[Falcon Heights] Woman goes live on Facebook after boyfriend is shot by police

If you read what he typed, he's not helping your case. This country was built on racial social class (jersey colors) and it will continue to do so.

 

What blows me away as a black man is that a traffic stop over a tail light ended up in a death.

If you are black and you carry, weather it be concealed or open, you are putting your self at risk to be murdered by law enforcement.

It should not be that way, but that is they way it is and I want to come home to my family.

I had to tell my 7 year old son for the first time who is biracial, when law enforcement sees you there is chance that they are looking for a reason to hassle you , take your money via tickets or kill you.

Make sure you shut up, do as your told and let them know that everything being said is being broadcast live to the internet.

 

I'm definitely not agreeing with Bobby. It never ceases to amaze me how people can twist words in an attempt to hear support for their own beliefs.

 

The most unlucky driver in the history of the world or just black.



Stopped 52 times by police: Was it racial profiling?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...fe882a-4595-11e6-a76d-3550dba926ac_story.html

When Philando Castile saw the flashing lights in his rearview mirror the night he got shot, it wasn’t unusual. He had been pulled over at least 52 times in recent years in and around the Twin Cities and given citations for minor offenses including speeding, driving without a muffler and not wearing a seat belt.

He was assessed at least $6,588 in fines and fees, although more than half of the total 86 violations were dismissed, court records show.

But in 2001, the Legislature asked for a racial profiling study and it fell to Kearney, then at the Institute on Race & Poverty at the University of Minnesota Law School, to conduct it. His study, using information supplied voluntarily by 65 law enforcement jurisdictions in the state, found a strong likelihood that racial and ethnic bias played a role in traffic stop policies and practices. Overall, officers stopped minority drivers at greater rates than whites and searched them at greater rates, but found contraband in those searches at lower rates than whites.

The analysis found the pattern was more pronounced in suburban areas. In Fridley, New Hope, Plymouth, Sauk Rapids and Savage combined, blacks were stopped about 310 percent more often than expected.

 

Rocket River

 

I feel that subconsciously most LEOs view men of African descent as threats....regardless of what those men may or may not be doing. This is why I tend to avoid LEOs and will instruct my future children to do the same.

 

Did the police officer carry any video/audio recording equipment, or is all we have to go on whatever the girlfriend recorded after the shooting took place? It would be helpful to see what exactly took place that led up to the shooting.

 

I think at the very least we'll get a dashcam video and audio. It should help some but it would be a lot better if there was a body cam with audio.

 

Hopefully there's some audio. There was one excerpt I read from one of the transcripts of the girlfriend that possibly sheds some light on what happened.

Now this may not mean anything or she misspoke. But initially I thought the assumption was that he stated plainly to the officer that he has a permit to carry the weapon from the start. The quote above makes it sounds he like he just said "I have a firearm" as he's reached in his pocket.

 

Yeah, well hopefully there will be some audio to clear that up.

 

There is an unverified (but probably real based on license plate and location) police scanner report in which the officer says to the dispatcher that he is going to pull a car over because the 2 occupants (apparently didn't see the child) look like a couple of robbery suspects - probably from a robbery a few days before but no details.

The sole descriptive reason he gave for pulling over the driver (to the dispatcher), is that he has a "wide-set nose". Now he could see the "wide-set nose" while apparently driving towards him at 9:00 PM - and it is still light in Minnesota at 9:00 PM - but he couldn't tell his front seat passenger was a woman? Both robbery suspects - assuming it was from the one on July 2 - are males.

Now, some people claim this proves the girl is lying because she said the officer told her he pulled them over for a busted light. It is entirely possible that is indeed what he told them. I doubt a LEO will say "I pulled you over because you look like an armed robbery suspect".

It is also interesting to me that if you are pulling over a possible armed robbery suspect that you don't call for backup. Perhaps that is standard police procedure, but it just seems odd.

 

Sounds as much driving while black as anything. Being black isn't probable cause to being a black robbery suspect.

 

Is this even debatable?

I don't think that there is any question that most LEO's are more fearful of men, and especially black men. The stats bare that out as well, oddly it doesn't matter is the cop is black or white, male or female. It appears to be universal.

I went to high school with a guy that is a cop in Chicago. I have spoken to him off and on, as we have a mutual interest in sports teams and some interests. I asked him about his opinion as to the whole situation. He told me that he felt it was conditioning, that 50% of the people that he encounters as an officer that are either violent or attempt to flee are black. He didn't really say anything that was overtly racist, and he doesn't speak for all law enforcement officers, but I still found it interesting.

I would suggest black males completely submit to LEO if stopped and questioned, if for no other reason to avoid any confrontations. I have also noticed a double standard when it comes to guns. Some of the biggest gun supporters are LEO's and they don't want blacks with concealed and carry; even if they have followed the law on registration. At this point, a black man with concealed carry, being pulled over by an officer is a scary proposition. I am well aware that the statistics show that you are more likely to be attacked by a shark than shot by an officer... and that it is still rare, BUT it is a problem and it is still a stressful situation for everyone involved.

Last I think they need to change the culture of LEO. Stop hiring ex military. The LEO and community need to have a better relationship. They don't work for the government, they work for the people in the communities that they work and live in.... and sometimes both sides need to remember that.

