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To those finally examining police overreach due to Scottie Scheffler’s arrest: Welcome

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6 months ago

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To those finally examining police overreach due to Scottie Scheffler’s arrest: Welcome

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For golf fans and others who have expressed wide ranging outrage over the arrest of Scottie Scheffler and are suddenly examining how police departments operate and how some of them, by golly, abuse their power … to those fans just now realizing that cops can go too far … to the people who ask incredulously how can a cop be disciplined numerous times and still be a cop … to those digesting how some cops are on power trips … well, to all of you, I say: welcome to the party, pal.

Actually, welcome to America. If it took what increasingly looks like a sketchy arrest of a rich, super powerful golfer to get you to pause a moment and examine problematic police culture, I’ll take it.

If there’s one benefit of the Scheffler arrest it’s that it gets people who otherwise don’t think about police overreach, or believe in it, to think about it, even if it’s for a millisecond. It’s also perfect that the police department coming under scrutiny is the Louisville Metro Police Department, one of the most historically notorious in the country.

The video footage released by the police last week only added to suspicions that something about the arrest of Scheffler was off. The newer video shows Scheffler attempting to drive into a parking lot when he’s met by an officer stopping him. The two spoke and eventually Scheffler was removed from the vehicle and handcuffed.

The arresting officer, Detective Bryan Gillis, said he was giving Scheffler directions and alleged that Scheffler “refused to comply and accelerated forward” in his car. The officer maintained in an incident report that he was dragged to the ground.

Louisville police officer reprimanded for not activating body cam in Scottie Scheffler incident

It’s possible that something happened out of range of the camera since there are buses blocking part of the view. It’s also possible what the officer describes happened before both men came in range of the camera. Maybe there’s other video of Scheffler doing what the officer alleged he did.

The chance of those things occurring, however, seems small. One thing to note is the reaction of the other people, presumably other cops, in the video. They do not seem alarmed. They especially do not seem like they just witnessed someone being dragged alongside a car.

Steve Romines, the attorney for Scheffler, reiterated after the release of the video that his client wasn’t at fault. “Our position is the same as it was (after the arrest), Scottie Scheffler didn’t do anything wrong, we’re not interested in settling the case,” Romines said. “We’ll either try it or it will be dismissed.”

Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said the department was disciplining the officer for not having his body camera activated. It was actually a huge deal that the officer didn’t and the reason is because of a woman named Breonna Taylor. You should say her name.

This is where all of you new to how some cops work need to pay attention. If you don’t know about the reputation of the Louisville PD, you should.

The department’s current body camera policy was started in 2020 after officers shot and killed Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, during a botched drug raid. At the time, the plain-clothes cops serving a warrant were not required to wear body cameras. The new policy required all officers to turn on the camera “prior to engaging in all law enforcement activities and encounters.”

“After the recent past, activating body-worn cameras is critically important for our police department to have evidence, to maintain community trust, to be transparent,” said Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg at a press conference last week.

The “recent past” Greenberg was referring to was obviously the killing of Taylor.

None of this is to say that Gillis exaggerated what happened. We don’t know if that’s true. We can suspect, but we don’t know. Also, no one is comparing what happened to Scheffler to Taylor. No one is that stupid.

This is about culture. If it turns out that the charges against Scheffler were overblown, no one should be surprised, because of the terrible history of Louisville police. And not just them. Police departments all across the country.

The entire Black Lives Matter movement centers on police abuses and its impact stretched out to almost every part of American culture including the WNBA and the NFL. The protests after Taylor was murdered, and also after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officers four years ago this past Saturday, helped reshape the nation’s conversation on race. Many of the protests were multicultural.

But there was a segment of people who didn’t care about the protests and were even hostile to them. Falsely stating that they were mostly violent (they were not). Blue Lives Matter emerged as a foul derivative of Black Lives Matter. On the right, an extremely pro-police, believe-the-cops-at-all-costs narrative emerged, and I can see a universe where some of those people expressing the most outrage now about Scheffler, are unable to see the irony of their position now as opposed to the past.

After Taylor was killed the Justice Department released a scathing report on the Louisville police stating it engaged in a pattern and practice of violating people’s Constitutional rights, particularly those of Black citizens.

“For years, LMPD has practiced an aggressive style of policing that it deploys selectively, especially against Black people, but also against vulnerable people throughout the city,” the report says. “LMPD cites people for minor offenses, like wide turns and broken taillights, while serious crimes like sexual assault and homicide go unsolved.”

The city and police are negotiating a consent decree, a type of federal oversight, with the Justice Department. This is an extreme step used by the department for some of the worst police forces in the country.

So, again, welcome to those new to thinking about how some cops operate.

Oh, and while you’re here, let me tell you about racism and mass incarceration …

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