The US policing crisis thread

[Eamonnca1]

1000 Ohio State students staged a riot, flipped cars over, and damaged property following a football game on Saturday.
Police moved in with military gear, fired flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets, and made hundreds of arrests. The right wing media has been giving the event blanket coverage.

I'm kidding. The cops didn't do a damn thing other than go for a joyride in their helicopter. No arrests were made. One student who was trying to fend off rioters and preventing them from doing further damage to her upside-down car called 911 only to be told that the police would move into the area "when safe to come to the scene." The only coverage I can find of this is in the campus newspaper and a few local news outlets.

No peeping at the photo. Can you guess the color of the skin of the rioters?

https://www.thelantern.com/2021/04/students-whose-cars-were-flipped-and-destroyed-during-chitt-fest-riot-ask-for-accountability/?fbclid=IwAR25bXaKq6f7xt5E0RbMMOWX-YIPJPA0l-xxR6v3XULPO9hTwlJ8nmYqb_4

[Eamonnca1]

Cops in Columbus put four rounds into 15-year-old Makiyah Bryant literally while the Chauvin verdict was handed down. And then proceeded to shout "Blue lives matter" at the neighborhood witnesses.

Why were the cops there? Because she called 911 while being assaulted.

"Police in Columbus, Ohio went on a helicopter joyride late [at night on the 16th], flying over only the parts of the city where the population is mostly black, and spelling out "CPD" with the flight path."

[Eamonnca1]

Cops Tackled a Grandma With Dementia Picking Flowers, Bodycam Footage Shows

The officer grabbed the 73-year-old woman, threw her to the grass, and twisted her arms behind her back.
EO
By Emma Ockerman

A 73-year-old grandmother of nine was picking wildflowers on the side of the road in Loveland, Colorado, last summer when a local cop got out of his patrol vehicle and told her to stop—beginning a police encounter that ultimately left her with broken bones, bruised, and traumatized.

Loveland Police Officer Austin Hopp had been driving behind Karen Garner with his overhead lights on because she was accused of shoplifting from a nearby Walmart. But Garner did not appear to notice, according to body camera footage published by Garner's attorney Wednesday.

ADVERTISEMENT

Garner has dementia and sensory aphasia, an inability to understand spoken and written speech, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed on her behalf this week against the city of Loveland and three officers involved in Garner's arrest.

Hopp asked Garner why she didn't stop after he activated his lights and siren, at which point Garner gave him a blank expression, said something unintelligible, and started to move away.

"No, no, no," Hopp said, according to bodycam footage.


Hopp then grabbed the 80-pound woman, threw her to the grass, and twisted her arms behind her back, bodycam footage shows. Garner was still clutching a handful of wildflowers. A second cop, Daria Jalali, arrived within minutes and assisted in the arrest.

Then, despite Garner's evident distress and small stature, Hopp pushed her left arm "painfully upward,"  according to body camera footage and the lawsuit. Police repeatedly threw her on the ground, and hog-tied her on the side of the road—a controversial restraint that's been banned by some police departments. Once her feet were bound, Jalali, Hopp, and their on-scene supervisor, Sgt. Philip Metzler, lifted her into the back of a police vehicle, according to the lawsuit.

"I'm going home," Garner cried repeatedly.

News
The Cop Who Pepper-Sprayed Lt. Caron Nazario Has Been Fired
EMMA OCKERMAN
04.12.21

As a result of the incident, Garner was left with a dislocated shoulder, a fractured humerus bone, and a sprained wrist, the lawsuit alleges. She was covered with bruises by the time she arrived at a hospital—although she wasn't taken to the medical facility until several hours after she was first stopped by police, according to the lawsuit.

After the lawsuit was filed Wednesday and covered by local media outlets including KUSA, an NBC affiliate in Denver, the Loveland Police Department said in a statement that it'd investigate the encounter. Officials added they'd only heard of the incident this week, having not received any prior complaints. In the meantime, the department has placed Hopp on administrative leave, and reassigned Jalali and Metzler to administrative duties, according to the statement posted on the department's Facebook page.

Karen Garner has dementia and sensory aphasia, an inability to understand spoken and written speech, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed on her behalf.
KAREN GARNER HAS DEMENTIA AND SENSORY APHASIA, AN INABILITY TO UNDERSTAND SPOKEN AND WRITTEN SPEECH, ACCORDING TO A FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS LAWSUIT FILED ON HER BEHALF.

