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  • Police protests / BLM

    Can protest more I guess if a cop fired at the rock throwing mob protecting said alleged criminal.
    http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/02/us/mis...olice-comment/
    (CNN)A city councilman fed up with police from other counties racing after small-time crooks in his Jackson, Mississippi, neighborhood has called for residents to throw things at officers in pursuit.

    Now, the governor and a county sheriff are threatening to have prosecutors investigate him over the suggestion.

    Councilman Kenneth Stokes has a reputation of saying what he thinks and stirring controversy.

    "Let's get rocks; let's get bricks, and let's get bottles," Stokes told CNN affiliate WJTV. "And we'll start throwing them, and then they won't come in here anymore."

    It was no one-off quip. Stokes repeated the suggestion to other local news outlets.

    "When you have these police officers coming from other jurisdictions and they will not respect human life, then I said we should use rocks, bricks or bottles to try to get the message over: stop endangering our children," Stokes told Jackson's The Clarion-Ledger newspaper.
    ........
    "Law Enforcement will not be intimidated by you. Any Madison county law enforcement that is attacked because of your ignorant statements, I will hold you responsible. I fully intend to contact the (Mississippi) Attorney General and inquire if your statements constitute assaults on officers by threat," the post read.

    Gov. Phil Bryant joined him with a similar statement on Facebook.

    "This is nothing short of an outright assault upon all who wear the badge. I will be asking Attorney General Jim Hood to investigate whether Mr. Stokes' remarks represent criminal threats against law enforcement officers," he said.


    ..........
    Walmart shoplifter

    Stokes told local media that his comments were not a call to riots.

    He said that he supports police, and that police from surrounding jurisdictions pursuing dangerous criminals such as armed robbers through Jackson is justified. But risking lives to chase people suspected of misdemeanors is not.

    A recent chase appears to have brought Stokes to a boiling point that led to the rocks, bottles and bricks comment.

    Officers from three towns chased a man who had shoplifted at a Walmart and assaulted people in the parking lot. Multiple police cars raced after the suspect through Jackson.

    "It was a misdemeanor. They could easily break off the chase, get the tag number," Stokes said. "We'll pay for whatever they stole to make sure that our babies are not harmed. We want the same respect that they give to their neighborhoods given to Jackson neighborhoods."

    Are police under siege?
    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

  • #2
    reviving an old thread, but the topic seems better than slotting this under the recent shootings of police officers thread.

    if nothing else there needs to be a serious look at the training and hiring standards for police officers.

    ----

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...istic-patient/

    Fla. police shoot black man with his hands up as he tries to help autistic patient
    By Michael E. Miller July 21 at 4:21 AM

    Charles Kinsey was trying to retrieve a young autistic man who had wandered away from an assisted living facility and was blocking traffic when Kinsey was shot by a North Miami police officer.

    In cellphone footage of the incident that emerged Wednesday, Kinsey can be seen lying on the ground with his hands in the air, trying to calm the autistic man and defuse the situation seconds before he is shot.

    “All he has is a toy truck in his hand,” Kinsey can be heard saying in the video as police officers with assault rifles hide behind telephone poles approximately 30 feet away.

    “That’s all it is,” the caretaker says. “There is no need for guns.”

    Seconds later, off camera, one of the officers fired his weapon three times.

    A bullet tore through Kinsey’s right leg.

    Kinsey said he was stunned by the shooting.

    “I was thinking as long as I have my hands up … they’re not going to shoot me,” he told local television station WSVN from his hospital bed.

    “Wow, was I wrong.”

    Kinsey said he was even more stunned by what happened afterward, when police handcuffed him and left him bleeding on the pavement for “about 20 minutes.”

    His attorney called the video “shocking.”

    “There is no reason to fire your weapon at a man who has his hands up and is trying to help,” Hilton Napoleon told The Washington Post in a telephone interview Wednesday night.

    Napoleon called for the department to fire the officer.

    North Miami has not identified the officer or his race. The department said it is investigating the incident, which reportedly came after officers responded to a 911 call “of an armed male suspect threatening suicide.”

