Police Brutality Protests Thread

[Katheryne Helendale]

I'm not at all sure how you mistake a handgun for a taser, and don't notice your mistake even after you've drawn and aimed it.

Aren't the weights and balances going to feel all wrong, thus alerting him to the fact he was holding a pistol, not a taser, and wouldn't he have had to move the safety catch?

Not only that, but the taser and the firearm are worn on opposite sides of the body. The officer couldn't have just grabbed the wrong one by mistake. I think she knew.

And how does a "routine traffic stop" escalate to needing to use a taser anyway?

 

[Rose Karuna]

I'm not at all sure how you mistake a handgun for a taser, and don't notice your mistake even after you've drawn and aimed it.

Aren't the weights and balances going to feel all wrong, thus alerting him to the fact he was holding a pistol, not a taser, and wouldn't he have had to move the safety catch?

I'm not buying that she actually mistook them, not at all.

How Could an Officer Mistake a Gun for a Taser? (Published 2021)

The police say the officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright intended to fire a Taser. The weapon looks different from a gun, and officers are trained not to confuse the two. But tragic errors occur anyway.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Jolene Benoir]

Yeah, she was a 26 year veteran of the force (longer than the life of the young man she killed) and the department is claiming that officers are trained to make sure they pull the proper weapon. You would think with that much time on the job that she would have the utmost regard for protocols and safety, even if the adrenaline is flowing. They reach so quickly for their weapons before attempting other means of securing an arrest, but the weight of the two different weapons, the feel in the hand, surely had to be something you would notice?

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

 

[Romana]

Thread :

 

[Soen Eber]

The police officer and the police chief have both submitted their resignations. The city manager who oversees the police was fired yesterday. Details can be found at local TV stations KSTP, WCCO, KARE11, and Minnesota Public Radio MPR.org.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

One bit of good news

Met officer faces dismissal after ‘clear case of racial profiling’

Charlie Harrison stopped Carl Abrahams ‘due to skin colour’ before attack in front of children, judge rules

www.theguardian.com

(Though I think the headline should be "judge finds" rather than "judge rules").

ETA: They somehow manage to bury the fact that the judge also sent him to prison, so of course he's going to be dismissed from the police.

 

[bubblesort]

So many police misconduct cases happening right now. Just last week they shut down a major highway in my area for hours because a motorist broke down and pulled over with her 4 ways on while she waited for AAA. Some asshole called 911, claiming she was waiving a gun around, when she had no gun. The cops shut down the highway, called in SWAT, she had no idea they were there, but they came at her full force, roughed her up and booked her.

Then I keep seeing things like this all over Reddit, where they treat a stormtrooper cosplayer like they are seriously part of an imperial insurrection. This is in Canada, but still, it's just another sign that policing is out of control all over the place. I blame the American war on drugs, and how we force it on our allies, internationally.

I am not making a whataboutism argument that we should ignore the situation in Minneapolis at all! That's a seriously fucked up situation that needs to be addressed. I am saying that the entire legal system in America needs to be reevaluated, and we need to throw these police in prison, along with whoever is responsible for their barbaric behavior. I think it needs to start with dismantling the police unions. I'm usually very pro-union, but the police do not need unions.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

The cop has been charged with 2nd degree manslaughter. That is often used in vehicular cases, often like DUI's that end in the death of another, as well. It comes down to "culpable negligence." I don't think they'll have a hard time making that case. The penalty she is looking at is 10 years/$20,000 fine.

"Minnesota statute 609.205 states that you're guilty of 2nd degree manslaughter... "by the person's culpable negligence whereby the person creates an unreasonable risk, and consciously takes chances of causing death or great bodily harm to another"

Officer charged with second-degree manslaughter in killing of Daunte Wright

The charge carries maximum penalty of 10 years in prison

www.startribune.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

How anyone can describe a police officer's shooting a suspect other than in obvious self-defence or defence of another as "good" is beyond me.

It might be lawful, but since someone has died because the officer made a mistake, even an understandable one that the law excuses, I can't see how it can accurately be described as "good," at least not in the regular meaning of that word in everyday English.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

How anyone can describe a police officer's shooting a suspect other than in obvious self-defence or defence of another as "good" is beyond me.

It might be lawful, but since someone has died because the officer made a mistake, even an understandable one that the law excuses, I can't see how it can accurately be described as "good," at least not in the regular meaning of that word in everyday English.

Well, obviously it was a good shooting; it killed a 'bad' black teenaged boy /sarcasm

Seriously, the overt racism is getting to even more sickening levels than I thought possible, and well, I live in the south east, FFS

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

How anyone can describe a police officer's shooting a suspect other than in obvious self-defence or defence of another as "good" is beyond me.

