Category: Police Shooting

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BLM Domestic Policies News Police Shooting Politics

We Need to Calm Down

If we need anything now, it’s to stop talking and let the investigations into the tragedies of the past week move forward. After all, in the overwhelming number of big news stories, the early information is usually the least reliable, but that’s the information that becomes the narrative. Then when we get contradictory evidence, it’s much more difficult to alter our thinking and change our views because it doesn’t reinforce the narrative.

So let’s calm down and stop talking across each other. We should mourn, grieve, cry, reflect, breathe, consider, reconsider, and learn. This country is divided enough and social media isn’t helping. As a matter of fact, it’s hurting us right now. My conservative friends are full of bile and contempt for President Obama, Hillary Clinton and Black Lives Matter. My liberal friends have turned up the hate, if that’s even possible, on Donald Trump, the NRA and racist police officers.

Please stop.

This is our collective problem and we all share the blame for creating a society that has no patience for different perspectives. I abhor racism and justice denied, but I also detest making scapegoats out of police officers and people who legally carry firearms. I despise what Donald Trump and his supporters have said about women, Hispanic groups and African-Americans, but I also loathe the dismissal of Hillary Clinton’s email server and her misjudgement and rationalizations for setting one up at her house.

Enough.

In the absence of someone who can bind up the nation’s wounds or appeal to a vast majority of Americans, we will need to get through this ourselves, so we’ll need to be a little more rational about this. The first step is to reach out to people you know who don’t share your political philosophy and to engage them in discussion without calling them an idiot or a Neanderthal or a mouth-breather. When you talk to them, describe what you feel and ask questions, as opposed to labeling and accusing them of being part of the problem. We are all part of the problem, and to deny that is to deny reality. Neither side has a monopoly on the truth.

Try it now while we wait for information that might make today’s news headlines obsolete and wrong. This is too important to let emotions rule the day.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Police Shooting Racism

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Calls Shooting of Philando Castile “Heartbreaking”

​Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, called the shooting aftermath of yet another black man gunned down by police and live-streamed on Facebook, “heartbreaking.”

“My heart goes out to the Castile family and all the other families who have experienced this kind of tragedy,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post.

“The images we’ve seen this week are graphic and heartbreaking, and they shine a light on the fear that millions of members of our community live with every day,” he wrote.

While cellphone video of police-involved shootings has become more prevalent in recent years in addition to security camera or dashboard footage, the aftermath of Wednesday’s shooting of Castile in Minnesota was live-streamed by his fiancee.

Diamond Reynolds streamed the moments after the shooting, as Castile slumped next to her in the front of the car, his white shirt soaked with blood and the officer standing a few feet away outside, his gun still drawn. The woman’s 4-year-old daughter sat in the back seat. Castile later died.

“While I hope we never have to see another video like Diamond’s, it reminds us why coming together to build a more open and connected world is so important — and how far we still have to go,” Zuckerberg said

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Police Shooting

Off Duty Cop Chased and Pinned Pedestrian for Crossing Street

The video below was posted on Facebook by Stephen Harlowe. It shows a man in a Boston Red Sox shirt, kneeling on another man and pushing the man’s head into the sidewalk.

What caused the red sox man to act this violent towards the other man?

The victim says he was crossing the street and in the crosswalk when the red sox man drove his car into the crosswalk, cutting him off and almost running him over. The victim said he hit the car with an umbrella and that’s when Mr. Red Sox stopped his car and chased after the man down the sidewalk, eventually capturing him and pinning him to the ground.

“I tapped his [vehicle’s] glass with my umbrella,” the man says.

“And you tackled him and shoved his head into the ground?” Harlowe asks the officer, repeatedly asking to see a badge.

As Mr. Stephen began recording the incident, Mr. Red Sox claimed he was an off duty police officer.

Video

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Police Shooting

Video Shows the Final Moments of Oregon Militiaman Killed by Police – Video

LaVoy Finicum was part of the militia that criminally occupied Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, a federal building in Oregon. He was later killed in a highway confrontation with police when he refused to exit the vehicle as instructed by police.

The video itself isn’t graphic, though it does depict a fatal shootout: After being pulled over for his role in the criminal occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Finicum refuses to leave his vehicle as instructed. Instead, he shouts, over and over, that he would rather die: “You can go ahead and shoot me! Put the laser right there, put the bullet through the head!”

He then shouts that the situation is “gonna get real” and that the cops will “have my blood on your hands.” After a lot more yelling to this effect, Finicum guns the car in an attempt to flee the police—only to be stopped at a roadblock, which forces him to veer into the snow and, finally, leave the car. As he steps out of the vehicle, he clearly yells, “Go ahead and shoot me!”

Video

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Police Shooting

An Emotional Antonio LeGrier Breaks Down While Talking About His Son’s Murder – Video

He called 911 looking for help with his son from the Chicago police but instead of getting that help, the father of Quintonio went on CNN today and shared his emotional story, telling the network how Chicago police shot and killed his 19 year old son over the weekend.

