As my colleague Liliana Segura noted on Twitter this morning, the documented killing of black Americans by police officers has become so routine that it is hard for even the racists who seek to justify the slaughter in online comment threads to keep up.
When you wake up to an asshole in your mentions rationalizing cop killings of black men but he's already one dead black man behind.
— Liliana Segura (@LilianaSegura) July 7, 2016
For the news media, one way to frame these stories as something new is to focus on the technology, which now makes it possible for eyewitnesses to record and disseminate the killings and for those outraged by the images instantly appearing on their screens to register their discontent without even looking up from their phones.
That’s why the first reports on the killing of Philando Castile, a 32-year-old cafeteria supervisor at a Montessori School in St. Paul, Minnesota, who was shot while reaching for his license during a traffic stop on Wednesday night, included a comment from a Facebook spokesperson. The aftermath of the shooting, as Castile bled to death in the front seat of a car, was streamed live on the social network from the phone of Castile’s distraught girlfriend.
The video stream starts just after the shooting, with images of Castile still strapped into his seat, his white T-shirt covered in blood, as his girlfriend says to him, “Stay with me.” (The video is reversed, like a reflection in a mirror, so that the injured driver appears to be on the right rather than the left of the car, apparently because the woman was using the phone’s forward-facing camera.)
“We got pulled over for a busted tail light in the back,” she explains. She adds that he is “licensed to carry” a gun, but was simply “trying to get his ID and his wallet out of his pocket and he let the officer know that he was, that he had a firearm and he was reaching for his wallet and the officer just shot him in his arm. We’re waiting for a backup.”
The officer outside the car then shouts at the woman to keep her hands where he can see them. As she says, “I will, sir, no worries, I will,” the camera pans across to reveal the officer standing outside the car, training his gun on the couple. He then appears to scream, “Fuck!”
The woman then resumes explaining what happened, saying, “He just shot his arm off; we got pulled over on Larpenteur,” a street in the Falcon Heights neighborhood of St. Paul. The officer, who sounds like he might be crying, then interrupts with his self-justification, screaming, “I told him not to reach for it, I told him to get his hand off it!” The woman replies: “You told him to get his ID, sir, you told him to get his driver’s license.”
“Oh my god, please don’t tell me he’s dead,” she then says. “Please don’t tell me my boyfriend just went like that.”
Moments later, as the police backup arrives and the woman is told to leave the car, she can be heard asking about the 4-year-old girl who watched the whole scene unfold from the back seat. “Where’s my daughter? You got my daughter?”
As the woman was arrested, the phone was forced from her hand but kept recording, and she could be heard telling anyone who might have been watching the live stream, “They threw my phone, Facebook.” The stream continues for nearly eight more minutes, recording her interaction with the officers and the face of her daughter once they were reunited in the back seat of a police car.
Near the end of the clip, as the woman breaks down, screaming and crying, a transcript of the video shows that her young daughter tries to comfort her.
“That’s the police officer over there that did it with the black on,” she says. “I can’t really do shit because they have me handcuffed.”
“It’s OK, mommy,” her daughter says.
“I can’t believe they just did this,” she adds, before screaming and breaking down in sobs.
“It’s OK, I’m right here with you,” the little girl says.
Castile was taken to a hospital in Minneapolis, where he died a short time later. His family told WCCO, a CBS affiliate, that the video was streamed to Facebook by his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, who added just one word of commentary: “Police.”
Valerie Castile, the dead man’s mother, said she had no doubt he told the police officer he had a firearm and was legally permitted to carry it. “I’m sure he did, because that’s something we always discussed: comply. That’s the key thing, the key thing in order to try to survive being stopped by the police is to try to comply. Whatever they ask you to do, do it. Don’t say nothing, just do whatever they want you to do.”
“So what’s the difference in complying,” she asked, “and you get killed anyway?”
Valerie Castile: What's the difference in complying if you get killed anyway? #PhilandoCastile https://t.co/oJZvYtI0b0
— New Day (@NewDay) July 7, 2016
“They’re still saying there’s no profiling,” she added. “But it is, it is. We’re being hunted, every day. It’s a silent war against African-American people, as a whole.”
#PhilandoCastille mother on @NewDay "We're being hunted everyday. It's a silent war against African Americans." https://t.co/SDYuEzmrq8
— Neel Khairzada (@NeelCNN) July 7, 2016
Reynolds told the press later that she was held by the police until 5 a.m. and her boyfriend had done nothing threatening.
Philando Castile’s girlfriend describes the moment MN police officer fatally shot him. https://t.co/LruHqEpviFhttps://t.co/v8qjyEVUuJ
— ABC News (@ABC) July 7, 2016
The outraged reaction on social networks was reinforced for many by the fact that many people who watched the video were still shocked and traumatized from viewing another clip, one that showed the fatal shooting of another African-American man, Alton Sterling, whose name was converted into a trending hashtag one day earlier after his killing by officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
"Because everyone is getting acquitted, it's open season." Valerie Castile mother of #PhilandoCastile cnn
— Judith Browne Dianis (@jbrownedianis) July 7, 2016
He worked at a school. No criminal record. Legally owned a gun. Obeyed all orders. Killed anyway. #PhilandoCastilehttps://t.co/eTOtrtmMHt
— NovelistPrice (@Novelistprice) July 7, 2016
This is a Nightmare in Reality wtf?? Police need a overhaul in USA.They are scared Watchdogs of Govt Law out of hand https://t.co/y2p4eR4HVr
— Chuck D (@MrChuckD) July 7, 2016
From a parent at the school where #PhilandoCastile worked. #FalconHeightsShooting pic.twitter.com/j1qP6jZ3hO
— Wendy R (@WendyRMonkey) July 7, 2016
Philando Castile worked as the cafeteria supervisor at my children's school. Everyone there called him Phil, and he was widely beloved. ...
— William McGeveran (@BillMcGev) July 7, 2016
[cont'd] So this morning before getting dressed we had to explain to kids that friendly gentle Phil had been killed by the police. #RIP
— William McGeveran (@BillMcGev) July 7, 2016
less than 24 hours. my lord, im so tired. #AltonSterling #PhilandoCastile
— Tracy Clayton (@brokeymcpoverty) July 7, 2016
You look at what happened to #AltonSterling & think there's no way they'll get away with it, but then you remember every single time before.
— ? (@fkakarla) July 6, 2016
Meanwhile in Baton Rouge people are taking a stand against the two cops that killed #AltonSterling pic.twitter.com/8ScTA2nKgw
— Tha Celebritea News (@thacelebritea) July 6, 2016
The first, distressing video of Sterling being shot at point-blank range, while being restrained by two officers outside a market where he was selling CDs, was uploaded to the web by a local activist group that tracks police violence, which also made an old story seem somehow new.
