{"id":11006,"date":"2015-04-18T18:14:13","date_gmt":"2015-04-19T01:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=11006"},"modified":"2023-01-30T18:27:49","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T02:27:49","slug":"el-paso-rodney-king-and-cell-phone-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=11006","title":{"rendered":"El Paso, Rodney King and Cell Phone Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Raul Hernandez<\/strong><\/p>\n

Notebookventura@gmail.com<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Rodney<\/a>
The Beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles Police Officers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“People, I just want to say, can we all get along? Can we get along?” –\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/span>Rodney King<\/strong><\/p>\n

November 1989, two years before the Rodney King beating, El Paso cops arrested four suspects from Juarez, Mexico in the 2200 block of Yarbrough Drive, near Montwood Mall. \u00a0Then Lt. Gabriel Serna<\/strong>\u00a0with the El Paso Police Department took out a tire iron and hit one in the back.<\/p>\n

It was witnessed by other officers of\u00a0the Police Department’s Tactical Section. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Four cops testified at an arbitration hearing that they saw Serna use the tire iron on the suspect. \u00a0Others said they saw Serna kick at least two other handcuffed suspects in the head.<\/p>\n

Then Police Chief John Scagno<\/strong> gave Serna \u00a0a six-month suspension. \u00a0It was later reduced to four months by the labor arbitrator.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Justice sat this one out so, the FBI was a no show.<\/p>\n

I wrote about police brutality in El Paso when I was working at the Herald-Post newspaper and a few months after King, a taxi cab driver, was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers following a high-speed chase on March 3, 1991.<\/p>\n

The incident about the four suspects was included in one of my reports.<\/p>\n

After Rodney King was pummeled, I proposed to my editors the idea of looking at the El Paso PD to see what we would find in the city. \u00a0I was lucky to have great editors at the El Paso Herald-Post who immediately green lighted it. \u00a0They also decided it would be a two-part series that was published on May 11, 1991.<\/p>\n

What I found was an excessive-force train wreck full of broken bones, bruises, fractured jaws, pulled hair, swollen body parts, lacerations and head trauma – case after case after case of allegations of policy brutality. The hospital bills to treat the injured were in the tens of thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n

To add insult to injury, many victims of police brutality were charged with felonies, resisting arrest or aggravated assault. In one case, I wrote that other cops stood and watched, and in another case, the victim who was brutally beaten said two officers gave each other high-fives after he was beaten.<\/p>\n

Many who were assaulted weren’t violent career criminals – one was a postman, others middle-class residents.<\/p>\n

I found that El Paso had more excessive force complaints than three other cities of similar-size – Austin, Albuquerque and Tucson.<\/p>\n

But what was worse is that two years after the 1989 beating, Serna was promoted to\u00a0El Paso Police Department’s commander of the Communications Section.<\/p>\n

America’s Video Scrapbook of Cop Shootings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Twenty four years later in San Bernardino County, California, sheriff’s deputies used a white man,\u00a0Francis Pusok,<\/strong> as a pinata following a nearly three-hour pursuit by car and horseback. Pusok appeared to be lying face down in the dirt with his hands clasped behind his back.<\/p>\n

The kicks, punches, elbows and blows with objects lasted a minute before Pusok was handcuffed. It was captured by a TV camera. Millions of people have seen the images, and the FBI has launched an investigation.<\/p>\n

Worse.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0\u00a0black man in South Carolina was shot in the back, and it was all recorded by a man with a cell phone camera, but the ink on the police report wasn’t even dry before the victim was blamed for contributing to his own death. \u00a0The cop who shot him said\u00a0the victim\u00a0reached for his taser. \u00a0The officer has been charged with murder.<\/p>\n

A thousand miles away, Tulsa, Oklahoma police, it seems, deputized Barney Fife who at this stage of his life can’t tell the difference between a taser and a gun loaded with real bullets. He said he grabbed\u00a0the wrong one, fired\u00a0and killed the suspect.<\/p>\n

“Oh, I shot him. I’m sorry,” he is heard saying on the video.<\/p>\n

The reserve deputy has been charged with\u00a0second-degree manslaughter.<\/p>\n

Now, it appears that Barney’s training records were falsified and that the sheriff and him are pals. This reserve deputy\u00a0loves to play cop and write fat checks to the Tulsa Police Department, according to published reports.<\/p>\n

