Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 42: Carol Stream Police invade an apartment and shoot a black person

Just last week I wrote about a work friend wanting to disccuss Harvard Professor Roland Fryer's, interview with Bari Weiss concerning his 2016 study which PROVED!  BEYOND QUESTION!  there is no Racial Bias in Police Shootings... and then dumb old reality just had to butt in and disprove his theory.

If I were a more jaded person, I might overlay Fryer’s faulty and ridiculous claims over the body cam footage from Carol Stream.  But, I am not a ghoul. 

The Carol Stream Police Department had an Officer-involved shooting.  As always, I want you to understand that Police advocates have fought for years for this semi-blameless language to be used in official proceedings and in news reports because language is the first line of defense and weapon to be used to exonerate the Officers involved.

The case in Carol Stream involves a misdemeanor domestic battery.  The victim was out of the apartment.  Her injuries, while not reported in detail, did not necessitate hospitalization.  Inside the apartment was the suspected offender Isaac Goodlow.

When making a warrantless entry there are 3 exceptions; Consent, Hot Pursuit, Exigent Circumstances.

“Hot Pursuit” is obvious you’re chasing someone whose committed a crime and they attempt to defeat arrest by hiding in a house

“Exigent Circumstances”  is the immediate need to protect someone’s life (e.g. someone screaming for help or seeing a house on fire.)

She provided “Consent” for the Officers to go into the apartment where the suspect Isaac Goodlow was but, she did not have the right to make authorization as she did not live there and therefore the entry does not fall under the Search Warrant exceptions.

Officers may in good faith believe she has authority but, simply taking her word for it is not enough fact-checking.  Especially, when the victim of the crime is not in harm’s way and there is no on-going emergency which would lead the Officers to believe they had to apprehend the offender immediately.

Carol Stream Police Chief Donald Cummings gave a statement about the Officers attempts to get Goodlow to come out of the apartment before getting the maintenance man to open the door to the open gaining the Officers entry.  At this point, someone in the CSPD needed to say stop why don't we get a warrant to enter; this would have a two-fold effect of lowering the Officer's emotions and further provide Goodlow the opportunity to surrender.  But, instead the Officers went in.

6 officers went inside the residence.  From the "stack", it certainly looks like they wanted to do a SWAT style building entry, a maneuver which is en vogue, with training and tactics these days.  One Officer has a ballistic shield, another Officer has a Taser ready, and at least two had guns drawn.  

I think I know what happened with the first shot.  Everyone in that group is jazzed.  And I think the Officer had his finger on the trigger.  And as they entered the room with auditory exclusion, tunnel vision, jittery hands, and adrenaline pumping up his heart rate, he got startled, and the sympathetic nervous system gave the “Startle Response” and he squeezed the trigger.  The next shot and Taser deployment where in response to the first shot.

And like that Goodlow was shot and killed.

The Police Chief which listed off all the steps that will and must be taken to investigate this shooting and give full due process to the Officers involved.  Now, juxtapose this with the scant due process given to the dead man Isaac Goodlow.

"The totality of the video, including the events that occurred before and after the shooting, will be released at a later date pursuant to the completion of the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office review. Once the investigation is completed by the Public Integrity Team, the State’s Attorney’s Office will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of all forensic evidence, witness accounts, and officer statements to make a determination regarding the actions of those involved."

Due Process, you see is only available, to inherently good people who find themselves in an unfortunate situation.

For instance, right now, a cult of martyrdom is growing around Derek Chauvin to turn him into the American Nelson Mandela.  And while this is part of the broader rightwing attempt to undermine Law&Order and replace it with their Fascist White Power Fundamentalism understand the Chauvin Cultists and people who support each and every police shooting of black people can never be swayed with reality, facts, medical documentation, or even due process and court proceedings.

But, and this is the point with each and everyone of these incidents, a depressingly large swathe of White society does not question the extrajudicial killing of black people.  And a vile segment encourage and reveal in these killings and then, with malicious glee, use the deaths as on-line content fodder and incitement amongst their rightwing drones against the dead black person, black society in general, and of course, DemocRAT controlled cities. 

The basic paradigm which is understood and still taught is black people are inherently criminal and a priori guilty and therefore any time they have an interaction with Police its’ understood their deaths at the hands of Police are entirely their fault.  Whereas, white people (as long as the adhere to the tenets of rightwing white supremacy) are inherently good and must somehow have been caught up in a bad situation and therefore their interaction with Police they must be afforded due process above and beyond what is called for under the color of law.

