October 27th, 2017

We are taking this week to discuss police corruption to first identify these injustices, second to discuss how these institutional checks and balances should work, and then to make clear they are NOT WORKING---we also shout people tied to race and class not caring about these injustices WILL SEE THEIR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN facing even worse, black, white, or brown 99% of citizens, if we continue MOVING FORWARD.

Today we will look at Tyrone West's death by police unjustifiable homicide which occurred BEFORE Freddie Gray.  We call Tyrone's death the worst of the worst because his death was so brutal, the agencies tasked with CHECKS AND BALANCES so openly corrupt, the family of Tyrone completely disenfranchised of rights-----his case is that example of how a breakdown in a well-organized system with checks and balances when allowed to go corrupt continues to go further and further in that corruption.

IT IS NOT THE STRUCTURE OF GOVERNMENT-----THE STRUCTURE OF OUR POLICE DEPARTMENT----THE STRUCTURE OF OUR CHECKS AND BALANCES FROM CITY/STATE ATTORNEY OFFICE, LOCAL FBI, MEDICAL EXAMINER, CORONER'S OFFICE, BALTIMORE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH----ALL THOSE STRUCTURES WOULD WORK TOWARD JUSTICE IF THE RIGHT PEOPLE WERE IN ELECTED OFFICE AND APPOINTED THE RIGHT PEOPLE.

As this article states, Tyrone died after only several minutes of being literally dragged from his car for a SIMPLE TRAFFIC VIOLATION.


“Lab tests take time to perform, confirm and interpret. When all is said and done, it may be a month or more before the cause and manner of death are known.”


As a citizen having degrees in medical and biological science having worked in PATHOLOGY and clinical labs when I see reports of weeks and months for lab results before determining cause of death ---after seeing the body of Tyrone in photos taken post medical examination----we saw this article and attached our organization to this case.



Still no cause of death for Baltimore man who died in police custody

Justin Fenton, The Baltimore Sun  August 12, 2013






Three weeks after Tyrone West died in police custody after a Baltimore traffic stop, the state medical examiner's office said it is still investigating his cause of death amid growing calls for answers in the case.

Protesters, including West's family, have been demanding that prosecutors and police reveal West's cause of death. But Bruce Goldfarb, a spokesman for the state medical examiner, says they don't have it yet.
“In some cases, such as with a hanging or shooting, the mechanism causing a death may be obvious,” Goldfarb said. “But with an unexpected death of a fairly young person who is apparently in otherwise good health, every avenue must be thoroughly investigated.”

Police said West, 44, was pulled over July 18 while driving through a Northeast Baltimore neighborhood, and fought with officers before going into “medical distress.” They released dispatch tapes of the officers' call for help.


Multiple witnesses have said that West was struck several times, even after he stopped moving, and critics of the Police Department allege that he was killed.

Last year, 46-year-old Anthony Anderson died during an arrest in East Baltimore. Within 10 days, the medical examiner had determined that he died from blunt force trauma. Police Commissioner Anthony Batts hand-delivered the autopsy result to Anderson's family, who released it to the news media.


The officers were eventually cleared of criminal wrongdoing.
Goldfarb said West's toxicology and brain tissue results could take weeks. The medical examiner's office is a state agency and independent of city police and prosecutors, though its findings form the basis of many investigative decisions.

“Medical examiners determine the cause and manner of death when they have enough information to make the diagnosis with a reasonable degree of medical certainty,” Goldfarb said.

“Lab tests take time to perform, confirm and interpret. When all is said and done, it may be a month or more before the cause and manner of death are known.”

________________________
Where this article tells us police reported resistance what we read as in this article was Tyrone being mad at being pulled from his car by the hair did resist---but the officers continued their assaults after Tyrone was down and compliant.  What we don't read in this article is that Tyrone was PEPPER SPRAYED.  Now, anyone having been pepper sprayed KNOWS how a body reacts------the spray hitting the face immediately causes the eyes to burn, the nose and respiration to close making a person feel SHORTNESS OF BREATH----they cannot see or breathe.  What eyewitnesses saw was Tyrone pulling away from the officer spraying and then tazing him....not resisting arrest but seeking safety.


“But with an unexpected death of a fairly young person who is apparently in otherwise good health, every avenue must be thoroughly investigated.”

When a citizen has been both pepper sprayed and tazed their cardiac and respiratory system is immediately under duress.  This is what disables citizens when in police custody.  Police then threw Tyrone to ground on stomach hands behind back while he was trying to catch his breathe.  Anyone trained in first aid knows, when a person is having difficulty breathing you do not place them flat on ground on their stomach......this is first aid 101.  Police will tell you they are TRAINED TO DO THIS-----PEPPER SPRAY FOLLOWED BY TAZING FOLLOWED BY STOMACH TO GROUND AND OFTEN AN OFFICER IS SITTING ON THAT CITIZEN'S BACK OR KNEE TO LOWER NECK making breathing almost or indeed impossible.  It is the TRAINING TECHNIQUE that created the thousands of civilian deaths these several years creating the protest mantra I CAN'T BREATHE.


Tyrone West files show passenger's account of death in police custody


Woman told investigators he fought police, then gave up
January 23, 2014|By Justin Fenton, The Baltimore Sun


A key witness in the case of Tyrone West — whose death in police custody has sparked a citywide debate — told investigators that West fought with officers, but that they continued to hit him after he gave up, according to documents released this week.



"He was saying, 'You got me, you got me, stop hitting me,'" Corinthea Servance told detectives. "Natural instinct, you're going to ward them off. … I was screaming at him, just lay down. Whatever they're telling you to do, take the pain. Just lay down."

The police officers involved in the July 18 incident also told prosecutors that West gave up at one point — but resumed a violent struggle as they tried to take him into custody, requiring other officers to jump into the fray. One officer remarked to a colleague that it was the "fight of my life."



The interviews provide more clarity about a controversial case that has been marked by divergent accounts from police, witnesses and West's family. Accounts from Servance, 44 — the only nonpolice witness to see the entire incident — and police officers were part of an investigative file released this week under a Public Information Act request.


The medical examiner's office ruled that West, 44, died because of a heart condition exacerbated by the struggle with police and the summer heat. But his relatives remain convinced that the officers caused his death, and the case has prompted regular protests and allegations that police are abusive.



In December, the Baltimore state's attorney's office decided that the officers' response to the "chaotic" situation followed their training and they would not face criminal charges. Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts has pledged to convene an outside panel of law enforcement experts to review the case.


