Cops Killed Nearly 13 Times More People Than Mass Shooters
We cannot forget that too many cops are too quick to shoot! We need more emphasis and training on use of non lethal force: bean bags and stun guns.
This reminds me of a story I posted about a year ago showing that cops took 14 times more by “asset forfeitures” than was taken all burglaries one year!
Excerpts from the Article:
Mass shootings in the U.S. “have claimed the lives of 339 people since 2015,” which, while certainly egregious, is a mere drop in the bucket compared to the 4,355 citizens killed by police during the same timeframe, according to thefreethoughtproject.com.
There is no question that some of these people were armed and dangerous, but way too many were innocent and unarmed, such as Daniel Shaver, a father of three who was killed in 2016 by Philip Brailsford, who was charged with murder but eventually acquitted. In fact, he was allowed to retire from the Mesa, Arizona, police force with an accidental disability pension and medical retirement.
Meanwhile, “If we compare the 399 citizens killed by police in the same time frame, the comparison is off the charts. We are talking about a 1,280 percent difference.”
According to The Washington Post, 1,004 individuals were “shot and killed by police in 2019,” or 12 more than the previous year. In the U.S., “the overall homicide rate is 4.9 per 100,000 among the citizens,” thefreethoughtproject.com reports.
Thanks to independent watchdog groups that decided to document this number on their own, we have a total number of citizens killed by police. “Given that America has roughly 765,000 sworn police officers, that means the police-against-citizen kill rate is more than 145 per 100,000.”
This is reported at a time when violent crime “has fallen sharply over the past quarter century,” according to pewresearch.org. “Using the FBI numbers, the violent crime rate fell 49% between 1993 and 2017.”
However, the “police kill rate,” The Free Thought Project reports, “is nearly 30 times that of the average citizen, yet somehow people still call for disarming citizens and say nothing about the police.”
$12.6 Million Jury Award for Man Denied Medical Care Before Jailed
Who do you think pays the billions of dollars which cases like these cost taxpayers every year? YOU do. Demand that people responsible for preventable deaths like these be PROSECUTED!
Excerpts from the Article:
A California federal jury awarded $12,617,674 to a man who suffered brain damage after San Diego County sheriff’s deputies pulled him away from an examining paramedic and hauled him off to jail.
David Collins called 911 on November 18, 2016, while hallucinating in his home. Deputies Matthew Chavez, David Sanchez, and Steven Block responded to the call. After assessing the scene and Collins, they left. Shortly afterward, Collins went outside his home and fell inside a soft planter close to his residence. Neighbors called 911. A paramedic responding with the fire department was examining Collins when Sanchez, Chavez, and Block arrived at the scene. The deputies concluded that Collins was intoxicated and pulled him away from the paramedic, who had not completed his evaluation.
Collins’ civil rights complaint alleged that the paramedic found Collins was not intoxicated and that he had no injuries to his face when taken into custody.
Upon arrival at the Vista Contention Center, Collins “had a noticeable abrasion on the right side of his forehead, along with other scratches and bruising on his face. Nurse Jonathan Symmonds conducted the initial medial review and found no medical issues. He authorized placement into a holding cell where Collins fell, striking his head on the floor. Nurse Roela Carolino examined him and authorized Collins to return to the cell. Once again, he fell.
The result of the falls was a “brain bleed.” Collins was transported to a hospital where he was diagnosed with a brain hemorrhage, hematoma on his forehead, an altered level of consciousness, dehydration, and a dangerously low-blood sodium level. He was administered too much sodium too quickly, which increased the level of brain damage. Collins reached a settlement with the hospital and medical defendants prior to trial.
It was clear that the jury in its July 26, 2019 verdict felt deputies and jail personnel had a duty to assure Collins received care once he came into their custody. It assessed a percentage of 30, 16, 14 and 40 liability, respectively, against Carolino, Chavez, Sanchez, and Symmonds for the harm caused to Collins.
