Injustice Everywhere

Until recently I was somewhat undecided about whether or not to post a final message to everyone given the strong emotions so many of our readers had to my decision to hand over this project to someone else and how that went askew. However, I do feel the need to talk about a few things before I say goodbye to everyone.

My wife and I were talking the other day about a few police misconduct incidents she had read about recently and she expressed frustration at how it seemed like nothing could ever be done about the problem and she asked if there would ever be anyone who could fix it. I explained that the public has to want to fix it before it can even have a hope of getting any better and that the primary impediment to this was that the people who desire change are vastly disorganized in comparison to the well-organized police unions and other law enforcement organizations. Those organizations are focused, control all of the information, have a vast amount of political influence, and are very well funded… the rest of us aren’t.

I started this project with this problem in mind; I desired to examine the issue of police misconduct rationally and fairly, to take the angry rhetoric that made the public uncomfortable about discussing the issue out of the equation, and to give the people access to information, vital information that the people had a right to have, but that had been denied to them up until now. This project had to be as unbiased and as honest as I could possibly make it, and for it to continue in any way that could possibly be effective, it has to remain that way.

Initially, I sought to let the readers have a say in how best to continue this project, but unfortunately many people with a political agenda that had nothing to do with this project and who had no interest in the spirit behind this project, sought to influence where this project would go from here. Ultimately, I couldn’t let that happen and I made a decision based on what I felt was the most sustainable way to continue this project with that spirit intact.

After consulting with some of my very first supporters, people I deeply respected, and examining the issue carefully, I decided to hand the project over to Cato. They have a solid reputation, are well funded, and understand the spirit behind this project. They have teams of people who will contribute and who understand the need to keep this project free of angry rhetoric and bias. They really do offer the best chance for this project to continue in a more sustainable way and to grow even better than I could have made it.

While I made this decision quite some time ago, some technical issues with the site and the transfer of ownership have delayed the restart, I do apologize for that and I assure you the will be starting it back up soon. However, I do need people to understand that the statistical data gathered so far for this year was already useless. The reason I had to give up this project was because I no longer had the time to invest in it, and the time I did have was growing less each day. This lack of time meant that I missed many reports each day, half of what I normally covered, so the statistics would have been unreliable by the time I finally did hand it over anyway.

Believe me, it’s very painful for me to step away from this project that I created and worked so hard to give to all of you. So much sacrifice and effort went into it, not just from me but also from my family who supported what I did. I lost many friends, missed out on many opportunities, suffered a lot of grief, and did my best to keep it going when I probably shouldn’t have. However, I felt strongly that it was something that someone needed to do and I know that I leave it in good hands… and I hope that it can ultimately help make a difference someday, even if it does so without me.

I wish the new owners all the success in the world, and I wish all of you all the best.

…and remember, stay safe out there.

As discussed this weekend, I’ve decided that the best way to hand this project over to some other person or group would be to let the readers, who have supported this project so much through the years, make the decision on who they feel most comfortable with running it from now on. Accordingly, the list of candidates who have expressed an interest in taking over the site and their submitted their proposals are listed below. Underneath this list is the poll where each reader will be able to cast one vote for the candidate they want to take over the site.

The poll will close at 8:00am Pacific Time, Friday morning when I will contact the winning candidate and being the handover process before posting my final post on Friday evening at midnight. There are currently 5 candidates who have decided to put their names in the running after 8 people/organizations expressed an interest. I will accept late entries and will add them to the list and poll as I am able. (Note: the offer to allow late entries has been retracted due to an objection from one of the candidates.)

With that said, here is the current list of parties interested in taking over the NPMSRP (also known as InjusticeEverywhere.com and @InjusticeNews) :

Candidate: Patrick Nolan

Proposal:

Hi. My name is Patrick Nolan. Although my background is as a reporter, photographer, editor and publisher, I am currently attending law school with a keen interest in criminal defense work. I would like to maintain the site as a free resource documenting this important issue.

My pitch:
My intention is to continue operation as a free resource for people to continue collecting and disseminating information regarding police misconduct. My background in news media (15 years as a reporter, editor and publisher), combined with my current progress in law school, places me in a position to not only acquire and share the information, but also to become a resource for national media and bring more attention to the problem of police misconduct. I can not only maintain the site, but bring the issue before key journalists, researchers, and legislators to make progress on stopping police violence and other crimes. And that is why you should choose me.

