Love the list of supplies needed!
I watch pretty closely but I never saw this, had to go look for it
Officials say Chauvin was in negotiations for plea deal prior to arrest, charges
"There were early negotiations with the defendant, between the Hennepin County Attorney's Office, and the U.S. Attorney," Hennepin County Attorney spokesperson Chuck Laszewski said.
Laszewski said those negotiations failed.
‘The major stumbling block’: Powerful police unions stand in the way of structural reform, experts say
By Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY Posted at 11:00 AM
Demonstrators across the country demanding justice for George Floyd might be wise to aim their wrath at a rare target: police unions.
Law enforcement insiders and criminology experts point to such organizations as the biggest reason police practices have hardly changed despite the outrage over killings of unarmed black men over the years. They also say it will take a pitched battle to effect change after Floyd’s death May 25 in Minneapolis police custody.
“Police unions are the major stumbling block against law enforcement reform,″ said Kalfani Ture, a former police officer in Georgia who now teaches criminal justice at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. “The police union, in fact, institutionalizes the culture of maybe being a bad cop because it (represents) the status quo.″
Ture offered several examples of how police unions shield members from accountability for their actions, including coaching officers involved in use-of-force incidents on how to write favorable reports and having them collaborate to present a narrative that exonerates them from blame and places fault on the suspect.
An account of Floyd’s deadly encounter on insidempd.com says he resisted arrest – there has been no evidence of that – and adds, “Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress. Officers called for an ambulance. He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance, where he died a short time later.″
There’s no reference to officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly 9 minutes or his pleas for air as he expired.
Ture also said unions have been effective at purging officers’ personnel records, allowing those engaged in misconduct to hop from one agency to another, and have established a culture of silence and retribution that represses reports of wrongdoing.
The organizations also have lobbying power and provide financial contributions to candidates for office, enhancing their clout. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, California’s largest police union has spent about $3 million in the last three years on its political operations.
Noted criminologist Daniel Nagin, who teaches at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, noted that Chauvin had 18 complaints filed against him – about one for every year he served in the force – and only two resulted in discipline.
“Their contracts in various ways can often make it very difficult to remove or discipline police officers,″ Nagin said of police unions in general. “They also often make investigations not transparent – the deliberations and the outcomes are not public. And there are a lot of protections provided to the police officers that go beyond what most of us would regard as fair and reasonable for employees.″
(too long)
https://www.pressargus.com/zz/news/20200612/the-major-stumbling-block-powerful-police-unions-stand-in-way-of-structural-reform-experts-say
Funny
"Comforters" was a hard one to spell, but they need their tee-tee blankies. LMAO.
Interdashing if true… Bobby Axelrod at work?