CA - Stephon Clark, 22, unarmed, fatally shot by Sacramento police, 18 March 2018

[EuTuCroquet?]

It always surprises me that people who bag the police out when these events happen will still likely make a call to police if their own lives are in danger and expect those same police to defend them and put their lives in danger to save them.

How is this surprising?

Law enforcement is needed and necessary; what isn’t is corruption and incompetence. Nobody should have to tolerate the latter in order to have their right to the former.

 

[Cappuccino]

Why police so often see unarmed black men as threats

In some cases there may be an even more sinister reason...

In the 2006 bulletin, the FBI detailed the threat of white nationalists and skinheads infiltrating police in order to disrupt investigations against fellow members and recruit other supremacists. The bulletin was released during a period of scandal for many law enforcement agencies throughout the country, including a neo-Nazi gang formed by members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department who harassed black and Latino communities. Similar investigations revealed officers and entire agencies with hate group ties in Illinois, Ohio and Texas.

Much of the bulletin has been redacted, but in it, the FBI identified white supremacists in law enforcement as a concern, because of their access to both “restricted areas vulnerable to sabotage” and elected officials or people who could be seen as “potential targets for violence.” The memo also warned of “ghost skins,” hate group members who don’t overtly display their beliefs in order to “blend into society and covertly advance white supremacist causes.”

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/fbi-white-supremacists-in-law-enforcement

 

[Blef]

It is the moment the cops thinks he has a gun. Cops have families they like to go home to at the end of their shift. They are supposed to wait and get shot first? Really?

No but they shouldn't just open fire on someone. They aren't supposed to. As linked to above already

 

[Blef]

Clark was not a "kid". He was a man who was breaking windows and vandalizing other people's property in the middle of the night. When the helicopter and police arrived, he started jumping fences to get away. He was confronted by police in the driveway, and he ran away from the police to the dark backyard.

Did they find the "toolbar" he allegedly had? And since when do the police just have the right to shoot someone running AWAY from them? Jeez, I though the US was meant to be a civilized country. Seems not.

 

[Jax49]

Hundreds expected at rally today for Stephon Clark after autopsy raises new questions in police shooting

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-stephon-clark-protest-20180331-story.html

Former Sacramento Kings player Matt Barnes will lead a rally in downtown Sacramento on Saturday to protest the police killing of Stephon Clark, one day after an independent autopsy concluded that the unarmed black man was shot six times in the back.

"I knew I had to do step up and do something for my hometown," Barnes told CNN Saturday morning. "There's stuff that's bigger than basketball and this is it."

Dr. Bennet Omalu conducted an autopsy days after Clark was killed by police on March 18. He told reporters Friday that his examination showed that Clark was hit by eight bullets, and all but one entered while his back was turned toward the two officers.

 

[Blef]

It always surprises me that people who bag the police out when these events happen will still likely make a call to police if their own lives are in danger and expect those same police to defend them and put their lives in danger to save them.

Aren't the police directed to "protect and serve"?

And are police officers immune to criticism if they do something like shooting an unarmed guy 8 times in the back while he is running away from them?

 

[Jax49]

Apologies if already posted.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/us/stephon-clark-independent-autopsy.html

Video showed officers shouting at Mr. Clark minutes after the shooting stopped. “We need to know if you’re O.K.,” an officer yelled about three minutes after the gunfire ended. “We need to get you medics but we can’t go over to get you help unless we know you don’t have a weapon.”

Dr. Omalu said the autopsy suggested that Mr. Clark lived for three to 10 minutes after the shooting, adding to questions about the amount of time it took to get him treatment. Medical assistance did not arrive until about six minutes after the shooting.

 

[human]

The police shot 20 shots at one person. 20. Sounds like a frenzy to me. Out of control.

Is that what they are supposed to do?

 

[Rocky1]

The police shot 20 shots at one person. 20. Sounds like a frenzy to me. Out of control.

Is that what they are supposed to do?

I agree. In this case the cops were out of control and paranoid. You can hear it in his voice.
Many cops use steriods and I think random mandatory drug testing should apply to all cops.

 

[Rocky1]

Aren't the police directed to "protect and serve"?

And are police officers immune to criticism if they do something like shooting an unarmed guy 8 times in the back while he is running away from them?

Directed to protect and serve? Yes. Obligated? No.
The Supreme court has ruled that Police are not lawfully obligated to protect you.
(Warren v District of Columbia)

 

[bluesneakers]

Directed to protect and serve? Yes. Obligated? No.
The Supreme court has ruled that Police are not lawfully obligated to protect you.
(Warren v District of Columbia)

Yet we are legally obligated to help them.

 

[Rocky1]

Yet we are legally obligated to help them.

Can you elaborate please?
Help them how?

 

[bluesneakers]

Can you elaborate please?
Help them how?

This came up in an earlier thread when a police officer in Florida asked someone to shoot the man he was fighting with*. I thought it was crazy a police officer could order a civilian to shoot someone - wouldn't that be putting the officer's life in danger as well? - but I learned people are required by law to aid or assist law enforcement.

"Various jurisdictions require an individual to assist a Law Enforcement Officer when requested, to varying levels of criminal punishment, from violation to misdemeanor."

