Hiding in Plain Sight: Women on both sides of the blue line
***Notice--Due to a bug in the blogging service, many of the links may be broken. I'm working with the service to remedy this issue as soon as possible***
In recent months, men, women and children dressed in orange tee-shirts have picketed at the downtown Riverside County Superior Court courthouse.
Here is a series of articles in the Press Enterprise about their experiences being what they alleged, victims of fraud while trying to purchase homes for their families. It’s an experience which is no doubt shared by many families all over the country.
In Riverside, people await to see what the next installment of Election 2007 brings them. Will there be a recount? Very likely in at least one ward contest. Will lawyers be hired? Already been done by one individual who's lost to examine "anomalies" in the process. Will this election ever be official? Eventually.
And will Riverside decide to ultimately hire out its election process to a private firm?
Oh, the best laid plans of mice and men. If so, how would this firm be chosen? Would they have to bid high, bid low or donate money into political campaigns?
How would the new process go and where would it lead?
The shooting of a Black mentally ill teenager holding a hair brush has led to controversy and protest in New York City, according to Yahoo News.
(excerpt)
”We have cases like that all over the country where it can be a wallet, a cell phone, a can of Coca-Cola and officers have fired the weapon," said Scott Greenwood, a Cincinnati attorney who has worked on police use-of-force cases across the country and who is a general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
"It does not necessarily mean it was excessive use of force," he added. "However, those types of incidents do give rise to greater suspicion on the part of the public about how police use force and they call into question the training departments are using to train officers to perceive and respond to threats."
The New York Police Department says the officers who fired 20 shots at 18-year-old Khiel Coppin on Nov. 12 were justified in their use of force. The mentally ill teenager approached officers outside his mother's home with a black object in his hand — the hairbrush — and repeatedly ignored orders to stop.”
According to the New York Daily News, there was no videotape that recorded the shooting.
Controversy has erupted over news that one of the officers, Sgt. Carl Carrara, who fired at Coppin was the member of a musical band called EDP, short for “Emotionally Disturbed People”.
(excerpt)
"They are mocking and making light of individuals who have that illness," said Taharka Robinson of the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network. Robinson is acting as a spokesman for Coppin's family.
"Off-duty, on-duty - if you can sit there and engage in an activity that is disrespectful, insensitive to individuals with an illness, you don't need to be on the force."
But Phil Mellea, a lawyer for the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said, "The facts of the incident are more important than whatever band he plays for, and one thing has nothing to do with the other."
Why are people handcuffed after being shot? The New York Times addresses this issue.
Robert L. Kuby, an attorney who does civil rights cases, said that he thought the shooting of Coppin was probably justified but questioned the handcuffing. The police department said it was standard procedure and a safety issue.
(excerpt)
“I think what you lose in public support and approval is far greater than any marginal, negligible fraction of safety that they may gain,” Mr. Kuby said. “All of that support is thrown away when they handcuff a helpless, bleeding, dying person, because when it looks brutal and unnecessary, it casts a pall on the entire incident.”
Active and retired officers generally say that assessing someone’s propensity for lethal behavior is impossible to do in a short time, particularly after a shooting, when emotions are pumping.
A dark street or bad weather can make things worse.
One law enforcement official recalled several instances in which officers had found a second gun hidden on a suspect after he had been shot and handcuffed.
Thomas D. Nerney, who retired in 2002 as a detective in the Police Department’s Major Case Squad, said officers relied on rules to survive in shooting situations.
Mr. Nerney, who was in four gunfights in his career, said that the rigor of the handcuffing rule “removes the discretion from a police officer saying, ‘Should I or shouldn’t I?’ because either way you can be damned.”
“If it is just a standard procedure,” he said, “the objective is not only to protect the lives of the officers but to prevent someone who might be psychologically damaged or emotionally disturbed from further injuring themselves, particularly with a gunshot wound that might be superficial and then made fatal by someone who is exercising ‘suicide by cop.’”
Women in policing continues to be a big issue everywhere, both in terms of women who work in law enforcement as well as those who are victims of crimes committed by members of the public or those in law enforcement.