The jury awarded past economic damages of $71,519 for lost earnings and $256,185 for medical expenses; future economic damages of $1,100,318 for lost earnings; $3,189,652 in medical expenses; $500,000 for past physical and mental pain and $7.5 million in future physical and mental pain.
Collins was represented by attorneys Elizabeth H. Teixeira and Robert F. Vaage. See: Collins v. County of San Diego, San Diego County, California Superior Court, Case no. 37-2017-00028981.
The American Legal Industry -short essay by kra 3-31-20
This image pretty well sums it up. Did you know that for every 1 person arrested, 29 people make money?!
It is no wonder that all manner of people/groups spend BILLIONS of dollars annually fighting needed changes to our wildly screwed up justice system.
For them, it is merely job preservation.
Never mind that most of them don’t actually help anyone, (neither individuals nor society) that the system is so fucked up that thousands – yes, thousands – of innocent people are locked up, convicted, every year, that lives are ruined needlessly, families are torn apart, by imprisoning non violent offenders and the mentally ill …
READ How The War on Drugs Destroyed Justice = http://www.citizensforcriminaljustice.net/how-the-war-on-drugs-has-destroyed-justice/ = I remember when the system worked well; justice nearly always was the result. Today it is a total train wreck – perhaps the most vivid manifestation is that we are imprisoning hundreds of innocent people every year. This is WHY it is a train wreck! READ IT!
Prison guard unions, police unions, DAs’ Associations, private prison companies, the thousands of contractors who provide goods and services (most services – “programs” – are a joke, totally useless) to inmates and probationers [nearly 5 MILLION Americans are on probation – most needlessly!] … all these and more stand in the way of justice and of real progress! 🙁
But you can be damn sure of one thing: I’ll keep fighting, keep sounding the alarm. PLEASE DO YOUR PART AND SHARE THIS POST! Thanks.
Delaware to suspend evictions and foreclosure, move presidential primary
The criminal justice system and shitty lawyers are two big reasons why people cannot pay rent/mortgages. The system charges all sorts of “fees”, commissary prices are outrageous, lawyers charge an arm and a leg, only to fuck up the case or do nothing …. all of which preys on America’s poorest: families of inmates.
Excerpts from the Article:
Gov. John Carney has announced he is moving the state’s presidential primary from April 28 to June 2 due to the coronavirus. The update also moves school board elections across the state to June 16.
Additionally, as part of the modification made Tuesday to the existing state of emergency, the state will bar landlords from evicting or foreclosing upon individuals during the crisis. They are also forbidden from charging late fees or interest.
Utility companies cannot terminate services or charge late fees either, under the order.
“Delawareans have a basic, fundamental right to vote. Today’s order will preserve that right and allow Delawareans to vote by absentee ballot in the presidential primary on June 2,” Gov. Carney said in a statement. “The additional protections in this order are essential to help support Delawareans – especially our most vulnerable neighbors – as this situation evolves. This is an extremely challenging economic situation for many of our neighbors, and we need to do what we can to support them.”
Mortgage foreclosures that began prior to the state of emergency declaration will not move forward until the 31st day after it is lifted.
Federal prisons mark first virus death – And there will be Many More! – kra
Knowing how awful the “health care” is in our prisons, there will be many more deaths, in federal and state prisons.
If you have a loved one in any Delaware prison, make a note NOW to contact Steve Hampton if that loved one gets coronavirus in prison!
Excerpts from the Article:
The federal prison system has recorded its first death attributed to the novel coronavirus pandemic as criminal justice reform advocates and public health experts urge officials to consider releasing inmates to slow the contagion.
Patrick Jones, 49, was transferred to a hospital from a minimum security prison in Oakdale, La., on March 19, tested positive for Covid-19 — the disease caused by the virus — and was placed on a ventilator the next day, according to a statement from the Bureau of Prisons. Jones, who had “long-term, pre-existing medical conditions” that were considered risk factors for severe coronavirus illness, died Saturday at the hospital, the statement said.
