This past week, while all eyes were on Serena Williams’s historic (albeit unsuccessful) run in the US Open, another incident not too far from the arena has reignited the national conversation about police abuse and misbehavior. And as New York City officials rushed to get ahead of yet another embarrassing story, it’s important to remember that this type of incident is a common part of everyday policing.

With protests against police brutality a constant drumbeat reverberating across the national landscape, the city responded swiftly to reports of a white officer’s seemingly unprovoked attack a black athlete. The mayor quickly released a statement apologizing and NYPD police commissioner Bill Bratton, for his part, conceded that Blake’s takedown appeared inappropriate. The officer involved, James Frascatore, was immediately assigned to desk duty.

But at the same time, city officials offered up contradictory versions of event that the press nonetheless continued to report as fact, especially since the officers involved had not filed any report on Blake’s arrest. In some versions of the police explanation of events the officers wereinvestigating a theft of shoes and credit card fraud, while in othersBlake had been pointed out by an unidentified GoButler courier as someone who illegally purchased a phone. (The concierge service GoButler later refuted any link to Blake’s misidentification.) Police soon released an Instagram picture of a person who looked remarkably like Blake, arguing he was the suspect they were looking for, only subsequently admitting that the unnamed black man in the photo was also innocent of any crime. No photos of the two men actually charged for the crime have yet been released.

Despite these inconsistencies in both the alleged crime or why an apparently nonviolent offense warranted such a violent arrest, the police—and far too many members of the media—have continued to frame Blake’s arrest as the unfortunate byproduct of a legitimate investigation. Blake resembled a suspect in a case. He was simply someone who “found himself on the wrong side of the law,” according to NBC Nightly News. This was all just a mistake.

 The word “mistake” implies that this incident was a departure from normal police conduct in New York City. This is simply not true. The word “mistake” implies that this incident was an aberration, a departure from normal police conduct in New York City. But we know that this is simply not true. According to the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), at the peak of stop-and-frisk street interrogations in 2011, 87% of people stopped by police were black or Latino. And yet 88% of people detained were totally innocent of any crime and released without charges. Moreover, between 2006 and 2014, claims of police misconduct have risen 150%. Even the conservative-leaning Wall Street Journal pointed out that the New York Police Department had stopped more black men then actually lived in New York City. That’s a lot of “mistakes.”

Put another way, Blake’s arrest seems far more indicative of the attitude of the NYPD toward black and brown men over the past decade than it does of any supposed aberration. Indeed, after only four years on the force, the police officer who attacked Blake has been sued four times and been the target of five filed complaints for using excessive force in arrests involving black men. But despite this troubling work history, Frascatore was still on the job.

Not surprisingly, top cop Bratton has continued to maintain that race played no role in this or similar interactions. “Let’s put that nonsense to rest right now, race had nothing to do with this,” he told a group of reporters last week. This is certainly not the first time Bratton has refused to admit that his officers discriminate based on race. In an April interview with CNN, Bratton argued that the disproportionate number of Black and Latino stops was merely a natural reflection of the population in high-crime areas where the most police work occurs. Yet, James Blake’s takedown occurred outside a swanky hotel in an upscale neighborhood.

 Just as a reminder, in America, an unarmed black person is seven times more likely to be killed by police than a white counterpart. Just as a reminder, in America, an unarmed black person is seven times more likely to be killed by police than a white counterpart. And based on how black an arrested person appears, they’re more likely to get a tougher sentence for the same crime. While it may make Bratton and others feel better to ignore the role race plays in criminal justice, it also means ignoring the very real impact police behavior has on the lives of black and brown citizens.

Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, Amadou Diallo and the numerous other unarmed black people killed by New York police officers did not survive to tell their side of the story. Unlike Blake, they did not have a Harvard education, a celebrity profile or a direct line to the national press. James Blake dresses well. He rose to dazzling success in his professional field, believes that police are largely good, and has no criminal record. And, still, he was singled out and attacked. When it comes to reporting on these altercations in the press, it’s important to keep research, data, and information about racial disparities in policing front and center in any conversation.

