<p>Hayden, the video isn’t linked but I’ve seen it and agree with you on that one.And, that cop is headed for slammer.</p>
<p>Here are details and video of the Carolina Trooper’s unwarranted shooting of Levar Jones.
<a href=“Ex-S.C. trooper who shot unarmed man faces charges”>http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/24/ex-trooper-who-shot-unarmed-man-faces-charges/16178961/</a></p>
<p>A couple of very important points to keep in mind is that Jones had just pulled into a parking space at the store/mini mart, so he was already out of the car when the trooper rolled up to confront him. Secondly, Jones made no aggressive, confrontational, uncooperative etc. gesture when he tried to comply with officer dumbbell’s order to produce a drivers license.</p>
<p>My take on this is that the SC State police knew this SOB’s goose was cooked after viewing and listening to the video weeks ago. They’ve held on to it for three weeks to try to think of the best spin possible, which obviously isn’t possible. They cut loose this guy and filed charges in relatively record time (Ferguson on the brain, perhaps?).</p>
<p>In all seriousness, this trooper was likely a disaster waiting to happen. Are municipalities so hard up for revenue that they have ordered cops to pull guns on people suspected of un-buckled seat belts? Talk about out-of-proportion!</p>
<p>Hypothesis number one: Now that cell-phones and dashcams are being widely used to document police actions, law enforcement officers have gotten worse. Now they are beating up innocent people of color, and it is being caught on tape. Now they are shooting innocent black motorists, and it is being caught on tape. They never used to do this.</p>
<p>Hypothesis number two: Cops have always been doing this, and lying about it. White people, who have not experienced this, were naively believing the police.</p>
<p>Which do you believe?</p>
<p>Here in Ohio, in the news today is that a grand jury declined to indict the police officer(s) who shot John Crawford in Walmart in August.</p>
<p>This case is awful for a lot of reasons. You may have heard about it. John, a father of two, was in Walmart with his girlfriend. She went to the grocery area to get supplies for the cookout they were headed to, he hung out in sporting goods talking on his cell phone to the mother of his two children (3 months and 2 years old). As he walked and talked, he picked up an air gun - a toy - that was sitting on a shelf out of its box and walked around the store with it. Most of the time it’s by his side, a couple of times he swings it back and forth and once to his shoulder and back down, all as he walks and talks. </p>
<p>A man in the store, for some unknown reason, calls 911 and tells the dispatcher that he is aiming it at people, aiming it at children, that he sees him loading it…you can listen to the call online. As we find out when we see the store video, none of this is true.</p>
<p>The police respond and basically enter Walmart, see the guy, and shoot him. They say they told him to drop the gun and he didn’t. There is video of this too - it’s clear that they arrived and shot him within seconds, and that he is still on the phone, not even facing them, with the “gun” at his side facing down, when he is shot.</p>
<p>Here in Ohio, it is legal to carry a rifle into a Walmart, first of all. That this was a toy gun is a sad mistake. What makes me angry is that he cops came in with ONE 911 call to go on - many other shoppers were in the area and not one made a call or reacted to John in any way - and their very first reaction was to shoot him. Immediately. </p>
<p>Compare to the numerous photos and videos of white people walking around Walmart, Target, a bus stop with their long guns, and the police reaction to phone calls about them. One woman videotaped her conversation with a cop at a school bus stop. The cop had been called and has a very polite conversation with her in which she asserts her second amendment right to carry her weapon wherever she wants. It’s over in a minute and she walks away.</p>
<p>John Crawford wasn’t given this opportunity to explain himself.</p>
<p>I’m just sick about it. He was 2 years older than my son.</p>
<p><a href=“'Django Unchained' actress, boyfriend charged with lewd conduct”>http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-daniele-watts-charged-lewd-conduct-20141021-story.html</a></p>
<p>Ms Watts and her boyfriend charged with misdemeanor lewd conduct. So there was enough evidence for police to investigate after all.</p>