Earlier this week, Pete and Garret took a trip just north of the Police Accountability Tour stop in Chicago to followup on an incident in Skokie, Illinois that occurred this past Spring, but did not receive attention until earlier in October. On March 10, Cassandra Feuerstein of Chicago was arrested on a DUI charge in Skokie and was in the custody of the village’s police force when she sustained a serious injury to her face. Requiring reconstructive surgery, the installation of a titanium plate, and resulting in persistent numbness and vision problems, Cassandra sustained the injury as a result of being shoved face-first into a concrete bench by Skokie officer Michael Hart. Why was it that such a serious injury required seven months for there to be action taken?
Only after a civil suit was filed and the video of the incident released publicly was Michael Hart’s status with the department changed, as he was placed on desk duty. Following the video’s publication, there was public outcry for criminal charges to be filed, which they finally were approximately two weeks later. At that time, Hart was suspended, with pay, as the trial is pending.
The person responsible for prosecuting Hart is state’s attorney Anita Alvarez, who is infamous for both advocating the criminalization of video recording the police, as well as suggesting that three youths who had confessions coerced out of them and were exonerated for the rape and murder of a woman may have still been culpable despite DNA evidence tying the crime to a known serial murderer. One cannot expect a monopolistic service such as police and courts to police themselves, but it is clear from the rhetoric Alvarez and others involved employ that they cannot simply sweep the incident under the rug. (more…)
While Pete Eyre and I continue the 2013 Police Accountability Tour, updates from the changes at the Weare police department stream out of NH. The Concord Monitor has the story on WPD’s new police chief imported from New Haven, Connecticut, which was the subject of its own FBI raid in 2007. The Monitor story discusses some of the negative attention drawn to Weare police under the reign of previous administrations, wherein civilians were legally attacked and threatened with felonies for recording police. Multiple individuals have their own lawsuits against the department for the infringement on their right to document public officials.
Linked below is an update from myself and Pete produced shortly after touching down in Chicago, where our stay promises further adventures in accountability.
How many of us have been told by police employees that the reason they must take such aggressive actions is to “make it home to my family”? That mindset, according to Threat Management Center founder Dale Brown, is flawed. Instead, those tasked with protecting others – those who take a salary to do so, should have as their highest priority the safety of others.
Incentives matter. Police, as currently structured, will never provide protection, justice or be accountable. Dale Brown and his colleagues at Threat Management center are proving that these services are better supplied through consensual interactions.
RELATED RESOURCES
[website] Threat Management Center The objective of our organization is to make the world safer by denying the opportunity for violence to take place. By using tactical psychology, tactical law, and tactical skills, we create conditions which, by design, are not conducive for violence. V.I.P.E.R.S. Threat Management emphasizes the use of deterrence, detection, and defense to achieve non-violent outcomes.
[website] Police Accountability Tour The Police Accountability Tour, on the road from mid-August until December, will maximize police accountability by facilitating connections and collaboration among those who know that badges don’t grant extra rights, and through skill sharing and the capturing and dissemination of relevant content. This tour will help further connect individuals involved with Cop Block, Cop Watch, and Peaceful Streets groups as well as all police-watching groups and people around the world, so we can together advance a reality free from institutionalized violence. (more…)
On Sunday morning, a black Tahoe with IDEAS ARE BULLETPROOF and NO MASTERS NO SLAVES emblazoned on its sides, and COPBLOCK.ORG on its rear cruised out of Keene, New Hampshire, headed for the Motor City in Michigan. Piloting the truck, I was scheduled to pick up Pete Eyre from the airport that evening after the day’s ride West. Detroit is the sixth of nine cities being visited on the in-progress 2013 Police Accountability Tour. Pete and fellow videographer Jacob Crawford began the tour in Austin, Texas, at the Police Accountability Summit hosted by the Peaceful Streets Project. The tour continued in New York City before going global with an extended stop in Cape Town, South Africa. Returning to Jacob’s home town of Oakland, California, Pete continued solo on to Denver, Colorado before reaching our present location in Detroit.
Each city has its own unique issues with monopolist police services. Detroit is known for having a historically overzealous police force, which has been the subject of so many internal investigations that the US Department of Justice was tasked to oversee reformation efforts in the early aughts. Even with state and federal oversight of government mismanagement, the city is still plagued with some of the most violent neighborhoods in the nation, where many police officers refuse to patrol and 911 response times are disturbingly long, not uncommonly taking upwards of an hour. (more…)
Pumpkin Fest snipers? City government corporations? Robin Hood stealing from honest taxpayers? James and Garret break it down on this explosive episode of BSR. Show notes at BlackSheepRising.org
Garret Ean will soon join the nine-city, four-month Police Accountability Tour that aims to get folks on the ground better-connected, to share and facilitate the exchange of ideas and practices related to police accountability, and to ultimately erode the plague of police statism.
Garret is stepping-in for Jacob Crawford, who co-founded the tour with me a few months back based on discussions we had during the spring and while at PorcFest in June.
Jacob, a longtime Bay-area copwatcher who started WeCopwtach.org and who a decade ago made These Streets Are Watching, the first know your rights video using on the street (not dramatized) footage, needs to focus his attention on some police accountability efforts specific to the Bay. (more…)
she sustained a serious injury to her face. Requiring reconstructive surgery, the installation of a titanium plate, and resulting in persistent numbness and vision problems, Cassandra sustained the injury as a result of being shoved face-first into a concrete bench by Skokie officer Michael Hart. Why was it that such a serious injury required seven months for there to be action taken?
The person responsible for prosecuting Hart is state’s attorney Anita Alvarez, who is infamous for both advocating the criminalization of video recording the police, as well as suggesting that three youths who had confessions coerced out of them and were exonerated for the rape and murder of a woman may have still been culpable despite DNA evidence tying the crime to a known serial murderer. One cannot expect a monopolistic service such as police and courts to police themselves, but it is clear from the rhetoric Alvarez and others involved employ that they cannot simply sweep the incident under the rug. (more…)
Garret Ean will soon join the nine-city, four-month 
