By Antonio D. French
Filed Friday, March 3 at 9:54 AM
Ald. Steve Gregali (14th Ward) has been filibustering the bill to create a civilian review board since 11:04 a.m.
UPDATE: This reporter left the board of aldermem meeting while Gregali was still talking. At the Chase Park Plaza, where Sen. Barack Obama was stumping for Claire McCaskill, slowly a few aldermen started to stream in after about hour. One told PUB DEF that the board did eventually perfect a version of BB69. Stay tuned...
UPDATE 2: Score one for the Black Caucus! The bill was indeed perfected today after some parliamentary maneuvering by the Aldermanic Black Caucus. Gregali stopped his filibuster after Ald. Terry Kennedy put BB69 back on the informal calendar. The board's business continued and many members left the chamber, with some eager to see Barack Obama speak at the Chase Park Plaza.
Near the end of the board meeting, with all the members of the Black Caucus standing to be recognized, Board Pres. Jim Shrewsbury recognized Ald. Greg Carter, who quickly motioned for a vote. The bill was perfected by a vote of 16-to-8.
The bill will be voted on by the full board for final passage next week. According to Jake Wagman, of the Post-Dispatch, Ald. Gregali has vowed to try to kill it again.
2 Comments:
Exactly what are the cops afraid of here? Everybody knows these three truths:
1. Most cops are good, conscientious public servants.
2. Many (maybe most) complaints against the police lack merit.
3. But there still are some genuinely rogue cops who soil the image of the good cops.
Wouldn't a bona fide review procedure that gives a hearing to all the complaints and has genuninely neutral people decide on them weed out the rogues while protecting the reputations of the good cops? The current internal affairs procedure is a joke, and when good cops are cleared, that ruling is still suspect because of IA's propensity to whitewash everything.
There are some cops who think that putting their lives on the line (which they do) entitles them to a free pass to mess with people whenever they want to, and that the "brotherhood" of police demands that they all stand up for one another, right or wrong. Those are the very cops that need to be weeded out.
6:57 PM, March 03, 2006
This is a joke because the CRB will have no authority.
They will need to have the cooperation of the police board to do anything.
Will they get it?
5:29 AM, March 04, 2006
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