How Police Mishandled Black Lives Matter Protests

[DonViejo]

March 21, 2021 at 11:42 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

New York Times: “Months after the demonstrations that followed the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police in May, the full scope of the country’s policing response is becoming clearer. More than a dozen after-action evaluations have been completed, looking at how police departments responded to the demonstrations — some of them chaotic and violent, most peaceful — that broke out in hundreds of cities between late May and the end of August.

“In city after city, the reports are a damning indictment of police forces that were poorly trained, heavily militarized and stunningly unprepared for the possibility that large numbers of people would surge into the streets, moved by the graphic images of Mr. Floyd’s death under a police officer’s knee. The mistakes transcended geography, staffing levels and financial resources.”

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https://politicalwire.com/2021/03/21/how-police-mishandled-black-lives-matter-protests/

[bullimiami]

1. not "mishandled". handled as designed. abuse left leaning or minorities.

[caraher]

3. This!

NYT is sugarcoating with the headline

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. Features, not bugs. FTP.

[The Magistrate]

4. I Agree

Probably the best slogan to appear from people in the street was this: 'I don't see no riot here! Why you all in riot gear?'

Police response to peaceable crowds this summer was flat wrong, as it has been for a very long time. And that without even getting into police displays of open partisanship in favor of violent white nationalist gangs.

There is in fact hardly any role for police when a peaceable protest is in the streets. The sole one which occurs to me is the possibility the protesters might need protection from violent opponents. People have a perfect right to peaceably assemble and petition for redress of grievances. Police have not got the shadow of a right, nor of a duty, to attack and disperse such crowds, or arrest persons who are part of them.

The only time a large crowd can be considered to not be assembled peaceably in protest is when it assembles under arms. A large body of persons assembled under arms cannot, and ought not, be considered a peaceable assembly. It is instructive to note the different treatment such crowds received, for example at the Michigan state Capitol, compared to assemblies of peaceable protesters bearing nothing more lethal than cardboard signs.

The explanation is not just in the affinity many in police forces have for the sort of 'militia' gangs who make up such crowds, or even their racial identity. Police today are at bottom cowards, and trained to be cowards --- to enter every interaction with citizens haunted by the fear he or she might be surprised by the citizen's sudden resort to lethal violence. Dispersing a crowd under arms is dangerous, attacking a crowd of peaceable persons is perfectly safe. If there is one thing a coward craves, it is an opportunity to be violent safely, and there is nothing more vicious than a coward who has found such an opportunity.

[Nevilledog]

6. [phone]

[maxsolomon]

5. That response is ongoing in Seattle.

I was in the CHAZ/CHOP yesterday. The 12th Precinct is still surrounded by Ecology Blocks stacked 3 high with a 6' chain link fence on top. The sidewalks and the parking lanes are blocked on 2 streets. The crosswalks are closed.

[stillcool]

7. takes my breath away...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/live-blog/2021-01-06-congress-electoral-vote-count-n1253179/ncrd1253295#blogHeader
The U.S. Capitol Police Department made 14 arrests related to the breach at the Capitol on Wednesday.
Most of those arrested were charged with unlawful entry, but there were also people arrested for weapons possession and assaulting an officer.
The department released the names and hometowns of the people arrested. None of them are Washington residents.

City Bar Calls for 'Prompt Investigation' of Decision to Clear Protesters From Lafayette Park | New York Law Journal
Creator: Alex Brandon Credit: AP

Indiana journalist loses eye to tear gas canister during demonstrations against George Floyd's death
Similar injuries have occurred across the country
https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/500467-texas-journalist-loses-eye-to-tear-gas-canister-during
By Anagha Srikanth
Police threw tear gas canisters into crowds of protesters demonstrating against police violence in cities across the country this weekend. Outside the Allen County Courthouse in Fort Wayne, Ind., one of those canisters hit 21-year-old Balin Brake, a weekend editor at a local television station.

Brake was taken to the hospital with a ruptured eye and fractured occipital bone, according to a post tied to a Facebook fundraiser set up by his mother, Rachel Simonis. In a selfie taken after surgery, Brake revealed that he had lost his eye. By Monday, the fundraiser had exceeded the initial goal of $40,000 set to cover his medical bills.

