ObamaLaw – Coming to a police department near you! – Special: The people of the Task Force, Part 2

Yesterday I told you about some of the members of the president’s executive order Task Force that is responsible for guiding the administration in overhauling America’s police departments. So far on the Task Force we have a known Constitutional rights violator (Ramsey), a prisoner rights advocate (Robinson), and an illegals-before-Americans advocate (Lopez). Let’s see what we can learn about four more of the Task Force members.

Bryan Stevenson, Appointee for Member, President’s Task Force on 21^st Century Policing
Bryan Stevenson is Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a private, non-profit organization headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama.  In addition to directing the EJI since 1989, he is a Clinical Professor at New York University School of Law.  He previously has served as a visiting professor of law at the University of Michigan School of Law. Mr. Stevenson has received the American Bar Association’s Wisdom Award for public service, the ACLU’s National Medal of Liberty, and the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award Prize. Mr. Stevenson received a B.A. from Eastern College (now Eastern University), a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and an M.P.P. from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. 

Equal Justice Initiative? I can see already where this is heading. And received an award from the ACLU? Can’t be good. One visit to EJI’s website confirms that this is another liberal organization, but this one goes one step further. You know all those laws we fought so hard to get put into place to protect children from sex offenders? You know, can’t live close to schools, parks, or day cares….have to register your residence…..all that good stuff that we use to try to keep our kids safe. Well, this guy wants to do away with it. This was taken from the EJI website(a):

Alabama also is home to some of the nation’s harshest sex offender registration and residency restrictions. Alabama’s Community Notification Act applies to everyone convicted of a sex offense, regardless of the nature of the offense. It bars people from living within 2000 feet of a college, school, or day care center. Many people have been left homeless or deprived of critical medical care because they cannot find homes that comply with the CNA. Indeed, people have been convicted of a felony offense and sentenced to 10 additional years in prison because they were unable to identify a CNA-compliant residential address prior to their release from prison.

I don’t care what else is out there about this guy, this one bit of info is all I need to know about him to know that he’s a scumbag. You don’t place the rights of a criminal over the safety of a child. EVER.  If you look around the website, you’ll also find that this individual implied that the “mass incarceration” of colored people today is the continuation of slavery and lack of civil rights. You know, in social work we look at behavior as a symptom and we strive to find the root cause of the behavior. It can be anything from an abusive family, lack of a role model, socioeconomic disparities, etc. These are the causes of the behavior, hence the behavior is merely a symptom. Nowhere, on any of these different websites, have I ever seen anyone suggest more than placing a band-aid on the problem. “African Americans are being arrested in droves, oh no! That means the justice system is racist and must be changed!” No! Change the morals and values of the people so that you have families versus “baby mamas” and “baby daddies”. Change the cultural perception from “I’m being oppressed by the man” to “life is hard but I can succeed if I try”. Change their view of the government from “you owe me because we were slaves” to “education is critical so that history doesn’t repeat itself”. Damn it! Nobody owes anybody anything in this country except what we owe to our veterans. This country started out with slaves. Guess what? THEY WERE WHITE! They came over on the Mayflower and were known as  “indentured servants”.

Let’s move on before I REALLY get on my soapbox.

Brittany Packnett, Appointee for Member, President’s Task Force on 21^st Century Policing
Brittany Packnett is currently Executive Director of Teach For America in St. Louis, Missouri, a position she has held since 2012.  From 2010 to 2012, she was a director on the Government Affairs Team at Teach for America.  Ms. Packnett was a Legislative Assistant for the United States House of Representatives from 2009 to 2010.  From 2007 to 2009, she was a third grade teacher in Southeast Washington, D.C., as a member of the Teach For America Corps.  Ms. Packnett has volunteered as Executive Director of Dream Girls DMV, a mentoring program for young girls, and was the founding co-chair of The Collective-DC, a regional organization for Teach For America alumni of color.  She currently serves on the boards of New City School, the COCA Associate Board, the Urban League of Metro St. Louis Education Committee, and the John Burroughs School Board Diversity Committee.  Ms. Packnett received a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis and an M.A. from American University.

Fortunately for us, Ms. Packnett is on social media, which means that we can view her very own words to get an idea of her beliefs. Let’s see what her Twitter account says….

 Hmmm…..terms and conditions apply to be free. Interesting perspective. Let’s see what Ms. Packnett has re-tweeted from some of her followers…..

Racist traditions? Christopher Columbus Day is racist? What?! Sure she’s got to be joking.

