Like many, I am still waiting for the evidence used as the basis to charge the six officers in Baltimore for the death of Freddie Gray. This morning, however, I was disturbed to read that an effort to create a fundraising site for the defense of the officers was taken down on GoFundMe. It appears that the site has a very questionable standard for funding that does not afford accused parties a presumption of innocence in asking for support to fund their defense.
The Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police created a GoFundMe page for the six officers after they were charged Friday. However, less than an hour later, it was taken down.
After 41 minutes, it has only raised $1,135 — considerably short of the $600,000 goal.
There is no confirmation on who is responsible. However, the site states the following : “‘Campaigns in defense of formal charges of heinous crimes’ are prohibited by our terms . . . GoFundMe cannot be used to benefit those who are charged with serious violations of the law.” Really? Why? I was under the impression that people were given a presumption of innocence in this country. Why shouldn’t this site be used to help guarantee a fair trial for anyone facing prosecution? Moreover, how do you define a serious violation? Clearly, this case would qualify but where is the line drawn?
This is a site that is designed to help people organize in making donations to support different causes. Giving such charity is a positive act, including giving money to guarantee a fully funded defense. Our criminal justice system is a foundational part of our society. It reflects our commitment to the rule of law. Central to that institution is the presumption of innocence. I find this policy of GoFundMe to be inexplicable and distasteful. Many people want to support the criminal justice system as much as environmental or other causes. The policy makes, in my view, an arbitrary and biased decision in barring those who are accused of serious offenses by the government. It should equally presumably bar those who are viewed as victims of government abuse like journalists or whistleblowers.
I also was a bit concerned to read Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby comments telling protesters: “I heard your calls for, ‘No Justice, No peace.’ Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man.” I generally think it is a bad idea for prosecutors to directly respond to public protests demanding criminal charges. Such protests should not have an influence on the decision to prosecute and it is always a concern, as with Mike Nifong in the Duke case, where prosecutors are seen as too responsive to public demands for criminal charges. This is not meant to suggest that a criminal case cannot be made but these press conferences can undermine the integrity of a prosecution if the chief prosecutor is viewed as too influenced by external events or demands.
on 1, May 4, 2015 at 4:36 pmbam bam
trooperyork
You obviously touched a nerve, especially with those who have lived their lives roundly condemning the police and law enforcement. The environment, that they have either implicitly or explicitly encouraged, in which police officers are to be maligned, vilified and viewed as an enemy of the people, is now one in which police shootings are no longer an uncommon event. Your critics merely want to foster such an atmosphere, fomenting a hostile and dangerous climate, encouraging the rabid animals, and then stand back as officers are targeted for assassination. Their complicity, in these deaths, is what you are reading here, nothing more, as they attack yo. A sad and desperate attempt to extricate themselves from what they have wrought.
****************************
What complete bunk. More guess work. Why do these people think they know how we live our lives? My brother was a Milwaukee cop for almost 30 years. I know and socialized with many of his fellow cops. I have no animosity to good cops. Even cops don’t like these rogue cops and my brother is one of those who condem cops who feel they are above the law. He counseled troubled cops toward the last part of his career as a cop and yes indeed there ARE troubled cops.
You, not yo
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/05/us/police-start-to-reconsider-longstanding-rules-on-using-force.html
I thought Frank Serpico was dead. How about a cop from this century?
Serpico was good at one job, does not mean he was good at another.
trooperyork
You obviously touched a nerve, especially with those who have lived their lives roundly condemning the police and law enforcement. The environment, that they have either implicitly or explicitly encouraged, in which police officers are to be maligned, vilified and viewed as an enemy of the people, is now one in which police shootings are no longer an uncommon event. Your critics merely want to foster such an atmosphere, fomenting a hostile and dangerous climate, encouraging the rabid animals, and then stand back as officers are targeted for assassination. Their complicity, in these deaths, is what you are reading here, nothing more, as they attack yo. A sad and desperate attempt to extricate themselves from what they have wrought.
I notice how President Obama called a press conference to condemn the violence against Officer Brian Moore. I notice how he offered the full resources of the Justice Department and the Federal Government to bring those responsible to justice. I notice how he commented today on the cold blooded murder of a police officer who was doing his job as so many do every day.
Police lives matter. Just not to President Obama and the army of skells and their families and supporters and so many of the commenter’s on this benighted site.
Perhaps Professor Turley can dredge up some more anti-police posts to restore equilibrium after this unfortunate mention of the murder of a police officer in the line of duty.
Seattle’s Former Police Chief Speaks Out Against Police Brutality
August 18, 2014
http://www.vice.com/read/a-former-police-chief-speaks-out-against-police-brutality-818
Carry on.
Well, with all this ghetto and ethnic stuff going on, we need some good hip-hop-ish jive funky background music!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ4o_Coes6o
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
trooperyork
Obama will, eventually, make mention of the officer’s death, only to couch it in some asinine rhetoric about needing to bring hope and change to the downtrodden and disenfranchised. His obvious absence, in the face of wholesale destruction and looting, including his pathetic lack of determination to curb the mayhem and the violence, only serves to embolden the criminals. It’s disgusting.
