I’m surprised that I haven’t seen this blogged yet, but considering that pending repeal attempt by the Republicans (give it a fucking rest already!!!), I guess it’s not that surprising.
www.washingtonpost.com/…
Anyways, for those of you not familiar with the story, a St. Louis police officer named Jason Stockley shot motorist Anthony Smith following a police chase in 2011 (with an AK-47 no less) after a failed arrest attempt on drug deal charges, and then planted a pistol on him to change the narrative. Naturally, for some stupid reason, the people who can do something about this didn’t give a fuck.
Stockley, 36, was charged in May 2016 with first degree murder in the fatal shooting of 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith after a police chase. Stockley and his partner had pursued Smith by vehicle after failing in an attempt to arrest him for a suspected drug deal at a Church’s Chicken.
Prosecutors said in a videotape during the chase, Stockley was heardsaying “Going to kill this motherf—er don’t you know it” before telling his partner to drive into Smith’s slowing car. Prosecutors also suggested Stockley had planted a gun in the vehicle since the weapon contained the officer’s DNA, but not Smith’s.
In a 30-page ruling issued Friday, St. Louis Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson said he had agonized over his decision. “This Court, as the trier of fact, is simply not firmly convinced of the defendant’s guilt,” he said.
Obviously, Mr. Smith shouldn’t have sped off into the St. Louis streets, and led the police on a dangerous chase, but that doesn’t earn one the death penalty. I also have to wonder if Stockley approached Smith in a threatening manner, and so to avoid getting shot for no reason, he tried to get out of Dodge.
Protests break out. But they were peaceful at first. According to some of the protestors, that is where the police come in:
Some protesters complained that police were unnecessarily aggressive. Further inflaming tensions, a St. Louis photographer reported he and others heard police chant “whose streets, our streets” after making some arrests.
It appears quite clear that the St. Louis police force went in with the intention of arresting protestors, no matter their intentions.
At around 11:20 p.m. Sunday, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s Twitter feed said “multiple warnings to disperse” had been given near the intersection of Washington Avenue and North Tucker Boulevard. They soon started arresting those that hadn’t left.
But several protesters said police had encircled them and there was no way out. Caught in the melee was St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Mike Faulk, who tweeted, “Less than 100 of us including media blocked in at wa and Tucker on all four sides.”
Shortly afterward, Faulk was among those arrested. In a photo, he appeared to be wearing a media badge around his neck at the time of his arrest.
So first they encircle them, probably outnumbering them, presumably threatening to beat up/spray any protestors who decided that they didn’t want to have any of what was going to happen next. And then they tell them to leave, and then moments later, arrest them without giving them the option.
I believe that would fall into the category of arrest without a crime.
Now to be fair, it is confirmed that there were anarchist agitators. But I think it’s safe to say that these were just a minority, and that the mass arrests were unwarranted. Where the hell these bastards came from...well, who knows? But it is quite apparent the St. Louis Police Department used these miscreants as an excuse to stifle dissent.
Also using this as a source: www.theguardian.com/…
Police told a large group of people gathered in downtown that because windows had been broken and large flower pots pushed over, the assembly was being declared illegal.
Bystander video showed police using irritant chemical sprays on protesters who were seated and compliant, many with their hands in the air, or even those running away. Protesters accused the police of “kettling” them, surrounding them and making arrests once they fail to disperse.
Mike Faulk, a reporter for the St Louis Post-Dispatch, told colleagues he was “pepper-sprayed in face while an officer’s foot held my head to ground”.
Tony Rice, a veteran St Louis protester who said he wound up in the same holding cell as Faulk, said officers were using pepper spray indiscriminately and seemed to be trying to inflict punishment on those they arrested.
“At one point I had an Eric Garner moment,” Rice said, referencing the 2014 death of a Staten Island man in an arrest carried out with an illegal chokehold. “He kept pepper-spraying me and pushing me down … and then it felt like there was two knees on my back.”
Rice was pushed off his bike by officers, he said, adding that his neck was pushed into the bike’s crossbar, leaving him unable to breath. “I was screaming ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe’, and I’ll tell you, I really thought I was going to die,” he told the Guardian.
Many of those arrested on Sunday night, according to Rice, were not demonstrators but merely curious residents. Burbank, who was chief of police in Salt Lake City for nearly a decade, questioned the wisdom of trying to carry out mass arrests at all, or even trying to disperse a crowd that was, by all accounts, almost entirely peaceful.
“Why does the crowd need to move?” he asked. “How many officers does it take to deploy teargas and pepper-spray and don riot gear and move a crowd, as opposed to closing down streets for a few hours and letting a crowd get their message across and allowing them to disperse naturally?”
St Louis interim police chief Lawrence O’Toole was more forthright. “The police owned tonight,” he said in a Monday press conference. “We’re in control.”
In other words, it was all about authoritarianism. About telling the residents of St. Louis “we don’t serve, you. We own you! And if you step out of line, we’ll beat the crap out of you!”
But I’m not done with this article yet, because I’m sure you all are curious about the image at the top of this article.
www.independent.co.uk/…
An old lady was knocked over by a bunch of thugs with shields and uniforms, while beating back anyone who had the temerity to show respect for their elders. And then, rather than apologizing and helping her up, they arrested her for “interfering”!
The police department told The Independentthat the 63-year-old woman, Laura Jones, had been arrested after the incident.
"The woman shown in the video failed to obey officers’ orders," said Public Information Manager Schron Jackson. "The woman was arrested and charged with Interfering."
Oh, she was “interfering”! You know, if that excuse were allowed to hold water, they could get away with anything! I imagine they have! In the video, she was clearly trying to get away, but the younger, faster officers ran her down like a cheetah does while hunting prey. And when a young gentleman tried to help her up (someone’s parents raised them well!), rather than doing the right thing, and helping him, one of the officers beats him back with that damned shield of his!
If anyone deserved to be arrested, it was this group of cowardly thugs. Considering that they failed to convict a murderer who was obviously guilty (it was his DNA on the pistol FFS!), do they even have any right to give orders at this point?