The dispute started with a traffic stop in the 1300 block of Kitmore Road. In her interview with homicide detectives that night, Servance said she was in the car with West, whom she knew as "James." She said he was an unlicensed cab driver who often gave her rides. She had called him to get a ride from her mother's house.


As they drove away, she asked him to double back. They were riding in his sister's 1999 Mercedes-Benz.
"Just back up a little and go down the street," the woman said she told West.
The officers initially drove past him, then did a three-point turn and turned on the emergency lights on their unmarked car.



Documents from the investigative file show that plainclothes officers Jorge Bernardez-Ruiz and Nicholas Chapman, who work in the Northeastern District's operations unit, pulled him over because he had reversed his vehicle in an intersection and because they had observed "lots of furtive movements" inside.



Servance, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, told detectives that night that Chapman asked her if she had ever been arrested and repeatedly asked her, "When's the last time you got high?" She said Bernardez-Ruiz then asked her to sit on the curb, which made her feel like a "criminal." West was already out of the car and sitting on the curb with his feet crossed, she said.


She said Chapman went through her pocketbook, taking out "everything — my keys, my lotion, my umbrella, my ID, my money pouch" and questioning whether a folded receipt had drugs inside.
Police found no drugs on her or in the car. But as they did a pat down of West, who they said had been cooperative to that point, they saw a bulge in his sock, later determined to be a small amount of cocaine.


West pushed the officer, the woman and police both say. West had prior drug charges and was out on parole, with a violation potentially sending him back to prison until 2020, records show.


The ensuing fight seemed to go on for 10 minutes, Servance said.
"They were fighting, and they got on the police car. They fell on the ground, and they were fighting," she said, describing the situation as surreal. "All I was doing was going to my mother's house."


David Gray, a criminal law professor at the University of Maryland School of Law and an expert on the Fourth Amendment, said a traffic violation is justification to pull over the car and ask the occupants to step out and be searched.


If the occupants give their consent to a search, "basically the Fourth Amendment disappears."
But he said the case raises broader issues related to how such enforcement is applied.


"If we want to avoid perpetuating an antagonistic relationship between police and citizens, it's not enough to ask whether they toed the Fourth Amendment line," Gray said. "There are bigger questions about how officers are incentivized, how they're trained and who they choose to target or not target."


Robert F. Cherry, president of the city police union, said police have a mandate to get guns off the street, and must do so within the boundaries of the Constitution.
___________________________________________

There seems to have been a scuffle as Tyrone was mad at being forced from his car for a traffic violation -----officers pulling people for traffic violations leave citizen in car---check their driver's license----and decide if a traffic ticket is given.  If you have a police encounter ---and we have-----even for a simple traffic violation----several police cars arrive all at the same time.  We made an illegal left turn in Washington DC not seeing the sign----and in minutes five extra police officers arrived to assist the two in the original vehicle.  So, this is what the scene looked like to eyewitnesses----Tyrone was mad at being pulled from car tried to assert his rights and as this article states----he was immediately sprayed and tazed.


'Eight Baltimore police officers—Nicholas David Chapman, Matthew Rea Cioffi, Alex Ryan Hashgen, Eric Maurice Hinton, Danielle Angela Lewis, Derrick Dewayne Beasley and Latreese Nicole Lee—and one Morgan State University officer were involved in the incident. The Baltimore police officers were not immediately suspended following West’s death'.

'One witness, Ayesha Rucker, 30, was visiting a friend who lives in the block at the time of the incident, and said officers pulled West out of the car by his dreadlocks. She said the officers sprayed West with mace and kicked him in the head and body.
“He never even resisted arrest,” said Rucker. “The police pumped his chest for at least 10 minutes before the ambulance arrived.”
Another witness, Chuma Obinene, 22, who lives nearby, said once police backup arrived, West “disappeared into a sea of blue,” as officers beat him with batons and kicked him'.

No one wants to dispute Tyrone initially resisted being pulled from car----what we know is that resistance was contained and police violence against Tyrone continued and was excessive force.  Witnesses stated 8 officers surrounded Tyrone all kicking and beating him with batons AFTER HE HAD stopped resisting.

Was Tyrone West Death Police Brutality?


by:
/ /
August 2, 2013

The exact causes behind the death of a man who struggled with Baltimore police following a traffic stop remains unclear, with authorities declining to release information in the case.

Tyrone West, 44, died following a struggle with Baltimore police officers on July 18.
“The autopsy hasn’t been released yet,” said Baltimore police spokesperson Detective Vernon Davis. “The case is still under investigation.”
West died following an altercation with police after being pulled over for a traffic violation in the 1300 block of Kitmore Rd.


At the scene, Dep. Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said West refused to let Northeast District officers search the car for drugs, and began to struggle with two patrol officers. Rodriguez said the patrol officers called for backup and took West into custody when he went into “medical distress.” He said officers attempted to revive West on the scene; he was later taken to a nearby hospital, where he died.


Eight Baltimore police officers—Nicholas David Chapman, Matthew Rea Cioffi, Alex Ryan Hashgen, Eric Maurice Hinton, Danielle Angela Lewis, Derrick Dewayne Beasley and Latreese Nicole Lee—and one Morgan State University officer were involved in the incident. The Baltimore police officers were not immediately suspended following West’s death.


However, Davis said the Baltimore City police officers involved are all currently suspended and on paid administrative leave due to the pending investigation.
The name of the Morgan State University police officers involved has not been released. A university spokesperson said the investigation is ongoing.


Some witnesses and family members are calling the incident a case of police brutality and excessive force.
One witness, Ayesha Rucker, 30, was visiting a friend who lives in the block at the time of the incident, and said officers pulled West out of the car by his dreadlocks. She said the officers sprayed West with mace and kicked him in the head and body.


“He never even resisted arrest,” said Rucker. “The police pumped his chest for at least 10 minutes before the ambulance arrived.”

Another witness, Chuma Obinene, 22, who lives nearby, said once police backup arrived, West “disappeared into a sea of blue,” as officers beat him with batons and kicked him.


Famed Baltimore attorney A. Dwight Petit has taken on the case and is representing West’s family. At the vigil for West, Petit said “officers believe there is no price to pay for beating a Black man.”


