What I Did After Police Killed My Son

[phill4paul]

After police in Kenosha, Wis., shot my 21-year-old son to death outside his house ten years ago — and then immediately cleared themselves of all wrongdoing — an African-American man approached me and said: “If they can shoot a white boy like a dog, imagine what we’ve been going through.”

I could imagine it all too easily, just as the rest of the country has been seeing it all too clearly in the terrible images coming from Ferguson, Mo., in the aftermath of the killing of Michael Brown. On Friday, after a week of angry protests, the police in Ferguson finally identified the officer implicated in Brown's shooting, although the circumstances still remain unclear.

I have known the name of the policeman who killed my son, Michael, for ten years. And he is still working on the force in Kenosha.
Yes, there is good reason to think that many of these unjustifiable homicides by police across the country are racially motivated. But there is a lot more than that going on here. Our country is simply not paying enough attention to the terrible lack of accountability of police departments and the way it affects all of us—regardless of race or ethnicity. Because if a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy — that was my son, Michael — can be shot in the head under a street light with his hands cuffed behind his back, in front of five eyewitnesses (including his mother and sister), and his father was a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who flew in three wars for his country — that’s me — and I still couldn’t get anything done about it, then Joe the plumber and Javier the roofer aren’t going to be able to do anything about it either.

***
I got the phone call at 2 a.m. on Nov. 9, 2004. It was my oldest daughter. She said you need to come to the hospital right away, Michael’s been shot by the police. My first gut reaction was, “Michael doesn’t do anything serious enough to get shot by a police officer.” I thought he’d gotten shot in the leg or whatever. When I arrived, I saw the district attorney huddled with about five police officers. The last time I saw my son alive he was on a gurney, with his head wrapped in a big towel and blood coming out of it. I learned that an officer had put his gun up directly to Michael’s right temple and misfired, then did it again, and shot him.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/08/what-i-did-after-police-killed-my-son-110038.html#ixzz3AfCIx69c

[Origanalist]

If you're wondering where the parents and family of police brutality victims are....and this guy is one of the better ones?

[phill4paul]

Time line of events...

http://michaelbell.info/SummaryBriefPage2.html

[limequat]

Wow, just incredible.

[phill4paul]

Wow, just incredible.

Yeah, after reading the reports in the link just above your post it is clear what happened...


On November 9, 2004, a Kenosha police officer shot Michael Bell in the head one day before Michael was to testify at a court hearing regarding a previous incident with the same officer who stopped him this last fatal time.

[VoluntaryAmerican]

Front page bump

[Warlord]

Auh20 "he did this to himself

[Anti Federalist]

Yeah, after reading the reports in the link just above your post it is clear what happened...


On November 9, 2004, a Kenosha police officer shot Michael Bell in the head one day before Michael was to testify at a court hearing regarding a previous incident with the same officer who stopped him this last fatal time.

Gang witness hit.

[Anti Federalist]

Our country is simply not paying enough attention to the terrible lack of accountability of police departments and the way it affects all of us—regardless of race or ethnicity. Because if a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy — that was my son, Michael — can be shot in the head under a street light with his hands cuffed behind his back, in front of five eyewitnesses (including his mother and sister), and his father was a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who flew in three wars for his country — that’s me — and I still couldn’t get anything done about it, then Joe the plumber and Javier the roofer aren’t going to be able to do anything about it either.

Our country is simply not paying enough attention to the terrible lack of accountability of police departments and the way it affects all of us—regardless of race or ethnicity. Because if a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy — that was my son, Michael — can be shot in the head under a street light with his hands cuffed behind his back, in front of five eyewitnesses (including his mother and sister), and his father was a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who flew in three wars for his country — that’s me — and I still couldn’t get anything done about it, then Joe the plumber and Javier the roofer aren’t going to be able to do anything about it either.

Our country is simply not paying enough attention to the terrible lack of accountability of police departments and the way it affects all of us—regardless of race or ethnicity. Because if a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy — that was my son, Michael — can be shot in the head under a street light with his hands cuffed behind his back, in front of five eyewitnesses (including his mother and sister), and his father was a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who flew in three wars for his country — that’s me — and I still couldn’t get anything done about it, then Joe the plumber and Javier the roofer aren’t going to be able to do anything about it either.

[Anti Federalist]

And now you know why the looters loot.

