The Shooting Gallery: Police Violence MEGATHREAD

[Eddie Teach]

You can go visit the person anytime you want.

Hell, replace phone calls with food in your question.

[garbon]

I get the general point of not creating financial incentives for locking people up, but phone bills? If it is morally wrong to charge convicted criminals for their phone calls, how it is not morally wrong to charge me for them?

I suppose it depends on how serious one is about rehabilitating criminals.

[Tamas]

I get the general point of not creating financial incentives for locking people up, but phone bills? If it is morally wrong to charge convicted criminals for their phone calls, how it is not morally wrong to charge me for them?

I suppose it depends on how serious one is about rehabilitating criminals.

I guess.

[Syt]

https://eu.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2020/07/17/noise-complaint-fatal-police-shooting-ryan-whitaker/5459142002/

It started as a noise complaint. It ended in another fatal Phoenix police shooting

Ryan Whitaker had heard a stranger knock on his Ahwatukee apartment door in the middle of the night earlier in May. So when he heard a similar knock on a Thursday after 10 p.m. later that same week, he answered the door holding his 9 mm gun.

Holding the gun in his right hand, he was confronted by two Phoenix police officers standing on either side of the door. They appeared surprised by the sight of the firearm, body camera footage shows.

Three seconds after Whitaker opened the door, Phoenix Officer Jeff Cooke shot Whitaker in the back at least two times, killing the 40-year-old man.

The deadly episode, which happened on May 21, is part of a string of Phoenix police shootings this year that has, yet again, reinvigorated criticism from advocates who say officers are too quick to use deadly force to resolve incidents.

Phoenix police had portrayed Whitaker's shooting as an emergency domestic violence call. A 30-minute police body camera video released this week indicates the incident started over a noise complaint from a neighbor upstairs who called police twice.

The police report and Officer John Ferragamo's body camera footage was released this week as part of a public records request from The Arizona Republic and the family's lawyer. Ferragamo was the other officer at the scene with Cooke. He pointed his firearm at Whitaker but did not shoot.

The family's lawyer says the footage shows Cooke overreacted and was reckless.

"The Phoenix Police Department knew from the night of the shooting that this was a false and exaggerated 911 call," Matthew Cunnigham said.

The caller complained about people screaming at each other and said he couldn't go to sleep because of the noise. In a second call to 911, he alleges that the screaming had escalated into a physical fight.

"It could be physical," the caller told a 911 dispatcher. "I could say yeah if that makes anybody hurry on up. Get anybody here faster."

When Cooke and Ferragamo arrived at the apartment building, Ferragamo sounded annoyed because the caller didn't provide more details, according to the video footage.

"Did you like all that helpful info we got from our complainant?" Ferragamo is heard telling Cooke as they walk to Whitaker's apartment, according to the footage.

" 'I'm just gonna say yes to all the questions to get the officers here faster,' " Ferragamo says, mocking the caller.

Cooke's unedited body camera footage was not released and his responses are inaudible.

As they approach the apartment, no sounds of fighting or loud noises are heard coming from the unit.

Moments later, Ferragamo knocks on the door, identifying himself as Phoenix police. The officers stand to either side of the door, making it impossible for anyone looking out of the peephole to see who was there.

Whitaker opens the door, with the gun in hand and rapidly takes a couple of steps out of the apartment as Ferragamo flashes a light in his face. Ferragamo greets Whitaker and then repeatedly yells, "Hands," according to the footage.

Whitaker is seen in the video starting to get on his knees, putting his left hand up and putting the gun behind his back when Cooke fires into Whitaker's back.

A slow-motion video, edited by the family lawyer, appears to show that Whitaker had put the gun down, Cunnigham said.

Whitaker then falls to the ground, writhing in pain and struggling to breathe.

"Holy s--!" Ferragamo is heard saying in the video.

Seconds after the shooting, Whitaker's girlfriend, Brandee Nees walked out of the apartment screaming.

"Why did you guys shoot him?" Nees yelled.

Cooke responds, "He just pulled a gun on us, ma'am."

"Because it's dark and someone just knocked on the door," she yelled at Cooke.

Ferragamo then says, "It's OK." It's unclear if he says this to Cooke or Nees.

But, Nees yells, "It's not OK."

Whitaker is still on the ground in front of the door at this point. Neither officer has touched him.

Nees asks why they are there, and both officers tell her they received a call reporting a fight between them.

Nees tells officers that Whitaker had answered the door with a gun because a few days earlier Whitaker heard a knock on his door in the middle of the night, according to the video footage. When he peeked through the peephole, she says in the video, he noticed that whoever knocked was gone.

She tells Ferragamo that in another instance, a woman who used to live in the complex had knocked at Whitaker's door asking for help because she had gotten into a fight with her partner, the video footage shows.

She said that these two incidents had put Whitaker on alert about people knocking at his door in the middle of the night.

Nees tells Ferragamo that Whitaker had gone to his daughter's high school graduation earlier that day. Whitaker returned to the apartment, where Nees was playing Crash Bandicoot on a Playstation game console.

Then they both played together and in the excitement of the game, they began to scream, she said, according to the video.

"Literally we were making salsa and playing Crash Bandicoot, so there may have been some screaming," she told the officer, according to the video. "It wasn't domestic violence or anything."

Ferragamo told her that that's how the call came in to 911 dispatchers.

In the video, Nees begs to be near Whitaker who can be heard on the video loudly taking his last breaths on the concrete floor outside the apartment door.

Nees, who is several feet away from Whitaker at this point, asks the officer if he could handcuff her so she could be near her boyfriend.

