POLICE SHOOTS MAN IN THE BACK

Turns out he was actually charged with murder because of the video. Good. Hopefully he gets convicted (or whatever the word is).

The way I see it there definitely is a trend of Police abusing their power as of late. Perhaps it's always been going on, but only now with this freedom of information and news coverage we can actually hear about it when it goes on. It seems like every week you hear news of a cop doing something unscrupulous.

Don't celebrate yet. He's not the first cop caught on video committing murder, and he wouldn't be the first one getting away with it regardless. Kelly Thomas' murder was caught on camera while police beat him to death. He was on the ground face down begging for his life and begging for his father. Those cops were found to have "acted properly" and now they go around taunting people because of it.

And camera's aren't the be all end all of proof of murder. Detroit police knowingly got a warrant to raid the wrong house because they were afraid their suspect would flee into it when they raided his house next door, and then walk in and shoot a sleeping 7-year-old girl in the back of the head. His original story was that he was blinded by the flash grenade and so shot at random, then he changed his story to "the grandmother went for his gun". Even after establishing that no such thing happened, he "acted properly".

White Plains, New York, Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., an elderly marine vet, was murdered by police after he accidentally triggered his Life Alert in his sleep. Police spent two hours outside his door taunting him, saying he was going to "die like a n****r", (Life Alert recorded the the whole thing on audio) while he begged for his life. Police ultimate broke in and gunned him down (two cops fired tazers, the third fired gunshots) as he's clearly shown on a police camera simply standing there. They then spend upwards to fifteen minutes playing with his body.

Park Forest police are called by a retirement home when John Wrana, a 96-year-old WWII vet in a wheelchair won't take his meds. Their solution? Shoot him with shotguns at point blank range. His attorney said right; "The Japanese military couldn't get him at an age he was touchable, in a uniform in the war. It took 70 years later for Park Forest police to do the job."

Even when cops are convicted nothing happens. They get fired, and often, the police unions force departments to rehire them with back pay. Then when police actually stand up and report corrupt policies and wrongdoings, they get fired.

Chicago police say they shot 14-year-old Pedro Rios after he went for a .44 magnum in his waistband. Autopsy says the kid was shot in the back, angle of trajectory confirming he was lying face down, declares it homicide. Police report says he committed suicide, doesn't say a gun was recovered, and police won't confirm if a gun was recovered. There's a video of the incident, but police won't release it, even in defiance of freedom of information requests. What do you make of that? This happened on February 10th and police are telling the family to go to hell.

At an Ohio Walmart, a man shopping gets a toy gun that he's going to buy. Store security cameras show police come up and shoot him from behind. Police say they told him to drop the gun. The camera shows he was looking on the store shelves and didn't even see the police. The police opened fire as they rounded the corner.

Oh, there's a good one! San Antonio police officer Jackie Neal was discovered to regularly rape women that he pulled over. Well, the department put him on paid leave while they investigated. Well, one of his victims shot him in the neck and is currently facing first degree assault charges. Is she the actual shooter? According to the judge, based on the officer's record, there are literally dozens of women who could have done it. Wait, what? They knew that?

In all of these instances absolutely nothing happened to the police. Nothing's going to happen to this guy either. Even with the camera evidence, the only reason he's being charged is because there's been a public outcry. Hell will fucking freeze over before this killer actually faces any kind of penalty.

All of these police will investigate themselves and find they did nothing wrong.

Interesting that one of the articles said if convicted he'll get the death penalty or 30-life in prison for this. Obviously that's if convicted, but maybe this is finally going to be the case that starts the healing process for what has clearly become a pretty universally corrupt law enforcement system. Or maybe that's just idealistic, guess we'll find out soon enough.

author=Ratty524
I think it ultimately comes down to the American government feeling too embarassed to actually charge an officer, since it makes what is supposed to be a protective organization look bad, and maybe they don't want everyone to distrust the police?

... And yet all these reports of police brutality and them getting away with it actually does just that: create distrust.

That's exactly what it comes down to. It isn't the fact that the police are murdering people: there are murderers everywhere, and anyone can become one. The issue, what all the bullshit is about, what is really going to tear this nation apart if something doesn't change, is the fact that there are no consequences for cops breaking the law. The simple fact of the matter is, police are above the law, and if that doesn't change this going to get a whole lot worse.