 

The St Anthony police department has had well documented issues with traffic stops as well as training issues in regards to de-escalation. If you read the comments of their old police chief, it sounds like he was completely out of touch with the feelings of the community towards his officers.

When your department is just oblivious to how people perceive it, bad stuff like this will happen. A police department's job is to serve the people in its constituency.

Police departments across the Twin Cities have problems. The City Council in Minneapolis seems to be in constant conflict with the police union because the union doesn't want any new rules or regulations and neither side is even capable of having a rational discussion with the other anymore. Frankly the new body camera rules are nice but I still consider them a partial failure because they were just forced onto the police department since the union had no interest in actually having dialogue on the subject. St Paul is having the same fight right now. And the smaller suburban police departments are arguably worse because the city councils in many of those areas just roll over and don't even bother trying to create any accountability.

 

That makes it hard to find agreement. I can understand the sentiment, but I actually believe progress is being made on the injustice in the justice system but that it's just going to be a long, painful slog. But, we're only going to get there by maintaining discipline. I think Micah Johnson has done considerable damage to the progress of getting equitable treatment from law enforcement. He has strengthened the hand of enemies of change.

You mention later 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. What those have in common? War. Those were collective punishments. In wars, you don't find mutually beneficial outcomes. One side vanquishes the other. That may even be appropriate in an international arena where you have external enemies you don't want to interact with anyway. But, here we're talking about American citizens living in the same cities with each other, going to school and work with each other, shopping in the same stores. We don't want a war here. We want mutually beneficial outcomes. Taking out a gun and shooting the people you disagree with tends to shut down negotiations and makes agreement harder. Every time a cop does it, it makes it harder. Which is why I take it so hard when we fail to get convictions, like in the Freddie Gray case. But Micah Johnson also makes it harder, and it makes the Freddie Grays more likely, just like the Freddie Grays make the Micah Johnsons more likely. It's a vicious cycle.

You say people are asking the black community to be the bigger man. I don't think that's altogether fair. All parties need to be bigger. We're doing some with police -- body cams, more community policing, nonlethal weapons like tasers -- we're doing some with accountability -- had some indictments even though we lack convictions, black lives matter, a lot of academic study on statistics of racism and policing, attention from the highest positions in government (Obama, but also Governor Dayton, potential VP Gingrich, etc), acknowledgement also from leadership in police departments, and wider popular recognition that there is racism in policing -- we're doing some in policy -- like Ferguson's deal (and Albuquerque and a couple of other towns) with the DOJ to get rid of jail time for unpaid fines and other sorts of systemic injustices. There have also been overtures to undo some of the policies in the war on drugs that persecuted the black community. From a governance perspective, I think government has made some effort to be the bigger person.

Mainstream white America, I recognize, is throwing out more mixed signals; some sympathetic to the black plight, but also a lot of people saying unhelpful things about how there is no problem, or that black people bring it on themselves. A lot of white people have taken umbrage at being called racist essentially and I've been disappointed as a white person on how we've responded collectively. It's been too easy for whites to insulate ourselves from culpability for institutional racism. We've not done a great job culturally to break the cycle. It discourages nonviolent BLM protesters to see white America ignore and disparage their demands for justice. It incites violent protesters like Micah Johnson to commit murder because they despair of being heard otherwise.

The black community has been more engaged and more forthright, imo, and I'm happy to see the political activism that has has perseverance but has also embraced our legacy of nonviolence. That's being the bigger man, demanding justice without engaging in retribution. But, there is also an element (which also has a legacy) that says nonviolence is ineffective or too slow. It's human and understandable. Remaining stoic in the face of injustice is hard. But fighting fire with fire perpetuates the vicious cycle of animosity that we need to break. Now we see dumbasses say BLM is a terrorist organization or insinuate that their message is inherently racist. They'll point to your post saying even normal black people rationalize murder. That lets whites rationalize away police brutality in turn. And the whole relationship becomes more polarized.

So, yeah whites need to do their part. I'm trying to do my part. Government is trying to do their part. Are we asking too much of the black community to fix the problem? Maybe we are, but it's necessary.

 

It certainly isn't debatable....although quite a few would disagree.

 

That's more what I noticed from my anecdotal observations among my more racially diverse friends who have zero criminal background mind you. They deal with so much more s-hit from law enforcement that are just looking for anything to bust them on than I've ever had to deal with. It sucks.

 

I'm not sure if I agree with this.

1.) I don't think you can avoid hiring someone for being the military...in general, discriminating against vets isn't something that is likely to gain a lot of support.
2.) without LE jobs, how much more difficult will it be for ex-military to find jobs...not sure what% go onto have jobs in LE, but I imagine it's significant.
3.) Is there even any data backing this up that police are more likely to resort to violence if being ex-military? I would have actually thought the opposite...that an ex-military person would probably be better trained to handle stressful situations and less jumpy.

 

Wasn't that sort of thing is what was going on in Ferguson also? There the police were stopping and ticketing minority residents in order to generate revenue for the city coffers. Sounds like the same thing is going on up there which does not surprise me one bit.

 

It's a huge part of the reason people are pissed off and these incidents have been sparks for the unrest we've witnessed.