[thoughtomator]

AuH20 version of the moral of this story: Don't attack an officer's weapon with your temple unless you want to suffer the consequences.

[Anti Federalist]

We did our research: In 129 years since police and fire commissions were created in the state of Wisconsin, we could not find a single ruling by a police department, an inquest or a police commission that a shooting was unjustified.

We did our research: In 129 years since police and fire commissions were created in the state of Wisconsin, we could not find a single ruling by a police department, an inquest or a police commission that a shooting was unjustified.

We did our research: In 129 years since police and fire commissions were created in the state of Wisconsin, we could not find a single ruling by a police department, an inquest or a police commission that a shooting was unjustified.

[euphemia]

It's not just the violence of the police. It's a violation of the separation of powers. There is a specific process outlined by which a lawbreaker receives due process of law and pays a penalty for wrongdoing. When police kill a suspect, they cross a line which dishonors the very law they are sworn to uphold, and the the citizens they have sworn to protect. It is never the responsibility of a police officer to kill a suspect (although there might be good reasons to do so). That responsibility belongs to someone else, after the evidence has been presented in court, and a jury of peers has determined guilt.

[aGameOfThrones]

Auh20 "he did this to himself

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/IrsONC10FC4/hqdefault.jpg

[idiom]

We did our research: In 129 years since police and fire commissions were created in the state of Wisconsin, we could not find a single ruling by a police department, an inquest or a police commission that a shooting was unjustified.

We did our research: In 129 years since police and fire commissions were created in the state of Wisconsin, we could not find a single ruling by a police department, an inquest or a police commission that a shooting was unjustified.

We did our research: In 129 years since police and fire commissions were created in the state of Wisconsin, we could not find a single ruling by a police department, an inquest or a police commission that a shooting was unjustified.

Do you have a macro for that, or do you do it by hand each time?

[presence]

And now you know why the looters loot.

meh.... wait 'till the suicide bombers come out of the closet; then you know its on.

[Anti Federalist]

Do you have a macro for that, or do you do it by hand each time?

I do it by hand, takes 10 seconds.

Why, do you find it annoying?

[AuH20]

AuH20 version of the moral of this story: Don't attack an officer's weapon with your temple unless you want to suffer the consequences.

Are you guys going to just mindlessly juxtapose every incident of police brutality against the muddled case of Michael Brown? Really?

[AuH20]

And now you know why the looters loot.

Looters loot because they are opportunists. There isn't any type of noble thinking at work. Follow every type of disaster and looters appear. Katrina, the Moore Tornado Disaster.....

[thoughtomator]

Are you guys going to just mindlessly juxtapose every incident of police brutality against the muddled case of Michael Brown? Really?

Explain again why you are so convinced that something that happens time and time and time again - and is clearly an accelerating phenomenon - couldn't have happened in the Brown incident?

[thoughtomator]

Looters loot because they are opportunists. There isn't any type of noble thinking at work. Follow every type of disaster and looters appear. Katrina, the Moore Tornado Disaster.....

Ah, what would RPF be if we didn't have our own resident expert in looter psychology? Which college you get your Ph.D from? Haaaaverd?

[AuH20]

Explain again why you are so convinced that something that happens time and time and time again - and is clearly an accelerating phenomenon - couldn't have happened in the Brown incident?

You're looking it only through the prism of police malfeasance. We have two elements at work here. Criminal misbehavior and police misbehavior. If I wanted to fill this board with every act of serious crimes made by wayward citizens the board would be overrun. Murder, assault, kidnapping, rape, torture. Heinous stuff that happens with a stunning regularity & independent of police blowback.

[Brian4Liberty]

Kudos to Michael Bell for his tenacity, dedication and effectiveness! He didn't take "no" for an answer.


...Wanting to uncover the truth, our family hired a private investigator who ended up teaming up with a retired police detective to launch their own investigation. They discovered that the officer who thought his gun was being grabbed in fact had caught it on a broken car mirror. The emergency medical technicians who arrived later found the officers fighting with each other over what happened. We filed an 1,100-page report detailing Michael's killing with the FBI and US Attorney.

