Another "I can't breath" death: Police Reform & Protests in the USA

[Themius]

Oh look... officer and public officials donating to kyle rittenhouse and and terror group proud boys.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...te-data-breach

US police and public officials donated to Kyle Rittenhouse, data breach reveals
Officers and officials also donated to fundraisers for far-right activists and fellow officers accused of shooting black Americans

A data breach at a Christian crowdfunding website has revealed that serving police officers and public officials have donated money to fundraisers for accused vigilante murderers, far-right activists, and fellow officers accused of shooting black Americans.

In many of these cases, the donations were attached to their official email addresses, raising questions about the use of public resources in supporting such campaigns.


The breach, shared with journalists by transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets, revealed the details of some donors who had previously attempted to conceal their identities using GiveSendGo’s anonymity feature, but whose identifying details the website preserved.

The beneficiaries of donations from public officials include Kyle Rittenhouse, who stands accused of murdering two leftwing protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last August. Rittenhouse traveled with weapons from neighboring Illinois to, by his own account, offer armed protection to businesses during protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

Rittenhouse, who became a cause célèbre across conservative media throughout late 2020, and was even supported by then president Donald Trump, held a fundraiser on GiveSendGo billed as a contribution to his legal defense. According to data from the site, he raised $586,940 between 27 August last year and 7 January .

Among the donors were several associated with email addresses traceable to police and other public officials.

One donation for $25, made on 3 September last year, was made anonymously, but associated with the official email address for Sgt William Kelly, who currently serves as the executive officer of internal affairs in the Norfolk police department in Virginia.

That donation also carried a comment, reading: “God bless. Thank you for your courage. Keep your head up. You’ve done nothing wrong.”

The comment continued: “Every rank and file police officer supports you. Don’t be discouraged by actions of the political class of law enforcement leadership.”

Another Rittenhouse donor using an official email address was Craig Shepherd, who public records show is a paramedic in Utah. This donor gave $10 to Rittenhouse on 30 August.

Donations also came to Rittenhouse associated with official email addresses for Keith Silvers, and employee of the city of Huntsville, Alabama, and another $100 was associated with the official address of Michael Crosley, an engineer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a body which is charged with maintaining the US’s nuclear weapons stockpile.

Meanwhile, several Wisconsin police officers donated to a fundraiser, “Support Rusten Sheskey”, held for the Kenosha police department officer whose shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, led to the protests that drew Rittenhouse to the city.

Two $20 donations to Sheskey’s fund were associated with email addresses of a pair of lieutenants in Green Bay, Wisconsin’s police department. One, given under the name, “GBPD Officer”, was tied to an address associated with Chad Ramos, a training lieutenant in the department; another anonymous donation was associated with Keith A Gehring, who is listed as a school resources officer lieutenant.

Another donation to Sheskey was associated with the official email address of officer Pat Gainer of the Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin police department. Given under the screen name “PPPD Motor 179”, the donation also carried the comment: “Stay strong brother.”

About 32 more donations, totaling more than $5,000, came to Sheskey from private email addresses associated with Kenosha officers, but under badge numbers rather than names.

More anonymous donations on the site came from city employees of Houston, Texas, who were objecting to the actions of the then police chief, Art Acevedo, who fired four Houston police officers after they shot and killed a man, Nicolas Chavez, who was on his knees, and in an apparent mental health crisis.

One anonymous donation of $100 was associated with the official address of that city’s fire chief, Samuel Peña, who has himself faced recent employee revolts over cost-cutting, but who has been publicly supportive of Acevedo, describing him in a tweet as a “brother & partner in Public Safety” in March, when Acevedo announced that he would be taking up an appointment as Miami’s chief of police.

Another anonymous donation of $400 was attributed in site data to an email linked to Chris Andersen and carried the comment: “I think that Chief Acevedo is part of the ‘unrecognized form of police corruption’ that Chris Anderson [sic] wrote about in his book’. Hang in there guys!!!”

[Belize]

@docterfreeze

So what's up man, couldn't a group of strong male officers handle a 13 y/o?

What's your excuse for more police gunning down civilians this time?

[Themius]

@docterfreeze

So what's up man, couldn't a group of strong male officers handle a 13 y/o?

