The Murder Of Ahmaud Arbery

[LuckyNumber7]

❤️

[dazzledbylight]

[MrsSpringsteen]

What fine examples of law enforcement


(CNN)The Atlanta Police officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks at a Wendy's parking lot last week was charged with felony murder, and the other officer on scene was charged with aggravated assault, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced Wednesday.

The decision comes just five days after Brooks was shot twice in the back in Atlanta during an attempted arrest. Officer Garrett Rolfe, who shot at Brooks three times, faces 11 charges in all, and officer Devin Brosnan, who was also on scene, faces three charges.

After shooting Brooks, Rolfe said "I got him" and kicked him, and Brosnan then stood on Brooks' shoulder, Howard said. The officers did not provide medical aid to Brooks for over two minutes after shooting him, Howard said.


Their demeanor after the shooting "did not reflect any fear or danger of Mr. Brooks, but reflected other kinds of emotions," Howard said.

Brosnan has agreed to be a state's witness, Howard said.

"I don't remember a circumstance where we had an officer, particularly in a case this important, to step forward and say that they would cooperate with the state," he said.

Two of the counts against Rolfe are for aggravated assault related to a bullet he fired that hit an occupied vehicle nearby in the Wendy's lot. Brosnan's three charges include two counts of violations of oath of office.

Rolfe was fired and Brosnan was placed on administrative duty in the wake of the shooting.

[MrsSpringsteen]

(CNN)The three men accused in the February 23 shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery were indicted Wednesday by a grand jury, a district attorney said.

Glynn County's Grand Jury has indicted Travis McMichael, his father, Greg McMichael, and William R. Bryan on malice and felony murder charges in Arbery's death, Cobb District Attorney Joyette M. Holmes said at a press conference.

"We will continue to be intentional in the pursuit of justice for this family and the community at large as the prosecution of this case continues," said Holmes, the specially appointed prosecutor in the case.


The charges also include aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment, according to the indictment.

[dazzledbylight]

Lock 'em up!

[Irvine511]

so ... this really looks like a noose to me.

https://www.foxnews.com/auto/nascar-...allaces-garage

[MrsSpringsteen]

Originally Posted by Irvine511

so ... this really looks like a noose to me.

https://www.foxnews.com/auto/nascar-...allaces-garage

It does to me too

[Hewson]

Absolutely a noose.

[BEAL]

FBI said they had photos of it in 2019, so did it look like this back then too? Was it a joke that finally caught up when a black driver joined the ranks ?

Or did someone tie it up like this for this year specifically

[dazzledbylight]

Definitely a noose

[MrsSpringsteen]

During his lunch breaks, Elijah McClain sometimes played the violin for animals at the local shelter. He thought they, too, deserved some music in their lives. He was not like other 23-year-olds. He craved space to be himself, and when officers of the Aurora, Colo., police department approached him on the evening of Aug. 24, 2019, that is what Elijah McClain tried to tell them.

“I am an introvert,” he explained to the officers who responded to a 911 call about a black male walking down the street in a ski mask on a night when the temperature was about 66 degrees Fahrenheit. “Please respect my boundaries.”

Fifteen minutes later, McClain was on the cusp of death, having been choked by one of the original responding officers and then injected with the powerful anesthetic drug ketamine by a medic who arrived on the scene later.

“I don’t even kill flies,” McClain said at one point as the officers continued to restrain him. It was a cry for help, an explanation of who he was. It went unheeded, not only by the three officers who first responded to the 911 call but by the many others who arrived later, and who chatted casually as McClain struggled for his final breaths.

“Aurora, Colo., is corrupt,” says Mari Newman, a Denver attorney who is representing McClain’s family. “Aurora, Colo., is trying to cover up its wrongdoing.”

[dazzledbylight]

Each incident of murder or serious (or lesser) injury that police commit against Black people must have full justice truely applied.
With that being said...

Between George Floyd and Caulvin's casually depraved murderous racism.... as Mr Floyd pleads for his life...

and now having heard about this incident 3 days ago - the criminal, negligent cruelty of these cops against this sweet soul...

these tear at my spirit.

If you read the whole transcript of Mr McClain's words/pleas to the cops...
These made me cry before I got mad.

[MrsSpringsteen]

In August 2019, a 23-year-old unarmed black man died after an encounter with police officers in
On Aug. 24, 2019, a 23-year-old Black man named Elijah McClain was walking home from the store when he was stopped by police officers in Denver, Colorado, after they received a report of a “suspicious person” wearing a ski mask. The encounter escalated, McClain was put in a chokehold, and a few days later he was dead.

The Denver Post reported:

Elijah McClain, 23, was walking home from a store around 10:30 p.m. on a Saturday evening when authorities contacted him near Billings Street and Colfax Avenue in Denver. Someone had called 911 to report a “suspicious person” who was wearing a ski mask and waving his arms.

McClain routinely wore masks when he was outside because he had anemia — a blood condition — and became cold easily, according to his family.


After a struggle, McClain was handcuffed and officers requested medical assistance. Aurora Fire Rescue later injected him with ketamine in an attempt to sedate him, police said. He suffered cardiac arrest during the ambulance ride to a nearby hospital.