Hmmm. Nope. Not only is she not joking, but she thinks that Thanksgiving is a racist tradition too. Enough said on this one. Moving on.

Susan Rahr, Appointee for Member, President’s Task Force on 21^st Century Policing

Susan Rahr is Executive Director of the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, a position she has held since 2012.  From 2005 to 2012, she served as the first female Sheriff in King County, Washington.  Ms. Rahr spent over thirty years as a law enforcement officer, beginning as a patrol officer and undercover narcotics officer.  While serving with the King County Sheriff’s Office, she held various positions including serving as the commander of the Internal Investigations and Gang Units, commander of the Special Investigations Section, and Police Chief of Shoreline, Washington.  Ms. Rahr received a B.A. from Washington State University.

Sue is an interesting one because she was actually a sheriff. And she was well liked. Even more surprising, I like her. An article in The Business Journals sums up everything that I like about Sue. Here are a few excerpts from it (b):

When she stepped into the new role, Rahr was surprised to see how the atmosphere at the academy had become similar to a military boot camp. On a recruit’s first day, they would be screamed at and humiliated like soldiers in training. If a recruit was ever tardy, they were told to “drop and give me 50 push-ups.” And there was a military-style protocol requiring recruits to snap to attention if they ran into a higher-up in the hallway.

“They were so stressed out that they weren’t learning the material they needed to learn, so we moved away from military boot camp,” Rahr told me. “We’re not training them to be soldiers and followers. We are training them to make decisions and use judgment.”

To change this “counterproductive atmosphere,” Rahr said she removed a trophy case in the academy and replaced it with the U.S. Constitution.

She explained that oftentimes police officers believe the Constitution is something that gets in the way of the job. Rahr wants it to be something to uphold — their mission.

She doesn’t want her officers to be followers but instead wants them to make decisions and use judgment. She ditched the trophy case and replaced it with the Constitution. The Constitution! A document that our president claims to be a hindrance, this woman uses as a training device for her officers. “…oftentimes police officers believe the Constitution is something that gets in the way but she wants it to be upheld and to become their mission. I love this woman’s attitude and training ethics. I can’t wait to see how she gets along with her Task Force cohorts – especially the ones who feel that the convicted criminals’ rights are more important than public safety.

As much as I would love to talk about the breath of fresh air that Sue Rahr represents, we must move on.

Tracey Meares, Appointee for Member, President’s Task Force on 21^st Century Policing
Tracey Meares is the Walton Hale Hamilton Professor of Law at Yale Law School, a position she has held since 2007.  From 2009 to 2011, she also served as Deputy Dean of Yale Law School.  Before joining the faculty as Yale, she served as a professor at The University of Chicago Law School from 1995 to 2007.  She has served on the Committee on Law and Justice, a National Research Council Standing Committee of the National Academy of Sciences. She was appointed by Attorney General Holder to serve on the inaugural Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Science Advisory Board.  She also currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Joyce Foundation.  Ms. Meares began her legal career as a law clerk for Judge Harlington Wood, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.  She later served as a trial attorney in the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice.  Ms. Meares received a B.S. from the University of Illinois and a J.D. from The University of Chicago Law School.

Hmmmm…..first impression is that she’s another one of Holder’s stooges. However, researching her work I was impressed with both her literary skills and her reasoning abilities. She speaks clearly, is well-spoken, and has a good delivery in her reports. Definitely a scholar, and this gave me hope. I thought at first that my hopes were going to be dashed when she spoke of legitimacy as being a persons willingness to defer to a government authority because they feel that authority has the right to tell them what to do. She talked of how important this is and how it is the leading indicator of compliance with the law. My liberty-infringement indicator was threatening to go off, but then something occurred to me. She’s explaining why African Americans commit so many crimes – because they don’t feel that our government has the right to tell them what to do. And she’s right. I’ve worked with African American youth who have no respect whatsoever for a white teacher but will instantly fall in line with a black teacher. As a culture, they have become so sensitized to the race issue that if you’re not like them then you can’t be trusted and therefore don’t have the right to tell them what to do. She goes on to talk about how procedural justice is made up of 4 key factors – voice, decision fairness, treatment with dignity and respect, and trust. These factors determine how individuals will respond to authority figures. I highly recommend watching this video of her presentation on procedural justice (c). She doesn’t say that one side or the other did this wrong and therefore things need to change. She says this side acted this way because that side made them feel bag and this is how we can change this. It acknowledges the faults of both sides while also providing common sense solutions. I can’t fault that and without further research I can’t fault her either.