Women outside the blue line
In Chicago, Sgt. Drew Peterson, of the Bolingbrook Police Department appeared on the show, America’s Most Wanted and said that he was angry at his fourth wife, Stacey who disappeared on Oct. 28 and hasn’t been seen since, according to ABC News.
(excerpt)
"I hope she exposes herself to be alive and well," Peterson said on the TV show.
Peterson maintains he had nothing to do with Stacy's disappearance or third wife Kathleen Savio's death. But police have named Peterson as a suspect in Stacy's death and this week they also exhumed the body of Savio to conduct a new autopsy.
Peterson has said that Stacy ran off with another man. He also said, "It would take a lot of talking for me to take her back."
In the same article, the family members of his deceased third wife, Kathleen Savio, said that she had tried to notify the police of her fear about Peterson to no avail.
(excerpt)
During Peterson's marriage to Savio, police responded to at least five domestic violence calls at their home.
"Drew grabbed her and put a knife to her throat and he threatened to kill her," Savio's sister Sue Doman told "Good Morning America" Thursday. "She told me that she feared for her life."
Her sister says Savio felt unprotected and afraid. She kept notes about what happened, filed for an order of protection against her husband and even sent letters to a local prosecutor complaining about the police.
"There have been several times throughout my marriage with this man where I ended up at the emergency room," she wrote in one letter. "And I have reported this only to have the police leave my home without filing any reports."
In another note, she wrote, "He knows how to manipulate the system, and his next step is to take my children away, or kill me instead."
Stacey Peterson wanted a divorce, her friends said, according to ABC News.
(excerpt)
"She would always look over her shoulder," said family friend Bruce Zidarich of meeting Stacy in the weeks before she went missing. "She said, 'I'm gonna tell him that I want a divorce.' ... It came up more and more often."
It wasn't always that way. Stacy Peterson's disappearance, say her relatives and friends, capped an explosive seven-year relationship that started with a teenage girl swept off her feet with attention and gifts from a man 30 years her senior, then turned progressively sinister as her once-loving husband grew increasingly controlling and suspicious, forbidding her to see family and friends, and accusing her of infidelity.
Since his wife's disappearance, Drew Peterson has said Stacy left voluntarily, and told him she "found someone else."
Peterson blamed both his third and fourth wives for problems, calling them both “mentally unstable”. Experts in the area of police-related domestic violence said that's not uncommon in these cases. The men will claim their wives or girlfriends had bipolar disorder for example or like Peterson has, blame the influence of hormones.
An interesting discussion on what’s happening in Bolingbrook and its police department is here.
Several women commented who said they had been married to law enforcement officers, who behaved in ways similar as Peterson did with his wives. Others recommended booklets written by Diane Wetendorf that are available at her Web site which address police-related domestic violence and how officers who batter work the system that they work inside of every day.
The majority of law enforcement officers do not engage in this form of behavior but of the ones that do, it appears more that even those who don't including those assigned to investigate allegations of domestic violence, believe that it's a family issue and thus private. Once again, the blue wall of silence seems to stand in the midst shielding these officers.
In one of her books, Advocate and Officer Dialogues: Police-Perpetuated Domestic Violence Wetendorf and her co-author, Capt. Dottie L. Davis list the attributes that enable police officers who allegedly engage in domestic violence to work their own system.
(excerpt)
The testimony of a police officer at trial often bears more weight than that of an average citizen.
When the police arrive at another officer’s home on a domestic disturbance, the officer is the “model of calm”. The victim will most likely be an “emotional pendulum”.
Officers are trained to maintain control of an investigation. Even if they are the accused, the officer has the knowledge to remain calm with the responding officers.
Officers are trained to write detailed reports consisting of a chronological explanation of the events. When the officer stands accused, he has an explanation planned for every piece of broken furniture and torn clothing.
Officers also know that an appropriate response to a question is, “I don’t know,” or “I don’t recall.” They also know they don’t have to answer questions at the scene, and may refuse to provide their side of the story.
Some officers will minimize the incident in their police report to protect the accused officer’s job and reputation.
Victims may be contacted by his friends who are police officers and asked to recant their story. They may be convinced not to cooperate with the Internal Affairs Division and the prosecuting attorney.