Jones was serving a 30-year sentence for drug trafficking. After a jury trial in 2007, he was found guilty of possession with intent to distribute half a kilogram of crack cocaine within 1,000 feet of a junior college.
Attorney General William Barr last week directed the Bureau of Prisons to consider early releases to home confinement for prisoners at particular risk to the virus. However, he said anyone released as part of that review would be quarantined for at least 14 days in prison to prevent transmission of the virus into the community.
A tally by the Bureau of Prisons released Friday showed 14 federal inmates and 13 staff members had tested positive for the virus. There are about 175,000 inmates in the federal prison system.
The largest reported outbreak among an incarcerated population in the U.S. is at the Cook County Jail in Chicago, where 89 inmates and 12 staff members have confirmed cases of the virus.
Exposing Lancaster CA District Attorneys – Watch the Video! – kra
As a former prosecutor myself, I say LOCK THESE ASSHOLES UP!
Listen to the audio and hear them say that they do not care about guilt or innocence, only about getting convictions!
Where are the feds? The U S Attorney for this district, who should investigate and then PROSECUTE these maniacs?!
The Audio:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/?msgConversationId=6603027315616206848&msgOverlay=true&trk=false
WHAT A MURDEROUS, DANGEROUS IDIOT! tRump Ordered Crucial Medical Supplies Not be Sent to States Whose Governors Criticized Him!
He thinks everything, even a natural disaster, is political, tRump is dangerously deranged!
That fool in our White House actually tried to stop shipment of life saving medical supplies to Wyoming and to Michigan because the governors of those states had criticized his response to the crisis! He soon reversed himself on that, after the story broke.
FOLKS, if you don’t vote him out you DO need a good shrink!
You think this idiot can effect any meaningful criminal justice reform?! No way.
As one of our LinkedIn friends said: “The people of all states deserve better than this selfish, ruthless and immoral conduct by Mr. Trump.
I hope they will remember this in November”.
READ https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/27/coronavirus-michigan-gov-says-supply-orders-are-being-cancelled/ = Coronavirus: Michigan gov. says supply orders are being cancelled
President Trump publicly criticized Gov. Whitmer in a phone call Thursday with Fox New
and
https://www.propublica.org/article/heres-why-florida-got-all-the-emergency-medical-supplies-it-requested-while-other-states-did-not = Here’s Why Florida Got All the Emergency Medical Supplies It Requested While Other States Did Not
The Department of Health and Human Services has come under fire as several states’ requests for supplies from the emergency medical stockpile go unfulfilled. A chaotic distribution plan is buckling under a big problem: Nobody has enough.
Letter to the Editor – Alcohol is an “essential business”?- 3/28/20
This is One Way Alcohol Kills People
Letter to the Editor – Alcohol is an “essential business”?- 3/28/20
With virtually all businesses shut down, in Delaware and in some other states liquor stores remain open! Governor Carney, when asked about this, said that he had been advised that closing them might flood health care providers – at a time when all are needed to fight coronavirus – with problems due to those calling with withdrawal symptoms.
Symptoms of alcohol withdrawal can vary widely in severity. Symptoms may occur from two hours to four days after stopping alcohol, and they may include headaches, nausea, tremors, anxiety, hallucinations, and seizures. Although in severe cases, the condition can be life-threatening, in most cases the symptoms do not require medical attention.
Having a healthy skepticism of statements from politicians, I wonder whether liquor stores remaining open is linked to the fact that the alcohol industry spends tens of millions of dollars lobbying federal lawmakers and agencies each year. I cannot ascertain how much they spend in Delaware nor in any other state how much they spend lobbying state officials and donating to their campaigns, but you can bet it is a bunch!
Alcohol is, by far, the most harmful and most costly drug, harming individuals and society alike. Perhaps some good investigative reporting can examine whether it is more likely that liquor stores remain open because the main concern of too many politicians is their re-election!
