Well, sure. In those nostalgic Rockwell drawings, everybody had a
tender side. But I actually knew cops who came close. Cops who
believed their job was to help lost children, assist little old
ladies, issue warnings rather than tickets and harsh threats. Officer
Friendly roamed the Seattle elementary schools, both the well to do
and the down at the heels schools, spreading a positive image of the
police. But even further back, back when organizations like the KKK
were in their prime, cops were seen as, "The good guys"...as long as
you were White. My aunt Bonny played piano in the old silent movie
theaters in Joplin, Missouri. She finished late, and boarded the last
streetcar to Webb City. As she stepped from the streetcar, at the end
of the line, the beat cop met her and walked her the several blocks to
her home. But that was around 1916 or so. And it was not because
street crime was any more or less. Cops just saw their role as
different from how today's more aggressive "defenders" of the
Oligarchy's Laws see their role. In the 1930's and early 1940's, beat
cops in parts of Seattle walked 3 abreast, especially along the water
front and in Greenwood District. Just as the War was crashing about
our ears, homelessness and the subsequent crime ran rampant.
Of course as a boy of 5 and 6, I was unaware of any discrimination.
We lived among all White people, mostly "Christians". Even Catholics
were looked upon as rather strange. No children of Color in any of
the Queen Anne Hill's four grade schools, or the Queen Anne High
School. Across highway 99(Aurora Avenue), the main interstate highway
at that time, there was a roadside grocery store owned by Al and Sam,
two Jews. Because of their good natured attention to my sisters and
me, and their habit of slipping extra items into mother's shopping bag
because they knew we were having tough times, I learned first hand
that good, caring people come from all Faiths, Nationalities, and
Color.
These impressions, as I said, were those of a small boy. I was
unaware that our city was redlining areas where People of
Color(Negros) were kept out, or of cops taking bribes, or of the ring
of beat cops who would gather in a back room down town and gamble and
drink and pinch the bottoms of the young women waiting on the tables,
or of the cops who kept track of wealthy folks going on vacation, and
then would burgle the homes they were supposedly watching over. Such
stories were seldom on the front page of Seattle's two daily papers,
the Times and the PI. It's a real sad thing when I remember how free
and protected I felt as a young boy, with those friendly cops watching
my back, and never knowing that in some sections of my wonderful White
city, it was not going so well. Too bad we can't turn the hands of
time back, and this time include *All people.
Carl Jarvis
On 9/11/17, Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx> wrote:
I expect that the only place Norman Rockwell cops were ever found was in
Norman Rockwell paintings.
On 9/11/2017 10:59 AM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
This behavior by officer Payne is so insulting on so many levels that
there is not enough room for them all. The more obvious one is the
Macho Cop, bullying
a woman, a nurse, for standing on her professional rules. The Macho
Cop who has been trained, either intentionally or by the likes of
Donald Trump, who
publicly pardoned Ex Sheriff Joe Apraio, signalling that it's okay to
break the law when it is okay with the Empire. Such behavior is
becoming more common.
Rather than a police force that is put in place to defend citizens, it
is put in place to protect the interests of the Oligarchy, the
Empire's Ruling Class,
the "Real First Class Americans". -
While we understand the need for citizens to secure employment in
order to maintain themselves and their loved ones, nonetheless, they
need to be made aware when they enroll in police academies or in the
Armed Forces, that they are being used by the Corporate American
Empire, to defend the business and properties of the Oligarchy, not of
the American People.
The Working Class would be better served if these young men and women
could organize Labor, and build Unions of Workers. But families are
not fed, housed and clothed on promises of a better tomorrow. But
collectively, we can mount a protest against the militarization of our
local police departments. We can demand the sort of training in our
police academies that produce a Force that protects All citizens,
equally. A Force that brings back "Officer Friendly". A Force of
Officers looking out for the lonely woman walking home in the dark,
and makes the time to see her safely to her door. The sort of
Officers who greet the folks on their beat by name. The sort of
Officers who can go home after a days work, believing that they live
in a land of basically good, kind people, not a land of enemies and
adversaries.
In other words, we need an attitude transplant.
Carl Jarvis
On 9/10/17, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2017/8134/813453.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 34 September 18, 2017
Utah nurse arrested for defending patient’s rights
BY LEA SHERMAN
A body camera video that went viral has exposed the July 26 brutish
arrest and mistreatment of University of Utah Hospital nurse Alex
Wubbels by Jeff Payne, a Salt Lake City cop. The incident was captured
on a video released by Wubbels and her lawyer Aug. 31.
A hundred protesters mounted a rally organized by Utah Against Police
Brutality outside the Salt Lake City Police Department Sept. 2 calling
for Payne to be fired.
Wubbels, the charge nurse in the burn unit, told Payne repeatedly that
she could not draw a sample of blood from her unconscious patient and
give it to him. It was against hospital policy and nurses’ ethics. The
patient had to give consent or be under arrest, or the cop had to have a
warrant.
William Gray, the patient, was a truck driver who had been in a head-on
collision. The driver who hit him was fleeing the police and was killed
in the crash.
Wubbels’ defense of Gray’s rights — and her professional dignity — so
infuriated Payne that he manhandled her, pushing her through two sets of
emergency room doors. He handcuffed her and forced her into an unmarked
police car.
Wubbels cried out, “Somebody help me,” and “you’re hurting me,” but
several university hospital police refused to do anything. The
University of Utah hospital has since barred police from patient care
areas and from direct contact with nurses.
National Nurses United, the largest nurses’ union nationwide, called a
press conference Aug. 31. “The first job of a registered nurse is always
to protect and advocate for her patient, period,” Jean Ross,
co-president of the union, said, calling the cop’s actions “outrageous.”
Thousands of complaints came into the police department’s dispatch
center blasting Payne and his strong-arm arrest. With this kind of
outcry, the Salt Lake City district attorney launched a criminal
investigation and the mayor and police chief apologized.
And finally, a month after the incident, Payne and another cop have been
placed on administrative leave, but with pay.
“I stood my ground. I stood for what was right” Wubbels told CNN.
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