- If crime victims, witnesses and perpetrators can make immediate statements, Chicago police officers involved in shootings should be required to do the same, the head of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability said Friday.
COPA chief administrator Sydney Roberts wants to eliminate the waiting period written into the police contract that critics contend makes it “easy for officers to lie” by giving them 24 hours before providing a statement after a shooting.
Um, what the fuck is she talking about? Here's a newsflash dumbass - victims, witnesses and perpetrators DON'T HAVE TO MAKE STATEMENTS TO POLICE. EVER. Where the Hell are you getting your completely and utterly incorrect information?
- Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham wants to do more than just retain the 24-hour waiting period — he wants to triple it to the 72 hours that federal agents are afforded after a shooting, on the grounds that “it takes you a while — especially when you’ve been in such a traumatic incident.”
On Friday, Roberts shot down the trauma argument. “When police do investigations, they are speaking to people who are traumatized. They are traumatized because they have been victimized. They may be traumatized because they witnessed something. They may be traumatized because they were the perpetrator,” she said.
“The trauma that the officer goes through . . . is no different than the trauma that other people go through. We still do those interviews. . . . If that is legitimate justification to bar an interview, it should apply across the board.”
Wow. You know why the FBI grants 72-hours? It based on actual scientific studies. And again, victims, witnesses and perpetrators DON'T HAVE TO MAKE STATEMENTS TO POLICE. EVER. They have far more protections that cops do, and more avenues to seek redress should it be determined their Rights are violated.
- Mayor Lori Lightfoot is a former Police Board president. She co-chaired the Task Force on Police Accountability that demanded changes to a police contract that, it claimed, “codifies the code of silence” that former Mayor Rahm Emanuel famously acknowledged exists at the Chicago Police Department.
And once again, we demand that these assorted assholes point out the specific Contractual language that "codified" any so-called "Code." They can't because it doesn't exist. It's a political phrase made up to demonize something the politicians don't like. They promise their voters something that can't be defined and expect the cops to give up established protections based on their false premises.
- The City Council’s Black Caucus has threatened to hold up ratification of any police contract that continues to give officers 24 hours before providing a statement after a shooting. The Caucus has also taken aim at anonymous complaints and the portion of the police contract that allows officers to change statements after reviewing video.
Graham is adamantly opposed to allowing anonymous complaints on grounds that there needs to be a way to “establish that people are not just trying to get police officers off the beat so crime can flourish. . . . If these allegations are true, put your name to it.”
We don't think the caucus has the votes by themselves to hold up diddly-shit, but arbitration is our friend in that case. Seventy-two hours isn't twenty-four, so we'll agree to that. What makes the local politicians think they're better than the federal standards?
As for baseless accusations, they mean so much more than the Constitutional Right to confront your accusers in a public Court of Law.....and sue them for slander when the bullshit is exposed as bullshit. These people (or folks) are morons.
- Roberts strongly disagreed, citing the “chilling effect” that the demand for sworn complaints has on victims of police wrongdoing. She also wants to eliminate that portion of the police contract that, she claims, ties the hands of COPA investigators. “There’s a restraint on how COPA investigators can investigate. That needs to be lifted. We should not have any investigative restraints on who can ask questions and when,” she said.
What's "chilling" about discovering the truth? And these so-called "restraints" are rules to protect all parties involved, including taxpayers from overzealous COPA investigators who have been proven, time and again, to have manufactured evidence, coerced statements and outright lied in the Courts.
The article goes on for a while more. It's complete bullshit and ought to be treated as such. There is a target on your back - and your front. No one has our best interests at heart. Remember that.
Labels: un-fucking-believable