These elements make it difficult for these cases to move forward in agencies including the 55% of them nationwide that actually have written policies addressing inhouse domestic violence.
Women inside the blue line
Her latest book, Crossing the Threshold documents the experiences of female law enforcement officers trying to integrate into male-dominated law enforcement agencies and their own experiences as victims of domestic violence. This is an area where studies haven't really been conducted but the ones that have been done show that while male officers are at a higher risk of engaging in domestic violence than the general population, female officers especially those married or in relationships with male officers may be at greater risk of being victims.
About the book, one unidentified female officer had this to say.
"I finished your book, a couple of weeks ago actually. It was great; it hit pretty much everything right on the head. Some things I hadn't managed to find words for -- like the intimidation that's managed without a word. I knew it was there but hadn't put a name to it.
I wish every law enforcement administrator and IA investigator would read this book. I also think every female officer should be made to read this! Not only did I see myself in this book but I saw other officers I know and some of the wives I know too."
Speaking of female law enforcement officers, currently the Riverside Police Department has seven attending two different police academy sessions. One of those female officers is currently ranked among the top three positions in her class of 80 trainees. Her performance should put to rest comments like ones read on this site that recruiting women is akin to forcing the police chief to kidnap women off the street, force them to become officers and put the entire agency in serious jeopardy. Silly and based on deep seated prejudice and fear, but someone of course unidentified actually wrote that during a diatribe about the police department's field training officers having changed the way they evaluate and train new officers under their charge.
In law enforcement agencies across the country, far from putting the lives of male officers in danger, female officers have been assets bring skills that would greatly benefit the operations of these agencies if so many of them weren't steeped deeply in sexism.
For one thing, according to studies, men cost more when it comes to payouts by cities and counties on law suits involving excessive force, lethal force, domestic violence and sexual assault.
(excerpt)
"The gender gap in police brutality lawsuits is striking. The City of Los Angeles paid out $63.4 million between 1990-1999 in lawsuits involving male officers for use of excessive force, sexual assault, and domestic violence. By contrast, $2.8 million was paid out on female officers for excessive force lawsuits - and not one female officer was named as a defendant in a sexual assault or domestic violence case," said Katherine Spillar, national coordinator of the Feminist Majority Foundation.
"Male officer payouts in cases of brutality and misconduct exceeded female officer payouts by a ratio of 23:1," continued Spillar. "Moreover, male officers disproportionately accounted for the lawsuit payouts involving killings and assault and battery." Male officer payouts for killings exceeded female officer payouts by a ratio of 43:1 and for assault and battery male officer payouts exceeded female officer payouts by a ratio of 32:1. Over the same period, male officers serving in a patrol capacity outnumbered women LAPD officers by a much lower ratio of 4:1.
"We know that women do the job of policing equally as well as men, responding to similar calls and encountering similar dangers," said Penny Harrington, director of the National Center for Women & Policing and former chief of police of Portland, Oregon. "But more importantly for public officials in Los Angeles - and across the country - this new study shows that increasing women on the force holds the key for substantially decreasing police violence and its cost to taxpayers," continued Harrington.
"Additionally, our research revealed other types of costly male police officer violence," said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. "Our study uncovered $10.4 million in payouts in lawsuits involving male officers for sexual assault, sexual molestation, and domestic violence," continued Smeal.
Whether the Riverside Police Department can retain the women it hires remains to be seen but it's record in that area clearly needs to improve. The unfortunate case of former Riverside Police Department officer, Kelsy Metzler comes to mind as does her termination that occurred not long after she filed a sexual harassment complaint against a male trainee in her academy class.
Did the police department check up on Metzler after she filed the complaint to make sure the officer that it had invested tens of thousands of dollars in was okay and that her interests were being protected? Did the police department check up on Metzler to warn her that it didn't appreciate her filing her complaint nor did it want "complainers" in its agency?
Because the case was shut down on a statuatory time limit before it even started and thus never had its day in front of a jury, these questions will remain where they currently are, in the air. Hopefully not to be revisited in another case down the road.
