For the past several days, I have watched sworn police personnel of varying ranks make statements in social media posts that condemn the police behavior that led to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. “If you see something, say something” has to apply to police, too — you can’t get away with crimes on account of being the people who were supposed to stop crimes. Some have criticized these recent law enforcement posts condemning the death of George Floyd as “too little, too late.”. Delores Jones-Brown. [i] In April 2015, Robert Bates, a volunteer sheriff’s deputy in Tulsa County, Oklahoma was convicted for killing Eric Harris and sentenced to four years in prison but was released after serving one and a half. links here. Your email address will not be published. The officer, who had been let go from two previous police departments, claimed that Michael Brown inexplicably attacked him, so he shot in self-defense. [ii] Liang was convicted of manslaughter for causing the death of Akai Gurley in the stairwell of a New York City housing authority building. Tony Evers’ proposed state budget includes legislation that will target how youths are sentenced and receive treatment, and close two long-troubled youth prisons. A crack has been made in the blue wall of silence, please let it break down even further altogether. Rather than promoting and creating safety and security, crime-free housing laws target minorities, and continue segregation, according to investigations by The Appeal and The Los Angeles Times. I try to understand as much as I can, without being a cop, that it’s not like the jobs most people have — and it’s not. Or else, we’re going to be in the streets again and again, all the time. In his editorial New Rule, Bill Maher has what he believes is a simple way for Democrats to win back the White House in 2020: presidential candidates have to stop acting weird. The term “Blue Wall of Silence” also known as the, ‘Blue Code” or “Blue Shield,” was first triggered in New York. Much has been reported in the media and depicted in the popular culture that purports to describe the so-called ‘‘Blue Wall of Silence,’’ a phenomenon that suggests that the police engage in a pervasive pattern of deception and withholding of the truth in ritual cover-up for their brethren. [iv] In the state trial against Slager, in a letter to the court, the juror wrote, “I cannot in good conscience consider a guilty verdict. Right now it’s easy to spot the toughest police officers, they’re the ones telling their fellow cops “you got to stop this shit.” A crack has been made in the blue wall of silence, please let it break down even further altogether. The blue wall of silence is an age-old tenet of policing. However, I am hopeful that what we all see on the video footage of George Floyd’s death is so egregious that even the most staunch police supporters can see it for what it is—a crime against humanity. It is the responsibility of leaders to properly protect, control and enact changes. The Blue Wall Of Silence / Photo: Author Aurin Squire. In those cases, the convicted officers received prison sentences ranging from 81 months to 15 years. Yes, eternal optimist that I am, I’m gonna look on the bright side of fires and looting in the breakdown of all order in the United States and hail the police chiefs from across the country who knelt and marched with the protesters in Miami-Dade County, in New York City, and Santa Cruz California, and Flint Michigan, and lots of places. Why? Breaking the Blue Wall of Silence: Changing the Social Narrative About Policing in America A 2016 memorial to Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La. Funny how the Democrats claim police are the enemy of the people when they’re the ones who give them these powers like Blue Wall of Silence and No legal duty to protect and serve you. By Eugene Robinson. And in LA that doesn’t work because, you know, we’re not really a walking town. A majority of New York City cops are non-white, but their union endorsed the re-election of Donald Trump, with no loud protest from the darker ranks. You protect the people in charge.” The “blue wall of silence” -- the rule that police officers will not testify against each other -- has its roots in an important associational virtue, loyalty, which, in the context of friendship and familial relations, is of central importance. Cops don’t rat on cops. The thinking regarding silence with the department of the police is not something that is kept as a secret these days because of choices of invoking loyalty and not integrity makes the idea of the Blue wall of silence to pick a lot of names hence entrusting individuals to have changes in careers. Traditionally such cases were tried to a single judge who, more often than not, acquitted the officer or officers (see for example the 2008 outcome in the death of Sean Bell, the 1996 outcome in the death of Anthony Baez; or the 1987 outcome in the death of Eleanor Bumpers). I mean, sometimes I feel like we’re getting the worst of both worlds. Wisconsin Proposes Overhaul of Youth Justice, 2019 John Jay/HF Guggenheim Crime Journalism Award Winners, Bill Moyers The Crime Report’s 2018 Justice Trailblazer, TCR’s 2018 Top Ten Stories and Newsmaker of the Year, 2018 John Jay/HF Guggenheim Crime Journalism Award Winners, CNN’s Van Jones The Crime Report’s 2017 Justice Trailblazer, 2017 John Jay/HF Guggenheim Journalism Award Winners. http://www.theaudiopedia.com What is BLUE WALL OF SILENCE? Instead of LAPD making the psych eval the last step in joining the force, make it the first so meatheads with a chip on their shoulder aren’t given the license to perform urban executions. Traditionally, it has meant that one police officer will not speak out … In some