By hippie4ever
A young child plays with a toy handgun in his front yard; a teenager hangs out near home; a 35 year old man sits on his porch steps; a 22 year old father is arrested on New Years Eve for public intoxication. Besides being American citizens what do these people have in common? They were all unarmed civilians who were executed in cold blood by the police.
Jolly coppers on parade
Police departments nationwide resist efforts to document civilian shootings, concerned they will later be read by the fifth estate or lawyers hired by grieving families. While statistics are scarce, http://www.copwatch.org has created an Internet site to document police brutality. The ACLU has also been compiling statistics and it appears about 25 percent of all police shootings involve “unarmed suspects,” a euphemism for executions.
While nonwhite Americans are many times more likely to be assaulted by police, don’t assume being white makes you safe. Douglas Zerby of Long Beach, California, had been sitting on his back porch when a neighbor called 911 to report Zerby carrying a handgun in public. The caller said he didn’t know the make of gun and that it hadn’t been fired. In truth Doug Zerby was holding a garden hose nozzle in his hands as police arrived and without any verbal warning, promptly executed him. Six handgun rounds were fired as well as several shotgun blasts, and according to some reports Zerby was shot 27 times. He was white with blond hair and lived in an ordinary middle class neighborhood. He was married with a young son, had had too much to drink and was having a bad day before police arrived…
The Zerbys
Coast-to-coast, from large urban areas to mid-sized towns, more and more ordinary people are facing lethal force from police who shoot first and ask questions later. While some local activists call for community review boards, this has not been a panacea for protecting the public. Liberal San Francisco has a civilian review board but it has not been successful in preventing police brutality or homicide. San Francisco police continue to shoot unarmed civilians in nonlethal situations while their corrupt civilian review board twiddles its thumbs and does nothing, unless you count its obstruction of documentation. Another problem with such review boards is they must be funded and tax monies are scarce, and those who serve are often opportunists, not activists.
There are many reasons for police violence; to be fair many Americans are themselves violent or impaired and fail to communicate well with officers, leaving police to determine the level of threat. Tragically, police training rarely deals with common situations and real life is often more complicated than a classroom scenario. Training is expensive and police departments prefer to spend their funds on hardware — new guns, surveillance cameras, computer programs, new autos — all the fun, sexy stuff they love; problem is, what they want isn’t what they necessarily need.
Johannes Mehserle
If one believes Johannes Mehserle, the BART transit cop who shot unarmed and restrained Oscar Grant to death on December 31, 2008, he didn’t know his taser from his handgun. Few in the Oakland community believe this for several reasons, including the very long history of police violence directed primarily at Oakland’s African-American community. Police are rightfully regarded by many as the enemy, and it doesn’t help that many within Oakland P.D. look like skinheads and hold racist views. People once called San Francisco the city of love but nobody ever said that about Oakland.
Besides being racist, is it possible that Mehserle was also a bumbling, badly-trained cop? Oscar clearly was not the only intoxicated celebrant on New Year’s Eve, nor was he the worst behaved. According to some witnesses he was already handcuffed, according to others he wasn’t but lay face down with his hands held firmly behind his back. Both accounts prove Mr. Grant was both prone and under police restraint at the time of his execution.
Mr. Mehserle had little reason to feel threatened; he was larger than Oscar Grant, not intoxicated and about the same age. There were several other officers at the scene, and while a bit rowdy and boozy, the scene at the Fruitvale Station was not unusual for New Years Eve. Meserle was fearful despite having force and weaponry on his side: cowards like him must not be allowed to police anyone, anywhere; yet there he was, packing heat and destroying lives.
Late Oscar Grant with daughter
Oscar Grant left behind a 4 year old daughter, a wife, a mother and an uncle; all are struggling to carry on after police violence ended his life and shattered theirs. This was an outrage against not only the African-American community of Oakland, but against us all. Police ran roughshod in Nazi Germany as they do today in the United States, but not in the free world. It is impossible to say that we live in a democratic, federalist republic when the police are out of control and we are their targets.
Where do urban police generally live? Outside the cities in a few select suburbs where they receive incentives to buy houses and raise families. Unlike America’s cities, these “police friendly” communities are predominantly white, middle class, and republican with easy donut access.
Health food restaurant in police suburb
Living in such places while working the sometimes violent streets of the cities increases the disconnect many officers feel towards those they purportedly serve and protect.
