The same city where police officers are being attacked for wearing the uniform wants to give activists control over cops.
Everyone needs to know about this massive threat to law and order.
It’s called the Police Accountability Board… and it poses a massive threat to police in Rochester, New York.
Its name makes it sound innocent enough. But it’s not what it seems.
The general attitude of city leaders and the community toward police is so bad, Bob Lonsberry recently told WHAM radio that they could be partially to blame the influx of attacks on cops like Officer Dennison Wright.
Council President Loretta Scott is pushing to pass the new committee in a referendum vote on Tuesday, November 5.
So by the end of the day, we’ll know what the future looks like for police in the upstate New York area.
Rochester City Council approves Police Accountability Board https://t.co/keJaC7cl7P
— CITY Newspaper (@roccitynews) May 22, 2019
The PAB group would made up of a panel of civilians called the Police Accountability Board Alliance – and if it’s passed, it would put the power to discipline local officers into the hands of anti-police ‘activists’ that are concerned with the ‘culture’ of police in the city.
In a situation where an officer would be facing an investigation or alleged misconduct, Scott’s board of activists would get the final say about whether they were to be punished.
Not the chief of police. Not the mayor.
A panel of individuals who routinely have argued that the cops are the enemy of the community.
Any police officer – regardless of wrongdoing – knows that complaints against cops come in all the time. Whether it’s an attempt to discredit an officer, get a handout from the city or something else, the vast number of complaints are normally unfounded.
We checked out the PAB’s website.
“The proposed PAB would be a civilian-led oversight board,” the site reads. “The Chief of Police cannot be expected to investigate, evaluate, and discipline police officers. This is a clear conflict of interest.”
BREAKING: Rochester Police Locust club files lawsuit against city, Mayor Warren, City Council and Board of Elections to get the Police Accountability Board referendum vote off the ballot on Election Day. #ROC https://t.co/NYCtJicZhW
— News 8 – WROC-TV (@News_8) September 10, 2019
The local police union says the group does not reflect a push toward positive change, and only seems to latch on to the fringe opinions that say all cops are racist.
”The truth is, they’ve chosen to only listen to a small group of anti-police advocates who have never served anyone, but themselves,” Rochester Police Locust Club Michael Mazzeo said.
Mazzeo broke down the stats during a city meeting before the planned vote. He said that the department receives an average 370,000 calls per year. They receive an average of 45 complaints per year, which equates to approximately one in every 10,000 calls.
Do the math.
And how much do they want to fund the project?
Oh… just a million dollars, even though the city is reportedly facing a $30 million budget deficit.
Their plan consists of five ‘pillars’.
- An independent agency of city government, separate from RPD
- The power to independently investigate complaints of police misconduct
- Subpoena power to compel the production of evidence and witnesses
- Disciplinary power
- The power to review and evaluate RPD patterns, practices, policies and procedures to recommend systemic changes and to prevent misconduct from happening in the first place.
While there’s an open application for joining the Police Accountability Board Alliance, let’s look at some examples of people in the community that could be in charge of deciding an officer’s fate.
Lonsberry said that just days before Officer Wright was viciously attacked and left for dead, reverend and community activist Lewis Stewart appeared on the evening news, talking about the “racist culture of the police.”
His statements condemned the Rochester department for their dealings with a 13-year-old who, at the instruction of his mother, refused to comply with officers and continued to resist and fight back, making the officers look like the bad guys when they controlled the situation. The boy was hailed as a victim and the mother’s face was shown covered in tears, demonizing the cops.
Then just days later, Keith Williams allegedly attacked Officer Wright, nearly ending his life.
Lonsberry said the display of anti-police rhetoric can’t be ignored any longer.
“When neighbors’ Facebook Live broadcasts from outside a scene bloodied with an officer’s gore contain such commentary as, “I hope they killed this mother f—er’s ass. I hope it’s a straight head shot,” you’ve got to acknowledge that there is a problem,” their story read. “And that problem is an open hatred of the police which is dressed up as civil-rights activism.”
Additionally, Councilwoman Scott appears to pretend to care about police while the media is covering a story about an injured officer, then demonizes and slams them when they look away.
As Officer Wright lay in his hospital bed, fighting for his life after the brutal attack, Scott took the opportunity to tell reporters that she didn’t take what police officers did for granted.
“It’s very difficult to see someone who, just by the fact of doing their job, was in that position,” she said.
But those who know more about the city leader know that she’s only helping fuel the fire against police in Rochester.
Reports say that police in the Rochester area have recently had an increasingly difficult time with getting suspects to comply with lawful commands. News stories have shown officers being confronted by people who refuses to obey orders.
Lonsberry said that “those people – instead of being accurately described as rude or disrespectful – are held up as heroes or victims.”
We train our officers. Shouldn’t we train our communities on how to work with the police?
If these are the people playing Monday morning quarterback and deciding our officers’ future, we’re all in serious trouble.
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