By Nicholas Stix
For over a decade now, activists and even politically savvy police chiefs, such as then-LAPD chief William Bratton, have lobbied against police chasing suspects, arguing that the police engaged in vehicular pursuit of criminals thereby endanger the public, causing preventable injuries and fatalities. (Bratton even lobbied against TV news outfits showing police chases, insisting of chases, “that’s not news.” While some pc TV news directors publicly agreed with Bratton, the public was unswayed.)
The giveaway as to what really was afoot was the activists’ concern about the danger posed by police, rather than criminals.
The Newark PD yielded to the pro-criminal lobby, but it still didn’t work.
When three black burglars fled police at speeds of almost 80 mph on Wednesday, the cops gave up, but that had no effect on the burglar-driver, who kept on speeding until he plowed into another car, killing the other driver. That made the burglars all murderers, as well.
I suppose police and pro-criminal activists will need to hold public training classes for active and aspiring criminals, teaching them to simply drive away from the police, without speeding, while police academies start teaching cadets, “If a suspect doesn’t stop when you say ‘freeze,’ just let him go.” Meanwhile, look for the criminal lobby to blame the police for making the Newark burglar-driver-killer nervous, and thereby causing the fatality.
In 2009, the black mayor of Wellford, S.C., Sallie Peake, ordered Wellford’s police to cease and desist from even chasing criminals by foot. State law notwithstanding, Mayor Peake did not consider the possession of crack cocaine to be a crime. (According to Mayor Peake, the police chief had already forbidden vehicular chases a few years earlier.) Though Mayor Peake claimed her policy was based on concerns over the cost of workmen’s compensation claims, due to injuries officers suffered during foot chases, she was apparently of the opinion that if a criminal chose not to surrender to police, and could make a run of it, that was his prerogative. See the videos after this article. After the Mayor became a national laughing-sto0ck, she rescinded her rule. (Last month, Former Mayor Peake was arrested and indicted for allegedly stealing some of the town funds she was so concerned with saving.)
As for the headline below, the reference to “three injured” just confuses matters. They are all suspects, and thus, don’t count, since they only got hurt in the act of murdering someone else.
Speaking of which, Newark Commander Bob Douglas was quoted as saying, “Who was driving is still under investigation, and obviously that is a very important part of this investigation.”
As a matter of law, who was driving is irrelevant. However, in the push to find ways to diminish punishment for black criminals, law enforcement and criminal justice authorities long ago (30 years ago?) began ignoring the concept of “acting in concert,” whereby all criminal actors are equally culpable for any crimes they committed together, and began punishing different criminal actors differently for the same crime.
Wellford, S.C., Mayor Sallie Peake Orders Police to Cease from Chasing Criminals on Foot
Mayor Peake Reverses Order Prohibiting Police Foot Chases of Suspects
One dead, three injured in Newark burglary suspect crash
2012.1.18 at 05:30 p.m. PST
KTVU
One person was killed, three others injured Wednesday when a vehicle driven by a burglary suspect slammed into a car while fleeing police, authorities said.
Newark Commander Bob Douglas said the incident began with the call of a residential burglary around 10 a.m.
“A neighbor witness saw three suspects door kick the residence and go inside,” Douglas told KTVU. “They were then seen leaving in a Chevy Malibu. Officers responded to the scene and saw the suspect vehicle fleeing.”
When police arrived, they saw the suspects' car, a Chevrolet Malibu, leaving the area and attempted to stop the car, but the suspects fled, police said.
The car fled south on Cedar Boulevard, and police estimated they were driving almost 80 mph. Officers stopped their pursuit due to the suspect's unsafe driving, police said.
“At that point the vehicle was driving erratically at a high rate of speed so the officers disengage pursuit,” he said. “The driver continued to drive recklessly at a high rate of speed that unfortunately ended in a crash.”
The driver of the other car was killed in the crash, Douglas said, while the suspect vehicle with three people inside continued a short way down the street where it flipped over.
“There was one individual that suffered life-threatening injuries and remained in the vehicle when police arrived,” he said.
Police arrested one suspect right after the crash, while the other was arrested at the Pick N' Pull junkyard about a mile away on Mowry Avenue.
The three suspects were transported to local trauma centers to be treated for injuries suffered in the collision.
The three suspects arrested by police were identified as Rajwaun Watkins, Jabrie Watts and Deshon Collier, all 20-years-old.
"Who was driving is still under investigation, and obviously that is a very important part of this investigation," said Douglas.
Police said that all three have extensive criminal histories.
2012.1.18 at 5:30 p.m. PST
[Sent in by an anonymous reader.]
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