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Thread: Police officer in Takoma Park charged with murder. Some initial take-always: 1-He has been taken into custody. It’s a long slog before he is tried and potentially found guilty. Observe how hard the Chauvin prosecutors are working to prove something so obvious. https://twitter.com/maustermuhle/status/1380513136151777289">https://twitter.com/maustermu...
2-The city of Takoma Park owes an apology to the victims, whom they initially characterized as “fleeing suspects” rather than what they clearly were based on the facts available even at that time: murder victims. (Media did just as poorly.) This all is the result of bias.
3-Our initial phone calls to the TkPk police station received replies like: “Oh you didn’t hear? He was a cop, it wasn’t murder.” Thus, TkPk police need a change of orientation toward their bias that police cannot commit crimes, which is a bias also held by our society.
4-Police should not carry their service weapons when they go home (this is a federal and local issue, since the officer involved was federal.) What does @RepRaskin think about this?
5-Police should be monitored for risks to commit violence: studies have shown a very large percentage are involved in domestic abuse, for example. Google it, the results are terrifying.
6-Police carry biases & a concern for property over people that is magnified by residents who also don’t recognize their biases: Residents of Takoma Park commented on our FB page about what a “nice guy” this man was, & the thought of someone breaking into cars might make this ok.
7-Largely, the public doesn’t realize police commit crimes, since police are rarely if ever tried for the many crimes they commit. The 1 time a MoCo cop was tried and found guilty of assault last year, a judge canceled his sentence on appeal, with likely assent of our prosecutor
8- Last but most importantly, our condolences to the families of Dominique Williams and James Johnson and best wishes for a speedy recovery to Michael Thomas.