I could go through the entire litany of cop jargon and lawfare that Police use to cover up such incidents, but the plain facts and what the American society has just seen is another unarmed black man shot to death inside his residence.

The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 5: Oh well, on the Streets of San Francisco

One of the laments from conservatives centers around how those dastardly hippies destroyed the American society by bringing down classic authority figures; like Police Officers. So now rightwing #agitprop centers on showing how The Left continues to demonize Police Officers in service to the DemocRAT Agenda of bringing down 'Murica. One of the favorite targets of Rightwing fury is San Francisco; harbor and haven of all that is not Real America.

Well, don't expect the Police of San Fran-Cisco to put flowers... in your hair... because it's more likely they will kill you.

Just before Thanksgiving Deputy Charlie Blount thought he was chasing a stolen car. After a 5 minute chase involving the infamous pit maneuver, Blount's blood was up he and the other LEOs exhibited a complete lack of control and the ability to calmly and cooly analyze what they were dealing with. After drawing down on the driver, repeatedly screaming at him to "Show me your fucking hands", and violently assaulting the driver, Blount eventually choked the man to death.

Another Deputy apparently realized the driver, who was laying dead face down in the street, was the vehicles' owner.

"Oh well," Blount replies...

Oh, well.

Oh, well.

Blount's attorney Harry Stern of course blamed David Ward for Blount being out of control, "Frankly, Mr. Ward caused his own death.."

Stern then went on to list Blount's 40 years of service in the military and police finishing with the pièce de résistance, "His actions during this arrest were entirely reasonable."

Officer's can't access higher brain functions, can't calmly access the situation, get caught in a repetitive verbal loop, lose control over their emotions in high pressure situations and choke a a feeble scared man, with no weapons, no "active resistance", no aggression, to death and it's "entirely reasonable". Oh well...

Not to be outdone on at 830 in the morning of December 7th, SFPD Officer Sterling Hayes and his trainee Christopher Flores responded to an in-process burglary and upon identifying an apparent burglar, the vicious criminal violently assaulted them and they were forced to shoot him.

Or so the Police claimed. In reality, it appears the Officers rolled up on a "usual suspect" and escalated the encounter until it ended in the Officers chasing and shooting the man, Jamaica Hampton. Predictably the body cam worn by the Officers did not capture the initial alleged assault but, independent cameras captured the Officers shooting Hampton in a manner entirely inconsistent with the official police report.

Hampton will apparently survive and beginning 2020 the San Francisco Police use of force doctrine is going to change from "reasonable" to "necessary", thus putting a higher threshold upon the Police to prove the force used was appropriate as opposed to the Officers just deciding to kill the perp.

San Francisco Officers had several questionable shootings in 2018, but of course, this is not some problem confined to San Francisco but, is endemic to Modern Policing. American Police Departments have slowly morphed into Paramilitary Armies of Occupation. Officers don't live in the communities they police and often don't associate their role in a community in accordance with Sir Robert Peel's original 9 principle's of Policing but, view themselves as The Thin Blue Line protecting Real America, and as such... Oh well has replaced to Protect & Serve.

The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line

Ann needs higher and higher doses
of raw racism to get the same High

Another unjustified shooting of a black person by a scared, dumb, or racist white cop...

Yet another unjustified shooting of a minority by a scared, dumb, or racist white cop... The Fresno Police Department investigated itself and found it did the right thing. The "investigation" tied the young man to a previous shooting, claimed he was known to carry guns, and stated he fled into a daycare. Nicely done! All the components are thus present to allow White America sagely nod, applaud the Officers, and tut-tut those people and their criminality...

This is all done to ensure certain segments of society KNOW, justice is unequal, laws are selectively enforced, and sentences (in this case death) are unequally administered. And conservatives, who are forever warning about the Government lying, greedily accept ever report which exonerates and justifies these killings precisely because conservatives agree with the execution of black people. Conservatives believe all black people are a priori guilty of some crime. Ergo any extrajudicial killing of a black person is, in fact, justified.

As we have seen, even with the ubiquitousness of cell phones, body cams, and dashboard recordings, Police Officers don't have much qualms in shooting down even fleeing suspects. These incidents are Unconstitutional on their face. Extrajudicial executions of persons not convicted of crimes represent the ultimate seizure under the 4th Amendment. The landmark ruling of Tennessee vs. Garner is settled law and is known to every Officer for the past 35 years. But, White America and specifically white conservatives not only justify these killings but, agree with and defend them vociferously.

