Unarmed teen killed in his home by police

[Nexus]

I'm making this op to serve as an example. Its for posters here that recognize the problems we have with law enforcement in America. It often seems that the stories that get hyped by the media always have shades of gray that allow factions to form around the issue or plausible justification for our resident police fellaters.

Lets not dissect the Micheal Brown shooting in this thread since there are plenty of arguments in other threads. But to reference that case just to make my point, Brown did have a criminal past and probably just committed strong armed robbery before his death. That's the gray area the police defenders latch on to defend his shooting then proceed to lecture us on how hard, dangerous, courageous and noble police work is.

So instead lets present cases like the Ramarley Graham's.

In February 2012, NYPD Officer Richard Haste spotted 18-year-old Ramarley Graham outside a Bronx bodega and reportedly thought he had a gun. Haste and another officer followed Graham back to his apartment.

The officers broke inside without a warrant, and Haste shot Graham once in the chest, killing him. Graham was unarmed, and police say he was trying to flush a bag of marijuana down the toilet. His grandmother and his 6-year-old brother watched him get shot.

Haste was indicted later that year, but the indictment was tossed out on a technicality in 2013. A second grand jury declined to indict him.

Here's a video

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM9RPSDpBA0[/YOUTUBE]

If you surf the related video links on youtube you will notice a plethora unjust shootings by police. While I can't confirm what percentage of the victims were "thugs" and had it comming, we could certainly focus out attention on the most innocent ones.

 

[ksen]

Police kill over a thousand civilians a year (and probably a lot more but we can't know for sure because no police shooting stats are kept by the government). And yet almost none get indicted.

It is beyond incredible that less than a handful are indicted.

Meanwhile 100 officers were killed in the line of duty last year. That's the least amount since 1944. And from what I understand most of the officer fatalities are not gunshot related.

Police departments are increasingly acting as occupying forces rather than peacekeepers.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Yup, I think this is one of the biggest causes of unjust shootings--drug raids. Especially when the druggies are trying to destroy their stash to keep it out of the cop's hands.

 

[RavenSky]

Yup, I think this is one of the biggest causes of unjust shootings--drug raids. Especially when the druggies are trying to destroy their stash to keep it out of the cop's hands.

You will blame the victim no matter what, won't you?

 

[Nexus]

This actually wasn't a drug raid. The cop had an anonymous tip that the victim had a gun. There was no arrest warrant nor a search warrant for the house. The cop was essentially trying to do a stop and frisk and decided to break into the victims house to do so. There was no weapon but the police killed him regardless. And they weren't held accountable.

I suppose if a community had enough relatives, friends, or friends of a friends that were unjustly harmed by police in this way, questions like why are they rioting over some "thug" getting shot by police get answered in that context.

 

[Derec]

It happens to white kids too.
No charges filed against Euharlee officer in fatal shooting
However, there were no "Dying for Wii" threads, no "hands holding Wii controller don't shoot" nationwide protests, no "white lives matter", no burnt down and/or looted businesses, Al Sharpton wasn't anywhere within a 1000 mile radius, there was no federal investigation, and Obama didn't find it important enough to comment on.

I guess victims of police shootings only matter when they are black and criminal.

 

[laughing dog]

It happens to white kids too.
No charges filed against Euharlee officer in fatal shooting
However, there were no "Dying for Wii" threads, no "hands holding Wii controller don't shoot" nationwide protests, no "white lives matter", no burnt down and/or looted businesses, Al Sharpton wasn't anywhere within a 1000 mile radius, there was no federal investigation, and Obama didn't find it important enough to comment on.

I guess victims of police shootings only matter when they are black and criminal.

This happened 10 months ago. Apparently it didn't even matter to you, since you did not bring it up. Hmmm.

 

[Derec]

This happened 10 months ago. Apparently it didn't even matter to you, since you did not bring it up. Hmmm.

So I must post about a case as soon as it happens or forever hold my peace?
There is an obvious double standard regarding police shootings of whites and blacks. If you believed media coverage, the race-industrial complex and even President Obama, only blacks ever get shot by police...

 

[laughing dog]

This happened 10 months ago. Apparently it didn't even matter to you, since you did not bring it up. Hmmm.

So I must post about a case as soon as it happens or forever hold my peace?

No. But it is an indication of how important it must have been compared to some woman who gets "under sentenced" for doing something.

There is an obvious double standard regarding police shootings of whites and blacks. If you believed media coverage, the race-industrial complex and even President Obama, only blacks ever get shot by police...

I suppose if one were completely ignorant or a devout racist, one might believe such a straw man.

 

[Toni]

Police kill over a thousand civilians a year (and probably a lot more but we can't know for sure because no police shooting stats are kept by the government). And yet almost none get indicted.

It is beyond incredible that less than a handful are indicted.

Meanwhile 100 officers were killed in the line of duty last year. That's the least amount since 1944. And from what I understand most of the officer fatalities are not gunshot related.

Police departments are increasingly acting as occupying forces rather than peacekeepers.

