De-escalation
Monday, Jul 27, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Korecki…
There’s a word that’s emerged prominently in the coverage surrounding the traffic stop, arrest and subsequent jailhouse death of Sandra Bland that’s worth study.
Escalation.
Yep. Any read of the transcript shows that.
* Natasha talks to Sen. Kwame Raoul about his “body cam” bill, which does so much more…
In Illinois, Raoul has co-sponsored sweeping law enforcement reform legislation that awaits Gov. Bruce Rauner’s signature. Raoul said elements of the legislation go directly toward addressing the kinds of things that went wrong after Bland’s police encounter.
It’s a traffic stop, recall, that is happening in a post-Ferguson and post-Baltimore era, where racially-charged, police incidents in those cities have heightened tensions across the nation. […]
Those incidents helped drive the legislation in Illinois, SB1304, which sets out clear procedures for the use of body cameras and dashcam cameras. The bill bans Illinois police officers to use chokeholds, unless the use of deadly force is warranted. It requires police to fill out “receipts” for those individuals — including pedestrians — who are “frisked” or patted down but not arrested. Police would have to detail the reason for stopping the person, detailing that person’s race and logging any contraband or other personal items taken from the person.
The provisions work to place additional checks on police authority while also providing police officers evidence if they later face misconduct allegations.
While the words “escalation” or “de-escalation” do not appear in the text of the 174-page bill, the legislation includes clauses requiring additional police training every three years on “constitutional and proper use of law enforcement authority, procedural justice, civil rights, human rights and cultural competency.”
A key component to that training, Raoul says, is practicing scenarios like the one that confronted Encinia that day.
* Meanwhile…
In a video posted to YouTube, dozens of community members could be seen visibly upset that Chicago Police had removed the car from the crime scene with the bodies of Thomas and Wallace still inside. The video is titled: “So damn disrespectful, this is just not right . . .”
The crowd can be seen shouting, swearing and aggressively approaching police, prompting one officer to ready his baton and hold it in the air.
The video, by user “Jay Hustle,” has garnered more than 700,000 views on various social media sites, including Facebook.
“They tow the car with a body hanging out of the window,” Hustle can be heard saying. “When did it become procedure to tow a car with a deceased body hanging out of a window with a repo truck? Only in Chicago.” […]
“From time to time, depending on the unique circumstances of the death, bodies may be left in vehicles and removed in private area at the ME’S office [CPD responded]. This would be done to protect the integrity of the crime scene (the car) while at the same time preserving the dignity of the deceased by handling their bodies in a private area rather than on the street in full view of onlookers.
But if you watch the video, which contains quite a bit of profanity, you’ll notice how calm the CPD officers are and how they patiently de-escalate the situation, despite being vastly outnumbered.
I dunno about the car towing thing, but those coppers are top notch.
