L.A. County Law Enforcement Killings

Submitted by Meteor Man on Sun, 08/14/2016 - 1:02pm

First a brief review:

Despite public protests, occupations, direct action, and increased public scrutiny, U.S. police killed more people in 2015 than in 2014. While numbers vary from source to source — the Washington Post cites 975, while the Guardian puts the tally at 1,125 — the website killedbypolice.net found that police have killed 1,186 people in 2015 (the U.S. government currently does not track how many people are killed in police encounters

https://thinkprogress.org/heres-how-many-people-police-killed-in-2015-e9...

How we doing this year you ask? We had a recent homicide by cop in Watts:

An 18-year-old African American man fled from the scene and fired at the officers.

Police returned fire at the suspect, subsequently killing him. He was later identified as Richard Risher Jr.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2016/07/26/watts-officer-involved-shooting/

And a 14 year old boy from the Barrio was gunned down for suspicion of vandalism:

The department's gang unit was investigating a vandalism call in a neighborhood east of downtown around 5:35 p.m. Tuesday when they encountered two youths. One ran off and two officers pursued, police said.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/10/us/los-angeles-boy-killed-by-police/

An example of how seriously the LAPD takes unnecessary police violence:

LAPD Officer Receives Community Service After Beating Handcuffed Man Unconscious

Captured on video beating an apprehended suspect unconscious, an LAPD officer will avoid serving any jail time after prosecutors agreed to community service and probation instead. Although a Los Angeles police official described the unprovoked assault as “horrific,” the LAPD and District Attorney’s office continue to suppress the footage from the public.

And we can't shortchange the New And Improved L.A. Sherrif's Department:

Brian Dunn, an attorney with the Cochran Firm, who is representing Thompson’s family, accused deputies of acting aggressively and failing to de-escalate the encounter.

“The result is that we have an unarmed individual, who had committed no crime, who once again has been the victim of a law enforcement homicide,” Dunn said.

The incident is one of three in which deputies have shot unarmed men in the last two weeks.

Three kills in two weeks for the L.A. County Sheriff!

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sheriff-shooting-20160809-sn...

The Ferguson Effect sure isn't slowin' their roll in L.A. Can we at least get an accurate headcount?

FBI Director James Comey, shown in September, said Wednesday that the lack of accurate information about police-involved shootings is ”embarrassing and ridiculous.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/fbi-director-calls-lack-of-data-...

The first step in accountability is counting. Is a simple headcount really too much to expect?

Tags:

#BLM

#LAPD

#LASD

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Comments

Submitted by Tall Bald and Ugly on Sun, 08/14/2016 - 2:05pm

No.

It is NOT to much to ask OR Demand. I beginning to realize that it Might not be so much a black/white thing as a blue line and everyone else thing.
Seriously, I get nervous now on the road if a cop shows up somewhere and I'm the Epitome of white male privilege. And before you jump my shit over feeling this way, a lifelong friend(30+yrs) has been in law enforcement(canine, dv) tells me everything bad you read about the System is only the tip of the iceberg( will our grandkids get that expression?). He's just trying to make it to retirement without getting killed/ killing anyone. I don't usually subscribe to the All Cops Are Bad meme, but I do listen to him.

—

Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

Submitted by Alex Ocana on Sun, 08/14/2016 - 7:17pm

The Blue Klux Klan’s School of Lynching Black People

http://www.onyxtruth.com/2015/07/23/the-blue-klux-klan/

Now, I know that there’s many of you out there who hate black people. The Klu Klux Klan’s operations might be too clandestine for your tastes, and you’re probably too hairy for the skinhead movement. So if you want to terrorize black people in broad daylight, you have third option: The Blue Klux Klan.

You see, with the Blue Klux Klan you are empowered by the state to kill any black person you wish. Have biases towards black and brown people? Don’t worry, the majority of white people will give you a free pass, to maim, brutalize, and ultimately destroy these black and brown people. Why? Because your biases are their biases! White people — the empowered majority — only see racism with a 50-100 year hindsight, so today, you’ll be just fine; no one with sociological power to ruin your life will see you as the racist fascist you are. And that’s not all; black and brown people can also be deployed to distract the masses from having a moral filter. As a matter of fact many of them will willfully volunteer themselves, to include adopting asinine talking points, to escape white wrath.

In being a Blue Klux Klan member, you get to enjoy white privilege and cop privilege combined. You will have more than enough resources than the common man to cover your tracks when you engage in the art of killing. The prosecutor and the media? All on your side. Conservatives are fascists in regards to black people, and liberals’ reluctance to recognize white privilege paralyzes them from committing to the proper action. White people by large enjoy black (and brown) people living in a totalitarian state while being free to do whatever they want, like smoking a cigarette in a car while stopped by police.

—

From the Light House.

