ktlight
7th June 2011, 09:32
FYI:
In the face of widespread corruption and police murders – a $75,000 investigation finds the Modesto police to be without fault.
In a move unsurprising to many, a five-month investigation into brutality and corruption of the Modesto Police Department has exonerated local law enforcement of any wrong doing. The investigation was launched to look into charges of police brutality that steamed from a series of leaked emails by both former and anonymous police officers claiming that the beating of suspects was common and that higher-up police, including Chief Harden, knew about the violations.
The “findings” of the investigation come at a time when former Stanislaus County Sheriff’s detective Kari Abbey is charged with “second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter along with conspiracy, embezzlement, cultivating marijuana, receiving stolen property and child endangerment, according to a criminal complaint.” More sinister, is the charge that Kari and her Haywood police boyfriend evicted people from their rentals for Abbey’s landlord parents. Several Modesto police officers also face ongoing charges ranging from drunk driving, spousal abuse, and taking drugs from evidence.
And just as the investigation into the Modesto police began at a time of increased police shootings and accusations of abuse and corruption, the day the report was released to the public, local police again made headlines another fatal shooting. Police shot and killed Jermey Atkinson after responding to an armed robbery at a store on Coffee road on May 24th. During a chase of Atkinson, police claimed that he reached into his waistband and they fired in self-defense. Later, according to the Modesto Bee: “A knife was found near the body of the man shot by a Modesto police officer last week, and the loaded rifle police say he used to rob a convenience store was recovered in a nearby field, police said Tuesday.”
Again, like a mantra, we hear the police repeating the same line over and over again. A suspect “reaches for their waist-band” and the officers “fearing for their lives” shoot them in self-defense. Only later it turns out that the suspect is armed with only a spatula – or no weapon at all.
The investigative report, issued by a Palo Alto based lawyer, which cost tax-payers $75,000 (on top of the nearly $100,000 for police accreditation), concludes that there is not a problem with rampant police brutality or corruption. The report issued by Robert Aaronson claims that the series of emails issues about ongoing brutality are unfounded, based largely on interviews with police officers. He also cites the shooting death of Francisco Moran, claiming that officers shot Moran in order to protect “his family members and themselves,” only later discovering that the weapon he was pulling from his pants was in fact a spatula.
source for more to read
http://revolutionarypolitics.com/?p=5754
In the face of widespread corruption and police murders – a $75,000 investigation finds the Modesto police to be without fault.
In a move unsurprising to many, a five-month investigation into brutality and corruption of the Modesto Police Department has exonerated local law enforcement of any wrong doing. The investigation was launched to look into charges of police brutality that steamed from a series of leaked emails by both former and anonymous police officers claiming that the beating of suspects was common and that higher-up police, including Chief Harden, knew about the violations.
The “findings” of the investigation come at a time when former Stanislaus County Sheriff’s detective Kari Abbey is charged with “second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter along with conspiracy, embezzlement, cultivating marijuana, receiving stolen property and child endangerment, according to a criminal complaint.” More sinister, is the charge that Kari and her Haywood police boyfriend evicted people from their rentals for Abbey’s landlord parents. Several Modesto police officers also face ongoing charges ranging from drunk driving, spousal abuse, and taking drugs from evidence.
And just as the investigation into the Modesto police began at a time of increased police shootings and accusations of abuse and corruption, the day the report was released to the public, local police again made headlines another fatal shooting. Police shot and killed Jermey Atkinson after responding to an armed robbery at a store on Coffee road on May 24th. During a chase of Atkinson, police claimed that he reached into his waistband and they fired in self-defense. Later, according to the Modesto Bee: “A knife was found near the body of the man shot by a Modesto police officer last week, and the loaded rifle police say he used to rob a convenience store was recovered in a nearby field, police said Tuesday.”
Again, like a mantra, we hear the police repeating the same line over and over again. A suspect “reaches for their waist-band” and the officers “fearing for their lives” shoot them in self-defense. Only later it turns out that the suspect is armed with only a spatula – or no weapon at all.
The investigative report, issued by a Palo Alto based lawyer, which cost tax-payers $75,000 (on top of the nearly $100,000 for police accreditation), concludes that there is not a problem with rampant police brutality or corruption. The report issued by Robert Aaronson claims that the series of emails issues about ongoing brutality are unfounded, based largely on interviews with police officers. He also cites the shooting death of Francisco Moran, claiming that officers shot Moran in order to protect “his family members and themselves,” only later discovering that the weapon he was pulling from his pants was in fact a spatula.
source for more to read
http://revolutionarypolitics.com/?p=5754