After every shooting, the Rightwing Wurlitzer revs up to muddy the waters, fabricate evidence, smear the dead black person, and works to undermine Law & Order. Because it serves the purpose of Conservatives to repeatedly show black America and other minority groups that the Law will be unequally applied and criminal cops will be not only afforded every opportunity and defense they denied their victims but, will be heralded as heroes and lionized by White America.

So, Police and Sheriff's Departments have a problem; partially of their own making. Throughout America, communities no longer view Police Officers as the good guys. As with the above killing in Fresno, previous killings in Ferguson, Staten Island, and so many others, Police Departments are concluding Officers use of deadly force is fine, and while minorities have known for years Police Officers are not the good guys, segments of society are having to confront the awful visual evidence.

It doesn't matter if the incidents are nuanced or if it's just a few bad apples or if it is because of the institutional and structural racism built into Law Enforcement & American Society, or whatever the "true" underling issue is; The Truth is Police Officers are killing American citizens, and especially black men, at an unjustified rate and getting away with it.

Police Injustice, the Policing System is working as Designed

Lost amongst the Trump-led GOPdammerung, the Dept of Justice released a depressing report on the state of policing in Baltimore. That report has been coupled with two more Police Shootings of young black males, one in Chicago and one in Milwaukee.

Now, the Milwaukee shooting appears to have been lawful, a "good shoot", but, criminals took advantage of the tensions and engaged in assaults and vandalism using the shooting as a pretext. The Chicago shooting is more complex and does not appear to be a "good shot" at this time.

It appears that young black men need to re-learn the lesson their fathers, uncles, and grandfathers learned;

"You need to understand that there are two gangs in the projects. The police are also a gang but they really have the power. I mean, these n* run around with money and cars, but at any moment the cops can get them off the street. Never, never, never piss off the police." -Sudhir Venkatesh recounts a discussion with "Autry" in Gang Leader for a Day (pg. 239)

The system of Policing in America is working as intended. Modern Police Departments were created during the 19th century to deal with 3 changing factors in America; 1) the growth of cities due to Industrialization, 2) the influx of immigrants from new nations, 3) the end of slavery and the Black exodus. Thus, a system needed to be created to deal with problems that original Sheriff's were not designed to handle; to control, disenfranchise, and ghettoize undesireables. To accomplish this it is not necessary that every Police Officer be racist. It is, in fact, desireable for the majority to be color-blind.

Every shooting is not done by a Bocephus white slave master racist cop but, that's what makes the rigged system work. The system by being generally good and staffed by lawful, honorable people creates a space for a bad element to exist and operate. Humans have a difficult time processing issues related to large, anonymous systems. It's too much. An individual bad actor or department can be identified and dealt with but, the system of control which has been created, and feed for centuries works in the background grinding out victims without being addressed.

Overall, the quality of modern police officers is very high but, that's a lie of statistics. In a Nation of 320 Million any one death is a insignificant blip, but such a calculus is used by those who do not suffer from the system.

Ferguson, Missouri two years ago became a microcosm of the harshness of the system. Michael Brown, got into an altercation at a gas station over a pack of swisher sweets, of which, Darren Wilson was unaware.

The altercation between Wilson and Brown at the door of the squad SUV and into the street without video evidence can never be properly reconstructed and one eye witness account will nver be heard but, right-wingers didn't feel comfortable with the known facts and had to start adding elements that were untrue. Conservatives sites claimed Wilson suffered a broken orbital bone from the "beating" he took and Faux News and the right-wing internet ran with the wholly untrue "diary" of Witness 40 to describe the final interaction and last shots fired at Brown.

But, when the Dept of Justice released the report which showed the Ferguson PD had been transformed from Officers into revenue generators to fill budget gaps that received little fanfare. Police Departments have been monitized over the last few decades as villages and cities have had to deal with declining budgets.

On top of turning Police Officers into tax collectors "Broken Windows" Theory has been in place for years. Broken Windows hypothesized that by cracking down on every minor infraction major crime would be detered. Additionally, "Stop & Frisk" and the War on Drugs turned policing from protect and serve into halt and harass.

Taken together, these had the effect of turning LEOs into occupying force, while other factors, the availability of high-powered firearms and long guns have led to a Paramilitary police look and mentality.

