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WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM. Winner of the prestigious Cushing Left Anterior Descending Artery Award.

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

ATLANTA OFFICER CHARGED WITH MURDER

Update: Thursday: the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision ruled that the Trump administration cannot end the DACA act without more than just telling the lower courts "MAGA". Justice Thomas  (Just making sure you're paying attention) Roberts joined the liberal wing of the court. Justice Gorsuch dissented, writing "I'm really really really sorry about that whole gay rights decision thing. I've learned my lesson."

We are going to leave the antics of Ms. Aponte, the self-described "colored candidate" for circuit court judge, and deal with some issues emerging Wednesday evening. 

Garrett Rolfe, the former Atlanta Officer has been charged with eleven charges including first degree murder, aggravated assault. What we have learned has contributed to our changing opinion on this matter. First: The Taser had previously been discharged twice, and therefore could not be fired again when Rolfe was chasing Rayshard Brooks. This was something Rolfe knew at the time he shot Brooks twice. Second, the video which appears to show Brooks discharging the taser does not in fact show the taser being discharged. Third, Rolfe said "I got him" after shooting Brooks, and then kicked him, and did not render medical assistance. What initially appeared to be a justified shooting is rapidly turning into a first degree murder case. 

Corporate America is responding to the social upheaval. 
Quaker Oats is retiring the Aunt Jemina brand
Mars Candy is retiring the brand Uncle Bens rice. 
ConAgra Foods is retiring the brand Mrs. Butterworth's syrup. 

It is tempting to crack some Rumpolian quip and make fun of the names and what is happening. But along the way to making a humorous remark we began reflecting on the fact that in America in 2020 corporations were selling brands marketed with blatantly racist stereotypes.  In other words, it took this last month to get these corporations to listen. How tone deaf they have been to racism. And that leads us to thinking about how tone deaf much of corporate America has been to racism. Does anyone doubt that there is a racial disparity in hiring and pay in corporate America? How many CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies are Black?  (Four). 

How tone deaf have we been to racism? 
Well, we never thought much about Aunt Jemina until now. It didn't matter to us-Vermont Grad B syrup being our preferred topping for Sunday Waffles. What would have caught our eye? A "Drunk Irish Mick's" Oatmeal ? A "schmoolie the rich Jew" seeded rye bread? 
At some point, some racial stereotype would have outraged us. But Aunt Jemina didn't. Neither did Uncle Bens or Mrs. Butterworths syrup. 

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away there were Sambos Restaurants in Miami Beach with racists pictures of young black children and tigers. These restaurants were open in the 1970s! In 2020 we still had a female black servant pitching syrup. 
We have been just as tone deaf as anyone. Shame on us. 



29 comments:

Rosy 4 U said...

As a colored woman of ummm color. and indian too btw, lol, I am just shocked by this officer and I fully support his prosecution and if elected to be a judge I would ask for the case and promise to impose the maximum sentence. I also promise as a colored woman to never use any products that display colored men and colored women and all coloreds as demeaning. We coloreds like me and Megan Markle have to stick together and stop this ummm racism and maybe ummm use an ankle monitor that goes off when someone says a racism ist term and maybe also alll police officers should wear like um these ankle like monitors that umm like stops them when they try and shoot any colored guys and then um the ankle monitor could like call the other police and drones and stuff to come and investigate.

If you like my campaign then donate as much wampum as you want up to 1000 beads to Rosy the colored Injun woman for judge.com.

Anonymous said...

There was a Sambo's at Coral Way and 37th Avenue in the early 70's.

Anonymous said...

What’s good for the goose, well you know how the saying goes.

If they are retiring Aunt Jemina after 130 years then the NAACP needs to change their name too. If using the term “colored people” is offensive to African Americans, then they shouldn’t any longer be calling themselves the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

NAAPC. “People of Color”.

Anonymous said...

You think you're so smart and better than everyone rumpole. But did you read Justice Gorsuch's opinion in the Civil Rights case? A civil rights case that Rosee Aponty was of course involved in because she is a civil rights lawyer.

Gorsuch writes, see, FN 32
FN32: Megan Markle, married to prince Harry, has opined that people should not be fired because of their sexual orientation. This further supports our position in this case.

So Rosy was rosy-right! Megan Markle in the opinion you pompass ass!!

Anonymous said...

