CA - Devin Brown, 13, shot to death by Los Angeles police, 6 Feb 2005

[Bhodirasta]

Hi again.
I heard an interview with the attorney for the kids mom on the radio last week
He was saying that the mom was a good mother "on hands" mother.
If that is the case why was her son running the streets in the middle of the night?? The talk show hosts were really good and they really let this "lawyer" have it.
These people are actually going to sue the Los Angeles police dept over this
Anything to make a buck....
And for the police dept to change their policies is absolutely ridiculous if you ask me... Wimps!!!! But the mayor wanted "black votes"
Sell outs!!!!!!!:loser:
So our police can not even do their jobs anymore with all of this crap that keeps popping up.....

The child was an honor roll student. My parents were the STRICTEST OF THE STRICT and I "ran the streets in the middle of the night" - granted I visited the local Candy place, but yes, I stole my parents car and " ran the streets in the middle of the night". THANK GOD I lived in a good neighborhood! If I hadn't the police would have probably picked me up too.
What kind of "job" is it the police have when it comes to shooting at anything that moves? I don't buy for ONE SECOND that if this cop had the time to shoot TEN TIMES, he didn't have the time to move! How fast can a car go from 0 in reverse?
I find it disheartening that there is no sympathy being shown for this poor little boy that died so young, as well as for his parents that loved him. Loosing a child, from what I hear, is TRAGIC. Yet here we are talking about the cop, feeling bad for the cop, taking up for the cop... The cop is still alive!
My prayers go out to the FAMILY of the dead child...
This child was a VICTIM. I thought this was a victim's advocates site!
And changing policies is necessary when the policy is found to be RIDICULOUS- like they ALREADY FOUND OUT THE FIRST TIME. The policy was already in the process of being changed. Too bad it wasn't changed sooner- this little boy might still be alive...

 

[Jeana (DP)]

Its crap and its a crutch and quite frankly, many blacks are just as angry as we are that these BABIES are out there on the streets selling rock and carrying weapons. I don't want to hear that its the "white man" whose always bringing up the "race issue." Everytime I can remember ANYONE brining the issue up, it was a b lack person. When they want me to stop seeing color, they can stop throwing it in my face. Black Entertainment Television, Black Firefighters Association, etc., etc., etc.

 

[Bhodirasta]

Here is another side of the story...


LOS ANGELES -- Friends and neighbors of a 13-year-old boy say they can't understand why Los Angeles police shot him to death early Sunday.

Police said Devin Brown was suspected of stealing a car and led police on a 3.5-mile chase. An officer reportedly fired 10 shots into the car when the Devon backed the vehicle into a patrol cruiser at the end of the brief chase.

Now, a makeshift memorial has been set up at the site where Devon, an 8th-grader at a magnet school for gifted children, was shot and killed. Police initially said Brown was a gang member but later said they could not confirm that.

The shooting sparked outrage among some community groups, and a prayer vigil and community meeting about Brown's death was called for Tuesday night.

It was reported that the boy's father had died last year, and his mother had recently asked an older neighbor to help get the boy back on track.

This happens far too often and far too easily in our neighborhood," resident Gene Conner said.


Yvonne Jones, assistant principal at the boy's school, Audobon Middle School, said a crisis team was on campus to help students and staff members cope with the news.

One of Devin's classmates said he always made her laugh, and she cried when she heard he had died.

"He was always nice to me," she said. "He never do nothing to me. I don't know, because he was just nice, period."

http://www.kirotv.com/news/4175436/detail.html
.......................

The article also states that the young boy had hit a fence, backed up, and hit a patrol car, then pow pow pow pow.
One of the officers in the car did not shoot.
I am assuming here, that the police officer was NOT out side the car, and therefore, was not standing in the vehicles path. If a car backs up in to a patrol car, I don't see how that could have been taken as an attempt at running the officer over, which IMHO, would be the only excuse to shoot, that is if he didn't have time to move out of the way...

And here is another article.
The "chase" lasted for 3 minutes...
3 minutes or 3 miles? Gang Member or Magnet School? Already we are seeing inconsistencies...


I can't copy from this site but here is yet another case it mentions...
http://www.baou.com/newswire/main.php?action=recent&rid=20041
This case, it was decided, in the same community, that they would not prosecute the officers...


Here is the case that the same county is now dealing with....

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton is scheduled to report to police commissioners Tuesday about the Stanley Miller case, even as city officials deal with a new controversy over the fatal shooting of a 13-year-old suspected car thief over the weekend.

The shooting occurred just days after prosecutors announced they would not file charges against an LAPD officer who repeatedly struck Miller with a flashlight after a televised car and foot chase, prompting an outcry among some Black leaders.


http://www.manhunt.com/news/stories/1108165263.html
...............

Now we might know why this community could be in a tizzy to say the least...