Fortunately there is a solution and its name is Cop Watch. Formed in 1990 in the city of Berkeley, California, this grassroots group teaches citizens how to safely monitor the actions of the police. Local law enforcement are supposed to be under local control as public servants, and our right of assembly is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution; we the people have a responsibility to stand up for our rights.
Don't let this happen to you. Protect your rights!
If we act like cowards and victims ourselves we will be treated as such: pushed around, abused, manipulated, even shot to death by poorly-trained, cowardly cops.
Volunteers patrol their neighborhoods where police are active, wearing identifying badges and holding clipboards as they stand witness during police encounters. The idea isn’t to interfere with police but to observe their actions. Cop Watch has gone national and hopefully viral as police violence against unarmed citizens continues to escalate.
Professional police officers (yes, Virginia, there are a few good cops) become used to Cop Watch volunteers and shout out their badge numbers so they can be written into the record; corrupt cops must be identified by eye witnesses. If police are “just doing their job” as they maintain, what harm can civilian oversight bring? Our presence as witnesses can be an incentive for police to follow the rules and respect our constitutional rights, and it can save lives in the communities in which they serve. No thug likes his handiwork watched and documented by others, yet no professional should mind.
Busted: a Citizen’s Guide to Surviving Police Encounters by Flex Your Rights, is a useful video produced with the guidance of civil rights advocates, including members of the ACLU. The video (accessible by clicking on Busted, above) explains in detail what your rights are during police encounters. Cops will often trick people into giving up their constitutional rights and our despicable Supreme Court has naturally allowed this travesty of justice. Don’t be a fool — too many have been arrested, tried and convicted because they inadvertently gave police permission to search their homes, cars or persons. Their lives were ruined because they cooperated with law enforcement against their own best interests. Know your rights! This is another vital life skill never taught in the public school system but one you need to know no matter how law abiding you may be.
If nothing else, memorize saying, “OFFICER, I DO NOT CONSENT TO ANY SEARCHES.” This phrase may well save you from arrest, lock-up and expensive legal fees. They could easily be the most important words you ever utter. Remember, too, that not every question asked by the police need be answered by you.
I’ll readily admit to not being a fan of the police, having been assaulted and nearly shot in 1980, also in broad daylight and without probable cause; but every society has law enforcement and they can play a positive role in the community. Let’s face it, there are some bad people out there people need protection from.
In many cities and towns across the United States, however, innocent civilians are being terrorized by rogue cops who want to shoot first and ask questions later. Our police are unusual in carrying lethal firepower as a matter of course but then again, we’re a society immersed in guns and violence. Sometimes American cops strike out from fear, sometimes in anger, and many are influenced by racism or vengeance. It is illegal and intolerable that the police have gotten away with their rampant corruption, criminal behavior, and wanton violence for so long. Make your community and our society a better, safer place where justice is the rule, not the exception. Consider volunteering at your local Cop Watch, or starting one in your community. At the very least, if you see a police stop, stay and observe their actions and take down numbers.
Do not let the police intimidate you — you have the right to be a witness whether they like it or not. Oscar, Doug, and thousands of others would thank you if they only could.
Consider, too, whether a situation really warrants a 911 call — the police rarely make things better and assuming their “best intentions” has landed many inside a jail cell or even the county morgue.
Remember, the law as written is on our side and the police only violate it because we let them in our astonishing apathy. We must police the police or live in a police state. The choice is clearly ours to make and it is not too late to correct this long-standing injustice.
“Officer, I do not consent to any searches.” Teach these words to your teenagers and young adult children. You don’t think they need to know this but when the police show up, anything can happen. A friend with a criminal record can slip paraphernalia into the purse of another whose record is clean. Your little angel might actually be the one who owns the pipe.
Also teach your children to keep their mouths closed–just give their names and identifying information and say they want you or, if they are not minors, that they want a lawyer. The innocent little dunderheads honestly think they can charm the police with displays of honesty. They think that the way you have taught them to own up to you is how they should act towards the police.