Looking beyond the racial implications for a second, James Blake’s arrest is a frightening example of what policing looks like today. A man, smiling at a stranger, is suddenly thrown facedown onto the concrete. He is held, without questioning, for an extended period of time andthen released without apology. This incident does not simply show the way that racial bias affects interactions with police—it shows a police force out of control and badly in need of a policy and cultural overhaul.

Ultimately, what happened to James Blake was not a mistake or an isolated incident, but rather another data point in a long pattern of discriminatory behavior on the part of the NYPD. This case is particularly striking, however, especially for those who believe that good behavior and a pleasant attitude will help you avoid frightening confrontations with police. Racial bias in policing and criminal justice is a deep part of what maintains American inequality. The media, and the public at large, must always keep these larger structural problems in mind—the stories we tell matter, but so does the way we tell them.

Follow Khadijah on Twitter at @khadastrophic. We welcome your comments at [email protected].

Johannesburg – The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) will investigate a video of alleged police brutality by Douglasdale police after a video purporting to show this did the rounds.

“A case has been opened by the complainant. Numerous charges will be added after we have reviewed the video footage,” said Douglasdale police spokesperson Warrant Officer Balan Muthan.

The video, titled Police brutality hits again! Secret video footage, Douglasdale SAPS, purports to show two men in an exchange with two men in blue, and a police vehicle in the background bearing the Douglasdale police marking.

Using the pseudonyms Anton and Shane, Shane said their workers had left and they were on their way home at about 03:30 on August 18 when two police officers suddenly stopped and confronted them.

“Then just suddenly he stopped behind us and that’s where they attack [sic] us,” he said.

With a policeman on each side of the car, they were asked to get out of the car, but Anton was slower and was pulled out.

Shane said the policeman said to him: “If you move, I will kill you.”

That is when he slowly moved to the car and got the camera, obscuring it by turning his body.

The other police officer hit Anton with the gun on the shoulder and on his knee, he said.

The video shows Anton making strange noises and saying in Afrikaans that he can’t breathe.

Shane said they twisted Anton’s ankle and it looked as though they were trying to break his leg. Then they pulled down Anton’s pants and one, with his hand, “went like physically into his anal [sic]”.

In the video, it sounds as though Shane is crying, after he gasps “Lip Ice”.

He said they also took Anton’s pants down and searched his genital area.

When Anton woke up Shane picked him up and “put him in the boot” and the policemen warned them: “Don’t ever do that again”, and they left.

Their faces were shadowed in the video.

Shane said he thought it happened because: “We are two young guys and also I think it’s because we’re white.”

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Muthan said everybody at the Douglasdale Police Station was very upset by the video and the two in it have been identified by the acting station commander.

But, a full investigation will be done and IPID will decide whether they should be suspended, with, or without a salary while the investigation runs.

There has been no arrest.

Muthan added: “The community must not paint the whole of Douglasdale police with the same brush, and must remember it is just an allegation at the moment.”

According to a report from The Baltimore Sun, a fundraiser to help cover legal costs for the cops responsible for Freddie Gray’s death originally included a blackface performance. Original report below:

A Glen Burnie venue on Wednesday abruptly canceled a planned fundraiser for the six Baltimore police officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray after the scheduled entertainment — a former Baltimore officer singing in blackface — drew sharp criticism.

Bobby Berger, 67, who was fired from the city police force in the 1980s after his off-duty performances in blackface drew the ire of the NAACP, had said he wanted to revive the act to help the families of the officers.

He said he had sold 600 tickets at $45 each to the bull roast scheduled for Nov. 1 at Michael’s Eighth Avenue, where he and several singers planned to perform as guests dined.

In his performances, Berger impersonates Al Jolson, a white entertainer from the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s best remembered for his blackface performance of “Mammy” in the film “The Jazz Singer.”

But after news of the event began spreading Wednesday, Michael’s posted a statement on its website saying the event would not be held there.

“No contract was signed with Mr. Berger,” the venue wrote. “Michael’s does not condone blackface performances of any kind. As an event venue, it has not been the practice of Michael’s Eighth Avenue to pre-approve entertainment that is planned as part of a contracted event. This policy will be carefully and thoughtfully reviewed.”

