Why I say "Not all cops": Systematic Racism by towards Minority Officers.

[ObsidianJones]

Black officers say Columbus, Ohio, police prejudice isn't limited to civilians: They're battling it, too | CNN

Eric Cornett had no choice but to leave the Columbus Division of Police after learning a White sergeant had called him the N-word and "monkey," and allegedly threatened to kill him, he said.

www.cnn.com

Eric Cornett had no choice but to leave the Columbus Division of Police after learning a White sergeant had called him the N-word and "monkey," and allegedly threatened to kill him, he said.
The CDP had proposed protecting his family by placing an empty police cruiser in front of his home, but Cornett, also a master sergeant in the Air Force Reserve, was often away, he said. More troubling was that the police sergeant, Eric Moore, had access to the police audio-video room -- with its GPS trackers and night vision goggles -- and had been investigated for trying to purchase a lightning link, which turns a weapon fully automatic, Cornett said.
"I'm receiving death threats by a young man who has everything he needs to 'take care' of me," he told CNN.
Cornett's detective duties -- hunting down murderers, rapists and other high-risk felons -- were dangerous enough without colleagues threatening him. He and his wife developed a plan to protect their special-needs son and began checking their vehicles for tracking devices, he said. His wife obtained a weapons permit.
Columbus, Ohio votes to pay $475,000 settlement to officer who says police force discriminates against its own
It all felt inadequate, he said -- a notion that was cemented when he shared his intention to retire with an internal affairs investigator, who asked, "Are you a dead man walking?"

In an email, Moore called the allegations against him untrue but said he wasn't authorized to speak to the media. The city attorney, two police spokespeople, three local union leaders nor the police chief responded to requests for comment. State union leaders referred questions to the local union.
According to a September 2014 internal memo to CDP leadership, Detective Wes Sorrell alleged Moore, his supervisor, was upset Cornett hadn't been disciplined for an email that Moore found offensive.
Moore referred to Sgt. Douglas Williams and Cornett by the N-word and said, "I need to take their monkey asses out back and kill them," says the memo, which Williams authored. When Sorrell questioned why Moore was angry with Williams, Moore replied, "If that monkey had taken care of the other monkey, this would have been taken care of," the memo says.
Cornett had served as Shaw's partner for more than 20 years. The day before Shaw applied for a narcotics post that would report to Moore, he was approached by internal affairs.
He had not heard Moore make derogatory comments, he told investigators, but he believed Moore had tried to scuttle one of his investigations because he is Black. He also had secondhand information Moore used racial slurs, "made racial jokes," and threatened to kill Cornett and Williams and put a tracking device on Cornett's car, according to Shaw's settled lawsuit. Cornett and Shaw also felt Moore had declined to give the best equipment to Black officers, they told CNN.
Later, in text messages, Moore referred to Shaw's and another Black officer's cooperation with internal affairs -- to which he shouldn't have been privy -- and blasted a third officer for playing both sides, the lawsuit said.
"He s**t on me and my team. That's worse than what the brothers did. I expect that out (of) them," Moore texted, according to the lawsuit. He then warned that Shaw and two other officers "better not take my job," referring to the narcotics post, the lawsuit says.

Moore later told internal affairs that "brothers" referred to Sorrell and other officers, who called themselves "brothers in Christ," but an investigator "did not find this explanation to be credible and thought ... that it was a racial reference," the lawsuit says. Sorrell told CNN he had never referred to himself or coworkers as "brothers in Christ."
During the investigation, Moore said Shaw had accused him of being racist and "all this nonsense," and he didn't understand why Shaw would want to work for him, the lawsuit says.
"I probably had a few beers in me, and I was a little angry and upset and probably said some things I shouldn't have -- I mean, clearly," the lawsuit quotes Moore as saying.

Sorrell, who is White, also reported Moore was misusing CDP equipment and bilking the city for time he hadn't worked. A 2015 internal affairs summary found Moore had misused equipment, was deceptive with investigators, filed bogus overtime slips, used racially derogatory language, disobeyed an order and failed to "fairly and equitably" fill the narcotics post -- but ruled the allegation of threatening Cornett and Williams was "not sustained."
Moore was terminated, then reinstated after arbitration almost two years later.
Internal affairs found, too, that Sorrell had misused equipment and failed to report Moore's misdeeds in a timely manner, the summary says. Sorrell told CNN that Thomas Quinlan -- then a deputy chief who was named police chief last year -- had warned him if he pursued his complaint, he'd face allegations of failing to report Moore in a timely manner.
Sorrell's badge and gun were taken -- an act of retaliation for speaking out, he said. He spent his last three years at CDP head down, trying not to attract attention. Colleagues treated him like a snitch, he said. When retirement day came, he leapt at the opportunity.
"If you come forward about stuff, they're going to find something about you and attack you," Sorrell said. "The whole atmosphere at Columbus police, in my 25 years there, it is a really big deal to report somebody, another officer. It's pretty much known that if you do that, you're going to be the rat and it's not going to go well for you."