________________________________________


We showed a video not long ago of a similar police incident in an alley where a man running dropped to ground to give himself up with officers surrounding him beating and kicking him senseless ---they only stopped because they saw someone video-taping that encounter. Again, we hear officers state they are trained to use that excessive force.

No weapon was ever indicted -----family was clear Tyrone had no heart or health conditions---any healthy person cannot breathe under those circumstances.

Those able to see the photo of Tyrone's body post medical examiner saw his body bruised and broken from head to toe from kicks and baton beating. 

The local media provided so many accounts of this incident because the family of Tyrone -----a solid middle-class family no ties to any illegal activities pressed those CHECKS AND BALANCES AGENCY to police and they were denied access to even basic police information.


The Maryland MEDICAL EXAMINER released after months HEART DEFECT as cause of death------outside medical examiners determined SUFFOCATION POSITIONAL ASPHYXIATION.

Whatever view one wants to take as to sequence of events---the point is this:  a man died following excessive force used against an unarmed man.

Tyrone's family was never notified by police so they could go to the morgue to identify Tyrone's body ----Tyrone was taken from scene to medical examiner office as a JOHN DOE.  The family has police tapes at the scene with officers acknowledging receiving Tyrone's driver's license doing a background check no doubt----and the car had license plates and vehicle insurance records with OWNER'S NAME---that was Tyrone's sister---all easily allowing police to IDENTIFY TYRONE.  Yet, police labelled Tyrone JOHN DOE---NO NAME FOUND.

THIS IS WHERE POLICE CORRUPTION BECAME CRIMINAL ----THE FAMILY HAS ALL EVIDENCE SHOWING POLICE HAD TYRONE'S NAME--THE FAMILY TO CONTACT AND DID NOT.

So the family of Tyrone are angry not only for excessive force beating to death of their son/brother but by frauds and corruption/coverup after that death.

Suffocation Ruled Cause of Controversial Police Custody Death

December 10, 2013 4:26 AM·

Suffocation Ruled Cause of Controversial Police Custody Death


Relatives, friends and supporters protest Tyrone West’s death outside Northeast District police headquarters on a recent “West Wednesday” (left to right): Jamie Richardson (West’s cousin), Tawanda Jones (West’s sister), George Peoples (West’s uncle)


Autopsy results for Tyrone West, who died in police custody five months, ago reveal that he died of “positional asphyxiation,” according to a source familiar with the case.

Witnesses to the incident and West family members alleged that officers from the Baltimore City Police Department and Morgan State University beat West to death after a traffic stop in Northeast Baltimore last July. However, the autopsy found he suffocated while being held in a position in which he couldn’t breathe.


It is unclear which officer was responsible for holding West.
Since the death of their loved one, the family, led by West’s uncle George Peoples, his cousin Jamie Richardson and his sister Tawanda Jones, has spent over 130 days advocating for the release of the autopsy report and information about the case. They’ve protested, had meetings with council members and the Mayor, and have had countless interviews with the press.


“We are going to continue doing this until we get some answers,” said Peoples, while attending a demonstration at City Hall.
Only recently has the family begun to see the efforts pay off.
Last week Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake wrote to State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein prompting him to release information about the West case.


“I write urging you to work expeditiously to provide the public with a prompt and transparent determination of the events that occurred surrounding this incident,” she wrote.
This Thursday, the City Council will hold a hearing to further discuss the progression of the case.
--
For the West family, July 18th was just another ordinary day. George Zimmerman had just been found not guilty in the murder of Trayvon Martin, and the verdict was still the buzz on the streets and the topic of conversation between West and his sister.


“‘We have to be careful. There’s Zimmermans on every corner.’ That was the last thing my brother told me,” said Jones, remembering the last time she saw her brother alive. After their talk, West borrowed Jones’s green Mercedes Benz E 320 to run some errands.


That evening, after several failed attempts to contact West, Jones turned on the television and saw her green Mercedes and her brother’s dead body lying next to it on the evening news. Confused, shocked and distraught, she went into a frenzy of grief. But even before seeing the television she knew something horrible had happened because no one was able to contact him, she later recalled.



West was stopped for a routine traffic violation, according to the family. Witnesses told the Baltimore Sun he did not resist arrest and was sprayed with pepper spray or mace. Police began beating West while he screamed for help and tried to escape.

During the incident, West fell to the ground, lost consciousness, and later died. It was later reported that nine city police officers from the Violent Crime Impact Section, as well as a Morgan officer, were involved. However, no officer has been charged, and they all remain suspended on paid leave.


Since the death of West, his family has found little reassurance from law enforcement until recently. Instead, they have found some comfort in being able to share and express their grief with people like the Anthony Anderson family, who know all too well the agony of losing a relative in a confrontation with police.



According to the Sun, on the evening of Sept. 21st last year, at approximately 7:20 p.m., three Baltimore City police officers set out to arrest Anderson for making a drug deal in front of OK Liquors on East Biddle Street. One of the officers, Todd Strohman, also a part of the Violent Crime Impact Section, forced Anderson on the concrete by picking him up and slamming him to the ground. Anderson, slumped over and with shallow breath, was taken to the hospital, where he later died.
Less than two weeks later, the state’s assistant medical examiner, Zabiullah Ali, ruled Anderson’s death a homicide due to blunt force trauma of the torso. Anderson suffered multiple rib fractures, lung contusions, and spleen lacerations which caused him to bleed to death internally. The examiner’s report was consistent with the witness statements of those who saw the incident and said that the police had slammed Anderson to the ground.


Four months after Anderson’s death, Baltimore prosecutor Gregg Bernstein announced that the officers involved would not be prosecuted, after finding that Strohman had used appropriate force when he slammed Anderson to the ground.
The Anderson family says that what’s been done so far is not enough. They have recently filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the Baltimore City Police Department.


Members of the West and Anderson families met for the first time in August in an empty lot at the intersection of East Biddle and North Montford Street, the same place Anderson was killed. Community activists, supporters and friends and family of Anderson threw a community barbecue to celebrate what would have been his 47th birthday.


The families exchanged their condolences for each other’s loss, and apologized for having to meet under such sad circumstances. West’s aunt, who he considered his mother, Diane Butler, and the mother of Anderson, Edith Fletcher, embraced each other in grief and understanding. Fletcher patted Butler on the shoulder, silently acknowledging the pain over the loss of their sons.
“I’ll never forgive them,” Butler said of the officers involved in the death of her son.

