Killed by Police — Grieving Father Says Cop's 'Sorry about That' Does Not Cut It

Justine Ruszczyk-Damond was gunned down in cold blood
on July 15, 2017 by a Minneapolis cop, Mohamed Noor.
Minneapolis police have a message for the Ruszczyk-Damond
family: We don't mind, because you don't matter.

Justine Ruszczyk Damond was a woman engaged in human rights, peace and social justice, an enterprise she hoped to pursue with her life partner.

Late one Summer night in 2017 she heard unexplained screams in an alley near her home. Ms. Ruszczyk Damond phoned 911 twice, alarmed about the welfare of another.

That was the last good act Ruszczyk Damond was to perform on Earth.

Responding Minneapolis police shot and killed her after she walked to the squad car to greet the cops responding to her 911 call.

The killer is Mohamed Noor, a repulsive spectacle of a human being who shot and killed an approaching Ruszczyk Damond without bothering to even check to see who this woman is.

Hey, there's a human figure, shoot. No exaggeration.

Shooting and killing is exactly what Noor said he did.

Noor was convicted of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, and sentenced early this Summer, (AP).

Noor explained at sentencing, "[M]y intent was to stop the threat," referring to Ms. Damond approaching the squad in her pajamas.

Noor's killing well defines the American police terrorizing the 'threat,' the American people.

Conduct an experiment this Summer. Google officer-involved shooting and create an alert of news pieces sent to your email.

Cancel the alert after a few days because your in-box will fill up with 100s of results very fast.

Police shootings do not include planting evidence, cooking police reports, perjury, harassing citations and character assassinations — all standard fare of the wannabe para-military force in blue and black and its conduct towards the threat.

Noor apologized to the Ruszczyk Damond family at his sentencing.

"For the first time, Justine Ruszczyk Damond’s father is speaking out about an apology from the man who shot and killed her," reports WCCO.

Continues the report:

John Ruszczyk sat down in her native Australia to speak with Australia Broadcast Corporation to respond to what happened last week 9,000 miles away.

'I can’t apologize enough and I will never be able to make up the loss I caused for Miss Ruscyczk’s family,' Noor said.

'What happens in that station house that they tell you, "Whatever you do, you have to make sure you come back home," but don’t they say, "Whatever you do, don’t kill someone,'' Ruscyczk said.

Amid his sorrow, Rusczcyk says he has found a depth of comfort during his visits to Minnesota along the shores of Lake Harriet from strangers who approach him praising Justine.

'Those people made me aware that they cared that Justine had been taken from us, taken from me, our family and from everyone because she was such a bright light, she was such a good person,' Ruscyczk said. 

People do care.

Not the police.

Mr. Rusczcyk is right. 'Sorry about that' doesn't cut it.
 ---

Image by Sir Jamesb007d @JamesB007D

We should bear in mind this character of the police as an audacious defamation case, Colborn v. Netflix Inc (1:19-cv-00484) District Court, E.D. Wisconsin, makes it way through the federal court system this Summer, (see PacerMonitor and CourtListener).

Manitowoc County Sheriff Lt. Andrew Colborn (ret) was party to a frame-up scheme against Steven Avery, featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer.

Now, Colborn has added an argument in his suit to eviscerate First Amendment protections of citizens and the press to criticize public conduct of public officials and public figures, as exemplified in the landmark New York Times v Sullivan (1964). See Mal Contends.

The case will likely fail on either procedural grounds or the merits.

That an ex cop is even attempting to eviscerate core First Amendment rights after framing an innocent for murder is telling. Morally, Noor and Colborn are identical.

According to Colborn's novel theory of libel law underlying his evolving complaint, any public official performing his public duties, criticized at a public trial, has a basis for civil action if journalistic and political speech criticizing the official's public conduct does not comport with a cop's self-serving portrayal of his public performance.

U.S. Dist Judge Pamela Pepper was assigned as presiding judge on April 5 for all further court proceedings.

This is not creeping fascism; it's galloping fascism.

Jurists such as Judge Pamela Pepper, and James Friedman — representing Netflix, Inc and Making a Murderer creators, Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos — are what stands between this constitutional republic and a police state.