Berger’s plans drew criticism earlier in the day from the NAACP, the city police union and an attorney representing one of the officers charged in the Gray case.

Ivan Bates, who represents Sgt. Alicia D. White, called the planned entertainment “racist and in poor taste.”

“My client will not participate. We will not accept a single solitary dime from this sort of action,” Bates said before the show was canceled. “This is the type of racist behavior that we do not need and do not want.”

Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP, called the show “disgusting.”

“Right now, with all the things that are going on in Baltimore and also with all the issues with the Confederate flag, this is just putting more salt in the wound.”

Michael Davey, an attorney who works with the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police, said the union was unaware of the event.

“We don’t endorse it. We do not support it, and we will accept no funds from anything involving this event,” Davey said.

The police union issued a statement Wednesday saying it has “much respect” for Berger and another retired officer organizing the event but does not condone “any performance representing the iconic racist figure that is Al Jolson” or any fundraising for the officers that does not come directly through the union.

Berger could not be reached for comment after Michael’s canceled the event, and it is unclear what will be done for ticket holders.

Earlier, Berger said there is not “one iota of racial overtones” in his blackface performance and that thousands of African-Americans have seen his performances and enjoyed them. He said he organized the fundraiser because he knows how it feels to be suddenly without a paycheck from the department.

“I’ve been through what they’re going through and I know they need the help,” he said. “Look at yourself as having a wife and two kids and a mortgage and school payments and everything that comes with it, and a guy comes up to your desk and says, ‘We’ve got to let you go.’ How do you survive?”

Gray, 25, died in April after suffering a spinal cord injury in police custody. His death sparked protests across the city. On the day of his funeral, rioting, looting and arson broke out.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby filed charges against the officers that ranged from second-degree murder to misconduct in office. All of the officers — three black and three white — have pleaded not guilty; trials are scheduled for October.

Berger began squabbling with the Police Department over his performances in 1981. The next year, a performance at a downtown hotel led to protests by the NAACP.

The Police Department ordered him to stop performing in blackface. With the backing of the ACLU, Berger sued the department, saying the order violated his right to free speech. He lost in court and was fired.

A federal appeals court later ruled in Berger’s favor. When the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, a federal district judge ordered the department to rehire Berger and give him more than $108,000 in back pay, legal fees and compensation for humiliation and stress.

After he rejoined the force in 1986, Berger said, he was given a desk but was denied a gun and a badge and given nothing to do. He sued again in 1989, and settled with the department for $200,000 more.

Scott Wagner, vice president of Michael’s Eighth Avenue, said before the cancellation that Berger was a friend of his late father and has a good spirit, and that he had decided to let Berger hold the event because it was intended to benefit families.

“Mr. Berger had a plan to help these families because he’s been through similar issues,” he said. “That’s what captured me.”

League of the South demonstrators

ANNISTON, Ala. — The Southern Poverty Law Center has identified two Alabama police officers as members of what they say is a nationalist hate group. The city of Anniston placed the two officers on administrative leave Wednesday.

Lt. Josh Doggrell, of the Anniston Police Department, spoke in 2013 at a conference held by the neo-Confederate group known as the League of the South. Doggrell was later joined by his colleague, Lt. Wayne Brown, who is also employed as an Anniston police officer.

Lt. Josh Doggrell of the Anniston Police Department

According to the SPLC, Doggrell spoke about “gun rights, county supremacy, and his loyalty to the League.” They claim the League of the South is a racist organization that subscribes to an ideology called “kinism.”

“Kith and kin comes before illegal national mandates,” Doggrell said during his speech at the League’s conference, lending credence to their accusation.

The SPLC further details the group’s ideology, writing:

Kith and kin is part of an explicitly racist ideology called “kinism” that Hill has long promoted through the LOS. The Kinist Institute, an organization that promotes kinism, has called for laws against racial intermarriage, an end to non-white immigration, expelling all “aliens” (“to include all Jews and Arabs”), and restricting the right to vote to white, landholding men over the age of 21. In the past, LOS websites have referred to kinism as “a biblical solution for all races” that will save the South by preventing “white genocide.”