________________________________________

The officers searched the car and found no drugs----but somehow cocaine was found in Tyrone's sock----family is sure Tyrone never used cocaine and feel this was a police plant of drugs after finding none in car. We showed that video from police cameras of how Baltimore police do that during routine traffic stops----police cameras came AFTER these TYRONE AND FREDDIE GRAY incidences

Tawanda exhumed Tyrone's body and sent it to yet another medical examiner's office out of State of Maryland and that medical examiner stated SUFFOCATION as cause of death...meanwhile, media coverage changes the police scene encounter each time an article is released.


'Manion, the chief of pathology at Memorial Hospital of Salem County in New Jersey, is a designated forensic pathologist and medical examiner in that state. His report, submitted to the court in November, concludes that West suffocated, contradicting the assertion that West died of a heart condition'.

Another police procedure the West family is contesting is the fact police CONFISCATED all witnesses surrounding the scene that taped the encounter-----police went door to door asking neighborhood around police scene to surrender any video of that police encounter------the family trying to find a witness with video was told by community all cell phones were taken by police.  The police NEVER allowed WEST family to see those witness cell phone videos----to this day. 

IT IS THE SECRECY OF POLICE ACTIONS THAT MAKE CITIZENS DOUBT THEIR ACCOUNTS.

'The police autopsy report took longer to be released than is typical. “It took them six months to do it. We had to bury my brother without a death certificate. So that made me really scratch my head,” she said. There were also no autopsy photos released with the report, which is unusual. “No autopsy pictures? You do an autopsy and the only photos you can provide are the ID photos?” she said'.

This article is a rare one allowing Tawanda's voice to be heard and we see the list of FAILURES in checks and balance agencies---along with the description of photos of Tyrone's body---WHICH WE SAW----just the degree of excessive force on body would have created a cause of death quite different----here we are told the officer was SITTING ON TYRONE'S BACK after being PEPPER SPRAYED....ERGO, death by suffocation.

The Story of Tyrone West, and the Sister Who Keeps Fighting for Justice


A conversation with Tawanda Jones, whose brother Tyrone West was killed by Baltimore police officers in 2013.



Freddie Gray, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner -- these are names you are probably familiar with. They are all people who were lost too soon to police brutality, and their names have become synonymous with the Black Lives Matter movement. Activists have spread their stories in hopes of finding justice, and to illustrate the destructive nature of mass incarceration, the War on Drugs, and police overreach.


But for every name that makes national headlines, there are victims of police brutality who go largely unnoticed by the general public.


Tyrone West is one of them.
A 44-year-old father, uncle, and brother from Baltimore, Tyrone West was killed during a traffic stop by city police officers in the summer of 2013. Every week since, his family and supporters have been gathering on Wednesday evenings to demand that his case be reconsidered and the officers in question convicted. West’s sister Tawanda Jones leads these weekly demonstrations, and has found herself in a position of leadership in the Baltimore activism community. Pre-school teacher by day, fierce activist by night, Jones dedicates her spare time to finding justice for her brother, and supporting all victims of police brutality. I had the opportunity to sit down with her, and gain her perspective on all that’s happened in the past four years.

Walking into Tawanda Jones’ home, the front alcove is completely decorated in her brother Tyrone’s West’s artwork – impressive artwork. Several feature historic black figures such as Barack Obama, while others depict family members such as Jones herself.


An example of Tyrone West's artwork.


While the most troubling and controversial chapter of Tyrone West’s story comes at his death, it is important to recognize that he lived an entire 44 years of life before July of 2013. He is not defined solely through his death, but rather was a fully-fledged person who died at a tragically young age.


So who was this person?
“My brother Tyrone was the glue to our family,” Jones said. “He loved telling jokes. Retelling you I can actually hear him laughing. It wasn’t a real loud laugh, but it was one that you knew.”


Along with being a talented artist, West was passionate about fitness. “He always emphasized the importance of eating right and exercising. He would take walks every morning, from East Baltimore to West Baltimore,” Jones said. “He liked helping with my grandmother, helped her exercise.”


“He liked to take care of the family. He was a father, he was my older brother and my best friend,” she said. Family was always West’s priority.
That evening of July 18th, Jones experienced something she previously had thought only happened to twins. Though nobody ever called Jones or her family to inform them of West’s death, she knew immediately when her brother was hurt. “The night he was murdered instantly I felt his pain. Exactly at 7:00… I’ll never forget, I felt a sharp pain on the right side of my neck,” she said. “It was so bad I thought I was having a stroke.”


The entire left side of her body went numb, and she and her fiancé were ready to take her to the hospital. However, ten minutes later the pain completely disappeared. “Then the pain was followed by this sick nagging feeling that something had happened to my brother. I felt like in that moment my whole universe had just turned. I started crying, my fiancé thinking I’m crazy... And I say – ‘oh my gosh, something happened to Tyrone’…So I started calling him. He didn’t answer, so I knew.”


The family started making phone calls immediately – to the Homicide Unit, the Baltimore Police Department, local hospitals – but nobody provided them with answers. “We literally went down to Homicide the same day he was murdered. We’re tracking down people who should have been calling us,” Jones said.

At 10:00 PM, the family’s suspicion was finally confirmed when they saw West’s death reported on the news. “I look on the television and see my brother’s dead body on the gurney...I see witnesses crying, saying they didn’t have to beat him like that, that they never saw something like that happen,” she said. “I could not comprehend that kind of pain. I couldn’t catch up with reason or understanding. It just felt like I died.”


What precisely occurred that day is hard to know, but we can use eyewitness accounts as well as the police report to get an idea.
According to the police report, West was arrested during a traffic stop on July 18, 2013, for backing down the street and into an intersection. When officers asked West to get out of the car, they supposedly noticed a bulge in his sock. They suspected it to be drugs. From here an unclear struggle ensued, and officers tackled West to the ground. According to eyewitness accounts they beat him severely, and an officer sat on his back. West died while handcuffed on the ground. There were reportedly several Baltimore City police officers (Nicholas David Chapman, Jorge Omar Bernardez-Ruiz, Matthew Rea Cioffi, Alex Ryan Hashgen, Eric Maurice Hinton, Danielle Angela Lewis, Derrick Dewayne Beasley, and Latreese Nicole Lee) and one Morgan State University officer (David Lewis) involved.