But Garner's family wants to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone ever again—and they're hoping for significant changes in personnel, leadership, and policy at the Loveland Police Department.

"This is not a 'single bad apple' type of scenario," Sarah Schielke, Garner's attorney in the lawsuit, told VICE News. "This is a systemic, cultural, deeply ingrained, coming-down-from-leadership type of attitude, where this is not community policing—it's community terrorism, practically."

She added: "If somebody's dumb enough, in their mind, to not capitulate, they're going to pay for it. Even if you're an elderly disabled lady."

While Garner's children were doing their best to keep an eye on her, she slipped out to Walmart the afternoon of her arrest, Schielke said. Later, Garner wound up wandering out of the store without paying for Pepsi, a candy bar, a T-shirt, and some stain-removing wipes—worth less than $14 altogether.

ADVERTISEMENT

Walmart employees stopped her and took the items back. They then refused her attempt to pay and called the police, according to the lawsuit.

Casey Staheli, a spokesperson for Walmart, said in a statement to VICE News: "We stopped the customer after noticing her attempt to take merchandise from the store without paying for it. To protect the safety of our people, the police were called only after Ms. Garner became physical with an associate."

Hopp found Garner a few blocks away from the Walmart as she was walking home. When Garner appeared confused at his questions, he said to her: "You just left Walmart. Do you need to be arrested right now?" Then he tackled her.

At one point, a concerned citizen stopped and asked the officers, "Do you have to use that much aggression?"

"What are you doing? Get out of here," Hopp said, according to body camera footage.

The man, who had pulled over to the side of the road, asked to know who Hopp's sergeant was, saying he had seen the cop throw "that little kid." (Garner is 5 feet tall, according to the lawsuit.)

"She just stole from Walmart and refused to stop, refused to listen to lawful orders, and to fight me," Hopp told the man. "This is what happens when you fight the police. I have to use force to safely detain her. That's what this is. This isn't just some random act of aggression."

Later, when Metzler arrived and the officers were recounting the events of the arrest together, Hopp admitted he "struggled" with Garner.

ADVERTISEMENT

"You're a little muddy, dude," Metzler said, according to body camera footage.

"A little bloody, a little muddy, that's how it works," Jalali responded.

The officers were referring to Garner's blood.

She was taken to jail and charged with theft of less than $50, obstructing a peace officer, and resisting arrest, according to the Loveland Reporter-Herald, though the Larimer County District Attorney agreed to dismiss the case in August 2020.

The intense encounter with police has still left its scars, though. Garner's children have told Schielke that she's able to find some peace playing solitaire, listening to music, or doing crafts at a memory care facility, but has otherwise become withdrawn and mistrustful. They noted that in the past, Garner was the ultimate, crafty home-maker, who loved to go to concerts and play cards.

"What little freedom and happiness Ms. Garner enjoyed in her life as an elderly adult with declining mental health was, on June 26, 2020, recklessly and deliberately obliterated by the Loveland Police Department," the lawsuit states.

Tom Hacker, a spokesman for the Loveland Police Department, said the agency's professional standards unit will examine the incident. "There's no record associated with this event, no frame of video, no shred of any evidence that won't be looked at pretty thoroughly," he told VICE News.

It was unclear if the officers named in the lawsuit had attorneys who could speak on their behalf; the local police union didn't immediately respond to VICE News' request for comment.

[Eamonnca1]

[Eamonnca1]

Video Footage of Tyrell Wilson Killing Released – as Same Danville Officer Charged in Another Death

By Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez

Only a day after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd, the East Bay town of Danville is facing its own reckoning over two police killings.

Andrew Hall, a police officer in Danville, which contracts law enforcement services from the Contra Costa County Sheriff, has been charged with felony voluntary manslaughter and felony assault with a semi-automatic firearm in the 2018 killing of Laudemer Arboleda, the Contra Costa District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.

Hall's shooting of Arboleda was "without lawful excuse or justification," the District Attorney's Office said in a statement. If found guilty, Hall faces a possible 22-year prison sentence and would be barred from being a peace officer.

"Ultimately, I'm confident a jury of officer Hall's peers will review this case ... and ultimately hold officer Hall accountable," District Attorney Diana Becton said at a press conference Wednesday. "The unnecessary death of Mister Arboleda underscores the need for law enforcement personnel to better understand those who are suffering from mental illness."

