Charles Pierce | He Really Is Quite the Hack, This McGinty
Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "I have to admit that it took a day before I could sit down and write about the thoroughgoing bag-job that was the official investigation into the summary execution-by-cop of Tamir Rice."
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Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "I have to admit that it took a day before I could sit down and write about the thoroughgoing bag-job that was the official investigation into the summary execution-by-cop of Tamir Rice."
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Ohio's law clearly does not apply to everyone.
have to admit that it took a day before I could sit down and write about the thoroughgoing bag-job that was the official investigation into the summary execution-by-cop of Tamir Rice, a 12-year old who apparently had the misfortune of having a growth spurt in the fevered mind of one Officer Timothy Loehmann, who found it necessary to shoot Rice down before he could grow any bigger and more threatening. When will African American children learn not to grow so suddenly into monsters in the minds of our brave folks in blue? Personally, I blame the rap music."It is likely that Tamir, whose size made him look much older and who had been warned his pellet gun might get him into trouble that day, either intended to hand it over to the officers or show them it wasn't a real gun," McGinty said. "But there was no way for the officers to know that, because they saw the events rapidly unfolding in front of them from a very different perspective." It was "reasonable" to believe the officer who killed the boy believed Tamir was a threat, the prosecutor said, adding that the toy gun looked real.
He really is quite the hack, this McGinty. First, he pollutes the process by questioning the motives of Rice's grieving family. Then, by several accounts, he does his best imitation of Eddie Cicotte before the grand jury. Then, he comes out, his face as mournful as old purple and about as sincere as your average swampland entrepreneur, and talks about what a "perfect storm" of tragedy this whole case was. Like I said, he really is quite the hack, and I expect a run for Congress any day now.
And then there's Loehmann, the innocent victim of Tamir Rice's unexpected growth spurt. He lost his previous job as a cop in a tiny Cleveland suburb because he couldn't hit a bull in the ass with a bass fiddle on the firing range, and also because he was something of a basket case. Naturally, the Cleveland P.D. didn't bother to check Loehmann's service record before hiring him. Luckily, Rice, who was 5'7" and 175 pounds, managed to become 6'6", 250 right there before Loehmann's eyes. That made him easier to hit, I guess.
Is there any real point in being angry any more? Is there any real point even to be surprised? There certainly is no point in emphasizing the damn irony that Ohio is an "open carry" state so, even if the cops assumed Rice was 18, and they also assumed his gun was real, they had no cause even to stop him, let alone open fire. Listen to the spiel that Wayne LaPierre unspools every time he's in a room with more than four people listening: arm yourselves, because the world is a hellscape of violent Others who are coming for you and your children. At its heart, open carry is about open season on the people who scare you. It's certainly not about an absolute Second Amendment right that applies to black people as well as white. Open carry is about You and the Others, and so is the training of our modern, militarized police forces. If only Tamir Rice had not been born with that congenital ability to become huge and threatening the way he did in the mind of Timothy Loehmann. If only…
'Bank Robbers With Badges': How a Florida Police Department Made Millions Through a Drug Money Laundering Scheme
Michael Sallah and Joanna Zuckerman Bernstein, Miami Herald
Excerpt: "When Florida police created a task force to pose as money launderers for drug cartels, they generated millions in profits. Questions abound over where that money went."
New Documents Show Chicago Police and Mayor's Office Attempted to Cover Up Shooting of Laquan McDonald
Dana Kozlov, John Dodge and Ed Marshall, CBS Chicago
Excerpt: "A letter alleges that police officers tried to get one witness - who was so appalled at the incident that she screamed at Van Dyke to 'stop shooting' - to change her account."
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Dana Kozlov, John Dodge and Ed Marshall, CBS Chicago
Excerpt: "A letter alleges that police officers tried to get one witness - who was so appalled at the incident that she screamed at Van Dyke to 'stop shooting' - to change her account."
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Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel listens to remarks at a news conference in Chicago, Illinois,
December 7, 2015. (photo: Jim Young/Reuters)
hirty days before Mayor Rahm Emanuel faced the biggest test of his political life, City Hall received a blockbuster letter from attorneys representing Laquan McDonald, accusing police of making a series of false statements and even intimidating at least one witness who saw the Chicago teenager fatally shot by Officer Jason Van Dyke.
That March 6, 2015 letter from attorney Jeffrey Neslund, quickly set in motion negotiations that led to an out-of-court legal settlement, reached just more than a month later — an astonishingly quick resolution for any legal matter.
After a bruising campaign, Emanuel won re-election on April 7, as those settlement talks quietly neared conclusion.
In the letter, which was part of about 1,400 emails released by the city on New Year’s Eve, Neslund informs Deputy Corporation Counsel Thomas Platt that police dash cam video “confirms that Mr. McDonald did not lunge toward police” which is “contrary to the false statements the city allowed the [police union] spokesman to spin to the media.”
Neslund then prophetically warned Platt that “the graphic dash cam video will have a powerful impact on any jury and the Chicago community as a whole. This case will undoubtedly bring a microscope of national attention to the shooting itself as well as the City’s pattern, practice and procedures of rubber-stamping fatal police shootings of African-Americans as ‘justified.’ ”
Indeed, the release of the video sparked national attention on Chicago police practices, led to the firing of Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, a series of policy changes–and even an apology–from Emanuel, and multiple protests through downtown Chicago.