    “Arriving officers attempted to negotiate with two men on the scene, one of whom was later identified as suffering from Autism,” police said in a statement Tuesday. “At some point during the on-scene negotiation, one of the responding officers discharged his weapon, striking the employee of the [assisted living facility].”

    Police did not respond to multiple requests for comment. According to their statement, the officer who fired his weapon has been placed on administrative leave, as is standard policy in police-involved shootings.

    Authorities have not said why the officer opened fire on an unarmed man with his hands prominently in the air.

    The shooting comes at a tense time for both police and civilians.

    Police across the country are currently on alert after gunmen ambushed officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, killing eight.

    At the same time, police are also under scrutiny after the fatal shootings of two black men earlier this month. Bystanders filmed Baton Rouge police fatally shooting Alton Sterling in the early hours of July 5. Less than 48 hours later, Philando Castile was fatally shot by an officer in Falcon Heights, Minn. His girlfriend streamed the aftermath on Facebook Live.

    Like those two incidents, the Monday afternoon altercation was partially captured on camera.

    Before the cameras started rolling, the young autistic man wandered away from a North Miami assisted living facility. A manager at the facility told WSVN that the man was “about 23 years old, he’s autistic, he’s nonverbal [and] he’s relatively low-functioning.”

    The autistic man sat on the ground, blocking traffic, while he played with a small white toy truck, Napoleon told The Post.

    Kinsey, an employee at the facility, went to retrieve him.

    Around the same time, someone in the area called 911 and reported seeing a man with a gun threatening to commit suicide, police said.

    According to Napoleon, Kinsey was trying to persuade the autistic man to get out of the street when police approached with their rifles raised.

    With the Sterling and Castile shootings on his mind, Kinsey lay down on the ground and put his hands in the air.

    “I was really more worried about him than myself,” Kinsey told WSVN, referring to the autistic man.

    Two bystander videos capture snippets of what happened next.

    [After Baton Rouge, a weary fear builds among those who protect and serve]

    A video from before the shooting — obtained by Napoleon and shared with The Post — begins with bystanders saying “Look, look, look,” in Spanish.

    “Mira, mira, mira,” a man can be heard saying, training his cellphone camera on Kinsey, who is on the ground with his hands up and trying to get the autistic man to do the same.

    “Lay down on your stomach,” Kinsey tells the young man.

    “Shut up,” the autistic man shouts. “Shut up, you idiot.”

    Kinsey turns his attention to the police.

    “Can I get up now?” he asks. “Can I get up?”

    As police aim their assault rifles at the men in the street, Kinsey tries to explain to them that they pose no threat.

    “All he has is a toy truck in his hand. A toy truck,” Kinsey can be heard saying in the video. “I am a behavioral therapist at a group home.

    “That’s all it is,” he says, referring to the toy truck. “That’s all it is. There is no need for guns.”

    “Let me see your hands,” a cop can be heard shouting at the autistic man. “Get on the ground. Get on the ground.”

    The autistic man then begins to make noises, apparently playing with his toy.

    “Rinaldo, please be still,” Kinsey tells his patient. “Sit down, Rinaldo. Lay on your stomach.”

    The video then cuts out, leaving a critical gap in the footage.

    Seconds later, off camera, one of the officers fired his weapon three times.

    One of the bullets struck Kinsey near his right knee, exiting his upper thigh.

    “My life flashed in front of me,” he told WSVN, adding that his first thought was of his family.

    His second thought was one of confusion.

    “When he shot me, it was so surprising,” he said. “It was like a mosquito bite, and when it hit me, I’m like, I still got my hands in the air, and I said, ‘No, I just got shot.'”

    “Sir, why did you shoot me?” Kinsey recalled asking the officer.

    “He said, ‘I don’t know.’ ”

    A second video captures the moments after the shooting, as officers placed the injured Kinsey and the autistic man into handcuffs.

    “He was like, ‘Please don’t shoot me,’ ” a bystander can be heard saying on the video. “Why they shot the black boy and not the fat boy?”

    “Because the things with the blacks,” another man says.

    “I don’t know who’s guilty,” adds what sounds like a woman’s voice.

    It was the officers’ reaction after the shooting that upset Kinsey and Napoleon the most.