Madness of Minneapolis Somalians

Somalian supporters of the killer, Mohamed Noor,
say Noor is the real victim, No words of protest
have been uttered in support of Noor's innocent victim,
Justine Ruszczyk Damond. A community rallying
around a depraved killer points to the inescapable
conclusion that among the Minneapolis Somalian community,
life is cheap. Photo by Evan Frost | MPR News

Updated - A Minneapolis cop, Mohamed Noor, was sentenced Friday for gunning down an innocent woman, Justine Ruszczyk Damond, in July 2017, a month before she was to be married, (Buzzfeed, Minnesota Public Radio).

Minneapolis cops worked quickly to cover up the horror but the killing proved too blatant for the cops to conceal.

Such conduct is to be expected from cops.

Even more jarring is the reaction from some in the Minneapolis Somalian community.

Somali Minnesotans claimed this Spring Noor was really innocent of the killing that he had admitted committing.

The conviction of this killer "sparked outrage by [Somalian] community members who believe the ruling [guilty verdict] will stop young [Somalian] people from pursuing law enforcement careers," reports The Grio.

What?

Put another way, Somalians plead for the right to kill with impunity.

At the sentencing on June 7, Somalian protesters held signs in support of Noor, with no signs of support for his victim and her family, (MPR).

The tribalism of of the Somalian community is so thick, one must believe Noor could do anything and still be celebrated by these goons' blood lust.

Noor has a documented history as panicky, violent and asocial, and this killer is the man whom the community celebrates.

How vicious is Mohamed Noor?

Just two months before Noor gunned down Ms. Ruszczyk Damond, Noor and his partner pulled over a car driver for an alleged traffic infraction of not properly signaling a turn, after getting stuck in an intersection by traffic, (City Pages). The two traffic citations were dismissed.

Noor and his conspirator just wanted to give a driver a hard time, harass him and cause him some grief.

The driver, Brian Oman, was lucky to have escaped with his life, (City Pages).

Both Noor and his partner, Justin Schmidt, would within a year kill a member of the public in two separate incidents.

At the assault on Mr. Oman, Noor stepped out of his car and immediately drew his pistol, walked over to the car where he pointed his gun at the man's head and then waved the weapon in a threatening manner for some 30 seconds. Schmidt had his hand on his gun — ready to shoot and kill Oman for any or no reason.

"In the lead up to Noor's murder trial [of Ruszczyk Damond], prosecutors referred to this May 2017 traffic stop as an example of what they called 'prior acts of recklessness,'" notes Minnesota Public Radio.

Noor's May 2017 victim, Mr. Oman, filed a civil rights complaint in federal court, Oman v. Noor, Schmidt, City of Minneapolis et al, (0:2019cv01344).

It appears the lunatic in the White House is not the only cult figure who could shoot someone in cold blood without fear of losing support among his gaping, mindless acolytes.

Minneapolis Cop, Mohamed Noor, Is Admitted Killer of Innocent Woman—Now, Cops and other Supporters Say the Killing Merits Probation

Justine Ruszczyk-Damond was gunned down in cold blood
on July 15, 2017 by a Minneapolis cop, Mohamed Noor.
Minneapolis police have a message for the family of
Ruszczyk-Damond: We don't mind because you don't matter.

Update: Killer is sentenced to 12½ years.

Justine Damons’s father John Ruszczyk, in a statement read in court, asked for the maximum sentence and called her killing "an obscene act by an agent of the state."

"Justine’s death has left me incomplete — it is as if I have lost a limb or a leg,” he said in the statement. “I have lost my daughter, I have lost those private conversations over tea."

Noor said, "[M]y intent was to stop the threat," referring to Ms. Damond approaching the squad in her pajamas after she called 911 for help.

Damond and the police never exchanged words, though, as the depraved killer pulled out his pistol and shot her dead.
 ---
Madison, Wisconsin — Human garbage and ex-Minneapolis cop, Mohamed Noor, gunned down Justine Ruszczyk-Damond in cold blood on July 15, 2017.

Now, an eclectic group of dozens of police and other assorted idiots want the family of Ms. Ruszczyk-Damond to know a murdering cop's life is more important than his innocent victim's, (Minnesota Public Radio, Minneapolis Star-Tribune).

