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posted by janrinok on Tuesday April 03 2018, @11:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the protect-and-serve dept.

Unarmed Man in His Backyard Shot From Behind 7 Times By Cops

The World Socialist Web Site reports

On Friday [March 30], the results of an independent autopsy requested by Stephon Clark's family were released to the public, confirming that police shot the unarmed 22-year-old African-American man seven times in the back and side amid a volley of gunfire in his grandparents' backyard.

The incident began when two police officers responding to a report of someone breaking car windows confronted Clark on March 18. Body camera footage shows that, without identifying themselves, police demanded Clark put his hands up and chased him into his grandparents' backyard. At that point, one of the officers yelled "Gun!" and the two fired 20 shots at Clark, who was holding his cell phone in one hand.

The officers, identified as Terrence Mercadel and Jared Robinet, stood pointing their guns at Clark's corpse for several minutes until backup arrived, then handcuffed his body and made a perfunctory attempt to resuscitate Clark before pronouncing him dead. The officers then turned off their microphones for several minutes, presumably to get their stories straight off the record.

Autopsy results released by a private medical examiner hired by the family's attorney show that [the bullets of] Mercadel and Robinet [hit] Clark a total of eight times. Dr. Bennet Omalu's analysis found that Clark was shot four times in the lower back, twice in the neck, once under an armpit, and once in the front of his thigh.

"You could reasonably conclude that he received seven gunshot wounds from his back", Dr. Omalu told a press conference Friday adding that any one of those would have been fatal on its own. The doctor described extensive damage to Clark's body from the torrent of bullets, which resulted in a collapsed lung and a shattered vertebra.

Dr. Omalu also told reporters that Clark did not die immediately from his injuries but lived another three to 10 minutes after he was shot. He noted that, while it is impossible to say whether Clark would have survived had he received medical attention sooner, "every minute you wait decreases probability of survival." According to video released by the Sacramento Police Department, six minutes elapsed between the firing of the final bullet and the time CPR was administered to Clark's dead body.

The results further discredit the police narrative that Mercadel and Robinet believed Clark posed a danger to their safety and was moving in a menacing manner toward the officers when they gunned him down. In a statement, Clark family attorney Benjamin Crump wrote: "These findings from the independent autopsy contradict the police narrative that we've been told. This independent autopsy affirms that Stephon was not a threat to police and was slain in another senseless police killing under increasingly questionable circumstances."

Body Cam Video of Alton Sterling Killing Released; Officer Sacked

CBC reports

The videos, released Friday as Baton Rouge's police chief announced the firing of the white officer who shot Sterling six times, came days after the state attorney general declined to bring criminal charges against the two officers involved in the incident.


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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03 2018, @03:41PM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03 2018, @03:41PM (#661997)

    And people repeating the lies about the police aren't doing anybody any favors.

    For every one case where it appears to a reasonable observer that the cop really should be in prison, there's at least a dozen where the victim caused his own shooting by fighting with the police or running away. The racist BLM folks never acknowledge when the use of force was justified and continue to perpetuate the myth that there's nothing that people of color can do to avoid being beaten and shot. The reality is that the common denomenator in most of these cases is that the individual shot represented what a reasonable person would consider to be a threat at the time they were shot. In some cases, like Tamir Rice, you'd have to be pretty fucking stupid to think that it's OK to lower what appears to be a firearm in the direction of somebody with a real gun and expect to not be shot. But, the BLM people still can't acknowledge that that was a textbook case of justified lethal force.

    The reality is that there's culpability on both sides in most of these cases, but there's very little discussion about the fact that these people of color are behaving in a way that most white people don't and wouldn't. The idea of fighting with, arguing with or running from the police is just not something that would occur to most white people, which is a huge factor in how police interactions go. If you don't want them using force on you, perhaps it would be better to just let the lawyers handle it, give the minimum cooperation allowed by law and things usually turn out OK.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday April 03 2018, @03:51PM (6 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 03 2018, @03:51PM (#662003) Journal

    I've watched the Tamir Rice video many times. That was an out-and-out execution. Black with a gun - he has to die. No attempt to communicate was made by the two cops. They drove right up on the kid, bailed out, and started shooting. The silly cocksucker in a uniform who CLAIMS that he told Tamir to drop his gun is simply full of shit. He may have shouted something to that effect while he was still inside the car. Maybe with the window rolled up. He may have shouted anything before the car stopped. But, the instant the car stopped, he was out the door, and firing.

