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Bodycam footage from OK. The man threatend his to shoot his exgilrfriend at the wedding. He ran when the cop went to frisk him, dropping his gun in the process. He picked it up and started to run when the cop shot him in the back.
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character." - M.L.King Jr
Dude reached for the gun on the ground while the officer was in pursuit. Had it in his hand. Dumb ass should have just left it and kept running. If the officer had shot him under those circumstances he would have been in the wrong. But since the guy had a gun in his hand I can't fault the officer at all.
Another unarmed black man with his hands in the air has been shot by a police officer during a routine traffic stop. This time it was caught on video.
Re: This one last try to be clear on why I think it's ok. I believe one of the standards for justified shooting is fearing for your safety (life?). So if I pull a gun out of a car with a guy convicted of shooting officers
and he starts being uncooperative, damn straight I'm gonna fear for my safety. Particularly, there was no good reason for him to get out of the car. His insistence was another red flag.
---
Originally Posted by OAW
At no point in the article does it say this guy actually shot a police officer.
This isn't helping. Unless you have some inside information that he unknowingly fired in the direction of an officer and got slapped, it could just as easily been tried to shoot an officer and failed.
Re: This one last try to be clear on why I think it's ok. I believe one of the standards for justified shooting is fearing for your safety (life?). So if I pull a gun out of a car with a guy convicted of shooting officers
and he starts being uncooperative, damn straight I'm gonna fear for my safety. Particularly, there was no good reason for him to get out of the car. His insistence was another red flag.
I notice that you and everyone else who say the officer killing this guy was OK never mention that the guy had his hands in the air. And I mention that repeatedly because in my mind that trumps all of the legitimate points you made above. So if you guys are saying that in your mind that it's OK for a cop to shoot a guy with his hands in the air simply because he was afraid that's fine. But let's be clear that's essentially what it boils down to. And clearly I disagree.
I'm not willfully not mentioning it, the fact is there and acknowledged. I also freely admit, my perspective of the situation comes from empathy that I would be wary in the cops position. Acknowledging the emotion of the situation.
As far as the logic goes, I'm not familiar enough with traffic stops to comment on how fast a situation where hands are in the air can be turned into something deadly.
Sean Harrington’s plea deal, which was finalized on Tuesday, means that he receives a 180-day suspended sentence, three years of felony probation, and according to local media accounts, “must also speak at a community violence solutions class to tell everyone what he did.” Harrington resigned from the CHP last year after the charges were filed.
Guy got off pretty easy for a felony where he abused his power to violate the privacy of two citizens. But I may be melodramatic here.
He got a 180-day suspended sentence and three years of felony probation (that's the big one), that's not a lightweight sentence for first time offender of a non-violent crime, given the state of jail overcrowding in California. He breaks that parole in any way and he'll be serving the rest of his probation behind bars, no exceptions. Also, since it was charged as a felony, he's now classified as a sex offender, probably for the rest of his life. I personally don't think he got away with anything.
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character." - M.L.King Jr
So there was a pushing and shoving match at the STL open house discussion on setting up a public panel to review police activity. Seems the public asshats couldn't STFU when others were talking, and when asked to STFU, the shoving match started. Bigger issues abound.
An open meeting at City Hall on the creation of a civilian oversight board of the police department devolved into a melee on Wednesday night, further exposing the city’s deep divisions over race and law enforcement
...
But the crowd became unsettled when police officers began testifying in opposition to the bill. At times, Alderman Terry Kennedy, who chairs the committee, struggled to keep order. The noise in the room spiked as police officers attempted to testify.
At that point, Jeff Roorda, the business manager of the city’s police union, stood and called for order. Roorda was wearing a wristband in support of Darren Wilson, a former Ferguson police officer whose fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown last summer sparked months of civic unrest.
After Roorda stood up, the crowd grew louder.
“Excuse me, first of all, you do not tell me my function,” responded Kennedy, who has championed the issue of civilian review for more than a decade.
Standing in the aldermanic hearing room packed with people shoulder-to-shoulder beneath a ceiling painted with allegorical images of Western democracy, Roorda shouted back at Kennedy.