Furious.
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) July 6, 2016
The despicable Baton Rouge police murder of #AltonSterling - a 37 y/o Black man who was selling CD's. pic.twitter.com/x2wNtndLqB
That visceral record of what looked very like an extrajudicial execution was quickly followed by an even more graphic, close-up view recorded by the owner of the Triple S Food Mart, Abdullah Muflahi, which cast doubt on the officers’ claim that Sterling was shot while reaching for a gun in his pocket.
Here is a close up of this cold blooded murder:(where is the gun:( Please don't watch unless ur ready #AltonSterling pic.twitter.com/lvKPcjKbwQ
— Nathan Allen (@workwthecoach) July 6, 2016
Muflahi also told the Baton Rouge Advocate that, as his video showed, Sterling was not holding a gun when he was fatally wounded.
Another video: Abdullah Muflahi, owner of Triple S store, says officer killed his friend, Alton Sterling pic.twitter.com/xRDeNOBCSA
— Maya Lau (@mayalau) July 5, 2016
Muflahi’s lawyer told The Advocate that the store owner had not turned his video over to the police because he doesn’t trust the Baton Rouge Police Department, but he did provide the clip to the FBI.
Sterling’s death was followed by heartbreaking images of his 15-year-old son breaking down on live television.
"I want my daddy": #AltonSterling’s 15-year-old son breaks down in tears https://t.co/TVgR3ilnuJ https://t.co/wx1HWDoMs9
— CNN (@CNN) July 6, 2016
The United States attorney in Baton Rouge, Walt Green, announced on Wednesday that his office and the FBI’s New Orleans Division had opened a civil rights investigation into the killing of Sterling.
OK, now there’s more information about Alton Sterling: http://www.inquisitr.com/3281381/alton-sterling-was-the-wrong-guy/ In previous comments I focused on how he appeared to move his hand down to reach for the gun, but according to this he was being tasered on the ground, leaving it entirely possible that this was an involuntary action, and that the police should have been aware of that. This story also casts doubt on whether Sterling was ever the man waving around a gun, if there even was one. Of course, that too is just one eyewitness. It is hard to truly understand an incident, and when we don’t trust the police or the juries, who is going to do it?
Stopping anyone for a broken tail light, headlight, dented fender, or whatever, should be discontinued.
The complaint should be sent by mail! After all: don’t they have the license plate already? Should a lot of money be wasted on chasing down a driver whose car has a broken light? He may not even be aware of it. What nonsense this whole policing has become. What a charade.
(Obviously stopping a driver and telling him/her that a light is out, is not going to be fixed then and there!! )
This cop’s action is simply disgusting. Everyone can see the fat cop pulling out his gun and shooting the victim who is already on the ground.
What a despicable action. This cop should be prevented from ever being having a job pretending to protect the public. Actually, he should be sent to jail and face a life long sentence for executing a deliberate murder.
Not too long ago cops were regarded as heroes in shining armor. Now they are regarded as the scum of the earth.
Cops should revolt against those who have tarnished their reputation. I know there are some cops who are not corrupted like these fat cops in this video, who can hardly fit into their uniforms. (Because of their overweight… aka corruption.)
Honest cops, who take their vocation and training seriously, should not tolerate this kind of behavior of their comrades, since the overall verdict does not discriminate between corrupt and honest.
Unjustified killings of innocent citizens reflect on all of them. Since this has happened too often in the recent past, cops are regarded as scum, crooks, murderers, individuals lacking morals, and ethics, and having a low IQ.
HORRIBLE , !! Naõ consigo resumir em uma palabra o ocurrido ,cenas CHOCANTES ,Os dois form assesinados …. sorry não posso continuar ,me da muita trsiteza ,uma profunda tristeza
q sobrepasa meus limites de INDIGNACÂO ..—Minhas condolencias a HUMANIDADE !!! ..Quero JUSTIÇA ,junto minha voz . Pq Obama não se pronuncio com essas mortes da mesma crudeza q fez com os policias mortos ?????
When you have a police union that takes their officers for a fun-filled trip to Israel for training by the IDF these are the kinds of things that will continue to happen. That being said, the facebook page killedbypolice lists every police shooting that people send them or that they can find themselves and although they do not get every one they do catch a majority. They will list a link to the news article and give the deceased’s age, gender and race. When you extrapolate the stats you find that, in real numbers, more whites are killed by police than blacks, but, when contrasted in proportion to the crime rates of each group, whites are in fact far more likely to be killed by police than any other race, especially when it comes to violent criminal offenses. I’m not saying this to justify what is happening but point out there is not a systemic targeting of black people in this country. The msm is used to push this narrative but there is an agenda at work here. The only way for an oppressive gov’t. of an elite few to rule over many is to divide us. BLM is a Soro’s funded and controlled (among others) movement to do to us what he’s been doing his whole life – Ukraine being a recent example. If we can’t stop hating each other long enough to realize whats really happening, well, that’s exactly what they want isn’t it? Deray McKesson is one of the blm leaders and his email and twitter acct were hacked a couple wks back. The hacker dumped the data and what it purportedly showed was McKesson coordinating with gov’t. officials, possibly including AG Lynch, concerning “Operation Summer of Chaos”. The link to the story is below. I am an apolitical citizen who is trying to reveal what these globalist one – world – gov’t criminals are trying to wreak upon our civilization so please, before you let emotion take over do some research into what the elites wish to accomplish. Funny thing how this happens right when HRC is the main topic but, alas, no more. How convenient.
https://www.intellihub.com/operation-summer-of-chaos-obama-admin-black-lives-matter-plan/
I’ve been saying for a long time now that somebody is pushing for a race war in this country, and I don’t think it’s black people.
“MSM covers Police officer victims more than average citizens.”
Why is this?
What went on in Dallas has been non-stop coverage and will be for weeks to come. Chicago is wondering why they don’t get this type of attention EVERY WEEK when there are double the victims? Oh…..black on black crimes will not pursue the government’s agenda of a race war through divide and conquer tactics.”
Gotcha!!!!!
George Soros, Obama, and company are really trying to speed up Martial Law and indefinite detention in FEMA camps.
Here is the link….
https://info.publicintelligence.net/USArmy-InternmentResettlement.pdf
Mateo brought up San Diego police, which reminded me of a local story of relevance. I’m a white man who was in my teens & early 20s in San Diego in the 80s.
San Diego cops were absolutely horrible in the 80s. I’m not implying they became not-horrible after that, but let’s just say that the number of shocking incidents declined.
One reason there was no riot in San Diego in the 80s or 90s was because, amazingly, a black man who had taken a gun from a police officer and killed another one during a traffic stop in 1985 was acquitted by the jury! I do believe that tensions were high enough that a riot could have occurred if the jury had convicted Sagon Penn – something everyone expected would happen.
