Posts

Showing posts from April, 2018

Berkeley; the bastion of progressive values?

Image
April 26, 2018 Yesterday, I sent the within to the Mayor of Berkeley and others, in the mayor's office, as listed. Much nothing will come of it; not until Berkeley is sued for some  atrocity in policing. Believe me, it is just a matter of time. Doubtless we will have the usual protestations, denials and promises. The lot below shall not be able to say that they did not know of the rot; the oppression; the bias. Berkeley's data is, for want of a polite expression, piss-poor. This opinion may be partly driven by the fact that the data is not in the form that Berkeley represents it to be; that over 3,400 records have no demographic data, and that it leaves out some of the most basic, the most common, policing data elements. On the other hand, it carries data of other persons involved in the stop, but one cannot determine who is driver and who is passenger. It is, as it is, but it tells the same old story, and it tells plenty; albeit less vividly than most other places. Mayor

Sacramento; she will not let me go.

Image
In one of my earlier rants, I mentioned that the City of Sacramento's Stop Data did provide the means of identifying the individualized conduct of its officers, and to that end I had sought that of the " Shootists " who had gunned down Stephon Clark, because he brandished a lethal cellphone with his back turned, whilst in his grandmother's backyard. It was a fool's errand, probably the result of tiredness, for I should have known better. As is par for the course, the city of Sacramento refused, citing an unsubstantiated claim of concern for officer safety. The city does know that a specific or particularized threat needs to exist for its invocation of the safety exclusion, but they also know that their resources are greater than mine. While waiting for the above; serendipity! In browsing a local Sacramento newspaper there was an account of the interaction of Sacramento PD officer Anthony Figueroa and 23 year-old Nandi Cain  in or around April 2017. I leapt at th