Criminals are victims of social and economic injustice. They deserve social welfare programs and social welfare spending, not punishment.

*sarcasm off*

 

Video Shows Cops Badger Drunk Black Man Before Killing Him

• 
  

Eileen Grench
Tue, October 18, 2022 at 2:41 AM·9 min read





Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty and Courtesy of Family

What started as a routine check on Keshawn Thomas, a 27-year-old Black man who was sleeping, intoxicated, in his green Camaro at a gas station in Albuquerque, ended when cops fired 16 shots and killed him.

All three policemen who fired shots that day claimed to have seen Thomas holding a gun that was later found in the cab of his car with a single bullet in the chamber. Police can be seen retrieving a weapon after the shooting in body-camera footage of the episode. They also shared photos of an additional magazine found in the car.

Still, the August incident led to protests, sparring between cops and the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, and a lawsuit filed by the family for further video and documentation of the incident.



Now, experts who reviewed body-camera footage shared by the Thomas family with The Daily Beast have called into question what they say amounted to a deadly mix of verbal badgering and tactical missteps.

And the family has filed notice that they are suing for the loss of Thomas’ life, according to their lawyer.

“Instead of de-escalating the situation, they escalated—all while talking trash,” David Thomas, the man’s father, told The Daily Beast.

Thomas’ family said that their son’s killing is another example of how the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) continues to hurt community trust in police, making the case that even as the feds have imposed—and, more recently, loosened—oversight of APD, questions remain in the community about the department’s reform efforts.

“This is bad,” argued Dr. Kalfani Turè, a policing expert, assistant professor at Mount St. Mary’s University and fellow at Yale, upon reviewing footage supplied by The Daily Beast. “And I would place all the liability at the foot of Albuquerque PD.”

Gilbert Gallegos Jr., a spokesperson for the Albuquerque Police Department, told The Daily Beast, “In this instance, Thomas admitted to being intoxicated, and yet he was handling a firearm. Thomas also told officers the firearm was in the trunk, but it turned out to be inside the vehicle. He asked to be allowed to go in the car to retrieve a phone. But no phone was ever found in the car.”

Attempts to reach the officers who took part in the shooting—Marcos Flores, Kenneth Skeens and Dustin Ketchum—were unsuccessful. None of them have been charged with a crime.

In a statement, Shaun Willoughby, president of the Albuquerque Police Officers Association, told The Daily Beast, “The department is under a DOJ consent decree and we strictly follow constitutional policing and this is an example [of] current training. This training is confusing and often puts officers at risk, in an effort to preserve the constitutional rights of an individual.”

In their public press conference in September, the Albuquerque Police Department showed parts of officers’ body-camera video, including when Thomas initially exited the car, right before the shooting, as well as the shooting itself. Neither Thomas’ hands nor the gun were clear on body- camera footage in the key moments before the shooting took place.

But the presentation did not include the more heated parts of the exchange with officers, as captured on additional body-camera footage obtained by the family.

In appraising that video, Turè pointed to what he described as a series of missteps.

These included, according to Turè, who is himself an ex-cop: police swearing at and then threatening an intoxicated Thomas with arrest after saying he was not in trouble, and allowing Thomas to reach into his pockets multiple times and return to the cab of the car after he acknowledged he had a weapon.

Turè explained that he took no “joy” finding fault with cops.

“When [Thomas] finally sits on a curb. He says, ‘Look, I’m not going to be pressed.’” said Turè. “It’s like an officer is like, like an instigator, really. The instigator comes in, starts up the conflict, and then steps out or steps away from it.”

In a press conference last month, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina conceded that the incident was not exactly an example of pristine policing in practice.

“We can be better at controlling our frustrations and the way we communicate with individuals,” he said. Still, Medina did not blame officers.

“We’ve seen the whole gamut of this during the whole course of the past year in our community, where the mixture of firearms and alcohol have led to tragic results for the community,” he said.