Jones doesn’t believe that West was carrying drugs. She says she remembers him wearing ankle socks that day, where he wouldn’t have been able to hide a bag. "I am a hundred percent sure my brother had no drugs on him. I just left him, so I know that for a fact...I can put my life on it," she said. "Let's be clear, if they had found any drugs on him or in my vehicle, I would never have been able to get my vehicle back."


But regardless of what you believe, it is important to note that the punishment for illegal drug possession is not immediate execution, and that West was unarmed and handcuffed on the ground when he died. Jones also believes that the media has been misrepresenting West’s interaction with the police officers as a “struggle.” “My brother was struggling to survive,” Jones said. She believes that any struggle between him and the officers was out of self-defense.


It is also important to note that one of the same officers who was involved with West’s killing (Bernardez-Ruiz) also harassed Darrel Harris only one day before. Officers Chapman and Bernardez-Ruiz were also involved in the brutal beating of Abdul Salaam on July 1st, only a couple of weeks before West was killed. Salaam won a civil suit against the police officers who injured him, and has expressed that these men should have been removed from the streets before they could even come into contact with West.




Tawanda Jones leads a West Wednesday demonstration.


The police claimed that Tyrone West was a John Doe. “What came to my mind frame was…something’s not right. For one, they didn’t call us. He was driving my vehicle -- nothing was wrong with my vehicle. We made sure that… everything was working sufficiently,” said Jones. “How is he a John Doe when he has his driver’s license and his credit card…with him? How is he a John Doe when you know the car that he’s driving…has a registry that has ‘Tawanda Jones’ on it? You killed him,” she said.


When officials finally came to her house to have a conversation, none of her questions were answered. Though West’s autopsy report would not be released for another five months, the questions the officials posed were in line with the story they would later tell regarding his death. “It was almost as if they walked in with what they wanted to say,” Jones said. Officials asked questions such as, “Did Mr. West have any heart problems? Could he have been affected by the heat?” etc. West’s family assured them that he never had any of these health issues, and Jones offered to send the Homicide Unit a copy of the doctor’s report he had gotten at his physical check-up just a week before. They said it wouldn’t be necessary.


“So the very next day we were out in the streets demanding answers,” Jones said. This was the birth of West Wednesdays, and – little did they know – an act of resistance that would continue for over 190 weeks. Suddenly, Ms. Tawanda Jones found herself placed in a position of leadership for activism in Baltimore. You can still find a dedicated group of activists meeting every Wednesday to demand justice for Tyrone West. They change locations every week in hopes of garnering more attention.



“Something registered inside of me...I need to turn this pain and frustration into something positive,” she said. In order to power through she understood that she needed to reach out. “I need to bring myself to a place where I can get counseling and help to know what triggers me. I need help.”


So Jones started getting counseling. “I’m a Christian woman and I believe in God. The pain was so real it tested my faith. How could [God] allow something this vile to happen?” she said. “But God told me: ‘You’ve got work to do.’ The work that I see God wants me to do is to…wake people up; make people aware of how corrupt this system is,” she said.


“We know bad things happen to good people, but I used to think: ‘well if you’re not breaking the law, how would you come into contact [with an officer] in a bad way?’” Jones said. “I was involved with a police officer for five years before my brother was murdered, so I know what it’s like to be on the flip side,” she said. “I used to wonder -- will my person come back to me? So I know how that feels.”



However, she realizes that there is a system of oppression in place. “These are not isolated incidents by far,” she said. “Yes, it’s about Tyrone West, but this is bigger than Tyrone West. It didn’t start at my brother and it didn’t stop at my brother.”



Jones believes that the media plays one of the largest roles in continuing the destructive narratives which make these murders possible. “They can make innocent people look guilty and guilty people look innocent…There’s this pattern of practice, what they do to dehumanize the victims. And it’s mainly African Americans and Latinos. Now if it’s someone Caucasian, they don’t do as much of that dehumanizing. They have this conversation of mental health issues. But when they’re black it’s ‘oh, they’re a thug,’” she said. “When you start hearing all these stories, be your own conscious consumer.”



It appears that there are some who do not approve of Jones’ activism work. “I've never experienced my car getting so vandalized. My tires have been slashed,” she said. Her car tires have been slashed so frequently that the West Wednesday community had to start a tire fund for her. “That’s the reason why I moved,” she said. However, even since moving to a different neighborhood, Jones has felt unsafe. She has had some unsettling experiences, such as strange men following her, trying to break into her house. She has also seen police officers standing outside her home, keeping watch, for no apparent reason.




A Black Lives Matter protest in Baltimore. (Credit: The Baltimore Sun.)


The police autopsy report claimed that West "died of Cardiac Arrhythmia due to Cardiac Conduction System Abnormality complicated by Dehydration during Police Restraint," and that another contributing factor could have been "the extreme environmental temperatures." Basically, they claim that West died of a heat-induced heart attack. The family of Tyrone West believes that this is false.



The police autopsy report took longer to be released than is typical. “It took them six months to do it. We had to bury my brother without a death certificate. So that made me really scratch my head,” she said. There were also no autopsy photos released with the report, which is unusual. “No autopsy pictures? You do an autopsy and the only photos you can provide are the ID photos?” she said.


But if the police refused to release photos, Jones was going to get her own. “I made sure to ask the funeral home for time with my brother,” she said. Before he was buried, Jones went through the painful task of photographing her brother’s body, so that she would have evidence of her own. “It was horrible,” she said. “I’m seeing boot prints, foot prints. And you’re saying that this man died of a heart attack?”


Only days after West was killed, Jones experienced something strange relating to his ID. On the 23rd, Jones gets a call from West's landlord, informing her that his apartment had been broken into. When she investigates, "[it] looks like his house was raided," she said. "It looks like someone was looking for something, because all the cabinets were open." West's belongings were moved onto the sidewalk in front of the house, and neighbors had been taking things, thinking they were free. This confused Jones, because "what robber...breaks into someone’s house, and everything you want you leave on the lawn?"



"And then the interesting part…as I’m walking up the steps, something just told me: look down," Jones said. She found West's ID on the ground, as if somebody had dropped it by accident. This was especially curious, because the police's reports regarding West's ID had been inconsistent. The original police report stated that West provided his ID, and yet he was later claimed to be a John Doe case. "So I held onto his license," she said. This begs the question: who was in West's apartment with his ID, and why?



