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US Police Weigh Officer Discipline After Rally, Capitol Riot
Claims Journal ^ | January 25, 2021 | Martha Bellisle and Jake Bleiberg

Posted on 01/25/2021 4:35:34 PM PST by absalom01

For two Virginia police officers who posed for a photo during the deadly U.S. Capitol insurrection, the reckoning has been swift and public: They were identified, charged with crimes and arrested.

But for five Seattle officers the outcome is less clear. Their identities still secret, two are on leave and three continue to work while a police watchdog investigates whether their actions in the nation’s capital on Jan. 6 crossed the line from protected political speech to lawbreaking.

...

They come from some of the country’s largest cities — three Los Angeles officers and a sheriff’s deputy, for instance — as well as state agencies and a Pennsylvania police department with nine officers. Among them are an Oklahoma sheriff and New Hampshire police chief who have acknowledged being at the rally, but denied entering the Capitol or breaking the law.

“If they were off-duty, it’s totally free speech,” said Will Aitchison, a lawyer in Portland, Oregon

...

But Ayesha Bell Hardaway, a professor at Case Western Reserve University law school, said an officer’s presence at the rally creates a credibility issue as law enforcement agencies work to repair community trust, especially after last summer’s protests against police brutality sparked by the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

Communities will question the integrity of officers who attended the rally along with “individuals who proudly profess racist and divisive viewpoints,” she said. “It calls into question whether those officers are interested in engaging in policing in a way that builds trust and legitimacy in all communities, including communities of color.”

(Excerpt) Read more at claimsjournal.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
I found this to be chilling on several levels. First, this is presented as a straight news piece, yet it reads like one of the more hyperventilated opinion pieces in the Nation of old. Second, it documents an all-out assault on the first-amendment rights of all Americans, equating attending a Trump rally as equivalent of endorsing Nazism. I realize that this isn't exactly a new phenomenon, but the blatant attempt to bully mainstream conservative thought out of the public square does not bode well for the coming months and years.
1 posted on 01/25/2021 4:35:34 PM PST by absalom01
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To: absalom01

Ok so what kind of discipline will the person who shot and killed Ashli get?


2 posted on 01/25/2021 4:37:57 PM PST by White Lives Matter
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To: absalom01
Communities will question the integrity of officers who attended the rally along with “individuals who proudly profess racist and divisive viewpoints,” she said.

You mean like Burn, Loot, Murder?

3 posted on 01/25/2021 4:38:22 PM PST by rockrr ( Everything is different now...)
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To: White Lives Matter

Paid vacation?


4 posted on 01/25/2021 4:40:12 PM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.....)
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To: absalom01

Right - but Police that knealt with BLM and, in some cases, looked the other way while the looting and burning took place were never investigated or penalized.

This is outright political persecution.


5 posted on 01/25/2021 4:40:25 PM PST by Skywise
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To: absalom01
profess.....divisive viewpoints....

Now a "divisive" viewpoint, if expressed or "professed" by the right, is somehow a crime?

6 posted on 01/25/2021 4:42:31 PM PST by jimtorr
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To: absalom01

But for five Seattle officers the outcome is less clear. Their identities still secret, two are on leave and three continue to work while a police watchdog investigates whether their actions in the nation’s capital on Jan. 6 crossed the line from protected political speech to lawbreaking.

So the attempt is now to smear hundreds of thousands of Trump supporters for merely attending the rally as if they all broke into the Capital.


7 posted on 01/25/2021 4:42:38 PM PST by Flick Lives (“ Today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives.”)
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To: White Lives Matter

America is being kept in the dark over the murder of Ashli for obvious reasons. The blood is all over the hands of those who are set to get away with murder and to keep the coup going.


8 posted on 01/25/2021 4:43:03 PM PST by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: White Lives Matter

>>Ok so what kind of discipline will the person who shot and killed Ashli get?<<

If nothing else the other officers should be pissed at that guy for firing that shot. Could have easily missed her and hit one of them standing behind her. She was unarmed and posed no immediate threat. No reason for the shot to be fired in the first place and it endangered other officers to boot.


9 posted on 01/25/2021 4:46:10 PM PST by Tejas Rob
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To: White Lives Matter

You mean the Brazilian who is all about BLM?


10 posted on 01/25/2021 4:47:13 PM PST by qaz123
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To: absalom01
Who shot Ashli Babbitt? Say her name.

She was killed by a by an unidentified black man in the US Capitol building on January 6th.

11 posted on 01/25/2021 4:47:59 PM PST by Governor Dinwiddie (Guide me, O my great Redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land.)
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To: jimtorr

Funny, diversity and divisive are from the same root word.

Do these people not understand the fundamentals of word origins and meanings?


12 posted on 01/25/2021 5:12:41 PM PST by Don W (When blacks riot, neighbourhoods and cities burn. When whites riot, nations and continents burn.)
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To: absalom01

Were they in uniform? No.

Then shutup. They were private citizens.


13 posted on 01/25/2021 5:18:12 PM PST by cyclotic (The most dangerous people are the ones that feel the most helpless)
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To: White Lives Matter

I always want to wait for all of the evidence before rushing to judgement, but having watched both videos, it is beyond me how deadly force could have been justified.

Looks like a straight up political execution at this point.


14 posted on 01/25/2021 5:21:40 PM PST by absalom01 (You should do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, and you should never wish to do less.)
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To: jimtorr

That is exactly where they are going with this.


15 posted on 01/25/2021 5:22:15 PM PST by absalom01 (You should do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, and you should never wish to do less.)
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To: cyclotic

The effort here is to strip first amendment protections not just from police officers , who, as you point out have the same rights of political self-expression as everyone else. No, not just cops or public employees...the left wants to make simply donating to, or working or voting for anyone other than a hard leftist “insurrection”.

They aren’t looking for “healing”, they want total victory, and will use the full power of the state to push their advantage.


16 posted on 01/25/2021 5:24:54 PM PST by absalom01 (You should do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, and you should never wish to do less.)
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To: absalom01
01/25/2021

Among the January 6, 2021 protestors at the Capitol rally

EXCERPTS:

[T]wo Virginia police officers who posed for a photo during the deadly U.S. Capitol insurrection, the reckoning has been swift and public: They were identified, charged with crimes and arrested.

five Seattle officers - [their] outcome is less clear

three Los Angeles officers and a sheriff’s deputy

Pennsylvania police department with nine officers

Oklahoma sheriff - denied entering the Capitol or breaking the law

New Hampshire police chief - denied entering the Capitol or breaking the law


17 posted on 07/19/2023 10:30:07 PM PDT by linMcHlp
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