Thomas’ father pushed back on the chief’s claims, alluding to the local police force having a long history of misconduct that has drawn sustained federal attention, including, as the union leader acknowledged, from the Justice Department.

“No,” David Thomas countered in an interview on Friday. “The reason we’re having problems out here in Albuquerque and why not only myself but a lot of people don’t trust the police department is because police are not being held accountable.”

On Aug. 28, police arrived at the scene of the eventual killing after being called by a concerned bystander: a worker at a Valero gas station. The woman had dialed 911 to ask that someone check on a man whose car had been parked at the station for hours.

Extended body-camera footage shows police quickly escalating the encounter from initial expressions of concern to eventually cursing at and threatening Thomas.

Thomas’ car was off, and cops woke him up by asking him to come out—noting to each other they could not charge him with drunk driving.

“You’re not in trouble, just stand up and get out,” one officer requests, also asking him to sit down.

Thomas complies, then notes: “I’m not going to have a seat” and proceeds to light a cigarette, moving slowly, and obviously very intoxicated.

“You don’t want to have a seat, [sic] do what I’m telling you, then we can do this the hard way,” says an officer.

They begin to bicker about whether or not he had an open container in the car, and police begin to cuss at Thomas.

“Alright my dude. I haven’t give you guys a hard time, shoot,” says Thomas before leaning against the side of the car.

“Yeah you did. I told you to take a seat, you said no, then you want to play fucking dumb and say you don’t have an open container when it’s right there in the cup holder,” an officer replies.

The swearing and arguing intensifies, with one officer asking, “What the hell are you doing?”

“I’m going through a hard time,” Thomas replies.

When cops ask why he would be drinking in a car, at risk of hurting himself or others, he replies: “I haven’t hurt anybody.”

Then, later, a cop asks, “What that fuck’s your problem?”

Thomas begins to respond in kind.

“Don’t ask me what the fuck my problem is … don’t hit me with aggression cause that’s not the way fucking police work.“

Turè, the policing expert, suggested Thomas was spot on in his (less-than-sober) analysis.

“He calls it,” Turé told The Daily Beast. “I’m just sitting here like, ‘He calls it. He’s like, ‘That’s not how policing is supposed to be.’ He’s expecting professionalism and he’s not getting it.”

Turè noted that procedural justice—the perception of a fair process by those interacting with police—has been identified as a key pillar for the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. And, he said, Thomas’ death was preceded by the opposite: swearing, escalation, and mixed messages.

“How does this destroy police-community relations? How does this affect trust? In street vernacular, he ‘gives a clinic’ in a few seconds. He never uses the word procedural justice, but he damn sure comes close to it. It’s unfortunate he lost his life,” Turè added.

There is one bright spot in the video, said Turè. Officer Skeens arrives as backup and levels with Thomas about why he needs to move away from the pumps and sit down: because smoking next to a gas pump is dangerous.

“I respect that, bro,” Thomas says, before moving over to the curb and sitting down as asked.

After a moment of calmer conversation, things take a turn for the worse.

In the body-cam footage, Thomas is asked to call someone to pick him up. He asks to retrieve a phone from the car before informing cops he had a gun in the trunk, and hands an officer a pistol magazine from his pants pocket.

“All right, cool, I’ll give it back—no worries… just go grab your phone,” responds one of the officers.

That was an odd decision, according to Ian Adams, a policing expert at the University of South Carolina.

“From a tactical perspective, why is he being allowed back in the vehicle, after evidence that a weapon is found already in his pocket? ” he told The Daily Beast.

As Thomas slowly rifles through the front of his car, Officer Flores suddenly screams, “Gun, gun, gun!” and the three officers drop Thomas in a hail of 16 bullets.

The position of Thomas’ hands and gun at that moment are not visible in any of the body-cam videos released. The gun was found to have a single bullet in its chamber, but no magazine, according to APD. Another magazine was found in the car.

