I’m pretty tired of trying to figure out what really happened when a black man is killed by the police or some wannabe police. The story from Los Angeles just makes me weary.
Here you have a mentally ill 25 year old man walking down the street and the police stop him, shoot him, handcuff him, call the paramedics, and he dies.
Here’s what the police say happened:
LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said two veteran gang officers were driving down West 65th Street on Monday night when they spotted Ezell Ford, 25, walking on the sidewalk. An LAPD statement, citing a preliminary investigation, said the officers got out of their car and tried to talk to Ford but that he “continued walking and made suspicious movements, including attempting to conceal his hands.”
When the officers got closer, Smith said, Ford “whirled around and basically tackled the lead officer.” Ford reached for the officer’s gun, Smith said, prompting his partner to open fire. The officer on the ground reached for his backup weapon and also fired, Smith said.
Ford was handcuffed — as is routine in such shootings, according to the LAPD — and paramedics were called to the scene. He died later at a hospital…
……“He didn’t comply with any of the officers’ instructions,” Smith said. “He was grabbing the officer’s gun with the officer underneath him.”
Now, here’s the thing. If I am a police officer and someone has tackled my partner and is lying on top of him, about the last thing I am going to do is to shoot. Why? Because bullets pass through bodies. Even non-magic bullets do this. If you shoot at a man who is lying on your partner, you are shooting at your partner. And here’s another thing. Bullets ricochet off bone. Even if you think you have a clear shot that will hit the man on top without hitting the man on the bottom, you can’t be too sure.
So, the police have this story, but the story doesn’t make even a little bit of sense to me. And then there are the eyewitness accounts.
But some who lived in the area questioned the police account. A friend of Ford’s family told The Times that she witnessed part of the incident and saw no struggle between the officers and Ford.
Dorene Henderson, 57, said she had crossed the street in front of Ford when she heard someone yell, “Get down, get down.”
Henderson said one officer was out of the car when she heard a gunshot. She said neighbors began yelling at the officers, “He’s got mental problems.”
Henderson said she saw the other officer get out of the driver’s side of the police car, and that she then heard two more shots.
A man interviewed by KTLA-TV said Ford was complying with officers or had been subdued at the time of the shooting.
So, what am I to think? Whose story makes more sense?
I can tell you what happened;
Two cops shot an unarmed man.
.
Yes, but it was another one of those unarmed “angry black men”. That makes everyone purse their lips, look at each other and nod their head in a very understanding and knowing way. Because, well….you know.
Boo:
Don’t forget that cops in New Orleans killed someone, and the media only found out like 3 or 4 days later. Seems fishy too.
Thought process i go through: cops are liars; LAPD cops in particular are supreme liars with a massive history of racism and corruption.
With clear conflicting accounts, never believe the police, knowing they’re liars, and take witnesses’ testimony into account for the actual truth.
Most likely what happened: trigger happy cops shot unarmed black person, lied on the police report, commanding officer gave approval, whitewash investigation and send the cop to “sensitivity training”.
Cop mentality:
When cops are protecting their own or their buddies’ asses, it’s extremely safe to assume they’re lying.
An LAPD cop was the star witness in a case when I was a juror. Once the prosecutor rested his case, the evidence quickly indicated to me that the cop had lied. The defense attorney didn’t have much to work with — two witnesses that hadn’t seen the original alleged crime and a defendant with a story that was barely credible. The jury deliberations were a nightmare. Only eight of us appreciated that the prosecutor hadn’t made his case and that the defense case was, therefore, irrelevant. The hold-outs that believed the cops were the older members of the jury – one man and three women, two of whom were African-Americans. The defendant was a young African-American woman.
One night in Miami a car drove up on the sidewalk in front of me, the headlights were shining in my eyes, guys surrounded me and yelled at me. I was so frightened I couldn’t understand what they saying. I thought I was being attacked. At first I thought “If I don’t fight I’m going to be killed.” It was the police looking for someone else but I was lucky I didn’t resist.
You make eminent sense, Boo.
If the guy was mentally ill I could see him bump into the cops and in their panic the cops thought he was reaching for the gun.
I dunno maybe cops should secure their weapons better if people are lunging for their guns so often. Or how about biometric locks?
Id
Stupid phone hit post before I said so.
Anyway, I’d rather we take their weapons away altogether.
Yup. I’d support having firearms in a locked trunk in the car instead of as a side arm unless you’re going into a clearly dangerous situation.
From the top:
As walking on the sidewalk is neither a crime nor suspicious, peace patrolmen would have continued driving down West 65th Street and maybe waved and smiled at the man walking on the sidewalk as they passed by on their way to a sugar and caffeine pit stop at Winchell’s.
I was really disappointed by President Obama’s statement. First of all, starting with the Iraq situation instead of confronting an issue going on in America, that’s bad optics and worse politics.
Now, maybe he knows what’s about to go down in Missouri, and that Governor Nixon is about to lay the wood to this corrupt police department … if that’s the case, then he shouldn’t have made any statement at all until tomorrow.
You have John Lewis, who has the gravitas and resume to pull it off, recommending federalizing the Guard and instituting marshal law, and then you have the President spouting encomiums and platitudes.
Really, really bad politics coming out of the White House. Maybe the brain drain has finally hit and everyone is just going through the motions … “Hey, we’re on vacation goddammit.”
Color me unimpressed. Between the Beavercreek, Ohio, and Ferguson, Missouri, shootings, there’s something happening here that needs to be dealt with with passion, from somebody.
I think he’s just scared how intervention would be portrayed by the republicans. Just scared.
Scared of what? He will never run for office again. Impeachment would be a political Godsend for Democrats.
Scared of hurting den chances this fall
He would HELP Dem chances this fall by helping to get our voters to the polls. The teabaggers are voting regardless.
It does ‘t really matter which story makes more sense, does it? It only matters what the cops say.
Just a wild-ass guess: This was another Oscar Grant. Cop was going for his Taser and shot instead.
Shoot first and lie to the questioners later.