Dortell Williams' Radio Broadcasts
Higher Quality Audio files available info@prisonradio.org
Copyright 2007 Dortell Williams/Prison Radio
Dortell Williams is an inmate at the Los Angeles County California State Prison in Lancaster, California. Dortell has been published in a number of community newspapers, including the San Francisco Bay View, The Final Call and The Los Angeles Sentinel. He mentors at-risk kids through San Francisco's The Beat Within and is an inside correspondent for Families to Amend Three Strikes. You can email Dortell at: dortellwilliams@yahoo.com. For more information about the Honor Yard Program, visit: www.prisonhonorprogram.org
Protection from Those Sworn to Protect
Commentary by Dortell Williams, recorded 4/26/07
Scroll down for a written transcript
1) 3:06 MP3 Radio Essay
Update:
Senate Bill 299 sailed unscathed through the Senate Public Safety Committee, the Senate Public Safety Commission, Senate Appropriations and the full Senate. The bill is scheduled to go before the Assembly Public Safety Committee, August 31st, where it is expected to hit turbulence. Old fashioned, traditional letters are requested of the public for legislative supporters of the bill to offset expected opposition.
Protection From Those Sworn to Protect
________________
Copyright 2007/ Dortell Williams
Recently, Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton banned the use of flashlights from his troopers in blue. Like contraband in the hands of miscreants, flashlights were prohibited because police had crossed the line–beating fellow citizens mercilessly in the streets.
Never again would flashlights be used as weapons was the chief’s promise. Granted, they were never meant to be used as weapons in the first place. Of course, the officers who abused their use didn’t mean any harm. As the line goes: “they were just doing their job.” Some of them, I would imagine, just got a little mixed up; not discerning between equipment and weapons.
Surely, there’s a big difference between a two–foot, two–pound flashlight––filled with D–batteries––and a billy club (or PR–24 if you go by the manufacturers’ name.) For one, officers are specifically trained to handle the PR–24, and emphasis is placed on non–lethal strikes. Head strikes are absolutely forbidden. Officers are cautioned that the lighter PR–24 could cause brain and other head damage. So just imagine what a two–pound flashlight, brought down with brunt force could do. Yet, that’s exactly what media sky–cams captured an LAPD officer doing to an admitted joy–rider, Stanley Miller on a dark, secluded back street in 2004.
Following his arrest, pictures of Miller’s disfigured and swelled cranium were released to the media.
Chief Bratton, fearing a backlash from you, the people, moved to ban the tool turned unauthorized street weapon. In late March he introduced a new (get this) “anti–abuse” flashlight. It was touted with such rhetorical adjectives as “innovative”, “state–of–the–art”, and “light weight”, at a cost of $450,000 to replace the old ones.
Still, is it really the flashlights you have to fear? Or the mentality of those who wield them? It seems the chief was moving to protect you from the “protectors.”
From the Civil–Rights–era beat downs of the ‘60s, to the out right target shooting of Amadou Diallo in 1999, and Sean Bell in late 2006–both innocent but slaughtered by a hail of New York city police bullets–this is the state of policing we are in–all over the nation.
The root cause of the abuse is still not confronted or addressed.
So the LAPD has been stripped of their flashlights. Should we strip them of their boots too? Remember Rodney King? He was stomped and kicked in that now infamous video recording––as have been countless others. The shootings also continue. In 2004 the General Inspector tracked 82 officer involved shootings. During the first 14 days of this year, the LAPD had tangled themselves in 5 more such shootings. The count continues.
Simply stripping officers of their weaponized flashlights won’t make society any safer. As with any sub–culture that’s out of control, the only way to destroy it is to clip its roots. The chief has to reform the minds of those under this abusive spell; and, perhaps, the best way to do that is with real repercussions and accountability.
Until that happens it seems the only ones the LAPD thinks they’re sworn to protect are…themselves.
Sources:
Art Morroquin, “Police Commission to Review LAPD Use of Force Reports,” August 25th, 2005: A3.
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, November 28th, 2006. (Sean Bell shooting.)
Dave Mechem, CBS News, March 30th, 2007. (New flashlights).
Fox 11 News, January 14th, 2007 (Five–officer involved shootings since January 1, 2007.)
Dortell Williams is an inmate at the Los Angeles County California State Prison in Lancaster, California. Dortell has been published in a number of community newspapers, including the San Francisco Bay View, The Final Call and The Los Angeles Sentinel. He mentors at-risk kids through San Francisco's The Beat Within and is an inside correspondent for Families to Amend Three Strikes. You can email Dortell at: dortellwilliams@yahoo.com. For more information about the Honor Yard Program, visit: www.prisonhonorprogram.org
|
