nittany ram wrote:

The Sloman-Forbath Nightmare

I tried to read that book, but it was too grim.

Ramping up free agency preview content this week, beginning with A'Shawn Robinson's future in Los Angeles https://t.co/8UkzURY7lZ

— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) March 7, 2023

Justice Dept. Finds Pattern of Discriminatory Policing in Louisville
The review, undertaken after a specialized unit killed Breonna Taylor in a botched raid in 2020, paints a damning portrait of a department in crisis.

link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/us/politics/louisville-police-breonna-taylor-justice-dept.html?unlocked_article_code=slX0GqLIgnAVZbipwSNNWdF5qmdNRtHdHIhsMp3qB6v6OPAQm0vL8K8FVXETjOq1P_QTNfRA2Mg6XYY3PI1wUsrHVuXfBL8GSbMiMhSZTZafNHNMCWHYDB6j_EUfW_BzT3bksUbJKuNy_y0Hj5Xpn4vqybQpwyCrD5VZoZt5LY9KaJunBjwvcgytUChewPxEcMFG9mLA1HOAKytlsFwlSsmQRXuG0RmwycuD4RXoJYl65W049yZSr_RRwT3wzv9_EY__yfdcaLlN7yA7lcwI6rCxUT9lwjx40HJDY2VMcMviMN2AVNlToovvNeDXLXOmwMkmwEcIiggft6KaHUOW3ySqG0kWPW_WfhqbZzl7BFUuWQJgn9TcKQCMsg&smid=tw-share

WASHINGTON — The police department in Louisville, Ky., engaged in a far-ranging pattern of discriminatory and abusive law enforcement practices, the Justice Department said on Wednesday after conducting a two-year investigation prompted by the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor by the police in 2020.

In a damning 90-page report, investigators painted a grim portrait of the Louisville Metro Police Department, detailing a variety of serious — at times shocking — misconduct. They included the use of excessive force; searches based on invalid and so-called no-knock warrants; unlawful car stops, detentions and harassment of people during street sweeps; and broad patterns of discrimination against Black people and those with behavioral health problems.

The conduct of the police department “has undermined its public safety mission and strained its relationship with the community it is meant to protect and serve,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said at a news conference in Louisville, appearing alongside the city’s mayor and acting police chief. “This conduct is unacceptable. It is heartbreaking.”

The Justice Department’s findings, he said, were succinctly captured by an unnamed Louisville police leader shortly after the investigation began: “Breonna Taylor was a symptom of problems that we have had for years.”

The findings in Louisville, released amid a backlash against a reform movement galvanized by police killings and beatings of Black people, served as a reminder of the dysfunction that still afflicts law enforcement agencies. Nor will it be the last: The Justice Department is investigating similar complaints about discriminatory practices in Minneapolis, New York, Oklahoma City, Mount Vernon, N.Y., Phoenix, Worcester, Mass., and Louisiana.

Ms. Taylor, an emergency room technician, was shot and killed by police officers assigned to a drug enforcement unit in March 2020 during a botched raid of her apartment. Her death prompted protests across the nation and calls for police reform.

The Justice Department interviewed hundreds of officers and community members, assessed body camera video from dozens of officers and reviewed hundreds of incidents. The 1,000-member police department is responsible for the city of Louisville and surrounding metropolitan region, a majority-white area with segregated pockets of predominantly Black neighborhoods. The force is about 80 percent white, the report noted.

Mr. Garland said investigators uncovered instances of blatant racism against Black residents, including the disproportionate use of traffic stops in Black neighborhoods and the hurling of epithets like “monkey,” “animal” and “boy.”

Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, said that the targeting of Black people for traffic stops and searches turned conventional law enforcement practices into “weapons of oppression, submission and fear.”

But the inquiry uncovered an endemic pattern of dysfunction that went far beyond racial discrimination, finding widespread problems in the way the police handled investigations of domestic violence and sexual assault cases, including allegations of misconduct by law enforcement officers.