A majority of Americans believe their country is going in the wrong direction. Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

Journalists blinded, injured, arrested covering George Floyd protests nationwide
Lorenzo Reyes
USA TODAY============
“Targeted attacks on journalists, media crews and news organizations covering the demonstrations show a complete disregard for their critical role in documenting issues of public interest and are an unacceptable attempt to intimidate them,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, program director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Authorities in cities across the U.S. need to instruct police not to target journalists and ensure they can report safely on the protests without fear of injury or retaliation.”

The CPJ said it is investigating reports of attacks and arrests in Louisville, Kentucky, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

U.S. police have arrested or attacked journalists more than 110 times since May 28, according to the Nieman Foundation for Journalism.

On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed a lawsuit on behalf of a freelance journalist that alleges a pattern of attacks on journalists carried out by the Minneapolis Police Department and the Minnesota State Patrol "tramples on the Constitution."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/31/journalists-blinded-injured-arrested-covering-george-floyd-protests/5299374002/

Denver police shoot a projectile at a man as he retreats during a protest outside the State Capitol over the death of George Floyd, Saturday, May 30, 2020, in Denver.
DAVID ZALUBOWSKI, A

“Directly at us”: Louisville law enforcement shoots reporters with pepper bullets
Arrests, shootings, and harassment of journalists are features of the George Floyd protests.

By Alex [e-mail]@vox.com May 30, 2020, 2:10pm EDT
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/30/21275594/george-floyd-protest-louisville-reporter-shot
On Friday night, video footage captured a law enforcement officer shooting journalists covering the George Floyd and Breonna Taylor protests in Louisville, Kentucky, with what appear to be pepper balls — continuing a disturbing trend of unwarranted assaults on press covering the uprisings.

WAVE 3’s Kaitlin Rust was live on television that night reporting on the unrest in the city, part of a nationwide movement in the wake of Floyd’s death.

As Rust covered the standoff between protesters and police, she screamed and then yelled she was “getting shot.” The camera operator then turned to show the officer shooting right at the reporting crew. They were aiming “at us, like directly at us,” Rust told the station’s anchors.

The unidentified officer shooting the pepper-ball launcher gave no reason why he shot at Rust and her camera crew.

Fractured skulls, lost eyes: Police break their own rules when shooting protesters with ‘rubber bullets’
Liz Szabo, Jay Hancock, Kevin McCoy, Donovan Slack and Dennis Wagner, USA TODAY and Kaiser Health News
Published 5:00 AM EDT Jun. 19, 2020 Updated 9:00 PM EDT Sep. 11, 2020
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2020/06/19/police-break-rules-shooting-protesters-rubber-bullets-less-lethal-projectiles/3211421001/

Photos and videos posted on social media show protesters with large bruises or deep gashes on the throat, hands, arms, legs, chest, rib cage and stomach, all caused by what law enforcement calls “kinetic impact projectiles” and bystanders call “rubber bullets.”

At least 20 people have suffered severe eye injuries, including seven people who lost an eye, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
Photographer Linda Tirado, 37, lost an eye after being hit by a foam projectile in Minneapolis. Brandon Saenz, 26, lost an eye and several teeth after being hit with a “sponge round” in Dallas. Leslie Furcron, 59, was placed in a medically induced coma after she was shot between the eyes with a “bean bag” round in La Mesa, California.

Twenty-seven-year-old Derrick Sanderlin helped defuse a confrontation at a protest in San Jose, California, on May 29. While he was trying to protect a young woman from police, he was hit with a projectile that ruptured a testicle and his doctor said may leave him infertile.
=======================
C.J. Montano, 24, has a bruise on his forehead in the shape of a circle – visible evidence of the projectile that caused bleeding inside his brain

“They shot me directly in the face,” said Montano, a former Marine who was hospitalized in the intensive care unit after attending a protest May 30 in Los Angeles. “It was definitely intentional.”.

An Austin police officer aims a weapon with rubber bullets into a crowd of protesters calling for justice over the death of George Floyd in Austin on Sunday, May 31, 2020.
LOLA GOMEZ, AP

[uponit7771]

8. Come on white America, we can't fix a problem if we don't acknowledge its there. The Police didn't

... "mishandle" BLM they openly beat on anyone who was ally.

Damn