Florida Police Use Pictures Of Black Men For Target Practice

I, for one, am really glad that MLK Day is over so we can go back to being the racially insensitive we are most every day of the year. I mean, that’s who we are, right, because how else can we explain this story?

Down in Medley, Florida, the police were at the local Firearms Training Center doing a little target practice; at first, this sounds good because then, maybe, rather than shooting to kill a Black man who has his hands up, or shooting to kill a young African American boy who has a toy pistol in his hand, maybe the police can just shoot to maim; shoot to injure, and that way no one gets killed.

Just sayin’.

But, at this particular rifle range, after the North Miami Beach Police snipers had their practice, a group of National Guard troops came in for their practice and found that the police had been using photographs of real people for target practice. And all of them were "mug shots of African American men," with at least one of which belonged to a suspect that had previously been arrested by the department.

Sgt. Valerie Deant of the National Guard told  a local news outlet that she was left "speechless" after finding one of the targets was her brother Woody Deant, who had been arrested and sentenced to four years of jail in 2000 for involvement with a illegal drag race that killed two people. Her brother, however, was outraged:

"Now I'm being used as a target? I'm not even living that life according to how they portrayed me as. I'm a father. I'm a husband. I'm a career man. I work 9-to-5."

Sickening, isn’t it? But what’s even more disgusting is the response from North Miami Beach Police Chief J. Scott Dennis, who said that using real faces was necessary for facial recognition drills and added that "there is no discipline forthcoming" for any officers involved. 

Oh, he did say he was, ahem, “bothered” by the inclusion of an actual resident of North Miami Beach, but said that the agency used similar sheets of all-Hispanic or all-white targets. But not on that day, I guess because, maybe, maybe it was just Black People Target Practice Day for the North Miami Beach Police.

This type of behavior might be just one of the reasons why the number of Black Americans shot and killed by police is far greater than the numbers of any other race shot and killed by police. I mean, if the police are using pictures of Black men in target practice, that kind of reinforces the idea that Black men are the criminals and should be shot dead; it’s even more sickening that out of all the options available to the North Miami Beach Police — like say silhouettes of criminals — they chose to use actual photographs of real young Black men.

I don’t think is what MLK was dreaming about …. 

source

Sunday Funnies

A Cop, Convicted Of Sexual Assault, Gets His Gun Back

On the heels of the Michael Brown murder in Ferguson, Missouri, we’ve all been focusing on our police officers. Are they doing what we expect? Are they upholding the laws, no matter what? Are they protecting and serving all the citizens? And if they aren’t, are they being removed from duty? And, when they are deemed, and proven to be bad cops, what happens to them?

Well, if you’re a bad cop, like Dennis Krauss, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles will restore your right to carry a gun even though you have been convicted of sexually assaulting a woman while on duty. And this wasn’t the first accusation Krauss faced; at least ten different women complained he threatened to arrest them unless they had sex with him. And a man said that Krauss threatened to arrest him on falsified charges unless the man allowed Krauss to have sex with his wife.

Yeah, he’s a dream of a police officer, eh?

But finally, it took one woman to stand up to Krauss and finally, after a trial, where he was found guilty, his police career was over. Here's the account of the assault:

...the record shows that on December 5, 1999, Krauss, a uniformed officer with the police department, was dispatched to the trailer home of the victim after she called 911. When Krauss arrived, the victim told him that her husband had hit her and that she wanted her husband to leave. Krauss, however, asked the victim to go with him in the police car. In the car, Krauss told the victim that he could take her to jail if he wanted to for domestic violence. The victim testified that at this point she became frightened; she also stated that she believed that she was in custody and was not free to leave. The victim told Krauss that she did not want to go to jail. He told her that they “could take care of it.” When asked how she “could take care of it,” Krauss told her “[b]y having sex with him.” Krauss also said, “We can go to the motel or you can go to jail.”

