{"id":8832,"date":"2013-02-15T11:29:52","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T18:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?p=8832"},"modified":"2013-02-15T11:55:34","modified_gmt":"2013-02-15T18:55:34","slug":"cops-heroes-or-sociopaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/cops-heroes-or-sociopaths\/","title":{"rendered":"COPS: Heroes or Sociopaths?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mainstream Media’s Portrait of a Reformed LAPD<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Rania Khalek<\/p>\n

\"raniakhalek\"<\/a>

Rania Khalek<\/p><\/div>\n

Since the manhunt for former police officer turned cop-killer Chris Dorner started, the establishment media has expressed shock and confusion at the level of animosity directed at the Los Angeles Police Department. Some have even equated this animosity with support for Dorner\u2019s killing spree.<\/p>\n

In a piece titled \u201cFugitive\u2019s Rant Puts Focus on Evolving LAPD Legacy”<\/strong>, the Associated Press\u00a0reports<\/a>, that Dorner\u2019s vendetta \u201ccomes at a time when it\u2019s widely held that the police department has evolved well beyond the troubled racial legacy of Rodney King and the O.J. Simpson trial.\u201d And what is the evidence for this apparent evolution? It\u2019s that \u201cWhites now make up roughly a third of the department and, while under federal authority, LAPD moved to require anti-gang and narcotics officers to disclose their finances and worked on new tools to track officer conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AP should tell this to the family of 36-year-old\u00a0Jose de la Trinidad<\/a>, an unarmed Latino father of two who was shot dead in November by two Los Angeles Sheriff\u2019s Deputies.<\/p>\n

The Sheriff\u2019s department tried to cover it up, claiming that the officers opened fire because de la Trinidad reached for his waist to obtain what they believed was a gun, [Furtive movement!<\/em>] unaware a nearby resident saw the entire thing from her bedroom window. She told investigators de la Trinidad was complying with police orders, his hands over his head and his back turned, when he was shot several times in the back, execution style. Police initially denied they ever interviewed the witness until they were grilled by the media and forced to admit they did. [The interview consisted largely of efforts to get the witness to change her account of the incident.<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Additionally, de la Trinidad\u2019s autopsy report was released last week showing he was, indeed, shot in the back. His death leaves behind a wife, Rosanna, and two daughters ages 3 and 6. Three days after her husband was killed, Rosanna\u00a0asked<\/a>, \u201cHow am I supposed to explain to my daughters that their father was murdered by the police, the people who they are supposed to go to for protection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps Rosanna\u2019s daughter\u2019s will feel better knowing, as the AP so kindly reminds us, \u201cWhites now make up roughly a third of the department” or, while under federal authority, LAPD moved to require anti-gang and narcotics officers to disclose their finances and worked on new tools to track officer conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps southern California law enforcement may be more racially diverse, but their culture of violence towards poor black and brown communities hasn’t changed, nor has the \u201ccode of silence\u201d protecting trigger-happy officers who are rarely disciplined for their actions.<\/p>\n

For example, nothing has happened to the eight LAPD officers who fired more than 90 rounds at unarmed 19-year-old\u00a0Abdul Arian<\/a>\u00a0as he ran away following a car chase last year. \u00a090 rounds!<\/strong> An LAPD internal probe deemed the 2010 police killing of Steven Eugene Washington, a 27-year-old unarmed autistic black man,\u00a0justified<\/a>\u00a0as well. The LAPD officers who in 2011 shot and killed 25-year-old\u00a0Reggie Doucet<\/a>, naked and unarmed, were also\u00a0cleared of any wrongdoing<\/a>. The LAPD has yet to release the name of a man who officers shot and killed in October as he was\u00a0handcuffed and lying on the ground face down<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In each of these cases, police claimed the suspect was reaching for his waistband (except in the case of naked Reggie Doucet who they say reached for the officer\u2019s gun) and, like magic, their actions were justified.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the LAPD\u2019s recent scandal involving an elite gang unit promoting brutality and celebrating shootings. Last year, the\u00a0Los Angles Times<\/em>\u00a0outed the existence of the \u201cJump Out Boys<\/a>\u201c, a secret group formed by seven LA Sheriff\u2019s Department deputies and, according to\u00a0Voxxi<\/a>, \u201cprides itself on aggressive policing, much of it in Latino communities, branding its members with matching tattoos of a red-eyed over-sized skull bearing the clique’s acronym and a bony hand holding a revolver.<\/p>\n

Though the seven officers are being fired, Voxxi notes that it\u2019s not \u201cfor any known criminal behavior but, apparently for tarnishing the department\u2019s reputation and unethical conduct at a time when LAPD is struggling through a federal investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no wonder poor communities and communities of color see the LAPD as a threat to be feared rather than the angelic department of do-gooders portrayed in the corporate media. Meanwhile, despite all the brutality, killing and cover-ups, the mainstream media can\u2019t seem to understand why a so many people dislike the LAPD even as they\u2019re being hunted by one of their own.<\/p>\n

This confusion is illustrated best by the AP [Associated Press<\/em>], which portrays a Facebook page as supportive of Dorner despite an explicit statement to the contrary:<\/p>\n

On Friday, a community of online sympathizers formed, echoing complaints against police that linger in some communities. One Facebook page supporting Dorner, which had over 2,300 fans by Friday evening, said \u201cthis is not a page about supporting the killing of innocent people. It\u2019s supporting fighting back against corrupt cops and bringing to light what they do.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is possible to both denounce Chris Dorner\u2019s actions while also acknowledging the many truths in his critique of the LAPD. The establishment media doesn\u2019t seem to get this. Instead, they see any agreement with Dorner\u2019s assessment as tantamount to backing the murder of police officers. This reporting bias is not only foolish, but also indifferent to the people who have suffered at the hands of police violence.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to attribute a shooting rampage to the lunacy of a deranged individual, which is largely correct. But, dismissing his motives ensures the systemic cultural factors that induced his cold violent desperate rampage will continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mainstream Media’s Portrait of a Reformed LAPD by Rania Khalek Since the manhunt for former police officer turned cop-killer Chris Dorner started, the establishment media has expressed shock and confusion at the level of animosity directed at the Los Angeles … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8832"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8835,"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8832\/revisions\/8835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}