In 2022, federal officials charged four current and former officers for crimes including violating Ms. Taylor’s rights and lying on the search warrant used to search her home. Kelly Goodlett was the first officer to be convicted after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy.
One woman told the Justice Department she had informed police officials that a narcotics detective was extorting sex from her daughter and two other women he had accused of drug possession. The accusation was labeled “unfounded” — but proved to be true five years later, when three more women came forward with similar accusations. The detective resigned but was never prosecuted.

The Justice Department praised the dedication of the units responsible for investigating domestic violence incidents and sexual assaults, but said their work was undermined by budget cuts that consolidated disparate divisions, leading to increased caseloads and forcing detectives to investigate crimes for which they had no training.

The abuse, Ms. Clarke said, extended to people with mental illness in the city, who were mistreated and mocked by officers. She cited one example in which a man with behavioral issues was arrested 25 times in two years, and in some of his encounters, the police “needlessly escalated the situation and used unreasonable force.” He later died in custody.

The investigation found that police routinely used force that was disproportionate to the threats they faced, including by using neck restraints, choking, Tasers and even dogs to subdue citizens. From 2016 to 2021, 71 dog bites were logged.

In one incident, a burly officer physically assaulted a distraught and intoxicated 110-pound woman who had been crying and yelling while sitting on her friend’s lawn.

After standing back for a minute and a half, “the officer rushed up to the crying woman as she fought with her friends and used his boot to push her torso to the ground.” He then beat her face with his flashlight “over and over again” when she tried to bite the outside of his heavy shoe, they wrote.

The officer was not disciplined.

In another incident, an officer ordered his dog to bite a Black 14-year-old boy — who was lying on the ground, face down in the grass during a search after a home invasion.

“The officer deployed his dog off-leash — without giving any warning — and ordered the dog to bite the teen at least seven times,” the report said. “Despite the teen staying prone and pleading, ‘OK! OK! Help! Get the dog please!,’ officers stood over him shouting orders for nearly 30 seconds while the dog gnawed on his arm.”

The child had serious injuries to his arm and back and had to be hospitalized.

The Justice Department also took the police to task over their crackdown on protesters who called for reforms in the days after Ms. Taylor’s killing. Officers “used riot sticks, less-lethal munitions, or chemical agents against protesters who did no more than passively resist or disperse more slowly than officers desired” in violation of demonstrators’ First Amendment rights.

Local officials said the report accurately reflected the complaints they have heard from citizens, especially Black people, over the years.

Mayor Craig Greenberg of Louisville, a Democrat who vowed to overhaul the department after taking office in January, called the abuses outlined in the investigation “a betrayal of the integrity and professionalism that the overwhelming majority of our officers bring to their job every day and every night.”

He added, “We will not make excuses, we will make changes.”

The investigation is likely to lead to a consent decree, a court-approved deal between the department and local governments that establish and enforce a road map for training and operational changes.

Already, current and former city officials, who cooperated with the investigation, have begun carrying out many of the 36 recommended reforms in the report, Mr. Garland said. They have also paid a $12 million wrongful death settlement to Ms. Taylor’s family.

After Ms. Taylor’s death, the city passed Breonna’s Law, banning “no-knock” warrants, which allowed officers to break into a residence without warning.

Local officials have also expanded their use of mental health counseling for officers, revamped training programs, appointed an inspector general and civilian review board to monitor the department, and established an internal auditing system.

But the police department has been in a state of turmoil since Ms. Taylor’s death, and Mr. Greenberg is interviewing candidates to serve as the permanent police chief.

The use of so-called pattern or practice investigations virtually stopped during the Trump administration, but since taking over in 2021, Ms. Clarke and the associate attorney general, Vanita Gupta, have initiated eight, including an inquiry into the Minneapolis Police Department after the killing of George Floyd.

The results of that investigation have yet to be released.

In an unrelated action, the department announced on Wednesday that it was examining the Memphis Police Department’s special units, at the request of city officials, after the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols, a Black man, during a traffic stop in January. The department is also working on a guide on how to monitor such units, officials said.

The investigation into the Louisville Metro Police Department is separate from the federal criminal investigation into the members of the drug enforcement unit who broke down the door to Ms. Taylor’s apartment, killing her as they fired a volley of shots at her boyfriend.