It took six years to get our wrongful death lawsuit settled, and my family received $1.75 million. But I wasn’t satisfied by a long shot. I used my entire portion of that money and much more of my own to continue a campaign for more police accountability. I wanted to change things for everyone else, so no one else would ever have to go through what I did. ...
...
The problem over many decades, in other words, was a near-total lack of accountability for wrongdoing; and if police on duty believe they can get away with almost anything, they will act accordingly. As a military pilot, I knew that if law professionals investigated police-related deaths like, say, the way that the National Transportation Safety Board investigated aviation mishaps, police-related deaths would be at an all time low.

And so, together with other families who lost loved ones, I launched a campaign in the Wisconsin legislature calling for a new law that would require outside review of all deaths in police custody. I contacted everybody I could. In the beginning, I contacted the governor’s office, the attorney general and the U.S. attorney for Wisconsin. They didn’t even return my phone calls or letters. I even contacted Oprah, every Associated Press bureau in the nation, every national magazine and national news agency and didn’t hear a word.

But Frank Serpico, the famous retired New York City police detective, helped. He had his own experience taking on police corruption. I set up billboards and a website and took out newspaper ads, including national ads in the New York Times and USA Today, and Serpico allowed me to use his endorsement. “When police take a life, should they investigate themselves?” the ad read.

Finally we began to get some movement, helped by a friendly Republican legislator, Garey Bies, and a Democratic assemblyman named Chris Taylor, in August of 2012. In April of this year we passed a law that made Wisconsin the first state in the nation to mandate at legislative level that police-related deaths be reviewed by an outside agency. Ten days after it went into effect in May, local police shot a man sleeping on a park bench 15 times. It’s one of the first incidents to be investigated under the new law.

I’m not anti-cop. And I am finding that many police want change as well: The good officers in the state of Wisconsin supported our bill from the inside, and it was endorsed by five police unions. But I also think the days of Andy Griffith and the Mayberry peacekeeper are over. As we can see in the streets of Ferguson, today’s police are also much more heavily equipped, armed and armored—more militarized. They are moving to more paramilitary-type operations as well, and all those shifts call for more transparency and more rules of restraint. And yet they are even less accountable in some ways than the U.S. military in which I served. Our citizens need protection from undue force, here in our own country, and now.
...
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/08/what-i-did-after-police-killed-my-son-110038_Page2.html

[AuH20]

Ah, what would RPF be if we didn't have our own resident expert in looter psychology? Which college you get your Ph.D from? Haaaaverd?

Yes, looters loot to bring greater awareness to society for past grievances. Some call it political expression via breaking and entering.

[aGameOfThrones]

You're looking it only through the prism of only police malfeasance. We have two elements at work here. Criminal misbehavior and police misbehavior. If I wanted to fill this board with every act of serious crimes made by wayward citizens the board would be overrun. Murder, assault, kidnapping, rape, torture. Heinous stuff that happens with a stunning regularity & independent of police blowback.


do they usually have a union, da, judge protecting them when they get caught doing all those bad things?

[Anti Federalist]

Looters loot because they are opportunists. There isn't any type of noble thinking at work. Follow every type of disaster and looters appear. Katrina, the Moore Tornado Disaster.....

A valid point, I should have said "why people riot".

[tod evans]

You're looking it only through the prism of police malfeasance. We have two elements at work here. Criminal misbehavior and police misbehavior. If I wanted to fill this board with every act of serious crimes made by wayward citizens the board would be overrun. Murder, assault, kidnapping, rape, torture. Heinous stuff that happens with a stunning regularity & independent of police blowback.


And this is why I want to remove all federal funding from all tax-ticks!

Local communities can take care of their own citizenry without federal dollars.

[AuH20]

do they usually have a union, da, judge protecting them when they get caught doing all those bad things?

No, but there are far more criminals than police (at min a ratio of 4:1/5:1). Since 911, Police officers have killed in excess of 5000 civilians, which is still unacceptable. The amount that the criminal population killed runs in the ballpark figure of many multiples of that. In the hundreds of thousands most likely.

[AuH20]

And this is why I want to remove all federal funding from all tax-ticks!

Local communities can take care of their own citizenry without federal dollars.

Agreed. There weren't be a revolving door for certain violent crimes if the community took control. It's become too commercialized and certain special interests are making a killing off the system. Near limitless funds at their disposal have corrupted the system something awful for the citizenry. Want to destroy institutions? Well that's easy. Throw oodles of taxpayer money at it and the most corrupt individuals will follow.

