I really intended for the thread to be a civilized discourse about an apparent problem in our country. Surely there are plenty of other threads to make pointless jokes in. Let's just keep to discussion of the serious police related issues in here and not have any 'teams.' Just compounds the partisan atmosphere that is a part of the larger problem.
An unarmed black 18-year-old accused of shoplifting was killed by a police officer in Virginia who had been barred from patrolling city streets for almost three years after fatally shooting another unarmed man. Spoiler William Chapman was shot dead by Stephen Rankin, a white Portsmouth police officer, during a struggle in a Walmart parking lot. Rankin, 35, a US navy veteran trained in martial arts, was once disciplined for posting violent remarks and Nazi images online. Chapman’s family likened his death to that of Michael Brown, another unarmed black 18-year-old who was suspected of a theft and shot dead following a struggle with a white officer. Brown’s death last year in Ferguson unleashed nationwide protests. But they noted with disappointment that Chapman’s killing in April barely registered among activists and the media. “I feel alone,” said Chapman’s mother, Sallie. “Because my son is gone and because nobody is trying to help me understand why.” The Virginia chief medical examiner’s office said in a statement only that the cause of Chapman’s death was “gunshot wounds of face and chest”. Chapman’s mother said his hands were also wounded in the encounter, a claim supported by photographs of his body reviewed by the Guardian. Chiefs only allowed Rankin to return to frontline policing in March last year, almost three years after he killed an unarmed 26-year-old Kazakh immigrant in February 2011. Rankin was later found to have insulted the man and his family in other online postings. A sergeant in the department at the time told the Guardian that senior commanders were formally warned by one of Rankin’s supervisors weeks before his first fatal shooting that he was “dangerous” and likely to cause someone harm. Asked twice during a telephone interview why Rankin had been allowed to continue policing the public, Portsmouth’s police chief, Edward Hargis, repeated: “That’s a personnel matter and I can’t comment.” He added: “I’m not going to comment on what people may say, allegation-wise.” Police refused to say whether Chapman was actually found to have stolen anything. They will still not confirm it was Rankin who shot him. However, the head of Rankin’s professional association confirmed to the Guardian he was indeed the officer involved. Rankin fired twice after Chapman resisted an arrest at the edge of the superstore parking lot on the morning of 22 April and a struggle ensued, according to witnesses. The officer was responding to a complaint by store staff of a “suspected shoplifting”. A funeral service was held for Chapman last month but his body has not yet been buried because his family is unable to afford the $3,600 fee, relatives said. His shooting is being investigated by the Virginia state police, which is also carrying out an inquiry into the fatal shooting by another Portsmouth officer a month earlier of Walter Brown, a 29-year-old black man who fled a stop by drugs police. Sergeant Michelle Anaya, a state police spokeswoman, declined to discuss any details of what happened in Chapman’s shooting. “That investigation is currently ongoing and that information is not available at this time for release,” she said in an email. Chapman’s death was publicly overshadowed by that of 25-year-old Freddie Grayin Baltimore, Maryland, three days earlier. He is one of three unarmed black teenagers killed by law enforcement in the US so far this year, according to an ongoing count by the Guardian. Brandon Jones, also 18, was killed by a police officer in Cleveland, Ohio, in March after a struggle when he was caught robbing a grocery store, according to authorities. Earlier that month, Tony Robinson, 19, was shot dead by an officer looking into a disturbance in Madison, Wisconsin. Last month state prosecutors ruled the shooting was justified. Chapman’s cousin, Earl Lewis, welcomed The Counted, the Guardian’s project to monitor all killings by police and law enforcement. He said increased transparency could reduce unnecessary or unjustified fatalities. “Better data would put a check on how some cities and their officers do business,” said Lewis. Construction workers who saw the confrontation between Chapman and Rankin told local television reporters that the 18-year-old appeared to break free from an attempt by the officer to handcuff him against a parked car. One, Leroy Woodman, told reporters at the scene Chapman was shot because he “took a couple steps towards the cop like he was ready to fight”. A colleague of Woodman’s, Paul Akey, said Chapman “came at” Rankin after the Taser was knocked from Rankin’s hand and the officer stepped back. Akey said he believed Rankin’s actions were justified. “I know my son,” said Sallie Chapman. “He would have been saying ‘Why are doing this? I didn’t do anything.’ I know what his words would have been.” Woodman and Akey, who have since been interviewed by police investigators, declined or ignored several requests for comment when reached by telephone and online messages. Police have not given any explanation to Chapman’s mother, she said, and Walmart management called the police to help remove her when she travelled to the store demanding information about what he may have stolen and what happened. “My son is gone, and I just want to know why,” said Chapman. “Why can’t I see the Walmart surveillance video? I’m his mother.” The police did not actively inform Chapman that her son had died. After being unable to reach him on 22 April, and hearing media reports of an 18-year-old killed at their local Walmart, she called 911. When she gave William’s name, she was placed on hold and eventually told a detective would visit her home. The detective told her William was dead. Recordings of live news bulletins from the scene on the day of the incident show that Chapman’s body was still on the ground of the parking lot five hours after he was killed. “It hurt,” said Lewis. “It was as if a dog had been hit in the street, and eventually, later on, someone found the owner and told them to come pick it up.” Portsmouth and state police have declined to confirm that Rankin was the officer responsible for the shooting. Sean McGowan, the executive director of the Virginia division of the Police Benevolent Association (PBA), told the Guardian Rankin was the officer involved and the group had helped him obtain legal representation. “Any other questions you have, I would need to refer you to his attorney,” said McGowan, who then declined to identify Rankin’s attorney. The officer’s legal team did not respond to requests for comment that McGowan said he had conveyed to them. State police investigators are expected to pass their completed inquiry on the shooting to Stephanie Morales, Virginia’s commonwealth attorney, who will then decide whether or not to put the case to a grand jury for a possible criminal prosecution. The deaths of Chapman and Brown were the Portsmouth department’s first fatalities since Rankin’s April 2011 shooting of Kirill Denyakin, a Kazakh cook. Denyakin was shot 11 times by Rankin, who was responding to a 911 call about the 26-year-old aggressively banging at the door of a building where he was staying. Rankin claimed he shot because Denyakin, who was drunk, charged at him while reaching into the waistband of his jeans. The officer said he feared Denyakin would pull out a weapon. No weapon was found. A grand jury declined to indict Rankin on criminal charges and a jury in a $22m civil lawsuit brought by Denyakin’s family found in Rankin’s favour. Among 250 posts defending himself on a local newspaper website, Rankin wrote “22 mil wont buy your boy back”, adding that most Americans could not hope to earn that in an entire career, “let alone a habitual drunk working as a hotel cook”. It also emerged Rankin had in Facebook posts referred to his firearms case as “Rankin’s box of vengeance” and said he would rather be dirtying his guns than cleaning them. His Facebook avatar was once a print of a photograph depicting a Serb left hanging from a lamppost by invading Nazi forces in 1943. When he returned to work two months after the shooting, Rankin was restricted to administrative duties for more than two and a half years. He was finally allowed back on patrols on 1 March 2014. “I never thought seeing Steve get ready for work would make me so nervous,” his girlfriend wrote in a post to Facebook. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/01/william-chapman-unarmed-shot-dead
If the kid has a pattern of crime, I don't really care if he is dead. Call me cold, but the world is a better place without criminals.
No need for due process and the concept of a justice system then, I guess. How about the law enforcement officer with a history of violence and racism? What punishment would you recommend for him?
It depends on who their violence and racism were directed to. If they were violent and racist toward criminals, then I'm OK with it. Like I said... the world's a better place when criminals aren't roaming free.
Just want some elaboration on your position. So it's cool if you shoot a black guy as long as he's committed a crime at some point in his life. What about suspected criminals? What exactly does being racist towards criminals mean? You treat the black criminals worse than the white one's?
I just want to say - It's possible for a guy/kid with a criminal history to be shot and killed unjustly. It's also possible for a cop with a history of racism and violence to justly shoot and kill a (black) criminal.
Cop lives matter more to me than criminal lives. That's all I'm saying. Sorry if you feel differently.
A cop who has committed a crime still holds a higher rung than a career criminal. Again, just my opinion.
Watch this unarmed man with headphones in his ears get shot and killed by police. Spoiler And this was found to be "justified" in court.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/58287556-78/taylor-lake-police-salt.html.csp Can't say I'll lose any sleep knowing this piece of shit isn't our problem anymore.
Hey Steve. We all get it. You're an idiot who tries really hard to be edgy because you think anyone who has committed a crime deserves to die. Just leave the actual conversation to the grown ups, please. If you want to do your shtick, save it for the other thread on this shooting, please.
Not trying to be edgy. Where did I say he deserved to die? A real grown up doesn't put words in people's mouths and make assumptions. Maybe it's time to grow up yourself, barves.
Big difference between saying I don't care if someone is dead and saying someone deserves to die. Let's use our critical thinking and reading comprehension skills there, Russ.
You state the world is a better place without criminals. Using my sweet critical thinking skills I'm extrapolating you want the world to be a better place with criminals dead. Do you not want the world to be a better place?