I remember that moment of the court decision well, as a moment of rejoicing, while meanwhile the local news absolutely flipped out at the supposed failure of the justice system.
Young whites in the town such as myself were very familiar with the ubiquity of blond mustached, beige uniformed cops and their utter contempt for anybody who did not fit the San Diego blond tanned & conservative mode. Punker friends told me of being picked up in Coronado and dropped into skid row, where they would perhaps be unsafe, as a lesson not to walk around beautiful Coronado dressed ugly punk rock.
Perhaps it is because the cops directed enough harassment and, yes, violence at whites as well as Mexican-Americans and blacks that some kind of reform ultimately happened? At the time I did think, if this is how they treat us in the placid suburbs and upscale beach communities, how bad do they act in Southeast San Diego, Golden Hill, National City, Chula Vista, El Cajon….?
Unfortunately, there’s no happy ending for the man who was acquitted. Read between the lines of this obituary, and know the local paper left out the part about proven-in-court ties between one of the cops involved and the Ku Klux Klan — seriously. This is the kind of thing that swayed the jury to believe Penn had been pulled over for his color and because he was driving a car that supposedly was too expensive for him. I am sharing this because I believe this story is of national historical significance, although it is obscure outside San Diego; needless to say, this obituary is just meant as an example of the best the local media could come up with circa 2002; more radical treatments are online as well but I don’t feel like combing through them this morning.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2002/jul/06/sagon-penn-couldnt-have-life/
testoing
Deschutes, u have (in my opinion) given the motive for the Dallas shooting of LEOs… I’m only surprised it didn’t happen sooner, I commented several hours ago that the US is heading for a bloodbath, …seems like you’re already there. Expect more of this from a disenfranchised society that sees violence as a reasonable reaction to the violence of government authority.
It serves no purpose if the other side here is going to be even more careless and violent than the cops. Yeah, you can blame cops for bringing stuff like selling cigarettes without tax stamps to physical confrontations in the street instead of just backing off minor shit and getting the culprit’s cable TV suspended until he goes down to the courthouse and pays his fine. But when a guy is waving a gun around, what are they supposed to do? When he is held down by two cops and he’s still reaching for his gun (that *is* fairly apparent from the video I linked below, not the ones being pushed by a blood-and-ratings-thirsty media), what are they supposed to do? Well, alright, they could have those Tasers they love to misuse and use them for something useful for a change. But that’s procedure beyond the individual cop, and they aren’t to blame for it.
And when people “fight back”, are they even bothering to try to make sense? We’re not seeing a crew of seasoned savvy terrorists here; we’re seeing idiots who can’t be bothered to figure out what they’re doing. We don’t see people out sniping at the prosecutors who went after Aaron Swartz or Justin Carter, or the cops from past high-profile police corruption cases in New York, or even the killers of recent BLM causes celebre. They just go out and shoot a cop, any cop, after some incident they haven’t researched, that nobody is really properly researching to put together all the data for so much as a Wikipedia article let alone a press and psy ops campaign. These attacks are lynch law, and not even good lynch law, doing to police what people say police do to blacks. You can say it’s an extreme case of people who gotta vent, but let’s put the emphasis there on vent, as in blow off steam until there’s no pressure left to turn an engine and pull a train. It makes a big whistling noise, then it’s over. They’ve solidified public opinion against them, made police procedural reforms a contentious political issue, and just plain failed to even figure out the causes of racial disparities in enforcement, let alone take action against them. It’s all one big cluster fuck. And if there’s anything a proper leftist ought to know about war, it’s not to go fight a war when you know it’s going to be one of those.
It is so very painful to watch the video. So sad that such grotesque injustice is still being done by trigger happy racist cops who act like Iraq military commandos. Even after Castile is dead in the car, the cop still has his gun aimed right at him just a few feet away outside the window! The cop was ready to put a few more rounds into Castile or his girlfriend if they made any sudden move. So fucking out of control, talk about state sponsored terrorism, this video is a fine example of it.
“Protect and Serve” used to be the motto of police departments around the country in the old days; but it is clearly time for a change. May I suggest “terrorize and murder”? Seems to fit much better, given police behavior shown in this video of Castille’s death, or so many others–as Mackey points out it’s hard to keep track given white cops keep killing more and more black people every week.
A law abiding black man is shot to death for obeying the officer’s commands as he tries to get his wallet out with driver’s license! Imagine that! And you know what comes next: the corrupt pro-police and anti-public American legal system will find “officer followed all necessary protocols” and will be found not guilty. If there is a grand jury, that too will be a sham, a whitewash, and “no guilty” verdict returned. It is so unjust, outrageous, this is state sponsored police state terrorism.
A cynical thought:
Alternative cop reaction: very calmly ask the black man (Castile) to get out his ID, the second the hand disappears out of sight — bang bang bang. bang. Then very calmly state to the woman (Castile’s fiance) filming: ma’am he was going for his gun; you keep your hands where I can see them.
Everyone of the blue lives matter folks would believe the cop believed that Castile was going for his gun and voila problem solved.
That will be future training protocol for all cops on how to take necessary and appropriate action against armed blacks. And like HRC, confidently and calmly repeat repeat repeat “I believed he was going for his gun.” Because unless the whole thing is caught on video, well, there’s a reasonable doubt that the cop wanted to arbitrarily murder some complying, law abiding, armed black man – no reasonable well trained cop would do such a thing.
A cop’s right to self defense is greater than a civilian’s – a right turned power? to be abused? And cops have automatic weapons now and military gear. The whole thing gets more unsettling the more scenarios that imagination can play out.
Was that essentially one of the grievances from the American colonies against the King?
“For protecting [armed enforcement], by a mock trial from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states.”
If you’re basing all of your assessment on the mere fact that the cop is white and the victim is black, then *you’re* the racist. Do you have any actual information in this case to suggest that Castile was targeted/killed -because- he was black?
Also, are you entirely unaware that cops of all colors kill people of all colors and those cops get off scot-free all the time?
I am convinced that cops, who act like this one in the video, are brain damaged as a result of their training .
There is no rational excuse for a sane person to act like that.
I am a Californian. I remember distinctly the differences between the Los Angeles Police Department’s militarization and policy of “ruling with an iron fist through a show of force” under Darryl Gates; compared to the effective “community policing” model adopted by the San Diego Police Department under then Norm Stamper. In ’92 when the riots broke out in LA, San Diego was as relatively as quiet and peaceful as a library. Night and Day. Unfortunately, those days are long, long gone. A militant, protectionst District Attorney, in concert with complete and totally inept leadership of our police chiefs has fueled increasing violence in the SDPD through the same pervasive lose, lose mentality of Gates LAPD of ruling through “force” and “fear”. Just like every other major American metropolis, “community policing” has just become some bullshit antiquated term thrown around after a murder is committed by an officer, and only feebly, at best, ever implemented in San Diego or in any other major city in the U.S. Our once proud cities have become racially intolerant cesspools of disregard and disrespect for the citizenry , that most definitely disproportionately discriminates against all people of color.