Others began yelling, then pushing and shoving as officers struggled to maintain control. Some in the crowd scrambled to leave the packed room, which has only two exits.
Protesters accused Roorda of starting the melee by pushing a woman. They demanded his arrest after the meeting.
Roorda said that he had become surrounded and that people had been grabbing at his ankles.
No one was arrested or appeared seriously injured.
Under the measure, the St. Louis Civilian Oversight Board would have the authority to investigate allegations of police misconduct, research and assess police policies, operations and procedures, and make findings and recommendations. It would also be able to independently review evidence and witness statements from investigations by police internal affairs. The board would report its findings to the city’s public safety director and police chief.
The board would be made up of seven members nominated by the mayor and approved by the Board of Aldermen. They would not be paid. Nominees would have to be city residents. They couldn’t hold public office or be related to employees of the police department. Each member would have a specific district that spans several city wards.
Many protesters who support the idea behind the bill said they were concerned that the mayor would get to appoint the members of the committee.
Civilian oversight boards became popular in the protest movements of the 1960s and ’70s. The National Association for Civilian Oversight of Police estimates more than 100 cities have civilian oversight or review boards of police. St. Louis is one of the largest in the nation without an independent outside look at police.
Both Kansas City and Columbia, Mo., have civilian review boards.
I think 60% elected by residents and 40% appointed would be a good start.
ALL of their activity broadcast and open.
Maybe print or have available on the web all emails submitted to the group.
Jeff "Convicted of Falsifying Police Reports" Roorda has been discussed several times in this thread. If anyone is an "asshat" it is him. According to social media accounts there is a video of him pushing a female protestor which is what allegedly initiated the melee. Regardless of the veracity of those accounts, this guy's behavior when there are questionable police shootings of unarmed black men in STL is like throwing a lit match on a fire. And it's been that way for YEARS.
Obviously I don't properly grasp the weight of a felony probabtion.
Ok, that is huge. I'll walk back my surprise on this one.
Yeah, that's actually pretty startling for a 1st offense of a non-violent crime, IMO. He really must have pissed off the DA.
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character." - M.L.King Jr
Yeah, that's actually pretty startling for a 1st offense of a non-violent crime, IMO. He really must have pissed off the DA.
It pissed me off quite a bit too. I feel like his actions look much worse when scrutinized:
Cop has no right to ask for your phone.
He has no right to look in it.
He has no right to ask for password.
He has no right to remove anything from it.
He definitely has no right to personal pictures.
And he sure as hell should be using anything he comes in possession of because of his job for private use.
Doing it multiple times is probably what really did him in. Then instead of being an isolated incident, it becomes a pattern.
"The act, so-called kick, was part of the arrest process and to attempt to get his hand in custody so he could be handcuffed," attorney Stephen Worth said. "It’s not a kick, we’ll leave that for trial."
STL Louis County Prosecutor McCulloch is opposing the grand juror who sued him and claimed that he publicly misrepresented the sentiment of the jurors. Imagine that.
The prosecutor also says the U.S. District Court lacks jurisdiction and should stay clear of a state court matter.
McCulloch, represented by lawyers from the offices of the Missouri Attorney General and the St. Louis County Counselor, responded that federal courts are limited to ongoing “controversy” between the parties, and says that Doe's case should be dismissed.
Citing another reason for the federal courts to stay out of the case, they say Doe is asking a judge “to issue an injunction that would threaten the continued health and sound functioning of Missouri’s grand jury system. Given the important state issues raised in this case, the Court should abstain from exercising its jurisdiction over Plaintiff’s claims.”
An unarmed man killed for Walking While Black. It's amazing that the officer was even indicted. The million dollar question that the NYPD has yet to address is why was his weapon drawn in the first place.
A New York City police officer has been indicted in the death of Akai Gurley, an unarmed man shot and killed in a Brooklyn housing project in November, a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation has told CNN.
The charges against Officer Peter Liang were not revealed Tuesday.
Gurley, 28, was "a total innocent who just happened" to run into Liang in a "pitch black" stairwell at the Louis H. Pink Houses in Brooklyn, New York Police Commissioner William Bratton told reporters the day after the killing.