“Fuck, why did he do that?” a cop later exclaims on body-camera footage.

The event is still under investigation by APD, but the three officers were expected to return to work in September, according to the Albuquerque Journal, which previously reported on the case.

Neither APD nor the police union would comment on the current work status of the officers.

“I think that this is a major officer safety issue and officer training issue, and therefore Albuquerque owns this liability for this loss of life,” repeated Turè.

Thomas’ family concurs. After reviewing the extended body camera footage, his father called the video “horrifying.” Thomas’ parents and great uncle also said that their son legally owned the firearm, which was not disputed by police.

Laura Thomas, Keshawn’s mother, recalled her son as a young person who loved his brother, video games, sports, and had a newfound passion for travel.

“With your kids, you know what you have and what you don’t have, you know,” she told The Daily Beast. “Like I tell the attorney, if I know my son was about that life and want[ed] to shoot people and into gangs, into all that crazy life, I could accept it, I will fully accept it. But I know my son, and the community knows him so well, that is hard to accept for him to go out like this.”

For his part, Thomas’ great uncle Ronnie Thomas cited APD’s ugly history, and questioned why anyone should believe what cops say.

“As far as the actual shooting, anybody with common sense would go, ‘How did it even get to that point?’”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/video-shows-cops-badger-drunk-084150624.html

 

• Has the riot started yet?

 

Man pulled over for window tint violation killed; police footage released

TheGrio Staff
Tue, November 22, 2022 at 8:20 AM



During the Louisiana traffic stop, Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Rodney Anderson never tells Derrick Kittling why he was being pulled over.

A family has retained the services of civil rights attorney Ben Crump in the wake of a deputy in central Louisiana fatally shooting an unarmed Black man after pulling him over for a window tint violation.

According to HuffPost, the shooting death of Derrick Kittling, 45, by Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Rodney Anderson during a traffic stop on Nov. 6 generated uproar in Alexandria, a community with a large Black population.

The officer’s body camera footage and bystander video were aired during a press conference Sunday. A struggle between Anderson and Kittling begins about four minutes and 30 seconds into the incident.


Derrick Kittling, a 45-year-old unarmed Black man, was fatally shot by Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Rodney Anderson during a traffic stop captured on cameras Nov. 6. (Photo: Screenshot/YouTube.com/Police Activity)
In the bodycam video, Kittling, who appears confused during the interaction, exits his Chevrolet Silverado pickup. The deputy tells him to “stay right there,” but also directs him to walk toward his truck as he stands next to it after stepping out of the driver’s seat.

Anderson never explains why Kittling is being stopped and fails to respond when Kittling asks him directly.

Anderson commands Kittling to “walk over here.” As Kittling is standing near the truck’s door, the deputy, still in his cruiser, says, “Walk to your truck.”


Anderson cautions Kittling to keep his hands out of his pockets as he exits his police vehicle. Kittling follows instructions and walks to the back of the pickup truck before Anderson grabs his left arm.

Anderson repeatedly instructs Kittling to place his hands behind his back, accusing him of not following orders. Kittling asks if he can get his phone; the deputy replies, “We will get to that,” and stops him.

“What I did? What is wrong with you? [Why] are you grabbing on me, man? Why are you grabbing on me, bruh?” Kittling asks, according to HuffPost.

Anderson repeatedly demands that Kittling put his hands behind his back, but a still-bewildered Kittling wonders aloud, “For what?”

Then, in the struggle that ensued, the sheriff’s office claimed that Anderson “lost control” of his taser, and Kittling picked it up while it was on the ground.

The deputy can be seen in the footage grabbing the stun gun and shooting at Kittling, who attempts to block the taser before the two men wrestled on the ground. Kittling then appears to pick up the taser, but it’s not clear whether he pointed toward Anderson, according to HuffPost.

Various perspectives show the officer fighting Kittling. After roughly a minute, the deputy opens fire.

“Shots fired, shots fired,” Anderson says.

