"This is Not A Democracy" -- Minneapolis Cop Richard Walker to Derryl Jenkins, Unarmed Citizen, February 19, 2009
Minneapolis police chief Tim Dolan believes his first responding officer was correctly following procedures during a routine traffic stop where the officer, Richard Walker, alleges Derryl Jenkins, a citizen of the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, had been driving 15 mph over the speed limit at 3am on a Thursday morning. Jenkins refused any alcohol or chemical "interrogation" which could be used to bolster the Minneapolis Police Department's strong suggestion that Mr. Jenkins deserved the "thumpin'" he received at the hands of about six of Minneapolis’ finest.
In spite of Jenkins' refusal, the judge and prosecutor in the case both refused to let any charges stand against Jenkins given the seven stitches and probable facial fractures he received after he had been cuffed and tased multiple times.
I could almost be in agreement with Chief Dolan's assessment of his first responding officer with the exception of two minor details during what should have been a routine traffic stop. Issue one, the officer allowed the citizen's car door to be opened. While this might be good police work since it gives the officer even more access to a citizen's personal belongings and probable cause for a bigger arrest, it also opens the officer up to greater danger (as was the case here). On potentially slick ice on a February morning, this is possible evidence of testosterone poisoning and the youth of the responding officer.
Sometimes a citizen's window is stuck closed, but it should be policy to keep the citizen's door closed during a traffic stop, if at all possible.
The second issue just burns me up.
The responding officer, clearly and forcefully, informed Jenkins that, "this isn't a democracy."
No shit, Dick Tracy.
A responding police officer has a huge number of resources at his disposal before he even considers stopping a vehicle operated by you or me. He also has a variety of offensive and defensive weapons strapped around his waste, not the least of which is a fully-loaded semiautomatic pistol with as many as 18 rounds at the ready. And if the officer has access to their radio, they also have the benefit of every other on-duty police officer within driving distance.
No, officer, a routine traffic stop is not the place for a U.S. citizen to expect that there be a full complement of paper maché civil and constitutional rights to defend themselves with against your substantial arsenal of weapons, information and fellow police officers.
When I was a kid growing up in California, it was expected that we would be able to mouth off at police officers, to lie to them and even try to manipulate them. They had to take our misbehavior in stride because we, the people, had “rights.” My adulthood in Texas has meant an entirely different experience with law enforcement as I have heard the tales of officers who have been beaten, stabbed and murdered in routine traffic stops or calls to the homes of citizens under the presumption of innocence. I have become more conservative as I have aged, and I have become more skeptical of loud-mouths who scream, "victim," because they find a cop between themselves and the rest of us.
But the police chief under whom Officer Richard Walker, and certainly many of those who brutally beat Derryl Jenkins, was trained is now the police chief in my city of residence. Now I have a bigger dog in this fight.
I am absolutely sick and tired of being treated like a slave who serves as loyal subject and at the pleasure of some cadre of corporate kings in some far off, far-flung land. So if I, as a white Caucasian male, heard some smarmy-sounding, under-educated upstart inform me that I didn't live in a democracy, you can bet your mother's virtue I would have been after that cop's badge number and maybe even taken a poke at him myself.
But I am white and Derryl Jenkins is a black man. In some states in this disintegrating union, that means that I get to go home to my family after a routine encounter with a white man, while black men like Derryl Jenkins get dragged behind a pickup truck until their bodies are dismembered and their families do not know if all of the body parts were recovered in time for the funeral. And because I am white, if I were ever to be unfortunate enough to be elected as President of this disintegrating union, there would be no question but that my Secret Service detail would ensure that firearms and weapons of any kind would not become a part of my field of view either before, during or after I attended an event, public or private. But black men like President Barak Obama, apparently, do not receive the same consideration from their Secret Service detail.
The Minneapolis police officer was absolutely correct; this is not a democracy any longer. What the United States has become is a free-for-all where it is anyone's best guess what the rule of law is, what it means, who has the right to expect it and who, by God, has the right to enforce it.