Ken Abraham, former Deputy Attorney General, founder of Citizens for Criminal JUSTICE, Dover, DE 302-423-4067
What is Justice? “I don’t know” got me an A! My Three Word Answer – Essay – Only at Kenyon
Folks, I went to look for this story to respond to a question from someone, and could not find it! Computer organization is not my strong point: I AM computer “challenged”.
So I relate it here, with a title that will let me find it in the future.
Here it is … At Kenyon College, in my last semester of senior year the question on the final exam in one of my philosophy classes was: “What is Justice?”
I wrote the usual shit, what Aristotle, Plato, Socrates and others had to say about it. And then, as I sat there, after writing for about 40 minutes, I thought “What the hell, I already have been admitted to law school. The grade in this course is totally inconsequential – so I can get an F! Let’s have some fun.” So I crumbled up what I had written, got out a clean sheet of paper, and wrote: “This is my three word answer to your three word question: I don’t know.” And I turned that in when the bell rang.
Now, the professor did give me an odd look; he had seen me crumble up my paper – he couldn’t miss it, for there were only about 10 or 12 of us in the class, like most classes at Kenyon. But he said nothing when I turned in my answer. Now – Professor Shavzin was his name – this guy was a weirdo! All he did was think! He was one smart dude, for sure, but an odd duck – what we call today a “Geek”. I wondered whether he ever ate, for all he did was read, think, and teach!
Well, about a week later he announced: the person with the highest grade on the final exam is Kenneth Abraham. I about fell out of my chair. And he said “please see me after class, Mr. Abraham”. He had given me an A-. Those were the days before “grade inflation”, and an A- at Kenyon was unheard of! Nobody ever got an A. If you got a B+ in any course, you were “king of the hill”!
After class he pulled me aside and he said; You know, I had a hard time grading your paper; it took me quite some time to decide whether to give you an F or to give you an A-. I decided to give you an A-, for courage. Courage is important in this life.”
That’s the story. And he was right: courage is important. As I look back on my life, I realize that I fear nothing. Nothing. Never did. Odd, but that’s just me. It led me to take some stupid risks, but I survived.
Here is the “moral of the story” – occasionally take a calculated chance. Also, today I DO know the answer to that three word question. The answer is: “Justice is being FAIR”!
‘Disaster waiting to happen’: Thousands of inmates released as jails and prisons face coronavirus threat- Not enough! – kra
Having SEEN the abominable health care in prisons, their sloppy operations, and now getting emails and calls about the same every day, I can safely say that THOUSANDS of inmates will die needlessly. They should release all non violent offenders, and I see other solutions, but they will implement none of them.
As I have said so many times: for every 1 person arrested, 29 make money. That is why powerful groups [police unions, guard unions, prosecutors, and many others] spend billions of dollars lobbying to BLOCK needed solutions and reforms. For them, it’s job preservation.
You see, D O C staff and the “health care” providers do nothing right, so tests will not be done properly, areas will not be sanitized, and social distancing will not be maintained, as surely as I sit here! 🙁
Open “The Whole Story” to see where you can click to get updates on this issue!
Excerpts from the Article:
Amid fears that the coronavirus will carve a deadly path through prisons and jails, counties and states are releasing thousands of inmates — New Jersey alone began freeing hundreds of people this week — and the federal prison system is coming under intense pressure to take similar measures.
Public health and corrections officials have issued dire warnings that cramped and unsanitary conditions could turn prisons into a haven for the virus, endangering not just inmates but also corrections officers and prison health-care workers as well as their families and communities.
Criminal-justice reform advocates from across the political spectrum urged President Trump on Tuesday to use his clemency power to commute the sentences of inmates eligible for “compassionate release” and others who could be at risk, particularly the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions. “This is a real disaster waiting to happen,” David Patton, the executive director of he nonprofit Federal Defenders of New York, said Sunday, the day after the first federal inmate tested positive at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. “These are places that are particularly susceptible to contagion.”
