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Getting paid to choke in the clutch
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 4-21-2021 Sparks Tribune / Expansions in blue

Pardon me if I get all choked up
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 4-14-2021 Sparks Tribune / Updated 4-17 & 4-21-2021 GMT Expansions in blue

Back when I was beating Lush Rambo on the radio, I spent a lot of time talking about the murder of Charles Bush by Las Vegas Metro Police.

Casino exec Bush, 39, was asleep in bed when three cops burst in without a warrant, put him in a choke hold and killed him. By the way, he was black.

It took place in Gomorrah South on July 31, 1990, and eerily foreshadowed the deaths of both Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.

The cops, of course, were exonerated.

It was "the 44th consecutive justifiable verdict handed down in coroner’s inquests since 1976," the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported last year.

"Two days later, then-District Attorney Rex Bell announced that he would not charge the officers. 'I would destroy the whole integrity of this process if I overturned it.' Bell said of the coroner’s inquest," the RJ noted.

"Twenty-seven years would pass before another LV Metro officer faced charges in connection with an in-custody killing," the report stated.

The hills around Clark County's Mummy (aka Sunrise) Mountain have been figuratively littered with the bones of black men dying at hands of LV cops ever since.

The department re-shuffled the deck after George Floyd sparked worldwide protests.

“I don’t think reclassifying it is enough,” said Wesley Juhl, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada and a former crime reporter for the Review-Journal. “I think every cop knows what to say to avoid any accountability, and it’s just as easy enough for them to say, ‘I felt like my life was in danger.’ ”

“My first reaction in reviewing Charles Bush’s killing was how eerily familiar it is,” Juhl said. [UPDATE: Bush attended the University of Nevada-Reno and still has friends in these parts.]

“If you change some of the names, this could have happened yesterday. It’s the same thing: zero accountability, a district attorney that’s reluctant to act, questions about racial bias involving policing. It’s really sad that we haven’t made more progress.”

"In all, Metro paid out $1.1 million in settlements in Bush’s death."

A more on-point incident occurred right here in River City in the same time frame. One night in the early 1990s, a 20 year-old white man went thru a red light near the University of Nevada-Reno. He was pulled over at a convenience store just south of the Little Waldorf Saloon, across from Lawlor Events Center.

The first autopsy said he died from a cocaine overdose while in the process of being choked by a Reno cop. That's the same defense ex-cop Derek Chauvin's lawyers are using in Minneapolis.

The family's lawyers had a second autopsy done by a Las Vegas pathologist who stated the obvious, something like "Uh, no. He happened to be high on cocaine when he was choked to death by the officers."

The two officers involved did not intend to kill the kid. They were just not properly trained and the negligence went all the way to the top.

Ole fuss 'n' feathers Robert Bradshaw was Reno Police Department chief back then. His greatest claim to infamy was his first noteworthy act in 1982. He ordered every cop in Reno, on duty or not, to show up at the Pioneer Theatre to listen to him make a speech. If you wanted to rob a bank, that would have been the time because there were no cops on the street.

During questioning under oath by the family's lawyers, Bradshaw was asked what he knew about choke holds. You know, little stuff like how long before brain damage starts to happen.

He proved blissfully ignorant, stating repeatedly "you'd have to ask a doctor." Actually, brain damage can start after 10 seconds of oxygen deprivation.

"Would you feel comfortable applying a chokehold, chief?"

"Absolutely."

At that point, City of Reno defense lawyers asked for a break and posed the magic question: "How much do you want?" They realized how Bradshaw's cavalier macho admission would look to a jury.

The City of Reno paid substantial confidential money to settle the case and RPD also agreed to stop using the chokehold which the family insisted as a part of the settlement. That's still the case today.

The city required that no transcript of the chief's deposition under oath would be prepared by the court reporter in order to keep the lid on Bradshaw's reckless arrogance.

I wonder if RPD today knows that chokeholds are banned under that settlement. I think I'll ask for the city's policy before this goes to press.

Stay tuned. (UPDATE: See Smoking Guns, hereinbelow.)

CLINGING TO THE LEDGE: Reno Republican Assemblymember Lisa Krasner's AB 268 was voted with a do-pass recommendation out of the lower house's Government Affairs Committee last week.

I testified in favor. Washoe Sheriff Darin Balaam supports it, as do Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford and the Reno-Sparks NAACP.

Titled "Miciah's Law," it mandates that all counties adopt policies to de-escalate lethal situations before police start shooting.

Miciah Lee, age 18, black and suicidal, was shot to death by Sparks police in January of last year. His mom told the cops of his mental state.

Washoe County has long had a 24/7 rapid response team to mitigate such situations. Sparks cops never made the call and killed the kid. (Trust me, the official Sparks PD story will go down like the Titanic if it ever gets to court.)

It will cost the city a million or so but it won't bring the young man back.

The only negative vote on Mrs. Krasner's bill came from Assemblymember Annie Black, R-Neanderthal. Suffice it to say that Ms. Black makes former Assemblymember Sharron Angle, R-Reno, look reasonable.

¡Sí se puede!

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

Web Xtras & Smoking Guns—>

KRNV TV-4 June 5, 2020: Say what? RPD announces ban on choke holds after Nevada Legislature responds to George Floyd's killing

RUMBLES FROM INSIDE THE POLICE STATION: Longtime officers have said that choke holds were "quietly brought back" about 2015.