police brutality

The family of Donna Dalton-Castlebury expressed tenative relief this week Andrew Mitchell, a 31 year police veteran and vice cop, was arrested on charges by the FBI. He was charged in connection with his apparent pattern of forcing alleged prostitutes to give him sexual favors in his car in exchange for not being arrested. He is being held without bail and the City of Columbus is “reviewing” weather to overturn some or all of the prostitution arrests he made in the last year. Mayor Andy Ginther quickly put out a self-congratulatory press release asking for more information.

Imagine going to work one day, a day like any other. You see someone you've seen before and you start to do the things you do every time. You take the equipment you use every time out of your car, start to set up and then....Then he shoots you twice. Once in the chest and once in the gut. You barely survive, you spend all night in surgery. While the team of doctors work feverishly to stop the bleeding in your internal organs someone with a stolen passwords illegally downloads your medical history up until that moment and leaves with it.

Botham Jean, age 26, was an extraordinarily hard working man according to his coworkers at Price Waterhouse Cooper and others that knew him for his cheerful and outgoing demeanor. He was a devout church going man. Niether his family, who have hired an attorney, nor his friends and coworkers will be enjoying his company ever again.

He is a 30 year veteran. She was a 24 year old mother of two on her way to see her mom on Columbus' economically hard hit West Side this past Thursday, August 23rd. They were perfect for each other. He wanted someone to rape, she had no power. But something went wrong, and what should have been just another Columbus police shakedown ended in a hail of gunfire inside his unmarked car because she may have fought back.

The often used adage that police can lie whenever they want and get away with it is in a sense legally true. This stems from the legal concealment of truth, the literal blinding of justice and strident defense of the laws that make this possible. There are politicians on both sides of the shrinking aisle that seek every chance to extend rather than curtail the secrecy. It is not vampiric America that simply does not appear in mirrors, but Medusa America that would certainly petrify if confronted with it's own horrific gaze.

As the nation begins to build it's network of private camps, military detention camps, and non-profit child kidnapping facilities, the third week in June also brought three high-profile shootings of black men. Tony Green age 33 of Kingsland Georgia, Antwon Rose 17 of East Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and Thurman Blevins Jr age 31 of Minneapolis were all killed in the last week. Neither Green nor Rose are even alleged to have been armed. In more heavily populated Minneapolis and Pittsburgh, there have multiple days of street protests.

The Metropolitan Club is where dignitaries dine, discuss and determine the next dysfunctional downtown errection. Despondent that he was underdone dissing the dogged defenders of black life in Columbus, Mayor Andrew “The bagman” Ginther raised his middle finger at the city and the truth higher than the Tax-Free edifice that is the Nationwide Arena, Office Complex and yuppie watering hole.

It is not easy being number one. Columbus is the best in the nation at only one thing. When it comes to the killing of black people, the Columbus Police Department is the New York Yankees, a dynasty team of history. Although they end more black lives per capita than any other metropolis in the nation, this time they did not extend their Babe Ruth like record as well as they clearly intended.

While some of their members flashed white power hand signs in Houston, members of the neo-nazi group “Ohio Proud Boys” were busy on campus. The Neil Avenue corridor between 10th street and 5th was covered in recruiting fliers. At the same time, several residents found hand drawn swastikas stuffed into their mail slots at their homes, including inside apartment buildings in an obvious attempt at intimidation.