There are so many issues involving gender and policing, both in general and closer to home, involving the Riverside Police Department so look for more as the series, "Hiding in Plain Sight" continues.
As leadership batons are handed off from one person to the next across the city, across many lines, these issues once again are pivotal issues. Some wish they would go away, but the more time goes by and the more women are drawn into law enforcement even in the face of sexism and downright misogyny, the more discussions and forums will result to examine these issues.
An officer-involved shooting of a 16-year-old by the San Bernardino Police Department took place this weekend, according to the Press Enterprise.
(excerpt)
It was the department's third officer-involved shooting in a month. So far this year, 11 people have been shot by San Bernardino police officers and seven of those have died.
At 3:30 p.m. Saturday, an officer attempted to speak with the youth at a liquor store in the 800 block of North Medical Center Drive, the department said in the news release.
The boy ran and the officer followed him into a common yard area of a housing complex in the 1600 block of West Temple Street.
As the officer told the youth to surrender, the 16-year-old pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the officer, the department said.
Officers found the semi-automatic handgun at the scene.
Here’s a pretty good example of a cyber bully's post. Someone posts an agenda for the upcoming city council meeting with some commentary and an anonymous person calls them out by their full name and launches a personal attack by telling them “to go back under the rock they came from”.
Oh, if only cyber bullies and harassers would stay underneath their rocks and never come out. Yet another woman being attacked again, for being heard and not just seen, for being vertical and not horizontal and for being female, in a world where men are supposed to run the show.
What’s interesting with this particular unidentified bully is that he or she spells out one profane word using symbols and spells out the gender term that is used to demean women by comparing us to animals which of course we are the second we don’t fit into their narrow stereotypes of what women should be.
What type of cyber bully is this one?
The vengeful type.
(excerpt)
The last type of stalker is the vengeful stalker. They get angry at their victim due to some slight either real or imagined. We have all heard of disgruntled employees, these are vengeful stalkers and can be just as dangerous as the delusional. They stalk to get even and believe that "they" have been victimized. Ex-spouses can turn into this type of stalker and violence is all to common a result..
More information here and here on this issue including resources on addressing it if it happens to you.
In recent months, men, women and children dressed in orange tee-shirts have picketed at the downtown Riverside County Superior Court courthouse.
Here is a series of articles in the Press Enterprise about their experiences being what they alleged, victims of fraud while trying to purchase homes for their families. It’s an experience which is no doubt shared by many families all over the country.
In Riverside, people await to see what the next installment of Election 2007 brings them. Will there be a recount? Very likely in at least one ward contest. Will lawyers be hired? Already been done by one individual who's lost to examine "anomalies" in the process. Will this election ever be official? Eventually.
And will Riverside decide to ultimately hire out its election process to a private firm?
Oh, the best laid plans of mice and men. If so, how would this firm be chosen? Would they have to bid high, bid low or donate money into political campaigns?
How would the new process go and where would it lead?
The shooting of a Black mentally ill teenager holding a hair brush has led to controversy and protest in New York City, according to Yahoo News.
(excerpt)
”We have cases like that all over the country where it can be a wallet, a cell phone, a can of Coca-Cola and officers have fired the weapon," said Scott Greenwood, a Cincinnati attorney who has worked on police use-of-force cases across the country and who is a general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
"It does not necessarily mean it was excessive use of force," he added. "However, those types of incidents do give rise to greater suspicion on the part of the public about how police use force and they call into question the training departments are using to train officers to perceive and respond to threats."
The New York Police Department says the officers who fired 20 shots at 18-year-old Khiel Coppin on Nov. 12 were justified in their use of force. The mentally ill teenager approached officers outside his mother's home with a black object in his hand — the hairbrush — and repeatedly ignored orders to stop.”
According to the New York Daily News, there was no videotape that recorded the shooting.
Controversy has erupted over news that one of the officers, Sgt. Carl Carrara, who fired at Coppin was the member of a musical band called EDP, short for “Emotionally Disturbed People”.
(excerpt)
"They are mocking and making light of individuals who have that illness," said Taharka Robinson of the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network. Robinson is acting as a spokesman for Coppin's family.