What's your excuse for more police gunning down civilians this time?

Too brown.

[jonnysensible]

at this point you'd be better off having a gun fight with a cop who pulled you over, more chance to survive.

[Teriz]

So, the President of the Chicago Police Union, better start fucking updating his resume, because he was stupid enough to go on fucking Cuomo Prime Time on CNN, and this son of a bitch, actually called the shooting of the unarmed 13 year old fucking "100% justified" and "that the officer's actions were actually heroic".

This motherfucker is about to be bounced out of that job faster than the cop took to actually tell the kid to put his empty hands up. I hope Lightfoot fires his fucking ass.

https://www.mediaite.com/crime/presi...tually-heroic/

This isn't the first time he has had a ton of calls for him to resign, this dumbass literally had people calling for him to resign 2 months and 3 months ago when I tried to find the video on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...+catanzara+cnn

Wonder if this bastard has a white hood in his closet next to his Nazi flag.

That guy has no remorse for the murder of a child. That's fucking despicable.

[Belize]

at this point you'd be better off having a gun fight with a cop who pulled you over, more chance to survive.

And if you kill a few of them and you're white, they'll fund your legal fees and give you a medal to boot!

[Endus]

at this point you'd be better off having a gun fight with a cop who pulled you over, more chance to survive.

Honestly, it's getting close to the point where firing on police could be justified as legal self defense, given the threat officers pose to innocent people.

[Deus Mortis]

Was surprised to see Don Lemon actually come to the defense of the cop who shot the 13 year old.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...082648436.html

[Edge-]

Was surprised to see Don Lemon actually come to the defense of the cop who shot the 13 year old.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...082648436.html

If someone's running with a gun and they turn around, police officers have to make decisions in split seconds.

And the officer objectively made the wrong call. You don't get a mulligan when you accidentally shoot and kill an unarmed person whom you are commanding to stop and show their hands, after the suspect stops and shows their hands. One strike and you're out, period.

[Endus]

And the officer objectively made the wrong call. You don't get a mulligan when you accidentally shoot and kill an unarmed person whom you are commanding to stop and show their hands, after the suspect stops and shows their hands. One strike and you're out, period.

I'll defend an officer if they're shooting an active shooter, or chasing someone who's armed and who turns to confront them. In those situations, the officer is effectively choosing between the death of the offender, or the death of themselves or some innocent bystander.

A case like this? Nobody was about to die. It wasn't a choice to kill an offender to save the life of another. It's just a choice to kill an offender. That the offender was 13 is just extra-gross icing on the murder cake.

[Twdft]

SO what do we think is the solution to police?

A good start would be better training. Depending on state it takes at least 2.5 years to be a grunt and 3 years to be an officer in Germany.

But IMO the real solution goes much much deeper. Your problem is, that American society believes deadly violence to be a valid problem solving strategy. Even with better background checks and other gun control measures you will have too much death as long as the 2A mentality is alive.

[ghotihook]

I'll defend an officer if they're shooting an active shooter, or chasing someone who's armed and who turns to confront them. In those situations, the officer is effectively choosing between the death of the offender, or the death of themselves or some innocent bystander.

A case like this? Nobody was about to die. It wasn't a choice to kill an offender to save the life of another. It's just a choice to kill an offender. That the offender was 13 is just extra-gross icing on the murder cake.

He had a gun, did the cops see him throw it? I am not saying the cops are innocent but if someone I knew had a gun quickly turned at me after running away I would assume it was to shoot me. I don't think this is remotely as bad as the other recent cops.

[Edge-]

He had a gun, did the cops see him throw it? I am not saying the cops are innocent but if someone I knew had a gun quickly turned at me after running away I would assume it was to shoot me. I don't think this is remotely as bad as the other recent cops.

Not as blatant, but the officer ordered him to stop and turn around...which he did...with nothing in his hands. So he literally complied with the cop and still got shot. That's not supposed to happen.

[Endus]

He had a gun, did the cops see him throw it? I am not saying the cops are innocent but if someone I knew had a gun quickly turned at me after running away I would assume it was to shoot me. I don't think this is remotely as bad as the other recent cops.

I don't consider him "having a gun" to be enough.