Noor admitted gunning down the unarmed woman who had phoned 911 out of concern she had heard an assault.

So, naturally Noor and his cop partner arrived and Noor shot Ms. Ruszczyk-Damond who had stepped out of her home and approached the squad while dressed in her pajamas.

After the killing, there was no indignation, no shock and no expressed moral objection from fellow cops towards Moor. Rather, Moor was urged to say nothing, the better to get away with gunning down an innocent woman in cold blood.

It's the way it is.

Hennepin County District Judge Kathryn Quaintance set sentencing for 9 a.m. June 7.

Cops Gun Down Minneapolis Woman; Bride-to-Be Killed in Cold Blood

Just another human being killed by police, (Facebook)

Rub-Out in Minnesota by Killer Cops

Yogi teacher was to be married next month

"Fuck police," says grieving son of a gentle woman who phoned police about a disturbance near her home, after which police shot her to death, (Facebook).

Reports Frederick Melo and Nick Woltman in the Twin Cities Pioneer Press:

Zach Damond, who identified himself in a Facebook video as the son of the woman’s fiance, said she had called police for help after hearing a noise near her house. In the video, which was posted Sunday to the Women’s March Minnesota Facebook page, Damond described the woman who was shot as his 'best friend.'

'My mom is dead because a police officer shot her for reasons I don’t know,' Damond said. 'These cops need to get trained differently. I just know she heard a sound in the alley, so then she called the police, and the cops showed up. … Next thing I know, they take my best friend’s life.'

In an email message on Sunday, Damond said, 'Tell people to call the police and demand answers.'

At a news conference Sunday afternoon, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges called on the BCA to share the details of the shooting as quickly as possible.

Police will kill for any or no reason.

Police are now working on protecting the killers, while the citizenry demands answers.

Wisconsin Rep Offers Self-Limiting Bill Guiding Cops to Preserve Life

Madison, Wisconsin — In the better-than-nothing-I-guess category comes a bill in the Wisconsin legislature suggesting in essence police employ measures not to kill people quite so often.

The police-please-stop-killing-people proposed legislative package is in memo form.

The memo is being circulated to Wisconsin Assembly members seeking legislative sponsors for what will be three separate bills. Legislators have until May 31 to sign on as sponsors.

Because the bills are drafted by a Democratic legislator, Rep. Chris Taylor, (D-Madison), the gerrymandered Wisconsin legislature controlled by Republicans will not allow the package to pass and most likely not allow a vote.

The bills themselves are self-defeating and self-negating reform.

The legislative package amounts to a tame set of proposed guidelines and principles that fail to address the reality that post-911 police act as occupying armies in communities and are allowed to kill, harass, abuse, arrest, fine amid myriad other police-state tactics against the citizenry committed by our friends in blue and military-black. (Think of a gang of anti-intellectual thugs with bad attitudes flying under the color of law with a siege mentality, lined up in opposition to people especially the darker ones.)

Consider not killing people, is the force of legislation.

Rep. Taylor's press release is reproduced below:

Rep. Taylor Announces Safe Communities Package
Legislation aimed at making law enforcement and community members safer

MADISON – Today, Rep. Taylor (D-Madison) joined legislative colleagues and community leaders to circulate legislation regarding law enforcement use of force principles, aimed at reducing incidents of officer-involved deaths and increasing safety for everyone in the community, including law enforcement.

Currently, law enforcement agencies are required to have a written policy on when force is used, but very little guidance is given about what should be in that policy. All of the policy recommendations incorporated in the legislation come directly from law enforcement professionals, including both individual officers and national groups and taskforces that have studied policing issues. Additionally, the Law Enforcement Standards Board (LESB) has indicated these principles are entirely consistent with the way law enforcement officers are trained.

A piece of the package would require a law enforcement agency’s use of force policy to incorporate that the primary duty of law enforcement is to preserve the life of all individuals, that deadly force should be used as a last resort, that officers should use skills and tactics that minimize the likelihood that force will become necessary, that if officers must use physical force, it should be the least amount of force necessary to safely address the threat, and that officers must intervene if they witness a colleague using excessive force.