No drugs were found in Ms. Taylor’s home, and one former Louisville detective, Kelly Goodlett, has pleaded guilty to helping falsify information on the warrant.

Last August, the department indicted Joshua Jaynes, a former detective, and Kyle Meany, a former sergeant, with federal civil rights and obstruction offenses for their roles in preparing and approving a false search warrant affidavit that resulted in Ms. Taylor’s death.

Another former detective, Brett Hankison, was charged with federal civil rights offenses for firing his weapon into the apartment through a covered window and door. He was acquitted on three counts of endangering Ms. Taylor’s neighbors in March last year.

The officers have denied wrongdoing.

Zooey wrote:

zn wrote:

A theory. Several Rams underperformed in 2022 and that’s before they got massively injured as a team. I think they had a few guys who took their rings from 2021 and slacked off. That includes Ramsey and Floyd. I think that’s who they want to replace–I think McV resented that happening. It clears cap space, and puts them in a position to develop talent to step up plus sign people.

I would think that it would be easier to try to coach Ramsey and Floyd back into the proper mindset than to replace them. And, really, how hard must it be to put in the proverbial 110% when the team has completely fallen off a cliff?

I’m not as worried about any of this so I tend not to see it the way you do. I’m on record as being critical of McV when I think he screws up. Rams are surprisingly quick to dump people year to year, and it doesn’t always add up to me. But in this case I think McV has a point. You pay someone to be a leader and then they let you down. You need the money anyway so why not move on.

I don’t see it as being as risky as you do. Replacing what Ramsey and Floyd offered in 2022 will not be a great challenge–they both backslid. Plus doing this allows them to sign and keep guys they do value, such as (presumably) Gaines.

It may also be that they are seeking trade capital to get an edge rusher, probably (warning: theory approaching) reasoning that this draft offers them enough in the secondary so they can shift emphasis in terms of defensive design and seek a veteran edge rusher. Maybe that’s a thing they’re doing? If so I think having a veteran edge rusher plus young corners makes more sense than having a star corner with no edge rusher.

Another veteran on his way out of LA: Leonard Floyd

The Rams are expected to cut him if they can't trade him first https://t.co/luJ4VsO0gM

— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) March 6, 2023

This is absolutely outrageous and should be a bigger story.

Alabama girls' basketball team denied championship after being forced to play in boys' league, then winning it https://t.co/We41cXCswV

— Julie DiCaro (@JulieDiCaro) March 5, 2023

Ian Rapoport provided an update on the Jalen Ramsey situation, including what the Rams might get for him and when it could play out https://t.co/NjqHMvhzej

— Rams Wire (@TheRamsWire) March 5, 2023

Los Angeles #Rams hire well-respected San Diego State running backs coach-associate head coach Ron Gould to coach running backs, per league sources, after previously considering @TexasLonghorns Tashard Choice and @UCLAFootball Deshaun Foster for the job @KPRC2 Strong hire

— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) March 4, 2023

The NFL Players' Association says the Cardinals have the worst weight room in the league and are the only team that charges players for eating meals at the team facility. https://t.co/BcpNe7UAhc

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) March 2, 2023

Jim Everett believes the Rams didn’t utilize Jalen Ramsey correctly during the 2022 season. https://t.co/f578drLxxH

— Rams Wire (@TheRamsWire) February 28, 2023

Who is in and who is out on the Rams Coaching Staff.

See it all in one place! https://t.co/zC24UV8G6l

— LA Football Network (@LAFBNetwork) February 26, 2023

Arkansas Gov Sanders’ plan to give away taxpayer money to private and religious schools also includes a spicy little nugget…a grifters dream. Banks get to keep 5% of the money in every voucher account. https://t.co/cFCX2sNHEA

— Piper for Missouri (@piper4missouri) February 26, 2023

Leonard Floyd is a potential cut candidate this year, and his latest tweet may indicate the Rams are moving on https://t.co/BixMCzGW6T

— Rams Wire (@TheRamsWire) February 26, 2023