During the CNN interview, Antonio LeGrier struggled on numerous occasions to maintain his composure, causing the CNN host to lament, “This just doesn’t feel right,” before the network broke for a commercial break.

“I’m doing this interview and the lawsuit so no one can just walk away and sweep it under the rug. Because my son’s life will not be in vain. I need the nation to know that I, Antonio LeGrier, father of Quintonio LeGrier, raised a good son.”

Video

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News Police Shooting

Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed in Police Shooting of Quintonio LeGrier

The father of Quintonio LeGrier, the teenager fatally shot by Chicago police over the weekend, has taken legal action against the city of Chicago, CNN reports.

On Monday, Antonio LeGrier filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court, alleging the officer shot his son without justification, used excessive force and failed to provide medical care as he lay bleeding on the floor.

Antonio LeGrier also sued on grounds of false arrest. He is seeking damages exceeding $100,000.

City officials did not immediately reply to CNN’s request for comment on the lawsuit.

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Featured Police Shooting Tamir Rice

Tamir Rice’s Killer Goes Free – No Indictment

Twelve year old Tamir Rice is dead and gone. The little boy was shot and killed by an Ohio police officer in 2014. Today however, over a year after Rice was killed, a grand jury stated that the officer was absolutely correct and within his right to pull up on Tamir Rice and killed the boy within 3 seconds of getting on the scene.

Are you really surprised?

The white police officer who fatally shot Tamir Rice, an African American 12-year-old, will not face criminal charges, it was announced on Monday – more than a year after the shooting in Cleveland.

A grand jury declined to indict officer Timothy Loehmann, who opened fire on Tamir less than two seconds after arriving at a park where the 12-year-old was playing with a toy gun on 22 November 2014. Loehmann’s partner, Frank Garmback, will also face no charges, Cuyahoga county prosecutor Timothy McGinty announced at a press conference.

McGinty argued that Tamir’s death was caused by a “perfect storm of human error, mistakes and miscommunications by all involved that day” but there was no evidence of criminal misconduct by police. The two officers believed they were responding to a “potential active shooter situation” and had not been provided with crucial details of a 911 call reporting that Rice was likely a juvenile with a gun that was “probably fake”, McGinty said.

“Had the officers been aware of these qualifiers, the training officer who was driving might have approached the scene with less urgency; lives may not have been put at stake,” McGinty said.

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Police Shooting

Police Shooting in Chicago left Two Citizens Dead, One Critically Injured

A 55-year-old mother of 5 and a 19-year-old college student were both shot and killed by Chicago police Saturday morning. And another person was shot and critically wounded by police. The police involved shootings all happened within a 12 hour time period.

According to reports, the father of 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier called police saying his son was threatening him with a baseball bat. When police arrived, the father in an upstairs appartment called to his downstairs neighbor, Bettie Jones and asked her to open the door for police. When 55-year-old Jones opened the door, witnesses said Quintonio came running down the stairs. Police opened fire, killing both Bettie Jones and Quintonio LeGrier.

The police department released a statement saying, “upon arrival, officers were confronted by a combative subject resulting in the discharging of the officer’s weapon which fatally wounded two individuals.” The statement continued, “the 55 year old female victim was accidentally struck and tragically killed. The department extends it’s deepest condolences to the victim’s family and friends.”

“He was having a mental situation” said Quintonio’s mother, Janet Cooksey. “Sometimes he would get a little loud, but not violent.” Cooksey went on to say she saw her son on Christmas but after the shooting, viewed his body at the hospital and that Quintonio was shot 7 times.

For their work protecting and serving the citizens of Chicago, the police involved in the shootings will be placed on desk duty for 30 days while an investigation into the shooting proceeds.

 

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Featured Police Shooting Racial profiling

Autopsy Reveals – LAPD Police Shot Black Man in The Back “Execution” Style

The shooting is being called an execution by the victim’s family. And according to eye witnesses, the victim, Ezell Ford, was laying face down when police pumped a bullet into his back. The autopsy reveals that his bullet was shot at close range.

The autopsy stated that the shot to Ezell Ford’s back and another to his abdomen were fatal, according to the TV station. The wound on his back revealed a muzzle imprint from the gun, suggesting the shot was fired at close range, the station reported.

Several witnesses said Ford was face down on the ground when he was shot, the station reported. But police said he was killed while resisting arrest and had “grabbed the officer’s handgun and attempted to remove the gun from its holster.”

“The officer yelled out to his partner that Mr. Ford had his gun. The officer’s partner then fired two rounds striking Mr. Ford,” the LAPD said in a statement, as quoted by KABC. “At about the same time, the officer on the ground while on his back grabbed his backup weapon, reached around Mr. Ford and fired one shot at close range striking Mr. Ford in the back.”

The Ford family’s lawyer called it an execution.

“I dare say that this is criminal, I think they executed this poor young man, mentally incompetent man,” said attorney Steven Lerman, according to the news station.

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