Hey folks, before we get started reading all your email, we felt the following incident needed to be shared. Click both links to watch the entire video and read the comments. Twitter is at 5000+ hits and still counting…
http://www.fox5dc.com/news/local-news/191738331-story – https://twitter.com/MacAndCheeks/status/765273920266235906?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The actions of the police officer seen in the video above are a perfect example of why African American, Hispanic, and other minorities across the United States of America don’t trust the police.
Chief Lanier, is “Dangling” a new form of interview technique being taught now at the Police Academy? It wasn’t when I was on the job, and it seems as though “Community Policing” is dead in the District of Columbia.
This little lady obviously posed no threat to that officer or anyone else. But even if she was a prostitute like he thought or had committed some type of offense, when did hanging a suspect on the side of a squad car like you hang a painting on the wall become an authorized interview technique? What happened to this officer’s common decency and respect toward another human being, attributes that all police officers are supposed to exhibit? If DC police officers want respect they need to give respect regardless of a citizen’s race, creed, color or station in life, especially in these troubled times.
At the very least, this police officer abused his power of authority and exhibited behavior unbecoming in my opinion. Our staff lawyer seems to think that he may even be guilty of assault. Officers like this will only serve to place a dark cloud over the entire Metropolitan Police Department, and our city could eventually erupt in the same type of civil unrest, rioting, and violence witnessed now in other cities across the country.
Most certainly the District of Columbia will end up using our tax dollars to pay for damages awarded in any law suit that may result from this incident. This type of law suit hurts our city’s credibility, not to mention the hit taken by city residents in the form of increased taxes to pay for the senseless mistakes of city officials. The folks on Capitol Hill are probably sitting back, looking at this incident and other issues of governmental abuse and agency mismanagement across the city, laughing among themselves in private saying “so DC wants statehood, that’s a joke”.
Mayor Bowser, DC residents don’t want this type of policing to be allowed to permeate in the Nations Capital as it has in so many other cities across the country, so we urge you to send a swift and decisive message in this case by ordering the immediate termination of the officer seen in the video above. A posthaste and expeditious action on your part will serve to warn every sworn member of the Metropolitan Police Department that this type of aggressive activity will certainly Not be tolerated, and may ultimately incur prosecution under the law.
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Filed under: Public Service
most part, some of us were able to take much needed vacations with family and others, who do in fact have regular paying jobs and businesses to attend to, went about their normal daily activities.
WMATA General Manager, Paul Wiedefeld, announced in an in-house email, that the firing of 20 non-union managers Friday, in what the agency’s top executive described as a step toward “restructuring”, was effective immediately. Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said those terminated managers were among approximately 650 
Dateline: Washington, D.C. 
July 7, 2016 • 14:13 1
Seriously Chief Dean!
Commentary by: Jillian A. Cohen | ja_cohen@theconcernedcitizen.net
While contributing reporters at The Concerned Citizen rarely, if ever, comment on events that occur outside of the
District of Columbia, we must say that a decision to reassign and investigate a city firefighter, because of comments posted on his personal facebook page that may have violated department policy, is utterly ridiculous and has garnered our complete attention and concern.
Although we, as law abiding citizens, may not agree with the use of words posted in protest by firefighter Norman Brooks, following an obviously intense and emotional incident involving the shooting of a African-American man in Louisiana, we do; however, support the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, by law, supersedes any local agency’s internal social media policy and gives firefighter Brooks the right to his freedom of speech.
The First Amendment: “prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble, or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances”
Here’s a thought Chief Dean. How about investigating real issues such as; arson, mismanagement (the need to use contractors to service city residents due to a lack of manpower and medical apparatus), the inability of your department to keep up with the supplies and equipment necessary for personnel to perform their jobs efficiently, etc.
Maybe city officials need to investigate you Gregory Dean, considering that you, as Fire Chief, are ultimately responsible for the department’s fiscal inefficiency. Oh, did I mention the moral issues that have been allowed to permeate throughout the department for years. Maybe you, Chief, should investigate your management team to discover why the department has been managed so poorly over the years. In other words Chief Dean, citizens of the District think have a few more pressing issues that need to be addressed.
Furthermore, myself (recent law school graduate) and others at The Concerned Citizen believe that DC residents should not have to sit back and watch their hard earned tax dollars go to lawyers who are trying to defend the Fire Department against another law suit that is simply impossible for them to win.
Chief, firefighter Brooks did not commit a crime or break any laws that would warrant any criminal prosecution by the US Attorney’s office or punitive action by your department. Surely you don’t think that internal department policies can override rights guaranteed to every American by the constitution of the United States, do you? If so, let me tell you, that battle has already been fought and won in the highest court of the land. So let’s not infringe upon or deny fighter Brooks or any US citizen his or her constitutional rights, even though we may not agree with what is being said.
America is great, let’s keep it that way.
Filed under: Commentary