Last week, President Obama signed an Executive Order creating the Task Force on 21st Century Policing in response to the Ferguson riots. At the time, the appointment of Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villasenor, raised serious questions about the goals of the task force.
Today, another member of the ideologically homogenous task force, Jose Lopez, raised eyebrows after the announcement by the Milwaukee County District Attorney not to initiate criminal charges against Milwaukee Police Officer Christopher Manney in connection with the death of Dontre Hamilton in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on April 30, 2014.
In response to the decision Lopez tweeted, “Seems like emptying a clip has become routinely incorporated in everyday police work #DontreHamilton #ThisStopsToday.”
Lopez, Lead Organizer for Make the Road New York, also directed a tweet to new Jersey Governor Chris Christy: .@GovChristie Hands Off Assata, referring to Assata Shakur, and The Hands Off Assata Campaign. According to the campaign’s website, the campaign “is a coming together of organizations and individuals who are outraged by the heightened attempts by the federal government, congress of the united states and the state of new jersey to illegally force thru kidnapping a return of Assata Shakur from Cuba to the plantation United States.”
Assata Shakur, also known as JoAnne Deborah Chesimard is a convicted murderer of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster. A member of the Black Panthers, in 1979 she escaped from prison and has been living in Cuba.
Almost immediately after the assassination of the two police officers in New York, Lopez tweeted a cryptic message: “We know the grief of loss all too well. We lose family & neighbors often. This mvmt works towards city w/ all lost would still be alive 2day.” He then retweeted a statement by Change the NYPD, in which they wrote, “Attempts to link today’s tragic events with a movement that holds justice, dignity and respect for all as its core values are cheap political punditry, and dangerous in their divisiveness.”
Related articles:
Villaseñor joins Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing
DOJ to undertake a federal review of Manney decision
Lopez’s group, Make the Road New York is dedicated to building divisiveness. According to the group, they are building the “power of Latino and working class communities” though a “state-level organization that combines democratic accountability to low-income people and an innovative mix of strategies to confront inequity and economic injustice, while fostering deep and active community roots.”
Villansenor, who’s department gained national attention for its brutality against University of Arizona students during March Madness, and the shooting death of a young hearing impaired white homeless man last year, has not exactly developed a force dedicated to community policing.
As a result, it is difficult for many to understand how a group with Lopez and Villasenor will make recommendations on strengthening the “public trust and foster strong relationships between local law enforcement and the communities that they protect, while also promoting effective crime reduction,” which is the task force’s mission.
In the meantime, today’s protest of the Hamilton decision in Milwaukee was called off due to rain, according to multiple sources.