The names of excessive force victims keeps piling up along with the names of the uniformed shooters.<\/p>\n

The Gym and Breaking News\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am up at the gym\u00a0early in the morning, using the rowing machine on the second floor when I start to notice a pattern begin to emerge.<\/p>\n

As the early morning news roundups of police beatings, shootings or both\u00a0are broadcast\u00a0gym members walk along a row of TV sets bolted to the ceiling sometimes slowing down or stopping. \u00a0Satisfied that they are up-to-date with\u00a0the latest\u00a0beating or that shooting, the rhythm of the sweaty work outs continues.<\/p>\n

But it will start again once the CNN news crawler states that there is a new video of another beating or shooting.<\/p>\n

The YouTube Collection<\/strong><\/p>\n

The police recordings with cell phones or police cameras or both, seem endless. Some argue that there is an epidemic in the nation of bad cops, bad policing and bad tactics.\u00a0A search of Youtube\u00a0using the words “police brutaity in America” gets 144,000 results.<\/p>\n

But the problem has existed \u00a0– pre- and post- the Rodney King beating.<\/p>\n

The images of King being struck with batons outraged the nation and sparked rioting in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

The media suddenly discovered South Central Los Angeles and the problems that were brewing between the police and black residents there long before the Rodney King incident, including\u00a0the racism and the “us and them” mindset at LAPD’s cop precincts.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the LA riots, there were speeches, political grandstanding, reviews and investigative reports that have since collected dust.<\/p>\n

Ferguson’s problems between the black community and the police department had also been simmering for years. It took the shooting of a black teen by a white police officer that ignited rioting, looting and clashes between police and protesters to \u00a0launch a Department of Justice investigation.<\/p>\n

Like South Central Los Angeles, the media had a Rodney King rude awakening and through its own reporting discovered that there were\u00a0more townships like Ferguson across the country.<\/p>\n

But nobody knows how many\u00a0fatal police shooting have occurred throughout the nation in the last ten or five years. The nation isn’t keeping score. Perhaps it’s a cold insignificant fact that isn’t important to most people or an ugly truth that was best kept from the public’s eyes.<\/p>\n

This statistic didn’t seem important until the cell phones started rolling, punctuated by the shooting of a black man in the back who was running away. Had it not been for a cell phone camera that death like many others would have been sugarcoated: \u00a0“He reached for my taser.” “I had no choice.” \u00a0“I feared for my life.”<\/p>\n

The incident, more than likely, would have been rubber stamped by local prosecutors who rely on cops to catch crooks.<\/p>\n

Next Time, If you need help…..<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are many good, professional and honest cops, no doubt.<\/p>\n

There are also\u00a0too many gun-carrying thugs with “Serve and Protect” \u00a0law enforcement badges who take great pleasure in terrorizing people, especially those who live in certain neighborhoods. \u00a0They need to be weeded out from police departments along with their enablers, the other cowards in uniforms who watch the abuse and brutality and never utter a word or try to stop it. They\u00a0help falsify reports and lie to cover up the use of excessive force by their overzealous “Brothers in Blue.”<\/p>\n

The Code of Silence trumps justice.<\/p>\n

Body Cameras etc….<\/strong><\/p>\n

Body cameras are the latest technological gimmick to stop the use of excessive force by cops.\u00a0Body cameras are one solution, and they appear to make a difference.<\/p>\n

In the city of Rialto, California, in San Bernardino County, police say the first year cameras were worn by officers in 2012, the use of force dropped by 59 percent and citizen complaints fell by nearly 88 percent, according to a report by San Jose Mercury News<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

The report stated that body cameras were being used by cops in the California cities of\u00a0Oakland, Richmond, Gilroy, Los Gatos, Campbell, Union City, East Bay Regional Parks and BART. Mountain View, home of tech giant Google, expects to outfit officers this year.<\/p>\n

Recently, the police chief of San Diego agreed to put body cameras on officers of that city.<\/p>\n

The San Diego Police Department volunteered to undergo the review <\/a>by the Department of Justice\u2019s Community Oriented Policing Services or COPS following a series of misconduct incidents over the course of five years.<\/p>\n

Body cameras will also protect the public from bad officers, and good cops from bad people who make false allegations against them.<\/p>\n