A lot of truth and constructive criticism from one who knows — Frank Serpico:
“The sum total of all that experience can be encapsulated in a few simple rules for the future:
Strengthen the selection process and psychological screening process for police recruits. Police departments are simply a microcosm of the greater society. If your screening standards encourage corrupt and forceful tendencies, you will end up with a larger concentration of these types of individuals;
Provide ongoing, examples-based training and simulations.Not only telling but showing police officers how they are expected to behave and react is critical;
Require community involvement from police officers so they know the districts and the individuals they are policing. This will encourage empathy and understanding;
Enforce the laws against everyone, including police officers.When police officers do wrong, use those individuals as examples of what not to do – so that others know that this behavior will not be tolerated. And tell the police unions and detective endowment associations they need to keep their noses out of the justice system;
Support the good guys. Honest cops who tell the truth and behave in exemplary fashion should be honored, promoted and held up as strong positive examples of what it means to be a cop;
Last but not least, police cannot police themselves. Develop permanent, independent boards to review incidents of police corruption and brutality—and then fund them well and support them publicly. Only this can change a culture that has existed since the beginnings of the modern police department.”
Want to live in a police state? Get your passport ready.
@ tripperyork
“They are rejoicing that another policeman is dead. They just won’t say it because they would look bad. But they are smiling all the same.”
1) When did you first become aware of your clairvoyant powers, Tripper?
2) Is there anything else your paranormal powers tell you regarding the unexpressed thoughts of posters here?
3) Have you any concern whatsoever for your credibility?
trooper, That batting average is good enough for government work.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/05/15/president-obama-honors-law-enforcement-officers-killed-line-duty
As I said: Carry on. Don’t let the facts get in your way.
And the winner of the “…, Pants on Fire” award, today is “trooperyork.”
anonymous
Why mention Serpico, a retired cop who has been off the streets, as a police officer, for more than forty years? FORTY YEARS! Who gives a rat’s a$$ about whether he thinks the police are out of control, as he puts it? He’s a washed up old has been, with probable brain damage left from the bullet he took in the head years ago. He is no expert on police in 2015, and he is out of touch. His comments are less than worthless. What’s wrong? His pension not going as far as it used to go? How about citing an article, from an active police officer, who serves the people and risks his life, in the street, in 2015? It’s like asking someone to comment on the price of bread in 2015, when that person only has memories as to what bread cost during the Depression.
Six out of 794 is what you are holding out there? .0075566 deaths in the line of duty. That is pretty piss poor even for someone as incompetent and divisive as Obama.
But hey, carry on. Don’t let facts get in your way.
The fact is he will not acknowledge Brian unless he is dragged kicking and screaming. His sympathies like yours are with the criminal not the constable.
“Meme says Barack Obama has given ‘no special recognition’ to police killed in action”
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/dec/02/facebook-posts/meme-says-barack-obama-has-given-no-special-recogn/
We rate the claim Pants on Fire.”
“Our ruling
The Facebook meme said that “794 law enforcement officers have fallen in the line of duty since B.H. Obama took office, with no special recognition from the White House.”
While the meme offered a reasonable approximation for the number of fallen officers, the meat of its accusation — that Obama has ignored the suffering of law enforcement officers killed in action — is demonstrably wrong. We found at least six instances in which Obama honored the lives of fallen officers in writing or in speeches.
Archived information about these events was easily available to the public on the White House website, meaning that the meme’s creator was reckless in not taking them into account. We rate the claim Pants on Fire.”
But, hey, carry on. Don’t let the facts get in your way.
I know who will not say a word. President Obama. He will run to comment when the latest skell gets killed but when a policeman is shot in the line of duty by a criminal who should have been incarcerated…..crickets.
He will be too busy yukking it up with Letterman or raising money.
To acknowledge a policeman shot down in the line of duty is something he would never do. Not in a million years.
“Plenty of people on this site hate the police and they show it every day.”
“They are rejoicing that another policeman is dead. They just won’t say it because they would look bad. But they are smiling all the same.”
Nonsense.
It is astounding that we have some who claim to be law enforcement officers make such outlandish claims about some of the people on this blog. The FACT is that most of us hate crooked cops, but of course, some cops think that hating crooked cops means we hate all cops. We are quite a bit more intelligent than those who make such stupid remarks. The real problem is that by shielding or protecting crooked cops, that makes those who protect them accomplices in their crimes. Thus by using the blue wall, they show themselves to be criminals, NOT law enforcement officers.
I would like to see what those who really are cops think and comment about what Serpico wrote. The fact is that unfortunately the lesson of Serpico has not been learned by the NYPD it seems. It is also the fault of the mayor and other officials who do not demand that the police live up to their oaths and the laws. A good start would be to name some police academy after Serpico and to figure him in some other ceremonies.
Plenty of people on this site hate the police and they show it every day. They lionize skells and want the police to ignore their criminal behavior.
They are rejoicing that another policeman is dead. They just won’t say it because they would look bad. But they are smiling all the same.
After all Brian does not look like he could be Obama or De Blasio’s son now does he. He is just another working class guy shot down by a lowlife who should have been in jail.
They will tell you if they don’t “accept the danger” and kowtow to the criminal element they should get another job.
Trooper York: “Cue the rejoicing of those who hate the police…”
Ridiculous. Most people don’t “hate the police”, as you say. Most people are sick and tired of “officers” who abuse their power, abuse those in their custody (or on the streets). Most people are weary of the widespread corruption.
The Police Are Still Out of Control
I should know.
By FRANK SERPICO
October 23, 2014
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/the-police-are-still-out-of-control-112160.html#.VUfBe5MuPYR
Evidently Frank Serpico doesn’t think his 15 minutes of fame is over.