I wouldn't consider it enough in Canada.

In a country like the USA where "having a gun" is literally a highly-protected Constitutional right, it's pants-screamingly wrongheaded. Killing someone because they're armed, in the USA, is effectively a direct violation of their Constitutional rights. It's not much different from killing someone for speaking out against the political leaders in charge (which would be a violation of free speech, the 1st Amendment).

[Captain N]

Not as blatant, but the officer ordered him to stop and turn around...which he did...with nothing in his hands. So he literally complied with the cop and still got shot. That's not supposed to happen.

You know it doesn't matter what the person who winds up dead did, right? The same people who bleat about compliance in a discussion about Daunte Wright are now using entirely different arguments to justify Adam Toledo being gunned down. As long as the "right people" by their standards are the one who get gunned down by police the more they'll keep licking their boots.

[cubby]

He had a gun, did the cops see him throw it? I am not saying the cops are innocent but if someone I knew had a gun quickly turned at me after running away I would assume it was to shoot me. I don't think this is remotely as bad as the other recent cops.

The bigger issue is that the child didn't have a gun when he was murdered. Which is both the beginning and the end of the conversation. The officer involved should be in shackles right now - not getting a paid vacation.

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In a country like the USA where "having a gun" is literally a highly-protected Constitutional right, it's pants-screamingly wrongheaded. Killing someone because they're armed, in the USA, is effectively a direct violation of their Constitutional rights. It's not much different from killing someone for speaking out against the political leaders in charge (which would be a violation of free speech, the 1st Amendment).

And this is a separate but very solid point. Since we have a vaunted right to a gun, turning around and having one shouldn't be cause for getting murdered.

[s_bushido]

You know it doesn't matter what the person who winds up dead did, right? The same people who bleat about compliance in a discussion about Daunte Wright are now using entirely different arguments to justify Adam Toledo being gunned down. As long as the "right people" by their standards are the one who get gunned down by police the more they'll keep licking their boots.

They did the same thing with Breonna Taylor. You remember: the person who was murdered in her home because she "chose to associate with her vile criminal scumbag thug boyfriend!!!"

[postman1782]

That guy has no remorse for the murder of a child. That's fucking despicable.

This isn't the first time he is being called to resign, I posted a list of videos about him being called to resign. This racist mother fucker needs to be bounced out of the fucking country for all I fucking care.

- - - Updated - - -

He had a gun, did the cops see him throw it? I am not saying the cops are innocent but if someone I knew had a gun quickly turned at me after running away I would assume it was to shoot me. I don't think this is remotely as bad as the other recent cops.

HE HAD HIS FUCKING HANDS UP AND NOTHING IN THEM. How is this so fucking hard for you to fucking understand. The cop told him to put his hands up, he did, he complied, and guess what. HE STILL GOT FUCKING SHOT FOR IT. How the fuck do you think this isn't as bad? When in fact, this was, BY ALL FUCKING MEASURE, WORSE for the fucking cop.

[Blur4stuff]

Based on my personal interactions with right wingers, they honestly do not care if black/brown people are gunned down. They will always find a way to excuse it. Doesn't matter what the circumstances are. I grew up around lots of confederate loving racists. It would be perfectly fine with them if all of "those" people were killed and/or kicked out of the country.

This isn't something that's discussed in the mainstream and I don't expect it will be. No amount of discussion over police training, tactics, accountability, etc... will change what the actual problem is. A significant portion of Americans do not see these "others" as actual human beings. They see them more like animals and not the family dog kind of animal.

Every single time in my life that something like this has happened, they always, *Always*, jump to a reason why it's fine that the person died. Doesn't matter how true it is. Drugs, gangs, outside late at night, whatever... they will always do this because they don't think those people deserve to keep living anyways.

If this seems crazy or too far, just consider the past five years with Trump and his supporters. Millions of Americans do think that way to some degree.

[Machismo]

He had a gun, did the cops see him throw it? I am not saying the cops are innocent but if someone I knew had a gun quickly turned at me after running away I would assume it was to shoot me. I don't think this is remotely as bad as the other recent cops.

Carrying a firearm is a constitutionally-protected right. So is not having one in his hands when he was shot.