But it will take more than cameras to change the current police climate.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it will take protests by thousands of voices along with investigations, firings, suspensions, training, psychological monitoring and criminal prosecutions to underscore the message: \u00a0Excessive force and murder by those who are sworn to serve and protect will no longer be tolerated – period.<\/p>\n

The federal government needs to start collecting data from Internal Affairs Sections of police departments throughout the nation. The data could be used to spot potential problems at a police department, and the community can have this information readily accessible.<\/p>\n

It’s called transparency.<\/p>\n

In addition, independent bodies outside police department’s Internal Affairs sections\u00a0need to review police investigative reports of shootings, beatings and abuse. Police fatal shootings should also be reviewed by the FBI. \u00a0The rubber-stamping of police shootings with the prosecution’s Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval needs to end.<\/p>\n

This is my idea: \u00a0Taxpayers should be allowed to take a $200 tax credit to offset the costs of putting surveillance cameras on their house. \u00a0Since this involves private property it will not become a privacy issue that will ruffle the civil rights feathers of left-wing groups.<\/p>\n

The cameras will be there to discourage police misconduct but also to reduce residential crime. \u00a0A burglar who is driving around and casing a neighborhood will think twice if he sees every other house with a surveillance camera on the roof.<\/p>\n

The “We Put Our Lives On The Line” Card<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cops and cop unions are thin skinned when it comes to the questioning and criticism \u00a0of their clubhouse. \u00a0The one where the taxpayers pay the rent, light bills, salaries and perks.<\/p>\n

Some states had passed laws forbidding citizens to record police officers doing their jobs on the streets.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Supreme Court shot down Illinois’ eavesdropping law. It was one of the harshest in the country, making audio recording of a law enforcement officer \u2014 even while on duty and in public \u2014 a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison, according to published reports.<\/p>\n

The Chicago Tribune<\/a> reported that the nation’s highest court refused to hear the case. The justices left in place a federal appeals court decision\u00a0that found that the state’s anti-eavesdropping law violates free-speech rights when used against people who audiotape police officers.<\/p>\n

Police officers and the cop unions will also argue that the work is tough. No doubt, \u00a0it is.<\/p>\n

Then, they invoke the cop mantra:\u00a0\u00a0“We put our lives on the line every day” or \u00a0next time you need a cop, don’t call the police. Go get your next door neighbor or your friend to come and help you.<\/p>\n

Well, it doesn’t work that way.\u00a0Paying taxes means that people are \u00a0able to call 911 and expect an ambulance, a fire truck or a patrol car to show up.<\/p>\n

But having said that, if\u00a0911 sends the pizza delivery man out and he is well-trained to use a weapon and to handle this emergency without someone being needlessly shot, tased or beaten and can make arrests, hey, I’m good with that.<\/p>\n

If the pizza guy can use his training to defuse a situation and keep it from spilling into the streets or neighborhood lawns or a high speed chase through busy street, that’s good too.<\/p>\n

There are risks involved when choosing a career in law enforcement. \u00a0The risks are big, but police officers need to stop pretending that it is the most dangerous job in America – it’s not, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics.<\/p>\n

The guy who\u00a0works\u00a0on\u00a0commercial fishing boats, \u00a0cuts down large trees, farmer\u00a0and rancher, roofers, pilot, \u00a0garbage man, truck driver or delivery man have more dangerous jobs than cops, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics.<\/a><\/p>\n

When to Speak and When to Shut up<\/strong><\/p>\n

As an adult, I never had any bad experiences with police officers. For the most part, my encounters have been positive. Officers were polite, professional and respectful. \u00a0When a cop approaches, the first words out of my mouth are “Yes, sir” or “Yes, Ma’m.”<\/p>\n

If I find I am being stopped by a cop who is rude and obnoxious, I give him my driver’s license, shift into a low voice, I become docile and say: “Officer, under the Fifth and Sixth Amendment I am invoking my right to remain silent. I do not wish to answer questions without speaking to my attorney first. I will not consent to any search or submit to any test unless my attorney is present.”<\/p>\n

I got the words almost memorized, and I’ve only had to clam up once, just once.<\/p>\n

Most people understand the concept – give respect to get respect.<\/p>\n

Policing and the Public<\/strong><\/p>\n

Everybody has been involved in a road rage incident with an idiot.<\/p>\n

Some jerk behind the wheel drifts into your lane because he is texting. You beep the horn. He rolls the window down, raises his middle finger and shouts a curse word or two. He speeds away.<\/p>\n