After the officer says no, she asks if Ferragamo could check if Whitaker was OK.

"I'm leaning toward the fact that he's not," Ferragamo responds.

According to the police report, Cooke later that night told detectives that he shot Whitaker because he feared for his life. Ferragamo later tells another officer at the scene that he would have done the same, but didn't because Cooke did, according to the video footage and the police report.

Ferragamo said the shooting happened so fast that he didn't know if Whitaker was aware that Cooke was behind him, according to the video footage and the police report.

Whitaker's family, Cunnigham and advocates have demanded that the Police Department release unedited body camera footage from both of the officers and the 911 calls.

Cunnigham said that after viewing the 30-minute footage from Ferragamo, it reinforces to him that Whitaker was not a threat.

Critics have said that the YouTube videos the Police Department produces to update the public on police shootings, including this incident, only include selective information that helps justify the shooting.

Cunnigham also took issue with how Phoenix police portrayed the incident in a YouTube video. The video includes edited snippets of both officers' body cameras and not full recordings.

Police have said the videos are meant to inform the public and are not intended to make a determination about whether the shooting was justified.

Cunningham disagrees.

"They put a narrative out there designed to protect and defend an officer that overreacted," he said.

He said he wants the public to be aware of this case and hold the Police Department accountable.

"This is something that could happen to any of us," he said.

The Phoenix Police Department investigated the shooting and forwarded its findings to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, where prosecutors will determine whether they will file criminal charges against Cooke.

Whitaker's shooting is one of 11 Phoenix police shootings so far in 2020, five of which were fatal. Through the first seven months last year, there were nine Phoenix police shootings.

Since the death of George Floyd, who died on May 25 after a Minneapolis police officer held him down with a knee on his neck, most police shootings and in-custody deaths in Phoenix and across the country have come under intense scrutiny.

For years, advocates have decried the high rate of police shootings in Phoenix and the state.

An Arizona Republic analysis of Phoenix police shootings from 2011 to 2018 found the Police Department outpaced similar-sized and larger cities.

Phoenix police, who serve a city with 1.6 million residents, had an average of 17 shootings per every 1 million residents in the eight-year span — more than New York, Los Angeles, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and San Diego.

Ryan Whitaker, right, and his two children Taylor, middle, and Matthew celebrating his daughter's high school graduation

[HisMajestyBOB]

Cowards.
Might as well serve warrants by drone strike and pronounce the corpses guilty afterwards. At least that would be more honest.

[grumbler]

Gonna have to punish the perps if you want this sort of crime to be avoided in the future.  Officers with the potential to commit murder like this will quit the force in protest, so it's a win-win.

[Valmy]

Yet another person killed because they had a gun. Guns don't seem to do a very good job at providing personal protection.

[grumbler]

Yet another person killed because they had a gun. Guns don't seem to do a very good job at providing personal protection.

The cops were protected.

Far more people are killed by guns they own than by guns in the hands of others.  If you don't want to get shot, don't own a gun.  Even if you are the only inhabitant within miles.

[Oexmelin]

Only bad people with guns are shot down. Good people with guns are protected by plot armor.

[Zoupa]

It's all because he forgot the magic words, "Back off! I feel threatened!".

To be clear, I'm mocking the fucking NRA here, not the poor guy that got killed for nothing in front of his girlfriend.

[Valmy]

It's all because he forgot the magic words, "Back off! I feel threatened!".

To be clear, I'm mocking the fucking NRA here, not the poor guy that got killed for nothing in front of his girlfriend.

We had a guy in Austin get shot in a BLM protest because he was carrying his gun. The cops caught his murderer and let him off since he shot a guy with a gun. That kind of blew my mind. I guess if you have a gun anybody can gun you down and its ok.

At least if I do not have a gun my murderer might go to prison.

[grumbler]

Only bad people with guns are shot down. Good people with guns are protected by plot armor.

Stand your ground.

That should have worked, since he was "white."  I dunno what went wrong.

[11B4V]

Only bad people with guns are shot down. Good people with guns are protected by plot armor.

Stand your ground.

That should have worked, since he was "white."  I dunno what went wrong.

A gun

[MadBurgerMaker]

It's all because he forgot the magic words, "Back off! I feel threatened!".

To be clear, I'm mocking the fucking NRA here, not the poor guy that got killed for nothing in front of his girlfriend.

We had a guy in Austin get shot in a BLM protest because he was carrying his gun. The cops caught his murderer and let him off since he shot a guy with a gun. That kind of blew my mind. I guess if you have a gun anybody can gun you down and its ok.

At least if I do not have a gun my murderer might go to prison.

Wasn't that the guy who was talking about the people who oppose him(?) being "pussies" just before the protest, and then was caught in a photo possibly pointing it at the driver in the car? 

[11B4V]

It's all because he forgot the magic words, "Back off! I feel threatened!".

To be clear, I'm mocking the fucking NRA here, not the poor guy that got killed for nothing in front of his girlfriend.

We had a guy in Austin get shot in a BLM protest because he was carrying his gun. The cops caught his murderer and let him off since he shot a guy with a gun. That kind of blew my mind. I guess if you have a gun anybody can gun you down and its ok.

At least if I do not have a gun my murderer might go to prison.

Wasn't that the guy who was talking about the people who oppose him(?) being "pussies" just before the protest, and then was caught in a photo possibly pointing it at the driver in the car?

and

If so, he was a protestor and gets protestor qualified immunity of any fault he may have had. Like pointing a gun at someone. It was the other guys fault.