[Occam's Banana]

On November 9, 2004, a Kenosha police officer shot Michael Bell in the head one day before Michael was to testify at a court hearing regarding a previous incident with the same officer who stopped him this last fatal time.

NOT INTENTIONALLY MALEVOLENT

[thoughtomator]

Yes, looters loot to bring greater awareness to society for past grievances. Some call it political expression via breaking and entering.

Others call it blowback and understand it's the result of the government itself establishing a standard of complete contempt for both the law and moral codes that forbid these behaviors.

[thoughtomator]

You're looking it only through the prism of police malfeasance. We have two elements at work here. Criminal misbehavior and police misbehavior. If I wanted to fill this board with every act of serious crimes made by wayward citizens the board would be overrun. Murder, assault, kidnapping, rape, torture. Heinous stuff that happens with a stunning regularity & independent of police blowback.

It is a qualitatively different situation when crimes are committed by agents of government, and government routinely defies its own laws to protect them.

When the cops themselves commit crimes, there's no one to stop them AND any citizen acting in lawful self defense against police crimes gets murdered.

The law being lawless is a public issue orders of magnitude above the lawlessness of citizens.

[phill4paul]

Are you guys going to just mindlessly juxtapose every incident of police brutality against the muddled case of Michael Brown? Really?

Actually that wasn't the intent. But since you bring it up let me give it a whorl from what might be your perspective.

Look at this guy Michael Bell. Look at his rap sheet. He's been in trouble with the law since he was 18. A hit and run? He was found with drug paraphenalia. No telling what harder drugs he may have gone on to. I wonder if he was on meth when he decided to take on three cops. Even tasing didn't work. Which tells me he had to be on something.
He must have been. I mean no one takes on three cops unless they are on something. He got a DUI and then got a driving while revoked which shows an obvious contempt for the rule of law. He previously resisted the officer that he forced to shoot him. I can't believe that a cop would just shoot someone for no reason. And he was an athlete. He probably was just used to getting his own way.
Of course his family and another witness claims are different from the officers involved. They were family and of course they were biased. If he didn't want to get shot he should have complied and not tried to take away an officers firearm.

[Henry Rogue]

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/08/what-i-did-after-police-killed-my-son-110038.html#ixzz3AfCIx69c

I was wondering where this legislation came from.
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?450444-Independent-review-of-homicides-involving-cops

[mad cow]

In April of this year we passed a law that made Wisconsin the first state in the nation to mandate at legislative level that police-related deaths be reviewed by an outside agency.

And now you know why Political Activists Activate.

[Christian Liberty]

And now you know why the looters loot.

They're still brainless pinheads. Only a brainless pinhead would attack a store, a privately owned store, because of the actions of cops.

I'm as ticked off as you are but mindless sheep collectivizing and attacking the wrong targets is part of the reason we got into this mess. We could debate the moral merits of revenge, but regardless, it would be one thing if they violently targeted the cop who did the act of brutality in question. It might even be another thing if they targeted "police." I'm not justifying that, but at least police as a group are generally part of the problem. But to attack a private store owner who has nothing more to do with the police than anyone else? Come on... That just makes you a moron, no matter what you went through


AuH20 version of the moral of this story: Don't attack an officer's weapon with your temple unless you want to suffer the consequences.


Are you guys going to just mindlessly juxtapose every incident of police brutality against the muddled case of Michael Brown? Really?

I think AuH20 was questioning the facts of what happened, not the morality of it. I don't think he was saying it was actually moral to shoot someone just because they are a thief.

No, but there are far more criminals than police (at min a ratio of 4:1/5:1). Since 911, Police officers have killed in excess of 5000 civilians, which is still unacceptable. The amount that the criminal population killed runs in the ballpark figure of many multiples of that. In the hundreds of thousands most likely.

The thing is, criminals kill people. By definition. That's what they do. In theory, you kill them in the act if you can, and if not, well, then the cops are supposed to be the ones that deal with it. Mind you, I'm not saying that they actually do, but that's the theory at any rate.

