Entries Tagged 'Copwatch in the News' ↓

From Time Magazine:

“Another factor (in the law numbers of immigrant detentions in Arpaio’s recent sweep) may well have been Lydia Guzman, a prominent Hispanic activist, who, along with a group called CopWatch, designed a detailed messaging system to warn the Phoenix Valley of immigration sweeps. Guzman sent an initial text blast to 100 rapid response teams of business owners, Spanish radio stations, pastors and teachers, each of whom messaged their respective networks. At the same time, Guzman contacted lawyers, social workers and elected officials to be at the ready to help. “It spiderwebs out,” she says. “Before you know it my text tree spreads out to thousands of people.
…..
In addition to Guzman’s tweets, CopWatch visibly tails police operations. On Thursday, in one small West Phoenix mobile command center, members of CopWatch monitored police communications. “They just said ‘294 King’ — that means immigration. Let’s go,” cried one member listening to the police scanners. And with that CopWatch activists grabbed cameras, lawyer contacts and car keys to follow Arpaio’s sweep.”
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An awesome heroic effort on the part of CWers in Arizona!

From Alternet:

“A California Public Records Act Request uncovered a previously withheld list of 27 Fresno police officers involved in repeat shootings of civilians from 2002 through 2009, 25 of whom, according to an official with the Fresno Police Department, are still on active duty today. Of these 27 officers, four were involved in at least three separate shooting incidents over the same period. One officer, Michael Palomino, was involved in four shooting incidents. In the context of a statewide investigation focusing in on four major police departments, the Fresno Police Department stands out in scale. During the same period, the similarly sized Oakland Police Department had only five officers involved in repeat shootings, although Fresno enjoys a much lower crime rate.

Dep. Chief Robert Nevarez, head of the Fresno Police Department’s Professional Standards Division, which oversees the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau, said he had been unaware of the number of officers involved in repeat shootings. However, Nevarez stood by the quality of the department’s Internal Affairs investigations and stressed the need to review each shooting individually: “It’s very important for us to review them [shootings by officers] on their own merits,” Nevarez said. “We’re policing a very dangerous population.””
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Yes, Chief Nevarez you are policing a very “dangerous” population indeed. We’ll call them “citizens” for short and say that what makes them so dangerous is their overriding interest in destroying you and people like you – i.e., to borrow a watchword of the Bush-regime, “enemies of freedom.” It’s an unfortunate thing you refuse to police that other “very dangerous” population which consists primarily of people in uniform with guns who feel somehow entitled to murder and terrorize at their whim. Again, however, well said! Damn “citizens” had it coming anyway — and a trial is just a slow, costly, and ineffective means of achieving your personal sadistic ends. Down with Justice! Up with Lynchings!

From the Daily Texan:

“Copwatch is a group of community residents that works toward increasing public participation in police accountability and oversight. Members of Copwatch walk the streets observing and recording police activity in an effort to deter police misconduct and ensure officer accountability.”

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A local NBC affiliate has done a human interest story on the Salinas branch of CW.  You can find the story here.

Copwatch’s own Andrea Pritchett was interviewd recently on KPFA.  Listen to the interview here.