Great article hippie. You have not only described a serious problem that is off the radar of most white suburbanites; you have urged some concrete measures to help solve the problem.
x 2
This is a great article….and oh so poignant. “Hip”, Prince George Co., right outside of D.C. and about a 35 minute ride from where I live in N. Virginia, has some of the most brutal cops in the land. I don’t know if you’ve heard much about some of the exploits here….but they’re hair-raising. Last year, cops in Prince George busted into the home of a mayor of one of the local townships confusing his home for a misplaced drug bust and the home owner’s three labs were startled and, naturally, came at the cops who shot all three of them dead. Fuck, I swear to god if I had been the owner they would have had to kill me to keep me from killing them….I shit you not. My best friend who lives in Bowie (with who I spent a good portion of my career in the Air Force and who is African-American) was coming home from a restaurant one night with his family a few years back and was stopped by a Prince George cop who Sam said got in his face, without a single provocation, and was screaming at him so that Sam says he thought he would bust a blood vessel in his neck. Sam he was scared shitless and was like frozen in fear with his hands glued to the steering wheel. He swears that he didn’t think he was going to make it out alive. Cops in Prince George justify their violent and abusive behavior by always claiming the rampant violence in the county from spill over out of D.C. I would like to think I’m empathetic to their plight….but nothing justifies this sort of wide-spread abuse. Every time I pass through Prince George….which is nearly daily, I make sure to go the speed limit
Having grown up in areas with some of the most brutal police actions in memory, like Memphis in the 60′s, I really agree with this article in every way. Furthermore, I believe that 9-11 has allowed a blanket permissiveness among the police force in various parts of the U.S. (and some more than others) that has given them a unwritten green light to practice unnecessary force far too often and on far too many occasions. It really comes down to training or lack thereof.
Southpaw, I think times do influence the actions of local police: I was assaulted shortly after Reagan was elected; it was mistaken identity. Cops thought I had shot one of their own and I can still vividly recollect one rookie in particular who was shakily aiming his revolver at my head. He wanted to shoot me so badly. My savior was the local barber, an eyewitness, who came running down the street screaming ‘he’s not the one! You’ve got the wrong guy!’ Timing was everything that day.
Oh good lord, hippie!!!!
and the cop had died an hour before my police attack, so they thought they found the cop killer, which is why they were so violent. Ever have 5 guns pointed at your head? It’s an experience, kj, and on the one hand you’re hyper-alert to everything around you, yet your memories come from nowhere and you remember favorite moments, loves, celebrations. All in all it’s amazing I’m still alive, and that’s how I view this thing called life, as a great gift.
Jesus Christ ! No wonder you’ve been traumatized by that event
…and one more thing: You’re most poignant point is “If we act like cowards and victims ourselves we will be treated as such: pushed around, abused, manipulated, even shot to death by poorly-trained, cowardly cops”, is fucking spot-on. My older brother has been unjustifiably shaken down on a number of occasions simply for having, for example, a liberal bumper sticker on the back of his car while driving in some rural country area. He refuses to give ground….and I’m the same way. As long as you present respectively, there’s not a goddamn thing these people can do beyond violating your civil rights. And I’ll readily admit too…I’m not a huge fan…and I’m somewhat sorry to say that…but just too many lousy experiences such as the one in Memphis when I was working in a radio station (in the 70′s) and the traffic cop would come in from time to time and shoot the breeze with me until I guess he felt I was someone he could confide in. He was also a dog cop and he bragged how he liked to sic his dogs on “niggers” and refrain from calling them off until they tore an ample amount of flesh. Stories like that are forever branded in my psyche
Awesome post, hippie!!
I still recall a friend of mine here in Jacksonville who several years ago was, shall we say, manhandled by some of JSO’s (Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office) “finest” for several minutes only because his wife was injured in a serious auto accident and he was freaked-out & wanted to assist & comfort her.
The following is based on my recollection of what he told me what happened that evening…
A friend of his wife (who was a passenger in his wife’s car but not injured) called him on her cellphone about what just happened and when he arrived on the scene there were already cop-cars and an ambulance tending to his wife. He pulled off the road, shaken, and approached the area where his wife was being attended to when two JSO cops approached him and warned him to stay back. He was adamant (& upset, but anything *but* threatening) and he attempted to brush them off (oopsie!) when one of them grabbed him to try to detain him. He resisted a bit, and that was all she wrote… he was wrestled to the ground, handcuffed and pushed into the back of a squad-car. They detained him for several minutes until the aforementioned friend (and several others – one of who took note of the cops’ badge-numbers) protested & explained to the cops that he was the injured woman’s husband. The cops didn’t release him until he was sufficiently “cooled off” (you might say), but not without signing a police-report explaining the nature of the ‘detention’.
