factor in a significant portion of cop shootings.
Now, how do we tear down the “blue wall?”
No double jeopardy for a grand jury decision
No Statute of Limitation on Murder or Class A Felony charges
nobody said cops know the law.
Especially Roorda who as a cop falsified reports so obviously that he was fired.
Jeff Roord, Poster child for what is wrong in state Democratic politics, in Mo and elsewhere. He lost his recent election for state senator by 10 points-even with $267, 000 of MO Democratic Party money and friendship with Sen McCaskill.
Jeff Roorda, from Wiki is a special kind of guy. Fired for misstatements for starters then it just gets better.
Yeah, and another “Democrat.” Just like McCullogh and Nixon. And the DNC wonders why it has a turnout problem!!
I almost didn’t post the link because he was listed as a Dem but decided this asshat that wrote the letter needs Progressives to call him out. Of course, there seems to be a fair amount of Wingers who don’t realize he is a Dem so are agreeing with him.
This isn’t even worth a #FTP tag.
Just Diaper the Police, already.
I was about to say, at least they didn’t come out with NWA’s Fuck The Police playing.
Oh, by the way…fuck the police.
Its always depressing to see statements that illustrate that the police actually believe what they are saying.