He is visible in the video footage holding the gun and gazing at Kittling while he is lying on the ground. Anderson then calls other officers to inform them of the incident.

There have been protests throughout Alexandria since Kittling’s deadly shooting, which occurred during daylight hours in a residential neighborhood.

“That sheriff’s department under the current Sheriff Mark Woods has a plethora of problems when it deals with African Americans,” organizer and protester Rev. Randy Harris told HuffPost. “It’s tragic with what happened to Derrick, but unfortunately it is more than likely to happen again. I have zero faith in the sheriff’s department.”

During the press conference Sunday, Louisiana State Police Commissioner Col. Lamar Davis informed the local media that Anderson stopped Kittling for having a window tint violation and a modified exhaust.

Davis added that authorities had not determined if Anderson tased Kittling. He also would not confirm whether the taser ever hit Anderson.

Louisiana State Police declined to say if Anderson even violated department policy.

“We are also gathering that information with regards to their protocols, their policies, their training and so forth,” Davis said, according to HuffPost. “And we will be able to better determine that information once we receive that.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/man-pulled-over-window-tint-152000595.html

 

Number one rule the guy called officer bruh. That's grounds for lethal force right there. Resisting an officer which entitles the use of force equal or greater than the perpetrator. If he would of kept his mouth shut and did as told he would be alive. Nothing wrong with just listing kids do as told or die its pretty easy. Settle it in court if you feel violated. I have never had an issue with an officer even in black face and I carry all the time. Hands on the wheel I tell them I'm armed and I don't mouth off or go reaching around the vehicle. Been thru this proubly a dozen times. Some pull there weapon some don't. In today's world they should all pull their weapon in my opinion. If you struggle that's grounds to be shot in my opinion.

 

Setting aside all the usual propaganda spew, forum members can judge for themselves what happened.

<iframe width="677" height="381" src="" title="Video Shows Struggle Before Deputy Shoots Derrick Kittling After a Traffic Stop" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Blacked out windows in our hood will get you shot. Unless the vehicle is white.

 

Can black men commit crimes with impunity is a better Question !

 

It is nearly always the case that when a police man kills a black man, the black man was a criminal engaged in a crime. Nevertheless, the police man is punished. Often relatives of the black criminal who was killed by a police man in the line of duty win the ghetto lottery by being given millions of dollars.

 

I Wonder what crime besides murder 1 warrant the death penalty,

 

I think cops carrying a billy club should come back, they might not have to resort to using their sidearm.

 

Rape and resisting arrest.

 

Anecdotal: I remember maybe just after WWII a grocery store employee as a part time cop from our town shot a kid running away..Kid survived, the guy lost his job and had to move ..lawsuits and public opinion hurt him. Course the kid was white, and it was in Jersey...unsure how it would have played out otherwise.

 

Texas cop who "followed his training in an effort to protect lives” kills innocent civilian


TheCriticalMind
Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
Monday December 05, 2022 · 10:46 AM MST

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“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.” — NRA CEO, Wayne LaPierre

There are four kinds of homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy, but it makes no great difference to the person slain whether he fell by one kind or another -- the classification is for the advantage of the lawyers.” ― Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.







Last November 15, in Austin TX, there was no “bad guy with a gun.” However, “a [nominally] good guy with a gun” shot and killed another good guy with a gun. The dead man was Rajan “Raj” Moonesinghe, 33. His killer was APD officer Daniel Sanchez.

Moonesinghe had returned from a trip in the early morning hours and suspected a burglar might be in his home. He picked up his rifle and stood outside his home, facing the house, pointing his gun inside. Sanchez responding to a 911 call, arrived on the scene and shot Moonesinghe dead. Those are the facts.

Moonesinghe’s family maintains Sanchez gave the victim no chance to put the weapon down or say he was the homeowner.