So, where are we now? Constitutional rights violator (Ramsey), a prisoner rights advocate (Robinson), an illegals-before-Americans advocate (Lopez), sex-offender rights over public safety advocate (Stevenson), an anti-American reverse-racism pro (Packnett), a Constitutional sheriff (Rahr), and a scholar (Meares).

Tomorrow I’ll be wrapping up research into the Task Force members and get back to my analysis of the Interim Report. I haven’t seen anything yet that in any way eases my concerns. As far as I can tell, you’ve got a panel of Obama-bots with a smattering of Conservatism sprinkled in so the administration can claim fairness. We still have much to be worried over. Like maybe the fact that this whole Task Force was created by executive order. Have you thought about why that was? Why not let it be recommended by a committee, or an agency? I can think of only one reason – because with an executive order Obama would have been able to hand-pick the members of the Task Force. That’s why it’s so important that we look at who they are and what they stand for – or against. Right now the majority of these people stand against traditional American values and ideals….the very things that made this country great. We can be great again, but not with an administration like the current one and task forces like this one.

(a) – http://www.eji.org/massincarceration

(b) – http://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/profiles-strategies/2014/08/with-the-debate-over-police-actions-in-ferguson.html?page=all

(c) – http://www.courtinnovation.org/research/procedural-justice-secret-ingredient-tracey-l-meares-community-justice-2014

ObamaLaw – Coming to a police department near you! – Special: The people of the Task Force

This blog post is going to look specifically at the people that comprise the “ObamaLaw” Task Force. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I urge you to read the original blog post about this topic so you can get caught up.

In the processing of writing Part Three of my analysis of the Interim Report I did some brief research on the person who was chosen to co-chair the executive-ordered Task Force. The history that I read about Charles Ramsey was terrifying. If you’ve read Part Three of my analysis, you know the danger this man represents. If you haven’t, pay attention. If this man is responsible for overhauling the nation’s law enforcement agencies – and succeeds – the US is going to look like Nazi Germany in no time. I’m glad that I found this information, though, because it alerted me to the fact that we don’t know who these people are, what they’ve done, or what they stand for. It seems to me that if these are the people who are going to shape the future of law enforcement it might behoove us to know their platforms and action history. I’ll be getting my information from a variety of sources and will list them at the conclusion of this post.

According to the Fact Sheet: Task Force on 21st Century Policing (a) released by the White House on December 18, 2014:

The Task Force will be chaired by Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, who also serves as President of the Major Cities Chiefs Police Association, and Laurie Robinson, professor of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University and former Assistant Attorney General for DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs.

This is what the Task Force posted a bio for Ramsey:

Charles Ramsey, Appointee for Member and Co-Chair, President’s Task Force on 21^st Century Policing
Charles Ramsey is the Commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD), a position he has held since 2008.  Since 2010, he has served as President of the Major Cities Chiefs Association and the Police Executive Research Forum.  Commissioner Ramsey began his law enforcement career in 1968 as a cadet with the Chicago Police Department (CPD).  Over the next thirty years, he held various positions with CPD, including Commander of the Narcotics Division, Deputy Chief of the Patrol Division, and Deputy Superintendent, a role he held from 1994 to 1998.  In 1998, he was named Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPDC), where he served until early 2007.  In 2007, Commissioner Ramsey served on the Independent Commission on Security Forces of Iraq, leading a review of the Iraqi Police Force.  In addition to his current role at PPD, he also serves as a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council.  Commissioner Ramsey received a B.S. and M.S. from Lewis University.

This is what the fact sheet didn’t tell you:

In 2008, Charles Ramsey made The Washington Post when his department began doing safety stops and collecting demographic information on the drivers and occasionally even their passengers.(b) This information was then put into a police database. These were people who had committed no crime nor were they suspected of having committed a crime. On September 27, 2002, the police – under Ramsey’s orders – surrounded Pershing Park and arrested over 400 people that were allegedly protesting the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings.(c) Many of the people arrested weren’t even protesters but were instead media and pedestrian traffic. The problem with the arrests was that the police had not warned anyone to disperse and had actually prohibited people from leaving the park. Following the arrests, the booking procedures of the detainees included such demeaning things as being told to “strip naked, bend over, and cough”. I strongly urge you to read the full article here for a complete description, including first-hand accounts, of the acts that Ramsey and his force committed. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled on January 13, 2006, that the arrests violated the Fourth Amendment rights of the individuals and that Ramsey could be held personally liable for the violations. Ramsey’s escapades cost the city officials of Washington one million dollars that was paid out to more than 120 of the protesters, not including, not including other settlements reached by the D.C. government (one settlement in excess of $640,000). None of this includes the $1.3 million in legal fees that was paid for Ramsey’s legal representation.