locations, police have even marched or knelt beside protesters. But again, neither Loehman nor Garmback were indicted. A NFL player, Colin Kaepernick, sacrificed his football career by kneeling during the national anthem to contest these failures of justice, setting off a maelstrom of controversy that extended all the way to the White House. But it wasn’t a cop, just a guy invoking a citizen’s doorman. Officers take an unofficial oath to not turn on one another when chaotic events erupt or when one abuses their power. It looked like Black Friday, but without cash registers. New Rule: The Blue Wall of Silence Real Time with Bill Maher (Original post) With cops, omertà is known as “the blue wall of silence.” Did they make it more comfortable for them to express their lack of confidence in a prosecutorial process that had been unable or unwilling to ensure that such incidents could move beyond the grand jury? Four months after Garner’s death, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed by a Cleveland police officer who had been deemed “unsuitable” for police service by another department. “How much of high school did you spend inside a locker?” should be question number one on the psych evaluation. This wall of silence is re-enforced in New York by a 48-hour rule that exempts a police officer from issuing any statement about an incident in which they were involved for two full working days. Moyers was honored as TCR's 2018 "Justice Media Trailblazer." Do Crime-Free Housing Ordinances Help or Harm? But the real new rule is you can’t anymore get away with “this is a bad cop and any cops who aren’t actually committing the crime are good.” The ones who watch and do crowd control for atrocities they’re not good either. I’ve known quite a few cops in my day, and others I’ve met for briefer encounters on the side of the road, and they are mostly not that guy. A former assistant prosecutor in Monmouth County, N.J., she is currently a Practitioner in Residence at the University of New Haven (UNH) in the Department of Criminal Justice where she is also affiliated with the UNH Center for Advanced Policing. Bill Maher applauds the police officers who have finally begun to acknowledge that the problems in their ranks extend beyond just a "few bad apples.". Did these jury decisions make it more comfortable for sworn law enforcement personnel to criticize their colleagues? It’s a dangerous job, yeah, but I think we lose our battle with police misconduct when, before a bad cop hits the streets, because there’s not enough vetting about who becomes a cop in the first place. I swear to god, I think the root of the problem with bad cops isn’t always racism, it’s high school. The Crime Report Below is a massive list of blue wall of silence words - that is, words related to blue wall of silence. The abusive part of policing… but without the Law & Order part. These days, a code of silence is often associated with the mob’s enemy, the police. Watch the video of his remarks at the Feb 15, 2018 John Jay College dinner here. The convictions took place over the course of a little more than two years. But for the most part, the policing community remained silent. While 10 percent of the general population will experience domestic violence, 40 … The act of “breaking ranks” and the “blue wall of silence” are realistic ethical issues that affect police departments. But if cops wanna us to give them a little extra room to be tough because they’ve got a bad dangerous job, then they got to do the bad dangerous job. Detective Serpico The inner workings of a police department promote an atmosphere of uniformity and. Some active and former members of police departments later confidentially admitted to me that Timothy Loehman and his partner, Frank Garmback used “bad tactics” by pulling right up to Tamir, who was holding a toy gun, and shooting him within seconds of their arrival. Because let’s be real, if there wasn’t video of that murder how do you think those other cops would have described that encounter? In the meantime, the death toll continued, with some incidents caught on tape while others were not. Synonyms for blue wall of silence in Free Thesaurus. Or else, we’re going to be in the streets again and again, all the time. Required fields are marked *. Which they have also done plenty of this week to be fair. If so, why? She recently co-authored, “Convicted: Do Recent Cases Represent a Shift in Police Accountability?” published in the Criminal Law Bulletin, Vol. Racist Cops, Abused Women and the Blue Wall of Silence. But I also find myself asking: why now? All rights reserved. It refers to the unofficial oath of silence within departments. Car 54, where were you? © 2021 Scraps from the Loft. WATCH VIDEO OF 2019 JUSTICE MEDIA TRAILBLAZERS. I am heartened by this new development. Your email address will not be published. It would be “We found Mr. Floyd unresponsive, so we administered CPR, blah blah blah, lie lie lie. This is the famous "blue wall of silence," and it helps explain how it is that to the sodomizing of Abner Louima, the 56 blows inflicted upon Rodney King, and the perjury of Detective Mark Fuhrman we must now add both the growing corruption scandal in the Los Angeles Police Department, the 41 bullets pumped into Amadou Diallo, and the conspiracy to obstruct justice of three officers found guilty of … Unlike the holdout juror in the 2016 Charleston, S.C., mistrial against Michael Slager, for the murder of Walter Scott,[iv] the jurors in these cases unanimously concluded that the police officers acted in a way that warranted criminal punishment. And I’m guessing cops rarely get called out to a redneck’s front porch because the guy wants to tell you how well the marriage is going. Between the deaths of Eric Garner