An attorney for Arboleda's mother, prominent civil rights attorney John Burris, supported the charges – but he said serious harm may have come from waiting more than two years to make them.

"In this instance, the delay in prosecuting Hall is particularly hurtful because Hall recently shot and killed a homeless man, Tyrell Wilson, under very questionable circumstances," Burris said. "Wilson could be alive if Hall were prosecuted earlier."

Just hours before the DA's charging announcement, the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office released grisly, graphic video footage of the incident Burris was referring to: Hall shooting 32-year-old Tyrell Wilson, a homeless man whose family says suffered from schizophrenia, on March 11 of this year.

The newly released video — compiled from footage taken by Hall's body camera, citizen dash cam footage and stationary city-operated cameras — shows Hall exiting his police vehicle and making contact with Wilson before pursuing him on foot across the broad, busy intersection of Sycamore Valley Road and Camino Ramon, adjacent to the I-680 interchange in Danville, then shooting and killing him in the middle of the intersection, all in under one minute.

Due to its extremely graphic nature, and out of consideration for our communities, KQED has decided not to embed the video of Wilson's killing. For those who wish to watch it in full, it is available here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J32OpuhBCFM

The video begins with Hall's body cam footage, which was activated as he approached the intersection in response to 911 calls about someone throwing rocks off the Sycamore Valley Road overpass onto the I-680 freeway below.

Hall gets out of his vehicle and calls out to Wilson, who is walking into the intersection, saying, "Hey buddy, come here real quick! Come here!"

Wilson refuses and continues walking away from Hall across the intersection, saying, "Who are you?"

Hall says, "You're jaywalking now ... We're not playing this game dude."

After continuing to pursue Wilson on foot into the intersection, Hall identifies himself as "Officer Andrew Hall of Danville Police," to which Wilson responds, "From where? Authority of what?"

Hall closes the distance between them as Wilson stands still for a moment, before Wilson begins walking backward, away from Hall, holding a paper bag in one hand and what appears to be a small knife in the other.

"Don't f**king touch me," Wilson says as he begins to walk backward. "Touch me and see what's up."

Hall yells, "Drop the knife" as Wilson stops in the street and says, "No ... Kill me," while tapping his chest.

Wilson then takes a couple slow, halting steps forward. Hall yells, "Drop the knife" twice more, and shoots Wilson once. Wilson immediately collapses. Responding emergency personnel work to save his life, repeating, "Stay with us, stay with us," as they roll him onto his side. Wilson died a week later.

The Contra Costa Sheriff's Office framed the footage as exonerating Hall.

"Any loss of life is tragic, but the community can now see the truth," said Contra Costa County Sheriff David Livingston in a statement. "Tyrell Wilson did in fact threaten the lives of passing motorists by throwing objects, possibly rocks, from the overpass down onto Highway 680. He was found with numerous rocks in his jacket pocket. He did pull a knife on Officer Hall. He did threaten Officer Hall. And he did start advancing toward Officer Hall in the middle of a major intersection. Officers are forced to make split second decisions to protect themselves and the public and that's what happened here."

Officers are generally trained to see a suspect with a knife in close quarters as a deadly threat. But a newly enacted California use-of-force standard under Assembly Bill 392 says officers should only use deadly force when other options aren't feasible.

Alternatives to deadly force could include what the bill calls "tactical repositioning" to create time and distance between an officer and a person representing a threat.

Hall began working for the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office in 2013. Just a year later, he was accused of excessive force by a person incarcerated at the Martinez Detention Facility, who alleged Hall "brutally attacked" him, and was subsequently beaten by other deputies. The Contra Costa Sheriff's investigation exonerated Hall of any wrongdoing, and the investigation notes that injuries sustained by the prisoner may have been pre-existing, though reinjured in the fight with deputies.

In 2018, Hall, who became a contract officer for the town of Danville, responded to a call of a "strange individual lurking around" property near Cottage Lane and Laurel Drive in Danville. Officers tried to pull over Arboleda, who stopped twice but then took off again when officers got out of their cars, according to previous statements on the shooting released by the Sheriff's Office.

Video of Arboleda's death was obtained in 2019 by the California Reporting Project, a coalition of news organizations (including KQED) seeking records from law enforcement agencies under a new state transparency law.

The footage showed Hall shot and killed Laudemer Arboleda as Arboleda attempted to drive through a gap between two police cars.