“Adopting more specific use of force standards makes everyone safer,” said Rep. Taylor. “Departments around the country have seen quantitative success in reducing officer injury, the use of force, and officer-involved deaths. Having these principles, which are consistent with the way officers are trained, in a written policy, is important so that the community can see these critical pieces are an expectation.”

Other pieces of the package specify that at least 8 of the annual 24 hour officer training requirement focus on use of force options, emphasizing de-escalation. Additionally, the package directs the LESB to establish a model use of force policy addressing interactions with the mentally ill and other vulnerable populations. Finally, the package requires that a law enforcement agency’s written use of force policy be published online to increase transparency and accessibility.

“These are common-sense reforms that communities and law enforcement can agree upon to enhance the safety of everyone in the community,” said Rep. Taylor. “It’s time to move forward together.”

Cop Shoots Caretaker of Autistic Man Playing in the Street with Toy Truck

Dumb cop in North Miami shoots innocent man with hands
in air. Man is dressed in yellow shirt and black skin. Image
is from video seconds before dumb cop shoots black man.
(Miami Herald)

Another dumb cop shoots man
——————— Cop caught on cell phone video before he could
cook police report, lie his way out of shooting innocent man

In officer-involved shooting news this morning, an idiot with a badge shot a caretaker of an autistic man for being black.

The dumb cop used an assault rifle to shoot Charles Kinsey, (Miami Herald), after Kinsey tried to help an autistic man who wandered from a group home into an apparently deserted street in North Miami.

After being shot with the dumb cop's assault rifle, Kinsey asked the ass in blue, why. The cop replied, "I don't know."

The unidentified cop is on paid vacation, aka administrative leave, and will be cleared of any wrongdoing after an investigation is conducted by the Florida Office of State Attorneys.

A Florida website in the image below shows the State Attorney and staff attended a violence reduction meeting on November 18, 2105. The sub-headine reads: Miami-Dade Police Department.

Other municipalities are engaged in how-to-convince-the-police-not-to-shoot people clusterfucks, as many citizens now claim they should not be harassed, beaten, arrested, and killed.

No news on whether North Miami cops attended a violence-reduction meeting last year.

Blacks Did It

A black man affiliated and aligned with other blacks killed three Louisiana cops after the black openly disagreed on social media about the harassment and killing of blacks by cops, the corporate media reports this morning.

Different language used, but corporate coverage over the weekend of the massacre in Louisiana of three cops by Gavin Eugene Long is mindless blather, unburdened by facts.

White supremacists are quick to condemn Black Lives Matter and other assorted darkies, (U.S. Uncut). Can't those unpleasant blacks pipe down and we all come together in silence and prayer, with blacks living in their areas?

Moronic of course. And never think about the tenets behind society, certainly not police.

Others disagree.

"If police departments continue to use tactics that polarize communities against them, then we risk losing that consent and are always just one critical incident from a flashpoint," writes J. Scott Thomson, and Thompson's not even black, (The Marshall Project).

Spent much time in hyper-segregated Milwaukee in 2006-08 in both the black sectors and non-black sectors.

Told friends I thought Milwaukee was a tinderbox then.

Have to revise this hypothesis in light of the limitless capacity of our small urban and suburban societies populated by tame demands sustaining normally functioning institutions that support police-prosecutor states, and the related capacity of black and white and brown liberals to abandon institutional criticism and change, in favor of small police states counting on atomized and unthinking populations.

Stupidity of the American people lives forever in the present tense, and most black folks are just as shit-stupid as white folks in this respect of demanding nothing.

Jesse Williams' Historical Talk on Independence from Police Killing

Speaking Truth to Compliance

At the Black Entertainment Awards in late June, humanitarian award recipient, Jesse Williams, offered a compelling rebuttal to the police-need-to-kill-beat-and-arrest twaddle making the rounds in urban America.

Let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Jesse Williams:

Peace peace. Thank you, Debra. Thank you, BET. Thank you Nate Parker, Harry and Debbie Allen for participating in that.

Before we get into it, I just want to say I brought my parents out tonight. I just want to thank them for being here, for teaching me to focus on comprehension over career, and that they make sure I learn what the schools were afraid to teach us. And also thank my amazing wife for changing my life.