At the time, the NYPD called the shooting an accident, terming the fatal shot an "accidental discharge."
Liang, with less than 18 months on the job and on probationary status, had been placed on modified assignment and stripped of his gun and badge pending an investigation.
"This officer deserves the same due process afforded to anyone involved in the accidental death of another," Patrick Lynch, head of the police union, said in a statement. "The fact the he was assigned to patrol one most dangerous housing projects in New York City must be considered among the circumstances of this tragic accident."
Scott Rynecki, an attorney for Kimberly Ballinger, Gurley's domestic partner and mother of their child, said, "She is at this point feeling that this is the first step in the fight for justice for this wrongful and reckless shooting."
The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office had no comment on the indictment.
Gurley's shooting occurred at a time of strained police/community relations after the July death of Eric Garner at the hands of police on Staten Island. The chokehold death of the unarmed 43-year-old man sparked street protests, a review of police procedures and calls for a federal civil rights investigation. A grand jury declined to prosecute the officer.
A few weeks after Garner's death, the police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, of unarmed teenager Michael Brown thrust into the forefront the issue of law enforcement's use of deadly force. A grand jury declined to prosecute Officer Darren Wilson, a decision that led to widespread demonstrations.
You know because actually arresting the guy they had already shot was by no means an option.
Washington state police are investigating a video uploaded to YouTube that captures the death of a man shot repeatedly by police.
The video, taken by a bystander, surfaced Wednesday, a day after the Tuesday shooting death of Antonio Zambrano-Montes, 35.
Pasco Police Department officers were called about 5pm to respond to a report that a man was throwing rocks at a crowded intersection in the town of Pasco, according to the Department Chief Bob Metzger. Two officers were hit by rocks. A Taser did not subdue the man, who had a prior police assault conviction and served six months' jail time for it.
The video, which sparked protests, shows police firing at the man then chasing him across a busy intersection and shooting him multiple more times. About a dozen shots were fired, according to the video.
Metzger said it would take months before the investigation, conducted by another department, would conclude.
“We are at this point doing a thorough investigation. If the officers are wrong they will be dealt with accordingly. If they are not wrong, that will also come out.”
The video is among a recent wave of footage uploaded to YouTube capturing police-involved shootings. The videos have come from a variety of sources, taken by bystanders and police officer dash or body cams. This latest video comes amid a growing outcry from the public demanding more accountability of police in the wake of the August shooting death of an unarmed 18-year-old boy in Ferguson, Missouri. One solution, offered from as high as President Barack Obama, is to outfit police officers with body cameras. Law enforcement departments have been gobbling up these devices following Ferguson, in which victim Michael Brown's death was not videotaped.
The American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement that the Pasco video was "very disturbing."
“Fleeing from police and not following an officer’s command should not be sufficient for a person to get shot. Lethal force should be used only as an absolute last resort," said Kathleen Taylor, the ACLU executive director of Washington. "Police need to understand how to de-escalate confrontations and use force only as necessary."
At 10:15.38 p.m. on the recording, the officers appear to be turning Bufford over without noticeable resistance. Most of the officers are standing.
At 10:16.06 p.m., Officer Kelli Swinton approaches Burkemper’s patrol car. There is the sound of an opening car door, and she loudly declares: “Hold up. Hold up, y’all. Hold up. Hold up, everybody, hold up. We’re red right now, so if you guys are worried about cameras, just wait.”
The audio cuts out, and the video ends eight seconds later.
In response to an open records request, City Counselor Winston Calvert released the same video on Friday, plus views from other dash cams.
One shows that after Burkemper’s camera stopped, officers continued to huddle around Bufford. That camera shuts off, too, leaving a gap of more than two minutes before Bufford is seen on it again, stumbling and falling once as he’s taken to a police vehicle. Other videos show unrelated scenes and both Bufford and his passenger sitting inside vehicles.
She also said a review showed the officers did not break the law, although prosecutors notified police Internal Affairs about the video being stopped.