    “They flipped me over, and I’m faced down in the ground, with cuffs on, waiting on the rescue squad to come,” Kinsey told WSVN. “I’d say about 20, about 20 minutes it took the rescue squad to get there. And I was like, bleeding — I mean bleeding and I was like, ‘Wow.’ ”

    “Right now, I am just grateful that he is alive, and he is able to tell his story,” his wife, Joyce, told the TV station.

    Kinsey was “dumbfounded” by the shooting, Napoleon said.

    “He should recover physically but he is really kind of mentally distraught,” the attorney added. “As you can see in the video, he did everything he thought he had to do and then some … and still got shot.”

    Napoleon said his client was on the ground with his hands up, as in the video, when shot.

    “Nobody got up or approached” the officers, the attorney said, adding that the fact the officer fired three times shows it was “not an accident.

    “The straw that really breaks the camel’s back, that makes it even more frustrating, is that after my client was shot, they handcuffed him and left him on the hot Miami summer pavement for 20 minutes while fire rescue came and while he was bleeding out,” Napoleon said. “But for the grace of God he wouldn’t be with us.”
    What you need to know about the fatal police shooting of Alton Sterling
    Play Video3:13
    On July 5, two white Baton Rouge police officers fatally shot 37-year-old black man Alton Sterling. Here's what you need to know. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

    “That toy truck does not come close to looking like a gun,” he told The Post. “The officers had more than enough time to look and make a determination and not just base it on what they heard on the telephone. They have an obligation to go and look and determine if [reports of an armed man were] right and they had ample opportunity to do so.”

    Napoleon said he knew better than most the dangers cops endure on a daily basis.

    “You’re talking to someone whose dad was a police officer in the city of Detroit in the ’70s and ’80s,” he said. “I understand it. I had a fear when I was a child of whether or not my father was going to come home.

    “But at the end of the day, we can’t use that as an excuse to allow police officers to shoot unarmed individuals,” he said. “Just like the police ask the community to not judge them based on … however many bad apples that are out there. In the same sense, they have to be able to hold themselves to the same standard and not hold the entire [black] community responsible for the incidents that happened in Dallas and Baton Rouge.”

    Napoleon said he was already in negotiations with the City of North Miami regarding a possible settlement.

    “I have confidence that the city is going to negotiate in good faith and try to resolve this issue,” he said. “At a minimum, we would request that they terminate the officer immediately based on what’s in the video.”

    The attorney said he trusted the State Attorney’s Office, which is also investigating, to determine if criminal charges should be filed against the officer.

    Napoleon said Kinsey, a father of five, is involved in community efforts to keep youth out of trouble and in school.

    “He’s just a solid guy,” he said of his client, who remains hospitalized. “It takes a special individual to work with people with special needs, as this young man did. That shows his character.”
    There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

    Comment


    • #3
      Unfortunately as the article mentions there is a critical gap in the footage. What happened isnt exactly clear. And Kinsey can say whatever he wants regarding verbal exhanges, unless it was recorded it means jack $#!+. An officer's word versus a dozen witnesses will take precedence.

      I know it sounds insensitive, but having family members in LE, I dont really care, but people need to learn that cops dont NEED to listen to or believe a goddamn thing you say. You are not "right", you are not "special" and nor will cops "give you the benefit of the doubt". Listen to what they say, obey their orders, or shit like this is going to happen. I would be willing to bet that this dude did something, however slight, that got him shot. And truth be told, he's lucky it was just once in the leg.

      I understand his intentions, and honestly, he might have saved the autistic dude's life. But, this is just the world we live in.

      #BLUELIVESMATTER
      "We are all special cases." - Camus

      Comment


      • #4
        but people need to learn that cops dont NEED to listen to or believe a goddamn thing you say. You are not "right", you are not "special" and nor will cops "give you the benefit of the doubt". Listen to what they say, obey their orders, or shit like this is going to happen.
        right words here,

        I would be willing to bet that this dude did something, however slight, that got him shot. And truth be told, he's lucky it was just once in the leg.
        absolutely wrong mentality here.

        police officers are there to protect you and your rights, yes? to protect and serve.

        so IF police officers are violating this charge by shooting compliant individuals, being trigger-happy, or using excessive force, this should be absolutely as abhorrent to you as it is to me.

