A comment I just posted to the NY Times' article on James Comey's speech on law enforcement

[markpkessinger]

The article is titled, "Surprising Speech by F.B.I. Chief Focuses on Police and Race." Comey said some good things in his speech, but I found myself more troubled by what he didn't say than what he did. Here was the comment I posted:

Mark Kessinger

It is worth noting that Mr. Comey heads an agency that found its agents 100% faultless and totally justified in 150 out of 150 shootings of suspects -- 70 of them fatally -- from 1993 to 2011. Likewise, under Mr. Comey, the FBI exonerated itself for the highly questionable killing of Ibragim Todashev --a friend and associate of the Tsarnaev brothers -- during questioning by FBI agents after the Boston Marathon bombings. Simply based on the law of averages, a finding that shootings were justified 100% of the time is highly suspect. Thus, while I respect the eloquence and erudition of Mr. Comey's speaking and writing, I remain very skeptical that he is in any position to present the "hard truths" he purports to present in an objective way.

Nowhere in Mr. Comey's speech -- and yes, I read the full text -- did he address himself to the problems in American police culture. The old "blue wall of silence" seems to have changed little since the days Frank Serpico walked a beat. Sure, there are many cops who do not themselves engage in wrongful conduct. But officers good and bad are nearly universal in honoring that code of silence with respect to the wrongdoing of their colleagues (the occasional Frank Serpico or Adrian Schoolcraft notwithstanding). This turning of a blind eye towards wrongdoing within their ranks stands in direct conflict with Comey's assertion that police officers are "overwhelmingly doing the right thing for the right reasons."

Below is a video clip of the speech, and here is a link to the full text of it.

[markpkessinger]

1. Here's a link to the published comment

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/us/politics/fbi-director-comey-speaks-frankly-about-police-view-of-blacks.html#permid=14123195

[Scuba]

2. Kick.

[markpkessinger]

3. And here is a second, follow-up comment I posted to the same article . . .

Last edited Fri Feb 13, 2015, 05:27 PM - Edit history (1)

Mark Kessinger

Some more "hard truths" for Mr. Comey to consider::

• one of the biggest contributors to the absence of role models for young men in poor minority neighborhoods is our decades-long, failed war on drugs;
  
  
• the black teen walking down the street of Bed-Stuy has a huge chance of being stopped and frisked, and having police find that partial bag of weed in his jacket that he forgot about; whereas the white, well-dressed kid from Dalton Prep, who is just as likely to be carrying something similar, faces almost zero chance of being stopped by police (and his investment analyst father enjoys the convenience of having his coke and weed delivered to his doorman building on the Upper West Side);
  
  
• in the unlikely event the Dalton Prep kid is caught, he will be provided with the best legal defense money can buy; the kid from Bed-Stuy will have to take his chances with an overworked, underfunded public defender (and he will languish in Rikers while he awaits trial);
  
  
• Comey mention the dangers faced by police on a typical night shift, yet he fails to mention that both Brown and Garner were killed in broad daylight;
  
  
• any position that invests in its holder an unusual level of authority over others will attract more than its share of those who enjoy wielding that authority; if the danger is recognized, procedures can be put in place to try to weed these folks out; if it is denied, the danger will be realized, and it will metastasize..

Ill say this much for Comey though: he does earnest really well.