Either the night of the dismissal or the next morning, Schwartz said, Jeff Rainford, Slay’s then chief of staff, called Schwartz’s law partner and asked him to delay any release of the video pending an Internal Affairs investigation.
Schwartz said he presumed it was to keep from provoking Ferguson protesters. Said Schwartz: “We didn’t want to create more unrest at the time.” He added later, “A tape like this certainly could have made things worse.”
Police department “special orders” regarding dashboard cameras say that “traffic and any type of investigative stops” and “vehicle pursuits,” among other things must be “recorded in their entirety.” The camera should be stopped “once the assignment or the reason for the initiation of recording is completed.”
The department has a small number of dashboard cameras and no body cameras.
A police spokeswoman told Fox 2 that the officer who turned off the Bufford case camera “has been recommended” for discipline, but is appealing. A lawyer for Swinton declined to comment.
He ****ed up possible charges in addition to breaking orders by turning off the camera. I'd hope its a strong recommendation of discipline.
This story is making the rounds here locally. STL PD at its finest. All charges dropped against the suspect. Seems to me that's because they couldn't convict him without exposing the officer's own illegal conduct to public scrutiny. Imagine that.
New York’s top judge announced a plan on Tuesday to overhaul the method in which grand juries preside over cases in the state. Judge Jonathan Lippman made his pitch for reform during the annual State of the Judiciary Address, after a Staten Island grand jury chose not to indict police officers for the death of Eric Garner, which was one of a series of high profile instances nationwide of grand juries failing to indict police caught on video in altercations that lead to the death of unarmed black men.
“Lippman said his legislation will require a judge to preside over grand jury proceedings that involve allegations of homicide or felony assault arising out of police-civilian encounters… and [h]is legislation will be in favor of having the court disclose the records of grand jury proceedings that result in no charges, under certain conditions.” the Associated Press reports.
“Lippman said his proposals would aid public access and confidence in the justice system, ‘preserve the integrity of the judicial branch, law enforcement, and the institution of the grand jury — in many ways, a relic of another time that must be modernized and updated to meet the complex challenges of today’s justice system,’” according to the Albany’s Times-Union.
This week, every middle and high school student in Akron, Ohio, is getting a glossy, two-sided card giving them suggestions for dealing with police.
It's a collaboration between an anti-violence youth group and the city's police department.
The "You and the Law" cards begin with the big picture: Stay out of trouble. And then a rapid succession of 15 points — control your emotions, answer questions about your identity, put your hands on the steering wheel in plain sight.
The back of the card advises students to report police misconduct and includes phone numbers to call.
That's the thing. I'm sure I've demonstrated I'm pretty sympathetic towards cops, but directives such as "don't mouth off" in a sheet which claims to inform you of your rights just frosts my ass.
You have a right to mouth off. It's in the ****ing constitution. You can advise someone it's a bad idea, but if it's a bad idea then that's the cop's fault.
As an aside, I read a blog by someone who's on the TSA shitlist, and has decided to be as big an asshole possible in return.
He claims one of the best moves to pull on an authority figure trying to bully you is to be silent. It enrages them. Similarly, the one time the TSA got the best of him was when he started to yell at a TSA agent to repack his bag after a search. She met his increasingly loud and angry demands with silence, and ultimately just walked away from this person who was now screaming his head off.
That's the thing. I'm sure I've demonstrated I'm pretty sympathetic towards cops, but directives such as "don't mouth off" in a sheet which claims to inform you of your rights just frosts my ass.
You can put that statement on your toe tag or hospital admission sheet. In spirit, I agree, but if you are more at risk getting police attention, they can tack on some surplus charge (e. g. resisting arrest) which will only be reduced if you behave.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
Speaking as a cop, defiance is okay by me. In terms of being mouthy, I give as good as I get and enjoy a good amount of banter. Abuse is where I bristle, run your mouth if you want, but if you: spit on, bite, kick, slap, punch, or claw me, you'll be closely inspecting the pavement.
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character." - M.L.King Jr
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character." - M.L.King Jr
The more this man talks the more he exposes just how much he was in the tank for Darren Wilson ....
There are times when transparency can come back to bite you.