        this isn't a goddam police state. we owe the police respect and compliance with lawful orders, but definitely not the assumption with every police shooting that "oh the guy who got shot was probably non-compliant". there's been far too many cases of police abuse of power for that.

        the bond between the police and the community is a bond of trust, and when that's broken, it is -especially- the responsibility of the public servant to bend over backwards to repair that breach. it strikes me as ironic that so many conservatives, the champion of individual power over that of the state, seem to ignore this.
        There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by astralis View Post
          right words here,



          absolutely wrong mentality here.

          police officers are there to protect you and your rights, yes? to protect and serve.

          so IF police officers are violating this charge by shooting compliant individuals, being trigger-happy, or using excessive force, this should be absolutely as abhorrent to you as it is to me.

          this isn't a goddam police state. we owe the police respect and compliance with lawful orders, but definitely not the assumption with every police shooting that "oh the guy who got shot was probably non-compliant". there's been far too many cases of police abuse of power for that.

          the bond between the police and the community is a bond of trust, and when that's broken, it is -especially- the responsibility of the public servant to bend over backwards to repair that breach. it strikes me as ironic that so many conservatives, the champion of individual power over that of the state, seem to ignore this.
          That is a big "IF", and agreed. However, my mentality is MINE. I dont ask that people agree with or accept it, I am just speaking from a personal position. Dont agree with it? No worries.

          A public trust is a two way street, and the public has a lot of repairs to do as well. But, jumping to conclusions in an obviously complicated situation isn't going to help.

          I dont know if you have ever carried a weapon with a duty to protect, but sometimes there are instantaneous and unclear events that require decisive action. Not that I have ever fired my weapon, but I have plenty of friends and family that have. It's never a decision taken lightly, and the consequences always lay heavy... even if there is no repercussion.

          Btw, not really a conservative, but good try on the pigeon hole.
          "We are all special cases." - Camus

          Comment


          • #6
            That is a big "IF", and agreed. However, my mentality is MINE. I dont ask that people agree with or accept it, I am just speaking from a personal position. Dont agree with it? No worries.
            sure, but your arguments have been repeated by others. usually in a cruder format, something along the lines of "those thugs had it coming."

            Btw, not really a conservative, but good try on the pigeon hole.
            oh, i wasn't meaning you directly with that comment. i just think it's a bit amusing how many government-is-the-root-of-all-evil conservatives have suddenly become law-and-order, the police-are-never-wrong types.
            There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by astralis View Post
              oh, i wasn't meaning you directly with that comment. i just think it's a bit amusing how many government-is-the-root-of-all-evil conservatives have suddenly become law-and-order, the police-are-never-wrong types.
              Personally I find it irritating that people immediately jump to the conclusion that "small government whatevers" are immediately labelled as "all government is evil" or even worse.

              Sure you've got some anarchists and separatists out there. But that's like labelling people on the left as automatically Communist. That happens a lot and I'm sure leftists don't care for that either.

              I daresay that the vast majority of conservatives are staunchly pro-law enforcement.
              “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

              Comment


              • #8
                TH,

                I daresay that the vast majority of conservatives are staunchly pro-law enforcement.
                well, first off i disagree with the idea that one is either "pro-BLM" or "pro-law enforcement". the core behind BLM is ensuring that the law is applied equally. anyways, i digress.

                have you noticed, though, WHY it is that conservatives have highlighted very specific parts of the government for their ire? the IRS, the EPA, the Bureau of Land Management. mandatory insurance coverage. the state department.

                now we have a situation where some agents of the state have shot people to death despite compliance, oppose body camera legislation, or oppose release of body camera footage. and instead of raging like the above, the overall reaction is "shrug"...at best. the GOP nominee just called himself the "law and order" candidate.

                there was a small civil war within the NRA over the recent shooting of Philando Castile, with many NRA members wondering why the NRA was so conspicuously silent on the subject.

                so past a few libertarians, one has to wonder where the usual conservative outrage over state overreach is. why the difference?
                Last edited by astralis; 22 Jul 16,, 15:46.
                There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

                Comment


                • #9
                  Doesn't the fact that the NRA had a small civil war say that there ARE conservatives who are suspicious of police officers?