 

[Bhodirasta]

Its crap and its a crutch and quite frankly, many blacks are just as angry as we are that these BABIES are out there on the streets selling rock and carrying weapons. I don't want to hear that its the "white man" whose always bringing up the "race issue." Everytime I can remember ANYONE brining the issue up, it was a b lack person. When they want me to stop seeing color, they can stop throwing it in my face. Black Entertainment Television, Black Firefighters Association, etc., etc., etc.

Jeana,
there is no evidence this 13 year old is a crack coccaine seller, in a gang, or any kind of violent risk...
He stold a car.
He was UNARMED.
He was in a gifted school.
His FATHER had recently died.
THE LAPD were the ones that tried to say he was in a gang. I am begining to see a lot of inconsistencies in this case...
The black community should have every right to coordinate means my which it gives thier young someone to look up to. All the instances you mentioned above are ways and means these young people can follow thier own dreams WITHOUT gang violence. We have our own organizations, just the like. Problem is, is that most of these organizations are primarily white. I find absolutely NOTHING wrong with BET or Black Firefighters, etc. These groups are GOOD- they give minorities people to look up to. We have our own orgs. too yah know- the Aryan Nation being one...

Look at colleges and universities- no we don't call them the white Phi Delts, or the white Kappa Kappa Gammas, or the white SAEs, but that is what they are...

No they can't 'restrict' blacks,(any longer) but they sure can and sure do make it awfully hard for them to get in...
why the last time I checked, several "white" country clubs had to change their rules for a certain "Tiger"...

 

[Bhodirasta]

FBI Opens Investigation Into Fatal Shooting


LOS ANGELES — The FBI has joined the investigation into the police shooting of a 13-year-old boy in South Los Angeles.


http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/news/020905_NW_teen_shot_cheif.html


.......................
Commissioner Rick Caruso said he thinks there should be an immediate reminder to LAPD officers of the policies related to such incidents. He also said if it is determined there needs to be a policy change to prevent such incidents, it should be implemented without delay.

Commission President David Cunningham III said he visited the scene of the shooting Sunday, and that he and others were "shocked and appalled by what happened."

"It is a tragedy of immense proportions that needs to be dealt with by (LAPD Chief William Bratton)," Cunningham said.

Some of those who addressed the commission said they saw Brown's shooting as continuing a line of incidents involving LAPD officers that have sparked community outrage, such as the flashlight beating of Stanley Miller, which also took place after LAPD officers pursued a stolen car.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/news/020805_NW_teen_shot_reaction.html
................................

It seems like this community has been through quite a bit as of late.

It is also looking like others (in high places) might think there to be something amiss as well...

 

[Jeana (DP)]

Jeana,
there is no evidence this 13 year old is a crack coccaine seller, in a gang, or any kind of violent risk...
He stold a car.
He was UNARMED.
He was in a gifted school.
His FATHER had recently died.
THE LAPD were the ones that tried to say he was in a gang. I am begining to see a lot of inconsistencies in this case...
The black community should have every right to coordinate means my which it gives thier young someone to look up to. All the instances you mentioned above are ways and means these young people can follow thier own dreams WITHOUT gang violence. We have our own organizations, just the like. Problem is, is that most of these organizations are primarily white. I find absolutely NOTHING wrong with BET or Black Firefighters, etc. These groups are GOOD- they give minorities people to look up to. We have our own orgs. too yah know- the Aryan Nation being one...

Look at colleges and universities- no we don't call them the white Phi Delts, or the white Kappa Kappa Gammas, or the white SAEs, but that is what they are...

No they can't 'restrict' blacks,(any longer) but they sure can and sure do make it awfully hard for them to get in...
why the last time I checked, several "white" country clubs had to change their rules for a certain "Tiger"...

So? He stole a car and the officer was in fear for his life and the car was being used as a weapon. The kid took the wrong road and it cost him his life. Next.

 

[Bhodirasta]

So? He stole a car and the officer was in fear for his life and the car was being used as a weapon. The kid took the wrong road and it cost him his life. Next.

There were policies in place that said the car was NOT to be shot at. The policy has been sped up. The officer shot, then asked questions. There is a reason the FBI was called in. It will be dealt with, and hopefully accordingly. I don't believe FOR ONE SECOND that the car was being used as a weapon to kill. The child was 13 and as I said before, he backed up in to the POLICE CAR. BACKED UP. He didn't fly at the officer while standing outside his vehicle and in the path of the car. One officer inside the car didn't feel like the car was being used as a weapon, or he would have shot as well.
The last time I checked, first time car theives weren't given the death penalty.
I don't feel like this is a "next" kind of situation. The poor 13 year old boy, who was going through a difficult time in his life, after his father had a heart attack, was taken away from his mother. Now the poor mother has lost her husband and her son...

