On your show, CBS This Morning, today NYPD's deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, and former CBS News senior correspondent, John Miller said many things that angered me in his discourse on the police murder of Freddie Gray, and one thing that I found incredulous, he said "I've never heard of police 'rough rides'."
Yet the term and practise are well known on the streets and in police circles. A Philadelphia Inquirer investigation into the practise in that city published in 2001 reported:
Top commanders acknowledge that rough rides are an enduring tradition in the department. The practice even has a name - "nickel ride," a term that harks back to the days when amusement-park rides cost 5 cents.The New York Times wrote yesterday about the phrase 'rough ride':
An Inquirer investigation documented injuries to 20 people tossed around in wagons in recent years. Thompson was one of three who suffered spinal injuries, and one of two permanently paralyzed.
The slang terms mask a dark tradition of police misconduct in which suspects, seated or lying face down and in handcuffs in the back of a police wagon, are jolted and battered by an intentionally rough and bumpy ride that can do as much damage as a police baton without an officer having to administer a blow.The Baltimore Sun wrote about the type of injuries Freddie Gray suffered:
For some, such injuries have been inflicted by what is known as a "rough ride" — an "unsanctioned technique" in which police vans are driven to cause "injury or pain" to unbuckled, handcuffed detainees, former city police officer Charles J. Key testified as an expert five years ago in a lawsuit over Johnson's subsequent death.I could go on citing sources on this till the sun sets, but you get the picture. The term is well known and has a long history in law enforcement and media circles and yet John Miller comes on national TV and tells the world that he hasn't even heard the term!
So my question to you, Charlie Rose, is: Do you think he is really that incompetent in matters of police intelligence or do you think he is lying?
I'll tell you what I think. I don't think John Miller is that stupid or unaware. I think he is lying. I think he knows very well that Freddie Gray was most likely a victim of police violence but John Miller honors the police wall of silence. I think John Miller showed by telling this lie that he is part of the problem. He lacks basic integrity. He doesn't need to have any command authority in any police organization and you shouldn't have him on your show if you value your reputation.
Regards,
Clay Claiborne, a morning viewer
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