Actually, if the government kept the stats, we could have access to them through Freedom of Information.

The problem is that keeping such stats is done by local law enforcement which may or may not keep such stats, may or may not share such stats, may or may not report such stats to other organizations.

 

[Testy Calibrate]

I'm starting to think there might be a real problem in our policing philosophy.

 

[Testy Calibrate]

It happens to white kids too.
No charges filed against Euharlee officer in fatal shooting
However, there were no "Dying for Wii" threads, no "hands holding Wii controller don't shoot" nationwide protests, no "white lives matter", no burnt down and/or looted businesses, Al Sharpton wasn't anywhere within a 1000 mile radius, there was no federal investigation, and Obama didn't find it important enough to comment on.

I guess victims of police shootings only matter when they are black and criminal.

Wow. #notallwhites

 

[RavenSky]

It happens to white kids too.
No charges filed against Euharlee officer in fatal shooting
However, there were no "Dying for Wii" threads, no "hands holding Wii controller don't shoot" nationwide protests, no "white lives matter", no burnt down and/or looted businesses, Al Sharpton wasn't anywhere within a 1000 mile radius, there was no federal investigation, and Obama didn't find it important enough to comment on.

I guess victims of police shootings only matter when they are black and criminal.

Why don't you call Al Sharpton? Why don't you start the protest movement? Why don't you demand justice for the dead kid? If you don't think it is important enough for YOU to do something about it, why are you complaining?

 

[RavenSky]

This happened 10 months ago. Apparently it didn't even matter to you, since you did not bring it up. Hmmm.

So I must post about a case as soon as it happens or forever hold my peace?
There is an obvious double standard regarding police shootings of whites and blacks. If you believed media coverage, the race-industrial complex and even President Obama, only blacks ever get shot by police...

Post evidence for your claim that the media or President Obama have ever said "only blacks ever get shot by police".

And WTF is the "race-industrial complex"? Don't answer that. I really don't care for an explanation of any more of your goading verbiage.

 

[RavenSky]

I'm starting to think there might be a real problem in our policing philosophy.

That is the bottom line here. And with our policing of the police. The article Derec posted does bring up a rather alarming fact:

A previous grand jury had ruled that deadly force was not authorized. That grand jury had asked the district attorney's office to take further measures.

Cole Law, an attorney for Roupe's family said they were stunned by the second grand jury's decision not to bring charges against Gatny.

If a grand jury ruled for prosecution, how/why did the case wind up in front of another grand jury? Without further detail, it sounds like the DA went jury shopping to get the result he wanted - no indictment for a police officer

 

[ksen]

derec has a little bit of a point that it appears the media aren't as quick to jump on white victims of police overzealousness.

Of course he turns that into arguing that black victims, which are much more likely to be killed by cops under weird circumstances, are no big deal. They're both a big deal.

I'd like to see if police are successfully indicted more if the victim is white than if the victim is not white. If that's the case, and my gut thinks it is but I don't have any evidence to support my gut right now, then there is a systemic racial problem with the grand jury system.

But given that, we definitely have a problem with police not being held accountable when they wrongly cause someone else's death. The problem could be too much deference given to the police by grand jury members, which I don't know how that could be fixed, or prosecutors that engineer, either consciously or unconsciously, the grand jury proceeding in such a way as to ensure there will be no indictment.

My suspicion is that prosecutors try to stop cop cases at the grand jury level because they have way more control there instead of letting these cases go to trial where a petit jury may start putting some of these rogue cops away.

 

[Derec]

Post evidence for your claim that the media or President Obama have ever said "only blacks ever get shot by police".

They didn't say that explicitly but they are acting as if it were the case as those are the only cases getting major play on national media and the only cases Obama deems worthy to comment on.

And WTF is the "race-industrial complex"?

Al "white interlopers" Sharpton, Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson et al. Individuals and organizations that are making a lot of money out of stoking misplaced racial outrage.

Don't answer that. I really don't care for an explanation of any more of your goading verbiage.

Too late!

 

[Derec]

Without further detail, it sounds like the DA went jury shopping to get the result he wanted - no indictment for a police officer

Kind of like the DA in the Jonathan Ferrell case went jury shopping to get the result he wanted - indictment against the white police officer.
Jury shopping can go both ways.

 

[Derec]

No. But it is an indication of how important it must have been compared to some woman who gets "under sentenced" for doing something.

You are derailing.

I suppose if one were completely ignorant or a devout racist, one might believe such a straw man.

The only racist thing here is only focusing on black people who are killed. Cases involving blacks who are killed by non-blacks or the police get months if not years of media air play while cases where white people are killed by non-whites or police barely get a blimp on the media radar. Same goes for the federal government, be it federal investigations or comments by the president.
That creates the illusion that blacks getting killed by non-blacks or the police is much more frequent than it is, stoking outrage further.

 

[ksen]

Actually it's kinda racist to be more concerned with how the victims are treated because of their race instead of working to change the system that is killing people of every race without being held accountable.