and Tamir Rice was the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson, under circumstances that remain contested. “It’s really based on who is in charge. Built with the Largo WordPress Theme from the Institute for Nonprofit News. . Bill Maher calls for an end to the shaming and canceling of people whose heart is in the right place on race issues, but don’t get it exactly right on the first try. The concept “The Blue Wall of Silence” is first coined in New York, USA to describe the friendly and protective disposition of the police personnel in defense of their colleagues in the department and that is done for a wrong cause. That has to be the new standard. While many defenders of the police say that the problem is only a few bad officers, they neglect the bigger issue of their unwavering loyalty. The blue wall of silence, also blue code and blue shield, are terms used in the United States to denote the informal rule among police officers not to report on a colleagues errors, misconducts, or crimes, including police brutality. Delores Jones-Brown is retired from the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College. You have, - Your Complete Criminal Justice Resource, Police Across Country Speak Out Against Minneapolis Custody Death, Convicted: Do Recent Cases Represent a Shift in Police Accountability?”, Former Ohio Police Officer Charged with Murder of Andre Hill, Number of Prisoners Serving Life Rises Nationally, Keep Confessions Out of Criminal Trials: Paper, How Prisons Grab Stimulus Dollars From Prisoners. The blue wall of silence is different. This is new. Hi there! Bill applauds the police officers who have finally begun to acknowledge that the problems in their ranks extend beyond just a “few bad apples.”. Officers take an oath — not to be loyal to … When cases were tried to a jury, officers were also acquitted (see for example the outcome in 2000 for the death of Amadou Diallo). Their misconduct is not only tolerated but accepted and defended. Even under these very difficult circumstances for the police, is she having to do this in a country that is teeming with police forces. Trump has been doing the right thing by firing FBI agents like Comey and CIA agents for not doing their jobs. Adam Coy, now fired from the Columbus police force, shot 47-year-old Andre Hill on Dec. 22 as Hill held a cellphone inside a friend’s garage. What are synonyms for blue wall of silence? But, with the February 2016 conviction of NYPD officer Peter Liang, things began to change. One thing America does not lack for is police forces, local cops, state, county, highway, Sheriff’s Department, federal marshals, ATF DEA FBI, DSA. I did see a guy in Santa Monica turning away looters. [Pantaleo was fired in August, 2019.]. (https://thecrimereport.org/2020/06/03/is-the-blue-wall-of-silence-crumbling/). See also: Police Across Country Speak Out Against Minneapolis Custody Death. Houston police chief Art Acevedo even said he was outraged at Americans who don’t see a problem. now reading: Bulldoze the 'Blue Wall of Silence' Bulldoze the 'Blue Wall of Silence'. And this young woman. When a voice on the radio says “Man with machete on 15th and Main,” you have to go to 15th and Main. Abstract. Police sergeant Howard Banks of Omaha said “It’s all of us versus bad people and bad cops—and we want to get them out of the line of duty and police work…” Well, there I’m gonna have to stop you, because honestly it’s not quite that simple. That blue wall is one of … There’s a meme that says “Nobody hates bad cops worse than good cops.” Okay, if you hate them so much turn them in. The “blue wall of silence” is a well-known phrase among those of us who study policing. But that guy is who we have to weed out. It is an unwritten code which is generally defined as: “A rule among police officers not to report on another officer’s errors, misconducts, and or crimes when questioned about an incident of misconduct involving another colleague, during a course of an inquiry.” And in LA that doesn’t work because, you know, we’re not really a walking town. Traditionally, it has meant that one police officer will not speak out against another even when she knows her colleague has done something illegal. Rather than condemn the behavior, which violated the guidelines of his own department, many of his colleagues and their supporters offered explanations or excuses for why the officer behaved the way he did, and why his behavior was not criminal. And then the convictions began. This writing suggests that there exists within the subculture of policing an idiosyncratic … Bill Maher recaps the top stories of the week, including Oregon’s drug decriminalization and Joe Biden’s electoral victory. Wall Of Silence is an AOR/hard rock band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that was formed in 1992 by Brian Malone and Jim Huff after The Works (3) had split up. Are we experiencing a watershed moment in policing—a time when the police are holding their peers accountable? The Blue Wall of Silence: Secrets Revealed Behind Police Abuse and Corruption: Amazon.ca: Quinn, Alex: Books Wasn’t that long ago police never even admitted they did anything wrong. Will it last? New York City Police Officer Frank Serpico was shot in the face by a suspect when he didn’t receive backup during a drug raid months after he reported corruption within his department in 1970. I cannot and will not change my mind.”  Slager subsequently pleaded guilty to violating Walter Scott’s civil rights in federal court and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. [ii] Note is taken of the 2005 bench trial conviction on NYPD Officer Bryan Conroy for killing Osmane Zongo in 2003. Republicans are resisting. The blue wall of silence is how loyalty is measured in law enforcement. 