White teen shot and killed by police for...carrying a container of antifreeze?

[Fanatical Meat]

BLM should get involved in more of the white killings. The real issue is widespread police brutality and lack of accountability. It happens against blacks at a higher rate, but it happens to everyone. I know a white kid unjustly killed by the police back in the 90s. There was a Hispanic man chocked to death in front of his family in OKC a few years ago, over nothing, but it never gained national attention.

Showing that it is an everyone problem, will help get much broader support.

Per something I saw, white kids are shot in a greater number than black kids. The ratio is different but the gross number is higher.

 

[dank69]

No, INCREASE FUNDING police reform, training, and accountability!

No, decrease funding for Seal Team cosplay and spend a tiny percentage of that on lots of additional training and use the rest for other social services.

 

[Zorba]

Per something I saw, white kids are shot in a greater number than black kids. The ratio is different but the gross number is higher.

There percentage of population is lower though. I've seen those numbers as well.

 

[Leeea]

No, decrease funding for Seal Team cosplay and spend a tiny percentage of that on lots of additional training and use the rest for other social services.

Sadly, Seal Team cosplay does not actually use up that much money.

It is also good to have the officers understand which end of the gun the bullet comes out. Especially with the unfortunately common mass shootings and violent crime exacerbated by the wide spread ownership of weapons of war.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Lonoke AR's crime statistics are a fair bit above the US avg, but shouldn't have been enough to get a cop to even unsnap his sidearm in such a situation. Also, I'd like to note that if I was a cop, pulling someone over at night, and he kept his vehicle in gear with brakes on rather than in park, I'd also consider it a warning sign. If any warning sign = good shoot, then we have a no-win situation. Bad shoot, cop should be charged with homicide.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Unusual for CNN to cover a white person being shot by police, but evidently Ben Crump and Al Sharpton have taken up the case. They hope championing the case of a white kid shot will increase willingness of people to support police reform.

The incident is strange.

Why Al Sharpton and Ben Crump are taking up the case of a White teen killed by police | CNN

The Rev. Al Sharpton and Ben Crump are taking up their first case involving a White person who was killed after being shot during an encounter with a police officer.

www.cnn.com

According to the one witness, he and his friend had been trying to fix the transmission on the victim's car, and had just left the repair shop when they got pulled over by an Arkansas sheriff's deputy. The victim-driver gets out of the car carrying a jug of anti-freeze. Evidently the car would still not shift into park, and he didn't want the car to roll backwards and hit the cop car. So he meant to place the anti-freeze container behind the rear wheel to stop the car from rolling. According to the friend who was still sitting in the passenger seat, he all the sudden heard shots fired without hearing any prior conversation. The cop had shot and killed him.

Cop was fired days later for failing to turn on his body camera until after he shot the teen. Police are still investigating. We don't know the officer's side of the story.

Something is obviously strange in this one. I feel like there must be more to the story.

Duuuuuuuuuudddeeeeeee......did`nt you get the memo?? There is no such thing as police brutality!!!! The police are always right!!! BACK THE BLUE!!

 

[Jaskalas]

DEFUND THE POLICE

Judge, Jury and Executioner without even a trial hearing never mind the trial itself.

No, INCREASE FUNDING police reform, training, and accountability!

Neither one of those would save lives.

America is armed to the teeth, guns all over our streets. Humans are not rational animals. We do stupid things. We react to perceived threats. When killing is as simple as pulling a trigger, people WILL die and there is nothing you can do to stop that so long as people are armed.

 

[dank69]

Neither one of those would save lives.

America is armed to the teeth, guns all over our streets. Humans are not rational animals. We do stupid things. We react to perceived threats. When killing is as simple as pulling a trigger, people WILL die and there is nothing you can do to stop that so long as people are armed.

There is a difference between saving some lives and saving all lives. Just because we can't stop them all doesn't mean we shouldn't try to stop as many as we can.

 

[MichaelMay]

Nothing can be done about this but thoughts and prayers. And there are so very few American thinkers so it's basically just "God works in mysterious ways".

 

[Pipeline 1010]

It's always been "all live" dumb fuck. They are saying Black Live Matter (as much as other people's lives). They've never said "only black lives matter."

I wish the saying was "Black Lives SHOULD Matter" but I'm sure racists would take issue with that, too. Clearly black lives don't matter when they use drugs at the same percentage as white people but are in jail (edit: for drugs) at a 7 time higher rate than white people. It's about more than just black people getting killed by cops....it's about ruining their lives and their communities by placing such a high number of them in jail. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here.

Meanwhile "blue lives matter" has clearly always meant police only.

Ironically blue lives already matter more than average lives. It is literally codified in LAW that their lives are MORE important than ours. You get a harsher penalty for harming someone if they are a cop. I don't know why cops constantly whine about blue lives matter. It's like everything always has to be about them.

