Trial and appellate courts often hold that people who the police claim consented to search had a right to refuse.
We who actually practice criminal law know that is what is known as a legal fiction. Meaning that courts will rely on that while they damn well know that people who tell the police no are frequently beaten and/or arrested on trumped up charges.
So here is our question: if a black man with a professional degree is shot in cold blood while he lay on his back with his hands in the air, how can any court really believe poor people of color can actually refuse a simple request from a law enforcement officer when this poor man begged police not to shoot him and they did anyway?
See you in court.
12 comments:
I don't know what's more bewildering, the police continuing to shoot at unarmed people of color or PBA honcho Riviera being a ludicrous shill no matter what the circumstances are
They weren't trying to shoot the unarmed black man.
They were trying to shoot the unarmed autistic man.
What is the appropriate, acceptable number of wrongful police shootings we should see, nationally, in any given year?
It's not a rhetorical question. Only an idiot will say zero.
We want police, we want them armed, we want to pay X dollars on criminal justice, we're going to have wrongful police shootings (just like we have car accidents, mail delivered to the wrong address, and breakage in shipping).... So, given all that, how many wrongful police shootings are we okay living with?
Anyone who argues "This is too many!" and wants to be taken seriously in conversations about policy (rather than merely as an attention whore) should be prepared to share his view on what the "right" number is.
By pointing out that an unarmed professional caregiver to the handicapped was shot and then handcuffed as he lay on the ground with his hands up you are being anti-police and putting the lives of officers in danger. This is particularly reckless since a large number of officers have publicly condemned the shooting. Also there has been no outcry over the suspension of a commanding officer for lying during the investigation. Everybody knows that police officers, especially brass, are incapable of lying. What good is gained by more complaining and nitpicking?
It's a vicious cycle, folks. Blacks commit the overwhelming majority of violent crime (namely against other blacks). So cops ride around terrified of black people. The black community AND the police departments nationwide need to address both sides of the problem. The black community needs to take measures from within to better themselves, promote strong families (no more wedlock), and alleviate themselves of welfare dependence. Police need to refocus on de-escalation and community policing.
Ironically , since he has no credibility , Rivera detracts from the police rather than help. He's repulsive , reminds me of 1970's big tobacco lawyers saying cigarettes don't cause cancer
Given all the facts that have come out including NMPD's failure to meet the standards to obtain law enforcement accreditation, it looks like this was the result of very poor training and supervision in the department. An AR-15 with iron sights is accurate enough at 50 yards to hit the intended target. If it has a holographic weapon sight, as a SWAT team rifle should have, there is no excuse for missing unless the officer has his finger inside the trigger guard and fires by mistake before properly acquiring the target or jerks the finger involuntarily. It makes no sense to have the oficers 50 yards away and not use binoculars, spotting scopes or even rifle scopes to see what is going on and veirfy that someone is actually armed, more so when the therapist on the gound with hands up is yelling that there is no weapon and ythe patient has a toy triuck. It's going to cost a pretty penny to North Miami.
3:26 you are dead wrong. According to the DOJ in 2015 whites committed
approximately 60% of all violent crime, blacks committed approximately 15% of all violent crime, latinos committed approximately 15% of all violent crime and others committed approximately 10% of all violent crime. Stop your racist bullshit. Black people do not commit the majority of violent crime in the USA. Cops are afraid of black people because this false narrative is believed by you and everyone else.
What we need is to stop this entire prison industrial complex we have in the US. Stop the war on drugs which has destroyed the black community. We all know that just as many white or wealthy people in Pinecrest are abusing drugs as in Opa-Locka, but ofcourse the police concentrate their efforts on street level crime which causes poor people to get arrested. Wealthy people don't buy drugs on the street. Poor people buy drugs on the street. As for the wedlock, that argument is really bothersome. First, we did not chose to be in this state of affairs. The slave owners who bought and sold our relatives like we were dogs caused our families to be in disarray. It is very easy to say "promote strong families", but it is a lot harder to undo 200 years of what slavery caused. Do you realize that most of us lost our families, lost our identities, lost our customs and culture. We literally have no idea where we are from (besides just generally Africa). So please do not lecture us on promoting strong families and welfare. Slavery does not just disappear from our story. My great great grandparents were slaves. That is not that long ago.
ScottAfrica
Scott Africa - you are dead wrong. Google any credible crime statistic site and you will ysee 326 is factually correct and you are not. It's 555am, time for my morning run, so I'm not doing the research for you. I'll give you a hint, start w/ FBI crime stats to educate yourself
Where in the world are you getting your statistics from, 3:26? Here is a direct the link to the 2013 UCR on the FBI website, which has the statistical breakdown. It is what it is. Making up numbers isn't helpful. A lot of people are willing to accept that vestiges of slavery, and jim crow and racism exist because, as you pointed out, we are just a few generations removed. Crime is a symptom of many problems, one of which, many will agree is the vestiges of slavery/racism, especially the poverty it created. But this dialogue goes nowhere because in 2016 the acceptable response to any argument on race is to call the other person a racist and end it there. In fact, in 2016 you don't actually have to be a racist to . . . well . . . be a racist. It's corrosive and unproductive. Black communities are in trouble for a lot of reasons. One of them is vestiges of slavery. But there are many others, including failed leadership, a celebration of thug culture and violence, no snitch culture, and a breakdown in the family dynamic. In the 50's and 60's -- which was a time when blacks were being attacked with police dogs, beaten at marches like Selma, and denied seating in public places -- the family dynamic was on parity with all other races, (ie, having babies with absent fathers was not the epidemic it is today). But I do agree with you that the war on drugs has been incredibly and unnecessarily destructive to black communities, as has our unforgiving and unrepentant criminal justice and prison system. But no, not as many white and wealthy people in Pinecrest are abusing drugs to the same destructive, dysfunctional degree as is seen in impoverished communities, particularly in the inner city -- be it black, Hispanic or other.
We are NEVER going to get past this issue until people on BOTH sides wake up, stop making excuses and stop ignoring reality. Police don't just shoot too many BLACK people, they shoot too many PEOPLE....period. This issue is not just about race. The media however, disproportionately covers the cases where the victim of the shooting is black because it makes for a better story, ignoring the fact that by doing so they are hurting the country. Blacks need to stop using slavery (which was abolished 150 years ago) as an excuse for the problems in their neighborhoods that lead to the increased police presence there. They must take ownership of the issues that lead to crime such as poor family structure and not enough of an emphasis on education. We have way too many examples of successful blacks (starting with our president) to use that as an excuse any further. On the flip side, police departments need to do a better job of training their officers on the use of deadly force, as well as perhaps reviewing their hiring practices to make certain that only individuals who respect the value of every human life get hired. This may be easier said than done in light of the fact that pay rates for these jobs may not always attract the best pool of applicants. But as is often the case, there are no easy answers to these questions. Whites also need to understand that there remains some racial prejudice out there despite the fact that we have made great strides and stop denying that fact. Overall though we need to focus on finding a way to stop being so divisive as a country and invoking the race card too frequently is counter productive to that end.
To me the issue is this: A SWAT team officer shoots three times and misses his intended target; he also says he couldn't hear what the behavioral therapist was shouting even though we could; he mistakes a toy car for a gun. He's blind, deaf, and can't aim worth sh*t! Replace him with someone who can see and can hear and arm that officer with a pair of binoculars and a tazer rather than a gun.
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