For the general shoddiness and neglect found in Greensboro and Guilford to prevail it takes two sides: residents who don’t care and elected officials and civic and religious leaders who don’t bother to act.
News-Record story
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Report to the City from Beloved Community Center, April 9, 2014 On the Citizen’s Review Committee of police accountability from the report ... because of the extraordinary powers granted to the police by citizens, citizens should require a high degree of citizen oversight... In the case of the recent shooting death of Chieu-di Thi Vo, a 47 year old woman, the officer who shot her was wearing a body camera, and it was on...
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City Council votes unanimously to make Greensboro a Welcoming City to refugees and immigrants, April 15, 2014 from the Resolution ...The City of Greensboro... affirms the beauty and richness of our diversity and one in which all are welcome, accepted and appreciated.
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Editorial stand on the Vo case by the News-Record, May 31, 2014 Shooting mentally ill people from the News-Record Police spokeswoman Susan Danielsen wouldn’t say whether Bloch has taken such classes, citing personnel laws. But she did say that all officers receive training for handling “special populations.”
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Greensboro News-Record Letter to the Editor, June 1, 2014 “Answers are needed after police shooting” To the editor: Everyone with a family member or friend with severe mental illness knows how difficult life is for the individual afflicted and for those who give love and care. It is an overwhelming ordeal and no surprise that so many wind up on the streets or in the ER. This does not seem to be the case of Chieu Di Vo, shot to death by a Greensboro police officer in March. It seems she was decently looked after all her life by her mom, now 75 years old. As the NR story (May 25) relates, they were churchgoers, recognized members of the neighborhood and Vietnamese community and shoppers at the ethnic store I frequent. In fact the shop owner wondered how such violence could happen since everyone knew she was mentally ill and not a threat. Ms Vo was 8 when Saigon fell and 23 when her family finally made it to the US. I don't know their involvement in the war but they came as legal refugees fleeing persecution. The NR reports her English was not good. If we fancy ourselves a welcoming city then we're going to have to prove it. Ms Vo’s family deserves answers.
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Full Welcoming Greensboro Initiative Report handed over to the City Council, June 19, 2014
from the report
...Train officers in cross-cultural competency...
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from the News-Record
How long will the public have to wait to see video from police cameras?
Apparently, in some cases, until eternity.
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Triad City Beat, July 16, 2014
A few readers have suggested to me that they believe I wrote this article to help the refugee Montagnard community, which it is not the case.The Montagnard Measure is the young black male measure, the Latino measure, the food insecurity measure, the urban sprawl measure, the good health measure. We fail them all, yet elected officials and responsible leaders appear inept, out of touch, unresponsive. X How Are We Doing or The Montagnard Measure from the article ...How many care about the recent shooting death by the Greensboro police of Ms Vo, a mentally ill refugee, a sad story with so few redemptive qualities that online commentators are reduced to the exact verbiage deployed when black youth are accused of this and that... The Montagnard Measure challenges our notions about ourselves because it is an exact measure of our competence, not our faith, liberalism or conservatism... we persist in projecting onto refugees and immigrants ideas and attitudes that everyone would instantly recognize as crude, outdated, discriminatory, racist or illegal if we tried repeating them on African-Americans...
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Another editorial from the News-Record, July 24, 2014 from the News-Record A Deathly Silence ... Imagine that the officer had been cleared of any wrongdoing after an investigation — quietly and with no explanation, months after the fact...
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from Allen Johnson’s blog Police Chief Has Done Well But On Fatal Shooting He's Plain Wrong ...You cannot ensure trust, accountability or “connectedness” in a system in which police control all of the information...
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from the News Record Report: Knife-wielding woman within 10-feet of officer when shot ...Neumann had viewed a video of the incident taken with Bloch’s body camera, and he discussed details...
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Southeast Asian Coalition, Aug 5, 2014 The Southeast Asian Coalition was established to create a voice that addresses the needs of the Southeast Asian population in Mecklenburg County and surrounding areas in North Carolina. Committed to uplifting the Southeast Asian community through personal awareness, systems change, and community development, SEAC is comprised of like minded individuals who aim to engage and empower the rapidly growing Southeast Asian population.
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Greensboro residents have the right to lodge a complaint and then see police video of their own shooting — but only if they survive, Aug 23, 2014 from the News-Record City won’t yield on release of police body camera ...Two competing public laws are involved in the decision to not make the video available, Greensboro City Attorney Tom Carruthers said... “The first is that public records should be made available as soon as possible,” Carruthers said. “We have the competing policy of personnel records. You have these two competing interests on the body-worn camera.”... Police video can be shown to a person in the video who lodges a complaint against police. Carruthers said the privilege to view the video does not extend to Vo’s surviving family members.
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City response after months of do-nothing: ‘legal representatives’ and ‘thought leaders’ to meet to talk about state law, police privacy rights and video footage they take on the job and who controls it.from the Triad City Beat Cop shoots, camera doesn’t ... But we in the media speak with one voice on this: The public has every right to see footage recorded by a cop’s camera while the officer is on duty, especially if he shoots someone.
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Listening to the City’s Human Relations Committee discuss their impressions on the special session on body cameras and police. Oct 2 Hearing held at the Cultural Center But nothing about the shooting victim or her surviving family.
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Officer TJ Bloch goes on camera to talk about shooting Chieu Di Vo, Jan 5, 2015from the News-Record Former Greensboro police officer talks about shooting that changed his life But doesn’t believe citizens would understand if they were allowed to see the body camera video footage.
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Neumann said the investigation showed that Bloch fired five shots from his standard-issue, .40-caliber, semi-automatic handgun, all of which struck Vo, causing seven wounds.
The autopsy showed that four bullets struck Vo in the abdomen, with one of the bullets passing through her body. Medical examiners recovered three bullets — two bullets from Vo’s left pelvic area and another from her lower back — one of which went through both of Vo’s legs and one that struck her right hand. — NR, July 31, 2014
The Story of Little Red Hen
Said Little Red Hen, “Who will take responsibility for refugees and newcomers in Greensboro and Guilford?” “Not me”, said the refugee resettlement agencies contracted to do this work. “Not me”, said our area’s faith leaders. “Not me”, said our elected City Council. “Not me”, said our mayor. “Not me”, said our Department of Social Services. “Not me”, said our Department of Public Health. “Not me”, said our court officials. “Not me”, said our regional health system, doctors and medical professionals. “Not me”, said the school system. “Not me”, said our Police Chief. Quoth Little Red Hen, “Oh! Then by your words may you be justified and by your words shall you be condemned!” But Little Red Hen did not wait for the great Hereafter to receive justice, but rather she emailed and faxed and Facebooked and Twittered until shamefaced, responsible officials realized they were in heaps of trouble and had to do something. |
