• » Name: Amanda Bassa
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The Undisputed Truth

I'm Livin' in a Police State

The other day somebody told me that the environment I live in is akin to a movie set. I laughed at first, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed true. And there comes a point when it gets a little insane. What astonishes me the most, however, is how so many people remain seemingly unaware of what goes on around them. Shit, just today I was in the car with my mother giving her a hard time about how she’s oblivious to the cops around her on the road (hi, Mom!). It’s like people’s eyes are open, but they don’t actually see anything.

No wonder our country is so fucked up.

But the bitter state of our…uh…state, isn’t the point of this blog. I’m getting a bit perplexed at the fact that there are tons of eye opening experiences that happen around my way, but the people that need to see them are never around when they go down. Odd. Take for instance this past Thursday morning. I’m about to get like Slick Rick and get my storytellin’ on.

I’m about to get dressed for class in the morning (ok, early afternoon) and I look out the window and see a couple cops standing around outside the crib, and they got the street blocked off. I don’t think much of it, figure they’re trading donut recipes or something during a speed trap, I get myself as pretty as possible for getting damn near no sleep, and go to walk out the crib. I turn the corner and then promptly wish I had never even walked outside. Feds everywhere. I’m talking every 20 feet or so an unmarked SUV parked in the middle of the street or a parking space just filled to capacity with law enforcement officials. Again, I thought I knew what all the commotion was all about because my neighborhood isn’t new to this kind of thing (if I told you the reason, you probably wouldn’t even believe me). I start walking through the parking lot just minding my business and enjoying the weather, and by the time I’m about halfway to my car (which is admittedly a bit of a hike because the parking sucks in that joint, fuck the “association”!) there are guys hopping out the SUV’s in bulletproof vests running up the street with assault rifles (they looked a lot like AR-15’s) cocked and ready to shoot.

Assault rifles. At lunchtime. Did I mention I should have just stayed my ass asleep?

Of course there is no other person in the parking lot aside from myself and all of the pork patrol. It always happens that way. And people wonder why I’m so paranoid. Hmph.

So, I let my whip warm up and then decide that I’m ready to get my half-Arab ass the fuck outta there. I roll out, just about ready to take advantage of my supercharged engine, and promptly have to hit the brakes because there’s a cop chillin’ in the back cut exit to my neighborhood. And this guy was not trying to let me leave.

Fam. I’m an unarmed little ass girl, there’s guys running around with assault rifles, and you’re not trying to let me leave?! I had to give this guy my address, watch him punch it in his computer real quick, explain that I lived there and all that nonsense before he would let me out of my own neighborhood. Trapped in my own crazy ass hood. At least the last time this happened they let me leave, although they about damn near ran me over while they were ambushing some guy’s crib.

I mentioned earlier that I thought that I knew what this was all about. So I figured I could wait a few hours then peep out CNN or something to confirm the hunches I had, go back to feeling somewhat-safe-yet-definitely-not-secure, and that would be that. But this time the CNN story never happened. My hunch was wrong.

Get this: all of this commotion just to arrest a gang member. Are you fucking kidding me? I went to high school with hundreds of these so-called “dangerous gang members”, and you didn’t see me running around with a bulletproof vest and Bin Laden guns because I thought I was going to get knifed. Now, granted, the guy was accused of first degree murder, but come the fuck on. It’s one guy. One young ass kid. Everybody wants to save the world these days? You know how much gas you could have saved by only taking one SUV full of people to handle this situation? If you can say that I, by the rule of law, must attend school with these same people that these law enforcement authorities are so afraid of, and on top of that I must attend school with them and not have any weapons in my possession at the time, then you can be damn certain they did not need all that shit to arrest some young ass guy.

My theory about this is rather simple. The cops around my way (and around a lot of other areas as well, I’m sure) have far too much money for their own good. Shit, our cops roll around in BMW convertibles and Camaros. Crazy. They got helicopters up the ass that stay flying around at ungodly hours of the night. Not to mention they must have a lot of people on the payroll because I see them everywhere, all the time. And what comes with money? Corruption. “Money is the root of all evil”, right? Now sure, there’s some righteous cops out there (I’ve come across…two?), but there are some crooked as shit ones too. And the more money they have or are affiliated with, the easier it is for them to get away with the atrocities they commit in the name of “justice”.

Meanwhile, as they fly over us with fancy helicopters burning up some black gold, our public schools are roach infested, the gang problem isn’t getting any smaller, our own citizens are wondering how they’ll afford groceries, and I don’t see the drugs coming off of the streets. And maybe the worst part of it all is that I can wake up, see this shit, and it doesn’t even make me the slightest bit nervous anymore. Just some shit for y’all to ponder over the weekend.

 

And did I mention I'm getting too old for this shit? If I have to duck and cover, I may fuck around and throw my back out or pull a muscle or something. For that reason, I'm making sure I hit the gym tomorrow. You always have to be ready for a confrontation, right? Ah, Northern VA, at least you motivate me to work out.