Exhibit A: Bob McCulloch, St. Louis County prosecuting attorney. McCulloch's decision to release hundreds of pages of transcripts has not, as he had hoped, satisfied those critics who accuse the seven-term prosecutor of mishandling (or outright manipulating) the grand-jury investigation of former Ferguson officer Darren Wilson. In November, a grand jury failed to indict Wilson for the shooting death of unarmed black teen Michael Brown.
"I find it hard to understand how anyone can complain that we gave this grand jury too much information," McCulloch told a crowd Friday, when he found himself on the defensive throughout much of a symposium on "Policing Post-Ferguson" held at Saint Louis University's School of Law.
"Maybe I'm missing something," he mused. "You may not like the evidence, you may pick it apart, and I expect that on any kind of case, but it's right there in front of you."
Those comments came during the question-and-answer session of McCulloch's presentation, after his initial remarks were interrupted by protesters singing "black lives matter" and staging a trial that ended with a woman dressed in a judge's robe declaring McCulloch "guilty" for his perceived role in engineering Wilson's non-indictment.
But aside from the protest theatrics, the most revealing of McCulloch's statements came when SLU Law professor Jesse Goldner asked him why he did not instruct assistant prosecutors Kathi Alizadeh and Sheila Whirley to cross-examine Wilson, as they did with other witnesses who testified before the grand jury. It's a discrepancy that many noted after the grand jury transcripts were first released, and it's included among the various criticisms listed in a formal bar complaint filed against McCulloch early last month.
Originally Posted by @SLUKnowsLaw via Twitter
audience claps for Prof Goldner's question: why was every witness crossed but not Wilson? this is not what we teach at #SLULaw #ThinBlueLine
McCulloch said he didn't have a problem with the way his prosecutors handled Wilson. Every witness is different, he said, and lawyers frequently change up their tactics depending on the witness' reaction to questioning. But he didn't stop there.
Somewhat surprisingly, McCulloch then pointed out a glaring weakness in the same grand-jury system he'd just been defending:
"I would love to have the target of a criminal investigation in the grand jury every time, in every case," he said. "But with most lawyers, we don't even bother asking them because we know what the answer is, and the answer is, 'Are you nuts? I'm not putting our guy on the grand jury.'"
McCulloch continued: "So when we get a guy on the grand jury, the tendency is to let them talk. Because they understand, they've been advised, they've met with their attorneys and they're told 'Look, any question, anything at all, you tell them to hang on a minute, I'm going to go talk to my lawyer and we're out of here.' So once you got a guy on the grand jury, you want to keep him in the grand jury."
Essentially, McCulloch was saying that even if he'd wanted his prosecutors to cross-examine the details of Wilson's narrative -- such as Wilson's description of how Brown was "bulking up to run through the shots, like it was making him mad that I'm shooting at him" -- they couldn't, not without risking Wilson simply leaving the stand. Wilson wouldn't have that option in a formal trial.
I want you guys to just let that marinate for a bit. Darren Wilson testified before the Grand Jury that Mike Brown was "bulking up" to run through a hail of bullets being shot at him like he was Super Negro or something. And STL County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch allowed that cockamamie BS to go unchallenged by his prosecutors. In fact, his entire testimony went unchallenged and McCulloch's excuse is that Wilson wouldn't have testified at all otherwise. Seriously .... WTF?
I want you guys to just let that marinate for a bit. Darren Wilson testified before the Grand Jury that Mike Brown was "bulking up" to run through a hail of bullets being shot at him like he was Super Negro or something. And STL County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch allowed that cockamamie BS to go unchallenged by his prosecutors. In fact, his entire testimony went unchallenged and McCulloch's excuse is that Wilson wouldn't have testified at all otherwise. Seriously .... WTF?
Running what the article describes as a "CIA Black Site"
Keeping arrestees out of official booking databases.
Beating by police, resulting in head wounds.
Shackling for prolonged periods.
Denying attorneys access to the “secure” facility.
Holding people without legal counsel for between 12 and 24 hours, including people as young as 15.
At least one man was found unresponsive in a Homan Square “interview room” and later pronounced dead.
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