Oh, Baltimore. Home of what must be one of the worst police departments in the United States. Once again you are in the news, this time for a cop shooting an unarmed man – this time a white man – after stopping him for who the hell knows why? The same cop, a decorated veteran of the force and a “Major” (whatever that means) then threatened to shoot the wounded man’s brother for daring to want to stop his sibling’s bleeding.
All this occurred to 40 year old, John Rau, a resident of Southwest Baltimore, on Monday night in front of the his nephew and other witnesses.
John Rau was with his brother Monday night when he was stopped by police Major Byron Conaway, although the police department has not said why, reported WJZ-TV.
“All the guy said was, ‘What’s your name, sir?’ and I was like, ‘For what?’ and then he jumped out of the car with his gun and told me to put my hands up,” Rau said. “(The officer asked), ‘What you got in your hand?’ I had a cigarette in one hand, and I just put my hand in my pocket, because I was just putting chapstick on, and I said 10 times, ‘It’s chapstick, only chapstick, officer.”
Witnesses said the officer, who is black, shot the 40-year-old Rau, who is white, in the thigh when he reached into his pocket.
Black Lives Matters has been warning us for a while now that our police forces are out of control. Unfortunately not enough white people think this is a big concern. Perhaps what happened to Mr. Rau and his family might help them change their minds. Or not.
Ronald Birmingham, Rau’s brother, said Conaway threatened to shoot him, too, when he tried to assist his wounded brother.
“The officer clearly stated to me, ‘I got a bullet for you too,’” Birmingham said. “I said, ‘My brother’s bleeding,’ (but) he said, ‘Back up,’ and he kept pointing the gun and me and pointed the gun at my brother.”
Rau is lucky to be alive. If the bullet fired into his leg had pierced a major artery he likely would have bled out on the street. Although the official police story is that Major Conaway immediately rendered aid to Mr. Rau, his family and other witnesses dispute that claim. To date, the Baltimore police have refused to state why Rau was stopped in the first place. As of today, Conaway is on paid leave and has ten days to provide a statement to the “police department’s Special Investigation Response team.” Whether he will be charged for this shooting is anyone’s guess, but I suspect not. After all, the victim/suspect(?) admits he reached into his pants to pull out a – chapstick. Sounds justified to me. As we all know, people have been killed for less by your friendly neighborhood police officers.
Dunno, it’s black on white violence. Could go either way.
Time to start testing for steroids.
IQ testing might also help.
Hey, police departments are legally allowed to disqualify police officers for higher than desired IQs.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836
Not all dogs are rabid.
I dunno man, cop might have heard “bat-stick” and you know what Batman can do with one of those things. Cut the cop some slack.
And the victim’s smoking will eventually kill him — the cop is doing a favor by drawing attention to that.
And the cop thought the one man calling the other man “brother” was an imperialistic misappropriation of the officer’s culture, which retroactively justified the shooting.
The cop could have hit the femoral artery if he wanted. This was a non-lethal shot, like a taser. So that’s OK.
I call it a clean hit and let’s move on.
Wait a minute!!!
This “victim” alleges that he put his hand in his pocket to get a chapstick while a highly nervous police officer had his gun out for some reason!!!??? On the streets of BALTIMORE!!!???
Stupid is as stupid does.
No matter whether it was a bad stop or not and whether it was really Chapstick or not, that was as stupid a move as he could have made. White, Black, Asian, Hispanic or Martian, it makes no difference. Cops are uptight on all levels. All cop[s. They feel…with some justification…that they are under attack from all directions. With equal justification, so does the populace in general. This has created a feedback system. Noise goes into the media amplifier; more noise comes out. That already amplified noise is once again amplified by the media and more noise comes out. Over and over and over and over again until the whole system breaks down.
Which is very close to where we are now.
Bet on it.
Too much yelling going on.
From all sides.
It’s gonna blow…!!!
They been warning us and warning us.
Time to listen.
AG
way to blame the victim
Way to miss the point.
Both participants are victims.
AG
I agree, AG. When a cop is detaining you (legit or not), you do not reach for your pocket. If you are in your car, you keep your hands on the wheel. You do not get out of the car. You make polite statements. You don’t make stupid jokes.
People just seem more and more reckless. Why get out chapstick when a cop is asking you questions? It makes no sense.
It makes sense if the so-called victim is an idiot.
AG
If you have kids, this situation is one which can be a teaching moment.
Cops do stuff in many cases for reasons. Here this guy got shot, and there are several clear reasons why he got shot.