 

[Zorba]

I wish the saying was "Black Lives SHOULD Matter" but I'm sure racists would take issue with that, too. Clearly black lives don't matter when they use drugs at the same percentage as white people but are in jail (edit: for drugs) at a 7 time higher rate than white people. It's about more than just black people getting killed by cops....it's about ruining their lives and their communities by placing such a high number of them in jail. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here.



Ironically blue lives already matter more than average lives. It is literally codified in LAW that their lives are MORE important than ours. You get a harsher penalty for harming someone if they are a cop. I don't know why cops constantly whine about blue lives matter. It's like everything always has to be about them.

Authoritarians always have to be the biggest victims.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Judge has assigned the Special Prosecutor.

 

[Paratus]

That's a good start. All lives do matter? Or is that racist still?

Depends if you are trying to use it to distract from specific issues people are trying to get addressed.

In general I’ve found the kind of folks who state all-lives-matter are trying to distract from the specific issue

 

[woolfe9998]

The first tidbit of the officer's side of this story:

Davis' attorney, Robert Newcomb, told KATV that Hunter's death was a "tragedy," but said the teenager failed to respond to the officer's verbal commands. The deputy has requested a grievance hearing to be reinstated because he believed his camera was turned on, Newcomb said.

"Either the camera malfunctioned or he didn’t get all of the things pushed,” Newcomb told the outlet.

Family wants murder charges, bodycam law after Arkansas deputy shot white teen, Ben Crump says

Hunter Brittain, 17, was fatally shot by a deputy in Arkansas. Attorney Ben Crump believes the case could lead to meaningful police reform.

www.usatoday.com

So there is a factual dispute between the officer and the victim's friend as to whether verbal commands were issued.

I can see the officer being concerned in the sense that the driver got out of the car instead of waiting for him to approach. But he still has to do something actually threatening. Carrying anti-freeze and not putting your hands up when told is not a reason to shoot. He's going to have to do better than this.

 

[woolfe9998]

Short clip of the deputies' attorney speaking about the case:

Lawyer for former deputy who killed Arkansas teen speaks out

The lawyer for the former deputy who shot and killed Arkansas teenager Hunter Brittain during an early morning traffic stop in June says Sergeant Michael Davis should be reinstated as a Lonoke County Sheriff's Deputy. Attorney Robert Newcomb has represented more than 30 officers involved in...

katv.com

He says the victim didn't respond to verbal commands, which is disputed by the victim's friend who was in the passenger seat. But even if we believe the officer that verbal instructions were given and ignored, what is his defense? The attorney says "if you wait until you actually see a gun, you're going to get killed." Seriously?

This isn't one of those cases where the cop said he saw a gun but it turned out to be something else. It's much worse. This cop is saying he didn't see one, but was sufficiently threatened by the victim's lack of response to a verbal command that he was justified in using deadly force? Well, if that defense flies, it will certainly lower the bar of justification for using deadly force to practically nothing.

If that really is his entire defense, then he needs to go down hard for this.

 

[MrSquished]

That's a good start. All lives do matter? Or is that racist still?

When ignoramuses and racists such as yourself use it as a foil or a counter to BLM, which is how pretty much every GQP regressive did and does, then yes, it's racist still.

But racists gonna racist, and the more racist the person, the less self-aware they are about it.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

- Lets just fast forward to the part where its a deep state conspiracy yadda yadda yadda.

Al Sharpton might be a lot of things, but he's no dummy. He knows that the only time anything changes in America is when it affects folks of a fairer persuasion and he's found (he thinks) more or less the poster child case to kick off major police reform.

What was funny was r/conservative initially doing the whole "where is Al Sharpton for this kid" and like a boss, there he is. Now the story doesn't come up there anymore.

Al Sharpton is indeed not a dummy. He entirely understands that bringing people together and unifying would be the demise of his donors... So obviously, he does exactly the opposite.

 

[brycejones]

When will our humble legal beagle chime in?

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

It's always been "all live" dumb fuck. They are saying Black Live Matter (as much as other people's lives). They've never said "only black lives matter."

Meanwhile "blue lives matter" has clearly always meant police only.

Lol with the sharp increase in crime lately, you don't even need to say blue lives matter. It's just factually true.

 

[woolfe9998]

When will our humble legal beagle chime in?

White victim. Why bother?

 

[mikeymikec]

Re defund the police (or the opposite) arguments - I can't remember where I read it but one idea I thought might be a good one is to start a public service that people can call upon in situations where a police response (particularly American police) is probably not suitable, such as for people with mental difficulties. Neighbourhood disputes, family issues, etc. That service can easily call upon the police if necessary, and if that happens you've got more people on-site to oversee things.