"Off-duty, on-duty - if you can sit there and engage in an activity that is disrespectful, insensitive to individuals with an illness, you don't need to be on the force."
But Phil Mellea, a lawyer for the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said, "The facts of the incident are more important than whatever band he plays for, and one thing has nothing to do with the other."
Why are people handcuffed after being shot? The New York Times addresses this issue.
Robert L. Kuby, an attorney who does civil rights cases, said that he thought the shooting of Coppin was probably justified but questioned the handcuffing. The police department said it was standard procedure and a safety issue.
(excerpt)
“I think what you lose in public support and approval is far greater than any marginal, negligible fraction of safety that they may gain,” Mr. Kuby said. “All of that support is thrown away when they handcuff a helpless, bleeding, dying person, because when it looks brutal and unnecessary, it casts a pall on the entire incident.”
Active and retired officers generally say that assessing someone’s propensity for lethal behavior is impossible to do in a short time, particularly after a shooting, when emotions are pumping.
A dark street or bad weather can make things worse.
One law enforcement official recalled several instances in which officers had found a second gun hidden on a suspect after he had been shot and handcuffed.
Thomas D. Nerney, who retired in 2002 as a detective in the Police Department’s Major Case Squad, said officers relied on rules to survive in shooting situations.
Mr. Nerney, who was in four gunfights in his career, said that the rigor of the handcuffing rule “removes the discretion from a police officer saying, ‘Should I or shouldn’t I?’ because either way you can be damned.”
“If it is just a standard procedure,” he said, “the objective is not only to protect the lives of the officers but to prevent someone who might be psychologically damaged or emotionally disturbed from further injuring themselves, particularly with a gunshot wound that might be superficial and then made fatal by someone who is exercising ‘suicide by cop.’”
Women in policing continues to be a big issue everywhere, both in terms of women who work in law enforcement as well as those who are victims of crimes committed by members of the public or those in law enforcement.
Women outside the blue line
In Chicago, Sgt. Drew Peterson, of the Bolingbrook Police Department appeared on the show, America’s Most Wanted and said that he was angry at his fourth wife, Stacey who disappeared on Oct. 28 and hasn’t been seen since, according to ABC News.
(excerpt)
"I hope she exposes herself to be alive and well," Peterson said on the TV show.
Peterson maintains he had nothing to do with Stacy's disappearance or third wife Kathleen Savio's death. But police have named Peterson as a suspect in Stacy's death and this week they also exhumed the body of Savio to conduct a new autopsy.
Peterson has said that Stacy ran off with another man. He also said, "It would take a lot of talking for me to take her back."
In the same article, the family members of his deceased third wife, Kathleen Savio, said that she had tried to notify the police of her fear about Peterson to no avail.
(excerpt)
During Peterson's marriage to Savio, police responded to at least five domestic violence calls at their home.
"Drew grabbed her and put a knife to her throat and he threatened to kill her," Savio's sister Sue Doman told "Good Morning America" Thursday. "She told me that she feared for her life."
Her sister says Savio felt unprotected and afraid. She kept notes about what happened, filed for an order of protection against her husband and even sent letters to a local prosecutor complaining about the police.
"There have been several times throughout my marriage with this man where I ended up at the emergency room," she wrote in one letter. "And I have reported this only to have the police leave my home without filing any reports."
In another note, she wrote, "He knows how to manipulate the system, and his next step is to take my children away, or kill me instead."
Stacey Peterson wanted a divorce, her friends said, according to ABC News.
(excerpt)
"She would always look over her shoulder," said family friend Bruce Zidarich of meeting Stacy in the weeks before she went missing. "She said, 'I'm gonna tell him that I want a divorce.' ... It came up more and more often."
It wasn't always that way. Stacy Peterson's disappearance, say her relatives and friends, capped an explosive seven-year relationship that started with a teenage girl swept off her feet with attention and gifts from a man 30 years her senior, then turned progressively sinister as her once-loving husband grew increasingly controlling and suspicious, forbidding her to see family and friends, and accusing her of infidelity.
Since his wife's disappearance, Drew Peterson has said Stacy left voluntarily, and told him she "found someone else."