I understand that the stress entailed with being a cop in a large metropolitan-area , but this was clearly excessive use of force, given the situation. There have also been plenty of cases of cops’ overuse of the taser (Google it & see). I think cops get an added rush of there’s a Fox TV “COPS” camera-crew tagging along (Jacksonville is one of their more frequently-used locales).
I personally have been more fortunate… my local subdivision recently initiated a Neighborhood Watch program after several recent burglaries, and it is being effective. We also have a JSO cop who lives in the neighborhood who participates in the Watch, and he’s actually quite friendly. Been pretty lucky so far, I guess…
I think that’s actually a pretty typical story that is emblematic of how often police tend to have difficulty restraining themselves and processing the difference between a real incident that requires such restraint and one that doesn’t. Propaganda shows like “Cops” that attempts to show cops in exemplary decorum at all times are just that….propaganda
And that show is on a Murdoch-owned TV-network… ’nuff said, good buddy.
…precisely
Bass, whenever I discuss my police attack I hear many others describe their experiences with cops. I didn’t want to make this article about me but I was badly beaten and it left emotional scars that continue to this day.
One positive thing that came from this, though, was my father became a police watcher. He did this after seeing my bruises following my detention. Like many he didn’t think his middle-class son should have been treated like that and whenever the police stopped somebody he was there, watching.
At his funeral, his neighbors came up to tell me about how proud they were that somebody was the conscience of the neighborhood. That’s what I’d like to see happen throughout America.
It is amazing what one episode of abuse can do to an otherwise well-treated person. It is life-changing and can be so in positive ways. You responded to your trauma constructively and I applaud you for that. (And you did not become a lawyer. Good for you!)
Your Dad sounds like he was a really great guy, by the way.
Brilliant, Hippie, just brilliant. IMHO, it all goes back to the glamorization of violence that’s so endemic in our society. Cops get high on the power that they have, and we let them get away with it for the most part, because we’ve been brainwashed to believe that violence is OK and that anyone with a uniform has a right to perpetrate violence (and we fantasize that some day maybe WE can have that power too). As an editor, I’ve done many psychology books, and one of the most fascinating studies I’ve ever come across is by Stanley Milgram. I won’t bore you with the details (you can find them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment), but in it Milgram showed that the large majority of people will allow authority figures to convince them to do things they wouldn’t normally be inclined to do, simply because they were in a position of authority. We are obedient little zombies who let somebody with a badge scare us into doing what they want. It shouldn’t be that way. Give em hell, Hippie!
And a brilliant set of observations on your part my friend. This is why I love this blog….it attracts the best and the brightest
D’oh!!
Does that mean I can’t come back anymore LTTL?
Seriously, This was a very well written piece by Hippie and Sweet Babu along with many others here always have brilliant observations.
Only part of the reason that I keep coming back here. You guys are all awesome!
LOL !! We wouldn’t know what to do w/out you here
That’s the study at Stanford where half the subject students were denoted ‘prisoners’ and the other half ‘guards’ and before long those very civil, reasonable, bourgeois students were giving the Nazis a run for their money?
We think civilization is etched in bedrock but in reality, it’s a paper-thin formica at best.
No, that was the Zimbardo Prison Study (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment). In the one I’m talking about, people were convinced to give electric shocks to people, even when those people were screaming for them to stop, just because an authority figure told them to. The whole “test” was a fake–no one was actually being hurt–but almost every single person administered shocks that they were told would be enough to injure or possible kill the other person. These were normal average people who did this just because they were told to by someone they thought was in charge. It’s always meant to me that even a regular person can do something evil if they are manipulated in just the right way.
The Air Force runs its officers through mock POW training camps. They found that they had to rotate the mock guards out because they grew to love and abuse the power they were given over the prisoners. The problem in real life is the same–only the prison guards are not rotated out.
Great post Hippie!
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe famously said “less is more”
In that vein, let me say “superb”
Good post hippy. Give some people a gun a badge and they feel the power they make an ass of themselves and give the rest of us a hard time because of inflated egos. To many are bullies with a bad attitude. Ass hole Joe Aparo from Arizona is a good example he like to humiliate and throw his power around he is a real prick.
Thanks, june, Joe Aparo is an asshole & a jerk. Ever notice, though, that the police NEVER bully a president of a company for polluting the local water supply, or befouling the air, or hiring ‘illegal’ employees? And if for some bizarre reason an arrest warrant is issued the cops show up apologetically, kiss the ass of the polluter, and escort him into their cleanest squad car as though he were an egg. The rest of us don’t get that treatment…