Holy Crap !!! - 'Oakland Police Face Federal Takeover Due To Excessive Force' - AP/NewsOne

[WillyT]

Oakland Police Face Federal Takeover Due To Excessive Force
Written by Associated Press/NewsOne
January 27, 2012 10:39 am

<snip>

SAN FRANCISCO — Mayor Jean Quan vowed Wednesday to quickly reform the scandal-plagued Oakland Police Department after a frustrated judge threatened a federal takeover if it fails to quickly make good on changes agreed to nine years ago. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson said he “remains in disbelief” that the department has failed to adopt the reforms. Henderson’s frustration with the pace of improvements was evident throughout a scathing five-page ruling issued Tuesday. “This department finds itself woefully behind its peers around the state and nation,” he wrote.

<And...>

Henderson said he will consider proceedings to appoint a federal receiver to run the department if the monitor submits a report this summer showing little improvement. The judge appointed a monitor in 2003 to ensure the city complied with terms of a $10.5 million settlement of a lawsuit filed by victims of a notorious group of police officers known as “The Riders.” The group was accused of beating and framing suspects in the West Oakland area for years. One officer was acquitted at trial and criminal charges against two former officers were dismissed after two trials ended in hung juries. A fourth former officer remains a fugitive who disappeared after charged were filed in 2000.

<And...>

“Defendants have achieved full compliance with just over half of those tasks and, worse yet, have fallen in and out of compliance on some tasks, thus indicating a lack of sustainability,” Henderson wrote. “The outstanding tasks are not minor formalities; instead, they are significant areas that go to the heart of any police department, including how internal affairs investigations are completed, how officers are supervised, and the use and reporting of force.” The judge was responding to a monitor’s report submitted earlier this month that included “serious concerns” about the department’s handling of the so-called Occupy Oakland protests. The monitor told the judge that officers’ actions during the Occupy protests put even the small improvements made by the department in jeopardy.

<And...>

The monitor said the department’s response to the Occupy protests will help determine whether police are making progress. The mayor and police chief announced in December they were hiring an independent investigator to evaluate claims police used excessive force and improper tactics responding to the protests, which included several uses of tear gas, rubber bullets and “flash-bang” grenades on protesters. One protester was hospitalized after being hit in the head with a flash grenade. At least one officer was demoted from lieutenant to sergeant for failing to report a subordinate blacking out his name tag.

<snip>

More: http://newsone.com/nation/associatedpress3/oakland-police-face-federal-takeover-due-to-excessive-force/

[dana_b]

1. as far as I'm concerned

yesterday should be that proverbial nail in the coffin.

[Starry Messenger]

2. k&r

I was living in Oakland when the Riders thing broke. I was shocked to realize how many years this has been allowed to linger on to fester.

[izquierdista]

3. Since Obama has taken over health care, he might as well take over local police too.

Wouldn't bother me to see federal agents reviewing dashboard cams, personnel files, and citizen complaints.

[Zalatix]

28. Obama has taken over health care? How?

My rates went up the same amount in 2010 and 2011 as they did years before Obama came along.

[izquierdista]

32. Have you been under a rock?

It's all they talk about on FOX news. You can't go to a Taco Bell, dentist's office, VA hospital, or any other place that has a waiting room without FOX telling you how Obamacare is going to take away your guns and make you have an abortion.

[Zalatix]

33. Yeah I've been living under a rock if listening to Fox Noise constitutes as not living under a rock.

I hear ya, they've been spouting these lies forever.

[greiner3]

36. "Since Obama has taken over health care, he might as well take over local police too."

You're kidding, right?

Am I to assume you are also in the frame of mind that Obama is also;

'The One'
A Kenyan
A Muslim
Owns GM, the banks and other institutions that came about during the crisis just prior and after his election
A Socialist
The devil
Plans to 'enslave' the populace

And a whole other host of Fox News talking points?