In 2014, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake commissioned an independent police review, and concluded that while officers may have made mistakes leading to “chaos”, they did not use excessive force. The review did note that, "the officers involved departed from some BPD policies and training and made several tactical errors that may have extended the length of the physical encounter, compromised officer safety, and potentially aggravated the situation."
The West family filed a federal lawsuit. To collect more evidence that West was murdered, Jones and her family raised the funds to complete an independent autopsy. Conducted by Dr. William Manion, who is the chief of pathology at Memorial Hospital of Salem County in New Jersey, the new report concludes that West was suffocated, and that his death was unrelated to heart or heat conditions. "I do not believe that the cardiac conduction system abnormality made any significant contribution to Mr. West's death," Manion wrote. "There is no evidence of cardiac disease, fainting or sickness due to any cardiac conduction system abnormality prior to his death." The report concludes that, in the end, “the main cause of death is the fact that he was restrained in such a way that he was unable to breathe." The report calls this “positional asphyxia.”



This directly contradicts the autopsy released by the Baltimore Police Department, and is in line with the family and eye witnesses’ claims. Tawanda Jones and the Tyrone West Coalition hoped that this new evidence would prompt Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby to reopen Tyrone West’s case, but she declined to do so. Jones has tried repeatedly to meat with Attorney Mosby, and each time this request has been denied.



There are several unanswered questions surrounding Tyrone West's death and events which have followed. One of the most bizarre situations, which even Jones doesn't quite know how to interpret, came as West's body was exhumed for the independent autopsy. First, Jones was under the impression that she would be able to see her brother's body when he was unearthed. She asked ahead of time when the funeral home would remove his casket from the ground, and purposefully came early so that she could bear witness. When she arrived early, his casket was already removed. "We showed up early, and he was already dug out," Jones said. "I’m wondering when they’re going to have us identify him." But they never did.


Then in the second autopsy report Jones noticed something peculiar. "They said he had a yellow shirt [on]," Jones said. This was confusing and upsetting to her, because they had buried him in a black shirt. She said they had specifically chosen this shirt because "I knew my brother loved black." Why was he reportedly dressed in yellow? Who would have changed his shirt, and why was the family never informed? These are just more bizarre question yet to be answered.


The Department of Justice released a scathing report in 2015 after a careful investigation into the Baltimore Police Department, including observations of patterns of racism and abuse within the city. The report stated: “We found that BPD has engaged in a pattern or practice of serious violations of the U.S. Constitution and federal law that has disproportionately harmed Baltimore’s African-American community and eroded the public’s trust in the police.”



Just this month Police Commissioner Kevin Davis announced that plainclothes policing (where police officers wear ordinary clothing rather than uniforms) will be coming to an end in Baltimore. This is a result of federal indictments of seven Baltimore City police officers who took advantage of their positions by collecting money for overtime they never worked, among other things. Davis said that plainclothes units have displayed a "cutting corners mindset" which has resulted in a disproportionate amount of complaints, and warrants eliminating the practice. The police officers who pulled Tyrone West over on July 18th, 2013 were plainclothes officers.



Baltimore reached a consent decree shortly before Trump’s inauguration, outlining the ways in which the city and police department plan to enact change. But does Jones have hope that this will be a tipping point towards justice?


“Not at all,” she said. “You think 227 pages are supposed to solve our problems? Something that’s been going on for decades?”
Jones believes that the only way to promote justice is to prosecute officers who already have records of abusing their positions of power.




So what can you do?


“Support us whatever way you think you can. Because when you’re helping, you’re doing a kind act. Talk to these people in power. Use your privilege and let them know they’ve got to stop. Sometimes it’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” Jones said.

“Stand out there and support West Wednesdays,” she said. “Support anybody who’s going through what we’re going through.”

________________________________________


“Even if he was dirty, he did not resist arrest,” said Rucker, who said she was upset about the incident'.

Most people and Tyrone's family believe Tyrone was seeking safety amidst being sprayed and beaten once he exited the car and surrendered---that is the account of most eye-witnesses.

The City Attorney at the time BERNSTEIN would have access to all these facts-----problems et al ----and refused to prosecute-----later the next City Attorney Mosby petitioned to reconsider given additional facts ----refused to prosecute.

The West family in fighting these checks and balance agency FAILURES are doing a service to all Baltimore citizens by demanding the system work.

When we hear people are running from police as this incident---please think what a person is feeling when heavily sprayed -------that is what causes people to automatically try to break loose.......it is reflexive.



'Upon the first blast of contact, the eyes will close without warning, start to tear rapidly and start burning intensely. If you happen to accidentally get sprayed in the eyes, don’t panic. The effects are bothersome but not long-term. They will cause you to be debilitated for a period of time, however. Most often, the next symptom is immediate coughing, as your lungs will be inhaling the pepper spray and you may not be able to breathe clearly. Pepper spray can make your coordination awkward as your body tries to recover from the ingestion'.



Man dies in police custody in Northeast Baltimore
Carrie Wells and Justin Fenton July 19. 2013  Baltimore Sun

A 44-year-old man died while in police custody after a struggle with officers during a traffic stop Thursday night in Northeast Baltimore, officials said.


Deputy Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said officers had pulled over a car for a traffic violation and suspected there were drugs inside. The man resisted police and was brought under control but went into “medical distress,” Rodriguez said. He died at a local hospital.

The man was identified as Tyrone West. A last known address was not provided, but court records indicate he may have recently been released from prison - he received a 20-year sentence in 2000 for drug distribution charges. Around the same time he received 15 years in an attempted murder case and two years for resisting arrest, records show.


The department's professional standards unit, which oversees police conduct, continued to investigate Friday, and police encouraged witnesses to come forward with statements and video. The information will be shared with the Baltimore state's attorney's office, according to Rodriguez.


“Like you, like the community, we have more questions than answers. ... We will get the answers,” Rodriguez said. He declined to comment further.
The incident occurred about 8 p.m. in the area of the 1300 block of Kitmore Road in the New Northwood neighborhood.


Shawanda Wilson, who lives nearby, said she saw the man put his hands up outside the car when two officers sprayed him with what appeared to be Mace or pepper spray and struck him. The man, who appeared to be in his 30s, ran a short distance to an alley, where officers caught up with him and started beating him with batons in his head and back, Wilson said.


The man ended up on the other side of the street, Wilson said, and numerous other officers, some from Morgan State University, arrived and began to beat the man.
At some point, the officers backed away and a policeman could be seen performing CPR on the man, Wilson said. She said he was bleeding from his mouth, and she called the beating “excessive.”