    Try that phoney story somewhere else. Anyone who watches the video can see that no attempt was made to disarm the twelve year old kid with a toy gun. "Nigger with a gun!! DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!"

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday April 03 2018, @05:23PM (5 children)

      by Thexalon (636) on Tuesday April 03 2018, @05:23PM (#662045)

      You left out the followup, too: When Tamir's sister came running to her brothers' aid, the cops' response was to slam her to the pavement, handcuff her, and throw her in the patrol car. All while doing absolutely nothing to even try to help the kid who was bleeding out on the ground. The city leaders "solved" the Tamir Rice situation by firing the cop who shot him, just like in this case. And the real kicker is they fired him not for killing Tamir Rice for no reason, but for lying on his job application to join the police force.

      And that's one noticeable consistency: When cops unjustly shoot somebody, their immediate reaction seems to be to consult with each other about what story they'll concoct to justify it, even while that person is still alive. They don't radio for an ambulance. They don't provide first aid. All of which makes it abundantly clear that they don't want that person to survive. If I had to hazard a guess, their thinking is that if they let the victim die, that's one less person contradicting them in court and in the press.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03 2018, @07:21PM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03 2018, @07:21PM (#662096)

        The solution is all blacks need to get guns to defend themselves against other people with guns. That's basically what the NRA recommends right? ;)

        And in open carry states, huge groups of blacks should walk around with guns while chanting the second amendment...

        • (Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday April 03 2018, @07:48PM (1 child)

          by looorg (578) on Tuesday April 03 2018, @07:48PM (#662117)

          The solution is all blacks need to get guns to defend themselves against other people with guns. That's basically what the NRA recommends right? ;)

          I'm sure the NRA would love the surge in membership. It would probably also do wonders for new gun sales figures among non-black people.

          And in open carry states, huge groups of blacks should walk around with guns while chanting the second amendment...

          They already did that back in 1967. A group of 30 Black Panther party members with guns out in the open walked into and around the state capital in California. All of them survived. No shootout. So much for the white man scaremongering.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @04:05PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @04:05PM (#662985)

            They already did that back in 1967. A group of 30 Black Panther party members with guns out in the open walked into and around the state capital in California.

            And then the NRA backed a ban on open carry. Go figure.

            https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nra-california-open-carry-ban/ [snopes.com]

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday April 03 2018, @07:53PM

          by Thexalon (636) on Tuesday April 03 2018, @07:53PM (#662124)

          The solution is all blacks need to get guns to defend themselves against other people with guns. That's basically what the NRA recommends right? ;)

          So here's the interesting part: Shortly after an open carry protest at the California state capitol by people identifying themselves as the Black Panthers, the NRA backed a California state law that among other things banned open carry [snopes.com]. And what happened to many of the Black Panthers? Hunted down and either arrested or killed by the police.

          Also, this is what happens when black people open-carry [youtube.com].

          --
          The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03 2018, @10:23PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03 2018, @10:23PM (#662213)

          They tried that and called themselves the Black Panthers. Local and federal authorities shut that shit down QUICK! Maybe 30+ years later it may work better, but dollars to donuts you'll just end up with a firefight between the small and big dicks.

  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday April 03 2018, @08:50PM

    by tangomargarine (667) on Tuesday April 03 2018, @08:50PM (#662162)

    For every one case where it appears to a reasonable observer that the cop really should be in prison, there's at least a dozen where the victim caused his own shooting by fighting with the police or running away. The racist BLM folks never acknowledge when the use of force was justified and continue to perpetuate the myth that there's nothing that people of color can do to avoid being beaten and shot. The reality is that the common denomenator in most of these cases is that the individual shot represented what a reasonable person would consider to be a threat at the time they were shot.

    Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize that an appropriate response to somebody running away was shooting them in the back.

    If he's running away, hop back in your fucking car and/or chase him down on foot; don't shoot him unless he's armed. Compare the thing where cops being armed with tasers seem to like to tase people when they think they're going to run away/resist/pick their nose.

    --
    "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"