Inside a county jail in Alabama on Friday, two inmates threatened to commit suicide if newly arrived Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees they feared had been exposed to the virus were not removed. According to video live-streamed on an inmate’s Facebook page, the two detainees stood on a ledge over a common area, nooses fashioned from sheets wrapped around their necks, and threatened to jump. “We’re not having no more people come in here with that symptom,” another inmate says in the video, which was obtained by The Washington Post. “We’re not trying to put no more lives at risk.”
The three new detainees had described being brought to the facility in the same van as an individual who was visibly ill and wearing a mask, inmates said in interviews with The Post. An ICE spokesman, Bryan Cox, said none of the three had flu-like symptoms, but he did not know whether they had been tested for the virus.
The hours-long standoff ended when guards moved the new arrivals to a different unit of the jail, the Etowah County Detention Center in northern Alabama, inmates said.
About 2.3 million people are incarcerated in local jails and state and federal prisons, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, an organization that opposes mass incarceration. Among them is Anh Do, 78, a former doctor who said he has coronary artery disease, hypertension and diabetes. Do, a Houston resident, was convicted in 2018 on Medicare fraud charges. In January, the Bureau of Prisons denied his request for compassionate release, which allows for home confinement of prisoners who are gravely ill.
“We are living three feet apart, in bunk beds, like a dormitory,” Do said in a telephone interview from a low-security federal prison in Seagoville, Tex. “I’m at very high risk. If one person gets sick, it’s like a death sentence in here.”
On Monday, 14 senators from both parties sent a letter to the Justice Department, which oversees the federal prison system, asking that it make full use of its power to release elderly, terminally ill and low-risk inmates to home confinement.
“We write to express our serious concern for the health and well being of federal prison staff and inmates in Federal custody, especially those who are most vulnerable to infection, and to urge you to take necessary steps to protect them,” the lawmakers — including Sens. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — wrote to U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr and Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal.
Advocates for criminal justice reform have been pressing the Justice Department to release more elderly and terminally ill inmates early since late 2018, when President Trump signed a law that expanded eligibility for home confinement.
The Justice Department has resisted those appeals. As recently as December, the department warned that prisoners who had committed serious crimes could be released if Congress passed a bill meant to expand the number of elderly prisoners eligible for release to home confinement.
But the immediate threat posed by the coronavirus has brought new urgency to the calls for releases.
In a news conference on Sunday, Trump said that he is considering an executive order that would free elderly nonviolent offenders from federal prison. “We have been asked about that and we’re going to take a look at it,” Trump said. “It’s a — it’s a bit of a problem. But when we talk about totally nonviolent — we’re talking about these are ‘totally nonviolent prisoners.’ We are actually looking at that, yes.”
The Justice Department in recent weeks asked Congress for discretion to release low-risk offenders to home confinement even if they don’t meet current eligibility rules, which allow inmates to spend the last 10 percent or six months of their sentence at home.
The department also asked Congress to prioritize the ordering of test kits and personal protective equipment for Bureau of Prisons employees — suggesting it is girding for a possible outbreak behind prison walls.
At the same time, the Justice Department is contemplating a scenario in which some inmates may actually remain in custody longer than they otherwise would while trials or other hearings are delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to proposals it submitted to Congress.
The bureau’s covid-19 plan, posted to its website, includes suspending social visits, limiting inmate transfers and screening newly arrived inmates for exposure risk factors and symptoms. In a letter Friday to prison leadership, a union representing correctional officers protested the continued transfer of inmates from county jails and state prisons into the federal system, saying it “poses a great risk” and that many inmates are from “hot spot” areas and could be contagious.
County and state facilities across the country are already racing to remove people from jails and prisons.