You’re pissed, right. Sometimes the anger will linger for hours. \u00a0I am thinking what Gandi said: “Don’t let anyone walk across your mind with dirty feet.” \u00a0That’s cute, however, if you live in India. \u00a0But Gandi never had a California driver’s license.<\/p>\n

Imagine going to work every day and dealing with rude, loud, often drunk or drugged fools who can be obnoxious, \u00a0demanding, get in your face, yelling and mixing bits and pieces of the constitution with threats to sue.<\/p>\n

While all this is going on, a cop sometimes has to hear the choir from hell in the background: victims of domestic abuse are wailing, screams, accusations and counter-accusations, \u00a0angry family members spewing threats.<\/p>\n

In the middle of all this, small, frightened children watching the grownup show, crying, trying to sort this out and make sense as to why uniformed strangers are handcuffing loved ones and putting them in cages inside a patrol car.<\/p>\n

Try interviewing the victims of rape, child sexual abuse or senseless violence. Be the first to arrive at a head-on collision, especially with children inside a vehicle. See what\u00a0that\u00a0does to your psyche.<\/p>\n

I once covered a trial in Ventura County where this sick bastard broke 22 ribs of an infant. The autopsy of the baby was shown to jurors. The baby ribs exposed. You could barely tell it was a human being. The images made an impact\u00a0on jurors who watched blown up evidence of the infant’s father’s handiwork. Two jurors wept.<\/p>\n

The man couldn’t understand why the infant who was in so much pain, and couldn’t stop crying. He kept shaking the baby.<\/p>\n

A homicide detectives must be at the corner’s office to witness the autopsy of \u00a0homicide victims.<\/p>\n

I wouldn’t want to do his job.<\/p>\n

My opinion about some of this could be best summed up by Melvin P. Straus whom\u00a0I interviewed and\u00a0 wrote about in the Herald-Post article in 1991. \u00a0As the head of the El Paso Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union Melvin P. Straus said he wanted police departments to get rid of bad cops immediately.<\/p>\n

He said that he\u00a0understood the work is stressful and mentally taxing, adding “I feel doing what they do, day in and day out, I’d probably break somebody’s neck the first night out.”<\/p>\n

My Undercover Cop Friend<\/b><\/p>\n

An undercover cop in El Paso who became a friend was a very good source but he complained about how hard it was to be a cop. \u00a0I told him I am sure it was, adding that I’d never want a cop job. \u00a0But that did stop him because he always made it a point when we met to\u00a0carp about policing the streets for five to 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

It became annoying\u00a0and always\u00a0continued with more details and new grips.<\/p>\n

One day, when he was about to start his bitch session. I nipped it in the bud. I admit I was ready. I had thought of this script before I said it.<\/p>\n

I asked: \u00a0Did you get drafted into this profession ?\u00a0When you went to cop school, wherever that was, did they tell you that you would be dealing with the scum of the earth, career criminals, wife beaters, child molesters, psychopaths and cold blooded murders and other dregs of society?<\/p>\n

So, you were aware of the risks involved when you made this career choice?<\/p>\n

Is anybody holding a gun to your head and forcing you to be a cop? \u00a0Can you resign at any time?<\/p>\n

If it is so bad and you are so miserable, why not go work somewhere else? Get another job?<\/p>\n

He laughed.<\/p>\n

My cop friend told me the same thing others cops have said throughout the years: Basically, I love the job that comes with plenty of adrenaline rushes. I don’t have to work in an office. \u00a0I \u00a0love putting bad guys behind bars, helping people and going from one 911 call to another.<\/p>\n

The adrenaline rush is addictive.<\/p>\n

Right, and I understood that he’d be miserable working at a construction site or sitting at desk inside nice, air conditioned buildings like moi.<\/em><\/p>\n

I teased, a smirk: “Listen, I’ll do a ride along with you some day and you can bitch all night,” I said. “But for now, spare me the details, (STFU) and drink your beer.”<\/p>\n

He cracked up.<\/p>\n

My friend was a good cop, an honest cop I admired his hard work and dedication. He was like one of those cops who testified against Gabe Serna.<\/p>\n

I am optimistic. I really believe there are many more Frank Serpicos out there.<\/p>\n

Thank God for that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n