For instance:

Florida 843.06 Neglect or refusal to aid peace officers.

Whoever, being required in the name of the state by any officer of the Florida Highway Patrol, police officer, beverage enforcement agent, or watchman, neglects or refuses to assist him or her in the execution of his or her office in a criminal case, or in the preservation of the peace, or the apprehending or securing of any person for a breach of the peace, or in case of the rescue or escape of a person arrested upon civil process, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083

California PENAL CODE - SECTION 142-181

150. Every able-bodied person above 18 years of age who neglects or refuses to join the posse comitatus or power of the county, by neglecting or refusing to aid and assist in taking or arresting any person against whom there may be issued any process, or by neglecting to aid and assist in retaking any person who, after being arrested or confined, may have escaped from arrest or imprisonment, or by neglecting or refusing to aid and assist in preventing any breach of the peace, or the commission of any criminal offense, being thereto lawfully required by any uniformed peace officer, or by any peace officer described in Section 830.1, subdivision (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), or (f) of Section 830.2, or subdivision (a) of Section 830.33, who identifies himself or herself with a badge or identification card issued by the officer's employing agency, or by any judge, is punishable by a fine of not less than fifty dollars ($50) nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,000).

Texas Art. 2.14. MAY SUMMON AID.

Whenever a peace officer meets with resistance in discharging any duty imposed upon him by law, he shall summon a sufficient number of citizens of his county to overcome the resistance; and all persons summoned are bound to obey.

Art. 2.15. PERSON REFUSING TO AID. The peace officer who has summoned any person to assist him in performing any duty shall report such person, if he refuse to obey, to the proper district or county attorney, in order that he may be prosecuted for the offense.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refusing_to_assist_a_police_officer#United_States

*This was the Florida case:

After a high-speed chase, the pair both came to a stop at Exit 23 and Strother, 53, attacked Bardes, punching him repeatedly, pinning him to the road and allegedly trying to grab his service weapon.

When Ashad Russell pulled over and emerged from him vehicle to intervene, Bardes pleaded with him: 'Shoot him! Shoot him!'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...suspect-attacking-cop-cleared-wrongdoing.html

 

[RANCH]

Stephon Clark vigil planned for Saturday night in south Sacramento

Organizers said the event will take place outside of the Sheriff's Department center to protest the Department's assistance in tracking Clark from a helicopter the night he was killed.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article207582369.html

​

 

[Jax49]

[h=1]Sheriff’s Vehicle Hits Woman at Stephon Clark Protest in Sacramento[/h]https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/01/us/sacramento-stephon-clark-protest.html

An activist at a Sacramento demonstration protesting the police killing of an unarmed black man in his grandmother’s backyard was struck and injured by a Sheriff’s Department vehicle late Saturday as law enforcement officials tried to pass through the crowd.

“He never even stopped,” the newspaper quoted Ms. Cleveland as saying. “It was a hit-and-run. If I did that I’d be charged.”

 

[everybodhi]

[h=1]Sheriff’s Vehicle Hits Woman at Stephon Clark Protest in Sacramento[/h]https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/01/us/sacramento-stephon-clark-protest.html

She’s going to get a lot of money.

 

[everybodhi]

It always surprises me that people who bag the police out when these events happen will still likely make a call to police if their own lives are in danger and expect those same police to defend them and put their lives in danger to save them.

Unfortunately, because of the frequency of events like this, when vandals are breaking windows a lot of people won’t call the police because they don’t want them coming into their neighborhoods with guns blazing, shooting whoever dead.

 

[everybodhi]

Nowhere is safe for a police officer these days. The lunatics are running the asylum, IMO, and have been for several years.

It’s a lot safer for LE than it is for lumberjacks.
Or, fishermen, pilots, roofers or garbagemen.
Or, miners, ranchers, farmers or truckers.
Or, linemen, construction workers, or taxi drivers and chauffeurs.
Repair and maintenance workers have more dangerous jobs than cops, too.

 

[Cappuccino]

It’s a lot safer for LE than it is for lumberjacks.
Or, fishermen, pilots, roofers or garbagemen.
Or, miners, ranchers, farmers or truckers.
Or, linemen, construction workers, or taxi drivers and chauffeurs.
Repair and maintenance workers have more dangerous jobs than cops, too.
View attachment 132285

Being an ordinary civilian is more dangerous than being a police officer. So far this year 264 civilians have been shot and killed by police officers...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/police-shootings-2018/?utm_term=.4421575c63d4

Compared to 16 police officers killed in the line of duty...

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/12/us/officer-shooting-deaths-2018-trnd/index.html

 

[bluesneakers]

It’s a lot safer for LE than it is for lumberjacks.
Or, fishermen, pilots, roofers or garbagemen.
Or, miners, ranchers, farmers or truckers.
Or, linemen, construction workers, or taxi drivers and chauffeurs.
Repair and maintenance workers have more dangerous jobs than cops, too.
View attachment 132285

The injury rate for state and local government employees is higher than in private sector occupations, but the problem is police officers are in a category with firefighters (at least in every report I've seen) so there's no way to tell what law enforcement's specific rate is or what causes those injuries.