For golf fans and others who have expressed widespread outrage over Scottie Scheffler’s arrest and are suddenly examining how police departments operate and how some of them, geez, abuse their power… for those fans who now realize that cops can go too far… to people who ask in disbelief how you can discipline a cop numerous times and still be a cop… to those who digest how some cops are on power trips. ..well, to all of you, I say: Welcome to the party, friend.
Actually, welcome to America. If it took what increasingly looks like a sketchy arrest of a rich, super-powered golfer for you to stop for a moment and examine problematic police culture, I’ll take it.
If there’s a benefit to Scheffler’s arrest, it’s that it makes people who otherwise wouldn’t think about, or believe in, police overreach think about it, even if just for a millisecond. It’s also perfect that the police department under scrutiny is the Louisville Metro Police Department, one of the most historically notorious in the country.
The video released by police last week only heightened suspicions that something was wrong with Scheffler’s arrest. The most recent video shows Scheffler attempting to enter a parking lot when he is encountered by an officer who stops him. The two talked and eventually took Scheffler out of the vehicle and handcuffed him.
The arresting officer, Detective Bryan Gillis, said he was giving instructions to Scheffler and alleged that Scheffler “refused to comply and accelerated forward” in his car. The officer maintained in an incident report that he was dragged to the ground.
Louisville police officer reprimanded for failing to activate body camera in Scottie Scheffler incident
Something may have happened out of camera range as there are buses blocking part of the view. It’s also possible that what the officer describes happened before both men were within range of the camera. Perhaps there is another video of Scheffler doing what the officer alleged he did.
However, the chance of those things happening seems small. One thing to note is the reaction of the other people, presumably other police officers, in the video. They don’t seem alarmed. They especially don’t seem to have witnessed anyone being dragged next to a car.
Steve Romines, Scheffler’s attorney, reiterated after the video was released that his client was not at fault. “Our position is the same as (after the arrest), Scottie Scheffler did nothing wrong, we are not interested in solving the case,” Romines said. “Either we try or he will be discarded.”
Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said the department was disciplining the officer for not having his body camera activated. It was actually a big deal that the officer didn’t do it and the reason is because of a woman named Breonna Taylor. You should say her name.
This is where everyone who is new to some police work should pay attention. If you don’t know the reputation of Louisville police, you should.
The department’s current body camera policy was initiated in 2020 after officers shot and killed Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, during a botched drug raid. At the time, plainclothes police officers serving a court order were not required to wear body cameras. The new policy required all officers to turn on their cameras “prior to participating in all police activities and encounters.”
“After the recent past, activating body cameras is critically important for our police department to have evidence, maintain community trust and be transparent,” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said at a news conference last week .
The “recent past” Greenberg was referring to was obviously the Taylor murder.
None of this is to say that Gillis exaggerated what happened. We don’t know if that’s true. We may suspect, but we don’t know. Also, no one compares what happened to Scheffler with what happened to Taylor. Nobody is that stupid.
It’s about culture. If it turns out that the charges against Scheffler were overblown, no one should be surprised, given the terrible history of Louisville police. And not only them. Police departments across the country.
The entire Black Lives Matter movement centers on police abuses, and its impact spread to nearly every sector of American culture, including the WNBA and NFL. The protests after Taylor’s murder, and also after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officers four years ago last Saturday, helped reshape the national conversation about race. Many of the protests were multicultural.
But there was a segment of people who did not care about the protests and were even hostile towards them. Falsely claiming they were mostly violent (they weren’t). Blue Lives Matter emerged as a disgusting derivative of Black Lives Matter. An extremely pro-police, believe-the-police-at-all-costs narrative emerged on the right, and I can see a universe in which some of the people now expressing the most outrage at Scheffler are unable to see the irony of their current position. compared to the past.
After Taylor’s murder, the Department of Justice released a scathing report on Louisville police stating that they were engaged in a pattern and practice of violating people’s constitutional rights, particularly those of black citizens.
“For years, LMPD has practiced an aggressive policing style that it deploys selectively, especially against Black people, but also against vulnerable people throughout the city,” the report says. “The LMPD cites people for minor offenses like swerving and broken taillights, while serious crimes like sexual assault and homicide go unsolved.”
The city and police are negotiating a consent decree, a type of federal oversight, with the Justice Department. This is an extreme step used by the department for some of the worst police forces in the country.
So, again, welcome to those who are new to thinking about how some police officers operate.
Oh, and while you’re here, let me talk to you about racism and mass incarceration…
Keynote USA
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