It might be lawful, but since someone has died because the officer made a mistake, even an understandable one that the law excuses, I can't see how it can accurately be described as "good," at least not in the regular meaning of that word in everyday English.

"Good shooting" - translation: "It wasn't a white kid who got shot."

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Not The Onion

 

[Free]

Well, we didn't really know who the officer was until recently. But...

So is Stillman still alive? Anybody shoot him fatally in the past few days?

 

[Jolene Benoir]

Interesting article about what happens in inner/older suburbs as the population/tax base changes, which leads to lesser services, more fees, and of course more police intervention in service of fees, or increased hostility toward the population, sometimes leading to deadly encounters like that which happened in Ferguson and Brooklyn Center.

From my point of view it is a continuation of white flight. As the older/inner suburbs diversify white folks move ever more out and further. Then the denial of services begins in the voting booth, as they forsake their former community. It's a repeat of what has happened to major cities and, as the article states is, in effect, resegregation.

ETA: I would add that it's not unique to Brooklyn Center here. I cannot speak to Ferguson. ALL inner and older suburbs are subject to this here; Fridley, Columbia Heights, Richfield, on and on. They are all experiencing much the same dynamic. Think of it like an ever-expanding area of city that becomes neglected. That leads to abuses.

What Daunte Wright’s Killing Foretells for the Suburbs

Left-behind suburbs such as Brooklyn Center and Ferguson are perfectly tailored to produce inequality, discrimination, and conflict.

www.theatlantic.com

 

[Soen Eber]

Interesting article about what happens in inner/older suburbs as the population/tax base changes, which leads to lesser services, more fees, and of course more police intervention in service of fees, or increased hostility toward the population, sometimes leading to deadly encounters like that which happened in Ferguson and Brooklyn Center.

From my point of view it is a continuation of white flight. As the older/inner suburbs diversify white folks move ever more out and further. Then the denial of services begins in the voting booth, as they forsake their former community. It's a repeat of what has happened to major cities and, as the article states is, in effect, resegregation.

ETA: I would add that it's not unique to Brooklyn Center here. I cannot speak to Ferguson. ALL inner and older suburbs are subject to this here; Fridley, Columbia Heights, Richfield, on and on. They are all experiencing much the same dynamic. Think of it like an ever-expanding area of city that becomes neglected. That leads to abuses.

What Daunte Wright’s Killing Foretells for the Suburbs

Left-behind suburbs such as Brooklyn Center and Ferguson are perfectly tailored to produce inequality, discrimination, and conflict.

www.theatlantic.com

Well, Richfield (where I grew up and still frequent) has been holding the line on that, and in a good way. Even though there is a large and growing minority population, their schools have adopted pretty well. Our crime is roughly half of what you'll find in the northern burbs. The only downside so far has been we are no longer a major hockey contender in the state high school league (a a kid one class ahead of me was the captain of the "miracle on ice" olympic hockey team). I've also seen a Somoli police officer in Richfield and with minor exceptions the police department has had a good reputation: for example, an officer who got into a verbal altercation with a Somoli teenager was fired a couple years ago.

I haven't looked too deeply into it but I think Columbia Heights has been doing pretty well too. I don't remember any incidents or hearsay of problems there.

Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center ... that's another story.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

Well, Richfield (where I grew up and still frequent) has been holding the line on that, and in a good way. Even though there is a large and growing minority population, their schools have adopted pretty well. Our crime is roughly half of what you'll find in the northern burbs. The only downside so far has been we are no longer a major hockey contender in the state highschool league (a a kid one class ahead of me was the captain of the "miracle on ice" olympic hockey team).

I haven't looked too deeply into it but I think Columbia Heights has been doing pretty good as well. I don't remember any incidents or hearsay of problems there.

Well, the south side has always had the advantage of having more money, something that I'm sure nearby Edina wishes to maintain.

Columbia Heights, where I grew up until age 8, then after parental divorce many of the northern burbs (Fridley, New Brighton, Moundsview, Anoka and finally further out in Elk River) and other northern suburbs are not faring as well. Just because you have not heard of incidents does not mean they are not happening. All of them, really are the basis of resegregation in the form of the many, many apartment complexes, and as the article stated, steering of minority applicants for housing or apartments to those suburbs rather than further out. The older suburbs DO have a fairly high rate of mixed income apartment complexes. That was the nature of building at the time those suburbs were developed.

Maple Grove and the like, further out suburbs, take great pains to disallow lower income housing such as apartments. When they have been forced to, by law, they put them well out of reach financially of all but the most high income.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Tackle poverty and inequality to reduce crime, says police chief

Retiring head of Merseyside force says if he had £5bn he would spend 20% on policing and 80% on cutting poverty

www.theguardian.com