The Truth About “Police Oversight Boards”

VIDEO SCRIPT

In early 2013, during the manhunt for Christopher Dorner, at least eight LAPD employees fired over 100 rounds into a vehicle that was a different make, model, and color than that said to be driven by Dorner. It’s occupants – two women, 47 and 71 years old, certainly didn’t match Dorner’s description, either. Still, those sitting on the LAPD oversight board ruled that the shooters involved would not be charged with any crimes.

These so-called police oversight boards — which are also called “civilian review boards” or “oversight commissions” — have been popping up where police brutality becomes really, really apparent. Today – that’s pretty much everywhere.

Oversight boards are staffed with local residents whose purported job is to reign in out-of-control police practices. The board members are — surprise, surprise — suggested and approved by a combination of the mayor, the city council, and the local police chief. In larger cities, individuals who sit on these oversight boards are even paid from taxpayer coffers, just like the police. And they tend to hold their meetings at police headquarters.

Without question, it is an incestuous relationship.

Bureaucrats get to look like they care about transparency while using police oversight boards to distract from the paradox inherent to the policing model – which is that a person who claims the right to initiate force could somehow also provide protection.

In New Orleans, after police employees shot and killed a couple of unarmed people from the Danziger Bridge and covered it up, an oversight board was created. In Oakland, after it was discovered that police employees there assaulted, planted drugs, and falsified reports as a matter of routine, another was created.

Yet, New Orleans and Oakland are still riddled with police brutality and chaos. The same is true in LA, Albuquerque, NYC, Cleveland, Detroit and elsewhere where oversight boards exist.

No matter how outspoken, how much impartiality is claimed, or how much authority is said to exist, oversight boards can never stop police brutality as their very existence gives credence to, rather than undermines, a system founded on coercion.

An oversight board, which merely hacks at the branches, cannot remedy the inherent toxicity, which is the root.

If the supply of “service” and “protection” from your local police outfit isn’t satisfactory, don’t give the prattle about the need for review boards a second thought. See through the slick salesmanship that only perpetuates an arrangement that places some as the rulers and others as the ruled.

Instead, focus on consumer-oriented solutions.

• Download the Peacekeeper app today to start connecting with people in your community to create emergency response networks and to skill share. These networks can virtually eliminate the need to ever call 911. Related link: CopBlock.org/Apps
• If you know of well-intentioned police or people considering the policing profession, suggest to them the business model of the Threat Management Center, where protection is actually supplied to customers based on consensual interactions. Related link: CopBlock.org/ThreatManagementCenter
• Furthermore, as police are funded via dollars, consider shifting your own activities to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Related link: CopBlock.org/Bitcoin
• And as always, make it a party by connecting with other CopBlockers in your area, or by starting a chapter yourself. You’d be surprised by just how many people know that Badges Don’t Grant Extra Rights. Related link: CopBlock.org/Groups

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RELATED RESOURCES

• Minneapolis cops rarely disciplined in big-payout cases http://startribune.com/local/minneapolis/209811991.html
• RAW FOOTAGE Eric Garner KILLED After NYPD Cop Puts Him In CHOKEHOLD https://youtube.com/watch?v=t5S2qRcO8Qw
• Building Trust Between the Police and the Citizens They Serve http://theiacp.org/portals/0/pdfs/BuildingTrust.pdf
• NOLA Killer Police Enjoy Macabre Support System https://youtube.com/watch?v=HepDuIXe9Hs
• NYPD Ignored Civilian Oversight Board in Choke Hold Cases, Report Finds http://newsweek.com/nypd-ignored-civilian-oversight-board-choke-hold-cases-report-finds-298711
• The National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement https://nacole.org
• New Release of Data from YJC on Law Enforcement Use of Force Resulting in a Homicide http://youth4justice.org/new-release-of-data-from-yjc-on-law-enforcement-use-of-force-resulting-in-a-homicide#sthash.xXVUL6cd.dpuf
• Post-Katrina Killings Paint Disturbing Portrait of NOPD http://copblock.org/post-katrina-killings-paint-disturbing-portrait-nopd
• Los Angeles Law Enforcement Officers Kill About One Person A Week http://huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/16/nearly-600-people-have-be_n_5831042.html
• Twelve years after the Riders, a long legal process is reaching its final stage https://oaklandnorth.net/2011/12/20/twelve-years-after-the-riders-a-long-legal-process-is-reaching-its-final-stage
• Danziger Bridge shootings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danziger_Bridge_shootings
• Citizen Review Boards – Helpful? A Distraction? Harmful? http://copblock.org/citizen-review-boards-helpful-a-distraction-harmful
• New York City paid $428mn in NYPD civil rights settlements http://rt.com/usa/195988-nyc-civil-lawsuits-millions
• Claims against the NYPD cost the city $212 million in 2014 alone http://msnbc.com/msnbc/claims-against-the-nypd-cost-the-city-millions-year
• Portland’s new community panel to oversee police reforms meets Monday night http://oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2015/02/portlands_new_community_panel.html
• Judge allows termination of Detroit Police Department’s federal oversight http://clickondetroit.com/news/judge-allows-termination-of-detroit-police-departments-federal-oversight/27715756
• New Orleans cops ignore federal oversight http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/4/13/doj-and-nopd.html
• Oakland police overseer Thomas Frazier fired http://sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-police-overseer-Thomas-Frazier-fired-5229818.php
• Washington: Federal Settlement Is Reached With Seattle Police http://nytimes.com/2012/07/28/us/washington-federal-settlement-is-reached-with-seattle-police.html?_r=1&
• Allen v. City of Oakland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_v._City_of_Oakland
• Justice Department report blasts Cleveland Police practices, seeks outside oversight http://fox8.com/2014/12/04/justice-department-report-blasts-cleveland-police-practices-seeks-outside-oversight
• Ferguson Mayor Announces Citizen Review Board for Police Procedures (Full Press Conference) http://mediaite.com/tv/ferguson-mayor-announces-citizen-review-board-for-police-procedures-full-press-conference
• Christopher Dorner shootings and manhunt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Dorner_shootings_and_manhunt#Truck_misidentification
• Police shooting at Redondo Beach man during Dorner manhunt was ‘reasonable mistake,’ DA says http://dailybreeze.com/general-news/20140114/police-shooting-at-redondo-beach-man-during-dorner-manhunt-was-reasonable-mistake-da-says
• Christopher Dorner manhunt: Officials ask media to stop tweeting http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/02/dorner-manhunt-sheriffs-officials-ask-all-press-to-stop-tweeting-.html
• Eight Police Officers Fire 103 Times At Two Unarmed Women Delivering Newspapers . . . Commission Rejects Calls For Any Officer To Be Fired Or Even Suspended http://jonathanturley.org/2014/02/12/eight-police-officers-fire-103-times-at-two-unarmed-women-delivering-newspapers-commission-rejects-calls-for-any-officer-to-be-fired-or-even-suspended
• Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Board_of_Police_Commissioners

The Truth About “Police Oversight Boards” is a post from Cop Block – Badges Don’t Grant Extra Rights

Source: http://www.copblock.org/114696/the-truth-about-police-oversight-boards/