2 synonyms for blue wall of silence: blue wall, wall of silence. The police, FBI and CIA all should be defunded. What does BLUE WALL OF SILENCE mean? This is tough stuff now. [iii] Note is taken of the fact that the Brooklyn District Attorney at the time, Ken Thompson, was also a person of color. However, in each of the remaining cases that resulted in convictions, the officers were all white, and the victims were all black, like Akai Gurley. And it goes for all out of line behavior if your partner is doing something horrendous, you can’t just watch and do nothing, like the husband in a cuck video. . A Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo, and just last year, Attorney General William Barr ordered the federal civil rights case against him dropped. He was fatally shot by the police. 56, No.2, 2020:270-301. There are more people serving life sentences in the U.S today than the total prison population of the 1970s, and five times more than in 1984, according to the latest report from The Sentencing Project. And speaking of stopping crimes, we were a little slow to get to that in LA this week. The conviction was controversial because the shooting was allegedly accidental and the officer involved, like the victim, was a person of color.[iii]. Antonyms for blue wall of silence. Gov. And finally new rule: hooray for the cracks that have finally emerged in the blue wall of silence. Photo by Arpi Pap Studio. Nearly six years ago, Eric Garner said, “I can’t breathe,” while being held in a chokehold by New York Police Department officer Daniel Pantaleo. NPR's Eric Westervelt reports on the myth and the reality of the idea of a code of silence among police officers. Officers who do break the wall of silence are often no longer backed up on jobs by their partners -- thereby putting their lives in further danger. 2 talking about this. The “blue wall of silence” is a well-known phrase among those of us who study policing. This series of killings and others led to national protests both peaceful and violent, to condemnation of the grand jury system, and to calls for special prosecutors in such cases to avoid the obvious favorable bias that local prosecutors may have toward defendant officers. The Blue Wall of Silence is a book based on a true story of one woman’s incredible journey into and through the “Blue Wall of Silence.” I mean, forever, we’ve been talking about “bad cops,” you know, “bad apples.” And then the vast majority of cops… good cops. The investigation, which went well beyond the official statistics published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, caused an outcry. Noun: 1. blue wall of silence - the secrecy of police officers who lie or look the other way to protect other police officers; "the blue wall cracked when some officers refused to take part in the cover-up" December 07, 2018. In a series of sequential publicized cases, trial juries began to do the unthinkable: They began to convict sworn[i] officers of criminal homicide for killing civilians while on duty. New Rule: Oscars, No White – Real Time with Bill Maher – Transcript, Monologue: Down for the Count | Real Time with Bill Maher – Transcript, NEW RULE: THE GUARDIANS OF GOTCHA | REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER [TRANSCRIPT], New Rule: Nowhere Else to Go | Real Time with Bill Maher [Transcript]. Following a special investigation, The Washington Post estimated that 296 unarmed civilians were killed by police between January 2, 2015 and November 25, 2019. Will police unions attempt to thwart it? In the wake of systemic processing delays which have delayed or sidetracked CARES stimulus funds for incarcerated individuals, those lucky enough to be paid often discover that prison systems have heavily garnished their checks, according to an investigation by The Intercept. The risk that individuals may confess to crimes they have not committed should make evidence from confessions inadmissible in a criminal trial, according to a paper by a Texas law professor. Both vocalist Brian Malone and guitarist Jim Huff, ex-members of Mannequin (11) and The Works, returned in 1992 on Island Records under the new name of Wall of Silence. The blue wall of silence cannot be allowed to stand when a fellow officer is inflicting trauma on the community. Thanks for reading The Crime Report! But it was frustrating watching it on TV last Sunday. Bill questions the wisdom of the Academy Awards’ new diversity requirements and its effect on artistic expression. For police leaders, were these social media posts political decisions designed to reduce the likelihood that violent protests would break out within their own cities under their “watch”? I’ve said many times in discussing the police, “civilization is a mile wide and an inch deep.” So when people say “Cops are all that stands between civilization and chaos,” absolutely, I agree. Tough guys have to do tough things. Read More. Not only do the statements say the officers in Minneapolis were wrong; many conclude that the officers should be criminally charged. Bulldoze the 'Blue Wall of Silence… “Oh, we got cops,” but this lady had to step up? The blue wall has been shaped by a wolf-pack mentality, a thought process of total loyalty to all members in the pack, good or bad. A perfect example of the blue wall of silence and the consequences that come with it can be found below, in a series of viral tweets from former police officer Paul Manning. Cops are the badasses who deal with the dregs in an ugly business. Did these trial jury decisions signal to the ethical members of the policing profession that juror pools now include people who are not blindly loyal to law enforcement agencies regardless of how their members behave? APPLES AND VIDEOS.