The letter alleges that police officers tried to get one witness–who was so appalled at the incident that she screamed at Van Dyke to “stop shooting”–to change her account.
The witness, whose name was redacted in the documents, was transported to the police station “where she was held against her will and intensively questioned for over six hours.”
Neslund’s letter accuses detectives of repeatedly attempting to get the witness to change her statement because, they said, her story “did not match the video.”
She was finally released at 4 a.m. after demanding a lawyer.
McDonald, who was carrying a knife, was shot 16 times on Oct. 20, 2014 near 40th Street and Pulaski Road, as officers were responding a report of a person breaking into cars.
“There is no plausible justification for such an excessive use of deadly force. … Yet officer Van Dyke chose to empty his 9 mm pistol into the body of Laquan McDonald rather than allow other officers to employ non lethal force.”
Van Dyke has since been charged with first-degree murder and has pleaded not guilty.
The piles of documents also show city officials began corresponding among themselves about the shooting.
Emails show officials from the mayor’s office and that of the Independent Police Review Authority were in contact about the case. As CBS 2’s Dana Kozlov reports, that raises the question: Just how independent is the Independent Police Review Authority?
Mayoral spokesperson Adam Collins says inter-office communication is not unusual. He adds, “The documents show there was no attempt to cover anything up by this office.”
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Pentagon Plans Legal Change to Crack Down on Military Whistleblowers
Sputnik News
Excerpt: "After a year marked by repeated cyberattacks into US government databanks, the Department of Defense is tightening up its Uniform Code of Military Justice to prevent future breaches and leaks, legal and cyber analysts told Sputnik."
Pentagon. (photo: AFP)
After a year marked by repeated cyberattacks into US government databanks, the Department of Defense is tightening up its Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) to prevent future breaches and leaks, legal and cyber analysts told Sputnik.
ormer CIA counterterrorism officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou told Sputnik on Tuesday that the change in the Code seemed focused on bringing military legal procedures up to date to deal with the burgeoning field of cybercrime and cyberespionage."It may be that the law was outdated and didn't include ‘cybercrime," Kiriakou said.
The Defense Department has proposed a reform in the US Code of Military Justice to introduce punishment for specific computer offenses for the first time.
Retired US Army Major Todd Pierce, an author and expert on military law and civil liberties, told Sputnik the reform seemed to be focused on serving military personnel who became whistleblowers such as Chelsea Manning, rather than on civilian contractors such as Edward Snowden.
"I think it is more related to Manning as Snowden wouldn’t have come under the UCMJ as a civilian," Pierce pointed out.
Chelsea Manning, originally Bradley Manning, was a US Army soldier who was convicted in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act after disclosing to WikiLeaks nearly 750,000 classified or unclassified, but sensitive military and diplomatic documents.
In August 2013, Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison, and will only be eligible for possible parole from August 2020.
Pierce said the proposed changes in the UCMJ would make it easier for the US military to prosecute and convict future whistleblowers like Manning, who felt compelled to leak classified or sensitive material for the public good.
"I presume the offenses and the elements which will need to be shown for conviction will be made easier to prove than relying on General Articles and the incorporation of federal statutes," Pierce stated.
Independent Institute Director of the Center on Peace and Liberty Ivan Eland agreed that the Defense Department was belatedly reacting to the embarrassments it suffered from the successful data leaks and exposures by Snowden and Manning.
"The [proposed] Code revisions seem to be a reaction to the Snowden leaks. However, Snowden was a civilian and they are likely plugging leaks in the Code to deal with similar actions by military personnel," Eland noted.
Edward Snowden is a former CIA employee and former contractor for the US government who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) and the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) for public disclosure.
The information revealed many global surveillance programs run by the NSA and by the "Five Eyes" alliance of US, British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand electronic intelligence and surveillance agencies.
Obama Set to Unveil Curbs on Gun Sellers
Sarah Wheaton and Edward-Isaac Dovere, Politico
Excerpt: "Executive actions expected next week will be part of the president's new year push to make progress on long-stalled problems before the 2016 presidential election heats up."
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Sarah Wheaton and Edward-Isaac Dovere, Politico
Excerpt: "Executive actions expected next week will be part of the president's new year push to make progress on long-stalled problems before the 2016 presidential election heats up."
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What Really Happened to the US Train-and-Equip Program in Syria?
Roy Gutman, McClatchy DC
Gutman writes: "The train-and-equip program had been, until it was halted in October, the Obama administration's primary strategy to confront the Islamic State on the ground in Syria."
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Roy Gutman, McClatchy DC
Gutman writes: "The train-and-equip program had been, until it was halted in October, the Obama administration's primary strategy to confront the Islamic State on the ground in Syria."
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California Gas Leak Called the Biggest Disaster Since BP
Katie Herzog, Grist
Herzog writes: "A methane leak in Southern California could be the worst environmental disaster since the BP oil spill."
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Katie Herzog, Grist
Herzog writes: "A methane leak in Southern California could be the worst environmental disaster since the BP oil spill."
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