{"id":2293,"date":"2006-04-27T11:35:14","date_gmt":"2006-04-27T18:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2006\/04\/27\/nothing-has-changed-since-the-rodney-king-verdict\/"},"modified":"2006-04-27T11:35:14","modified_gmt":"2006-04-27T18:35:14","slug":"nothing-has-changed-since-the-rodney-king-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=2293","title":{"rendered":"Nothing Has Changed Since The Rodney King Verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m late with this, but the three Wisconsin police officers accused of attacking Frank Jude Jr. and Lovell Harris were found not guilty<\/a> on April 14. The three were accused of being among a dozen off-duty cops, all white, who dragged Jude (who is biracial) and Harris out of a truck. Harris successfully fled after being cut with a knife, but Jude was pulled to the ground and beaten to a pulp.<\/p>\n

I’ve never heard of the Jude case before today. Am I ridiculously out of it, or has the media severely underreported this story?<\/p>\n

\"Frank<\/p>\n

Here are some details. For a much fuller account, read the newspaper story reprinted at Thefreeslave<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jude, a part-time stripper, attended the party at the invitation of two women who saw him perform at a different party earlier that night. The women testified that Jude was dragged out of the truck and beaten. But other off-duty cops at the party claimed that Jude began the fight after being accused of stealing a badge, and that the force used against him were reasonable.<\/p>\n

The police report indicates that Jude fought the off-duty officers and later the uniformed officers, refusing to put his hands behind his back. Antonissen and Brown said that’s not true.<\/p>\n

“They had his arms behind his back the whole time,” Brown said. “There was nothing he could do.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

None of the cops defending themselves against Jude were injured at all. Jude, however, “suffered a concussion, a broken nose and fractured sinus cavity, cuts in both ears, cuts and swelling to his left eye, neck, head, face, legs and back, and a severely sprained left hand, his attorney said. His left eye was swollen shut and continued to bleed for 10 days… Jude said he will need surgery to breathe through his nose again, may have permanent disability in one hand and suffers diminished vision.” Also, Jude was left naked from the waist down by the cops.<\/p>\n

From the transcript of the 911 call:<\/p>\n

At one point on the tape of the 911 call, Antonissen tells the operator one of the officers is trying to get her off the phone.<\/p>\n

“He’s stealing the phone from me,” Antonissen says. “They’re twisting my arm.”<\/p>\n

A man says, “Hang up the phone.”<\/p>\n

“Hello?” the operator says.<\/p>\n

Then the line goes dead.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/p>\n

So how did they get a jury to let them off?<\/p>\n

Well, it sure as hell helped that they were white, and cops, and that their victim was neither. And the defense lawyers managed to purge the jury pool of all black members (the last two taken off were accused of not being attentive enough).<\/p>\n

It also helped that most white cops, when it comes to racist criminals in their won ranks, are happy to cover up crime. From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[Prosecutor] McCann hammered on a “police code of silence” during the 13-day trial, noting that a half-dozen non-police witnesses saw kicking and beating, while none of the eight police witnesses for the defense said they saw that.<\/p>\n

On the state’s side was the graphic post-beating photo of Jude blown up to poster size, and two key witnesses: the first on-duty officers on the scene. Those officers identified the three defendants. They also told of retaliation because of their cooperation in the case. One has taken a stress-related retirement.<\/p>\n

The defense railed against those officers and accused one of them, Joseph Schabel, of being the one who kicked Jude, an accusation that didn’t surface until the trial. They pointed to a 911 tape in which a witness said on-duty officers were kicking Jude, too.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interestingly, the three defendants had three different lawyers who chose to tell three different stories.<\/p>\n

Each defense attorney argued a different case: Bartlett was trying to make a legal arrest and Jude was fighting; Spengler restrained Jude but was blamed for beating him because it was his party; and Masarik was inside the house looking for his police logbook when the beating occurred and was confused with someone else.<\/p>\n

The three defendants were charged in each count as being “a party to the crime,” an important distinction. It doesn’t require proof that the person committed the crime. The person also can be convicted if he or she is “aiding and abetting” the person who did it or was a member of a conspiracy to commit the crime.<\/p>\n

Under that definition, even if it was proven that a defendant stood around Jude and was “ready and willing to assist,” but didn’t do anything, he could be convicted, according to the jury instruction.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of the three defenses, only one of them – the cop who claimed that he wasn’t in the area and didn’t know the beating was going on – strikes me as even marginally plausible. The other two officers essentially claimed that nothing untoward happened and that reasonable force was used. Given the huge extent of injuries suffered by Frank Jude, the eyewitness reports, and the 911 call, the idea that the cops did nothing wrong here isn’t credible.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve seen a couple of<\/a> right-wingers<\/a> point out that Jude himself is apparently a woman-beating asshole<\/a>. But that in no way excuses this verdict, nor does it mitigate the obvious racism and brutality of the cops who beat Jude.<\/p>\n

There’s a lot in common between what happened to Jude and when the Klan burns a cross on a black family’s lawn. This is a horrible crime against individuals, but it’s also a hate crime against the entire black community. The effect of a crime like this – and the subsequent not guilty verdict – is to remind all blacks that a substantial number of whites consider blacks to be a good deal less than human.<\/p>\n

Frank Jude said: “If I committed this crime, I would be in jail. They should not be on the street. I am scared. I don’t need that, and my kids don’t need that.”<\/p>\n

How big is the white privilege that comes with not <\/em>having to fear that cops will beat me within an inch of my life for no reason? How big is the white privilege of never having the cops send my community a message of hate like that? Frankly, I don’t have a measuring stick big enough.<\/p>\n

(Cross-posted at Creative Destruction<\/a>. If you’re a right-winger who is having trouble getting your comment through here, you might try posting it over there.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m late with this, but the three Wisconsin police officers accused of attacking Frank Jude Jr. and Lovell Harris were found not guilty on April 14. The three were accused of being among a dozen off-duty cops, all white, who … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-race-racism-and-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}