The burden falls directly on the Department of Justice and Lorretta Lynch is unfit and negligent. Having to bear witness to the Attorney General’s incompetence and anemic responses to these outrageous acts of murder is really no different than helplessly watching video after video of police officer after police officer, nationwide, ending yet another life of an American black man, and yet another, and ending yet another still. Lynch has nothing to show for her time in office and Eric Holder has nothing to show for his time in office either, especially in regards to the protection of our citizenry. Neither of them has addressed, nor is the Attorney General currently addressing the ubiquitous racism and the increasing violations of our civil rights that are now commonplace in police departments nationwide. Thanks in large part to inaction, and disregard.
Loretta Lynch has spent more time, has allocated more resources, and invested more taxpayer money into investigating, and most importantly (to her) obfuscating justice in favor of Hillary Clinton, than actually accomplishing ANYTHING of meaning or significance as Attorney General. She should be called upon to resign.
I agree. We are going to chuck Loretta Lynich over the Great Wall along with Eric Holder, Colin Powell and Big Chief.
I largely agree with the majority of what you’ve shared here. But I did want to comment on this bit:
Just like every other major American metropolis, “community policing” has just become some bullshit antiquated term thrown around after a murder is committed by an officer, and only feebly, at best, ever implemented in San Diego or in any other major city in the U.S.
Radley Balko, who has done yeoman’s work on the issue of police violence and militarization wrote this back in January 2015:
It is ironic, that this particular article – in praise of the efforts of a police department trying to do the right thing – was about the same city that last night experienced one of the most sustained and tragic attacks aimed at that same department.
After staying awake almost all night to watch that horror unfold, it is hard not to despair on this overcast morning that we will ever see an end to violence, no matter who it targets.
I really do blame the leftist MSM (Slate, Guardian, Huff Po, Salon etc) for trying to stoke a race war with their biased incendiary reporting. The Michael Brown case was a classic example. The MSM initially got all the details enocounter wrong (remember “hands up, don’t shot”?) because they were only interested in pushing a narrative and after the facts came out very few of them bothered to correct the record after the facts were in. The Washington Post being a rare example of journalistic intergetiy here. The fact of the matter is most people’s perception of issues like police violence are entirely shaped by biased reporting and not from personal experience.
Yup, you really nailed it, Whendovescry. Black people are shot and assaulted by police officers on an hourly basis daily, in every major city in the U.S. because of the main stream media. But not the Washington Post, they are scripture, the gospel written by the angels themselves.
(BTW Prince just rolled over in his grave knowing you used that term in conjunction along with such a patently insensitive and blatantly ignorant comment)
“Black people are shot and assaulted by police officers on an hourly basis daily, in every major city in the U.S. because of the main stream media.”
Thanks for proving my point. You’re understanding of the subject of police violence is completely absurd and based on race-baiting propaganda cooked up by upper class ivy league journalists who don’t know any cops, or black people, but have a material interest in stirring up race riots.
“Black people are shot and assaulted by police officers on an hourly basis daily…”
…so are white, hispanic, etc. people. You seem to display racially selective moral outrage. Why is that?
What a total, racist asshole you are. Have you no sense of decency or empathy in you? Hey, racist asshole: did you bother to watch the video? Or any of the other videos, like the one of the cop in North Carolina who shot the black guy in the back to death, then the cop came up to the dying black man and deliberately placed a taser next to the dying man’s body, not even once trying to do first aid? There is NO journalistic perspective in these videos you racist piece of shit: there are only FACTS: shooting a black man in the back for running away, all caught on video by a person who happened to be walking down the sidewalk at the time of this police murder. Oh, and by the way that police officer is now in jail for murder.
It is too bad there are racist assholes like you in this world. Go crawl back under your rock you worthless piece of racist, black hating shit.
“Oh, and by the way that police officer is now in jail for murder.”
Then the system presumably worked.
I never suggested that black people don’t get shot by cops, sometimes unjustly. In fact it happened near my neighborhood a few months back. A naked teen shot by a jumpy cop. In this case the cop was also black, so it didn’t receive nearly as much attention as these cases. Many years back a white friend of mine was also shot to death by the cops (coincidentally while naked) that case received virtually no press at all. Not even locally. There was no angle there.
Our country is headed toward a type of civil war. A sniper(s) has shot and killed cops in Dallas:
Yes… or a new declaration of independence; let freedom ring, or snap as it breaks the sound barrier — shot heard round the world.
Next: more tyranny as states declare martial law. There’s an interesting article in Virginia Law Review, “Civil Authority Versus Military” Apr. 1919 that I happened upon yesterday thinking about this…
Things could get really bad really quick in the U.S.
So killing a police officer = letting freedom ring?
And you call yourself a better person that the police you hate?
This is powerful.
https://twitter.com/BronwynJanse/status/751062058259484672
Superlike.
That officer hit the nail on the head IMHO. These killings: some can be attributed to racism but to me I attribute it more to fear. It doesn’t take much to become an officer, the training is only a few months long. If you fear the person you are pulling over, you are going to have a trigger finger.
But there is no real means to remove people like this from the force.
But there is no real means to remove people like this from the force.
There are lots of means for removing these people from the force…most of which are objected to and/or fought tooth and nail by the police unions. Every police force in the country has an internal affairs division established for exactly this purpose. There are also community police review boards being established. There are many means of getting rid of these offenders. The fact that they are so rarely successful is something that should be closely examined. As is the fact that such people are allowed to even become police officers in the first place.
Cleveland is just up the road from me. Officer Timothy A. Loehmann, the cop who shot and killed Tamir Rice had a documented history of questionable actions. There is no excuse for his hiring other than incompetence. It’s long past the time when such incompetence should be held accountable.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/officer-who-killed-tamir-rice-found-unfit-previous-police-job-n261111
*sigh*
i know it’s easy to say i’m wrong just because everybody else is saying it but cmon… i said there is no means to remove bad cops that works at the moment
so you say i’m wrong because a means is setup but it doesn’t work?
if they are not currently working, how is that a means? it seems like you are saying i’m wrong just out of spite!
we as a people can figure out a way to find a working means. this is a problem but not cause for civil war
https://twitter.com/LauraKeeney/status/751220795704127488
Has there ever been an unarmed black man shot by a female police officer?
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2007 (the latest I could find) between 4% and 15% of sworn law enforcement officers were women
(http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/wle8708.pdf).
So doesn’t it stand to reason that a percentage of these outrageous shootings would have been committed by women? But they weren’t. In fact, the statistic might be 0. In all of history.