If I am sober and in my right mind, I would not appreciate, nor would I likely graciously accept, anyone under the age of 40 informing me that I did not live in a democracy. I spanked my younger nieces and nephews for far less effrontery than that.
As a citizen of these United States, I am disgusted by the fact that the genesis of all this lawless behavior on the part of police officers had its genesis in an opinion written by an overweight, overeducated and highly amoral Supreme Court Justice who ruled in Bush v. Gore with an arrogant righteousness that, among other things, a United States Citizen could no longer count on a fair and reasonable interpretation of any law on the books, nor could we expect the stability of Juris Prudence. And, make no mistake about it, Justice Antonin Scalia ruled, and continues to rule, over even the Chief Justice of our current Supreme Court. I am insulted and disgusted by the mere presence of this Orson Welles wannabe on our nation's highest court.
But perhaps most of all, I continue to be disgusted by the cowardly, libertine behavior of our nation's leadership and the fawning, apathetic and humuncular behavior of our nation's citizens. We have truly gotten the government we deserve and, frankly, I am in awe of our abysmally low self esteem.
This is NOT a democracy,it is a representative republic. That fact does not justify beating the hell out of citizens of any color. As we morph into an absolute fascist dictatorship these unfortunate encounters will increase. Abuses by tyranical leaders or their enforcers is the reason our founding fathers insisted we be armed and ready to defend ourselves.
ReplyDeleteThe elite want us all dead. They do not respect the lives of police or citizens. A peaceful solution to the cleptocracy is getting farther from our reach.
Meanwhile, consider what 'our' military are doing and are causing to be done to perfectly innocent citizens of other countries, simply in 'our' interest of taking the resources that they have there.
ReplyDeleteBut because they aren't 'here' and aren't 'ours', we hear comparatively little about it.
HOW MANY millions have been actually killed and wounded elsewhere in our name by this alien régime who have taken charge here?
In the name of simple Justice, to the block with them all.
I think my concern that black men are treated more harshly than whites still stands...as well as the fact that the media adores stories that show black people being victimized.
ReplyDeleteWhile at a deep, spiritual level, Flak, you are correct, our feet are located in this soil. We need to deal with our sickness where the problem is. It is too late to fix what we've broken overseas.
The rich have determined that we will be in the firing line when those we have oppressed organize and come looking for revenge.
The Triad formula for the "War on Terror" was sought based upon the politcally incorrect term "Extremist"
ReplyDeleteThough originally pointed at the Islamic sect, the true term was meant to apply to anyone that opposes the UN based initiative.
The plan will run it's course with further false flag domestic incidents such as Murrah, Waco, Ruby Ridge etc. and tying in 911 connected the Islamic radicals with Christian radicals and will include the Constitutionalists, Animal rights-Green folks and anyone who defies the authoritarians.
Finally we will arrive at the same triad sysnthesis where there are only two parties. The compliant world citizen and the defiant free extremist.
PD - "Finally we will arrive at the same triad sysnthesis where there are only two parties. The compliant world citizen and the defiant free extremist."
ReplyDeleteYip. Right out of a science fiction book. Them that live under the protective "hood" with the artificial atmosphere, the ones who must speak to communicate and them that live in the vast woods, free from technology and able to comunicate with one another and all creatures of the woods without making even the slightest noise. The police from the hood go on daily raids to gather up new slaves from the woods. One day, one such slave meets his identical twin brother and they switch places so the one from the hood can escape to the woods. Once thee, he fraks out because he remembers how to "speak" without speaking, even though he grew up under the hood. Great stuff. Forgot the title. Damn. There's another one I'd love to have again. Takes place in a wine cellar in France.
Mr. V - "I think my concern that black men are treated more harshly than whites still stands…"
The way they treat blacks as dogs is not limited to blacks. US citizens who live permanently abroad and return to the US on vacation are dirt while foreign visitors are treated as Kings. Money cannot be the issue as both carry the same currency.
food for thought