Submitted by Meteor Man on Sun, 08/14/2016 - 11:38pm

Sounds Like The L.A. County Sheriff's Training Handbook

L.A. County Sheriff’s Dept. run by gangs, buried in scandals

So what's new?

The Vikings, a notorious group that controlled the Lynwood Station through the 1980s and 1990s. A federal judge described the Vikings as a “neo-Nazi, white supremacist gang” when awarding a class action settlement of $9 million associated with racially motivated violence. Many Vikings went on to take high ranking positions in the department—including several of Baca’s top aides—and have since encouraged the proliferation of cliques throughout the county.

Paul Tanaka, who was Baca’s second in command, is a Viking himself and still sports their gang tattoo on the inside of his left ankle. Tanaka ruled the day to day functioning of the department through his influence with similar cliques and his encouragement of them—often in direct opposition to their immediate supervisors. Eventually, Tanaka took control of Internal Affairs, a group within the sheriff’s department that Tanaka had repeatedly criticized for attempts to check police brutality and corruption.

Yep. And The Baca Boys:

The Sheriff’s own gang unit became the Jump Out Boys and seven members of the gang were fired by Baca after a controversial membership pamphlet was discovered that romanticized rogue behavior. The Jump Out Boys also came under fire for their tattoo depicting a red-eyed skull with a bony hand over a revolver—to which they add smoke over the barrel once they earn their stripes by shooting someone. Some of these various gang cliques even get the number 998 tattooed on themselves—the call for an officer-involved shooting—and have a series of gang signs.

https://www.liberationnews.org/los-angeles-county-sheriffs-html/

Because organized crime is better than dis-organized crime.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by el gonzo on Mon, 08/15/2016 - 8:05am

What's wrong with you?

Now we're labeling all cops as closet-klan-cases?

The diarist points to three examples of police brutality, two of which involved armed suspects taking shots at pursuing cops. Should the police have sat down, poured a couple of beers and engaged those thugs in reasoned debate about their life-choices? Is that the alternative you're implying?

For all of your concern for lives of urban minorities maybe you should be thinking about how we can invest in urban business development, inner-city schools and health care (all of which require security mind you). Hell, maybe address the rates of single-parent households in some of these poor, minority communities. Instead, you're trying to stigmatize a group of people who make careers out of serving those communities. Are their bad cops? Sure, but an argument based on a few anecdotal examples of bad cops isn't convincing.

By always playing the race card when these shootings happen you're refusing to recognize the agency of the very communities you purport to advocate for, which seems a little racist to me, and retards the nation's discourse on race, poverty and law enforcement. But hey, you're good at virtue-signaling! Smiley face!

(Should I have put a trigger warning in the subject heading?)

Submitted by Meteor Man on Mon, 08/15/2016 - 11:12am

Maybe Cops Shoot Blacks Because They Are Not Racist

Protect and Serve? What communities are they protecting by executing innocent people of color?

Instead, you're trying to stigmatize a group of people who make careers out of serving those communities. Are their bad cops? Sure, but an argument based on a few anecdotal examples of bad cops isn't convincing.

A few anecdotes? I guess you missed the overwhelming number of videos and documented proof of racist cops shooting unarmed men, women and children for no reason except the color of their skin.

Racist cops are the only plausible explanation for the continuing executions by cops of poor people of color.

Saying all cops are not racist is an bad excuse for ignoring a vile problem with American law enforcement.

—

"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by Tall Bald and Ugly on Mon, 08/15/2016 - 6:03pm

Hey, when they got

video after video after video. . . and at no time do they 'render aid', they just keep their gun trained on the 'target', while the poor fucker bleeds out. . . Hell, even in the army they used to teach about first aid and humane treatment of 'enemy soldiers'. I say used to cause it's been a while.
The thing that gets me, though, is that they're killing whitey, too, and whitey really ain't saying shit. Even with a mouthful. Check out rural cop shootings sometime. It ain't just black and brown getting killed and the only reason I point this out is because everyone says we have to solve this together and how do we get whitey to commit? Maybe by pointing out he's in the fucking crosshairs, also!
AND YES, I understand black and brown people are 'targeted'(literally) at three or more times the rate of whites, I'm really trying to figure out how to get people involved, I'm just spitballing, I guess

—

Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

Submitted by Meteor Man on Mon, 08/15/2016 - 9:20pm

Killing Whitey Too

From July 11, 2015 Wa Po:

As of Sunday, 1,502 people have been shot and killed by on-duty police officers since Jan. 1, 2015. Of them, 732 were white, and 381 were black (and 382 were of another or unknown race).

I can't explain why white parents and family members have never protested or complained. Quite odd.

—

"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by el gonzo on Tue, 08/16/2016 - 5:57pm

Uh, I can answer that if you'd like...