Once in the room, Krauss took his gun from his gun belt and told the victim he wanted to have anal sex with her with the gun. The victim refused, started crying, and, at Krauss's order, sat on the bed. Krauss then pushed her back, pulled off her pants, and had sex with her.  The victim stayed in the police car; when asked why she had done so, she said, “I had to, I was afraid to leave, he, you know, he is a police officer; you don't just leave.” She also stated that she thought she was under arrest. After securing a room, Krauss drove the police car around the back of the motel, got out, opened the door for the victim, and pushed her toward the door of the room.  Krauss drove to a motel, got out of the car, and went into the office to get a room.

The victim continued crying and told Krauss she wanted to go home. Krauss dressed and dropped by the motel office to get a refund on the room; while he was in the office, the victim again stayed in the car, testifying that she felt “locked in” and “under his authority.” After leaving the motel office, Krauss drove the victim home.

Dennis Krauss, a police officer, was convicted of sexual assault against a person in custody and his conviction was upheld on appeal. But, after a hearing the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles restored his “right” to carry a gun. 

A police officer, who used his position in the community to terrorize women, and men, so he could get his rocks off; a police officer, who while wearing his uniform, while on the job, forced women to have sex with him under threat of going to jail; he victimized victims and lost his job because of it. And then, he gets his gun back; a convicted rapist.

And most sickening of all is that he is not alone; Krauss is purportedly just one of 358 violent felons who have regained their gun rights over the last six years; 32 convicted killers and 44 sex offenders have been given their guns back.

Way to protect and serve your citizenry Georgia. And America, too, where gun owners can use their guns to terrorize people and still be able to keep them.

source

Sunday Funnies

Mike Weston: Another Police Officer Not Helping In Ferguson

Mike Weston is a sergeant on the Velda City police force, and like Dan Page — see post from earlier today — he, too, was sent to Ferguson, Missouri to keep the peace and maintain order after Darren Wilson murdered Michael Brown.

He, too, is blight on the police force. And he, too, took to social media to voice his own personal brand of racism, bigotry and stupidity — which is his right, I guess. He complained that the “libs” were lying about what happened in Ferguson; he insulted Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson's approach to community policing; and, for a grand finale, he threatened to physically assault visiting U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

After a group of people in Ferguson were gassed in their own backyards, Weston took to Twitter to explain that it was because gunshots had been fired from that location. The only problem with his fable, was that a news reporter was in the yard where the people were gassed and the entire incident — with no gunshots being fired anywhere, at all — was caught on tape.

So, Mike Weston lied. And then he tried to walk it back, admitting that he wasn’t even in the area at the time:

"I wasn't spreading misinformation. There were shots being fired some yards, maybe not this particular one."

I guess it’s okay to gas one yard, if you hear gunshots coming from another yard?

Weston also made a point of slamming Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, calling Johnson’s interactions with protestors — walking with them to keep the peace — a kind of "Hug a Thug" celebration. He then Tweeted this picture of Johnson, accusing him of reverse racism:

He  also took it upon himself to Tweet photos of Mike Brown, the teenager shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson, participating in a strong arm robbery:

Mike Weston's "opinion" of the Michael brown's autopsy:

But he outdid himself with his tweet about Attorney General's visit to Ferguson when he said he wanted to meet Holder to, well, here it is:

Weston has since deleted his Twitter account because he’s a lying, racist asshat … IMO.

Here’s the deal: Michael Brown may have been involved in a robbery, and he may not have been involved; we’ll never know because he was gunned down, unarmed, in the street.

But, what we do know is that several police officers involved in Ferguson, both before and after the shooting — Darren Wilson, Dan Page, and Mike Weston — seem to have issues with the black community.

This is not who should be policing us. If your job is to protect and serve, then protect and serve. Keep your own personal politics and racist viewpoints out of it, and if you cannot do that, then people like these three men should have never been allowed to become law enforcement officers; and, if they somehow slipped through the cracks, as soon as they’ve shown their true selves, they should be removed from duty; permanently.

This is not what police officers should be doing.

via NCRM

Weston Tweets via RFT