It was “really bad,” she said. “To the point where I got upset.”
Ayesha Rucker, a friend of Wilson's, said she saw the incident as well. She said it started when both plainclothes officers arresting the man began punching him at the same time as he stood waiting to be arrested. He was then sprayed with Mace or pepper spray, Rucker said.


The man screamed for help several times as he was beaten and sprayed, and he tried to escape, Rucker said. When about 10 officers arrived for backup, she said, they “tackled” the man. An officer kicked the man in the face, she said.


“Even if he was dirty, he did not resist arrest,” said Rucker, who said she was upset about the incident.


Detective Angela Carter-Watson, a police spokesman, declined to comment about witnesses’ accounts that the man was beaten by officers. She confirmed that officers from Morgan State University responded to the scene.


In September 2012, 46-year-old Anthony Anderson died after being thrown to the ground by officers during a drug arrest in East Baltimore. The state medical examiner ruled the cause of death was homicide, but prosecutors declined to pursue charges after determining that the officers did not use excessive force and followed police procedure.

______________________________________

When the City of Baltimore and Maryland decides to pay a settlement we can bet there is good reason as hundreds of Baltimore citizens were killed in police encounters these several years of militarized police training---many involving citizens with no weapons guilty of no crime.

As this article states---the NEXT PROBLEM with attaining REAL public justice is this process of paying a settlement vs a family receiving court justice. Tawanda was not part of this settlement because she is still seeking court justice for what was a case riddled with excessive force, coverup, and corruption.

It was Freddie Gray's death as tragic bringing the riot and protesting to Baltimore----we are shouting----this will not stop as long as MOVING FORWARD DEEP STATE global mercenary militarized policing replaces our local public police department.....let's fix what can and should work for all 99% of WE THE PEOPLE black, white, and brown citizens.

$1M settlement planned for family of Tyrone West



Luke BroadwaterContact ReporterThe Baltimore Sun  July 26, 2017


Baltimore officials said Wednesday they plan to pay the family of Tyrone West $600,000 to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit alleging police misconduct and excessive force. The announcement came as state officials approved paying $400,000 to settle their share of the suit.


The combined $1 million is to settle a suit filed after West died in 2013 during an altercation with police during a traffic stop in Northeast Baltimore.

The family’s attorney, A. Dwight Pettit, said the money would go to West’s three children — Nashay West, Tyrone West Jr. and a minor child — and lawyers’ fees.
Interim Baltimore Solicitor David Ralph said the city had been fighting the lawsuit in federal court, winning some motions but losing others.





“We consider the facts and the evidence we think we can prove,” Ralph said. “We considered the risk to the city and the family’s interest. Both parties decided it was the reasonable and wise thing to do given the uncertainties of cases. … This is the family’s idea of what justice means to them.”


Ralph said he intended to bring the proposed $600,000 settlement to the city’s Board of Estimates in August. The spending panel is controlled by Mayor Catherine E. Pugh, who on Wednesday expressed sympathy for West’s family.


“I don’t think any amount of money can replace anyone. I don’t think there’s any kind of solace in any settlement,” she said.
Meanwhile, the state’s Board of Public Works approved the state portion of the settlement at its meeting Wednesday. The panel includes the governor, who was represented Wednesday by Lt. Gov. Boyd K. Rutherford, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp.


West, 44, died on July 18, 2013, during a traffic stop in Northeast Baltimore. Police and witnesses said he fought with officers. West’s family says officers beat him to death. The medical examiner’s office ruled that he died because he had a heart condition that was exacerbated by the struggle with police and the summer heat.


When national media descended on Baltimore after the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, West’s case was featured in many news reports.
Gray’s family settled for $6.4 million after his death from injuries sustained in the back of a police van.


West’s family and supporters, including his sister Tawanda Jones, have held weekly vigils — dubbed “West Wednesdays” — for 208 straight weeks since his death in an effort to raise awareness about the case.
Pettit said Jones has been removed from the case to avoid jeopardizing the payment to West’s children. Plaintiffs in city settlements are often prohibited from disparaging the city as part of the agreements.


“We didn’t want to run afoul of that,” Pettit said.
Jones held a press conference Wednesday evening and said she rejected being part of the settlement because she refuses to be silenced by entering into a non-disparagement agreement.

“They will not tell me what I can and cannot say, and I do not want to jeopardize his children’s settlement,” she said. “I will never, ever settle for anything. I’m on the right side of justice.”


Then-Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts ordered an independent review of West’s treatment. The review panel concluded in August 2014 that the officers involved did not use excessive force but made tactical errors that “potentially aggravated the situation” and did not follow basic policies.


One witness told investigators that police officers pulled West out of his car “by his dreads and started beating him and maced him, he got up and called for help and the cops knocked him over and beat him to death, then tried to bring him back.”

Officers acknowledged punching West, striking him with batons and spraying him with pepper spray, but denied any wrongdoing.


No officers were charged in West’s death. Gregg L. Bernstein, Baltimore’s state’s attorney at the time, said the officers had used “objectively reasonable force.”
The case played a role in Marilyn J. Mosby's successful challenge to Bernstein in the 2014 Democratic primary. Mosby criticized the way Bernstein handled the case for a lack of “transparency,” but declined to reopen it after she was elected state’s attorney.


An autopsy review commissioned by West’s family came to the conclusion that he died of “positional asphyxiation” while being restrained. Dr. Adel Shaker, a former medical examiner in Alabama and Mississippi, said that West “was not able to breathe during restraint process when he was held down by police officers sitting on him.” The civil lawsuit, filed in June 2014, was slated to go to trial earlier this month, but was pushed back to the fall.

__________________________________________

“At some level, it feels like we’re creating a Blackwater for police in the state of Michigan,” said Howell Police Chief George Basar, a past president for the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police. “It almost feels like we’re putting together a mercenary force to police in some of our communities.”

Make no mistake-------when we have politicians in our city councils---mayors of our US cities allowing what has been identified AROUND THE WORLD as a ROGUE, brutal, operating with impunity mercenary corporation making clear it answers to no one -----into our cities and counties---we don't have ELECTED PUBLIC OFFICIALS WORKING IN PUBLIC INTEREST.

What we are seeing is the unfolding of MOVING FORWARD US FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONE development where global corporate campuses and global factories are being built filling with global labor pool 99% and global 1% want in US the same militarized policing and security they placed in overseas Foreign Economic Zones.  ONE WORLD ONE GLOBAL POLICING POLICY.