My fault for thinking you wanted the world to be a better place. Ouch, attacking my education. Yes I have a college degree. I always regret addressing you. Let's get this thread back on track, haven't seen this: Florida police murder black computer engineer as he listens to music; attempted cover-up exposed by Shaun KingFollow for shaunking 282 Comments / 282 New attribution: Family photos of Jermaine McBean Jermaine McBean selfie on the left, with his family on the right On July 31, 2013, Jermaine McBean, a 33-year-old computer engineer with no criminal record, paid $100 for a camouflage BB gun at his local pawn shop. As he walked to his home with his headphones on, listening to music, he was shot and killed by police in Oakland Park, Florida. Police claimed that he ignored their requests to put down his weapon and then aimed the gun, which was empty, at them in an aggressive manner. Now, nearly two year later, it turns out the police told multiple lies in attempt to cover up their killing of McBean. Below we will expose each of the lies they told. Lie No. 1: The officer who shot and killed McBean, Deputy Peter Peraza, said multiple times that he saw nothing in McBean's ears. A transcript shows that Deputy Peter Peraza, who fired the fatal shots, repeatedly told sheriff's investigators that he did not see anything in McBean's ears. Nothing, the officer swore under oath, prevented Mr. McBean from hearing the screaming officers. Truth: The headphones are clearly in McBean's ears in a picture taken by a nurse who lived in the neighborhood. Also, according to the New York Times: The deputy who shot him, Peter Peraza, said he had feared for his life, convinced that Mr. McBean was about to start firing. Deputy Peraza was asked at least five times whether there was any reason that Mr. McBean would not have heard the officers’ commands, such as whether there was anything in his ears. Each time, Deputy Peraza said no. Taken by a nurse from the balcony above McBean, headphones can be clearly seen. Also seen are police officers to the left and right of McBean Lie No. 2: The lead investigator also insisted that McBean was not wearing the headphones and that they were in his pocket: And the homicide detective who led an internal review told McBean's relatives in an email that officers on the scene "confirmed" he was not wearing a earpiece — after the family explained that he always had them on when he was out walking. The detective said the buds were found in his pocket, with his phone, at the hospital. "I was highly upset," McBean's mother, Jennifer Young, said of the moment she learned about the photo. "I said, 'They lied to me. What else have they lied about?'" Truth: If the headphones were ever in his pocket, they were placed there long after he was shot and killed by police. Not only does the photo clearly show the earbuds in his ears, but the nurse who took the photo claimed that she pointed them out to the officers after they refused to allow her to provide any first aid to McBean. The witness who took it, a nurse who asked to remain anonymous, says she pointed out the earbuds to police at the scene, after they rebuffed her offer to provide first aid to the dying man. We know McBean was still alive after being shot because another officer there claimed that McBean actually told them the gun was just a BB gun after he was shot. Another officer at the scene, Sgt. Richard LaCerra, told investigators that McBean "spun around" and brought the rifle over his shoulders. "I thought at that point and time he was gonna swing and point the rifle at us," he said. "And the next thing I know there was gunshots." LaCerra said that after McBean fell, the wounded man said to him, "It was just a BB gun." Lie No. 3: The police said that McBean aimed the gun at them in a menacing manner. "I felt like my life was threatened. I had that feeling like if I would not go home that day," said Peraza, who has been on the force for 14 years but spent a decade of that working in the detention center. "I felt like I could've been killed. My sergeant could've been killed. He could've shot somebody in the pool area. So as soon as he did turn and point his weapon at us, that's when I fired my duty weapon." Truth: A key witness who saw the entire ordeal and actually called 911 stated clearly that the gun was never aimed at police. Michael Russell McCarthy, 58, told NBC News that McBean had the Winchester Model 1000 Air Rifle balanced on his shoulders behind his neck, with his hand over both ends, and was turning around to face police when one officer began shooting. "He [McBean] couldn't have fired that gun from the position he was in. There was no possible way of firing it and at the same time hitting something," McCarthy said. "I kind of blame myself, because if I hadn't called it might not have happened." Police, now 23 months later, are claiming that the case is still under "active investigation." This is a preposterous claim. No case like this takes more than four to six weeks to investigate, and that's only for drug and ballistic tests to return. The truth is that the officers in Broward County followed a well-executed strategy that protects them from any consequences. In South Florida’s Broward County, no officer has been charged in a fatal on-duty police shooting since 1980, a period that covers 168 shooting deaths. Thanks Prospector, stolen from the left thread.
Watch this unarmed man with headphones in his ears and a warrant out for his arrest get shot and killed by police." That better?
Not really. Him saying, "Nah, fool" in response to the officer's orders make the headphones in his ears irrelevant. But by all means continue with your clickbait-worthy headlines.
"Watch this unarmed man with headphones in his ears and a warrant out for his arrest get shot and killed by police after saying 'Nah fool' in response to their requests to get his hands out of his pants/shirt" Now...now it's evident he deserved to be shot and killed.
Wrong thread. This is for the percentage of cops that aren't good at their jobs, not ones that go above and beyond. http://the-mainboard.com/index.php?threads/nolenblue-cop-stories-the-official-thread.78118/page-72