Now, this award – this is not for me. This is for the real organizers all over the country – the activists, the civil rights attorneys, the struggling parents, the families, the teachers, the students that are realizing that a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand if we do.

It’s kind of basic mathematics – the more we learn about who we are and how we got here, the more we will mobilize.

Now, this is also in particular for the black women in particular who have spent their lifetimes dedicated to nurturing everyone before themselves. We can and will do better for you.

Now, what we’ve been doing is looking at the data and we know that police somehow manage to deescalate, disarm and not kill white people everyday. So what’s going to happen is we are going to have equal rights and justice in our own country or we will restructure their function and ours.

Now… I got more y’all – yesterday would have been young Tamir Rice’s 14th birthday so I don’t want to hear anymore about how far we’ve come when paid public servants can pull a drive-by on 12 year old playing alone in the park in broad daylight, killing him on television and then going home to make a sandwich. Tell Rekia Boyd how it’s so much better than it is to live in 2012 than it is to live in 1612 or 1712. Tell that to Eric Garner. Tell that to Sandra Bland. Tell that to Dorian Hunt.

Now the thing is, though, all of us in here getting money – that alone isn’t gonna stop this. Alright, now dedicating our lives, dedicating our lives to getting money just to give it right back for someone’s brand on our body when we spent centuries praying with brands on our bodies, and now we pray to get paid for brands on our bodies.

There has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of. There has been no job we haven’t done. There is no tax they haven’t leveed against us – and we’ve paid all of them. But freedom is somehow always conditional here. “You’re free,” they keep telling us. But she would have been alive if she hadn’t acted so… free.

Now, freedom is always coming in the hereafter, but you know what, though, the hereafter is a hustle. We want it now.

And let’s get a couple things straight, just a little sidenote – the burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander.That’s not our job, alright – stop with all that. If you have a critique for the resistance, for our resistance, then you better have an established record of critique of our oppression. If you have no interest, if you have no interest in equal rights for black people then do not make suggestions to those who do. Sit down.

We’ve been floating this country on credit for centuries, yo, and we’re done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil – black gold, ghettoizing and demeaning our creations then stealing them, gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit. The thing is though… the thing is that just because we’re magic doesn’t mean we’re not real.

Thank you.

What Madison Can Learn from Baltimore

Undated family handout picture of Freddie Gray,
murdered by Baltimore Police (Baltimore Sun)

"Felony running" arrest of black man in Baltimore ends with near-severed spinal chord and death as noted by attorney Mary Koch, part of legal team representing the Freddie Gray family. I want know why"people think somehow it's not okay for a young man to run ... ." (Lawrence O'Donnell Show)

Baltimore — City officials suspended six police officers Monday as they investigate the death of a 25-year-old man who suffered a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody.

Freddie Gray had been hospitalized since his April 12 arrest and, according to his attorney, was in a coma when he died Sunday. On Monday, the mayor and police commissioner publicly pleaded for calm and promised a full accounting — an effort to keep Baltimore from becoming the latest flash point in disintegrating relations between police and communities across the country. (Hermann and Bui, Washington Post) ...

"It ain’t about being mad," Adrian Muldrow, vice president of the Baltimore City chapter of the NAACP, yelled to fire up the crowd. "It is about asking for

Baltimore? This is Madison, Wisconsin, with
an enlightened police force that Chief Mike
Koval described as "cordial" last week. In the
shot above just a bit more force and this
non-violent young protester could be the
recipient of police-inflicted fractured vertebrae.
Quite sure that would be good for a few
chuckles from Madison's finest.
Photo: Reproduced from video by
Leslie Amsterdam at SSWIDTMS.

justice."

The first thing Madison can learn from Baltimore and the Freddie Gray murder pertains to police: Madison police should do their killing of our citizenry behind closed doors with no on-lookers with cell phones.

Madison police officer Matt Kenny knows this lesson well, which is why—in part—we can expect no charges in Kenny's killing the unarmed Tony Robinson with five shots. (Ferguson, AP, The Grio)

I would reiterate that the greater Madison community cannot with any justice blame Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne when Ozanne clears killer Kenny in the coming weeks.