If the government supports a group that can walk in your house without cause and murder your children with impunity, what is eventually going to happen? The only thing that's going to stop what's coming is if we start seeing these killer cops paying for their crimes in the same prisons they put us in for the most trivial offenses, and at this point, that might not even end the momentum, especially after the news broke of that secret detention center in Chicago where they police have been making people disappear.

author=amerk
The fact that the victim was black shouldn't matter, but unfortunately it probably does. Hopefully a hate charge can be applied as well. But regardless of the race, any cop who would do such a thing should be charged.

One of the things about race is that a big portion of what we're seeing is probably a resurgence of the Jim Crow movement. What we're really seeing is the failure of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The argument that comes from #AllLivesMatter is that this violence is now affecting every race. There is a popular figure that says that twice as many white people are killed by police as black people, but if we break down those figures and compare them to overall white to black populations, proportionately, twice as many black people as whites are killed by police. #AllLivesMatter have come to the right conclusion with the wrong arguments: any movement that seeks meaningful reform can't be biased in favor of race. We're either all in or the change doesn't happen.

In the case of this particular shooting, this was in a white neighborhood, in the deep south, with a Southern officer, in a state which has a long and storied history of white supremacy. The officer stopped the man for a broken taillight, found that the man had warrant for 10 back child support payments for grown and emancipated children, which limited the warrant. The officer knew that he could not act on that warrant. It wasn't even a bench warrant, so no matter what it was for, the officer couldn't have used it as an excuse for arrest anyway. Bottom line, all of this was over a broken taillight. The officer fired his tazer at the suspect and that's where the film begins. The officer said he fired the tazer. He could have just as easily lied about that too. We see Scott reacting to getting shot with a tazer and fleeing. He did not drag the tazer with him, meaning the prongs failed to penetrate. When one or more prong fails to penetrate, the tazer doesn't stun; it causes intense pain. Scott's actions can easily be attributed to fleeing from the pain caused by the tazer, further the cop's behavior clearly demonstrated that Scott had a reasonable fear for his life and justified in fleeing. Ultimately, he was proved correct by being executed in cold blood. Eight shots fired, three in the back, one in the arm and one in the buttocks.

Did race factor in: I think it probably did, but you'd have a hell of a time proving it.

author=amerk
Unfortunately, this applies to government as a whole. A lot of politicians, lawyers, police, and even prosecutors feel they are above the law. Even in cases of wrongful and deliberate accusations, there is no accountability. Look at how many times a convict has been cleared (after a long prison stay) because it was proven the evidence was tampered with, and yet nobody goes after those responsible.

And this is why I believe there will never be meaningful reform. Instead of looking for a peaceful resolution, our government is simply going to keep escalating and claim the moral high ground.

If someone thinks Cameras can be our defense, future proves them wrong. They may stop some injustice, but they can serve it as well.
If we are not yet, In few years we will be so monitored, that you won't be able to do anything without government knowing.

Nice research, Piano. Some of these examples are dreadful events. I've always adored many things about America, but manners of police have never belonged amongst them.

author=Ratty524
By "community" surely you mean "two people."

I remember it being more. I might still be dwelling on the Gamergate Social Justice debacle, so my apologies. I'm assuming you went back and read the forum posts, so I'll retract that statement.

Has anyone seen the longer version of the clip where you can clearly see the cop planting his stungun on the guy he murdered? Another cop (a black cop, as it happens) seems to be helping him do it, or at least not interfering at all. Un-fucking-believable.

I guess this answers our question of "how blatantly murdery does a murder have to be before a cop is actually charged with murder" ... THIS blatant.

Did anyone mention that the guy who took the footage waited for the story told by the cop to come out before releasing it, just to see what they would say about what happened? Because the police were given a chance to tell the truth about the incident and it just goes to show that when given the chance they'll lie, lie, lie.

I'm continually surprised that cops don't have more stringency regarding use of deadly force. I did security (basically, military police) work in the Navy, carried around a sidearm and an M-16 on watch, and if I shot anyone, I'd have to go to courts-martial to ascertain if my use of force was legitimate, if it it wasn't, I'd go to fucking jail.

Cops don't even get indicted for the same shit half the time.