Peterson blamed both his third and fourth wives for problems, calling them both “mentally unstable”. Experts in the area of police-related domestic violence said that's not uncommon in these cases. The men will claim their wives or girlfriends had bipolar disorder for example or like Peterson has, blame the influence of hormones.
An interesting discussion on what’s happening in Bolingbrook and its police department is here.
Several women commented who said they had been married to law enforcement officers, who behaved in ways similar as Peterson did with his wives. Others recommended booklets written by Diane Wetendorf that are available at her Web site which address police-related domestic violence and how officers who batter work the system that they work inside of every day.
The majority of law enforcement officers do not engage in this form of behavior but of the ones that do, it appears more that even those who don't including those assigned to investigate allegations of domestic violence, believe that it's a family issue and thus private. Once again, the blue wall of silence seems to stand in the midst shielding these officers.
In one of her books, Advocate and Officer Dialogues: Police-Perpetuated Domestic Violence Wetendorf and her co-author, Capt. Dottie L. Davis list the attributes that enable police officers who allegedly engage in domestic violence to work their own system.
(excerpt)
The testimony of a police officer at trial often bears more weight than that of an average citizen.
When the police arrive at another officer’s home on a domestic disturbance, the officer is the “model of calm”. The victim will most likely be an “emotional pendulum”.
Officers are trained to maintain control of an investigation. Even if they are the accused, the officer has the knowledge to remain calm with the responding officers.
Officers are trained to write detailed reports consisting of a chronological explanation of the events. When the officer stands accused, he has an explanation planned for every piece of broken furniture and torn clothing.
Officers also know that an appropriate response to a question is, “I don’t know,” or “I don’t recall.” They also know they don’t have to answer questions at the scene, and may refuse to provide their side of the story.
Some officers will minimize the incident in their police report to protect the accused officer’s job and reputation.
Victims may be contacted by his friends who are police officers and asked to recant their story. They may be convinced not to cooperate with the Internal Affairs Division and the prosecuting attorney.
These elements make it difficult for these cases to move forward in agencies including the 55% of them nationwide that actually have written policies addressing inhouse domestic violence.
Women inside the blue line
Her latest book, Crossing the Threshold documents the experiences of female law enforcement officers trying to integrate into male-dominated law enforcement agencies and their own experiences as victims of domestic violence. This is an area where studies haven't really been conducted but the ones that have been done show that while male officers are at a higher risk of engaging in domestic violence than the general population, female officers especially those married or in relationships with male officers may be at greater risk of being victims.
About the book, one unidentified female officer had this to say.
"I finished your book, a couple of weeks ago actually. It was great; it hit pretty much everything right on the head. Some things I hadn't managed to find words for -- like the intimidation that's managed without a word. I knew it was there but hadn't put a name to it.
I wish every law enforcement administrator and IA investigator would read this book. I also think every female officer should be made to read this! Not only did I see myself in this book but I saw other officers I know and some of the wives I know too."
Speaking of female law enforcement officers, currently the Riverside Police Department has seven attending two different police academy sessions. One of those female officers is currently ranked among the top three positions in her class of 80 trainees. Her performance should put to rest comments like ones read on this site that recruiting women is akin to forcing the police chief to kidnap women off the street, force them to become officers and put the entire agency in serious jeopardy. Silly and based on deep seated prejudice and fear, but someone of course unidentified actually wrote that during a diatribe about the police department's field training officers having changed the way they evaluate and train new officers under their charge.
In law enforcement agencies across the country, far from putting the lives of male officers in danger, female officers have been assets bring skills that would greatly benefit the operations of these agencies if so many of them weren't steeped deeply in sexism.
For one thing, according to studies, men cost more when it comes to payouts by cities and counties on law suits involving excessive force, lethal force, domestic violence and sexual assault.
(excerpt)
"The gender gap in police brutality lawsuits is striking. The City of Los Angeles paid out $63.4 million between 1990-1999 in lawsuits involving male officers for use of excessive force, sexual assault, and domestic violence. By contrast, $2.8 million was paid out on female officers for excessive force lawsuits - and not one female officer was named as a defendant in a sexual assault or domestic violence case," said Katherine Spillar, national coordinator of the Feminist Majority Foundation.