[BeHereNow]

4. Yes! They brought this on themselves.

My local police department has been under the investigation of the FBI for
corruption and abuse of power.
Some body has to police the police when they are OOC.
BHN

[jwirr]

5. Here is the answer to where Obama is while this is happening.

[cthulu2016]

10. No. Read the OP.

[jwirr]

16. It is the federal government that will take over.

[MNBrewer]

23. By order of a Federal Judge, not the POTUS.

[EFerrari]

6. This has been an ongoing threat and they did yesterday in spite of it.

Basically, they thumbed their noses at the Feds.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. K&R

Let's hope this will stick the fork in them.

[Sherman A1]

8. Just how much longer will the Judge wait?

The evidence appears to be pretty clear and is available online.

They need to bring in Federal Marshals & seize the OPD & it's equipment.

[Odin2005]

9. Holy Fuck!

[AnotherMcIntosh]

11. So the judge is going to wait until this Summer for a report?

[T S Justly]

12. Empty threat without the Marshalls. Emergency Order # what, Big O? K&R (nt)

[midnight]

13. K&R.

[Marnie]

14. Here's a scarey thought

What what they have done to the OWS people if they had not been under the Judge's orders?

[MineralMan]

15. And that's what the President can do.

Sounds like the Justice Department is on the job with the OPD. That's how it works, and the only legal way it can work.

[Capn Sunshine]

19. Yes, this is the President's response.

Just like the rest of the grownups in the Obama Administration who have mastered proceeding without hysteria, but rather , logic.

[CakeGrrl]

20. +1000

But no swooping theatrics. How boring.

[MNBrewer]

24. The Federal Judge is not part of the Obama Administration.

[MineralMan]

29. No, but the DOJ is, and they're the ones pushing this.

Do you suppose that this came from nowhere?

[A Simple Game]

30. According to the article this came from a monitor put in place by the judge in 2003.

I doubt the DOJ is involved, I saw no mention of marijuana in the article.

[MineralMan]

31. Judges do not initiate actions. Someone brought the case before that judge.

As for your marijuana jibe, federal courts deal with much more than marijuana. That was weak sauce.

[A Simple Game]

34. Yes someone did bring this before the judge in 2003.

As for the medical marijuana, that seems to be what is in the news and on DU lately.

[_ed_]

41. "Judges do not initiate actions"

How do explain injunctions and court orders?

[obamanut2012]

21. Exactly!

[MineralMan]

25. But, with my saying that, I am automatically branded as

being opposed to the whole Occupy movement, which I am not. The federal government is on this, and has been for some time. This oversight of the Oakland PD is not something new. What happened yesterday will hasten the federal takeover of that police department and changes will be made.

People who are calling for President Obama do "do something," but who have no idea what it is that he might do, don't understand exactly how limited the federal government is in dealing with issues that are the states' business. It takes a heckuva lot to bring the feds into such situations. This may well be enough.

[obamanut2012]

26. I actually didn't read it that way

And, I am extremely pro OWS.

[MineralMan]

27. Thanks.

I'm also pro OWS, since they are engaged in exactly what the 1st Amendment is talking about. However, when they do things that alienate the very people they claim to represent, they diminish their voice.

It's too bad, really.

[Zorra]

35. +1

[quakerboy]

17. A point of particular interest to me

"One protester was hospitalized after being hit in the head with a flash grenade. At least one officer was demoted from lieutenant to sergeant for failing to report a subordinate blacking out his name tag."

2 things about this mini paragraph struck me.

One.. Officer demoted for failure to report something, but no one demoted or punished for shooting a grenade at a nonviolent protestors head.

two.. The cynic in me is fairly certain that the officer who was demoted is most likely the same one on the following video:

You know, the one who made his subordinate take the tape OFF when protestors politely asked about it. (To spell it out, without any proof whatsoever, I am inclined to believe that the demotion was not in fact for failure to report anything, but rather for breaking the unspoken rules of "beat em down, never have consequences".

[WillyT]

18. Kick !!!

[sarcasmo]

22. Kick!

[BlueIris]

37. Good. Whiny fucking cowards. nt

[mmonk]

39. About time.

Excessive force only escalates what might otherwise be manageable situations and peaceful, orderly protests.

[myrna minx]

40. K&R n/t

[Hosnon]

42. This will greatly benefit Occupy Oakland. The "Our Side is Right" presumption usually lies with the

police.

This gives it to Occupy, i.e., it's very easy to argue that, all things being equal, the police started "it".