It is simplistic to just hire more female police?
And this. This. This.
https://twitter.com/BeardedDre/status/750757642725781504
Well, this is interesting….
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2016/07/baton_rouge_police_brutality.html
One of the long standing myths that is often used to defend the actions of police is the danger of their work; indeed, if one were to listen to the pronouncements of the local PD or fire department, one might easily be persuaded that these people are true super heroes, putting their lives on the line on a daily basis, and asking little in return.
Well, it’s not true, folks. Long ago, Lewis Mumford nailed it when discussing the military in his two volumes The Myth of the Machine, and The Pentagon of Power. The police, like the military, justify their existence on the pretense of putting themselves in harm’s way, but in reality there are many occupations that have higher fatality rates. Here is a link to a list of fatal occupations: http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-dangerous-jobs/
In it you will find that, for instance, taxi drivers are slightly more likely to die on the job than police, and garbage collectors are twice so. But in comparison to fishers and loggers, even as risky an occupation as garbage collection seems safe.
Garbage men have more dangerous jobs, so do farmers, construction workers, fishermen, roofers, et al. Last time I checked Police came in at #21.
Where is O’Bomber & his GUN CONTROL speeches now ??
The last few days have seen the real contrast of “poor” justice versus “rich” justice… the corruption is now so in-your-face, its staggering. Big changes are needed across the board right now or the USA will become a bloodbath, lawlessness is the example given by the “authorities” …. the citizens are learning the lesson well….
I agree, let’s take away guns from patrol officers too.
“We’re being hunted, every day. It’s a silent war against African-American people, as a whole.”
Unfortunately, the majority of the hunting is being done by African-American males themselves.
The Brits’ derisory slang name for the police ‘the filth” seems uniquely applicable to US cops.
“The woman replies: “You told him to get his I.D. sir, you told him to get his driver’s license.””
May this have the same effect as “At long last, have you left no sense of decency.”
Mr. Muflahi is an extremely smart man. But now one does worry for him. Police have been known to not be around to protect people who cause them embarrassment.
Your son is a local police officer, no? Does he behave this way also? I doubt that he does because I doubt you raised him that way.
There are some officers who are bad. All officers do not behave this way. I guess saying that means I am a conservative racist!
Philando was shot by a Chinese man. Donald Trump is pretty skeptical about what the Chinese are doing to us these days in every sphere.
Because he’s so prolific, Robert Mackey is turning the Intercept into “The Robert Mackey Digest – with special guests,” which is irritating (and off-putting) because he’s so pedestrian and predictable.
The site is (in tone) often indistinguishable from establishment outlets because of this imbalance, and important subjects like this one are not served by writers who lack passion and insight.
No doubt there is a policy here to just publish what the reporters churn out, but there should in my opinion be more focus on stimulating real discussion rather than printing something an everyday hack from Dailykos or Huffington Post could produce.
This article should be on fire, rousing the spirit and renewing strength for the fight against police brutality and racism, but it just chronicles observations of unequal import in a haphazard glut of text.
He needs to jump out of his comfort zone. Summarizing Twitter comments isn’t going to cut it, in my opinion.
It’s why this website STILL needs more true diversity on its staff and not having non-minorities write on minority issues/stories.
So the problem with this article/The Intercept is ‘white people’??…or just ‘too many white people’???
State and Federal Govt’s inability to even attempt to finding any solution to these killings is nothing less than an abject failure of government.
True government is suppose to address social problems. Killings like this have gone on like this for over 50 years with zero action on behalf of police departments, governments (both local & Federal) & politicians.
If government will not provide solutions, then citizens have no choice but to take matters in their own hands and should dispense out justice accordingly.
Citizens, those who vote in particular, have given government no incentive to do so unfortunately, as they re-elect the corrupt Democrats and Republicans as the ruling parties in every single election.
First try kicking them out of office; the Green Party if elected would do its utmost to stop this injustice and violence.
I have been outraged by several cases of police brutality, but where’s the meat here? In one instance, a guy who HAS A GUN struggles to resist officers, then reaches somewhere near his waist, and they shoot him. I have no idea how close his fingers were to the gun, but it doesn’t seem like racist police brutality – at most, it is a bit of cowardice on the part of an officer who at least has the excuse that he was called in because someone said the guy was WAVING AROUND THAT GUN. I’m sorry, but I’m not going on this protest march. And the other case, all we have is someone with a wounded guy in the passenger seat, giving us a story that may or may not be true. The only thing really distinctive about it was that all the media outlets could use it in desperate plugs for some kind of Facebook video service – and when one company holds all the ad revenue and ladles it out like that lady at Oliver Twist’s orphanage, there is no depth of obsequiousness to which a wise news editor should not go to try to ingratiate himself for just one more day before he shuts down the office forever. But it sure as hell ain’t proof of police misconduct.
Meanwhile, the race-consciousness of the press meets ever more dizzying heights. They all yell out “black man killed by white cop”, but if it was a white cop killed by a black man, they’d feel like far-right rebels even to show the suspect’s picture, and would surely never dare to have a headline like that. I know nobody wants to be considered a white supremacist wrongly, but when outlets routinely go to these extremes, it doesn’t defuse racial tensions but instead provokes them! There are a lot of bitter old white people out there who will give you an earful about these disparities, and one in a thousand of them might get out a gun and do something about it.
We need even-keeled, fair dealing perspectives in the news that don’t try to paint every single incident as the next Diallo, and which instead look for more significant things to print about – like Kentucky’s work showing that bail is a completely ineffective system and its prejudices based on employment and fixed address are bogus (let alone the subjective factors unspoken by judges!!!) and you could just use administrative scores based on failure to appear and other outstanding warrants and have just as good of an attendance at court. Instead, they ignore the ways that racism can flourish and feed the public bullshit until we puke it back at them.
“We need even-keeled, fair dealing perspectives in the news that don’t try to paint every single incident as the next Diallo”
As much as I think Robert Mackey and all of his rabid, prejudiced defenders suck, I don’t come to this website for even-keeled. I’ve accepted that all news has some bias, including the work here. But dang, this article is syrup thick with crazy. It goes beyond click bait and is borderline pure twitter hogwash.
By the way, for all you rabid commentators, prejudiced doesn’t mean racist. It means you already made up your mind… before you read this story, you already hated cops… it was easy for you to read this story and assume the worst because you already do.
READER ALERT:
This one is a contrarian troll whose shtick includes constant announcements that he’s all leftist and “just like leftists here” and such shite, but he’s just oh-so-reasonable and so he has to continually find fault with the vast majority of writers and articles here.
I suggest ignoring him.