Here is a citizen tied to EDUCATION AND OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS----shouting WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON??????????? SHOOT FIRST NO QUESTIONS----will have US city checks and balance agencies tasked with holding police accountable not even EXISTING.  Corrupting these processes is the FIRST STEP TO ELIMINATING THESE AGENCIES.

'Private for-profit forces would have full arrest powers but immunity from FOIA laws'



Oh. we're sure all this will effect that OTHER 99% POPULATION GROUP-----WAKE UP!


Here in Baltimore it is global Baltimore Development, global hedge fund IVY LEAGUE university Johns Hopkins, and all of Baltimore City Council and Mayor PUGH passing laws and allowing installation of all these global militarized policing structures while watching as all CHECKS AND BALANCE AGENCIES tied to police accountability are allowed to become CORRUPTED.


Push to Create Private ‘Blackwater’ Police for Michigan Schools, Corporations Raises Alarm



Oct 9, 2017 by
Alternet

Private for-profit forces would have full arrest powers but immunity from FOIA laws
By Chris Savage / Eclectablog –


Michigan is the Petri dish where some of the most nefarious and anti-democratic corporatist pestilence is grown and then used to infect the rest of the USA. Run by a GOP that’s been bought and paid for funded by the infamous DeVos family, and influenced by the Koch brothers’ supported Mackinac Center, the state now abounds in “Republicans Gone Wild!” legislation. But a new proposal to allow for private, for-profit police agencies which have full arrest powers but are immune from FOIA laws surprised even me. It’s insanity:


Michigan would authorize a new class of private and potentially for-profit police agencies with full arrest powers under legislation proposed and pushed by Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof. […]



The legislation would allow corporations, associations, school districts and other entities to contract with private police agencies to provide services for a specific time and in a specific geographic area. […]
[T]he legislation was panned by current law enforcement officials, who said they were concerned by proposed transparency and training requirements. A private officer would not have to undergo a background check if he or she were licensed by the state as a law enforcement officer within the previous two years, they noted.


“At some level, it feels like we’re creating a Blackwater for police in the state of Michigan,” said Howell Police Chief George Basar, a past president for the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police. “It almost feels like we’re putting together a mercenary force to police in some of our communities.”


The bill’s sponsor, Arlan Meekhof, brought up a guy from North Carolina who owns two private police agencies to testify before a Senate Government Operations Committee hearing on the bill about how great this idea is. That’s what you’re forced to do when not a single cop or other law enforcement agent thinks what you’re proposing is anything but madness.


According to reporting by Emily Lawler at MLive, “under the bill, the private police agencies would be extended governmental immunity but would not be subject to the state’s Freedom of Information Act.” The legislation specifies that so-called “legally organized entities” who could hire these private police agencies include, but are not limited to, an association, corporation, partnership, proprietorship, trust, foundation, nonprofit organization, school district, political subdivision, local unit of government, federally recognized Indian tribe, or institution of higher education.


Meekhof’s insane legislation lowers the bar to be a private cop about as low as you can go. In order to obtain a private cop license, you simply have to be over 21, have a high school diploma or equivalent, have not been convicted of a felony in the five years before applying, and be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. The private cop would also have had to be licensed by the Michigan State Police as a law enforcement officer within the past two years. The training requirements for that are set out in the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards Act (MCOLES) – 1965 PA 203, MCL 28.609 – which requires completing “Preenrollment requirements, courses of study, attendance requirements, and instructional hours at an agency basic law enforcement training academy, a preservice college basic law enforcement training academy, or a regional basic law enforcement training academy.”


However, as Howell Police Basar noted in Lawler’s piece, training for the private cops is not required to be as extensive as for traditional police officers:


Basar, of Howell, pointed to the training required by the Michigan Coalition on Law Enforcement Standards. Under this law for private companies, the standards would be different than for traditional police forces.
“Potentially we could be hiring security guards from other states without any police or MCOLES training,” Basar said.


The only requirement for someone opening a private police force is that “at least one officer or employee” of the private police agency meet at least one of the following criteria:


The applicant would have to include evidence that at least one officer or employee of the special police agency met one or more of the following:




— He or she was employed as a licensed law enforcement officer in Michigan or another state for at least three years.
— He or she was employed at a special police or licensed security agency in this or another state for at least three years as an employee of the applicant seeking licensure, and had experience that was reasonably equivalent to at least four years of work in a supervisory capacity with rank above that of patrol officer.


— He or she was a graduate with a bachelor or associate degree in the field of police administration or industrial security from an accredited institution of higher education.
— He or she served in the United States Armed Forces as a military police officer or in an equivalent job classification.


The person doesn’t have to meet ALL of these criteria, they only have to meet ONE of them. If just one of the employees of the private police agency meets just one of these requirements, you’re ready to go out and start arresting people and getting your cop on. And you’ll be totally protected by governmental immunity and from FOIA laws. Good to go.


This is a privatization scheme that corporate front groups have been pushing for a long time. Here’s the Mackinac Center back in 1998:



Traditionally, government police officers have shouldered the burden of providing for public safety while taxpayers have directly absorbed the full costs for these benefits. Privatization of some police forces can both enhance safety and lower costs, as a number of examples show. […]



Outsourcing is another way governments improve police services at a low cost. […]
The possibilities for police privatization are limited only by the ingenuity and political courage of local leaders.


Courage is not the word I would use to describe this, of course. Idiocy, maybe. Or greed. Because, let’s face it, when there is profit to be made from privatizing government services, for-profit corporations surge to the front of the line with their hands out.

It’s probably no coincidence that the Mackinac Center is heavily funded by the DeVos family (who have also contributed $14,000 to Meekhof since 2012.) Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s brother, Erik Prince, is the notorious founder of Blackwater Worldwide, a private, for-profit mercenary group that provides security and other services in war zones. It’s well known that Prince wants to privatize war, like the one in Afghanistan. If you’re willing to go that far, privatizing your local police department seems almost tame by comparison.



But sane people understand that putting a profit motive behind policing, making police forces even LESS transparent, and giving them government immunity can only lead to outrageous abuses. And if a private cop violates your civil rights or beats the shit out of you or even kills you, who will you or your loved ones complain to? The corporation that profits from that cop’s work?


Yeah, good luck with that.
This post originally appeared on Eclectablog.