"Third, Rolfe said "I got him" after shooting Brooks, and then kicked him, and did not render medical assistance."

Anyone with a brain would want to see the video first to see the nature of the supposed kick and the supposed lack of assistance. If these things are true as you describe them, they are very very bad for the officer. But i wouldnt take the prosecutors word on these points.

Anonymous said...

Prediction:
Hung jury. State retries same result. No retrial. Riots. At least 1 white juror voting NG outed and assaulted.

Anonymous said...

All cops are heros. John Wayne said the same thing - 'got em' - when he shot Germans in WWII. Sure, he didn't kick then after he shot them, or have his buddies stand on then when they died, but The Duke was a bit of a pansy at times - Hollywood you know.

If you want insight into the thinking of these guys, who frankly are out of control, kick on over to the City of Miami of Miami Dade 'LEO Affairs' forum and read the comments. You would assume you are reading comments on Brietbart. Also, take note of the presidential ads running across the banner and what they say.

Anonymous said...

This case has less to do with racism and more to do with police brutality. This PO would've shot anyone, white or black, fleeing from him. The reality is he didn't have to shoot, period. He was not a fleeing felon, although arguably his resisting with violence amounted to that, he was essentially a fleeing misdemeanant without a means of travel or armed with a deadly weapon and they had his ID. This case, like many others, was about power and machismo. Couldn't stand it that someone didn't submit to their authority. The "or else" was a man's life.

Anonymous said...

Stop making fun of Rosy and her manner of speech. Have you ever listened to Anderson Cooper, CNN anchor. I heard him interviewed on a Sirius radio show and he said "you know" approximately every 5th word.

I'm voting for Aponte and many attorneys who have appeared before Tunis will do the same.

Anonymous said...

906
He was a fleeing felon. He committed robbery of the taser he stole by force from the police. Also punching a police officer is aggravated battery. Both robbery and aggravated battery are felonies. Basic facts here.

Anonymous said...

9:06 - I think he was a fleeing felon, and that it still is a bad shoot - I agree that it is a case of a cop wanting to win a confrontation at all costs and has nothing to do with protecting anybody else or himself. It was a murder - 2nd degree - although the kick at the end is particularly troubling.

Anonymous said...

Brooks "never presented himself as a threat" and was "calm, cordial and really displayed a cooperative nature --- he was almost jovial."

Taking no position on the shooting, why is the DA lying about the relevant facts???

Anonymous said...

I think the reason was that in a lot of houses, Black servants served pancakes. perhaps, we could put a white jacket on her and call her Dr. J. Mima, M.D. and add "organic" to the syrup name That would be perfect as the left is always much more concerned about form than it is substance.

Sir Wilfred said...

8:46 - John Wayne did not serve in the Armed Services in WW 2, at all. He staid in Hollywood making movies. Never even served . John Ford, Lee Marvin, Jimmy Stewart all saw actual active combat. So did a Marine named Bob Keesham ( bonus if you can ID Him without googling)

Anonymous said...

Does Al Pacino and all white actors in Any Given Sunday owe an apology for being in a movie with the song "My N. ".

Anonymous said...

As indicated in other posts, the pandemic of police violence we are facing is more about police use/abuse of force than race. Changes to qualified immunity laws and training would go much farther to remedy this than civil insurrection and prosecuting cops for doing a difficult job.

As for the Atlanta case, the USSC has determined the proper standard.


Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985)

Where the suspect poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others, the harm resulting from failing to apprehend him does not justify the use of deadly force to do so. Where the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or to others, it is not constitutionally unreasonable to prevent escape by using deadly force. Thus, if the suspect threatens the officer with a weapon or there is probable cause to believe that he has committed a crime involving the infliction or threatened infliction of serious physical harm, deadly force may be used if necessary to prevent escape, and if, wherefeasible, some warning has been given.

Despite the benign nature of the initial DUI investgation, and that the cops could and should have handled the escape differently, the video certainly seems to indicate that the decedent committed a felony of Battery on a LEO/Resisting Arrest Without Violence and posed some threat to the officer or others. How could anybody say this guy would not have tried to carjack or grab somebody to try to escape his pendng probaton violaton/prison sentence?

Fire him, sue him, but I think the murder case is a loser and the result of politics rather than law.


Anonymous said...