                  I am certainly suspicious of this particular event, but I am not going to get worked up into a rage over this particular incident. Looks like a job for the local police to investigate
                  "The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood"-Otto Von Bismarck

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I would be willing to bet that this dude did something, however slight, that got him shot. And truth be told, he's lucky it was just once in the leg.
                    He apparently did nothing wrong, and was totally unlucky.

                    http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...ion-chief-says
                    North Miami Officer Was Aiming At Man With Autism, Union Chief Says




                    July 22, 2016·10:32 AM ET

                    Bill Chappell
                    Twitter


                    Days after Charles Kinsey was shot by North Miami police as the behavioral health care worker tried to help a patient, we now know more about the officer who fired the shot — and according to the head of the local police union, the officer was trying to shoot Kinsey's patient, a man with autism, not Kinsey.

                    "Fearing for Mr. Kinsey's life, the officer discharged his firearm, trying to save Mr. Kinsey's life," says John Rivera, president of the Dade County Police Benevolent Association. "And he missed, and accidentally struck Mr. Kinsey."

                    Rivera also declared that the case is different from other recent incidents of police shootings of black men, stating, "Folks, this is not what the rest of the nation is going through."

                    He added, "This is not a case of a rogue cop, this is not a case of police abuse."

                    The officer was one of several who responded to a call to the North Miami Police Department about an armed man who was threatening suicide, as Rivera said in a news conference that was covered by The Miami Herald. He said the officers saw Kinsey, who is black, in the middle of the street with a white male — later identified as a patient who had wandered away from an assisted living facility group home (and whose ethnicity we haven't separately learned).

                    "It appeared to the officers that the white male was trying to do harm to Mr. Kinsey," Rivera said, citing the man's motions toward Kinsey just before the officer opened fire.

                    It was only much later, Rivera said, that the officers realized two important facts: that the man next to Kinsey has autism, and that he did not have a gun.

                    Rivera provided the new details late Thursday, after video of the encounter between Kinsey, his patient and the police led to new accusations of police misuse of force. He says a widely circulated video of the event has been incorrectly perceived, noting that it was filmed from a vantage point closer than that of the officers who were on the scene.

                    Rivera said he was speaking about the case "to fix some wrongs" in the discussion it has generated, describing it as a tragic accident brought on by officers' uncertainty over the patient's intentions. He did not dispute Kinsey's account, in which Kinsey has said he had his hands up when he was shot.

                    "Listen, Mr. Kinsey did everything right," Rivera said. "Let's be clear about that. Mr. Kinsey did everything right."
                    Reading a brief statement from the officer who shot Kinsey, Rivera said, "I took this job to save lives and help people. I did what I had to do in a split second to accomplish that, and I hate to hear others paint me as something I am not."

                    While acknowledging that all the facts of the case are not yet known, the police union chief also urged politicians not to use "gamesmanship" in discussing the case.

                    As we reported yesterday, Kinsey says he was lying on the ground with his hands up before he was shot — an account that's backed by the video which captured the moments prior to the shooting. The shooting came during a tense situation, parts of which were captured on video, and published online this week. Kinsey later spoke to local TV news Channel 7 WSVN from his hospital bed to describe both his fears for his patient — who was apparently playing with a toy truck in the street — and his surprise at being shot.

                    Kinsey told Channel 7: "I just got shot! And I'm saying, 'Sir, why did you shoot me?' and his words to me, he said, 'I don't know.' "

                    Kinsey left the hospital last night, Channel 7 reports.

                    The North Miami Police Department has released few details about the case, other than to outline the basic circumstances and, last night, to identify the officer who shot Kinsey as a 30-year-old Hispanic man who's been on the police force for four years.

                    "The officer in this case ... wishes nothing but the best for Mr. Kinsey," Rivera said, adding that the officer "is praying for his speedy recovery."

