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North Miami Police say they responded on July 20 to the area of Northeast 14th Avenue and Northeast 127th Street for a report of an armed man threatening suicide.
The "armed man" was a 23-year-old autistic patient who had wandered away from a nearby mental health center. He was sitting on the ground, playing with a toy truck.
47 year old behavioral therapist Charles Kinsey, a black man, was attending to the patient.
Multiple cops, armed with rifles, responded to the scene.
Kinsey was hit in the leg by one bullet. A photo shows Kinsey lying on his back with both hands in the air.
Speaking from his hospital bed Wednesday July 20 to a reporter for WSVN TV, Kinsey said "when it hit me I had my hands in the air, and I'm thinking I just got shot! And I'm saying, 'Sir, why did you shoot me?' and his words to me were, 'I don't know'."
The police administered no first aid. "They flipped me over, and I'm faced down in the ground, with cuffs on, waiting on the rescue squad to come", Kinsey said. "I'd say about 20, about 20 minutes it took the rescue squad to get there. And I was like, bleeding."
No gun was found at the scene.
At a Thursday July 21 press conference, the Miami-Dade Police Benevolent Association said the officer was a member of the SWAT team. The head of the PBA told reporters the officer was too far away to hear what Kinsey was saying before he fired.
Heavy.com Heavy.com with video
Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956:
A Florida police officer shot and wounded an autistic man's black caretaker, authorities said, in an incident purportedly captured on cellphone video that shows the caretaker lying down with his arms raised before being shot.
Source: LA Times
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday July 22 2016, @01:54PM
Maybe it's time to bring back an old Roman punishment: decimation. When a soldier ran from a battle or did some heinously stupid shit, they'd line up the legion, select every tenth guy, and whack him on the spot as a lesson to the rest.
Line up every cop in the department, select the tenth guy, and whack him on the spot to teach all of them not to do stupid shit like shooting and/or murdering civilians.
Let's see how willing they are to hold the Blue Line then.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by dyingtolive on Friday July 22 2016, @02:43PM
I was a little angry about this at first because you conflated a military with a police organization, but then I thought about it and remembered the part where they were armed with rifles and now I can't see the difference between the two either. :/
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday July 22 2016, @03:04PM
That, along with the total absence of accountability, is the crux of the matter. The police have been transformed into an occupying force, dispensing summary justice on the restless natives. There is also an underlay of entrenched, institutional racism in the police that festers away, but that is much more intractable than the other two.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 22 2016, @04:54PM
I was a little angry about this at first because you conflated a military with a police organization, but then I thought about it and remembered the part where they were armed with rifles and now I can't see the difference between the two either. :/
Didn't soldiers also guarantee internal security in the Roman Empire? I don't think they had cops back then.
As for rifles, they're weapons like any others. If instead the cops were Roman soldiers you'd be whining their swords are too sharp and their helmets not fluffy enough.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 22 2016, @05:26PM
And that's how you get added to a watchlist.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday July 22 2016, @06:33PM
That's rather barbaric. We should at least update the selection criteria [inc.com] to keep up with the times.