He was a fleeing felon since he assaulted the officer. And he had served time, was on probation and caused mayhem once he took the officer's taser and punched him in the face. I would love to take his defense. definitely a hung jury and probably a NG if they can obtain a change of venue say to Savannah or Athens. The Sambo's technically was on Miracle Mile on the Northeast corner. Isn't the mural in the large federal courtroom in the old post office building racist?

Anonymous said...

Thomas did not join the liberals-it was Roberts who is looking to stop any potential controversial opinions at all costs.

Rumpole said...

9:56 am. So because you heard someone else say "you know" a lot, that justifies electing a person who has no professional accomplishments to speak of, gets rattled at an interview and lies, is probably lying about cooking for Camillus House and being a member of NAACP, quotes Megan Markle to justify her actions.

Let me ask you a question- couldn't she have prepared with a few quotes on 3x5 cards from Gandhi, King, or even Justice Scalia? Instead she is totally unprepared, calls Black people "colored people", tries to defend it, and is a disaster.

But to me, the real concern is her attempt to explain releasing people to house arrest with electronic monitoring. She clearly doesn't know anything about the program, hasn't read the statute, has a layperson's understanding of what it does but in her limited intellectual capacity-decides that this is an innovative program that Judges aren't using so- "hey we should be like releasing like more people to house arrest like so they can like go to work and stuff" and for her this is an example of innovative thinking.

This is what concerns me. To be frank, she appears to be intellectually dull and completely unaccomplished as a lawyer. I keep asking- send me a motion you wrote and won. Send me a brief; send any facts of your civil rights litigation. Nothing. Because, there is nothing. No scholarly articles. No thought to anything. A paper pusher in a personal injury mill that appears by various lawsuits to employ runners who illegally solicit casees and is being run by a disbarred lawyer.

And this person should be a judge??? Have we fallen that far? She wants to be a circuit judge. How many jury trials has she had? ZERO
How many appellate arguments? ZERO.
Please tell me ONE simple thing she has done other than cooking at Camillus House (which I think is a lie) that would merit her election as a circuit court judge. Just one please

Anonymous said...

But mostly it is because he is a friend of that absolutely dreadful judge tunis

Anonymous said...

Resisting "without" violence?

What is wrong with you people?

Anonymous said...

Bob Keeshan was Captain Kangaroo. And that Sambo's is still standing on Miracle Mile, only it's a Denny's now. Same old squiggly roof on the building. A throwback to the past.

Anonymous said...

Excellent points Mr. Rumpole. Sounds like Rosy is trying to put some major distance between her and her disbarred NY lawyer partner. In the Matter Of Felicetti January 2020 opinion the court said "In recommending disbarment, the Referee relied on the facts that the evidence showed that respondent's conversion of client funds was not the result of poor record-keeping, and that his failure to release settlement funds to the client who had to retain counsel to secure those funds was "totally unjustifiable." The Referee also focused on respondent's "long history" of not only neglecting client matters, but simply abandoning his clients by ceasing communications with them and failing to cooperate with substitute counsel, which in some instances required judicial intervention. The Referee also stated that there was no indication that respondent had any intention or desire to rehabilitate himself." How can Felicetti be practicing law in Florida?

Anonymous said...

Officer 2 claiming he was shot with the taser, hit head on concrete, and suffered a concussion. If true very bad fact for prosecution, and argument "don't worry about being tased because you have backup."

Anonymous said...

Errata:

(1) Aunt Jemima (not Jemina)
(2) Uncle Ben's (not Bens)
(3) Mrs. Butterworth's (not Butterworths)

Anonymous said...

Dava,

I don't mean to be rude but, you are going to be out of a job resulting from a person who is not bright but, is kinder and more polite. Sorry to say this but, I look forward to seeing you after defeat and then having the guts to tell you how miserable you have been to so many of us. I did do that to Victoria Brennan and she was shocked.

Your humble servant.

Anonymous said...

Captain Kangeroo = Bob Keesham

Moishe Perlman said...

Schmoolie the Rich Jew's seeded rye bread is the best Kosher rye bread this side of the Jordan River! I wouldn't have my pastrami on anything else.

Anonymous said...

And now we know why Rayshard Brooks fought tooth and nail to avoid that minor DUI arrest.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8431801/Rayshard-Brooks-probation-faced-going-prison-charged-DUI.html