 

Candidate: The CATO Institute

Proposal:

On behalf of the Cato Institute, I am writing to express our interest in assuming David Packman’s police misconduct reporting project. There are several reasons to support Cato in this matter. First, Cato has earned a reputation for independent, nonpartisan, quality research. Cato has an established track record on issues relating to police and prosecutorial misconduct. Second, Cato has the institutional capacity (researchers, web staff, computer technicians) to maintain this project. Third, Cato will be capable of drawing more attention to the problem of police misconduct and to meaningful reforms in laws and policies. I appreciate what David Packman has done here and do not want this project to fold now (or a year from now). Thank you for your consideration.

 

Candidate: Randy Rhynes and Associates

Proposal:

To The Steward and Readership,

I’m a libertarian by nature and an engineer by training. I’m all about personal freedom and the acceptance of one’s fate without living under the delusion that anybody or anything will prevent our deaths or insure our comfort or security during the course of our lives. I’m also about public servants serving the public for the public’s good, without unreasonable concern for their own safety or security. They are paid to do a job which they voluntarily chose and protection of their feelings or dismissals of their mistakes, through qualified immunity, are not part of that job. It’s in all of our best interests to expose the failings of the current system of hidden agendas and subjective oversight so as to foster change. This can only be done via an informed public and it won’t happen overnight as the corruption has taken more than a century to become “institutionalized”. Having said that, I believe NPMSPR is a cornerstone of a movement to hold law enforcement accountable directly to the public it serves. It is objective, independent and cannot be legitimately construed as biased I am blessed with a small, like-minded team of individuals with experience in website development, public relations and fundraising arenas. Our goal would be to expand the online presence of this and like minded websites so as to increase awareness among the general public. Naturally, we’re all volunteers, but we feel that is our greatest moral asset.

Candidate: ACLEPD

Proposal:

We have been publicizing crooked cops for five years. We have been doing so by giving crooked cops WEASEL AWARDS posted on YouTube. Youtube closed our account after just over 300,000 hits. We are now re-posting the WEASEL AWARD on our web site ” aclepd.com “.

Our goal is to revamp the criminal justice system. Step one is to draw attention to just how many crooked cops there are. Legislation then becomes much easier. We would continue the INJUSTICE EVERYWHERE program as part of our effort to revamp our legal system. The first and most important part of this effort is to get, and keep, the public’s attention- ( aclepd.com/criminal ). We are an all volunteer organization.

Thank you,
Robert Evan Howard
aclepd.com
aclepd@aclepd.com

Candidate: Jesse Strauss

Proposal:

In order to maintain Injustice Everywhere as an important resource for journalists, legal workers, activists, and anyone who is interested, I would be excited to take over responsibility for coordinating the site, in any capacity, but especially according to the model described below. As a journalist now working for Al Jazeera English, I have extensive experience doing online research and investigative work as well as social media outreach. I will be leaving Al Jazeera in about a month to return to my hometown of Oakland, California, where local police misconduct seems to make the international headlines every year – and that’s besides the smaller-scaled police misconduct that occurs on a pretty regular basis. Because of that, my work in Oakland has included membership in the Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant, co-coordination of Oakland’s People’s Hearing on Racism and Police Violence, and working with the local chapter of the National Lawyer’s Guild to offer legal support to people who were unjustly arrested or brutalized. To be clear, my own orientation is around community-based anti-brutality and anti-misconduct work, but I am confident that my journalistic skills will allow/encourage coordination of this site to be focused around real stories/experiences that are verifiable based on the criteria that the site has been using.

