Brutally Honest Rant - 05/23/07

Brutally Honest Audio Rant: GOOC Special – Police Abuse
Audio Transcripts
05/23/07

[Start Program]

(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – “American Idiot Remix” – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)

Good evening and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

A couple of months back I was talking about how I was going to bring an old series back to this rant.

Back in the days when I was doing a live weekly broadcast for the Talk Liberty Network I had an ongoing series called “Government Out Of Control” which dealt with issues of abusive government activities, whether they are abuses by politicians, judges, or police officers. They represent the government, they cause irreparable harm to innocent people, and they are quite often above reproach. Even when caught or exposed, any punishment they get is miniscule compared to the overall damage and destruction that was caused in their wake.

Now I’m not saying that under certain extreme situations some bending of the law can’t happen. CERTAIN circumstances require it. But bear in mind that we are dealing with an institution – government – that is based on the same principle of infallibility as religion. It can NEVER be wrong! EVER! Even and especially when it really IS wrong and has DONE wrong!

That’s why when the government actually DOES wrong it is far more destructive to a free society than any terrorist attack or any crime spree. A terrorist can blow up a building, but a corrupt government destroys the very foundation of society.

Now there are two ways of dealing with these abuses. The first is in simply letting them happen and hoping that you never have to deal with something like it. That’s how enslaved people living in tyrannical countries operate. The other way is to let people know about these abuses, and let them get pissed off enough to FORCE accountability.

And that brings us to our little grand jury of public opinion… a special grand jury of public opinion that focuses on exposing those abuses, much like how prosecutors use their own grand jury system to indict others. We are not here to determine guilt or innocence… we are here to indict or not indict the parties involved and let the true court of public opinion determine the rest.

So let’s call this public grand jury to order…

(GOOC Theme)

Tonight I don’t have any specific case to hand to the grand jury of public opinion, but rather a general theme of gross police abuse spanning several major cities.

First up: Atlanta, Georgia.

For the past few months there has been an ongoing investigation into the death of 92-year old Kathryn Johnston. Johnston was surprised in the early-evening hours by three men wearing masks who barged into her house claiming to be police officers. This was a standard ploy for criminals in that part of the city, and many homeowners of all ages fell victim to it. So she was prepared. She stormed out with her legally-obtained handgun and let out one shot.

Unfortunately for her, the three men who barged in were REALLY police officers who were acting under a no-knock warrant. Johnston’s one shot didn’t hit anyone. THEIR shots, on the other hand, turned her into 92-year old Swiss cheese. She was probably dead long before her body hit the ground.

There’s just one problem… their warrant stated that there were drugs on the premises. That was the whole point of the raid. There were NO DRUGS. The officers SWORE on their statements that they had an informant who purchased drugs. That informant would later admit that not only did he NOT purchase drugs, but he was told by the officers to LIE about it! Oh the officers did say that they found drugs in the residence… but not the drugs that were described in their statement or by their fictional witness, and it later turned out that those drugs were planted afterwards BY the officers to justify the armed invasion and the murder of an innocent woman!

This was a serious and malicious abuse of police power, and all three officers involved have been indicted, and two of them have already struck plea deals that will give them only ten years in prison instead of life. The third officer’s criminal trial has yet to begin.

Now in case you think that this was an isolated incident of cops gone wrong, there was ANOTHER case just like this that happened two months previously. In that particular situation an 80-year old woman living alone was also accused of selling drugs. She was also raided by police officers acting under a no-knock warrant and wearing masks, and she also brandished a gun to defend herself. Only in this situation, her gun was a cap pistol and the police officers had enough sense to let her stand down before it became a tragedy. Again, information for the warrant was falsified and no drugs were ever found.

But here’s the thing… the officers involved in this case were NOT the ones who stormed in and murdered Kathryn Johnston two months afterwards.

So the problem here is symptomatic of the drug squad, if not the entire department. You have outright lying to justify a raid. That’s called perjury, and it is supposed to be a criminal offense when you’re talking about a legal affidavit, which is what a search warrant is based upon. When cops bring that warrant before a judge they have to swear under penalty of perjury that the information in that affidavit is true!

Now, while you’re pondering that situation, let’s bring up the second city: Chicago, Illinois.

Chicago PD seems to have a pest problem. They seem to be infested by punch-happy goombahs that aren’t afraid to beat the crap out of innocent people to get what they want.

Once the surveillance video of a drunken officer was shown beating up a helpless 26-year old female bartender, other similar incidents started coming out. Police Superintendent Philip Cline resigned and several other police officers have been suspended or demoted not only for these abuses but also for how the initial assault against the bartender was being handled. They also seem to have a pretty poor record of handling claims of police abuse.

One incident caught on tape can be written off as being just a bad cop. SEVERAL incidents, some of them also caught on tape… well that is a serious personnel problem. There’s a serious image problem when you have citizens calling attorneys to report a crime instead of dialing 9-1-1, and that is supposedly happening in the Windy City.

And now I bring to you the third city… Los Angles, California.

The recent May Day demonstrations on behalf of illegal aliens brought some uninvited guests… the same mysterious gang of third-party rioters that seem to show up every time there is a liberal-run protest in certain cites. They didn’t show up in every city that had a May Day protest, nor do they show up for every protest, but when they do, it is usually for a liberal cause, not a conservative one, and it is always justification for the police to break up that protest.

And this year, unlike others, the LAPD decided to attack ANYONE that stood in their way. It didn’t matter if they were participants, bystanders, or even reporters doing their jobs. If you were in front of that police officer, you were seen as and treated as the enemy.