Cops, the ones who are supposed to be dealing with criminals actually engaging in crimes is a travesty. Its worse for several reasons. One, most of us were raised to respect law enforcement officers (again, I agree that they don't deserve respect, but I'm in the minority on that point, and I was raised to respect police to... I do not because this place among other things opened my eyes. Most people don't do as much research as I have.) Second, you can't legally get away with defending yourself against a cop. Maybe in theory you can, but in practice, you are screwed. And third of all, cops can very likely get away with engaging in illegal aggression (legal aggression is certainly obvious) against you. A cop who steals and uses his badge to get away with it is worse than a civilian child molester. The bottom line: the world is an ugly place at times, there are always going to be heinous people who commit heinous actions, but its far worse when society is implicitly or explicitly saying its OK. Nobody thinks theft is "moral". Even thieves know that theft is immoral. Unless they have badges, then they think its OK...

[Christian Liberty]

It is a qualitatively different situation when crimes are committed by agents of government, and government routinely defies its own laws to protect them.

When the cops themselves commit crimes, there's no one to stop them AND any citizen acting in lawful self defense against police crimes gets murdered.

The law being lawless is a public issue orders of magnitude above the lawlessness of citizens.

I didn't read this post before I made mine. Really, I didn't. My thoughts exactly.

[thoughtomator]

They're still brainless pinheads. Only a brainless pinhead would attack a store, a privately owned store, because of the actions of cops.

I don't think that's happening at all. That's the Big Lie of all this.

The stores get attacked because the open mass conflict between the people and the government created a window of lawlessness which criminals could take advantage of. Note everyone arrested for looting wasn't from Ferguson.

The protests were a reaction to the actions of cops. The looting was a reaction to the withdrawal of police protection as the cops turtled up and left the community to fend for itself while simultaneously announcing to anyone listening that the cops would definitely be way too busy to do normal policing, such as stopping a store from being looted.

Equating the protestors and the looters is an error of analysis. The two sets may not have any members at all in common.

In any case, dealing with peaceful protestors with the same strategy and tactics that is appropriate to dealing with looters is something so guaranteed to lead to further escalation that those doing so then take the lion's share of the responsibility for the outcome.

[Anti Federalist]

And now you know why Political Activists Activate.

To spend millions of dollars and over ten years to get a toothless law passed, which will be disregarded, while meanwhile, the cop that killed his son, goes right on being a cop, laughing at the family home every time he passes through the neighborhood.

[mad cow]

To spend millions of dollars and over ten years to get a toothless law passed, which will be disregarded, while meanwhile, the cop that killed his son, goes right on being a cop, laughing at the family home every time he passes through the neighborhood.

Yeah,you're right.He should have looted.

[Anti Federalist]

Yeah,you're right.He should have looted.

Say what you want, I don't think that Wilson is going to keep his job after all this.

[phill4paul]

To spend millions of dollars and over ten years to get a toothless law passed, which will be disregarded, while meanwhile, the cop that killed his son, goes right on being a cop, laughing at the family home every time he passes through the neighborhood.

Well, one of the officers committed suicide. So there is that.


A Kenosha police officer involved in a controversial and highly publicized fatal shooting in 2004 committed suicide early Sunday, according to Chief John Morrissey.

Officer Erich R. Strausbaugh, 34, of Franklin was having marital problems and had been stressed in the aftermath of the shooting of 21-year-old Michael E. Bell, according to statements by his wife in a Milwaukee County medical examiner's report.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/106478678.html

I would imagine seeing advertisements and billboards all over the place reminding him of the incident had some affect on him.

[mad cow]

Say what you want, I don't think that Wilson is going to keep his job after all this.
Oh,I couldn't agree more.


Beyond guilt or innocence,the main reason that cop is going to spend some quality time in prison.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
My post on the Ferguson Cost thread.

[aGameOfThrones]

No, but there are far more criminals than police (at min a ratio of 4:1/5:1). Since 911, Police officers have killed in excess of 5000 civilians, which is still unacceptable. The amount that the criminal population killed runs in the ballpark figure of many multiples of that. In the hundreds of thousands most likely.

professional courtesy, got it.

[phill4paul]

Say what you want, I don't think that Wilson is going to keep his job after all this.

For how long before reinstatement with back pay?

[Mani]

Wow, this kid took a beating before he finally got executed. I read the line by line for the first 100+ points listed. Read the http://michaelbell.info/SummaryBriefPage2.html

unlawful stop/choking and tasing/gratuitous beating sections.

And for what again? For driving by a cop that didn't like him?

[Czolgosz]

Asshole cops are merely a symptom.