19 Comments             

You Tell Me

Note: Yeah, I know, I’m late with this. It went down in July. But guess what? Amanda has a life. What a concept. And I like to assume that anybody reading this has a life too, so I still feel a need to talk about things like this in case somebody reads this that didn’t know about the incident in question. It’s never too late to spread the word and attempt to educate.

Rather than spew my opinions in your face about an injustice, I shall (isn’t that an uppity ass word?) take a neutral stance in this instance and present you the facts, and then let you decide.  Warning: this girl can scream, so you may want to turn your volume down. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

 

 

Background: The girl in the video was 15-year-old Shelwanda Riley of Fort Pierce, Florida, and the officer is Daniel Gilroy. This footage was taken from the patrol car’s dashboard camera. Riley was approached by police after a 911 call reported suspicious activity in regards to the minor being out late and walking around with a garbage bag. In the bag were found clothes that appeared to be brand new. The teen was breaking the local curfew laws as well. If you watch closely in the video, there comes a point when it appears that the girl tries to bite the officer near his hand. Supposedly the girl tried to kick the officer and swing at him before the officer turned on the dashboard camera. The girl is facing charges of resisting arrest and battery of a law enforcement officer. Fort Pierce’s Police Chief has made public statements supporting the officer Gilroy’s actions, stating that he would have done the same if presented with the same situation.

So I ask…do you feel the officer exhibited excessive force? Did the girl’s actions merit the charges that she now faces? Was the police chief correct in co-signing the officer’s actions?

23 Comments             

14-Year-Old Shot and Killed by Off Duty D.C. Cop

Being that I live in the DC metro area, I’ve been hearing a lot about this particular case. I’m not sure if it’s getting any coverage outside of the area, but it’s an interesting (read: fucked the fuck up) case that deserves some attention.

Forgive gaps in the story, for they are being withheld from the public for obvious reasons. And they’re part of the reason this incident is so peculiar (read: fucked the fuck up).

The condensed version sounds a little something like this: Last month, Officer James Haskel gets a minibike stolen from his home. He calls another officer (Anthony Clay) and while off duty and not in uniform, the two set out to find the minibike, armed with their department-issued 9mm glocks. Allegedly, they find 14-year-old DeOnte Rawlings riding the minibike. Supposedly, the two approached Rawlings in Haskel’s personal vehicle without notifying the boy that they were officers, and then the boy shot at them, hitting the vehicle. Haskel then proceeds to return fire (I use the word “return” with much hesitation, though), and the shot kills the boy. Clay leaves the scene with the vehicle used to get there, and returns later without the vehicle. D.C. police are saying that they have since found the vehicle, but won’t say how or where they found it. The police were alerted to the shooting by a rooftop sensor installed nearby that activates when it hears the sound of a gunshot (there are multiple sensors such as that one installed around the area and were put in just recently).

Sounds seemingly legit. Use of excessive force? Surely. BUT, as with all things these days, there’s more to it than meets the eye.

Rawlings’ autopsy was released this week, revealing some very interesting details. First of all, the gunshot that Rawlings took was to the back of the head. Back of the head? That’s an interesting target, not to mention angle, to shoot somebody who shot at you first. In most cases, a return shot would hit them on the front of their body, rather than the back, and in that sort of moment would you really be going for a part of the body like the head? Why not something much easier to hit, such as a torso? If you shoot at someone’s head, you’re shooting to kill. And what was this all supposedly over again? A minibike. Shooting to kill a 14 year old boy over a minibike? Yeah. Sure.

It doesn’t stop there. Police haven’t been able to find the gun that the boy allegedly used to shoot at the two off duty cops. Even weirder? The stolen minibike in question was later found in Upper Marlboro, MD, which happens to be a nice chunk of miles away from where the shooting happened in the streets of southeast D.C. The autopsy report also mentions that no gunpowder residue or soot type shit that gets on your hands when you shoot a gun was found on the boy’s hands. There were also signs of blunt trauma, scratches, and things of that nature on Rawlings’ body – signifying that a scuffle prior to the firing of the shot may have occurred.

Granted, D.C. has a fairly new police chief (Cathy Lanier), and some kinks are to be expected when putting large organizations into the hands of new people…but this is just insane. Lanier has responded to this story, but has thrown out bullshit statements such as, “The scene was chaotic and someone might have picked [the gun] up.” What idiot is going to be stupid enough to pick up a gun that some kid just used to shoot at two men, regardless of if they’re cops or not? That’s an (attempted) murder weapon right there! I’d run away from that gun as fast as I possibly could, and there’s no way in hell I’d even think about getting my prints on that thing!

The officers were placed on administrative leave, and the case is now being investigated by the U.S. attorney’s office and the FBI.

My condolences go out to the families of both DeOnte Rawlings and the two off duty cops. At least one of the cops has a daughter, and whether he was right or wrong, that’s a lot for a kid (who also happens to be 14) to have to deal with.

26 Comments             

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