Officers' actions were justified in the fatal shooting of a man holding an air rifle inside an Ohio Wal-Mart store, a grand jury determined Wednesday -- using surveillance video the slain man's family said shows the shooting was completely unjustified.
The Greene County grand jury opted not to issue any indictments in the Aug. 5 death of 22-year-old John Crawford III inside a Wal-Mart in Beavercreek, Special Prosecutor Mark Piepmeier said.
A 911 caller reported Crawford was waving what appeared to be a rifle in the store. Police said he was killed after failing to obey commands to put down what turned out to be an air rifle taken from a shelf.
He "was killed after failing to obey commands?"
Really?
Well here is a newly released video tape of the shooting, so you tell me when this man had time to respond to the police before thee started shooting.
I quite literally hear the police tell him to either "get down" or "put it down" and then they open fire.
This from HuffPo:
Police have said multiple times that Crawford refused commands to drop the air rifle, according to the Dayton Daily News. The surveillance video, obtained by the Xenia Daily Gazette, appears to show Crawford shot almost immediately after police encounter him.
Yeah that's what I saw as well. The man simply did not have time to respond to police and they gunned him down.
From the tape it is clear that Crawford was not thinking of the object in his hand as a gun, and as he spoke on his cell phone he is seen moving it around in a manner that could easily make some shoppers, who did not recognize it as an air rifle, nervous.
But the actions of the police in this matter simply did not seem justified in that he had made no threats, and did not point the toy at any shoppers in a threatening manner.
However before you despair know that despite this finding the police may not walk away scott free:
The Justice Department said Wednesday it will launch an investigation into the shooting death of a black man inside an Ohio Wal-Mart, just hours after a local grand jury voted not to indict the white police officer who shot him.
Immediately after Wednesday's grand jury decision, the city of Beavercreek publicly requested that the FBI review the officers’ actions to determine if there were any civil rights violations.
If by "civil rights violations" they mean filled him with holes before he had a chance to explain himself, then yeah I think the FBI has a case.
I'm sorry but I am having an almost impossible time believing that if John Crawford III had been some white dude screwing around with an air rifle in Wal-Mart that his family would have been notified to come and identify his body at the morgue.
Update: If you in any way think that cops shooting black men for no good reason is a rarity in this country, then you might want to take a look at this tape of a recent traffic stop.
Once again, a white man would have walked away unscathed.
Here's another out of South Carolina, Gryph.
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XFYTtgZAlE
Update, Gryph: Groubert has been arrested and charged. Woo Hoo!
Deletehttp://www.politicususa.com/2014/09/25/highway-patrolman-charged-felony-assault-unprovoked-shooting-traffic-stop.html
Yeah but after hearing comments from the cops attorney, i know what the defense is going to be: The scary black man was reaching into his truck to get a weapon for all the cop knew. But now many of us would have done the exact same thing. I don't like sitting on my wallet in the car so I put it in my console. When I have gotten pulled over, I tell the cop that I am getting my registration out of the glove box and I move very slowly. The cop told the guy to get his license and that was what he was doing. Even if the cop thought there might be a weapon involved, he gave him no time from his first yelled instruction to the first shot.
DeleteThe real problem is that the police have lost the concept of "protect and serve" and replaced it with "protect yourself, sort out the details later".
ReplyDeletenot surprised at all Gryph. The cops shot a man who was stopped for a seat belt violation because he reached for drivers license after being told to.
ReplyDeleteInstantly shot. He wasn't killed, but not because the cop didn't try.
Contrary to the cop that said if women don't want to be raped by cops, they just have to obey all directions, the above is proof that even if you follow all directions, you can still be shot.
We have rotten white cops throughout our country and it's time we get rid of them. These white cops shooting black folks for no reason, need to be arrested, put on trial and spend the rest of their lives in jail!
DeleteCops are not the 'protectors' and caring folks we are led to believe folks. I know I'd never call one to my house! And, I'm white!
