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

[sircaw]

The irony of calling other people disingenuous when you were adamant that we needed to wait for a crystal clear video, and now you're behaving like this over a low res picture.

It's a hell of a lot more than a low res picture, and you know that sheep.

- - - Updated - - -

Not in the least. See, I’m still waiting for the actual footage and not single frames. You know, what you were lecturing everyone about you sad little poster.

What a great day haha

[gondrin]

What's interesting to me is this line -



which is from the police...what victim are they talking about? Her? No...one of the officers? Well...not sure what they were a victim of? Someone else? Well no, the police aren't even alleging she used the weapon, just that she had it and vaguely pointed it in their direction.

Who the fuck is this "victim"?

The victim is the public not having the knowledge to make an informed decision. Or my brain reading some of the posts on this.

[Deus Mortis]

https://www.kansascity.com/news/loca...262096057.html
Woman shot by KC police not pregnant, local reverend says, contradicting witness statement

The 26-year-old woman shot and seriously injured by Kansas City police on Friday is not pregnant, according to a local faith leader who said he is working with her family.

Leonna Hale was shot and seriously injured by two officers in the parking lot of a Family Dollar store near Sixth Street and Prospect Ave.

A witness said she heard Hale tell police she was pregnant moments before she was shot.

“She is not, in fact, pregnant,” Rev. Timothy Hayes, pastor of the 24-hour Faith Training Center in Kansas City, said Thursday.

Hale’s shooting sparked outrage and national attention after a witness filmed the aftermath of the shooting and said police had shot an unarmed pregnant woman.

Hale was taken to a local hospital after the shooting. Her medical condition remained stable as of Wednesday.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said in a statement Wednesday that a review of the police body camera videos showed that Hale “continually displayed a weapon during her encounter with police officers” before she was shot.

The prosecutor’s office also released an image showing Hale with what appeared to be a firearm in her right hand.

She was charged with unlawful firearm possession, exhibiting a firearm and resisting arrest.

On Thursday, Hale’s mother, along with civil rights activists including Hayes called on authorities to release the videos from the shooting.

Edit:
https://fox4kc.com/news/prosecutor-m...to-was-edited/
Prosecutor, mayor reject claims that KC police shooting photo was edited

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office said a body camera photo released Wednesday in connection with a police shooting is not doctored.

Kansas City Missouri, police shot and wounded a carjacking suspect when they said she pointed a gun at officers May 27.

Now, 26-year-old Leonna Hale faces multiple charges, including exhibiting a weapon.

Despite the photo showing a gun, not everyone is convinced it’s real.

“That photo is exactly what it is,” Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Michael Mansur said. “It’s an image pulled from the body cam. That’s all it is.”

Mansur said that’s why prosecutor Jean Peters Baker showed community stakeholders a video of the body camera footage.

“This is just one incident. This is just one step among many on this journey for us to find healing as well as open up communication between the community and the criminal justice system,” AdHoc Group Against Crime President Damon Daniel said.

Daniel was one of the people who were in a recent meeting and saw the video.

Court documents say Hale had a gun and refused to follow officers’ commands the night of the shooting.
Kansas City, Missouri, police were helping Kansas City, Kansas, officers with a reported armed carjacking.

When KCPD officers drove up to the stolen van with Hale and another man inside, they said the man ran off and Hale got out of the van pointing a gun and ignored officers when they told her to drop it, court records say.

“We don’t operate in a vacuum,” Mansur said. “We have to show our evidence to the court. We have to present our evidence to the defense attorney. We have to present our evidence to the defendant.”

Mayor Quinton Lucas also saw the body camera video.

“I think any claim that suggests both the prosecutor who has indicted police in the past, obtained convictions, the police department, highway patrol, the mayor, anybody has seen this video is lying, is ridiculous,” Lucas said.

It does appear as the police are not stone walling this as they have already shown the bodycam video to the mayor, and to the community stakeholders.

Edit 2:
https://www.kmbc.com/article/kansas-...image/40181400
KC mayor, FOP president talk about releasing bodycam image after woman shot by officers

Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas on Thursday told KMBC that he watched the police body camera video of the shooting. Lucas viewed the video in his capacity as a member of Kansas City's Police Board of Commissioners.

"There were a lot of things being said almost immediately after this shooting, many of which were inaccurate," Lucas said.

The mayor called for the release of the body camera video after Friday night's shooting.


While the prosecutor did not release the full video, she released a body camera image of Hale holding a handgun.

"Regardless of what rumors have been spread truth is she had a gun," Lucas said. "The truth is that she did not listen to the commands. And the truth is that now she's been charged."

