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posted by n1 on Friday July 22 2016, @11:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the we-shot-the-wrong-unarmed-man dept.

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


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 22 2016, @04:04PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 22 2016, @04:04PM (#378599)

    I call bullshit. The feds have no authority to dictate any state or local level policies relating to the police/sheriffs unless they takeover the individual police force(s).

    There's lots of stuff not to like about <insert local, state or federal office holder here> but when you're going to damn them for something it should be something they are responsible for and is (or should be) within their control. The "we want smaller government" factions would lose their shit if the current administration even proposed federal guidelines or oversight of local police (let alone tried to enforce them).

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by forkazoo on Friday July 22 2016, @06:57PM

    by forkazoo (2561) on Friday July 22 2016, @06:57PM (#378721)

    They certainly have authority to stop giving things like DHS grants for ever more weapons, and the 'green to blue' pipeline for surplus military hardware. Likewise, they have the authority to focus DOJ investigations on things like civil rights violations and to throw cops under federal prisons rather than entering occasional and mostly toothless "consent decrees." Don't underestimate the capacity of a pissed off federal government to enact changes even in areas where it isn't clear that it has 100% jurisdiction.

    The federal government just mostly isn't that pissed off yet.

  • (Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Friday July 22 2016, @09:32PM

    by GungnirSniper (1671) on Friday July 22 2016, @09:32PM (#378796) Journal

    At least one guest on Fawx News in recent weeks was promoting just that - consolidation of departments to standardize procedures and training. At least in my state the town academies are shared, except for the State Stormtroopers.

  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday July 23 2016, @08:48PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday July 23 2016, @08:48PM (#379161) Journal

    The Feds did an end run around all state and local laws, long ago. It's called "federal funding". Do you know how seat belt laws came to be enacted? The insurance companies called again and again for mandatory seat belt use. Individually and collectively, the states told the insurance companies to pack it up their asses. So, the insurance companies started lobbying the NHTSA, congress, and everyone in Washington who would grant them an audience. The Feds told the states to pass seat belt laws. States told the Feds to go screw themselves. This went on for a few years, until the Feds replied with, "Pass the seat belt laws, or you'll lose federal highway money."

    The Feds have the same tools available to impose any restrictions they want on police forces. At a guess, there are probably fewer than ten percent of all police forces in this country who don't accept federal money. Those ten percent probably accept state money, which has been given to the state by the feds. But, any department that accepts no federal money directly is probably just some podunk town out in the middle of nowhere.

    The Feds can get their way, because they control the purse strings.