Justified, my ass.
ReplyDeleteTime to take Homeland Security away from training the police. We, the citizens of the US, are not the enemy.
This happening in my hometown makes me more than a little sick. I think a major part of the blame should be on the 911 caller who said he was threatening people and pointing the gun at people. The tape shows that to be a complete fabrication. I blame the police for not even trying to diffuse the situation before firing as well. Last, I do place some blame on John Crawford. He was walking around twirling the gun, although it did not look to be in a menacing manner, handling it the way he did was not in accordance with open carry laws and obviously freaked some people out. It's a perfect storm of tragedy.
ReplyDeleteOT: Right after the Palin brawl you stated you were going to have something earth-shattering soon. Is that still in the cards or was that just hyperbole?
ReplyDeleteI did read last evening that the Grand Jury sat for only 19 hours, and yet there were 27 hours of videotape to review. So I think the DoJ is investigating for that reason alone -- IOW, the Grand Jury didn't do its job.
ReplyDeleteBlack people don't have second amendment rights, don't you know that? It's very obvious lately that is the case.
ReplyDeleteMeet The 17-Year-Old Who Blew The Lid Off Racial Profiling With His iPod
ReplyDeletehttp://www.upworthy.com/meet-the-17-year-old-who-blew-the-lid-off-racial-profiling-with-his-ipod?c=reccon2
There was great commentary on just this subject on this week's Bill Maher Show on HBO
ReplyDelete"The Justice Department said Wednesday it will launch an investigation into the shooting death of a black man inside an Ohio Wal-Mart,"
ReplyDeleteGee, ya think?
If it weren't for the video it would be just another dead black guy.
Since when did summary execution become a regular thing in this country? Has it been this outrageous all along and we didn't know?
This has become a common event and I'm sick of it! White cops killing black men for no damned reason! I'm sure it's been going on much longer than we like to think, but social media and videos provide the FACTS.
ReplyDeleteThe juries ruling in this manner is interesting too. Were they all white jurors? And, they actually saw the friggin' video! Something is horribly amiss and it's time the US Attorney General (I'm sorry he has resigned - Holder) investigate these matters.
Oh, just in case you are interested, I'm a white American posting this!
It was a grand jury..not the same thing as a trial jury.
DeleteIt was an all white jury. There were only two African Americans called for the jury pool, and both were dismissed.
DeleteThe shootings would not be happening if the animus and paranoia (based on hate: hey, gotta justify the paranoia SOMEHOW!) did not exist first. And the hate and paranoia would be far less if it were not for Fox News. You can lay many of these dead bodies at the feet of Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes and the rest of the right-wing spin machine, because morally speaking, that is where they really belong. The cops pulled the trigger and are guilty, but they are far from being the only guilty parties. It's a moral/ethnic/sociological unit that is like a RICO crime gang, having the same death and bloodshed repercussions.
Delete8:09 The grand jury needs LESS evidence and no 'beyond a reasonable doubt' to issue a warrant (or whatever the word is they do).
DeleteTherefore, seeing the video, I say they had enough evidence to bring the cop to trial.
I found the video a bit confusing at first but realized the cameras were facing in different directions. The one of the left was facing into the store with the cops coming from the right.
I kept expecting them to come in through that door, but realized they were already in the store and were just then coming into view at the isle where the victim was.
It didn't even seem the victim had a chance to even be aware of what was going on before he was shot.
And Oh, how horrible it must have been for his family to hear him screaming in pain!
Couldn't the cops just hide around the edge of the isle while they determined the situation and wait to see how he would respond?
The real outrage here is the jury. Juries are just generally stupid, easily manipulated by corrupt prosecutors and judges.
ReplyDeleteSo true in a way. I believe it was George Carlin who once said "A jury of your peers is twelve people without the common sense enough to get out of jury duty"
DeleteI think we should go the way of having professional jurist who know something about the law and how it works, the rules of evidence, and "innocent until proven guilty". The system is obviously broken, and has been for a long, long time.