I envision developing the site into a collective model, whereby volunteers with varying capacities (in terms of time commitments, etc) will be able to share tasks in order to coordinate the site as efficiently as possible (while maintaining strong standards!). The collective model will help to decentralize the work so that we can make sure the site can function if something comes up with any members (as has happened with David). It also allows people to get training and experiment with different tasks that require a varied amount of time commitment, so that not everyone has to be working at 110% capacity at all times, and so that it can work with people who are able to commit to different amounts of time. For the first few months, much of the responsibility will lie heavily with me, and I can commit to developing the process and coordinating the collectivization transition during that period and until volunteers/collective members are able to step up in responsible ways (I’m able to do this based on my own savings, the transition away from Al Jazeera, being covered by health insurance elsewhere, etc).
A preliminary list of the collective member roles follows (although of course there’s a lot of room for change and development):

a. Researcher/newsfeed updater member: Will take on research and contributions (rotating*).

b. Editor: Will review each newsfeed update before it goes live, including a read-through of each article to check that it follows the site’s standards and a read-through of the short descriptions (rotating*).

c. Social media coordinator: Will make sure updates are posted to Twitter and Facebook (and maybe more) in a timely and appropriate fashion, and will interact with followers in order to help the project to seem both professional and engaged (potentially rotating*).

d. Communications coordinator: Will draft press releases and coordinate with victims of police misconduct – specifically people who’s cases are substantiated in the news feed – to help publicize the site and the individual stories.

e. Statistical coordinator: Will produce quarterly and annual reports, following the model already done on the site (and potentially new types of reports).

f. Administrative coordinator: Will essentially make sure that people who’ve volunteered for the above tasks carry out their commitments, and will help to coordinate volunteer scheduling and internal communications with volunteers (potentially rotating*)

g. (potential) Fundraiser: Will work to bring in funds primarily to maintain the site, and secondarily, if larger funding comes in, to compensate for work being done.

*Note on rotating tasks: Depending on the amount of volunteers, people can take on these tasks for a designated amount of time. For example, someone could commit to being a Researcher/Newsfeed updater for one week per month, and to be Editor for another week in the month (ideally the amount of time needed from people will be distributed as equally as possible within the confines of people’s communicated ability for time commitment. Coordinating this will be the task of the Administrative Coordinator).

I have a lot of other specific ideas that would probably be too much to list here, like mapping the data with Google Fusion Tables or using a separate part of the site as a resource for CopWatchers (how-to guides, etc.; potentially with a separate section besides the newsfeed that would allow people to contribute their own videos of alleged misconduct). In terms of fielding volunteers, I have a relatively extensive network of folks who would likely be interested on some level through universities and anti-brutality groups from Oakland to New York.

As an alternative, I would like to volunteer myself as a communications coordinator for whoever is chosen to run the site. This would include the tasks listed in (c) and (d) above. In terms of coverage, I’d seek to publicize data and statistics collected, and to connect interested journalists to people who had (or allegedly had) been victimized by police misconduct (rather than trying to take the spotlight myself). I’d also work to support a testimonial section of the site, where people’s stories, in their words, would be linked to the substantiated news articles posted on the news feeds (there’s potential for this in multiple formats, including events like the People’s Hearing I mentioned earlier).

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As I mentioned in Friday’s daily report, my employment situation is now such that I can no longer reliably track reports and do all the tasks necessary for properly running this project. Generally, when done right, this project takes up approximately 60+ hours a week and the kind of work I do now just doesn’t afford me the time to do this.

Since there isn’t a way that this project would make enough income to replace my regular job and since my regular job isn’t compatible with this project, I have little choice but to either hand it over to someone else, or end it. Accordingly, I’ve asked for those interested in taking it over to step forward with their plans and, with the intention of letting the project’s supporters have a say, I want to make their intentions for the site public and let the readers voice their opinions on who should take it over.

So, I want to give the people or organizations until Tuesday night to submit their intentions to me via email at davidp@npmsrp.org. I will help each interested party understand just what they are taking on, explain the processes involved in running the project, and answer any questions they might have.

The interested parties, in turn, will write a single paragraph pitch for their intentions that includes why they should be chosen as the party to take over the project and give that to me by midnight, Tuesday.

On Wednesday I will name each interested party (in alias if so requested) and put up a poll so that everyone can vote on their choice. Readers can also debate the merits/detractors for each choice in the comment section of that post as well.

By Friday, 5:00 Pacific, the poll will close and the final choice will be made. Barring any attempts at rigging the vote, the winner of the poll will be given administrative rights to the site, email system, and Twitter account that same day, and the handover will be completed and official after I post one final time that evening.

Currently there appears to be three potentially interested parties, though that may change. If anyone wishes to suggest any alterations to this plan, feel free to do so in the comment section below.

Good luck to the potential new owners of the project, and good luck to everyone else as well… and thank you all for your support.