Now in previous years, any time there was a protest in Los Angeles, the reporters were given a safe area to be in that they knew that the police would leave alone. This was part of an agreement made back in 2002, but for whatever reason, this year there was no safe area. The police even herded the fleeing crowds through one broadcast location during a live broadcast and injured several of the employees of that station in the process. If you watch the video, then you realize that this was done deliberately, because you cannot miss seeing that broadcast setup! It stands out like a sore thumb.

It was by far one of the worst cases of abuse of power that was publicly displayed in that area in forty years. No less than 60 police officers have been suspended over this incident. The FBI is now officially involved. Needless to say, the investigations on this are still pending, and the lawsuits have already been filed by the busload. The taxpayers are going to pay through the nose over this one, although it remains to be seen if any real justice is going to come out of it.

Now in case you’re wondering where I’m going with all this, here’s the point: in each of these situations, and many others like these, there is one common element between them. A general attitude that perverts any kind of government, any kind of essential government institution… and that attitude can be summed up with just one sentence…

“Get it done, I don’t care how.”

Let’s get brutally honest here… in EVERY town, city, state, or federal government, in every agency where there is abuse of power, you’ll find some administrator… some government wonk with some modicum of power or authority… who says those exact same words to others.

“Get it done, I don’t care how.”

Someone told that to the Atlanta Police Department concerning drug arrests. Doesn’t matter who said it. It could be the chief, a precinct captain, a department head, a city councilman, or even the mayor herself. SOMEONE told the police officers that they wanted to see more arrests, no matter what it took. Step on toes, bend the rules, it doesn’t matter to them. The ruining of innocent lives is irrelevant to them. The death of innocent lives doesn’t matter. They just want to see numbers, and that is what they got.

As far as I am concerned, that unknown “SOMEONE” should also be held accountable for the death of Kathryn Johnston. He or she was just as guilty as the officers who pulled the trigger, because THAT was the reason why those officers broke the law repeatedly and put themselves in a position where they would have to murder an innocent woman whose only crime was to defend her home against intruders.

Someone told the Chicago police officers that same message. They said to go ahead and BE aggressive. Be demanding. Be no different, no better than the brutal muggers, killers, and rapists that you’re supposed to be getting off the streets. If you have to be a punch-happy goombah and beat up innocent people for no damn reason, then go right ahead and do that. We don’t care. We only care about results.

Someone told the LAPD to go empty out the park on May Day from all of the illegal alien supporters. They didn’t care how; they just wanted it done. And the media? Poor planning as far as they were concerned. “Oops!”

Come on guys, it’s not like Los Angeles has never known what a protest looks like! This particular group has been having these kinds of protests every year for a couple of years now. And the LAPD hierarchy should know above any other municipality what happens when you get caught acting like a bunch of storm troopers in front of the media. The name “Rodney King” quickly comes to mind.

It is this political attitude that needs to be indicted. This blasé attitude from those in government that actually ENCOURAGES lawlessness from those whose very purpose is to maintain law and order. And then they wonder why street gangs and organized crime manage to get a foothold in society! At least with the criminals you KNOW what to expect!

There is one thing that separates the good guys from the bad in our society, and that is that the good guys are supposed to follow the rules. Granted, quite often the rules suck, and that some extraordinary situations require a bending of some rules. But those need to be the absolute rare EXCEPTIONS, NOT the means to fill some artificial quota or to placate the bloated egos of career politicians. The three examples I gave to you tonight were clearly NOT extraordinary situations!

You know, we turn on the TV and we see programs like “The Shield” and the old “NYPD Blue” and we see cops breaking the rules. And maybe sometimes we cheer them on because we only see them going after the bad guys. We don’t see them beating the crap out of little female bartenders, or lying to get a search warrant just so they can break into some old woman’s house to fill a quota. The INNOCENT people don’t get hurt by bad cops on TV, unless of course the writers need it as part of the storyline.

But the real world is not like TV, and the consequences of bad cops in the real world have SERIOUS long-term effects for the community. And it is not enough to go after the bad cops… we need to also go after that blasé attitude from those in government that fosters the bad cops, encourages their behavior, and ultimately justifies their criminal actions.

(Computer – some timely things)
(Fade Music In – “Mythodea” by Vangelis)

As I was working on this rant, there was update on the Kathryn Johnston case that should be noted. Last night, Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington announced that he has decided to reassign ALL of the Narcotics officers to different assignments. Over 140 officers are involved, including all of the supervisors.

That’s good, but it’s still just a drop in the bucket. If the blasé attitude that fostered the bad behavior is still inside the APD, then all you’re doing is moving the bad officers to another department to destroy their credibility. Imagine having to deal with those cops when it comes to your parking ticket, or a DUI stop. You really think you’re going to get a fair shake with them? If it is outside the APD, then the new officers to that department will soon come to think that this is the status quo and they’re back to square one all over again.

The message needs to get sent to everyone in the APD that what was going on in their drug squad was criminal, unacceptable, and would not be tolerated AT ALL by anyone in any department.

And by the way, this shuffling around should also not be used as a substitute for the rest of the investigations and any subsequent criminal indictments and convictions. Perjury is STILL illegal and for the sake of the credibility of every police officer in the whole metropolitan area, the officers who committed that perjury still need to be prosecuted and taken off the force.

(Pause)

Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production; all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!

(Fade out)
(Computer – Ending/“End of Recording”)

[End of program]
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