The police seem to corroborate their version. According to the Austin PD,

“Officer Sanchez was the first to observe Mr. Moonesinghe and gave him a verbal command to drop the gun. Immediately after telling Mr. Moonesinghe to drop the gun, Officer Sanchez fired his Department-approved firearm at Mr. Moonesinghe. Mr. Moonesinghe was struck and fell to the ground.”

The cynic in me says that the Austin PD’s willingness to admit there was no more than a split second between the command to drop the gun and the cop firing multiple shots is mainly because a ring video, with sound, delineates the timeline. It offers the police no wriggle room.

As reported by NBC News, the two-minute video shows,

“Moonesinghe carrying the rifle outside his home while walking toward the street. He appears to briefly hold up the rifle before turning around and walking toward his front door and pointing the rifle.

He appears to say, “Yep, you want this?” Several seconds pass and then Moonesinghe says, “Are you sure?” “Oh my God, you’re f------ stupid. You’re f------ stupid.”

He then points the rifle toward the doorway and a loud gunshot is heard while a police car passes in the background of the video. A second police car then passes. A second shot is heard while Moonesinghe is not in camera range, according to the video.

He then comes into view of the camera and is walking on his porch when what sounds like “drop the gun” is shouted, and nearly simultaneously multiple shots are heard on the video.”

Moonesinghe then drops to the ground and shouts, “It wasn’t me.” He then yells an expletive, the video shows. “Subject is down, hands are up” is heard on the video.

Moonesinghe again appears to say, “It wasn’t me.”

The Austin Chronicle reports how Moonessinghe’s family reacted to his slaying.

“The videos and the facts they illustrate have devastated Moonesinghe’s family. His brother, Johann, the co-founder of a restaurant investing and consulting business with Raj, called the shooting “murder.”

“t is evident that the officer who shot Raj did this without identifying himself, without thinking, and before giving my brother a chance to explain who he was and why he was outside,” Johann said in a statement. “Instead, he arrived without flashing lights or sirens, pulled out an assault rifle, took a hidden defensive position behind a fence 25 yards away, and killed my brother. He began firing before finishing his command to ‘drop your gun’ and continued to fire once Raj had dropped his gun and put his hands up.”

The family has released its own split-screen edit that syncs up the 911 call, the Ring footage of Moonasinghe, and the video from Sanchez's bodycam "to present an accurate timeline of events."

You can tell from his name Raj was not white. How Raj’s non-whiteness influenced Sanchez, we do not yet — and may never — know. But history demands that whenever a cop shoots a civilian of color, the possibility of racism — overt or insidious — must factor into the investigation.

Police also need to understand the majority of gun owners are law-abiding citizens. And the rules in many states, including Texas, allow those citizens to carry their weapons almost anywhere. And every person’s home is their castle — subject to a doctrine.

What is the solution? Here are a few ideas. I welcome others.

• Establish a national police registry. Too often, cops fired for misconduct from one department end up with a job in another.
• Create standardized psychological/personality assessments for potential police officers. The job attracts too many authoritarians suffering from anger management issues.
• Run social media background checks on law enforcement applicants - with an emphasis on uncovering racist and white supremacist/nationalist sympathies.
• Improve training. Emphasize de-escalation and mediation.
• Require cops to maintain minimum physical fitness standards.
• Direct more law enforcement resources to mental health professionals.
• Establish civilian review boards for all police departments.

Other measures might include

• Require cops to live in the areas they police.
• Mandate that police departments better reflect the demographics of the community they serve.
• Increase community policing.
• Require ongoing professional development courses.
• Working with police unions to make it easier to fire bad cops.

“Defund the police” is a dumb slogan. We all need cops — especially in high crime areas, which are often in inner-city minority neighborhoods. But everyone, no matter their circumstances, deserves to have psychologically healthy and well-trained officers who are motivated to do a good job.