Next on the Fact Sheet’s list is Laurie Robinson. Here’s the bio provided for her:

Laurie Robinson, Appointee for Member and Co-Chair, President’s Task Force on 21^st Century Policing
Laurie Robinson is the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University, a position she has held since 2012.  She served as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) in the U.S. Department of Justice from 2009 to 2012.  Prior to that, Ms. Robinson served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for OJP and Acting Assistant Attorney General for OJP.  Previously, she was a member of the Obama-Biden Transition Team.  From 2003 to 2009, Ms. Robinson was the Director of the Master of Science Program in Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania.  From 1993 to 2000, she served her first term as the Assistant Attorney General for  OJP.  Before joining DOJ, Ms. Robinson spent over twenty years with the American Bar Association, serving as Assistant Staff Director of the Criminal Justice Section from 1972 to 1979, Director of their Criminal Justice Section from 1979 to 1993, and as Director of the Professional Services Division from 1986 to 1993.  She is a Senior Fellow at the George Mason University Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy, and serves as co-chair of the Research Advisory Committee for the International Association of Chiefs of Police.  She also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Vera Institute of Justice.  Ms. Robinson received a B.A. from Brown University.

Laurie was an interesting one to investigate. Her previous titles and positions read like the who’s who of justice. Being more on he “book” side than the implementation side, she’s never been involved in any altercations or lawsuits. However, if you believe in the old adage of “guilty by association” then she is as sunk as the rest. Laurie served served as assistant attorney general in the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) during the Clinton administrations.(d) One week after obama was brought into office, Laurie began serving as acting assistant attorney general and principal deputy assistant attorney general of OJP. She held these positions until she was nominated to take over the leadership of the office. If you’re like me and prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt, her associations probably aren’t enough to condemn her to scrutiny. Most of what Laurie has represented in the past has been fair and good, but her borderline-liberal views of key topics could be pushed in the realm of liberalism under the current administration. Robinson has been active on boards for organizations that advocated for the rights of illegal immigrants. (e) She believes that there are a disproportionate amount of blacks and Latinos in American jails because the system is biased, not because these populations are committing more crime. Vera, for whom she was a board member from 2001 to 2009, states on their website: “Vera helps officials in criminal and juvenile justice systems to reduce the overrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities in those systems.” Laurie has also orchestrated several meetings between her professional associates and Attorney General Eric Holder, during which meetings Holder got the ideas for several of his programs.(f) Laurie is a stubborn advocate for what she calls “Justice Reinvestment”, a bipartisan effort through which legislators and policymakers come together to determine how to reallocate resources to both save money and reduce recidivism.(g) Laurie raved about Kentucky legislation which, based on a Justice Reinvestment analysis, reserves prison beds for the most serious offenders and re-focuses resources on community supervision, probation and parole systems, and evidence-based programs. Basically, what they’re saying, is that unless you are an extremely violent individual, you should be allowed to stay in society. Laurie went on to state that Kentucky “is projected to reduce its prison population by more than 3,000 inmates over the next 10 years and save some $422 million as a result of the new law.”. I don’t know about you, but I’m not entirely comfortable with that.

Moving on in the list, next is:

Jose Lopez, Appointee for Member, President’s Task Force on 21^st Century Policing
Jose Lopez is currently the Lead Organizer at Make the Road New York (MRNY), a Brooklyn-based non-profit community organization focused on civil rights, education reform, and combating poverty.  He became Lead Organizer of MRNY in 2013.  Mr. Lopez began his career in 2000 as Youth Organizer with Make the Road by Walking, which later merged with the Latin American Integration Center to form MRNY in 2007.  He continued to serve as Youth Organizer with MRNY until 2009, when he became Senior Organizer.  Since 2011, Mr. Lopez has represented MRNY on the steering committee of Communities United for Police Reform, a New York City organization advocating for law enforcement reform.  From 2001 to 2004, he was an active contributor to the Radio Rookies Project, an initiative of New York Public Radio.  He received a B.A. from Hofstra University.