Ozanne can not fabricate evidence, and the evidence his office has by statute was gathered by the Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation led by an appointee of Republican Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, former district attorney of Waukesha County (R-White People). (Mal Contends)[Schimel was in the news again a couple of weeks ago for voting for an order banning the use of the words "climate change" in the offices of a Wisconsin state agency charged with state land management to the applause of a Scott Walker spokeswoman. (Roston, Bloomberg)]

As for the minority public anywhere, when you see the police: Take cover, run, and get near a trusted adult with a cell phone video. Mark Godsey posts other tips yesterday for innocent people to protect themselves from the police.

Godsey breaks down the non-legal, informal advice into six sections:

I. Have a Lawyer You Can Call

II. Don’t Talk to the Police

III. The Plea Bargain

IV. Be Ready for Trial

V. Shaken Baby/Child Abuse (Abusive Head Trauma)  [This requires special attention and treatment.]

VI. If You Are Wrongfully Convicted

As well, know the police have little to do with justice, though many police like to dispense their version of justice with deadly consequences, corrupt the judicial system, and for minor offenses determine a conviction. If you are harassed, consider yourself lucky. You were not killed.

In Tulsa, policing and killing blacks has become the new sport of wealthy campaign donors. (Love, The Grio)

That's the status of America, on a trajectory that ought to frighten every citizen.

Police lie on their reports, on the stand in the courtroom, and in dealings with the public. And police kill.

The Police Killed Him

Updated - "Last week I was in Madison, Wisconsin, where I was informed of the killing of Tony Robinson by a police officer. Robinson was high on mushrooms. The police were summoned after he chased a car. The police killed him. A month earlier, I'd been thinking a lot about Anthony Hill, who was mentally ill. One day last month, Hill stripped off his clothes and started jumping off of his balcony. The police were called. They killed him. I can't see the image of Tamir Rice aimlessly kicking snow outside the Cleveland projects and think of how little we invest in occupying the minds of children. A bored Tamir Rice decided to occupy his time with a airsoft gun. He was killed."

So notes Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic in a piece in mid-April, commenting on the already 100s of killings by police in 2015. [Update: New day, new police killing: See Sherman, Kaltenbach and Campbell, the Baltimore Sun with video: "What we know is that while in police custody for committing no crime — for which they had no justification for making the arrest except he was a black man running — his spine was virtually severed, 80 percent severed, in the neck area," attorney Murphy said. He called Freddie Gray's injuries "catastrophic."] Cops broke a 25-year-old man's spine virtually into two, he was killed.

Madison police chief Mike Koval ought to consider what police killing is the next time Koval opens his mouth.

Asks Coates: "[I]n this time of heightened concern around the policing, a more essential question might be, 'Were we justified in sending them?' At some point, Americans decided that the best answer to every social ill lay in the power of the criminal-justice system. Vexing social problems—homelessness, drug use, the inability to support one's children, mental illness—are presently solved by sending in men and women who specialize in inspiring fear and ensuring compliance. Fear and compliance have their place, but it can't be every place."

I would not look to police for answers. As an institution, police tend to be anti-intellectual, careerist and authoritarian in their psychology. And duplicitous and tribal.

This is because police departments are self-selecting, attracting someone capable and inclined to kill people.

This does NOT appear be lost on the folks who knew Tony Robinson.

Unfortunately, for Madison this fact does escape the police chief branding himself as reformist, now openly attacking a protesting community objecting to the police killing Robinson.

Wisconsin's Trial Run for New Law, Verdict Is In: Lives Are Cheap

Updated - The New York Times has a piece on the new Wisconsin law mandating outside agencies investigate cases of police shootings.

Erik Ljung has a video with the Times piece with compelling footage of community outrage against recent police killings of Paul Heenan (Schenider, The Capital Times) and Tony Terrell Robinson Jr. in Madison, Michael Bell in Kenosha (2004), and Dontre Hamilton in Milwaukee (Luthern, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; Mal Contends).

Killer cops in Madison, the most liberal city, notes Paul Gottinger in CounterPunch.

Writes Gottinger:

Since 1976 there has been 1,403 people convicted of a crime, sentenced to the death penalty, and then executed. This number is only slightly larger than the number of Americans killed by cops LAST YEAR ALONE.

