This past Friday was the fourth time in two weeks that a large group of bikers gathered somewhere in Indianapolis to vent their frustration at the alleged mishandling of the case involving Officer Dave Bisard.
But what was different this time? Well, not much. The location was the same as it was the past two Friday's, as was the goal. And from what I'm reading on Facebook, even though the news media was there, apparently it didn't get much air time in the evening news.
So what should these citizens do to get their voices heard? Well, like it or not, this city is responding in baby steps and the changes they need to make involving police policy (like what pundit Abdul Hakim-Shabazz outlines here) is likely to take time.
What these folks need to do is start talking to their General Assembly representatives. It's ultimately the law that they crafted that resulted in the blood test results being thrown out. And as much whining some in the news media do about the General Assembly, I was impressed at their speedy action on a number of pieces of legislation during their 2010 session.
This handy tool will let you find all of your elected representaties. Start contacting them now.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
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Well, as far as the City's recommendation that all of our IMPD officers have college degrees, retired NYC police officer, Frank Serpico, who wrote the true story SERPICO, which I much recommend all consider reading, adamantly concluded that his fellow cops with degrees felt MORE entitled to corrupt practices that benefited them personally. What I have always called for, is a real citizens review board, that has great investigative and enforcement powers concerning complaints of police misconduct.
ReplyDeleteThe movie was also good.l
Frank Serpico, whose true story is SERPICO, a book I recommend all consider reading, would not approve of the City's consideration of recommending that all the IMPD officers work on getting college degrees, because he concluded that his fellow cops with college degrees felt more entitled to engage in corrupt practices that benefited them. I have always called for, and included this in my independent campaign for mayor of Indianapolis, an independent citizen review board, that had real investigative and enforcement powers over complaints of police brutality.
ReplyDeleteThe movie, Serpico, was also very good.
And re your great recommendation of getting action from the General Assembly, back in the early 90's, Rep. Bill Crawford did approach me to say that he was willing to consider introducing legislation that defined the creation of such a strong Citizens Review Board, if I would write it. A committee should be formed to work with Bill, now, as you know, Matt, speaker of the house, on doing this, post haste.
ReplyDeletecorr: Crawford is not Speaker of the House. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteSo what happens if Jason Fishburns father gets elected. He only went to high school ( gee that wasnt hard to figure out.19+ years and still a sgt.)
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the Mayor and Tom John, you get what you pay for
Anon 5:27, these regulations that Vaughn and Hunter are proposing would only apply to IMPD.
ReplyDeleteAs for David Fishburn, I met him earlier this evening and was impressed. This guy is exactly what the Sheriff's Department needs right now.
It has been reported that Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Chief Paul Ciesielski was holding a PR conference with Straub and took 8 calls during the initial crash investigation from one of the commanders on the scene. Yet demanded that two of the commanders make a 1:00 pm meeting which was approximately 1-1/2 hours post crash. So it appears Ciesielski was more concerned about an individual's PR then police work. So one focus of Protests/Rallies should be to get Ciesielski off the force.
ReplyDeleteYou have 3 commander and other assorted ranking officers who apparently couldn't follow basic protocol on deadly crashes. So it appears that re-training of all Indy Metro Police officers should occur in the training of investigations of fatal crash accidents.
You have Officer Bisard who test at .19 BAC. Frequent and random blood test of all officers should be the norm. With each test accompanied by photo of person being tested or thumb print for identification and verification As well as mandatory blood test within an hour for all IMPD officers that crash on duty or while driving an IMPD vehicle. At the same facility where all blood test are to occur for DUI suspects.
Of course a transparent investigation and report of the events of the August 6th fatal crash which Officer Bisard was at the wheel of the police vehicle which rammed the motorcyclists.
one question I am dying to have answered is what role EXACTLY does the F.O.P. play in accident investigations ... seems like a weird question except that the head of the F.O.P. was at that crash scene that day , the deputy prosecutor wasn't called , the proper fatal accident investigation team wasn't called , but the head of the F.O.P. was there almost before the dust had settled... seems to us simple folks that the only reason a union head would be at an emergency scene involving a member of his union would be to protect this member from any repercussions that may stem from his actions .... combined with the chief pulling his commanders away , I believe this gave the good old union boys left at the scene the opportunity they needed to "botch" the blood test ...the F.O.P. head is on record yesterday saying as far as he understood , the med check was part of the hospital group .... which leads one to believe that there was almost certainly a conversation to this effect that day .. It could all be explained away as a misunderstanding ... all the excuses already built in ..
ReplyDeleteAnon 6:46, to the best of my knowledge, FOP President William Owensby was NOT at the scene. Fox 59 filed a report detailing which officers were there, and I don't remember Owensby being one.
ReplyDelete