For those of us who are fighting desperately for AMERICAN rights over illegal immigrant rights, this guy’s achievements are a direct slap in the face. MRNY’s facebook page posted this statement on December 14, 2014: “MRNY Lead Organizer Jose Lopez was among the leaders who met with President Obama today to discuss policing. Latinos are a key part of this urgent conversation. Read the ‪#‎FergusonAction‬ statement.” Reading the action statement was about as pleasant as swallowing a mouthful of razor blades. It stated that the Ferguson Action group’s demands included “the federal government using its power to prosecute police officers that kill or abuse people” and “defunding local police departments that use excessive force or racially profile. Instead of having the Department of Justice (DOJ) wholesale giving more than $250 million to local police departments annually, DOJ should only fund departments that agree to adopt DOJ best practices for training and meaningful community input.”. This last line brings up a very interesting choice of wording – “should only fund departments that agree to adopt DOJ best practices”. As a mom who has been fighting Common Core for two years now, I can tell you that this is EXACTLY how the education system was federalized. The federal government tied state funds to accepting Common Core – they could either go the way of the feds or they could go broke. Common Core has turned out to be disastrous, resulting in a plethora of negative results. For example, elementary-aged kids are now being diagnosed with depression and anxiety disorders as a result of high-stakes testing, ADHD diagnoses have skyrocketed as a result of recess being cut out to make room for test prep, and children are actually learning less because they’re only being taught what’s on the test. The other thing about Common Core, is that if you trace the money you will find Pearson Education and other educational companies provided a significant amount of funds to the Obama Administration. I would be willing to bet that if you followed the money for the “best policing practices” it would also lead back to the administration. Jose Lopez’s MRNY is also responsible for stopping deportations through legal intervention and lobbying to change immigration law. According to their website, their 2012 victories include: “launched an immigration law practice serving thousands with Deferred Action applications and hundreds more with deportation defense, permanent lawful status, and immigrant services fraud prevention”; “mobilized 20,000 new voters on Election Day as part of our new Campaign for Respect & Dignity, after registering 12,000 voters of color in NYC and Long Island and, with the Center for Popular Democracy, an additional 7,000 in Pennsylvania”. Folks, if that doesn’t scare you I don’t know what will.

There are eight more Task Force members that I’m going to save for later posts (4 tomorrow, last 4 Tuesday) since this post is already so long. The members so far – a known Constitutional rights violator (Ramsey), a prisoner rights advocate (Robinson), and an illegals-before-Americans advocate – are proving to be fairly impressive…..if you live in a communist country. Wake up, America, and look at the areas of federal over-reach. Health care, education, internet, and now our police departments. These are key areas that have to be taken if you’re planning to overthrow a nation’s system of government and take control of its people. It’s not too late, but we have to get this under control. Contact your legislators, your representatives, your Congressmen, your police chiefs….and don’t stop contacting them until they begin to hear us.

(a)  http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/18/fact-sheet-task-force-21st-century-policing

(b) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/01/AR2005050100848_pf.html

(c)  http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/25398/boss-hogtie

(d) http://www.allgov.com/news/appointments-and-resignations/office-of-justice-programs-who-is-laurie-robinson?news=841747

(e) http://www.vera.org

(f) http://nij.ncjrs.gov/multimedia/video-nijconf2010-opening-robinson.htm

(g) http://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/assistant-attorney-general-laurie-o-robinson-speaks-international-community-corrections

(h) http://fergusonaction.com/white-house-meeting/

Difference between “immigrate” and “invade”…..

Let’s take a look at immigration….

im·mi·grate

verb \ˈi-mə-ˌgrāt\

: to come to a country to live there;

intransitive verb

:  to enter and usually become established (see definition below); especially :  to come into a country of which one is not a native for permanent residence

Established……what does that mean?

es·tab·lish

verb \i-ˈsta-blish\

: to cause (someone or something) to be widely known and accepted

: to put (someone or something) in a position, role, etc., that will last for a long time

: to begin or create (something that is meant to last for a long time)

 

Oh, I see…..so to immigrate it is to move to a new country and be accepted by them, like getting permission to enter. I get it.

Now, let’s look at this word:

in·vade

verb \in-ˈvād\

: to enter (a place, such as a foreign country) in order to take control by military force

: to enter (a place) in large numbers

: to enter or be in (a place where you are not wanted)

By these very definitions, our country is being invaded and our government is doing NOTHING! Call your representatives, send emails, and – if necessary – be prepared to defend our borders. Contact your local Oathkeepers, 2 Million Bikers to DC, Overpasses for America, or other liberty-defending group and find out how you can become involved.

Remember, amnesty is for people who follow the law. Illegal immigrants are trespassing and breaking the law. One is a future citizen, the other is a criminal. NO AMNESTY FOR ILLEGALS!