Imagine if ISIS, or Black gangs were killing at this scale. What would the country’s reaction be?

Now we’re told to wait for the investigation of Robinson’s murder by the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation.

Acclaimed former Madison Police Chief David Couper (ret) has been writing about the police assaulting the citizenry as enemies residing in the occupied territories for decades. Stop the Killing—Now, writes Couper in a particularly incensed recent piece.

Blind faith in outside law enforcement investigators (the Wisconsin Department of Justice led by a Republican with a history of corrupt political action) gathering evidence on police killings is what we have now.

Considering the investigation into the police killing of Tony Robinson under 2013 Wisconsin Act 348, why not a new law mandating an investigative agency with subpoena power composed of civil liberty activists, retired law professors, legal journalists and other academics?

The reason is murderous police would not stand a chance.

Being Police gives police a license to kill, and prosecutors a (qualified) license to lie.

The Times piece asks: "As this Times video explains, it would be the first case to test how effective the new law is. Could it help provide a new faith in the justice system?"

No, no faith.

The law, 2013 Wisconsin Act 348, the Times cites is indeed on trial, but the verdict is in.

There won't be a prosecution.

Don't blame Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne for this, Ozanne can't make up evidence that won't be presented to his office.
 
The law needs to be expanded and police killings considered in an objective sphere of justice and truth.

The Wisconsin DoJ will present the results of its investigation into the Tony Robinson killing within two weeks.

Consider that Wisconsin and the nation will never get the facts from the tainted Wisconsin DoJ whom adults know are playing politics every bit as much as 'law enforcement' in what passes for a criminal justice system.

In America, lives and liberty are cheap in the eyes of police and The Prosecutor, as the jurist Robert Jackson noted some 75 years ago.

Stop the Killing, Pleads Police Chief David Couper

Madison, Wisconsin Police Chief
David Couper (ret)

Been reading Madison, Wisconsin Police Chief David Couper (ret) for some time, and I have never discerned such pain in his prose in his extensive commentary on policing.

"Stop killing the unarmed must be your first step — review your policies, review your training, review the tools of force you use, review your attitudes about people — listen to your hearts — you know this must stop," writes Couper. "I firmly believe that if today’s police officers look at this problem they will come to understand that the first step forward to restore trust and support of those whom they serve is to stop using deadly force on those who are unarmed."

His latest piece from Improving Police is reproduced below:

By David Couper

Looking back through a half-century of policing, the turmoil of the anti-war and civil rights years, the integration of women, people of color, and those with differing sexual orientations into our ranks, the excitement of putting into practice the new and exciting concepts of problem-oriented policing, getting close to, and working with, the people we served, and being able, from time to time to remain above the occasional and embarrassing times we were sullied by the graft, corruption, false testimonies and excessive force by fellow officers, I must say that the situation we and our nation’s police find ourselves in today is a new low.

Maybe it has been caused by the explosion of smart phones and social media, maybe people are not as respectful to police as they were in the past, but maybe it’s because police are taking the lives of too many people who are unarmed. The impact of this on our nation is enormous.

Is it a trend? We don’t know because police departments in our nation are not required to report these shootings. They are voluntary and some cities simply do not report.

Policing in America is at a tipping point. The number of police killings may be important, but the fact is that one mistake, one young person's life extinguished in circumstances many people think is outright wrong is one too many.

What can police do? The first step is to stop the killing. Yes, I am being harsh especially to those of you who, with great control in your own use of force, selflessly serve. But you know that policing is a field in which the behavior of a few impact your ability to do a good job and be trusted.

Stop killing the unarmed must be your first step — review your policies, review your training, review the tools of force you use, review your attitudes about people — listen to your hearts — you know this must stop.

The task of policing is a learning and teaching adventure about the proper handling of people. It is 90% relational and 10% coercive. I firmly believe that if today’s police officers look at this problem they will come to understand that the first step forward to restore trust and support of those whom they serve is to stop using deadly force on those who are unarmed. And coming to that understanding, and with the help of their communities, they can make the necessary changes and share the improvement steps they are taking with their communities.

If they [do] less, they will have failed to rebuild the trust that is absolutely necessary between police and citizens in a free society — and they must do it now!