State policing standards generally advise officers against shooting into moving vehicles, warning that doing so carries a great potential risk of death not only for the vehicle occupants, but police and bystanders. In particular, state policing standards warn against officers placing themselves in the direct path of a moving vehicle, as Hall appeared to do when he shot into Arboleda's vehicle.

Hall was placed on administrative leave after the Wilson shooting.

Tara Siler and Alex Emslie contributed to this report.

[Eamonnca1]

[Milltown Row2]

This is bizarre in the extreme and something ill never understand about America and why it's allowed to happen.

The other thing I can't understand (and I'm not victim blaming here) is resisting arrest! If you are black and live in a society were the police are virtually allowed to do what they want, why would you resist arrest?

Though not resisting arrest will protect you either, seen footage of a young lad (13?) being chased, he dropped his gun (why he had a gun is another question), put his hands up but they shot him dead anyways.

It's a crazy place to live

[whitey]

That case with the 13 year old is the definition of a split second life and death decision that the cop needed to make in order to go home to his family that night

In a dark alley at 2:30 AM the kid (1) tossed the gun (to the blindside) (2) spun around and (3) raised his hands in less than a second having previously ignored numerous requests to drop the weapon

Even the BLM groups are being very careful about that one

[Milltown Row2]

That case with the 13 year old is the definition of a split second life and death decision that the cop needed to make in order to go home to his family that night

In a dark alley at 2:30 AM the kid (1) tossed the gun (to the blindside) (2) spun around and (3) raised his hands in less than a second having previously ignored numerous requests to drop the weapon

Even the BLM groups are being very careful about that one

I agree to a point, but if I'm professionally trained to use a gun and be in those situations then its questionable whether they are right. Either way, running around as a 13 year old with a gun is baffling!

[Taylor]

has it been mentioned here about the 16 year old girl who was shot by the cops?

While only some video footage has been released it looks as though she was stabbing another girl or in the process of stabbing a girl.

Now that is a split second decision - should a taser have been used?
Should the cop have shot a non lethal part on the body?

Is it even possible to differentiate in such a high pressure scenario.

[whitey]

That case with the 13 year old is the definition of a split second life and death decision that the cop needed to make in order to go home to his family that night

In a dark alley at 2:30 AM the kid (1) tossed the gun (to the blindside) (2) spun around and (3) raised his hands in less than a second having previously ignored numerous requests to drop the weapon

Even the BLM groups are being very careful about that one

I agree to a point, but if I'm professionally trained to use a gun and be in those situations then its questionable whether they are right. Either way, running around as a 13 year old with a gun is baffling!

Well if he wasn't in the right he'll lose his job and get prosecuted (neither of which I think will happen)

Sadly 13 year olds involved in serious criminality has become the norm

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/caught-on-camera-children-arrested-for-attempted-carjackings-in-san-leandro/amp/

[trailer]

America's gun laws are the root cause of this problem. Every Cop thinks that at every single small call out someone is carrying. If they take away the threat of the gun from most of these Cop shootings, they will eliminate a lot of these deaths.

[whitey]

America's gun laws are the root cause of this problem. Every Cop thinks that at every single small call out someone is carrying. If they take away the threat of the gun from most of these Cop shootings, they will eliminate a lot of these deaths.

It's absolutely insane what the cops have to deal with

https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/US/juveniles-injured-gunfight-broke-12-year-olds-birthday/story%3fid=77182959

[trailer]

America's gun laws are the root cause of this problem. Every Cop thinks that at every single small call out someone is carrying. If they take away the threat of the gun from most of these Cop shootings, they will eliminate a lot of these deaths.

It's absolutely insane what the cops have to deal with

https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/US/juveniles-injured-gunfight-broke-12-year-olds-birthday/story%3fid=77182959

Ban Guns and a lot of America's ills will be solved.

[J70]

America's gun laws are the root cause of this problem. Every Cop thinks that at every single small call out someone is carrying. If they take away the threat of the gun from most of these Cop shootings, they will eliminate a lot of these deaths.

It's absolutely insane what the cops have to deal with

https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/US/juveniles-injured-gunfight-broke-12-year-olds-birthday/story%3fid=77182959

Ban Guns and a lot of America's ills will be solved.

Unfortunately there is zero chance of that ever happening.

Its like these people are wired wrong or something.

There are more guns that people at this point in the US.