The following Friday McClain was declared “brain dead” and was expected to be taken off life support that afternoon, family members said. He died later that day.

McClain’s family called for the police officers involved in his death to be prosecuted, but it was announced in November that they would not face criminal charges. McClain’s case did not receive the same national attention as other similar incidents, but it was thrust back into the spotlight after George Floyd’s death in May 2020, when protests against racial injustice and police violence spread across the United States.

In June 2020, an image of text supposedly relaying McClain’s “last words” started going viral on social media:




This message reads:

I can’t breathe. I have my ID right here. My name is Elijah McClain. That’s my house. I was just going home. I’m an introvert. I’m just different. That’s all. I’m so sorry. I have no gun. I don’t do that stuff. I don’t do any fighting. Why are you attacking me? I don’t even kill flies! I don’t eat meat! But I don’t judge people, I don’t judge people who do eat meat. Forgive me. All I was trying to do was become better. I will do it. I will do anything. Sacrifice my identity, I’ll do it. You all are phenomenal. You are beautiful and I love you. Try to forgive me. I’m a mood Gemini. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Ow, that really hurt. You are all very strong. Teamwork makes the dream work. Oh, I’m sorry I wasn’t trying to do that. I just can’t breathe correctly.

This is a largely accurate transcript of what McClain said in a video recording of his encounter with police in August 2019. These remarks can be heard on the body cam footage of one of the police officers involved in the incident. An official copy of this video from the Aurora Police Department can be seen below (the relevant portion of the video starts at around the 12:30 mark).


The text in the viral transcript has been slightly edited to remove repeated phrases and inaudible moments (McClain says “I’m just different” multiple times), but none of the edits are misleading. The text describing actions in the viral post — at one point noting that McClain was crying, at another noting that he vomited — are also accurate.

This viral transcript does omit at least one phrase uttered by McClain during this encounter. A few moments after the final words of this viral transcript, McClain says “I can’t fix myself” before vomiting again.

NPR reported:

Someone picks up a body camera and McClain can be seen lying on his side with both hands restrained behind his back, and one officer jamming his knee on the man’s torso.

When McClain attempts to roll over to vomit, they shout at him to “stop fighting us.”

“If you keep messing around, I’m going to bring my dog out here and he’s going to bite you,” says an officer standing over McClain.

McClain proceeds to vomit.

“I can’t fix myself,” he says weakly.

McClain’s body goes limp and he passes out.

Eventually one officer asks, “Are you OK?”

But he’s not asking McClain. He’s speaking to the officer on top of him.

“Yeah, I’m good,” the officer says shifting his weight.

When paramedics arrived, McClain was injected with ketamine (described by Aurora Police as “a standard medication routinely utilized to reduce agitation”) and then loaded into an ambulance. On the way to the hospital, McClain suffered cardiac arrest. On August 30, McClain was pronounced brain dead, removed from life support, and died.

On June 25, 2020, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order directing the state’s attorney general to reopen the investigation into McClain’s death.

[anitram]

What a horrible story. No wonder there are people who want to burn down the system.

[MrsSpringsteen]

Police officers are very poorly trained or not trained at all regarding how to deal with anyone who has special needs. Anyone who has certain medical issues that affect behavior. Not to mention mental health issues.

Add racism and brutality on top of that, and it's just beyond any human comprehension. The way they treated him just crushes any normal human heart. What a tragedy.

[LuckyNumber7]

I disagree about the notion that training is important. A lot of police officers are well trained.

Well trained on when and how they can take violent or lethal action.

Well trained on how to demand respect and install authority through superiority and domination.

The issue with police is the kind of person it attracts. Not the level of training they receive.

Take away their guns. See how many violent officers sign up for that job. It’s toxic masculinity and chivalristic authority to hate and to dominate. It’s not surprising you have “bad apples.”

[MrsSpringsteen]

I agree about the kind of person it attracts. But training the right kind of people for unique situations is still important.

[BEAL]

There’s definitely a culture issue within the police. It doesn’t help to turn them into “warriors” and provide military weapons and vehicles.

But compared to police forces around the world, our training is basically a workshop.

You have better training and you’ll weed out the meatheads and assholes. Not all, but most wont have the mental capacity to go through the work that should be required.

And who knows, maybe those that go in with the macho authority issues come out a better person.

[anitram]

The problem with the police culture is that it's almost uniformly self-protectionist. They will protect their own regardless of facts or morality. There is really no other comparable profession in my view that is this bad.

[LuckyNumber7]

Originally Posted by anitram

The problem with the police culture is that it's almost uniformly self-protectionist. They will protect their own regardless of facts or morality. There is really no other comparable profession in my view that is this bad.

This type of mentality is developed out of warfare - the most effective unit has unwavering loyalty to one another regardless of differences, like brothers and sisters (in arms).

We witness the same form of malpractice in war settings - soldiers failing to discriminate the true enemy from what they’re fearful can be the enemy. And even when you get the most extreme, like Eddie Gallagher, brotherhood mentality is still present. So is true with police.