Michael Brelo (1984?- ), a White American police officer in Cleveland, Ohio, was cleared of all charges in the police killing of Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell in 2012, both Black, both unarmed.
On November 29th 2012, Russell and Williams drove by a Cleveland police station in their old 1979 Chevy Malibu when it backfired. The police thought it was gunfire and gave chase: 100 police officers in 62 cars for 20 minutes and 22 miles (35 km), hitting speeds of up to 100mph (160kph). It ended in a shoot-out: 137 bullets in 18 seconds by 13 officers. For the last 7.4 seconds, Brelo jumped up onto the hood of the car and fired the last 15 bullets down on them through the windshield.
Russell was hit 23 times, four of the bullets fatal. Williams was hit 24 times, seven of which would have killed her.
So many bullets were fired that police said they thought Williams and Russell were firing on them. Brelo shot the most bullets: 49. Reloading twice.
Only Brelo was charged with a crime: two counts of voluntary manslaughter and a lesser count of felonious assault. He faced up to 22 years in prison.
Brelo requested not to have a jury trial. Cleveland is 53% Black. Some see the police as an army of occupation.
Judge John O’Donnell said he would not “sacrifice” Brelo to an angry public.
He ruled that it was impossible to tell if Brelo’s own bullets had in fact killed either Williams or Russell. He said Brelo acted reasonably in the belief that Williams and Russell were shooting at him and other officers.
The judge said the last 15 shots were:
“Not conforming to the training, and maybe not appropriate for the circumstances, but not illegal.”
The US Justice Department will review the case.
The judge waited three weeks for a Saturday morning (May 23rd 2015) on a holiday weekend to announce his decision – to give police time to prepare for a riot and limit the effect on city traffic.
Hundreds protested into the night, blocking roads, holding mock funerals, clashing with police and asking “Will I be next?” Dozens were arrested. Some marched from the Cuyahoga County Justice Center to the park where Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy, was gunned down by police six months ago (which the police are still investigating, his body still not laid to rest).
The Brelo shooting pushed the mayor to call for a US Justice Department patterns and practices investigation, the kind that Baltimore just asked for. It was completed in December 2014.
The Justice Department found that Cleveland police are “chaotic and dangerous”, that they are badly trained, out of control and trigger happy. Citizens rightly fear for their life in their presence. One police station had a sign that said, “forward operating base” – as if it were an outpost in a war.
The mayor and the Justice Department agreed to a set of reforms that are now being carried out.
Meanwhile, the city waits to see if Tamir Rice’s killer will be charged with a crime.
– Abagond, 2015.
See also:
- Tamir Rice
- Freddie Gray – the recent Baltimore police killing to make the news
- The extremely incomplete list of unarmed Blacks killed by police
- The police
- grand jury
545
So the question is not whether the action was reasonable, but if the belief was reasonable.
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What I can never get quite clear in this case is were Williams and Russell armed and firing back during any of this, or were they unarmed the whole time?
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@ King
They were unarmed the whole time. The police found no gun in their car or anywhere along the route of the chase.
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This whole thing is just senseless and appalling.
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WHAT!?? and nobody was charged!??
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@King,
Amazing, isn’t it?
Well, maybe not so amazing. Any “rational” person in the same position would fear unarmed black people behind the wheel of a car. It would be imprudent NOT to shoot and kill them.
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It’s insane!!!
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I just read a little more about it here.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/25/us/cleveland-police-verdict-up-to-speed/
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Senseless.
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So you drive past a police station and then 62 police cars start chasing you,trying to get you to pull over and you decide to drive 100 mph in your car to get away,what are you getting away from if you committed no crime? This may sound unbelievable to many but when I see ONE police car with the lights on behind me I pull to the side and stop.
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Jim, you know a couple that are friends of mine told me about how their son had a bit of trouble at school. You see the teacher told their son and another boy that it was nap time so they had to be quiet… but the boys had been sharing a a joke between them so they were still chuckling. a minute later one of them made a noise and they both started laughing again.
So the teacher must have made a phone call or something because three other teachers came into the room, picked up some of the exercise equipment off the floor, and crushed the other boys skull in with it!
So I replied.. “Well didn’t the boys hear the teacher tell them to be quiet?”
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This whole thing reminded me of something from grand theft auto.
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@King
From my understanding the car backfired. There was no gun.
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@ sharinalr
The claim of justification seems to have come here”
From my CNN link above.