 

[Kymistry35]

If a moving vehicle isn't a weapon, I don't know what one is. The cop did what he needed to do. I wonder how outraged they would be if the kid was white

I don't think race should even be an issue. The issue should be that this was a 13 year old kid. He was probably scared and realized he was in over his head and didn't know what else to do. The adults responsible for him should be held accountable.

 

[Jeana (DP)]

I don't feel like this is a "next" kind of situation. The poor 13 year old boy, who was going through a difficult time in his life, after his father had a heart attack, was taken away from his mother. Now the poor mother has lost her husband and her son...

One excuse after another. How do you explain away all the other kids who steal, kill, rape and sell drugs? They all have a sad story too.

 

[Bhodirasta]

One excuse after another. How do you explain away all the other kids who steal, kill, rape and sell drugs? They all have a sad story too.

The only crime you mentioned above that is punishible by death is killing (if not in self defense) This child was not a killer. NO ONE will EVER be able to convince me of that...
The sad story is the cop shot first and asked questions later.
Remember too- that only ONE of the cops shot,
Remember too- the FBI has been brought in for a good reason...
Remember too- this very policy that was "tested" before, was in the process of being changed, FOR A REASON.
Remember too- the cop was not outside the vehicle and in the path of death...
The only excuses I see being made are excuses for a gun happy policeman...
This cop used excessive violence. If the policemen that polices the neighborhood condones excessive violence, the repurcussions of that action will be evident in future generations...

.......................

The Brown killing comes on the heels of an announcement by the district attorney’s office that the cops who were videotaped last June brutalizing Stanley Miller, a car theft suspect, will not be prosecuted. A news helicopter video aired at the time showed Miller being pushed to the ground and then kicked and hit 11 times in the head area with a police flashlight. Eight cops were on the scene, CNN reported.

In January a jury awarded $2.4 million to two police in the nearby town of Inglewood, who had been caught on video brutalizing a handcuffed Black teenager.

http://www.themilitant.com/2005/6909/690950.html
..........................

Another interesting tidbit is that officials STILL have not said where Garcia was when he fired the shots.
Why not???

 

[Jeana (DP)]

They start out with a non "felony" and when they don't get caught doing that, or receive a slap on the wrist, they graduate to the more serious crimes. Come on Bhodi! You've lived in the real world long enough to realize that, right?

 

[Julie]

you know what? we wouldn't have these problems if people would teach their children ( and sometimes themselves) that you are to respect and obey Law enforcement. If they say pull over, pull over. If they tell you to stop, stop.
I am the wife of a police officer and If my husband is ever killed by someone using a car as a weapon because his department says that cars can't be weapons, I would sue the pants off the department.
And I don't care if the kid was on the honor roll and his father just died. A police officer has to make a millisecond decision, he doesn't have time to run the person's life history.
We have had many black/white issues here in Louisiana the past couple years when a black man was killed when police mistook his cellular phone for a gun. He pointed it at them like a gun. Our police chief ended up resigning because the black community made such a stink because he stuck up for the officers. Oh yeah we had Artis Cash and all the NAACP guys here talking about the 'injustice' to the black community. Gag............Give me a break. You know police officers are armed. If you're too stupid to obey what they tell you to do, then you deserve whatever you get.

 

[Jeana (DP)]

you know what? we wouldn't have these problems if people would teach their children ( and sometimes themselves) that you are to respect and obey Law enforcement. If they say pull over, pull over. If they tell you to stop, stop.
I am the wife of a police officer and If my husband is ever killed by someone using a car as a weapon because his department says that cars can't be weapons, I would sue the pants off the department.
And I don't care if the kid was on the honor roll and his father just died. A police officer has to make a millisecond decision, he doesn't have time to run the person's life history.
We have had many black/white issues here in Louisiana the past couple years when a black man was killed when police mistook his cellular phone for a gun. He pointed it at them like a gun. Our police chief ended up resigning because the black community made such a stink because he stuck up for the officers. Oh yeah we had Artis Cash and all the NAACP guys here talking about the 'injustice' to the black community. Gag............Give me a break. You know police officers are armed. If you're too stupid to obey what they tell you to do, then you deserve whatever you get.

Julie, this is an EXCELLENT post!!! Can you just imagine what will happen when criminals find out that they can run down police officers and they can't shoot at them???? Since juveniles now don't ever have to worry about faccing the death penalty - these two decisions give them cart blanche to wreak more havoc.

