Worth noting that the Aurora PD has been the source of lots of corruption and abuse.
They have been the focus of constant protests since they killed Elijah McClain. He was killed after police detained him for ‘looking sketchy’ when walking home from a gas station. Police put him in a chokehold which restricted blood flow to his brain, and then when paramedics arrived they injected him with a sedative which sent him into cardiac arrest.
But while he was detained, Mr. McClain was clearly in distress. After officers restrained him on the ground, he vomited several times, for which he apologized, saying, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to do that, I can’t breathe correctly.”
An officer said in the body camera footage that officers had “put him out” with a carotid hold twice, “at least once successfully,” meaning Mr. McClain had lost consciousness.
Menzo
6662
“We were looking for a stolen vehicle” is the new catch-all excuse any time police do something stupid now.
Combine “we were looking for a stolen vehicle” with “I felt my life was in danger” and cops basically have freedom to stop anyone for any reason and murder them.
The motorcycle had the same license plate number as the minivan (albeit from two different states), and the minivan had actually been reported as stolen sometime in the previous year, which apparently added to the confusion.
No excuse for having a 6-year-old handcuffed and lying belly-down on hot pavement though.
Sharpe
6664
This is a good example of why policies like “automatic high risk stop” are bad policies: there is often going to be confusion and a need to clear things up and this would not have been an abuse of power if the police had simply stopped the car, briefly detained everyone inside the car while they checked the plates and then let them go on their way. It would have been a major inconvenience, but not the debacle and abuse that we saw on the video.
Houngan
6665
I have decent info that they will announce the charges or not-charges in the Breonna Taylor case today. I don’t know what the good middle ground is on this, but obviously everyone in the area is on pins and needles.
rowe33
6666
Well it’s Louisville, KY, so I assume they’ll be charging Taylor’s family for the cost of the bullets the cops used when they murdered her.
It’s like 7 PM in Kentucky. Did you mean tomorrow?
Houngan
6670
No, I assumed they were going to do it late night to stave off protests, but looks like my municipal info source was wrong.
Menzo
6671
The war on police accountability is getting taken up a notch. Hard to imagine the idea that police are owed complete anonymity while performing their duties. This seems like a blatant attempt to stop free speech.
Carto
6673
Oof, that’s my local precinct.
Fun fact: the last fake bomb threat called in around here was against a model-train store.
Yay for more (confirmed) fuckery from the Mayor and Police Chief here is Seattle. Remember a few weeks back when they played the “oh, but you just can’t defund the SPD by 50%, we’d have to lay off all out BIPOC officers first, and that would be terrible, wouldn’t it?”. Turns out that was all pretty much lies, as expected. This dude (who’s the Secretary-Treasurer of the largest private sector union in WA state) had a look at the contract, and made a Twitter thread about it.
Utah. Woman protests local shooting by cops. She is accused buying the red paint. They are being treated as a gang and face life in prison.
KevinC
6676
Incredibly messed up. This is a DA on a powertrip because protesters threw paint on the steps outside his office, so now he’s abusing a gang-related statute to try to throw her in prison for life.
This can’t be right. This is something that might happen in a totalitarian state, not America. Oh wait…
The people get scared for their wife, daughter, etc because of “rioters and anarchists and criminals.” Right? So. They throw the book at people. Gotta keep things quiet, keep things safe. They don’t worry about government overreach or gestapo carrying off because they are in a position of power and will never be pulled off (unless it’s by a mob!) so I guess it’s almost an expected response with what I expect is Fox-type coverage. I assume CNN does the same but I don’t watch video news.
In retrospect, the term defunding the policy has been a propaganda boon for the GOP. Morons. The ones who askeds all those local official if they would defund the police.
Under the new enhancements, which apply to “offenses committed in concert with two or more persons or in relation to a criminal street gang," the protesters can face up to life in prison, if convicted.
Why is this even a law? If three people team up to rob a house, they can be sent away for life? Buy drugs with two of your buddies and get caught. Go to jail forever? WTF???
