Reform Expert Approved For Police Commission

This will be the best appointment in the history of the NHPD. Professor Meares has a lived experience, a phenomenal family background, and a suitcase full of personal virtues to take with her to this position. It will give her the opportunity to sharpen her clinical chops and give the NHPD the chance to benefit from the wisdom of our modern day Constance Baker Motley. If we can train our officers to implement her procedural justice research, the world will beat a path to our door and our community will be better for it. We need more people like her on boards and commissions.

I hope that Professor Meares is able to have a positive impact. I also hope she will talk to street officers and learn their challenges on the street level and not listen too much to administrators who will say anything to curry favor. Every police department has people like this.

I also wonder how she will feel if ever on the street in front of hostile crowds when they are verbally berating officers, calling some racist, others Judas and Uncle Tom as those officers eat the bs without reacting.

Recently and documented in this publication are many examples of bad behavior directed toward public figures, government officials, police and others. That is disgraceful.

Criminals and loudmouths see police restraint as weakness and get emboldened to continue that behavior until they cross that line that no police officer will tolerate. They they cry and complain when police do what they should have done several incidents before. Maybe the Professor can have an answer for that.

Black and Latino people of the Hoods and EL BARRIOS Have again been sold out by Black and Latino Judas Goats on the BOA.My good Friend the late Bruce Dixon Wrote about her and others .
She was on Barack Obama's Task Force for 21st Century Policing

Obama's Ferguson Commission a Joke: Why Liberal Proposals and "Solutions" Don't Cut It
Bruce A. Dixon, BAR managing editor
05 Mar 2015

The Interim Report of the Task Force for 21st Century Policing is the crunchy, fluffy wish list of big city cops and consultants who helped bring us the current police and prison state, assembled by the corporate-funded nonprofit sector which launched President Obama's career. With only 600 -odd days left in this administration it's a gesture of contempt toward the communities most affected by the machinery of our police and prison state.The report from Barack Obama's "Task Force for 21st Century Policing " the official White House response to widespread public disgust at the unpunished police murder of Michael Brown is out. And it contains --- wait for it – a lot less than meets the eye. The task force is composed of 3 police chiefs, 2 African Americans and a Latino, a head of one of the 50 state agencies responsible for training and certifying cops and their shops, four of corporate America's and the administration's favorite nonprofit organizations, and a couple academics, one a former Clinton and Obama Assistant Attorney General and the other a Yale Law School "social psychologist."The gist of it is that everything will be OK if we can just "build trust" between cops and communities by adopting better rules of police conduct, hiring more black and brown cops, making them parts of the communities through "nonenforcement strategies" like coaching basketball leagues, moving slowly toward "independent investigations" of excessive force complaints, and encouraging police to act a bit less like occupying armies. Tracey Meares, the task force's social psychologist

Part One.

Part Two

calls this approach "proceduralism ." It's been the credo of the liberal wing of America's police establishment for some time.Proceduralism assumes the problem is a relatively few bad corrupt, brutal and/or racist apples among cops, who are inadequately trained, ineptly supervised, and somehow led to act like occupying armies by the absence of proper guidelines and leadership.The truth however, is that we live in a class society, where a tiny fraction controls all the wealth, and through private media monopolies, literally owns and controls the public conversation. Bipartisan policies embraced by liberals and conservatives alike are lowering wages, shrinking or eliminating the pubic sector and the commons, expanding poverty, making millions to drop out of the workforce.

Feel Free to read the rest.And then start weeping.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/obamas-ferguson-commission-a-big-joke

Many in New Haven specifically, and New Haven County generally, along with local & state police, would be wise to "...shift from a "warrior" mentality to a "guardian" mentality..." when interacting with others in he community.

The events of 2020 have already had a negative effect on all of us. The election 2020 silly season, and the prospect of a rebirth of actual legislation in CT, will add to our mental burden of returning to pre-WuhanFlu status quo: returning to work, returning to school, navigating periodic surges in COVID-SARS-2 cases/deaths, etc.

Dedication toward the goal of greater respect for others, in all our personal interactions, even at six feet, will likely make our individual lives less stressful.

To our chagrin, respect for others has been woefully lacking during the recent demonstrations and vandalism of property, and especially so over the recent holiday with multiple shootings and deaths from same.

We wish Ms Meares success in this new endeavor, but do not see any real change on the horizon until really deep cultural change takes hold in urban environments.

So 3/5's--- if a panel of any kind is not "diverse"; that's racism. If it is diverse; they are Judas Goats.