[TheTexan]

can be shot in the head under a street light with his hands cuffed behind his back

That's not what happened according to the cops. You can clearly hear the cops in this re-enactment say "Stop resisting!" "He's got my gun!". In fact, all four cops agree this is what happened. They should know too, because they were all there (they were all holding him down at the time).

Their re-enactment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elmelQzlA24#t=37

I know, I know, it kind of looks like an execution. But don't forget, he went for their gun(s). (again, all four of the cops agree this is what happened)

[TheTexan]

One of the cops that held him down apparently killed himself a few years ago. Possibly due to PTSD from this unfortunate and unpreventable tragedy.


Eric Strausbaugh of Franklin, Wisconsin, a 34-year-old husband and father, killed himself last October 31. Friends recall that he was experiencing marital difficulties and a great deal of job-related stress. A large part of his emotional burden was the result of his actions on November 9, 2004

http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2010/12/conscience-of-killer.html

[cajuncocoa]

Excerpt:


I have known the name of the policeman who killed my son, Michael, for ten years. And he is still working on the force in Kenosha.

Yes, there is good reason to think that many of these unjustifiable homicides by police across the country are racially motivated. But there is a lot more than that going on here. Our country is simply not paying enough attention to the terrible lack of accountability of police departments and the way it affects all of us—regardless of race or ethnicity. Because if a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy — that was my son, Michael — can be shot in the head under a street light with his hands cuffed behind his back, in front of five eyewitnesses (including his mother and sister), and his father was a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who flew in three wars for his country — that’s me — and I still couldn’t get anything done about it, then Joe the plumber and Javier the roofer aren’t going to be able to do anything about it either.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/08/what-i-did-after-police-killed-my-son-110038.html#ixzz3Ar2bo7ix

[KEEF]

After police in Kenosha, Wis., shot my 21-year-old son to death outside his house ten years ago — and then immediately cleared themselves of all wrongdoing — an African-American man approached me and said: “If they can shoot a white boy like a dog, imagine what we’ve been going through.”I could imagine it all too easily, just as the rest of the country has been seeing it all too clearly in the terrible images coming from Ferguson, Mo., in the aftermath of the killing of Michael Brown. On Friday, after a week of angry protests, the police in Ferguson finally identified the officer implicated in Brown's shooting, although the circumstances still remain unclear.
I have known the name of the policeman who killed my son, Michael, for ten years. And he is still working on the force in Kenosha.

Yes, there is good reason to think that many of these unjustifiable homicides by police across the country are racially motivated. But there is a lot more than that going on here. Our country is simply not paying enough attention to the terrible lack of accountability of police departments and the way it affects all of us—regardless of race or ethnicity. Because if a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy — that was my son, Michael — can be shot in the head under a street light with his hands cuffed behind his back, in front of five eyewitnesses (including his mother and sister), and his father was a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who flew in three wars for his country — that’s me — and I still couldn’t get anything done about it, then Joe the plumber and Javier the roofer aren’t going to be able to do anything about it either.




Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/08/what-i-did-after-police-killed-my-son-110038.html#ixzz3AwEl5i1z

[fisharmor]

I just don't get it.


We did our research: In 129 years since police and fire commissions were created in the state of Wisconsin, we could not find a single ruling by a police department, an inquest or a police commission that a shooting was unjustified.

I also think the days of Andy Griffith and the Mayberry peacekeeper are over.

What is it that goes through a man's head - especially a man who has lost his son by way of brutal murder by a police officer - that disallows him from recognizing that Andy Griffith is a fictional fucking character who never existed?

He paraphrased those words in the course of writing that article, and then still had to put in the obligatory "Now I'm not saying I don't like the taste of cop cock" that appears in all of these articles.

I honestly don't get it.

[Henry Rogue]

I just don't get it.




What is it that goes through a man's head - especially a man who has lost his son by way of brutal murder by a police officer - that disallows him from recognizing that Andy Griffith is a fictional fucking character who never existed?

He paraphrased those words in the course of writing that article, and then still had to put in the obligatory "Now I'm not saying I don't like the taste of cop
cock" that appears in all of these articles.

I honestly don't get it.
Either they believe cops are an absolute necessity or they are afraid of alienating readers. My guess is the first.