Kansas City Fraternal Order of Police President Brad Lemon said any rumors that police or prosecutors doctored the image of the woman holding the gun are simply not true. He said body camera's internal storage system compresses images to create more storage.

Lemon praised the prosecutor for pressing charges and releasing a camera image. He also praised the mayor's handling of the situation, calling early reports of one witness' recollection of the shooting without further fact-finding irresponsible.

"He watched the video. He did exactly what he should do, which is, you know, the truth is the truth. Thankfully, I think we're getting this under control and people are starting to realize that this what was said on Friday is not true," Lemon said.

Lucas told KMBC he would like to see more body camera video in future investigations come out sooner while balancing the rights of defendants.

Lemon said he believes Missouri law is sufficient that requires a judge to order a body camera video's release.

[tehdang]

https://www.kansascity.com/news/loca...262096057.html
Woman shot by KC police not pregnant, local reverend says, contradicting witness statement

Contradicting witness statement ... this had better not have been a sympathy play, to upsell "Police shoot black woman" to "Police shoot unarmed, pregnant black woman." But still early reports and all.

It does appear as the police are not stone walling this as they have already shown the bodycam video to the mayor, and to the community stakeholders.

At the very least, release the video at the conclusion of the trial.

I support the greater awareness that police officers, their department and chief, and police union officials and politicians may stonewall requests for transparency in the pursuit of corruptly shielding officers from criminal lawsuit and police departments from civil penalties. This cause is not aided by presuming every cop shooting is part of that specific trend. The presumptions that confirm our own biases are the nastiest.

[Endus]

This cause is not aided by presuming every cop shooting is part of that specific trend. The presumptions that confirm our own biases are the nastiest.

What's happening, here, is that cops are no longer being offered the benefit of the doubt when it comes to them having committed or attempted a homicide.

They're being treated like literally everyone else in society in such a circumstance.

But apparently you've got a problem with that.

[draynay]

This cause is not aided by presuming every cop shooting is part of that specific trend.

Feel free to skip this thread if you don't like it.

[Deus Mortis]

Only update that I seem to have found today is that she was released from the hospital, had a court appointment, was then booked into jail and then bonded out. Her next court hearing is on the 9th.
https://fox4kc.com/news/woman-shot-b...ears-in-court/

[tehdang]

Feel free to skip this thread if you don't like it.

I've got to inform myself on the motivations and true belief of people so eager to associate event with trend. He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.

[s_bushido]

the motivations and true belief of people so eager to associate event with trend

The only "true belief" is that the police are no longer going to be taken at their word. Which is a good thing. Objectively. If a society is going to give these people the power over the lives of its citizens that US police currently enjoy, they must be held to the highest possible standard. Which has been the point of this shit all along. But no one is surprised that you weren't paying attention.

[Edge-]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...ings-drowning/

Sean Bickings pleaded for help as he struggled to stay afloat in a reservoir in Tempe, Ariz., late last month. But Tempe police officers watched without intervening as Bickings went underwater and did not come back up, according to city officials and a transcript of body-camera footage.

“I’m going to drown. I’m going to drown,” said Bickings, 34, according to a transcript of video from the May 28 incident released by city officials.

“Okay, I’m not jumping in after you,” an officer, identified as Officer 1 in the transcript, said moments later, after directing Bickings to grab onto a bridge.

“Please help me,” Bickings said. “Please, please, please.”

Soon after, Bickings drowned, according to a Friday news release by city officials.

Now, three Tempe police officers have been put on “non-disciplinary paid administrative leave” as the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the Scottsdale Police Department investigate the officers’ response at the city of Tempe’s request, city officials said. The city has not released the names of the officers.

In a statement, Police Chief Jeff Glover and City Manager Andrew Ching called Bickings’s death a “tragedy.” Glover met with Bickings’s mother last week, according to officials.

The Tempe Officers Association, the city’s police union, did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Sunday.

Man, being a cop is the best way to get a paycheck, union protections, and legal protection for just standing around not doing your job.

[Attackrabbit]

We've had similar, possibly worse situations, over here. Can't remember it exactly but within recent years something along the lines of a child in difficulties in a (knee deep to an adult) duck pond and some police just watching them die because they didn't have the required Health and Safety training to go into said pretty shallow duck pond :s

[Deus Mortis]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...ings-drowning/



Man, being a cop is the best way to get a paycheck, union protections, and legal protection for just standing around not doing your job.

Uhh what do you expect officers to actually do in that situation. He literally swam away from edge and from the cops location, and the vast majority of cops are not trained in water rescue. Unless you're trained, a drowning person panicking can easily drown the person trying to rescue. Ontop of the above we don't even know if these cops actually know how to swim in the first place.