The SPLC has more data to back up their claims that the League of the South is a racist organization. The League’s president, Michael Hill, wrote an essay last month called “A few notes on an American race war.”

“Negroes are more impulsive than whites,” Hill wrote. “Tenacity and organization are not the negroes [sic] strong suits. If [a race war] could be won by ferocity alone, he might have a chance. But like the adrenaline rush that sparks it, ferocity is short lived. And it can be countered by cool discipline, an historic white trait, and all that stems from it.”

League of the South President Michael Hill

Doggrell’s connection to the league is not in dispute, reportedly anticipating questions regarding his membership to the organization. “I’m not going to sell out my position with the League, as something I believe in strongly,” Doggrell said. “If it came down to it, I’d choose the League.”

Members of the SPLC group Hatewatch contacted the Anniston Police Department, but were directed to the Anniston city manager, Brian Johnson, who described the League as a “civic club.” Hatewatch proposed a hypothetical scenario in which the Anniston police department hired officers who were members of the Ku Klux Klan hate group, and Johnson responded “We could not terminate an employee solely on his or her membership in a legal, lawfully formed, civic club or organization.”

Following the publication of the information and the city manager’s response, city spokeswoman Aziza Jackson confirmed that the two officers were placed on suspension.

“After being made aware of the Wednesday, June 17 article by the SPLC, the City of Anniston is taking the allegations made against Lt. Brown and Lt. Doggrell very seriously and have placed both officers on administrative leave. Lt. Brown and Lt. Doggrell do not speak for the City of Anniston nor the Anniston Police Department. The City of Anniston has commenced an investigation into this matter and will work diligently to ensure the appropriate action is taken.”

The full report by the SPLC is available here.

Calverton Park police vehicles

CALVERTON PARK, Mo. — A Missouri man says a police officer threatened him and made racist comments while arresting him at a traffic stop.

Eric Foster of Calverton Park says he was pulled over on May 22 and eventually taken to jail for unlicensed plates, but had an encounter while being booked that left him fearing for his life.

“I’m doing my paperwork and Officer Moore’s partner said, ‘How do you feel about racist white guy cleaning his gun in front of you?’ And he disarmed his gun and he started shuffling the bullets back,” he said.

Foster says he and the two officers were the only ones in the building when the threat occurred. “I wasn’t racist, I didn’t have an attitude, I didn’t give them any type of reason to even act like that,” Foster said.

KMOV in St. Louis says they contacted Calverton Park Police Chief Vince Delia, who at first said he didn’t know anything about the incident, but after speaking to one of the officers Foster mentioned, claimed the officer had a problem with his weapon and took it apart to in an effort to resolve the issue.

Delia says jail policy prohibits officers from having their weapons in the booking area, but insists his officer wasn’t deliberately trying to scare Foster. Delia said the officers would be disciplined for the incident, but declined to say what discipline they would receive.

Foster says the incident scared him, and hasn’t been able to forget what happened.

“I just want the world to know that this is just not right,” he said.

Foster contacted the NAACP over the incident, who say they plan to file a complaint with justice department.

The Facebook activities of a longtime Reynoldsburg, Ohio police officer got her fired this month.

Officer Katherine Mielke, who worked for the department for 22 years, was terminated last week following a months-long investigation into her behavior on social media.

Reynoldsburg Police Chief James O’Neill called for Mielke’s termination last month, charging her with violating police conduct rules and saying her reputation was so damaged that she would no longer be an effective officer for the city.

Mielke, according to O’Neill’s report, shared a cartoon on Facebook depicting a black man with exaggerated features being arrested near a violent crime scene while similar characters complained of police brutality.

She also shared a joke that mocked a Chinese man’s struggle to understand English that culminated in him having sex with his boss’ wife.

Other officers and city employees had asked Mielke to stop posting racist materials, O’Neill wrote.

“I believe that there is real potential for long-term, irreversible damage to the reputation of the City of Reynoldsburg and the Reynoldsburg Division of Police,” O’Neill wrote. “I also feel that there is a likelihood that any future adversarial dealings Officer Mielke might have with the African-American or Asian-American communities would be called into question.”