[Mani]

He's a veteran so he thought the police lived by some code of honor. So he quietly waited for the police force to do their due diligence...and slowly began to realize..WTF!? These guys are thugs with a badge and everyone is covering this up.


It took him a long time to come to grips that those cops weren't "protecting and serving".



I just don't get it.




What is it that goes through a man's head - especially a man who has lost his son by way of brutal murder by a police officer - that disallows him from recognizing that Andy Griffith is a fictional fucking character who never existed?

He paraphrased those words in the course of writing that article, and then still had to put in the obligatory "Now I'm not saying I don't like the taste of cop cock" that appears in all of these articles.

I honestly don't get it.

[Anti Federalist]

Stockholm called...they want their Syndrome back.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, these people (by that I mean middle class white folks, you know, "not savages") have been so well trained and compliant, they will line up neatly and quietly at the edge of the mass grave for their bullet

They'll apologize for stepping on the guard's toes as they are getting shoved into the gas chamber.



I just don't get it.




What is it that goes through a man's head - especially a man who has lost his son by way of brutal murder by a police officer - that disallows him from recognizing that Andy Griffith is a fictional fucking character who never existed?

He paraphrased those words in the course of writing that article, and then still had to put in the obligatory "Now I'm not saying I don't like the taste of cop cock" that appears in all of these articles.

I honestly don't get it.

[phill4paul]

In Wisconsin, A Decade-Old Police Shooting Leads To New Law

Race is at the forefront of the current debate over the police use of deadly force. But one shooting in Wisconsin highlights another factor at play when police shoot civilians — the lack of outside investigation. And the decade-old death has led to real reform in the state.


The Bell family ended up filing a civil suit for wrongful death. Six years later, they received a $1.75 million settlement. But there was no admission of wrongdoing, and the police maintained that Michael Bell Jr. caused his own death.

The family used the settlement money to fund a grassroots campaign. They took out ads in the New York Times, in USA Today and on radio and created TV commercials.

The campaigning went on for years, but Barton says the message really gained momentum after another police incident in 2011, where a 22-year-old man died in the backseat of a police car. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.

Bell bought every available billboard in Milwaukee with slogans like: "When Police Kill, Should They Judge Themselves?"

"After we created enough ruckus, the unions ended up sitting down with us and talking with us," Bell says. They told him that if he wanted to take the billboards down, they would work with him in crafting some the legislation he sought.

"I had formulated in my mind what really needed to occur here to make this process better," he says.

The law they put forth would make Wisconsin the first state in the nation to mandate, on the legislative level, that if an officer was involved with a loss of life, that outside investigators must come in and collect the data and investigate that shooting.

This past April, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker passed the bill into law.

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2014/12/13/billboards-campoutandstuff008_wide-6f4a20ddb5f01c4d982fd3e059c06f26c9985cb8-s800-c85.jpg

http://www.npr.org/2014/12/13/370592433/in-wisconsin-a-decade-old-police-shooting-leads-to-new-law

[Christian Liberty]

Either they believe cops are an absolute necessity or they are afraid of alienating readers. My guess is the first.

Probably the first.

[ChristianAnarchist]

OK, his secondary objective has been accomplished. He got drastically needed landmark legislation passed. Now he can plan and "execute" the primary objective...

[Henry Rogue]

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2014/12/13/billboards-campoutandstuff008_wide-6f4a20ddb5f01c4d982fd3e059c06f26c9985cb8-s800-c85.jpg

http://www.npr.org/2014/12/13/370592433/in-wisconsin-a-decade-old-police-shooting-leads-to-new-law
The only one in the nation and it's still cops investigating cops.

[Anti Federalist]

Dad is still looking for justice.


Air Force Col. Buys 24 Billboards To Expose Cops Who Executed His Son

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/veteran-son-executed-police-using-millions-billboards/

After his son was executed by police, a veteran is now using the settlement he received from the city to call for a new investigation into his son's death.

Thirteen years have passed since one man’s son was fatally shot by police officers, and he cannot rest until his family sees the men who shot and killed his son brought to justice. Unsatisfied with the turn-around investigation which, predictably, exonerated all of the officers involved, Michael Bell Sr. has now leased 24 billboards in and around Kenosha, Wisconsin, calling for an investigation into his son’s death to be reopened.