"Male officer payouts in cases of brutality and misconduct exceeded female officer payouts by a ratio of 23:1," continued Spillar. "Moreover, male officers disproportionately accounted for the lawsuit payouts involving killings and assault and battery." Male officer payouts for killings exceeded female officer payouts by a ratio of 43:1 and for assault and battery male officer payouts exceeded female officer payouts by a ratio of 32:1. Over the same period, male officers serving in a patrol capacity outnumbered women LAPD officers by a much lower ratio of 4:1.
"We know that women do the job of policing equally as well as men, responding to similar calls and encountering similar dangers," said Penny Harrington, director of the National Center for Women & Policing and former chief of police of Portland, Oregon. "But more importantly for public officials in Los Angeles - and across the country - this new study shows that increasing women on the force holds the key for substantially decreasing police violence and its cost to taxpayers," continued Harrington.
"Additionally, our research revealed other types of costly male police officer violence," said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. "Our study uncovered $10.4 million in payouts in lawsuits involving male officers for sexual assault, sexual molestation, and domestic violence," continued Smeal.
Whether the Riverside Police Department can retain the women it hires remains to be seen but it's record in that area clearly needs to improve. The unfortunate case of former Riverside Police Department officer, Kelsy Metzler comes to mind as does her termination that occurred not long after she filed a sexual harassment complaint against a male trainee in her academy class.
Did the police department check up on Metzler after she filed the complaint to make sure the officer that it had invested tens of thousands of dollars in was okay and that her interests were being protected? Did the police department check up on Metzler to warn her that it didn't appreciate her filing her complaint nor did it want "complainers" in its agency?
Because the case was shut down on a statuatory time limit before it even started and thus never had its day in front of a jury, these questions will remain where they currently are, in the air. Hopefully not to be revisited in another case down the road.
There are so many issues involving gender and policing, both in general and closer to home, involving the Riverside Police Department so look for more as the series, "Hiding in Plain Sight" continues.
As leadership batons are handed off from one person to the next across the city, across many lines, these issues once again are pivotal issues. Some wish they would go away, but the more time goes by and the more women are drawn into law enforcement even in the face of sexism and downright misogyny, the more discussions and forums will result to examine these issues.
An officer-involved shooting of a 16-year-old by the San Bernardino Police Department took place this weekend, according to the Press Enterprise.
(excerpt)
It was the department's third officer-involved shooting in a month. So far this year, 11 people have been shot by San Bernardino police officers and seven of those have died.
At 3:30 p.m. Saturday, an officer attempted to speak with the youth at a liquor store in the 800 block of North Medical Center Drive, the department said in the news release.
The boy ran and the officer followed him into a common yard area of a housing complex in the 1600 block of West Temple Street.
As the officer told the youth to surrender, the 16-year-old pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the officer, the department said.
Officers found the semi-automatic handgun at the scene.
Here’s a pretty good example of a cyber bully's post. Someone posts an agenda for the upcoming city council meeting with some commentary and an anonymous person calls them out by their full name and launches a personal attack by telling them “to go back under the rock they came from”.
Oh, if only cyber bullies and harassers would stay underneath their rocks and never come out. Yet another woman being attacked again, for being heard and not just seen, for being vertical and not horizontal and for being female, in a world where men are supposed to run the show.
What’s interesting with this particular unidentified bully is that he or she spells out one profane word using symbols and spells out the gender term that is used to demean women by comparing us to animals which of course we are the second we don’t fit into their narrow stereotypes of what women should be.
What type of cyber bully is this one?
The vengeful type.
(excerpt)
The last type of stalker is the vengeful stalker. They get angry at their victim due to some slight either real or imagined. We have all heard of disgruntled employees, these are vengeful stalkers and can be just as dangerous as the delusional. They stalk to get even and believe that "they" have been victimized. Ex-spouses can turn into this type of stalker and violence is all to common a result..
More information here and here on this issue including resources on addressing it if it happens to you.
Labels: battering while blue, officer-involved shootings, public forums in all places, sexism costs
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