The Shooting Gallery: Police Violence MEGATHREAD

[CountDeMoney]

Someone in police custody died in a manner ruled as a homicide by the medical examiner's office.  She did her job; something those cops didn't do.

Nah, she grandstanded to try and boost her political career.  Remember that little press conference of hers?

Dude, I fucking get it.  Black lives really don't matter.  You don't have to keep trying to convince me.  Reading you loud and clear.

[derspiess]

All lives matter.

[CountDeMoney]

Blah blah blah.

[garbon]

All lives matter.

When are you going to act like it?

[Valmy]

Someone in police custody died in a manner ruled as a homicide by the medical examiner's office.  She did her job; something those cops didn't do.

Yeah I don't understand the outrage about looking into the deaths of citizens. But Spicey and I have been in a disagreement about this from the beginning. I think it is very dangerous for our entire society to NOT have very public and earnest investigations into these incidents. I think the results have shown my opinion to be correct in this manner. What Spicey's  recommendations are I have no idea.

[Valmy]

Nah, she grandstanded to try and boost her political career.  Remember that little press conference of hers?

So clearly then trying to address the needs and concerns and investigate a serious threat to our entire society is bad? I mean nothing is going to be 100% pure and noble.

What is your recommendation for trying to address the deaths of citizens at the hands of police officers?

[Kleves]

So clearly then trying to address the needs and concerns and investigate a serious threat to our entire society is bad? I mean nothing is going to be 100% pure and noble.

What is your recommendation for trying to address the deaths of citizens at the hands of police officers?

Investigate =! prosecute. Prosecutors shouldn't bring cases that are unsupported by the evidence. The cases against some of these officers seem particularly weak, from what I've seen. It may be that some of the officers should have been prosecuted, but they seem to have case a wide net and brought cases against everyone even tangentially involved here, despite the weakness of the charges.

[Valmy]

Investigate =! prosecute. Prosecutors shouldn't bring cases that are unsupported by the evidence. The cases against some of these officers seem particularly weak, from what I've seen. It may be that some of the officers should have been prosecuted, but they seem to have case a wide net and brought cases against everyone even tangentially involved here, despite the weakness of the charges.

I get this complaint. The main thing I wanted was a public and open Grand Jury hearing where the public could be assured that every shooting was being taken very seriously.

However this is better than what we were doing before. I mean we have large segments of the population feeling like they can be shot at will. You need to re-assure everybody that is not the case. Now a certain percentage of nutjobs will never believe that regardless of what you do but most people want to trust the cops in the end.

[grumbler]

Yeah I don't understand the outrage about looking into the deaths of citizens. But Spicey and I have been in a disagreement about this from the beginning. I think it is very dangerous for our entire society to NOT have very public and earnest investigations into these incidents. I think the results have shown my opinion to be correct in this manner. What Spicey's  recommendations are I have no idea.

I think that the prosecutions were certainly justified; Gray was murdered, and prosecution has the side benefit of drawing out the amusing trolls who try to draw attention away from the fact that he was murdered by imputing other motives to the prosecution.

However, negligent homicide is hard to prove, and the prosecution has failed to gain a conviction on the strongest cases, so, at some point, this becomes a pointless exercise.

[DGuller]

Yeah I don't understand the outrage about looking into the deaths of citizens. But Spicey and I have been in a disagreement about this from the beginning. I think it is very dangerous for our entire society to NOT have very public and earnest investigations into these incidents. I think the results have shown my opinion to be correct in this manner. What Spicey's  recommendations are I have no idea.

I think that the prosecutions were certainly justified; Gray was murdered, and prosecution has the side benefit of drawing out the amusing trolls who try to draw attention away from the fact that he was murdered by imputing other motives to the prosecution.

However, negligent homicide is hard to prove, and the prosecution has failed to gain a conviction on the strongest cases, so, at some point, this becomes a pointless exercise.

In what ways are the trolls amusing? 

[grumbler]

In what ways are the trolls amusing? 

Their utter predictability.

[derspiess]

All lives matter.

When are you going to act like it?

Tell me how I need to act like it.

[merithyn]

As a Twitter user said, "He was non-threatening, complied with every order, and told the officers exactly what was going on... and he still got shot. What's your excuse this time?"

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/07/21/fla-man-says-his-hands-were-up-when-police-shot-him/87377306/

A black Florida man trying to calm his patient with autism was shot by a police officer Monday, despite having his hands in the air, he said Wednesday.

North Miami Assistant Police Chief Neal Cuevas said the incident happened when officers responded to a call that a man with a gun was walking around threatening to shoot himself, the Miami Herald reported. Charles Kinsey, a behavioral therapist, told WSVN-TV that the man police were searching for was his patient, who had escaped from a nearby group home, and the gun was actually a toy truck.

In cell phone video of the incident, Kinsey, 47, is seen laying on the ground with his hands in the air.

In the video, he repeatedly assures police the young man does not have a gun.

"All he has is a toy truck in his hands," Kinsey said in the video. "I am a behavior therapist at a group home."

Throughout the incident, Kinsey's patient refused to comply with police and lay down, although Kinsey encouraged him to follow the officers' directions.

"Rinaldo, please be still," he said in the clip. "Sit down Rinaldo. Lay on your stomach."

Kinsey told WSVN-TV, during the incident he was more worried about the patient than himself.

"I was thinking as long as I have my hands up ... they're not going to shoot me," he told the station, from his hospital bed.

Kinsey said moments later he was shot in the leg, and then handcuffed while the officers waited for medics to arrive.

[derspiess]

Yeah.  Mind boggles on that one.  All I can think of is that North Miami is so shitty with crime that the officers were jumpy and were grossly misinformed on what was going on.

[Valmy]

Can we have a hearing of some kind on that one without it angering everybody for being nefariously motivated? That would be great.