May Day Melee: No Charges?
There will be no criminal charges against the police who waded into a crowd of mostly innocent demonstrators, reporters and news crews. We the People, however, have been charged $13 million. Egged on by some cowardly troublemakers who threw bottles, the police advanced with abandon, swinging clubs and shooting off rubber bullets. It was a classic police riot.
Between their lack of discipline and the absence of a plan that distinguished between peaceful marchers and bad actors, the adrenalin took over, and it was brutal. Police leadership was at fault for lack of a tactical plan. On site leadership was at fault for lack of supervision and individual police officers were at fault for losing their poise, control and judgment. And yes, of course, the bottle throwers were the ones mostly at fault, but they should not have been the cause of such collective punishment of civilians.
How do I know that the police were at fault? I mean is this just some unsubstantiated opinion from an offended member of the media? No. The proof is this: We, the good citizens and taxpayers of Los Angeles, paid out some $13 million in damages to people whom our political leaders must have concluded were victims of inappropriate police activity. If the police did right, then our politicians are spendthrift cowards for paying out our funds.
So, our District Attorney, Steve Cooley, apparently believes that he can't prove any criminal activity on the part of individual officers. Interesting. Given all the pictures and tapes of the event, this does not seem credible. I'd like to think that if the situation had been reversed and in fact there was a riot of civilians charging the police, firing rubber bullets and swinging truncheons, the District Attorney would carefully go over the tapes, identify, have arrested and charge the rioters.
I find it very difficult to believe that the police created $13 million dollars worth of injury to civilians without breaking any laws.
©2009 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.com
It is against my will to see innocent demonstrators, reporters and news crews, who are stuck with this police riot. Yet, In order to combat any predatory lending to military personnel, Congress passed a law in 2007 which caps interest on any and all military loans made to personnel for any reason to 36%. While this restriction certainly has the noble aim of making sure no one takes advantage of or preys upon the people who do the hardest job in the world. Of course, any restrictions on lending can restrict credit access potentially, but then again – let's think about this. Doesn't seem unfair that the people in the services or their families should have to worry about military loans or payday loans at all, considering what they do for a living?