READER ALERT: Mona has a son who is reportedly a police officer. I suspect she is estranged from her son because of the way she comments about law enforcement officers. Her logic is this: she does not understand or like me therefore everybody else should have the same conclusion. There is absolutely nothing wrong with critical thinking and finding fault in the writing here. The comments section is not enabled just for readers to shower praise.
@charliethreee: Actually she’s ticked off ever since I called Snowden a triple agent – I think don’t think we had words before that. I think his disclosures were part of an elaborate ploy to get surveillance data into the courts putting ordinary people behind bars, and that there are pretty obvious things that he’s not telling us. She was not pleased. :)
Come on, your one-sided endless defense of police officers and FBI agents, no matter what they do, is what smacks of a public relations agenda and one-sided spin.
Yes, police officers are at risk in their jobs – the FBI even collects statistics on how many police officers are killed each year as well as on the race of the people who kill police officers – yet the FBI can’t be bothered to collect data on how many people are killed by police, or what their race is?
How can any rational person look at that and not think something’s rotten in the justice system? And you really do come across as a mindless defender of the two-tiered US justice system, charliethreeee, I think you’ve got a perfect score on that front, at least from everything I’ve seen.
I do not defend officers no matter what. I challenge you to find a quote saying anything close to that. My position has been consistent through every single thread on this website:
There are good cops and there are bad cops. There are good things our government does and there are bad things. This website and the majority of the commentators are only focusing on the bad. I find fault in that because our society is not all bad.
Yes, there are some problems with our justice system. But it is not rotton to the core. Saying that is not irrational.
Like our president said yesterday, we can do better and I think we will. What is so bad about that opinion?
“a guy who HAS A GUN struggles to resist officers, then reaches somewhere near his waist,”
You and I did not see the same video.
I suppose I didn’t actually – the one linked here was behind some stupid sign-in-to-confirm-your-age thing. I would have gone to Liveleak or something but this was linked at the right hand side: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCnNOAxk8HQ Anyway though it’s still Alton Sterling. Now in the one I link, at 0:34 the guy reaches toward his waist and a cop yells “he’s got a gun”. Then he brings his right hand back up to his chest at 0:38. Then the hand disappears again, I think downward again, and I hear something that sounds like “fuck off”, not sure, and they shoot. The cop sounds pretty histrionic before he shoots, I mean, it’s not completely without warning. If someone else can see more than that or different than that out of this, just sing out.
Hmmm… I just looked at YouTube again and there’s another video from a different perspective where you don’t see any of this because his hand is behind the cops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCo_IvK7f6o Do I actually have to make a damn YouTube account just to figure out which of the videos you guys are watching above? One thing is sure – I might well have thought this was a murder if I’d only seen this video, and technically it’s the better quality video!
I was just watching the latest police shooting video from the US. Presumably it won’t be any easier to convict this officer than it was ….all the other ones.
and yet they will vote for hiltery clinton. If not for the black vote Bernie Sanders would be the nominee. Sorry but hash tags and marches don’t do it, getting informed and educated does. If clinton gets into office, how many will die in the Middle East? Are they going to put that into a hash tag. its time the black community stops being a tool of the George Soroses and Clintons of the world, and start taking the lead in civil rights for all.
If you do not think like tjm that apparently means you are an idiot.
Does that logic work when a redneck says it? Nope. Doesn’t work here either sir. Even if Bernie was elected POTUS, there would still be cops that made mistakes, drones would still kill in the Middle East and you would still be acting like your way is the only way.
Protip: I changed from Green to Democrat to vote for Bernie in the Florida primaries. Don’t assume I’m a cop loving Fox News type. I just felt like pointing out how you sound just like Robert Mackey.
U.S.A. Terrorist #1 at home and abroad; a well-organized enterprize by the federal government to keep the population on the defensive.
In a clear attempt to kill me, twice in the last six(6)months the New York City Police Department has without warrants raided my apartment at gun-point after breaking its door.
Mayor William de Blasio and police commissioner William Bratton refuse to investigate claiming that “no one was shot or killed”.
Who are the terrorists?
Apparently you are? Lawyers love taking on legitimate cases against police departments with a ton of money.
You can be sure that the appeasers will blame Philando Castillo for announcing that he was legally armed, and this simple announcement is what caused the cop to freak out and thereby led to Castillo’s death. These appeasers certainly would never blame this MURDERING COP for making the false presumption that Castillo was gonna un-holster his gun and attack the murderous cop.
The police are out of control. We need to disarm all police. Now.
Disarming them causes a lot of problems, actually. More reasonable would be to make them held to account personally for breaking the laws their job is to uphold. Police are physically able to beat someone to a pulp with nothing but their bare hands and the sidewalk, after all.
This is just awful; and it prompted me to look up the numbers online (assuming it can trusted). Black men are being killed for no good reason by cops. So, how many times has this happened… led to the website killedbypolice dot net.
Further searching led to claims that more whites are killed by police than blacks, which pointed back to kbp site. I don’t know if kbp is trustworthy but looking down the list quickly w/ one eye closed it does appear more white than black and some of the media reported causes for the death are excusable, viz road rage w/ a cop, unlike these incidents.
Off the top of my head, and based only on media reporting, we have:
Eric Garner, choked to death by police for selling single cigarettes
Freddie Gray, death by police custody for holding a switchblade
and now these two, who else?
The days are long gone when Andy Griffith would show up and talk someone down. Perhaps a militarized police force, even just mentally militarized, is a threat to liberty and peace and life.
Afterthought: there is a video of a white teen who is shot at a gas station I think.
It seems like this is all leading to a bad scenario, w/ cont. reports of abuse, mistrust, a justice system that defers to its agents — reminds of Boston Massacre.
African Americans get the brunt of police violence, but there is also the straight up assassination of James Boyd, a homeless schizophrenic white man, in Albuquerque NM just a few years ago. And Boyd did nothing threatening, it’s on Youtube,… but the cowards in Blue shot flash bang grenades for no obserable reason and then they opened fired with at least ten shots fired…all in broad daylight recorded for posterity. At this point it looks like the police have become the enemy. But most victims are racial minorities.
A lot of our mentality that this violence in America is being toward blacks in particular has to do with our history, especially the Reconstruction in the South. Maybe it’s more of a killing-poor-people thing today, but that doesn’t make it morally better, and it is understandable that blacks who are relatively conscious of that history would interpret the events through that lens whether that’s accurate or not. Bottom line is we shouldn’t treat anyone this terribly, and criminals need to be held accountable whether they’re white, black or blue. (Or green, in Hillary’s case.)
Unfortunately, the DOJ has an even more execrable record of convicting cops than other *justice* groups.
What lapse of the law allows these people to become cops?.? Afraid for their lives is not justification for hiring trash
More intelligent employees cost higher wages. More skilled employees cost more in training. Better equipment costs more too. And if you want to punish them for civil rights abuses and take away perks like torturing and raping whoever they want with impunity, you’ll have to raise wages to compensate.