The recent Chicago Police shooting of an escaping car thief, and the mentality that led to the long altercation and not split-second decision was neatly avoided, while Chicago police bloggers who blamed both Mayor Rahm and Daley for cutting the training budget. Other anonymous LEOs joined in by saying lack of training was the problem.

This is part and parcel of the system. Bad shoots can be blamed on a lack of training or stress from working conditions and not from the violence/control/dehumanization inherent in the system. But, if these aren't enough to cover the bad shoot, then the character/criminal history of the suspect becomes pertinent and subtle lies can be added to the narrative.

Conservatives have been conditioned by right-wing toxic talk radio, Faux News, and the incestuous right-wing internet sites to reflexively blame all members of the maligned group. After every incident if the perpetrator is black, all members of the black community or #blacklivesmatter are guilty, if the offender is a muslim, all of islam is responsible, if the immigrant is hispanic, he's illegal.

Also, as conservatives have been trained to focus all their ire onto President Obama, every shooting in Chicago, every riot in Milwaukee becomes his fault. Additionally, since they ascribe to President Obama tyrannical powers they demand he turn those powers onto #blm and uniltaerally declare the organization a "terrorist group".

The arguments around #blm today are eeriely similar to those made about the Civil Rights Era; act responsibiliy, don't be so militant, don't do things which cause people to be annoyed or inconvenienced by you and eventually we'll get around to your concerns.

It wasn't until blacks began causing damage to property, in response to police shootings of black men that the media and conservatives began to pay attention. Of course, conservatives immediately called for violence against any and all black people and began demanding shoot-on-sight orders for looters.

Of course, it's hard to take conservatives seriously when they cry and moan about private property damage seeing as they venerate the Boston Tea Party as a near-Holy Event.

But, during the Civil Rights Era, black leaders knew they needed an unassailable champions to be the vanguard of the movement, that even the whiff of impropreity would be the wedge conservatives needed to discredit them and get sentiment against them.

While, the young black men killed in recent years have not be paragons of justice and untainted by criminal backgrounds, society in general and the black community have witnessed numerous incidents of #crimingwhilewhite, in which a white suspect has not been killed by Police and the treatment of President Obama, have created the perception that it doesn't matter what blacks do, because conservatives consider them criminal a priori and right-wing media will spare no effort slandering and smearing the dead black person.

To conservatives no police shooting of a black person is ever bad. No black person has ever been denied his constitutional rights, his right to due process, his right to be free of unlawful search and sezuire. Conservatives believe every black person is a criminal who just hasn't been caught yet.

The DOJ shouldn't have released the Ferguson Report (Updated)

"Your sense of freedom is as pale as your skin,"- Tchéky Karyo (as Major Jean Villeneuve) in the 2000 Mel Gibson movie The SlaveOwner... err, The Patriot

The reason the Department of Justice and Attorney General Eric Holder should not have released the Report on Ferguson, MO is because it upset the narrative that's been sold to the American People; that it doesn't matter who you are, everyone in America is treated the same and has a fair shot.

I know many Officers, including several I work with who wished to treat the Michael Brown shooting as a singular event, which occurred ex nihilo, ignoring the years long mistreatment of the black community by the Ferguson Police Officers.

The behavior of the Officers in the DOJ report is shameful and brings dishonor upon all Police Officers for the criminal actions by those Officers and their superiors, who endorsed and encouraged said behavior.

That the FPD was used as a revenue generating arm of the local government is not surprising but, the collective shrug from conservatives is telling. The vast majority of conservatives treated the DOJ report with indifference because they agree with the way Ferguson treated minorities. They agree with using Police to nickel-and-dime the local residents as a way of filling budget gaps.

Conservatives agree with treating black people as guilty until proved innocent and with detaining, citing and fining them for the crime of Living While Black.

Of course some scumbag went and shot two Police Officers, and thus the focus is shifted, from the abuses of the Local Government and Ferguson Police so the System can avoid accountablility.

Conservatives leapt upon the shooting because right-wingers use people to advance their inhuman system of despicable evil, and rolled out the NYPD playbook of blaming the shooting of the Officers on Eric Holder, Al Sharpton, and the President. And thererfore, the Right-Wing Internet Fart Bubble all got on board and blamed the Protestors. Thus, allowing the substance of the Department of Justice Report to slide into the recesses of the internet memory hole.

A suspect has been arrested, apparently admitted to the shooting, and has been charged. But, not with attempted murder because the suspect wasn't shooting at the Cops, who were hit at a range of 125 yards. Even Darren Wilson's Defense Attorney, St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch was forced to admit the evidence did not support attempted murder charges as the suspect was charged with several lesser offenses.