Edit: For me I am not going to blame them for not going in at all, however I do wish they would of stopped him once they saw him going for the railing, it was exactly like when people are getting ready to jump to kill themselves. That was the moment they failed to act.

[Lynarii]

Uhh what do you expect officers to actually do in that situation. He literally swam away from edge and from the cops location, and the vast majority of cops are not trained in water rescue. Unless you're trained, a drowning person panicking can easily drown the person trying to rescue. Ontop of the above we don't even know if these cops actually know how to swim in the first place.

Edit: For me I am not going to blame them for not going in at all, however I do wish they would of stopped him once they saw him going for the railing, it was exactly like when people are getting ready to jump to kill themselves. That was the moment they failed to act.

To add to this, the place that the guy jumped into was next to a dam, inside the safety barriers meant to keep even boats out. That would have been a dangerous rescue for a fully trained dive team with gear, sending three random police officers in after him would be straight up murder.

[gondrin]

To add to this, the place that the guy jumped into was next to a dam, inside the safety barriers meant to keep even boats out. That would have been a dangerous rescue for a fully trained dive team with gear, sending three random police officers in after him would be straight up murder.

There are certain areas, that if you go into them, you will not be rescued as it is a danger to all persons involved. One is in Chicago. It is called the Electrical Dispersal Barrier system and it is in the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal. Anyone that falls in or jumps in will die and you will not be rescued. Another is if you jump the fence at a zoo into a dangerous animal exhibit. You may get rescued but that is a big may and not guaranteed.

Basically, while I do say the police should put themselves in dangerous situations if a person is trying to hurt another person, if it is a situation that has an extremely low chance at rescue, even for experienced personnel, I wouldn't risk the lives of others because someone decided to do something stupid or outright dangerous.

[Masark]

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...al-memo-shows/

Seattle Police: "Yeah, we're not going to bother investigating rapes. We're too busy attacking homeless people."

[s_bushido]

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...al-memo-shows/

Seattle Police: "Yeah, we're not going to bother investigating rapes. We're too busy attacking homeless people."

Best part is, blame is probably going to fall on 'defund the police' despite electing politicians explicitly opposed to it...

[draynay]

Edit: For me I am not going to blame them for not going in at all, however I do wish they would of stopped him once they saw him going for the railing, it was exactly like when people are getting ready to jump to kill themselves. That was the moment they failed to act.

It all falls under the umbrella of sending people to deal with domestic disturbances who aren't, in any way, trained for them. Either buy fewer tanks and train them so they can recognize that going for a swim in a reservoir while emotionally disturbed is a bad idea, or train somebody else and send them. Same "defund the police" issues as always.

[Muzjhath]

It all falls under the umbrella of sending people to deal with domestic disturbances who aren't, in any way, trained for them. Either buy fewer tanks and train them so they can recognize that going for a swim in a reservoir while emotionally disturbed is a bad idea, or train somebody else and send them. Same "defund the police" issues as always.

Or make sure there is lots of lifesaving equipment on shore to throw out quickly incase of falls
Shit we've got around random town ponds in Sweden (like, a life ring)
And have police actively trained in use of said thing

[Deus Mortis]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/3m-settle...220051218.html
$3M settlement reached in lawsuit over Black man's death

A North Carolina sheriff's office announced a $3 million settlement on Monday in a lawsuit filed by the family of an unarmed Black man who was shot and killed in his car by sheriff’s deputies more than a year ago.

The family of Andrew Brown Jr. had filed a $30 million civil rights lawsuit in 2021, saying the man died because officers showed “intentional and reckless disregard of his life.”

Brown was killed on April 21 of last year by Pasquotank County sheriff’s deputies while they were serving drug-related warrants at his Elizabeth City home. Several deputies surrounded Brown in his BMW before his car backed up and moved forward. They fired several shots at and into his vehicle. He was killed by a bullet to the back of his head.

District Attorney Andrew Womble had said at a news conference last year that Brown used his car as a “deadly weapon,” causing deputies to believe it was necessary to use deadly force. But lawyers for the Brown family said the shooting was unjustified because Brown was trying to drive away — not toward the deputies and that he posed no threat. After viewing body camera footage of the shooting, they said Brown was sitting in his stationary car with his hands on the wheel when the first of numerous shots was fired.

The settlement was approved by the Pasquotank County Board of Commissioners. It includes a special $1 million appropriation to go along with $2 million from the county's insurance policy, which was supplied by the North Carolina Counties Liabilities Pool, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office provided to The Associated Press. That amount is at the limit of the policy.

The settlement was reached over several weeks last month in the case overseen by a federal magistrate in U.S. District Court in Raleigh, the news release said.

