Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 18 submissions in the queue.
posted by martyb on Thursday June 11 2020, @02:36AM   Printer-friendly
from the blender-was-used-for-what dept.

This is fascinating look at a crime scene recreated with Blender1 (and other tools) from publicly available information.

https://www.blendernation.com/2020/06/10/forensic-reconstruction-the-killing-of-mark-duggan/:

View the interactive feature on the Guardian here.

Click here to explore the scene in a virtual reality 360° video.

Read about our investigation in depth in our methodology report.

Read our letter to the Independent Office of Police Conduct.

[...] On 4 August 2011, Mark Duggan was shot to death by police in Tottenham, north London, after undercover officers forced the minicab in which he was travelling to pull over.

As the vehicle came to a stop, Duggan opened the rear door, and leapt out. Within seconds, an advancing officer known only by his codename, V53, had fired twice. The first shot passed through Duggan's arm, and struck a second officer, known as W42, in his underarm radio. The second, fatal shot hit Duggan in his chest.

V53 would later tell investigators that he saw a gun in Duggan's hand, and felt his life to be in danger. Duggan was being monitored by Operation Trident, a controversial unit of the Metropolitan Police focused on gun crime in London's black communities; firearms officers had followed him from a nearby meeting, at which he had reportedly collected a gun. But following the shooting, the gun in question was found around seven metres away from where Duggan had been shot, on a nearby patch of grass. But no officers reported that they saw Duggan throw the gun, or make any kind of throwing motion.

1Blender is a free and open source 3D modelling, animation and rendering solution, that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.

There are a number of iffy/confirmation bias conclusions, but they also identified irrefutable evidence that led to the family of Mark Duggan receiving compensation for his death.

The 23 minute video is presented well and well-worth watching, as they collect images for photogrammetry, stabilise shaky footage and recreate 3D walk-throughs in VR from multiple perspectives.

They also make the .blend files available for anyone to conduct their own investigations.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @04:36PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @04:36PM (#1006392)

    It's not legal for the public to be in possession of a handgun in the UK. Carrying a handgun or machete should see the carrier instantly spotted and dropped and there's no question Duggan was in possession of the firearm.

    I didn't realize that summary execution [wikipedia.org] was the penalty for gun possession in the UK. You learn something new every day. Thanks AC!

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @02:16AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @02:16AM (#1006734)

    It's covered by the Criminal Law Act 1967:

    A person may use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances in the prevention of crime.

    So you did learn something. There are no exceptions for private citizens to own any handgun other than a musket, even most starting pistols are banned.

  • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday June 12 2020, @01:15PM (2 children)

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 12 2020, @01:15PM (#1006845) Journal

    It wasn't a summary execution. The officer concerned believed his life to be in danger. He is authorised to open fire. If you are faced with an armed police officer - DO AS YOU ARE TOLD.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @09:24PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @09:24PM (#1007086)

      Ja, mein Fuhrer! Sieg Heil!

      Might makes right and principles be damned.

      • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday June 13 2020, @07:14AM

        by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Saturday June 13 2020, @07:14AM (#1007342) Journal

        Read the IPCC document I linked to. Read what precautions were in place to protect the innocent - including the person being detained.

        Armed police operations are relatively rare in the UK. Most policemen are not armed other than with a stick and perhaps a pepper spray. But if you are faced with a dozen or so armed policemen telling you to lie down then you are well advised to do as you have been asked. Anything that you do that could been seen by any of those policemen as being a threat may result in them opening fire. Note it wasn't a hail of bullets as we sometimes see in the US, but 2 aimed shots.

        It seems like you are advocating that until a suspect has actually opened fire and killed someone then the police shouldn't take any action whatsoever. I disagree with that view.