Of course, this hasn't stopped the bleatings of the Right-Wing internet echo chamber which exists only to regurgitate each others incestuous farts.

As always the key is to ignore the bleatings of conservatives, who never add anything substantive to American Politics but, merely pout, flop, and wail like raw nippled chicken-little/chicken-hawks.

Conservative do naught but sow discontent, afflict the afflicted, comfort the comfortable and undermine the 99%. That's what conservatives do, that is the core essence of Conservatism today.

And we see once again, in the response to the abuses in Ferguson, that Conservatives agree with using the awesome power of Government to harass, impoverish, detain, arrest, and imprison minorities because Conservatives believe 98% of Black and Brown people are criminals.

Updated:
Missouri Lt. Gov Pete Kinder retreated into right-wing meta-bigotry that Democrats are the real racists, "There is more racism in the Justice Department than there is in anywhere I see in the St. Louis area. It is the left. It is the Eric Holder and Obama-left and their minions who are obsessed with race, while the rest of us are moving on beyond it." AG Eric Holder was correct years ago when he noted Americans are cowards when it comes to talking about Race.

The NRA bears much Responsibility for the recent Police Shootings

Dashcam footage from New Jersey of another Police Shooting of a suspect exiting his vehicle unarmed is now making the rounds. Last December 30th, Jerame Reid was a passenger in a vehicle. During a traffic stop by Bridgeton Officers Braheme Days and Roger Worley, a gun was apparently located in the passenger side glove box by Officer Days who displayed good instincts, was alert and observent.

But then entering rapidly goes to shit. The next and final minute of Reid's life were a mix of rapid and contradictory commands leading him to exit the vehicle hands raised and after the gun had been confiscated by Officer Days. At which point the two Officers shot and killed him.

But, I'm not here to exercrate the Officers, but to point out why it is seemingly unarmed and cooperating men are getting gunned down.

While it's unequivocally true the Modern Police Department was created as a Social Control of the Working Class, immigrants and freed Slaves, the recent spate of shootings stems from the Reactionary Wayne LaPierre lead-NRA and their 35 year push to get guns everywhere and to allow gun violence to go unrestricted.

The Nation is awash in Guns. 300 million or more and those guns have a habit of "walking away" and ending up in the hands of criminals quite easily. Gun Nuts and their groups use every mass shooting to further weaken the anemic gun control laws left. And the Powerful Unrestricted Gun Violence Lobby has won 2 very important SCOTUS decisions as gotten hundreds of local ordinances eliminated.

Now that Illinois has passed Concealed Carry, every state in the Union has some version of CC and President Obama even loosened gun control regulations on Federal Parks and Lands.

Thus, Police Officers face the real threat that everyone they come in contact with and every vehicle they stop has a gun. Officers faced with this knowledge and sporting the maxim Better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6, have ended up shooting many seemingly cooperative suspects.

• South Carolina Trooper shoots black man reaching for wallet.
• South Carolina Trooper shoots 70 year old reaching for cane.
• 38 year old homeless camper sit with ar15s, beanbags and but by a K9.
• A Billing Montana Police Officer wept after killing an unarmed man in April 2014.

But, those shootings have a counterpoint because Police Officers are receiving training and reviewing these incidents,

• Oregon State Trooper is confronted and has a shoot-out with a former Army National Guardsman during traffic stop.
• An Arlington Heights Officer shot by suspect during Domestic Violence call.
• Cliven Bundy participants and Conservative Terrorists Jerad and Amanda Miller murder 2 Officers and another man during their Right-Wing Revolution.
• And recently over at Green Eagle comes the story of a black Oklahoma Police Chief shot 4 times by a right-wing White Supremacist, who was wanted in connection to calling in false bomb threat reports. This last incident along with the Millers continues to show that Right-Wing Violence including murder and attempted murder of Police Officers is coddled and encouraged in the United States.

Because the iconic image from the ClivenBundyInsurrection is the NRA man ready to shoot LEOs:

Update:

The conservative commenters on the youtube videos for this incident call this a "good shoot". I wonder what training, what Use of Force, what readings/discussion of the 4th Amendment, what personal experience at drawing down on someone or shooting/being shot at they can reference in order to support their viewpoint and then I remember that the man killed was Black and it's ipso facto always a good shoot to conservatives when a Black man is shot.