Comey's "common sense"
by digby
This is interesting:
Four cops from four different departments lied about shootings they were responsible for, and their lies were used by media outlets and pro-police groups to implicate Black Lives Matter protesters each time. It turns out that in all four cases, the officers involved either shot themselves, shot their own car, or were shot by a fellow officer.
The link goes into the four cases.
I don't want to make too much of this. There are a lot of cops in this country, most of whom are professionals. But it does point up the fact that the alleged "politicizing" of this issue is not a one way street.
An I think that James Comey should STFU. This is just irresponsible nonsense:
FBI director James Comey conceded on Monday that he had little evidence to support his theory that a recent increase in crime was caused by heightened scrutiny of the police, as the White House appeared to distance itself from his remarks.
Addressing police chiefs at a conference in Chicago, Comey said he could not be certain that the so-called “Ferguson effect”, following unrest in the Missouri city after the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old last year, had led to a retreat by officers, but said this was “common sense”.
“The question is, are these kinds of things changing police behavior around the country?” said Comey. “The honest answer is I don’t know for sure whether that’s the case … but I do have a strong sense.”
Basically he's saying that police are refusing to do their duties if they are subject to scrutiny. If they have to follow the law they just can't do their jobs. They're out there doing their duty and the head of the FBI is saying they are slacking because they're scared of being caught on tape. I think most decent cops would be offended by that.
By the way:
The Sentencing Project, a criminal justice nonprofit, has published research indicating that a rise in homicides in the St Louis area predated the death in Ferguson of Michael Brown and the ensuing protests. Bruce Frederick, a senior researcher at the Vera Institute of Justice, wrote last month at The Marshall Project that there was also no “compelling evidence that there has been a pervasive increase in homicides that is substantively meaningful”.
.