White guy with an air rifle? Hell, the white guy could have been carrying a loaded assault rifle and another 100 rounds of ammo and no one would have even called the cops. But gee, there is no more racial discrimination in America. Land of the free (white males) Home of the brave (who think brave means walking around intimidating others) I hope Justice nails these guys and sets an example for the country. This is supposed to be the USA, not Columbia.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the new Amurka, where angry white guys can walk into Wal-Mart armed with hundreds of rounds of ammo, and black customers are murdered for taking a closer look at the ammo-less merchandise on the shelves. The man's tombstone should read: 'Institutionally-Sanctioned Murder for Examining the Ammo-Free Merchandise'.
DeleteWe can take a look at all of the "open carry" demonstrations or when the Tea Baggers march, they're all armed and no one stopped them. Look at Ferguson, no one was armed and they had military weapons and machinery.
ReplyDeleteUm, how many stores sell their air rifles, off the shelves, LOADED??? Yeah, right, NONE!! The police killed this man solely because he was black, not because he was doing ANYTHING, because every customer in Wal-Mart is entitled to examine the merchandise (unless it is kept under lock and key, as many electronic items are), and it is impossible to harm ANY person with an unloaded weapon. Hellooooooooo???? Talk about living in an alternate reality, this police department is up for first prize. This does not even pass the giggle test, let alone the smell test. I hope the parents AND the Department of Justice sue the daylights out of this cop department. The citizens of this city deserve to pay, through the nose, for tolerating such brutal and obscene behavior.
ReplyDeleteDon't they carry TASERS ??? That would have controlled the situation and no one would have died.
DeleteOhio is an open carry state also. So why did they shoot?
ReplyDeleteReally folks? This is a result of an overly zealous adrenaline fueled trigger happy swat team being incorrectly called in to a potential mass shooting situation and wanting to be the hero of the day. It doesn't matter what color the victim was- they were out to pump bullets into an imaginary mass shooter.
ReplyDeleteDarker skin color is automatically under suspicion in this country - all the way up to the President. All police should be wearing body cams and the feds should stop arming the police with weapons of war to be used against its own citizens.
ReplyDelete"I'm so sorry and feel some responsibility, that I'm tendering my letter of resignation effective immediately" Oh wait, I retire in two years and stand to lose money?
ReplyDeleteThen a "I'm deeply sorry to the Brown Family" should suffice.
There, I fixed it for you, Chief.
We desperately need to take action, boycott Wal Mart, who picks and chooses it's "mix" of "merchandise". They put DVD's in that damn clear clamshell packaging that's almost impossible to open once you get home, let alone in a store aisle WTF is a toy gun doing without the same amount of forethought?
ReplyDeleteRacial Profiling and engrained racisim are alive and well, and innocent black people, especially males are paying the ultimate price.
What scares me the most about gun nuts isn't that they like guns. I could handle it if they had a genuine interest in target practice. It DOES take a certain amount of skill to be a crack shot, after all.
ReplyDeleteNo, what bothers me is that so many of these open carry-lovers seem to WANT to shoot someone. It's like they actually wish that they could be in a situation where its kill or be killed.
Now, how many people like that do you suppose are police officers in this country? This country is full of cops who actually want to shoot someone. They think it's cool or heroic or something. And this is why shit like this happens and will keep happening.
A good cop should never, ever WANT to fire their gun.
Seriously - cops can shoot anyone they want. "I was afraid for my life" is absolute and total justification for the police to shoot. They can't kick the shit out of handcuffed people anymore, but shooting is fair game.
ReplyDeleteIt sucks, but the law is fairly black and white on law enforcement's response to fear.
You guys are off the charts with your bullshit. The cops obviously fucked up bigtime, but it had nothing to do with the color of skin.
ReplyDelete