In the UK we've done similar things like non-police accompanying police, but people who have skills such as handling people with mental difficulties.

Maybe if that separate service can make significant inroads on what were normally reasons for calling the police, then maybe the police can adjust to a different role, or maybe ending up with the new service taking over from the police and hiring suitable people for public service/defence from their ex-ranks.

Alternatively America has to take on the police and their issues directly which is problematic from both a political and public defence/service perspective.

 

[Pipeline 1010]

Re defund the police (or the opposite) arguments - I can't remember where I read it but one idea I thought might be a good one is to start a public service that people can call upon in situations where a police response (particularly American police) is probably not suitable, such as for people with mental difficulties. Neighbourhood disputes, family issues, etc. That service can easily call upon the police if necessary, and if that happens you've got more people on-site to oversee things.

In the UK we've done similar things like non-police accompanying police, but people who have skills such as handling people with mental difficulties.

Maybe if that separate service can make significant inroads on what were normally reasons for calling the police, then maybe the police can adjust to a different role, or maybe ending up with the new service taking over from the police and hiring suitable people for public service/defence from their ex-ranks.

Alternatively America has to take on the police and their issues directly which is problematic from both a political and public defence/service perspective.

There are programs like this in the US and they are WORKING.

Here's one example, and there are others as well:

Social Workers Instead of Police? Denver’s 911 Experiment Is a Promising Start

Six months into a pilot program that deploys squads of caregivers in place of cops, there are signs of success.

www.curbed.com

Check out this excerpt:

"Response program, known as STAR, has been dispatching social workers instead of cops on nonemergency calls, with astoundingly good outcomes. According to a report released last month, STAR responded to 748 incidents — up to six calls per day — and none of the calls required backup from police, led to arrests, or resulted in jail time. "

I can't imagine that any single human being in the world wouldn't see this as a HUGE WIN all across the board. Think about it: 748 incidents solved without beating/arresting the mentally ill person. It is a 100% success rate. You think all 748 of those incidents would have been handled so well by cops? I bet at least half would have resulted in a shittier outcome (beatings, arrests, convictions, jail time, etc....). Yet you'll still see cops fighting against these programs.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Neighbor and family disputes are among the most unpredicatble and potentially violent calls a PO can respond to. Whether or not they escalate upon arrival of a PO when they might not have otherwise is a question that can't really be answered.

One of our local deputies died that way within a couple of minutes of arrival when he thought he could talk the guy down alone (without waiting for backup) because he knew the guy.

 

[Vic]

Short clip of the deputies' attorney speaking about the case:

Lawyer for former deputy who killed Arkansas teen speaks out

The lawyer for the former deputy who shot and killed Arkansas teenager Hunter Brittain during an early morning traffic stop in June says Sergeant Michael Davis should be reinstated as a Lonoke County Sheriff's Deputy. Attorney Robert Newcomb has represented more than 30 officers involved in...

katv.com

He says the victim didn't respond to verbal commands, which is disputed by the victim's friend who was in the passenger seat. But even if we believe the officer that verbal instructions were given and ignored, what is his defense? The attorney says "if you wait until you actually see a gun, you're going to get killed." Seriously?

This isn't one of those cases where the cop said he saw a gun but it turned out to be something else. It's much worse. This cop is saying he didn't see one, but was sufficiently threatened by the victim's lack of response to a verbal command that he was justified in using deadly force? Well, if that defense flies, it will certainly lower the bar of justification for using deadly force to practically nothing.

If that really is his entire defense, then he needs to go down hard for this.

Sounds like the defense is using the logical conclusion of the "comply or die" argument. Gonna be interesting to see how this works out. Will the same right-wingers who claim to be champions of freedom and small govt finally succeed in their efforts to empower the govt to extrajudicially execute citizens for the smallest failure to obey govt commands? Stay tuned.

 

[Pipeline 1010]

Sounds like the defense is using the logical conclusion of the "comply or die" argument. Gonna be interesting to see how this works out. Will the same right-wingers who claim to be champions of freedom and small govt finally succeed in their efforts to empower the govt to extrajudicially execute citizens for the smallest failure to obey govt commands? Stay tuned.

From my point of view, this is the single most massive contradiction of today's "conservatives": value our American war of independence from people who would lord shit over us but then value the hell out of our own doods who lord shit over us.

Supporting the unnecessarily violent/deadly/damaging things that cops do to our citizens doesn't seem at all like something our founding fathers would have supported and it isn't moral. But somewhere along the way we've decided that cops are special snowflakes that should be flawlessly obeyed, praised above all others, and we should give them the ability to fucking wreck anyone who doesn't do what they say quickly/accurately/obediently enough.