Former officer Kevin Morgan, 47, who is Black, says White CDP officers often get passes when allegations are sustained. Black officers tend to get hammered, he said.
Morgan was relieved of duty then fired in 2015 for allegedly accepting pay for shifts he hadn't worked. The veteran patrolman denied the allegations, and a prosecutor declined to pursue the case against Morgan, saying, "There was no way to disprove any claim by Officer Morgan that he had, in fact, worked other days and hours," his federal lawsuit says.
While under investigation, Morgan was placed in "580," where Sorrell spent two months after his fall from favor. It's a sort of purgatory for accused and injured officers. During his 21 months there, he said, Morgan learned of White officers accused of far worse than he, including a lawman who, outside his jurisdiction, pulled his gun and badge on a man who dinged his wife's car door. The officer pleaded guilty to attempted unlawful restraint and paid a $50 fine.
"If it was someone of my color, they'd have hung. It'd been over with," Morgan said.

Lt. Melissa McFadden is the CDP's highest-ranking Black woman, one of two Black women holding her rank, and has spent the last two years waging a public battle against her employer. She was fighting on the low before that, she told CNN.
She's written a book filled with anecdotes and statistics, earning her friends and enemies -- not that she's worried about the latter. She was green, still in training when she first called out a fellow officer for conducting illegal searches 23 years ago. She's used to being persona non grata, she told CNN.
"Not only did I learn that I would be resisting a rampant coverup culture, but I was also forever tagged as the poster child for going against the status quo," she writes in "Walking the Thin Black Line."
She's faced petty name-calling and bogus allegations since joining the CDP and has become fearless in filing grievances, she said. The crux of her 2018 lawsuit stems from helping another Black woman who felt a White sergeant was discriminating against her.
In March 2017, several months after assisting with the officer's grievance, McFadden learned her White commander was asking officers to file complaints against her, she said. At least four obliged, making unfounded allegations about acts of discrimination -- ranging from a few months to 10 years prior, but none was punished like Sorrell for delays in reporting, McFadden said.
An investigator ruled "none of the allegations could be proven individually, but when taken together they were true," she wrote, and McFadden was stripped of her supervisory role and placed in the property room where she was ordered to re-outfit about 1,000 old bulletproof vests and remove insignias from old uniforms -- an assignment "well beneath my training and capabilities," she wrote in her book.

It was summed up best in the article that "If this is how they treat their colleagues, how are they treating their communities?"

I'm harangued by certain forum members because they see me as casting aspersions on police officers. They cite that officers are just reporting facts, and that there's no reason for me to doubt the reporting police's words. That they will be fair and honest.

Did they report this malfeasance? It had to be exposed. We have to get whistleblowers to know what our own police force is like. What they do to each other. How many other stations is this replicated in? How can you trust someone in a position of power that seems to hate you just for being? And how can you trust a force of these people who do everything in their power to protect the offenders and punish the victims?

In short, many turned their backs on the Church because it was exposed that some of the churches (not all) were covering up for Pedophilia and abuses against children that are unspeakable. Why is there not the same amount of doubt and anger when we constantly find more and more police officers who are abusing not only their communities, but their fellow officers as well? How many bad apples can we pick out before we start wondering what's going wrong with the Orchard?

 

[Gergar12]

Hey, my city. Also, the reason I avoid the city core.

 

[Seanchaidh]

Alright, I broadly agree with the content of the OP, but I don't actually see a reason in there to say "not all cops".

 

[Iron]

A conspiracy theory, as always. This is an example of worker's solidarity from the policemen.
Systemic racism is a conspiracy theory as well. It's absurd to believe there is a conspiracy between all people of the same race to oppress another group. Same goes with the concept of Patriarchy, all simply conspiracy theories, that rely on shoddy science and personal experiences.

 

[Buyetyen]

rely on shoddy science and personal experiences.

That aside, the sort of practices described in the OP are exactly why I don't trust any cops, regardless what they look like. I can't trust any enforcer from a system that corrupt.

 

[Iron]

View attachment 1508

It's funny you don't understand what you're saying, and you've just copied my arguments from elsewhere in a childish tantrum.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Surprised it's taken so long for this stuff to come to light. Then again, a culture more invested in covering up their own dirt than protecting citizens equally would naturally be stamping out and on any hint of inside critical oversight, especially from those the culture already considers "lesser."

 

[Thaluikhain]

It's absurd to believe there is a conspiracy between all people of the same race to oppress another group.

It's possibly for that reason that nobody acknowledging the existence of systemic racism pretends it's that.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

It's funny you don't understand what you're saying, and you've just copied my arguments from elsewhere in a childish tantrum.