No one deserves to be executed on their front porch by a police officer hiding in the bushes who might have been scared shitless. - and was unprepared to do the right thing.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...fort-to-protect-lives-kills-innocent-civilian

 

If you watch the video at about 1:16 Raj steps out from his doorway with the rifle aimed at the ground between the officers and the street in a ready to use position. The officers shout at him to drop the gun and then immediately fire, until Raj drops to the ground.

Of note is that Raj fired his weapon twice just as officers arrived and they certainly heard those shots, then saw Raj step out with the weapon.

 

I am getting a little behind on this thread because there are several more cases.

Even More Cops Are Under Investigation Over the Death of Tyre Nichols

Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis announced on Wednesday night that even more officers were under internal investigation after five officers had already been fired for excessive force during the arrest of Tyre Nichols. Additionally, Davis announced that she would request an independent review of the department’s specialized units, to which the five officers belonged. Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, died three days after he was pulled over by police on Jan. 7. Members of his family who have seen the yet-to-be-released footage of his arrest have likened it to the horrific beating of Rodney King.

Read it at Daily Memphian


https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-officers-under-investigation-after-death-of-tyre-nichols?ref=home

 

And now for the rest of the story;
1) Nichols ran from police when he was stopped and resisted arrest. twice.
2) All of the involved officers were of the same race as Nichols.
<iframe width="665" height="374" src="" title="Memphis police chief releases statement as Tyre Nichols investigation continues" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Now to be clear, the fact that a driver ran after he was stopped for a traffic violation does not justify any more than an arrest.
The fact that he resisted arrest, even twice, does not by itself justify more force than needed to effect his arrest.

Hopefully, forum members will hold their judgement until ALL of the facts are in, and then watch to see if justice is done.

 

No, Nichols did not need to die.
Not for running and not for resisting arrest.
Haven't seen the video and will withhold judgement until all of the facts are known.
Hopefully everyone will withhold their judgement until all the facts are in.

 

Ok let's be fair and give the cops credit for this. They did not beat him to death.

Florida cops brutally beat illiterate homeless man — then had him sign an affidavit saying he wasn't beaten: report

Matthew Chapman
January 26, 2023



Police car lights (Shutterstock)


Two Florida police officers have been charged with kidnapping a homeless man and beating him while he was handcuffed for no lawful reason — and that homeless man was later tricked into signing an affidavit saying he wasn't beaten, even though he couldn't read, reported The Daily Beast.

"Rafael Otano, 27, and 22-year-old Lorenzo Orfila responded to a disturbance call at a shopping plaza Dec. 17 where they handcuffed homeless man Jose Ortega-Gutierrez and put him in a Hialeah Police car, despite surveillance footage not showing any reason for him to be detained, according to Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle," reported Alec Karam. "The cops then took him to an isolated location and proceeded to beat him while he was still handcuffed, Fernandez Rundle said. Ortega-Gutierrez said he woke up bloody and freed from the handcuffs, and reported the alleged assault to police."

According to the report, Ortega-Gutierrez "was allegedly asked days later to sign an affidavit that said he’d been arrested for drinking and wasn’t beaten by police," even though he doesn't know how to read in English or Spanish. "The man who gave him that affidavit, 45-year-old Ali Amin Saleh, has also been arrested on charges of tampering with the victim," said the report.

Otano and Orfila were terminated by the mayor of Hialeah on Thursday at the same time of their arrest.

IN OTHER NEWS: Trump clearly agitated after Fulton County DA made a stunning admission in court

This comes after years of heightened scrutiny on excessive force incidents by police around the country, with one of the most infamous being the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which resulted in a murder conviction against one officer and multiple others pleading guilty to manslaughter, on top of other state and federal charges.

Another high-profile case is emerging in Memphis, where Tyre Nichols was killed in a traffic stop for alleged reckless driving. Five former officers involved in that incident were charged with murder today, and video footage of the incident is expected to be released on Friday.



https://www.yahoo.com/news/virginia-democrats-defeat-15-week-155444766.html

 

Always berating and demonizing is stumbler.

It defines him.