How do you think taxpayer-voters who are oblivious to their city’s civil lawsuit expenditures feel about that? They’ll just keep it as it is until lots of places go bankrupt.
“it is hard for even the racists who seek to justify the slaughter in online comment threads to keep up”
we don’t even know the race of the officer and already this is being labeled as racist… this is EXACTLY why this blog sucks
when i watched the video, what i noticed was a nervous cop who didn’t appear to have proper training. he even seemed to fell bad given the comments about “i told him not to move, etc…”
my guess is the officer will never be the same for this mistake… and here you are labeling him as a racist. maybe the officer is, who knows. but you assuming he is without all the facts is genuinely telling
it tells me your blog sucks and you should not have this platform
If the shoe fits. Right. This hardly if ever, happens on the other side of the tracks. One after the other one side loses it’s men. If it’s to one side then it’s unbalanced, Right?
we don’t even know the race of the officer …
Are you blind? There’s a picture of him holding his weapon, post-shooting, right up above on this very page.
…and already this is being labeled as racist…
What was being labelled “racist” were some of the people in online comment threads. Have you lead such a sheltered online life that you’ve not run across people who do exactly that?
my guess is the officer will never be the same for this mistake… and here you are labeling him as a racist.
Mackey didn’t label the cop racist. You created that dialogue in your own head. One wonders why you felt it necessary to do so.
“One wonders why you felt it necessary to do so.”
This is a fantastic website that is not dependent on advertising that affects editorial content. Much of what is posted here is excellent. I happen to believe that Robert Mackey is an incredibly biased and illogical blogger who should not have this platform.
You are free to disagree with me.
If using words rasist and slaughter in the first paragraph is not labeling the officer as racist, well, you are free to believe that also. I don’t. I think he did that on purpose because he has a history of painting pictures of delusion.
Have you ever known an actual police officer? Do you have any idea how dangerous the job is? Remember how being a new employee feels? Lost? Not sure what to do? Imagine being a fairly new officer for a small town that can’t afford good training.
Or is that impossible for you to imagine that this was just a tragic mistake?
Even if the officer was white, how the hell does anybody know the motive? Protip: you, Robert Mackey, me and all the internet experts have no idea. But we can jump on the band wagon and assume! We are great at that!
White people get pulled over for broken tail lights too.
“White people get pulled over for broken tail lights too.”
You forgot the hashtag. Here, let me help:
#Whitepeoplegetpulledoverforbrokentaillightstoo
Imagine being a fairly new officer for a small town that can’t afford good training: That is part of the problem. Not only can’t they afford good training, they can’t afford to screen for psychological suitability. Tell me if I am wrong, but it is my understanding that nobody holds a gun to someone’s head and forces them to become a cop. These folks are 100% volunteers, with plenty of choices for less dangerous and stressful work. In fact, I would argue that being a cop is somewhat less dangerous than many other jobs, and can point you to proof: http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-dangerous-jobs/
As it turns out, it is far more dangerous to life and limb being a garbage collector, but you don’t see those folks strutting around like they were the heroes they really are.
If you ever went to a country where the police are required to be selected and trained to national standards, like in all of western Europe, you would see the vast difference between their police and what passes for police in the US. I would not hesitate for a second before approaching a policeman in France or Germany, but in the US, whenever cops are around, I make myself scarce. And I’m white.
I agree with this 100% Jeff. The lack of proper training, not knowing what to do while pulling somebody over who is likely armed can produce trigger-finger fear.
So when people like Robert Mackey report that this was a racial execution…
When it comes to police murdering people instead of taking them into custody, the race of the police officer is not the real issue. The victim in this case was selling CDs, was obeying Louisiana’s “open carry” gun law, and the victim had the storeowner’s permission to do this. . . so why did the cops rush in and kill him?
Note also that the ‘racists in online comment threads’ line that you quote is not the same as the ‘racists in police uniform’ line that your comment implies, which is why your comment is nonsense. Clearly there are lots of racists in online comment threads (especially those related to police brutality in the United States.)
The officers in question could just be trigger-happy thugs full of their own authority who would have been just as quick to kill a Latino, an Asian, or a white person as a black person – as long as they looked poor and powerless.
It’s really the victim’s fault, if he’d been wearing a nice $1200 suit with $500 shoes, the police would have been more respectful, regardless of race. When’s the last time you heard about cops gunning down a guy in a nice suit?
Remember, “All lives matter – but some lives matter more than others.”
“The officers in question could just be trigger-happy thugs full of their own authority who would have been just as quick to kill a Latino, an Asian, or a white person as a black person – as long as they looked poor and powerless.”
That is one heck of a conspiracy theory.
Pulling somebody over with a concealed carry license can be scary for somebody who lacks the proper training. If this guy was the authoritarian thug you make him out to be than why did the officer sound so upset? Authoritarian cops don’t behave that way at all.
You are assuming the cop is that way and so is Mackey.
None of us know that. Why is it so hard to wait before reaching such a conclusion?
“Pulling somebody over with a concealed carry license can be scary for somebody who lacks the proper training.”
Complete bullshit. When cops pull over white men who tell them they are packing, the cops invariably relax. They know they’re dealing with one of their own, at some level, unless they’re skinheads.
Or unless they’re black, apparently.
In any case, it’s too bad that your comments are not being entered into the record, because otherwise stating that a cop “lacks the proper training” to perform basic cop procedures would be a pretty damning admission.
That is certainly one theory but why rule out other theories before the full truth comes out?
I think cops makes lots of mistakes just like every other human being. It’s less “damning” to say they need more training / they makes mistakes than to claim they are all racist! BTW, there is no such thing as a basic cop procedure, brother.
But hey, if you and Robert Mackey and lots of others want to say these tragic deaths are ONLY a result of racism, and you cheer the general hatred of most officers at the same time, that is your right.
I hope you don’t end up on the no fly list sir.
Seeing how he gave no medical attention at all to his dying victim, and that he continued to point his gun at his dying victim, and that he barked orders at the lady who was recording in the car to keep her hands where he could see them, and that he lied to her (and consequently to now millions of viewers) about what he had told his now dying victim to do, I’d venture a guess that he sounded so upset because he fucked up so badly that he felt he just might not get away with it. He almost instantly had become in actual, real fear for the remainder of his life being spent behind bars.
Police never give medical attention to anybody believed to be hostile and armed until the scene is secure.
Your likely answer to this would be: the driver was not hostile… and I would agree with this based on the evidence available right now. So why did he shoot?
It appears you say the officer shot because he is a racist. I’m just saying the officer did not have enough training to react on instinct in the proper fashion.
They don’t train to shoot first, ask questions later. That just happens sometimes when officers panic from lack of training.