Sounds like America can't win for trying here.

What do you propose since I don't see any other choice than not to waste the money on a commissioner in the first place.

posted by: CityYankee on July 7, 2020 5:50pm

So 3/5's—- if a panel of any kind is not "diverse"; that's racism. If it is diverse; they are Judas Goats.

You need to read what I wrote which was Black and Latino people of the Hoods and EL BARRIOS Have again been sold out by Black and Latino Judas Goats on the BOA. Notice the word BOA.So what are you talking about.

Sounds like America can't win for trying here.

Did you read what Bruce Dixon wrote.Read it.And we have boards and been trying this for years.Nothing has happen.


What do you propose since I don't see any other choice than not to waste the money on a commissioner in the first place.

Get rid of the Political Hacks on these Boards and get Community Members who are not Political Hacks on these Boards.Terminate all officers who have committed acts of police brutality that resulted in the city paying settlements to plaintiffs.And if they retire with a pension take a percentage of that pension to help pay for the settlements to plaintiffs.

Not taking anything away from Professor Meares, but she is not a "police reform expert" in the slightest. She is a trial attorney turned academic with some very promising ideas on improving policing. If she has reformed policing somewhere that I don't know about, then I'd like the NHI to point that out. If not, drop the rhetoric because the communities that are suffering due to shitty policing don't need another "hero" that is touted to change the world and be their savior. They need help; real help. Not publicity stunts with a high powered university name attached to questionable experts. The reformations necessary to change policing need to come from within the policing community itself. Professor Meares can certainly do well in the position of Police Commissioner dealing with policy and protocol, but she will never have the credibility with the rank and file officers to influence or change their behavior and opinions. And good luck dealing with the police union Professor, I'm sure their willing to acquiesce to your every idea (you know those ideas right? The ones that cost money to implement that you won't be getting because the PD budget just got decimated). It's always easier reading about what should happen in a book, because after all books are merely stories. Good luck!!

Dear 3/5's, I was hoping you could provide something new to consider. I have volunteered for years and am never called, though seats remain unfilled on the various boards. They don't want anyone that might rock the boat. This is all we've got. When I was a younger pup, I believed that when there was more diverse representation, lots of injustices would stop. I foolishly thought that a black or brown or yellow or female police chief or mayor would mean more fairness. I was wrong. They did not want to right wrongs-- they want to get into the power class. Once entrenched; they do the same things and maybe even worse. What a shock that was to me. But I guess I never should have thought that any type of person was more noble. We are all the same. How's that for equality!!??

I've said it before and once again for the cheap seats, police will never drop the warrior mentality because they need to have that mindset especially if they are involved in a life or death incident, that drive it was they might need to survive, at the same time they are also guardians by nature of their job, so yes they can be both. That statement alone shows how inexperienced the professor truly is.

You can read all the books and wax poetic with all the fancy catch phrases but you have no hands on experience and therefore the rank and file, not the brass, will never take anything you say or your for that matter seriously. The professor will be like a annoying child at the big kids table. Like Valleca said good luck with the Union because they will fight her every step of the way, trust me.

Is there anyone who has any actual police experience on the BOPC??

Another pencil pusher who doesnt have practical law enforcement experience is a huge mistake. She wants to collect more data on officers' day to day behavior and encourage cops to slow down. Unfortunately , cops on the street don't have the luxury of slowing down when the crap hits the fan. Criminals are loving this appointment I bet. Make cops' job harder and criminals' job easier. This country is a joke. People with fancy degrees making decisions but have never actually done the job of a cop.

John, I respect you, but she IS an expert. She is an accomplished lawyer with a deep understanding of the history and impact of policing in America. She knows virtually all the case law to date regarding policing.

So, she is an expert in understanding and developing policy to set parameters for and even protect the activities of law-abiding police officers. She is NOT an expert in the specific skills that police officers need to be effective. She IS an expert in working top-down and bottom-up to create the best policy support for policing. You might want to read more about her life and work before rushing to judgment. By the way, can you name a past or current commissioner who meets your expert standard?

Dear Conscience, I am interested to know who Mr. Velleca thinks a good commission rep would be. I find that they are mostly honorary appointments; given to good boys and girls who play ball and do as they are told and don't make waves or changes. This is nothing new but it explains why all the "studies" and committees and commissions do little to nothing to make anything better. Can't wait for the Civilian Review Board--- every BOZO who ever g t a parking ticket or a moving violation or married into a prominent NH family will be there to arrange pay back.

@Conscience

@JV

Well said.....