When you interpret



As "childish tantrum" ... then that's 100% projection, kids!

 

[Xprimentyl]

Hey, my city. Also, the reason I avoid the city core.

Hey, mine too! In Texas now, but O-H...! (I will await your obligatory response.)

A conspiracy theory, as always. This is an example of worker's solidarity from the policemen.
Systemic racism is a conspiracy theory as well. It's absurd to believe there is a conspiracy between all people of the same race to oppress another group. Same goes with the concept of Patriarchy, all simply conspiracy theories, that rely on shoddy science and personal experiences.

You... can't be serious.

Need I remind you that the Civil Rights movement was a mere 60 years ago? That people who immediately "benefited" from (as well as those perturbed by) it are still alive today? That that was a time when being black was so criminal, police organized with weapons, dogs, fire hoses and the rule of LAW to rail against it? And you think at some point in such recent time the switch of racism was flipped to the "off" position, and any systemic prejudice just went away? That in no way, the institution of law enforcement has felt hobbled and their authority encroached upon and has since found ways to exercise that old authority disguised within the guidelines of the now? That the literal institutions of "white power" willing ceded their seat once we as a nation agreed on equality?

Save you accusations of "conspiracy" to flat earth and fake moon landings; trivializing the real life experiences of millions of people is exactly the face of the problem you so readily dismiss.

 

[Houseman]

trivializing the real life experiences of millions of people

There are five examples in the OP of this topic, not millions.
I think he's just saying that 5 examples is not evidence that there is a problem everywhere.

 

[CaitSeith]

There are five examples in the OP of this topic, not millions.
I think he's just saying that 5 examples is not evidence that there is a problem everywhere.

Sorry, care to remind us how many examples of police violence towards black people did the OP post in the old forums?

 

[Houseman]

Sorry, care to remind us how many examples of police violence towards black people did the OP post in the old forums?

Iron is not a legacy member, so how would he know about everything the OP did in the old forums?

Every post doesn't have to be some kind of "gotcha!"

 

[CaitSeith]

Iron is not a legacy member, so how would he know about everything the OP did in the old forums?

With the help of the other members of course! Through cooperation we reach the truth.

 

[Xprimentyl]

There are five examples in the OP of this topic, not millions.
I think he's just saying that 5 examples is not evidence that there is a problem everywhere.

My point was dismissing systemic racism as a "conspiracy" is dismissive of the reality of people who're raised and taught that arms of the law will treat them differently because historically (and presently,) they HAVE. But you knew what I meant, and just wanted to be contrary and find flaws in sound logic because of reasons. Good for you.

 

[Houseman]

is dismissive of the reality of people who're raised and taught that arms of the law will treat them differently because historically (and presently,) they HAVE

You mean people who are raised and taught to be prejudiced against the cops, further perpetuating the cycle of violence between cops and black people?

 

[Xprimentyl]

You mean people who are raised and taught to be prejudiced against the cops, further perpetuating the cycle of violence between cops and black people?

I'm not even going to dignify the complete and total ignorance of that metric fuck-ton of stupidity and insensitivity with a response. We're done here.

Wow, still on the first page of the thread; this might be the quickest I've decided I've had enough of you. Good for me!)

 

[SupahEwok]

Wow, still on the first page of the thread; this might be the quickest I've decided I've had enough of you. Good for me!)

 

[ObsidianJones]

Surprised it's taken so long for this stuff to come to light. Then again, a culture more invested in covering up their own dirt than protecting citizens equally would naturally be stamping out and on any hint of inside critical oversight, especially from those the culture already considers "lesser."

I'm the opposite. I'm surprised it comes to light at all most of the times. People try their damnedest to excuse and/or bury when police officers commit malfeasance.

There are people here crying Conspiracy theory... When the officer in question admitted that he did it, and excused it on being 'angry and drunk'.

Look. I don't drink. So I don't know how much of an excuse that actually can be. But I've been angry before. At many different people. And I never looked at a woman while I was angry and went "BY THE WAY, THIS CURRENT RAGE HAS COMPELLED ME TO TELL YOU THAT YOU'RE LESSER THAN ME BECAUSE OF HOW YOUR BODY IS COMPRISED JUXTAPOSED MY OWN!!!!".

I never went to anyone's race, creed, gender, sexuality, religion or lack their of when I was angry at them. So it's beyond me when people state they only did it because they were mad.

I'm not even going to dignify the complete and total ignorance of that metric fuck-ton of stupidity and insensitivity with a response. We're done here.

Wow, still on the first page of the thread; this might be the quickest I've decided I've had enough of you. Good for me!)

Any growth is growth. It's welcomed and appreciated.

 

[SupahEwok]

Look. I don't drink. So I don't know how much of an excuse that actually can be.

As someone who drinks: it doesn't.