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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.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by jelizondo on Thursday June 11 2020, @04:41PM (4 children)

    by jelizondo (653) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 11 2020, @04:41PM (#1006399) Journal

    The fact that a person has committed a crime does not strip that person of his rights. Labeling someone a “criminal” does not mean that the Police should fail to follow lawful procedures. Think about it: if Police uses unlawful procedures it becomes criminal as well.

    Police only should fire when fired upon. I know it is hard, but that is the job they choose to do; if they think it is unfair to risk their lives, they can become bus drivers or whatever. Shooting someone because some policeman thinks that person is armed leads to senseless killing, many unarmed people have been shot because policemen are happy to shoot first and ask questions later.

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  • (Score: 1) by taylormc on Thursday June 11 2020, @07:29PM (1 child)

    by taylormc (5751) on Thursday June 11 2020, @07:29PM (#1006539)

    It is very simplistic to suggest that police must not fire unless actually fired upon first. The law permits self defence where the defender believes that he/she is in imminent danger of attack. It's clear that the officer concerned claims that he, or someone else present, was in imminent danger of being shot by Duggan.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @04:22AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @04:22AM (#1006765)

      No one else would be able to claim self-defense if they did what cops do. I can't just shoot anyone I want because I feel they threaten me. Cops can shoot people based on the theoretical possibility that the person has a gun and might intend to harm the cops with the gun. Even if someone has a gun, that alone doesn't justify shooting them on the spot. Again, ordinary people can't do that.

      You want cops to be able to defend themselves like anyone else should be able to do? Okay. End qualified immunity, require body cameras on all cops under penalty of law, and have special prosecutors prosecute any cops who are accused of violating the law. Only then can the scales begin to be balanced. Until then, the system will continue to absolve cops even if what they do is murder, not self-defense.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @02:32AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2020, @02:32AM (#1006740)

    The officer believed Duggan was armed and posed an imminent threat, that is the legal test and the killing was ruled lawful. Firearms officers are attached to specialist units and were present at this incident for good reason.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2020, @12:10PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2020, @12:10PM (#1007731)

      This officer doesn't sound like someone who should be a firearms officer. Anyone that sloppy is likely to get either himself, a fellow officer, or a civilian killed, and explains exactly why you don't shoot without knowing what is behind your target.