Why do you almost always lie in your replies. Your “appears” doesn’t improve upon your lie, it only makes it worse in that it is the same as the headlines which pose a question rather than making a factual statement, or at least one that is based on available evidence.
It is because you so often lie in your replies that you are considered to be a commenter who is best avoided if one prefers not to waste their time on bullshit.
Also, this breathless embarrassment of a reply from you has nothing to do with the scene unfolding in the case we are viewing on that video:
“Police never give medical attention to anybody believed to be hostile and armed until the scene is secure.” Unless, of course, you’re referring to the cop being “hostile and armed.”
Note also that the ‘racists in online comment threads’ line that you quote is not the same as the ‘racists in police uniform’ line that your comment implies, which is why your comment is nonsense. — photosymbiosis
Yes, that is what I was addressing. The actual quote that charlie posted. I really don’t read much of what Mackey posts, it just doesn’t grab me, but I’m also not going to castigate him for something I didn’t perceive.
If using words rasist and slaughter in the first paragraph is not labeling the officer as racist,
It wasn’t. He was EXPLICITLY referring to racists who seek to justify the slaughter in online comment threads. He is speaking of people in comment threads who are trying to lay blame at the foot of the victim. Nowhere else in the post is racism mentioned and most certainly NOT in reference to the officer who shot this man.
Have you ever known an actual police officer?
Yes. My cousin was an officer. It was his only career post-military.
Do you have any idea how dangerous the job is?
Yes, of course.
Remember how being a new employee feels? Lost? Not sure what to do?
Yes, but my job didn’t involve exercising life-or-death decisions over the people I interacted with and having a get-out-of-jail card if I made a mistake. In fact, since I worked in a hospital lab, I’m pretty sure that any of my mistakes would have involved either sufficient training to begin with or not being tasked with responsibility until I was sure to be able to carry out the function properly (mostly so I DIDN’T kill someone).
Imagine being a fairly new officer for a small town that can’t afford good training.
Do you have proof that this was the case with this particular officer? If so, please provide a link. If that IS the case, then I would say that the department should share in the blame. Either way, I think this family deserves justice. Even if, as some of the video seems to imply, this officer regrets what he did and realizes he made a mistake, until they are held to the same standards that any one of us MAKING THE SAME MISTAKE would be held to, the culture of impunity will still exist and that’s not a good thing to have right next to the ability to bring death down on anyone you encounter.
You both raise valid points. It is possible that my prejudice toward Mackey influenced my decision to comment the way I have.
Subsequently, I’m going back to the way it was: just ignore his work.
“..if he’d been wearing a nice $1200 suit..”
That thought occurred to me too. I wonder if he was wearing a button down w/ tie and then they shoot him, what’s the reaction?
Perhaps the gangster wanna-be will actually revert to Al Capone style dress; then you couldn’t tell the difference between gang banger and wall st exec, or banker or
The only difference between a gangster and a bankster is in how successful they are.
In the Louisiana case, at least, we are able to compare the most recent killing with one that took place a few months ago. In that case, two black state troopers opened fire on a car involved in a high speed chase, killing the teen-age passenger. The two were immediately charged with murder. Guess the race of the victim.
In this case, there has been a call for an investigation by the US Justice Department, which effectively accomplishes two ends: to absolve the local authorities from any responsibility in the case, and to ensure that there will be no prosecution. Probably someone like Comey will make a prejudicial statement about the case being serious but unworthy of being prosecuted, or some similar crap. For the police, like our leading politicians, Wall Street bankers, and CEOs, are above the law. It is straight out of Orwell’s Animal Farm: “We are all equal. But some of us are more equal than the others.”
Teenager?? Since when is a 6 year old boy considered a teenager??? Are you sure you know what you’re talking about????
Whatever. Whitie gets caught in the cross fire from two black cops, and they are instantly in jail. White cops shoot a black guy, and we get promises of a thorough investigation. That was the point. If you doubt it happened, look it up for yourself.
Whatever?? So the crux of your point being based on false information and ill-conflations is a-okay?? Despite the fact that there are plenty of instances where cops get off scot-free for murdering white, hispanic, etc. people too, your appeal is emotional and illogical. It lacks any true anthropological understanding of human nature. Racism cannot be proven with statistics. Racism is a purely individual motivation/process/reasoning that can solely be measured on a singular basis. Person A in Texas being a racist has nothing to do with Person B in Philly.
Cops are terrorists, period.
You are obviously a cop trying to create doubt about this crime in order to justify their daily assassination of civilians, especially blacks.
Stop the non sense.
Police officers are not terrorists. It’s a difficult and very stressful job and one in which you have to make life and death decisions quickly. Are there some bad cops? Absolutely. There are bad reporters also, like Mackey, and bad internet commentators also… like you!
You claim I am full of non sense while saying law enforcement officers are assassinating black civilians intentionally. You and Robert Mackey deserve each other. You are both full of shit.
There are approximately a million police officers employed in the US. How many guilty by black shootings have there been this year? Let’s say 50. So all million officers are terrorists because 50 died in traffic stops?
What about the 50 cops killed in the line of duty in any given year? Who do you blame for that?
About policemen you write “its a difficult and very stressful job” , but the same can be said about taxi drivers, construction workers, doctors, truck drivers, judges, janitors, window cleaners, etc. etc. etc.
It is obvious that you are a cop, or related to one, and try as hell to justify the slaughter of civilians taking place.
“Police officers are not terrorists.”
What do you call people who come into your neighborhood to stalk and kill you?
While your heart is bleeding for all the police who die on the job, here is a nice comparison for you, from http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-dangerous-jobs/
Garbage collectors: 33.16 deaths per 100,000; average salary $32,720
Police: 15.96 deaths per 100,000; average salary $56, 130
It would seem to me that if we are going to pay people to take risks, and cops make on he average $56k, then we should be paying our garbage workers $115,000 because they are dying at twice the rate.
All you have to do is look at the statistics to see that the people in macho jobs like police, firemen, security guards and soldiers are actually at LOWER risk of loss of life than a number of other professions. And, unlike the police and military, fishermen, garbage collectors, loggers, iron and steel workers, and roofers don’t go around shooting people.
In NY, some garbage men make six figures, no?
When oh when does this wholesale slaughter of people of color cease. The man slaughtered in the above video told the cop that he was carrying, and what happens next??? This so called peace keeper shoots 2-3 times and while the man is lumped in the car, the cop is barking at him as though he is a marine corp drill instructor. If this cop walks, to date it will be the most blatant assault so far in our criminal justice system.
The cop “will walk”; there will be protests on the streets chanting “no justice-no peace”; and soon there will be more assassinations by the police in this never-ending story.
This is disgusting. It’s one thing to be forceful with an noncompliant fool, but quite another to escalate a police encounter into a murder for apparently no good reason.