                    An investigation into the shooting of Kinsey is ongoing; it now involves both the local state's attorney office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
                    Last edited by troung; 22 Jul 16,, 17:29.
                    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by astralis View Post
                      TH,
                      well, first off i disagree with the idea that one is either "pro-BLM" or "pro-law enforcement". the core behind BLM is ensuring that the law is applied equally. anyways, i digress.
                      I'm not sure where I gave that impression, that one is either pro-BLM or pro-LEO. It certainly wasn't my intention.

                      As for the core behind BLM, that was lost a long time ago. The movement itself was spurred by multiples lies and myths (the Michael Brown shooting) and quickly became hijacked by the anti-LEO mob.

                      Originally posted by astralis View Post
                      have you noticed, though, WHY it is that conservatives have highlighted very specific parts of the government for their ire? the IRS, the EPA, the Bureau of Land Management. mandatory insurance coverage. the state department.
                      That part is simple: These are the government agencies that are perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be the most oppressive, intrusive and out of control by conservatives and others.

                      Originally posted by astralis View Post
                      so past a few libertarians, one has to wonder where the usual conservative outrage over state overreach is. why the difference?
                      Same place where the usual liberal outrage over foreign military operations is when Obama or any other Democratic president orders them. Where exactly that is, I couldn't tell you. Both sides drip with hypocrisy and false piety.
                      “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by troung View Post
                        He apparently did nothing wrong, and was totally unlucky.

                        http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...ion-chief-says
                        So, that's a big change from "Why did you shoot me?" and "I don't know." It sounds like the officer had time to RETHINK the events.
                        "We are all special cases." - Camus

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by squirrel View Post
                          so, that's a big change from "why did you shoot me?" and "i don't know." it sounds like the officer had time to rethink the events.
                          you've got to be shitting me!

                          The man panicked! Period!
                          Chimo

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            So, that's a big change from "Why did you shoot me?" and "I don't know." It sounds like the officer had time to RETHINK the events.
                            Anything else in the crystal ball?

                            North Miami cop suspended for misleading probe of Charles Kinsey shooting

                            A North Miami police commander who radioed that a man was loading his weapon just before healthcare professional Charles Kinsey was shot was suspended without pay Friday for misleading investigators at the police department.

                            Sources familiar with the investigation into the incident that left Kinsey hospitalized for several days say Cmdr. Emile Hollant did more than just relay bad information — in a poor attempt to cover his tracks, he told police he wasn’t present when officer Jonathan Aledda shot Kinsey.

                            “Cmdr. Emile Hollant was placed on leave after evidence of conflicting statements given to the investigators of this specific case,” North Miami City Manager Larry Spring said Friday during a press conference. “This will not be tolerated.”

                            Hollant’s suspension comes only a week after he was promoted to commander during the same ceremony in which Gary Eugene was sworn in as North Miami’s new police chief.

                            “By giving misinformation to this department, he not only jeopardized Mr. Kinsey’s life and the life of his client, he jeopardized the life of every police officer that serves this city,” said North Miami Councilman Scott Galvin.

                            Aledda, a four-year SWAT team veteran, was placed on administrative leave for at least a week, which is customary any time an officer fires his weapon and strikes someone.

                            On an audio recording obtained by Miami Herald partner CBS4 that purports to be the police radio transmissions just before Kinsey is shot, someone can be heard saying, “He’s loading his weapon.”

                            It’s not clear on the audio if the officer is referring to Kinsey, or the 24-year-old autistic man seated on the ground next to him, who was under Kinsey’s care.

                            There was no weapon.

                            North Miami also released Aledda’s personnel file Friday. Those records show four years of above average and outstanding work, with one internal affairs investigation in which he was cleared.

                            In 2014, Aledda received commendations for making 28 arrests in one month and for the capture of two men on a robbery spree. A separate internal affairs investigation into Aledda focused on a man’s claim that the officer used too much force during a robbery investigation. Though the man turned out to be a victim of that crime, Aledda was cleared of any misconduct.

                            Kinsey, a 47-year-old married father of five who has worked at the MacTown Center for the Developmentally Disabled for more than a year, was shot Monday afternoon while trying to coax an autistic man he cared for back into the center.

                            A 911 call to police alerted them to a man standing in the roadway at Northeast 127th Street and 14th Aveune with a gun, who was threatening to kill himself. When police arrived, they found the autistic man sitting on the ground cross-legged and playing with a toy truck. Kinsey, in a yellow shirt and dark shorts, was standing beside him.

