From Senait Gebregiorgis on Twitter: LMPD is planning to fire Det. Joshua Jaynes – the officer who obtained the search warrant for Breonna Taylor’s home.
From Senait Gebregiorgis:
BREAKING NOW: LMPD is planning to fire Det. Joshua Jaynes – the officer who obtained the search warrant for #BreonnaTaylor‘s home. His lawyer confirmed to @WHAS11 a pre-termination notice. pic.twitter.com/yWCFGaoJF5
— Senait Gebregiorgis (@SenaitTV) December 29, 2020
Here are copies of the termination letter. #BreonnaTaylor @WHAS11 pic.twitter.com/ZPufQnfH4K
— Senait Gebregiorgis (@SenaitTV) December 29, 2020
(Featured image is “Moving Truck” by phil_g is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)
One of the other officers involved is getting fired as well.
I’d still prefer that they lose their badges permanently as well, but being fired is a start.Report
I really like the letter. It called out making stuff up for the warrant.
Even if Jaynes gets re-hired down the next county over, that letter might just have ripples of its own.Report
It should get him put on a Brady ListReport
How much you wanna bet it goes to some kind of mediation and he gets his job back in a year, with backpay?Report
Yeah, the letter gets into how he’s entitled to a lawyer/union rep at his meeting and I’ve no doubt that one (or both) will be there.
But I think that they’ll come to a quiet agreement that the best way forward is for him to move a couple of counties over (freeing up a slot for one of the guys two counties away who is quietly getting reshuffled himself). It’s kinda elegant, actually.Report
I hope he still gets put on a Brady ListReport
Okay, I looked it up.
Holy cow. Me too.Report
Yep, it’s basically a list of cops who’ve been caught lying under oath. AFAICT, lying on a warrant application should prevent the cop from ever being trusted again.Report
So should shooting blindly into an apartment, but clearly we are wrong about that one.Report
That’s not lying, just horrible shooting discipline. The punishment for that should be permanent loss of sidearm.Report
Even if he doesn’t, his name is mud. What halfway decent defense atty. isn’t going to Google his name and try to impeach whatever testimony he might offer?Report
The struggle to control the carceral state continues:
Union representing deputy district attorneys sues Gascón over enhancements policy
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-12-30/union-deputy-district-attorneys-sues-gascon-enhancements-policy
Tl;Dr
The newly elected reformist district attorney George Gascon ordered his deputies to avoid sentencing “enhancements”, which add years to the sentences for even minor crimes. The deputies objected and through their union are filing lawsuits to block him.
The connection to Breonna Taylor here is that the uncontrolled, militarized model of policing that led to her death is part of a very large and deeply embedded culture.
The same ecosphere of lawlessness and contempt for civilians that allows them to lie with impunity has its roots in the district attorney’s office, the police department, the judicial system and private sector contractors that parasitically feed off the entire bloated organism.
Even electing a reform minded official is only part of the solution; This is going to be a very long struggle and will need a complete change of our culture and how we think about criminality.Report
Headline reads: “Union representing deputy district attorneys sues Gascón over enhancements policy”
how we think about criminality.
Can we instead change how we think about law enforcement unions?Report
We ain’t gonna get rid of them, but they should not be allowed to get directly involved in policy decisions.Report
“Union representing deputy district attorneys”
You’re fixated on the “union”, but I’m more interested in the “representing”.
That is, the union is the vehicle by which the attorneys exert their policy preferences, which is to act as an arm of the carceral body.
If you want to strip the deputies of an organized union as a “necessary but insufficient” remedy, fine but lets agree that they will seek out some other vehicle to exert power.
Their power behind the vehicle comes from the citizens who eagerly vote for “tough on crime” candidates.
So the vehicle of the deputies might be a recall effort to get rid of Gascon, or a lobbying effort to have the City Council override him, or a ballot initiative.Report
If we want to focus on “rethinking criminality”, we can do stuff like “get rid of the War on Drugs”.
I’m pretty sure that you’re on board with throwing car thieves, murderers, and guys like Brock Turner into the clink. You want to take away power from deputy district attorneys while treating their union like an afterthought?
Get rid of the War on Drugs. (Hell, just reschedule weed. That alone would act as a huge pressure release valve on the ability of cops and the legal system itself to abuse people.)
There. Criminality rethought.
And you can continue to be tough on car thieves, murderers, and guys like Brock Turner.Report
You seem to think I’m disagreeing with you. I’m not.
The war on drugs is another vehicle.
But the reason I focus on culture is that anything can become a vehicle for the expression of injustice.
Notice how many videos there are of police brutalizing nonwhite and poor people for trivial infractions- traffic stops, jaywalking, shoplifting or even just the catchall “disorderly conduct”.
Affluent people commit drug crimes, traffic crimes, jaywalking and petty theft crimes with just as much regularity as poor and nonwhite people, but the carceral state ignores them.
Tobacco is a legal product, but that didn’t prevent Eric Garner from being murdered. And tax regulations weren’t the cause of his death either, since millions of businesses flout them with impunity.
The driving variable behind the deaths of Garner, Taylor and Floyd is a culture that views them as lesser being, unworthy of respect or equal treatment.Report
Yes, we have to change the culture.
Part of that is getting rid of the institutions that do stuff like “sue the elected official who is trying to change the culture”.Report