 

[Bhodirasta]

you know what? we wouldn't have these problems if people would teach their children ( and sometimes themselves) that you are to respect and obey Law enforcement. If they say pull over, pull over. If they tell you to stop, stop.
I am the wife of a police officer and If my husband is ever killed by someone using a car as a weapon because his department says that cars can't be weapons, I would sue the pants off the department.
And I don't care if the kid was on the honor roll and his father just died. A police officer has to make a millisecond decision, he doesn't have time to run the person's life history.
We have had many black/white issues here in Louisiana the past couple years when a black man was killed when police mistook his cellular phone for a gun. He pointed it at them like a gun. Our police chief ended up resigning because the black community made such a stink because he stuck up for the officers. Oh yeah we had Artis Cash and all the NAACP guys here talking about the 'injustice' to the black community. Gag............Give me a break. You know police officers are armed. If you're too stupid to obey what they tell you to do, then you deserve whatever you get.

If the car was being used as a weapon, is the big stink here. I don't think it was. I will ask this question again,
Why haven't they told us where exactly the officer was when he shot??????

There is ABSOLUTELY no proof the car was being used as a weapon. NONE.
If evidence is shown, that it WAS being used as a weapon, I will concur. I agree, if the car was being used as a weapon to kill the officer, the officer has every right to fight for his life. If this was indeed the case, and proof is there, then why haven't we heard about it???

It is weird...
In every other case on this board, questions like these are asked- Where was SP at this time, at this date, how long did it take him to drive to Berkely Matina, the "time line" (good gawd, how many times did we go over the blasted time line??) blah blah blah...
In this case, no one is asking these questions. Why not????
ASSumption??

 

[Jeana (DP)]

Maybe they're not saying anything about it because its an ongoing investigation and they're not ready to immediately release this information to the public. You can be sure that the leaders of the black community will be telling the media anything they can to make the poor little CRIMINAL look good and the cops, the city, etc., look bad, so don't climb down off your soap box just yet.

 

[Julie]

While I was obviously not there and didn't see it first hand, I highly doubt the officers were nonchalantly sitting in there car and the one started firing away. If the kid had run into a fence, they had probably jumped out of the car to get him, and he started driving again. Not to mention that it's awfully hard to get your gun out of your holster while you're in the car. I highly doubt they would've been in a car chase with it already out. jmho

 

[Bhodirasta]

While I was obviously not there and didn't see it first hand, I highly doubt the officers were nonchalantly sitting in there car and the one started firing away. If the kid had run into a fence, they had probably jumped out of the car to get him, and he started driving again. Not to mention that it's awfully hard to get your gun out of your holster while you're in the car. I highly doubt they would've been in a car chase with it already out. jmho

The problem with this is that the child had driven in to a fence. He backed up, and side swiped the car. So, I am assuming that in regular instances, when the police stop a car, the police car is no more than a few feet behind the car. The police *probably* blocked the car, and close enough to keep it from going too far....

SO, I am speculating here that the ONE officer that shot the child was standing on the SIDE of the car. Not behind the car, but to the SIDE. Therfore, physics say that the car was not headed towards the police officer. Remember, the police car was sideswiped...

We will soon find out, because the child was obviously hit from a certain angle. I am betting that the angle was not in accordance to the "the car was being used as a weapon" bit.
THUS,
the FBI was called in...
If I were in that community, YOU BETCHERAZZ, I would be screaming my head off to find out what REALLY happened, ESPECIALLY since this community has had a very serious HISTORY of brutality...
Stanley Miller, as well as the man who was beaten to DEATH while in HANDCUFFS! etc, etc etc etc etc

 

[Kymistry35]

Whatever happened to people believing that children who start commiting crimes early can be rehibilitatied and grow up to be productive members of our society? When did people start thinking "oh well, he was commiting a crime, he deserved to die?" This was a scared 13 year old kid, someones son!!! It doesn't matter if to me if it was a white cop shotting a black kid, a black cop shooting a white kid.....Life is precious and regardless of what this chid was doing, he DID NOT deserve to be gunned down.

 

[Bhodirasta]

Whatever happened to people believing that children who start commiting crimes early can be rehibilitatied and grow up to be productive members of our society? When did people start thinking "oh well, he was commiting a crime, he deserved to die?" This was a scared 13 year old kid, someones son!!! It doesn't matter if to me if it was a white cop shotting a black kid, a black cop shooting a white kid.....Life is precious and regardless of what this chid was doing, he DID NOT deserve to be gunned down.

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

And as far as rehibilitation goes, this child had a LOT of potential. He was "acting out" and probably because his father died. He was a gifted child. His mother had recently taken on 2 jobs to support him since another source of income had been taken away from the family. This is no woman that went on welfare and sat back to leech off the system...

His mother had asked for help to "get him back on track" after his father had died, and I think this child was loved by many...
The article containing comments from his fellow students shows this well...

The policy that says "shoot first, ask questions later" needs to be adressed...

 

[FrostOwl]

January 2007: police officer cleared.
LAPD secret panel exonerates 13-year-old Devin Brown’s killer - Liberation News
(Not the best of sources, but there is also a LA Times article I can't access.)