Lt. Col. Michael Bell (USAF, Ret.) lost his son, also named Michael Bell, 13 years ago. After a night of drinking, Bell was reportedly the soberest of his friends and drove his friend’s SUV home early on the morning of Nov. 9, 2004.

Kenosha Police encountered Bell in front of his own home. When approached by officers, he got out of the car. He was told to get back in and when he did not fully comply with officers’ commands, an altercation began, escalating to the point at which one officer shot the young man in the head, killing him instantly.

[TheTexan]

Dad is still looking for justice.

Justice for what exactly?

As far as I know - all of the available testimony (e.g. the cops) would seem to indicate that the cops are innocent in this.

[ChristianAnarchist]

The man's grief must be incredible. How he can refrain from acting as his own justice I don't understand. His conditioning is strong. The military has done their work on him...

[brushfire]

Mindless cop worship, with no accountability. Happens all the time, because people let it happen.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWROMSE5eKY

[phill4paul]

14 years after his son was killed by the police, this Wisconsin veteran is still asking for justice

It has been 14 years since Michael Bell Jr., a young Wisconsin man, was fatally shot by police in his own driveway. His father, Michael Bell, is still fighting for justice.

Bell Jr. was just 21 when he was driving home from an evening out. He arrived without incident, but then a police car pulled up behind him. The cops had followed him home, believing him to be driving under the influence. Naturally, Bell Jr. objected to the situation — remember, he drove home safely — and soon he was scuffling with three officers who had him bent over the hood of his car. One yelled, “He has my gun!” Moments later, another shot Bell Jr. point blank in the head, killing him in front of his mother, sister and neighbors.

The Kenosha County police conducted an internal investigation and cleared themselves of all wrongdoing in three days flat. They decided without interviewing eyewitnesses or even waiting for the crime lab results to come back with forensic details.

The elder Bell, a former military pilot, wasn’t satisfied. The officers’ testimony didn’t match even basic medical evidence: The cop who shot him said he was standing to the left of Bell Jr. and thus couldn’t verify whether he actually grabbed the gun. But Bell Jr. was shot on the right side of his head, not the left.

Bell hired an independent investigator, a retired detective from the same police department. He found further evidence of a cover-up: “We discovered that the officer had mistakenly hooked his gun on a car mirror,” Bell said. “There was no DNA or fingerprints on the gun or holster, and none of the eye witnesses saw Michael’s hand on a gun or holster.”

The officer may have sincerely thought Bell Jr. was tugging on his gun, but it was just the car. And even though Bell Jr.’s mother and sister were yelling that he was unarmed, that he did not have the gun, he was executed on the spot.

In 2010, the Bell family won a civil settlement against the police department, and Bell has used a lot of that money to continue advocating for a new investigation into what happened to his son.

In 2011, he launched a statewide ad campaign, including buying every available billboard in Milwaukee, to ask why police should be permitted to investigate themselves. Remarkably, it worked, and Wisconsin is now the only state in the union that mandates independent probes into police shootings. It’s a law that should be duplicated in every state around the country.

But that doesn’t help Bell Jr.’s case, because the law isn’t retroactive. This week, Bell spent nearly $65,000 to place a full-page ad in The Washington Post demanding a new official investigation of what happened to his son:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DS1H9beX4AIR3ec.jpg

“Nobody understands what it takes to get to this level, to bring this kind of awareness to it,” Bell said of his decision to keep up his campaign for justice. “The best way to describe is that it’s my duty.”

You can help him fulfill that duty by signing his petition here. (https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/308/217/212/ ...p4p)

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/p843x403/21587020_1417347918320631_1560234427714963101_o.jp g?oh=1cc341dcece7adeefeba0c3d6ed627bc&oe=5AE66FD4

https://rare.us/rare-politics/rare-liberty/police-state/14-years-after-his-son-was-killed-by-the-police-this-wisconsin-veteran-is-still-asking-for-justice/

[Wooden Indian]

What a terrible situation this must have been. My thoughts are with brave officers whom placed their lives on the line.

FAAAAAAK

[ChristianAnarchist]

What a terrible situation this must have been. My thoughts are with brave officers whom placed their lives on the line.

FAAAAAAK

And the sheeple just plug their ears and cover their eyes. No matter how many examples of how bad the #goonerment #goonsquad is, they keep up the blue worship. Stockholm Syndrome...

[kcchiefs6465]

Bump