|
Post by Admin on Nov 30, 2014 22:54:52 GMT
The white police officer who resigned almost four months after fatally shooting a black teen, setting off months of sometimes violent protests in Ferguson, Mo., was not asked to leave — but "it's best that we continue to move on as a community," Mayor James Knowles said Sunday. Knowles said Darren Wilson, who was earning about $45,000 a year, was given no severance when he resigned Saturday, effective immediately. Wilson, 28, had been on paid administrative leave since shooting Michael Brown, 18, following a brief confrontation on a Ferguson street Aug. 9. A St. Louis County grand jury declined Nov. 24 to indict Wilson on any charges in Brown's death, sparking more protests. Knowles said at a news conference Sunday that the city of 21,000 will fund police academy scholarships aimed at increasing minority representation on the city's force of more than 50 members. Recipients will be required to work on the Ferguson force for at least two years after graduation. All but a handful of Ferguson officers are white; the city is predominantly black. Knowles, who is white, said the city will increase its stipend -- to $300 per month, up from $100 -- for officers living in the city, and will start a police explorer program in schools to give students a chance to meet and interact with police officers in a friendly setting. "We are committed to rebuilding the city and to once again become a thriving community for economic development and residential stability," Knowles said.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Dec 1, 2014 22:49:48 GMT
President Barack Obama asked federal agencies on Monday for concrete recommendations to ensure the U.S. isn't building a "militarized culture" within police departments, as he promoted the use of body cameras by police in the wake of the shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri. Obama spoke after meeting with mayors, civil rights leaders and law enforcement officials at the White House to discuss a recently completed review of federal programs that provide military-style equipment to local police departments -- such as the kind used to dispel racially charged protests in Ferguson after Michael Brown was shot dead. Although Obama didn't call for those programs to be pulled back, he said there was a need to create accountability, transparency and trust between police and the communities they serve. "This is not a problem just of Ferguson, Missouri. This is a national problem," Obama said. In tandem with the meeting, the White House announced it wants more police to wear cameras that capture their interactions with civilians. The cameras are part of a $263 million spending package to help police departments improve their community relations. Of the total, $74 million would be used to help pay for 50,000 of the small, lapel-mounted cameras to record police on the job, with state and local governments paying half the cost. Pushing back on concerns the task force would be all talk and no action, Obama said this situation was different because he was personally invested in ensuring results. He said young people attending the meeting had relayed stories about being marginalized in society and said those stories violate "my idea of who we are as a nation. "In the two years I have remaining as president," Obama said, "I'm going to make sure we follow through."
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Dec 3, 2014 22:43:27 GMT
The heavy police presence here is practically invisible, and the boards covering the doors and windows of local businesses along Florissant Road are brightly painted with slogans of hope and unity. A week after protesters flooded streets following a grand jury's decision not to indict white officer Darren Wilson who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, burning and looting buildings and turning the community into a police state, it's as if all the ugliness has faded away. Except it's there, bubbling just beneath the surface. "I hope the worst is over, but that doesn't mean it is," said Elena Vo, whose family owns the New Chinese Gourmet Restaurant a block away from the Ferguson police station. "I have a feeling this is only the beginning," Vo added, noting the shootings that have occurred in other parts of St. Louis in recent days. "It's only a matter of time before the next town gets boarded up." There's a massive racial divide in this country, and not enough people are willing to really talk about it. Oh, there's no shortage of folks willing to spew hate and venom. Check out the comments on the Facebook page of Jared Cook, one of five St. Louis Rams who came out for Sunday's game with his arms raised in the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" gesture. Within hours, the St. Louis Police Officers Association registered a complaint that was as petulant as it was scathing. Cook posted one of the (many) hateful messages he got on Facebook, calling the tight end a racial slur and using an expletive. It wasn't any better on the other side. Attila said he was spending 20 minutes every hour deleting inflammatory messages and foul language on his Facebook page, and a small group gathered outside his bar Tuesday night to accuse him of being a racist. "We have a communication problem," Attila said, sighing. And it will continue so long as we refuse to acknowledge that all of our worlds are colored by the color of our skin. Just because it's not your reality doesn't mean it's not real.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Dec 4, 2014 22:55:13 GMT
A Staten Island grand jury on Wednesday declined to indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed man who was killed this summer when an officer used a chokehold to restrain him. “The grand jury kept interviewing witnesses but you didn’t need witnesses,” Garner’s widow told the New York Daily News this afternoon, referring to the fact that her husband’s death was caught on camera. “You can be a witness for yourself. Oh my God, this shit is crazy.” Attorney General Eric Holder announced Wednesday the Justice Department would launch a criminal civil-rights investigation into Garner’s death. U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, who has jurisdiction over Staten Island, will oversee the probe. President Barack Obama recently named her to succeed Holder as attorney general. Lynch has experience with police brutality cases; she was one of the attorneys who prosecuted New York officers in the 1997 broom-handle assault on Abner Louima. “Since the death of Eric Garner in July, our office has monitored this case closely,” she said in a statement. “The investigation will be fair and thorough, and it will be conducted as expeditiously as possible.” It’s not clear how long it will take; an investigation is still pending into the death of Michael Brown, the 18-year-old who was shot dead by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Pantaleo could face federal criminal charges. In 1998, police officer Francis Livoti was convicted of violating Anthony Baez’s civil rights in a 1994 chokehold case and sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison. He had been acquitted of criminal charges by a state judge.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Dec 5, 2014 22:46:54 GMT
Protesters across the nation swarmed city streets on Thursday to voice outrage and their demands for police and judicial reform in the wake of Eric Garner's death and the refusal by a grand jury to indict the officer who put a chokehold on him. From One Police Plaza in New York City to Oakland, Calif., and from Chicago to Savannah, Ga., people unhappy with the lack of an indictment in the July death of Garner, 43, stopped traffic and staged "die ins" in which groups of people lay down on sidewalks or floors. The protests were mostly peaceful. Protesters communicated and shared photos of their efforts and emotions on social media, making #ICantBreathe a trending hashtag. On a cellphone video of the chokehold incident in Staten Island, Garner, an asthmatic, is heard saying "I can't breathe" at least eight times after Officer Daniel Pantaleo administered the chokehold. A grand jury's decision last month not to indict the police officer in that incident set off the national wave of protests, prompting many to question the way grand juries conduct themselves and the U.S. justice system overall. In Chicago, protesters sprinted across the Dan Ryan Expressway, briefly blocking traffic, and also marched in Chicago's Loop. In Washington, D.C., marchers moving near Union Station chanted, "No justice, no peace," and even made their way through a Wal-Mart, prompting security to briefly prevent anyone else from entering the store. Police arrested four people, all on misdemeanor charges, including obstructing traffic, reckless conduct and threatening to hit a police officer, the Chicago Tribune reports.
|
|