The county's payment resolves potential liability against the defendants and any individual officers who were either named or could be named as defendants in the lawsuit, the news release said. The family also entered into a stipulation in which it dismisses all claims against the defendants, namely Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten II and three sheriff's deputies, as well as other potential claims arising from Brown's death, the news release said.

Brown's children will share in the proceeds of the settlement as heirs of his estate, the sheriff's office said.

“Andrew Brown Jr. was a devoted father who wanted his children to have the things he didn't,” said a statement from the five attorneys representing his family. “While no settlement could ever fill the hole his death left in their hearts, this agreement is about providing for those children's futures, securing their education and ensuring their dreams didn't die with their father.”

At the time, the lawsuit filed by the Brown family was the latest in a string of federal civil rights lawsuits following high-profile police shootings of Black and brown people. Many ended in settlements that often included money but specified no admission of guilt. Some of the lawsuits end up in court where a jury can award massive settlements that are reduced on appeal.

An independent autopsy commissioned by the family said Brown was shot five times, including once in the back of the head. Family members who were privately shown a portion of the body camera video afterward said Brown was trying to drive away when he was shot. The shooting sparked days of protests in the city in rural northeastern North Carolina.

Multiple different bodycams of the incident in the article:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HYK9a3_XJY

[Edge-]

https://www.vox.com/23159672/supreme...atrol-immunity

The Supreme Court handed down a decision on Wednesday which effectively gives Border Patrol agents who violate the Constitution total immunity from lawsuits seeking to hold them accountable.

Justice Clarence Thomas’s majority opinion in Egbert v. Boule, moreover, has implications that stretch far beyond the border. Egbert guts a seminal Supreme Court precedent, Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents (1971), which established that federal law enforcement officers who violate the Constitution may be individually sued — and potentially be required to compensate their victims for their illegal actions.

Egbert is a severe blow to the broader project of police accountability. While it does not target lawsuits against state law enforcement officers who violate the Constitution, it all but eliminates the public’s ability to sue Border Patrol officers — and possibly all federal officers — who commit similar violations.

In fairness, Egbert does indicate that people who believe their rights were violated by federal law enforcement may file a grievance with the law enforcement agency that employs the officer who allegedly violated the Constitution. But such grievances will be investigated by other law enforcement officers, and no court or other agency can review a law enforcement officer’s decision to exonerate a fellow officer.

And, perhaps most importantly, Egbert most likely shuts down a civil rights plaintiff’s ability to be compensated if their rights are violated.

And the SCOTUS continues expanding the unaccountable police state while Republicans have zero interest in reigning it in in the slightest.

Every day we're getting increasingly fashy.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justi...a-state-police

The Justice Department announced today that is has opened a pattern or practice investigation into the Louisiana State Police (LSP). This civil investigation will assess whether LSP uses excessive force and whether it engages in racially discriminatory policing. The investigation will include a comprehensive review of LSP policies, training, supervision, and force investigations, as well as LSP’s systems of accountability, including misconduct complaint intake, investigation, review, disposition, and discipline.

“Protecting the civil rights of all Americans and building trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve are among the Justice Department’s most important responsibilities,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “This investigation, like all of our pattern or practice investigations, will seek to promote the transparency, accountability, and public trust that is essential to public safety.”

“Every American, regardless of race, has the right to constitutional policing,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. “Based on an extensive review of publicly available information and information provided to us, we find significant justification to investigate whether Louisiana State Police engages in excessive force and engages in racially discriminatory policing against Black residents and other people of color. The Justice Department stands ready to use every tool in our arsenal to confront allegations of misconduct and to ensure legitimacy during encounters with law enforcement.”

The investigation is being conducted pursuant to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which prohibits state and local governments from engaging in a pattern or practice of conduct by law enforcement officers that deprives individuals of rights protected by the Constitution or federal law. The statute allows the Department to remedy such misconduct through civil litigation. The Department will be assessing law enforcement practices under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as well as under the Safe Streets Act of 1968 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The investigation is separate from any federal criminal investigation of LSP troopers.

Prior to the announcement, Department officials informed Governor John Bel Edwards, Colonel Lamar Davis, and Deputy General Counsel Gail Holland of the investigation. They pledged to cooperate with the investigation. As part of this investigation, the Department officials will reach out to community groups and members of the public to learn about their experiences with LSP.

The Special Litigation Section of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of Louisiana will jointly conduct this investigation. Individuals with relevant information are encouraged to contact the Department of Justice via email at Community.Louisiana@usdoj.gov or by phone at (202) 353-0684. Individuals can also report civil rights violations regarding this or other matters using the Civil Rights Division’s reporting portal, available at civilrights.justice.gov.

Yay, more federal oversight and investigation into bad, abusive police forces is good.