Rebuilding Police

Since 2015: 48 Black Women Killed by the Police. And Only 2 Charges.
For many, the grand jury announcement in Breonna Taylor’s case was more of the same, underscoring the need for systemic change.

“The system that killed Breonna Taylor is not set up to provide justice or reparations for the killing of Breonna Taylor.”
— Andrea Ritchie, author of “Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color”

After more than 100 days of protests demanding justice for Breonna Taylor, a grand jury’s decision on Wednesday to not bring charges related to her death against the police officers involved landed with a thud for those who had hoped for more, and stronger, charges.

On March 13, a little after midnight, three police officers punched down the door of Ms. Taylor’s apartment in Louisville, Ky. using a no-knock warrant in a late-night drug raid. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fearing an intruder, reached for his gun and let off one shot, wounding an officer. Another officer and the wounded officer returned fire, while a third began blindly shooting through Ms. Taylor’s window and patio door.

The two officers who shot Ms. Taylor six times face no charges, while a former police detective, Brett Hankison, was indicted on a charge of “wanton endangerment” for firing recklessly into a neighbor’s apartment.

“The decision before my office is not to decide if the loss of Breonna Taylor’s life was a tragedy

On April 21st, 2021 in the small town of Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Andrew Brown Jr. was shot to death by three Pasquotank County Sheriff deputies, as deputies appeared at Brown’s home to serve a search warrant and arrest warrant for Andrew Brown Jr.

Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten II and Superior Court Judge Jeff Foster refused to release the body cam footage or any additional footage of the murder.

Only one family member and family attorney Chantel Cherry-Lassiter were allowed to see 20 seconds of one of the officer’s body camera. Chantel said the bodycam video showed Brown posed no threat to police during Wednesday’s incident. She said the video showed Brown in his car in his driveway with his hands on the steering wheel; Cherry-Lassiter specifically stated at no point did Andrew Brown threaten or harm the seven or eight deputies present in his driveway. Cherry-Lassiter emphasized the reason Brown drove awway was because the deputies were firing at him and Brown was trying to evade sheriffs’ gunfire.

A couple of days later, the County attorney appeared in local court and told the judge that Brown backed into officers with his vehicle and struck officers when Brown drove away from the officers.

Sheriff Tommy Wooten said that the video could be released in the next few days, and the Elizabeth City Council voted unanimously to petition the Pasquotank County Sheriff to release body camera video.

NPR:

A North

Cochran Law Firm managing partner Brian Dunn appeared on MSNBC, during Daunte Wright’s funeral and shamelessly, strongly and repeatedly blamed blacks running from police as the cause and justification for police to kill blacks evading police.

Dunn, a civil rights attorney who sues and wins lots of money from municipalities for police brutality against blacks, KNOWS BETTER!

Brian Dunn KNOWS what every civil attorney knows: a person who is evading police has a constitutional right to evade police as long as that person is not threatening death or serious bodily harm to the officer or others.

Says who? Says the U.S. Supreme Court in Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985) “Held: The Tennessee statute is unconstitutional insofar as it authorizes the use of deadly force against, as in this case, an apparently unarmed, nondangerous fleeing suspect; such force may not be used unless necessary to prevent the escape and the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others. Pp. 7-22.”

The day after the George Floyd/Derek Chauvin verdict, on April 21, Andrew Brown, a 42-year-old black man, was fatally shot in the head by a deputy sheriff in Elizabeth City, N.C. Seven officers were placed on leave as a result of the shooting. Brown’s attorneys allege he was killed execution-style by a bullet through the back of his head.

And early the next morning, on April 22, Isaiah Brown, a 32-year-old gay Black man, was walking down the street away from his house in Spotsylvania County, Va., and was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher, when he was shot 10 times – that’s right 10 times, for holding a phone to his ear. Brown remains in critical and guarded condition fighting for his life. The family blames miscommunication between the dispatcher and the police officer.

The irony, if you can call it that, is that the police officer who shot him also gave him a ride home earlier, after Brown’s car broke down. How could this happen?

As of this week, Brown and Brown had nothing in common except their last name and skin color. They also now join the scores of other persons of color who have been killed or critically wounded by rogue

A Grand Rapids cop punched a Black man in the face at least 6 times during his arrest that was, at least initially, for littering … according to the police.

The video comes from body cam footage of a March 26 incident in Michigan where Grand Rapids PD officers pulled over Diabate Hood. According to reports, Hood had 2 other men in the car with him, but he refused to step out like his passengers.

The full video shows Hood apparently trying to flee from cops by jumping from the driver’s seat and sliding out the passenger side door, but 3 officers immediately pounced on him … and that’s where the violence begins.

As you can see … Hood is being held down by the 3 cops, and one begins delivering several blows to his face. As he screams, the other officers can be heard yelling “stop resisting.” Moments later, Hood claims he can’t breathe as officers hold him down.

According to Grand Rapids police … the traffic stop was part of its Operation: Safe Neighborhoods program in response to an uptick of violent crime in the area, and claim they had “timely and accurate intelligence” to justify it.

In fact, Grand Rapids PD Chief Eric Payne says … “This is the police work that

On 17 November 2015, Sergeant Mickey White was driving home in his patrol car, his shift over, when a call went out about a man harassing customers at Jerry’s Country Meat and Catering, a local grocery store in Arlington, Georgia.

The employee who dialled 911 said the man was behaving oddly, accosting people and singing a hymn – “Great is Thy Faithfulness” – as he walked up and down the aisles.

Sgt White took the call. When he arrived, the man was outside sitting in his car, the door open and hazard lights on. He was Derry Eugene Touchtone, a 58-year old white man from Headland, just over the state border in Alabama. He was unarmed.

As Sgt White pulled up behind Touchtone, the dashboard camera in his patrol car was recording.

In the video, the officer can be heard telling Touchtone to leave the vehicle. Touchtone complies but then ignores repeated instructions to put his hands on the car. Instead he walks slowly out of shot, towards White, and begins to sing.

Sgt White fires his Taser but it fails to stop Touchtone. Off camera, a tussle can be heard, followed by two gunshots.

Thirty-five