Because the vast majority of these shootings involved a dumb-ass perp who thought the cops would back down if he acted tough, and the vast majority of people who knew these perps knew they were dicks.

Submitted by hecate on Mon, 08/15/2016 - 11:35am

ah,

"race card." That very telling phrase, that is used only by wingers, and the very ignorant. For the lives of black people, they are not a card game. Too, the obligatory claim that, by "playing," this non-existent "race card," those opposing the armed occupiers of black communities, they "seem a little racist." Pathetic.

Submitted by el gonzo on Tue, 08/16/2016 - 4:46pm

A social experiment

Let's do as you say and withdraw law enforcement from the ghetto.

And dude, love ya but damn, I'm no Shakespeare but I have to re-read your posts a couple of times before I can tell if your posting a slam poem, pure gibberish, or an attempt at argument.

Submitted by davidincleveland on Mon, 08/15/2016 - 12:14pm

Oh, you PROVIDED a trigger warning. Late is better than never.

By always playing the race card when these shootings happen you're refusing to recognize the agency of the very communities you purport to advocate for, which seems a little racist to me, and retards the nation's discourse on race, poverty and law enforcement.

Best warning stating "Hear! Hear! Bigot pontificating (predictably) incorrectly!" that I've seen all month so far. It's just loaded with goodies, so I highlighted the ones which struck my fancy. "Retards the nation's discourse" is that special kind of lie which pretends a thing exists. Looks like a bunch of triggers just looking for a Gatling to join.

—

Please consider subscribing monthly, to help keep c99 going.

Submitted by Meteor Man on Mon, 08/15/2016 - 12:42pm

el gonzo is just trying to help

Poor child can't help being racist, it's how some people are raised. I'm sure the cops in el gonzo's neighborhood are all about "protect and serve" and have never shot an unarmed person of color.

I'm certain there are a large number of American PD's who have never shot an unarmed person for no reason.

Well there must be a few American PD's have never shot an unarmed person for no reason somewhere in America. Right?

—

"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by el gonzo on Tue, 08/16/2016 - 5:10pm

You gots it!

I'll be upfront; it was just a tad hard for me to understand what you wrote. Google sentence fragments. Then, go ahead and check out "comma use" as well. Hell, if you get into this exercise, check out semi-colon use, the difference between a noun, a verb, and an adjective--run wild with it.

I don't know what a Gatling is, sorry? Were you thinking of a gatling gun, maybe? A big gun that shoots real fast?

I see from your profile pic that you're just a wee baby so I'll be forgiving. Frankly, I'm impressed that a tyke like you is even capable of logging onto a website, let-alone posting semi-cogent, semi-sentences like you have. I'd expect that level of literacy from a second grader, but an infant? Well done!

Did Sylville Smith bring it on himself?

Submitted by el gonzo on Mon, 08/15/2016 - 11:23am

Overwhelming?

"Overwhelming number"? Pray tell? Please provide links.

"Executions"? Who are we talking about? Mike Brown, Trayvon, this last guy in Milwaukee? Do you get a junior social justice warrior badge for this type of hyperbole, or what?

A criminal puts you in a fear for your life, what do you do? Patty cake? Maybe that'll calm him down? A meaningful gaze into his eyes? Maybe a back rub?

Cite evidence that supports your assertion that cops are executioners and we can talk. Otherwise, take off to the nearest coffee bar and write your regressive manifesto.

Oh, and saying all those shot by cops are innocent is a (not "an") "bad excuse for ignoring a vile problem." You're welcome

Submitted by Meteor Man on Mon, 08/15/2016 - 11:53am

You Want Links?

That's a joke right? You want links to videos of unarmed men, women and children getting killed by cops?

Or maybe your objection is to the word "executed". Technically speaking only a convicted criminal can be executed, so gunning down unarmed people who have committed no crime is worse than an execution. Assasination may be a more accurate term.

Or maybe 1,186 kills by cops is not "overwhelming". I would like to suggest that the only reasonable number for cops killing unarmed men, women and children is zero.

You ain't too bright are you?

—

"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by el gonzo on Tue, 08/16/2016 - 4:57pm

I is not good at thinking good, be true

But hell man, are you saying that all of those 1,186 shooting were unjustified? Let me rewind. Where'd you get that number in the first place? In two seconds, in between my remedial reading lessons, I learned that there were approx. 960 fatalities from officer involved shootings in 2015. Of those, only approx. 90 involved an un-armed suspect. This number is overall, no accounting for race, sees?

If you want to rely so heavily on hyperbole, it'll be easy for the person you're arguing with to flank you...I mean yous...I mean yez.

The only acceptable number is zero. That's just adorable. Now tell me what you want to be when you grow up? A spaceman? Maybe a cowboy? A post-post-modern critic of contemporary critical race theory? Hah!

Backs to my educating muself with them books wit duh pretty pictures in 'em.