Mielke referred questions to the Fraternal Order of Police, which has not returned a call seeking comment. Her personnel file is thick with compliments and thank-yous for her work.

Mielke, who worked as a school resource and DARE officer, was placed on administrative leave in March. Her most recent base salary was $80,683.

Published by Columbus Dispatch.

Because of intensifying civil strife over the recent killings of unarmed black men and boys, many Americans are wondering, “What’s wrong with our police?” Remarkably, one of the most compelling, but unexplored explanations may rest with a FBI warning of October 2006, which reported that “White supremacist infiltration of law enforcement” represented a significant national threat.

Several key events preceded the report. A federal court found that members of a Los Angeles sheriffs department formed a Neo Nazi gang and habitually terrorized the black community. Later, the Chicago police department fired, Jon Burge, a detective with reputed ties to the Ku Klux Klan, after discovering he tortured over 100 Black male suspects. Thereafter, the Mayor of Cleveland discovered that many of the city police locker rooms were infested with “White Power” graffiti. Years later, a Texas sheriff department discovered that two of its deputies were recruiters for the Klan.

In near prophetic fashion, after the FBI’s warning, white supremacy extremism in the U.S. increased, exponentially. From 2008 to 2014, the number of white supremacist groups, reportedly, grew from 149 to nearly a thousand, with no apparent abatement in their infiltration of law enforcement.

This year, alone, at least seven San Francisco law enforcement officers were suspended after an investigation revealed they exchanged numerous “White Power” communications laden with remarks about “lynching African-Americans and burning crosses.” Three reputed Klan members that served as correction officers were arrested for conspiring to murder a Black inmate. At least four Fort Lauderdale police officers were fired after an investigation found that the officers fantasized about killing black suspects.

The United States doesn’t publicly track white supremacists so the full range of their objectives remains murky. Although black and Jewish-Americans are believed to be the foremost targets of white supremacists, recent attacks in Nevada, Wisconsin, Arizona, Kansas, and North Carolina, demonstrate that other non-whites, and religious and social minorities, are also vulnerable. Perhaps more alarmingly, in the last several years, alone, white supremacists have reportedly murdered law enforcement officers in Arkansas, Nevada, and Wisconsin.

In fact, the FBI reports that of the 511 law enforcement officers killed during felony incidents from 2004 to 2013, white citizens killed the majority of them. Of the citizens stopped by law enforcement officers in New York City and Chicago, white citizens were more likely to be found with guns and drugs. Given the white supremacist penchant for violence, guns and drug trafficking, the findings may be an indication that their network is just as destructive and far-reaching as that of foreign terrorist groups.

The unfortunate consequence of today’s threat is that a law enforcement officer may be good or bad, a villain or hero; one exceptionally prone to exhibit malicious forms of racial hatred, or, distinctively suited to protect the racially oppressed. But the paradox doesn’t end there.

The white supremacist threat brings to light a dark feature of the American experience that some believed extinct. It rouses ingrained notions of distrusts between police and communities of color, while bringing to bear the vital interest citizens of good will share in the complete abolishment of race as a judgmental factor.

As the nation struggles to resolve the perplexities of police brutality, the white supremacist threat should inform all Americans that today’s civil discord is not borne out of a robust animosity towards law enforcement, most of whom, are professional. Rather, it’s more representative of a centuries old ideological clash, which has ignited in citizens of good will a desire to affirm notions of racial equality so that the moral ethos of American culture is a reality for all.

Samuel V. Jones is a former military police captain and currently a professor of law focusing on criminal law at The John Marshall Law School. 

Four police officers tasked with patrolling a predominantly black neighborhood lost their jobs Friday following a five-month investigation into racially charged text messages sent from their personal phones.

Officer James Wells, 30, Officer Jason Holding, 31, and Officer Christopher Sousa, 25, were fired. Officer Alex Alvarez, 22, resigned in late January before the investigation was complete.

“All four officers’ conduct involved racist text messages exchanged among themselves and former police officers,” Police Chief Frank Adderley, who is African-American, said at a Friday afternoon news conference. He said the officers did not engage in criminal behavior, “but their conduct was inexcusable and there is zero tolerance for this kind of behavior in the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.”