I’m sure the apologists will find some way to excuse this but I have no words.
Warning: the video is graphic. I couldn’t watch it.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/g00/news/nationworld/ct-daniel-shaver-police-video-20171208-story.html
We have to stop letting police officers off the hook for shooting unarmed innocent black people and justifying it because any movement at all by a black person is thought of as a mortal threat. If your response to your own irrational fear is murdering someone else, you’re a murderer and you belong in jail, not on the police force.
I watched it. It’s gut- and heart-wrenching. I applaud prosecutors for continuing to bring these types of cases despite the seeming near impossibility of obtaining convictions, under the laws as currently written and interpreted.
I 100% agree. The victim in this case was a white male which, to me, makes it even more surprising that he was acquitted.
The Atlantic did a piece on it: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/a-police-killing-without-a-hint-of-racism/546983/
And Shaun King has been all over it too. Check out his twitter feed for info.
I first heard about it there, because they didn’t release the complete body cam video until after the former officer was acquitted. I’m not sure if the jury saw the whole video. They should have, and they should have found him guilty. It is clearly cold blooded murder, where he toys with both people to do impossible things (cross your left foot over your right, now kneel and crawl, DON’T UNCROSS YOUR FEET) and then executes one of them for getting it slightly wrong.
Why not tell them to stay still and have someone go over and cuff them? There were 6 officers present. All with AR-15s apparently. Why play the crawling game? I suspect it’s because Brailsford wanted a way to justify shooting someone. I’ve felt sick about this since I heard of it.
ETA - and Brailsford had skulls and the phrase “you’re f*%ked” engraved on the side of his AR-15. He should have been fired for that before he could kill someone.
And crawl towards us WITHOUT using your hands WITH your legs crossed.
They told him that if he was going to fall, he better fall on his face rather than moving his hands.
Sadistic. Absolutely sadistic.
Yeah, that’s what got me. The killer is so cold, the poor crawling man starts sobbing. He knows at that point that he’s not likely to survive the encounter. Just horrible.
I hope that Brailsford suffers from some rotting and painful ailment that plagues him for decades.
This is nauseating to read. I can’t bear to watch it myself.
I watched it. Literally almost threw up. It’s appalling that this man was acquitted.
After the female is taken by police, Shaver is laying face down with hands on head not moving. I understand hallway is narrow but at no time does Shaver appear to do anything but follow commands. Why not have two cops, one with handgun drawn walk down hallway towards Shaver, issuing verbal commands not to move and cuff him while face down on ground? Why not put Shaver on knees, hands behind back facing away from cops, have two cops, one with handgun drawn walk to Shaver issuing verbal commands not to move and and cuff him. Or why not while cops are issuing verbal warnings have Shaver walk slowly backwards with hands behind back until he reaches cops where they could cuff him? There wasn’t any other option available to officers???
The article references a civil suit against city of Mesa. I wondered if cop got fired with the police dept saying cop was acting outside the scope of his training with the city, the city trying to distance themselves from cop and liability. In effect the city trying to put any civil award for family solely on the fired officer.meaning the family could get nothing. What a tragedy.
A white guy. Proof positive that this type of thing doesn’t just happen to black people. It’s the police and the attitude that is fostered in and around the police.
Now multiplied ten-fold by this administration, we can expect more of these, not less.
As several pointed out, the murder victim was a white guy. Indeed, this is proof that rogue police don’t just target black people. The problem is police officers killing innocent people. Any innocent person who gets involved with police is at risk. That’s why innocent people with mental illness are at huge risk for being murdered by police.
Those jurors in Mesa - didn’t they consider that when they call the police for any reason they may get the same crew? Or a similar bunch?
I don’t get it. What was the reasoning for the acquittal?
He feared for his life 8-|
At what point will police departments start engaging in hiring practices that include screening to eliminate from contention individuals with the mindset that leads to such behavior? Or is the problem that the police departments actually train officers to have this mindset?
“At what point will police departments start engaging in hiring practices that include screening to eliminate from contention individuals with the mindset that leads to such behavior”
When shooters like this are held accountable by the court of law. Right now they aren’t and they get acquitted. So, where is the incentive to change? There isn’t. In fact, this can be viewed as encouraging more of this kind of behavior.
As do comments like this:
"“When you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over?” “Like, don’t hit their head, and they just killed somebody — don’t hit their head. I said, you can take the hand away, okay?”
I watched it. It was bad. The officer was yelling a lot, making it confusing, then adding hard to follow instructions all with the threat that if the guy didn’t follow them exactly, he would die. Shaver was obviously terrified and trying to do as instructed. I believe his pants were coming down from the crawling and he instinctively reached down to pull them up when he was executed.
Shaver has been showing off some sort of air gun and pointed it out a hotel window, if I understand correctly. That was what the police were originally called over. If jurors had seen any coverage of the Vegas shootings before the trial and/or verdict, it’s possible that influenced their decision.
It seems that the civil liability would be having an effect eventually. For example, in 2017, there was a $3.35 million civil rights settlement by the city of Madison with the family of a person killed by a police officer a few years ago.
The jury was not allowed to know about or see the engraving of “you’re f*%ked” on the side of the shooter’s AR-15.
Why not? It has everything to go with the preset determination in the mind of the killer.