In Ohio, Cuyahoga County officials launched an early-release program two weeks ago after the county jail’s medical director identified hundreds of county prisoners with serious health conditions. The result: In a matter of days, the county jail population dropped from nearly 1,900 to less than 1,300. “We really compacted the time frame,” said Cuyahoga County Presiding Judge Brendan J. Sheehan. In the San Francisco Bay area, Alameda County officials last week released 314 people from the local jail. In Washington County, Oregon, outside Portland, more than 120 inmates were released from the local jail, freeing up enough space for each remaining inmate to stay in their own cell.
In Racine, Wis., Sheriff Christopher Schmaling has directed the local jail to stop accepting all new prisoners except those accused of violent felonies or of misdemeanor crimes, such as domestic violence, that pose a threat to public safety.
In Iowa, the state corrections department said it will begin this week to release about 700 inmates who were already deemed eligible for release by the Iowa Board of Parole.
And in Mercer County, in far western Pennsylvania, the county jail released 60 of 308 inmates — nearly one in five — to free up two cell blocks for the quarantine of anyone exposed or infected with the coronavirus.
“We’re not putting low-level punks in jail at the moment,” said Peter C. Acker, the district attorney.
Regardless, many advocates, defense lawyers and health and some corrections officials fear that inmates and prison workers across the country will die because releases have been too few and too late.
“A storm is coming,” Ross MacDonald, the chief medical officer for New York’s Correctional Health Services, which includes the notorious jail at Rikers Island, wrote on Twitter last week. “We have told you who is at risk. Please let as many out as you possibly can.”
Last Wednesday, one inmate and one corrections officer in the city jail system tested positive; by Saturday, that number had risen to 21 inmates and 17 employees, according to the city’s board of correction, warning that number was “certain to rise exponentially.” Dozens of others were being monitored for the disease, the board, an independent oversight body, said in a letter to city officials.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week that the city planned to release 40 vulnerable inmates, a number the board said was “far from sufficient.” On Tuesday night, de Blasio tweeted that he is moving to release 300 inmates immediately. Many inmates in the city’s jails are awaiting trial. As of Saturday, more than 900 of the jail system’s inmates were over 50 years old, according to board figures. Of those, nearly 200 were in for technical parole violations. More than 500 people were serving sentences of less than a year for low-level offenses.
“Responding to this epidemic, we should be aggressive in our efforts to make the jail smaller because that’s going to be safer for everyone,” Robert L. Cohen, a member of the Board, said in an interview.
The Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, the union for officers at Rikers, opposes the early release of prisoners but agrees that the jail is at serious risk of a disaster, according to spokesman Michael Skelly. The union is asking for more hand sanitizer, gloves and specialized face masks to protect officers from infection.
“The second-biggest jail system in the country is really at the precipice of a catastrophic event,” Skelly said.
According to criminal justice advocates, early-release programs have long faced resistance from the Justice Department. The federal Bureau of Prisons houses 187,000 inmates ranging from nonviolent drug offenders to white-collar criminals such as Bernie Madoff.
In 2018, the bipartisan First Step Act expanded the number of people who could qualify for early release into home confinement through the Elderly Home Detention Pilot. The law lowered the age of eligibility for the program from 65 to 60. It also increased the portion of a sentence that can be served at home from one-quarter to one-third.
The House passed legislation in December that would require the Justice Department to also use “good conduct time” in making that calculation, which would lead to earlier releases. As the Senate prepared to act, a Justice Department memo warned lawmakers that the measure would allow people who had committed serious crimes — including drug trafficking and fraud — to get out of prison too early. The bill remains stalled.
A politically diverse group of organizations that has been pushing for the House bill is now redoubling its call for early releases, arguing that it is a matter of public health as the virus bears down.
“This is life and death now. It is not about criminal-justice policy and whether you believe in second chances,” said Holly Harris of the Justice Action Network, an organization that advocates for criminal justice reform.
As of Saturday morning, the federal prison system reported that no inmates or staff members had tested positive for the virus. On Tuesday, the bureau said three inmates and three staff members had tested positive.
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