                            As police took positions behind poles and patrol cars, they ordered both men to lie down and place their hands in the air. Kinsey complied. The autistic man didn’t, at one point yelling at Kinsey to shut up as the healthcare worker begged him to lie down.

                            A video that shows a portion of the shooting — though not the shooting itself — shows Kinsey lying supine. He can be heard telling police, “I’m a behavioral therapist at a group home. There’s no need for guns.” Then he says, “Reynaldo, please be still Reynaldo. Lay down Reynaldo. Lay on your stomach.”
                            Cellphone video shows caretaker lying in the street before being shot by police

                            Video shows the scene before and after caretaker Charles Kinsey is shot. He is shown lying in the street with a 23-year-old autistic man before being hit by a bullet from an assault rifle fired by a North Miami police officer.
                            Provided by Hilton Napoleon

                            Then Aledda, who had taken aim with his assault rifle, fired three times. One of the bullets struck Kinsey in the leg. He spent several days recovering in the hospital and went home late Thursday night.

                            At a time of heightened tensions as videos continue to surface of unarmed black men being shot and sometimes killed by police, the video, which was given to the Miami Herald by Kinsey’s attorney Hilton Napoleon, has sparked worldwide outrage. Though it doesn’t show the shooting, Napoleon said he doesn’t believe it was edited before he received it.

                            Taken by someone who lives in an apartment complex adjacent to where Kinsey was shot, Napoleon said he received it in two parts. He believes the person who recorded the incident turned the camera off before the shooting, then back on after Kinsey was struck.

                            The shooting sparked calls for police department policy reviews by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and outraged U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson of Miami Gardens, who visited North Miami this week and demanded answers. On Thursday night a group of about 40 Black Lives Matter protesters stormed the North Miami police department and called for the firing of Aledda.

                            Even presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign weighed in Friday, calling for national guidelines on the use of force by police. As it stands now, individual states have guidelines, but police departments within the states are allowed to tighten those requirements.

                            “The sad reality is that African-American men are far more likely to be stopped and searched by police, charged with crimes, or killed in police-involved incidents than white men,” Clinton’s senior policy adviser Maya Harris said in a prepared statement.

                            Though North Miami and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is investigating the shooting, have been tight-lipped, the union representing Aledda made a rare admission Thursday.

                            In an attempt to ease tensions, Miami-Dade Police Benevolent Association President John Rivera said that Aledda was actually aiming at the autistic man on the ground with the toy — but missed and hit Kinsey. The union president said despite Kinsey’s pleas, officers thought that the autistic man’s toy truck was a gun and that Kinsey was in danger.

                            On Friday, Napoleon said he found the cop’s explanation implausible. He couldn’t understand how a trained SWAT team member not taking fire could be that inaccurate from 50 yards or less.

                            “If he’s aiming at the autistic kid, how he could miss,” Napoleon said. If that was the case, said the attorney, “he had plenty of time to tell my client to move.”

                            Napoleon also questioned why, if police were trying to save Kinsey’s life, they rolled him over and handcuffed him as he was bleeding from a bullet wound to his leg.

                            “They handcuffed him after he got shot,” he said.

                            Also Friday, Clint Bower, president and CEO at the facility where Kinsey works, called the behavioral therapist a “special hero,’ and said he was “appalled” at Monday’s events.

                            “Charles is an honest, hard-working and dedicated individual who did everything in his power to de-escalate a very volatile and dangerous situation, while complying fully with the orders of the North Miami police department,” said Bower.

                            Spring, the North Miami city manager, said Kinsey’s shooting has already created change. North Miami has formed a committee to try to improve its community policing. Among the members of the committee is the Circle of Brotherhood, an advocacy group that works to provide opportunity for black families.

                            Kinsey is a member.

                            Miami Herald Staff Writer David Ovalle contributed to this report.

                            Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...#storylink=cpy
                            To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Officer of Engineers View Post
                              you've got to be shitting me!

                              The man panicked! Period!
                              Yeah...I mean, that seems to be the most likely explanation here.
                              "The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood"-Otto Von Bismarck

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