If you live in the United States, you should be disgusted with your country

[Nikose Tyris]

Originally Posted by Kim

All that said, the person who killed the officers killed his GF first so people blaming the protests for this PROBABLY just want an excuse to blame the protests.

Brinsley was already a fugitive, suspected of putting a bullet in his ex-girlfriend’s abdomen at her residence in Baltimore at 5:45 a.m. Saturday, Bratton said.

By early Saturday afternoon — just three hours before shooting Liu and Ramos — vile anti-police threats were posted to Brinsley’s Instagram page. The threats referenced the *recent police-involved killings of Garner and Brown.

The ex-girlfriend is alive, and to my knowledge is recovering from being shot in the stomach.

Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were murdered without provocation from a criminal with a long history of petty crime [Trespass, Weapon Discharge, a dismissed Roberry charge]. Lui and Ramos had majority POC people out to honor them last night, as well.

They are also not a part of this conversation, no matter how tangently Brinsley attempted to tie himself to the movement via two hashtags.

[Solid Snake]

I'm just so glad the police can:

A: Recognize what a murder is (so long as their own rank and file are victims and not the perpetrator.) I was genuinely concerned for a while that they did not comprehend the definition.

B: Utilize a tragedy to try to score brazen political points utterly unrelated to the tragedy at hand (Or, didn't you know the Mayor and all of us who've spoken up against recent unethical police behavior are violent thugs who desperately want to murder the police?)

C: Similarly utilize said tragedy to try to change the subject away from disturbing examples of police misconduct, because we can't even talk about police misconduct anymore without disrespecting these dead officers.

D: At least show consistency insofar as like, the Cops are showing just as little attention to detail and nuance with the facts of this case as they showed to the Brown and Garner cases. And this is coming from an agency designed to illuminate the truth, everyone!

[Ryanderman]

Originally Posted by Marc v4.0

I -guess- if you ignore all the context of the situation at hand and somehow twist the oppressors around to somehow being the victims of the oppressed it could sound like that, but that would be completely disingenuous.

I mean 'If you murder and subjugate people, you have to expect them to fight back in whatever ways they can' is nowhere at all equal to 'She had it coming, look what she was wearing' and the suggestion of comparison is fucking gross.

You make good points, but I have to come back to the fact that saying that these two officers were in any way responsible for their own murders is pretty clear cut victim blaming.

And I also agree, when people blamed Mike Brown for his own murder, that was disgusting too.

[Marc v4.0]

The individuals, no

The institution? yes

As Nikose points out, though, that's really only if this had anything to actually do with the current protests and unrest, and maybe in this man's mind it did, but he also tried to murder his GF. Tacking his motives to the movement after that and before shooting a pair of cops seems like he was reaching for a justification perhaps.

[Solid Snake]

The NYPD needs to realize that, in their unethical efforts to protect a guilty member of their force, they're putting innocent officers at risk. They're not just protecting 'their' own against eeevvviiilll minorities, they're protecting the worst among them at the expense of everyone else within their own ranks.

Mind you, I don't think Garner has anything to do with this case specifically, but it's certainly not unreasonable to imagine that a crooked, brazenly illogical grand jury verdict might incite negativity that jeopardizes others wearing the uniform.

EDIT: Daniel Pantaleo was the subject of previous civil rights lawsuits for false arrests and -- in one case -- illegally forcing innocent black men to strip naked for a search. If Pantaleo goes to trial like he should've, none of this B.S. happens. And you're asking me to blame Garner or oppressed African-Americans who are infuriated over the Garner case for this? Fuck anyone with that outlook, and don't let the police seize this case to try to twist this into some sort of narrative about awful minorities disrespecting men in uniform.

[Ryanderman]

Originally Posted by Marc v4.0

The individuals, no

The institution? yes

As Nikose points out, though, that's really only if this had anything to actually do with the current protests and unrest, and maybe in this man's mind it did, but he also tried to murder his GF. Tacking his motives to the movement after that and before shooting a pair of cops seems like he was reaching for a justification perhaps.

I can agree with this.

It was Kim's line, "...if Good Cops don't want to be retaliated against..." that set me off on the victim blaming angle, as that did seem to be specifically pointing to the individual officers. I apologize if I came across as hostile. I did not intend to do so.

[Kim]

How the media reports an assault differently after they learn it was by a cop

our news corps are such fucking garbage

[Nique]

Originally Posted by Kim

How the media reports an assault differently after they learn it was by a cop

our news corps are such fucking garbage

That is awful but alsk really fascinating. Power of advertising - change a few key words and suddenly nothing seems as bad as it truly is.

[Tev]

This seems as good a place as any to post this:

On Thursday, 17-year-old Kristiana Coignard was shot dead by three police officers in the lobby of the Longview Police Department. Coignard arrived at the station around 6:30 p.m. and asked to talk to an officer. Police say the girl was “brandishing a weapon” before she was shot four times.

The three officers, who have not been identified, have been placed on leave. The investigation of Coignard’s death is now being handled by the Texas Rangers.

The incident, at this point, is shrouded in mystery. Officials could not “confirm the type of weapon Coignard brandished at the officers.” Beyond the alleged, unspecified weapon, virtually no details about the events that immediately preceded Coignard’s death have been released.

Coignard was living in Longview with her Aunt, Heather Robertson. In an interview with ThinkProgress, Robertson raised questions about the circumstances of Coignard’s death. “I think it was a cry for help. I think they could have done something. They are grown men. I think there is something they are not telling us.”

Robertson said that her niece had been struggling with mental illness, including depression and bipolar disorder, since her mother died when she was four. She had been hospitalized twice in recent years after suicide attempts. One time, she tried to hang herself. Another time, she drank toilet bowl cleaner. Since arriving in Longview in December, Coignard had been taking medication and regularly seeing a therapist. She had no criminal record and “was only violent with herself, ” Robertson said.

Robertson and Coignard’s grandmother, Holly McGuire, spoke to a Longview police officer on the night Coignard was killed for about 30 minutes. They were provided with few details of what transpired but were told that a video of the incident, including sound, exists. They have not been contacted by the Texas Rangers.

Kristian Brian, a spokesperson for the Longview Police Department, declined to comment further on the case, citing the ongoing investigation by the Texas Rangers. Brian did confirm that a video of the incident exists.

Police officers frequently encounter the mentally ill, but often do not receive training. As a result “rash stigmatization and misinterpretation of the intentions of the mentally ill can cause vital errors and ultimately make the difference between life and death.”

Coignard’s death also raises questions about use of force protocols in the United States. British citizens, for example, “are about 100 times less likely to be shot by police, according to the Economist.”

Officers in Longview were involved in two fatal shootings in 2014, including one involving a 15-year-old. In both instances, the officers were cleared by a grand jury.

[Kim]

oh god this is breaking my heart