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@King, your rebuttal about the couple is brilliant!
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[…] Michael Brelo (1984?- ), a White American police officer in Cleveland, Ohio, was cleared of all charges in the police killing of Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell in 2012, both Black, both unarmed.Continue reading… […]
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Just trying to point out what should be obvious, Roland.
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Reblogged this on In Through A Coloured Lens.
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@King
Thanks for pointing out the link.
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” Make him see that law and order is not on the side of murderers.”
if only that were true
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@King
That really puts things into perspective for a rational person. Sadly, it will fall upon the deaf ears of people like Jim who think America is in a permanent state of martial law.
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@ King
Jim’s question is a normal one to ask. Indeed, we all [well, a good deal of us] asked the same question in the Orianna Farrell thread.
(Farrell, her family and the officers involved, thankfully came to no harm. Because of this, it was easier to chastise Farrell’s actions. Here, Williams and Russell are now dead. Maybe Jim could be more delicate, but that aside, the question he asks will be asked (dismissively?) by many.
@ Jim & King
Speaking as a non-American, probably a simple answer (and hopefully a valid one) is that simple distrust between the public and police, with racism as part of the distrust, will lead to situations like driving on rather than pulling over.
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Judge John O’Donnell said he would not “sacrifice” Brelo to an angry public.
A jury of peers at one time. An angry public at another time.
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@ Legion
Sure, nothing wrong with asking the question, of course, but only AFTER acknowledging the overreaction. As I analogized, If four teachers killed a child because he failed to comply with a spoken directive, part of the analysis might be why the child did not comply. But not without first acknowledging that there was NOTHING the child could have possibly done to deserve the tragic outcome.
In this case the first questions to be addressed should be how something as simple as the backfiring of a car could cause 100 policemen to jump into 62 cars for 20 minute chase! Terminating in a 13- bullet barrage with a police officer firing rounds point blank through a windshield EVEN though not one shot had ever been fired at them by them! And the suspects were totally unarmed from the start!
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Sorry TYPO Should be “a 134-bullet barrage”
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This Judge shows that the Klan in black sheets is more effective than the one in white. Was this guy elected and can he be recalled?
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Lord of Mirkwood, many are elected.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retention_election
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Lord of Mirkwood, your claim is in error. Judges are elected throughout the USA, including Ohio, http://ballotpedia.org/Ohio_judicial_elections,_2014. The protests should be the training ground for recruiting and training people who will challenge judges like John O’Donnell. The problem with all the protests is that they start to look like theater rather than political combat. Some people go out and confront the police, get arrested, elected officials and celebrities make anodyne speeches, investigations are launched that get no result. Everything is repeated again after the next incident.
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This case was doomed from the start. The amount of gunfire aimed at the vehicle made it impossible to say who “exactly” fired the fatal shot(s). This wasn’t an individual failure, regardless of how many shots an individual fired. This was a failure of the justice system to hold the rules of engagement responsible for the murders. And, the “rules of engagement” shouldn’t have allowed the gang-bang free-fire shootout to have started in the first place.
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@ Black Sci-Fi
Do you think that if it was a gang murder of a policeman, that they would have found that it was impossible to say who “exactly” fired the fatal shot(s) and charged no one with murder, but all with lesser charges? I have just never heard of anything like this.
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Sounds like the court case where the brainless murderers of an innocent boy called Emmitt Till where found not guilty because it was okay to murder child or adult because they are black. It is time civil rights where reinforced once again. It is obvious to the world that America has not learned any lessons from the past . The reason is because token gestures do not and never do sort the problem anywhere in the world. Black people in America need to demand their total equality, especially in the 21st century for gods sake. I am surprised the riots have been so mild.
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Our justice system is effed up
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Zachariah 11:5 Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty:
Nahum 1:3 The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked:
Job 9:24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked: he covereth the faces of the judges thereof.
Everything is already WRITTEN, the laws of mere white men will continue to haunt us as black people so long as we continue to look to wicked people as having the answer. They do not have the answers and revising the current laws will change nothing. The only person that could bring a halt to the daily madness of caveman (Edomites) is the Most High. We must begin abiding by HIS laws through the keeping of his commandments and also calling upon Him during these wicked last days.
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@ King
I’m in complete agreement with you, in your response to my comment.
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Ah, then we are of the same mind.
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In response to blakksage
It’s never about falling back on prayer alone and being some sort of noble figure of divinely inspired martyrdom. Your advice is underwhelming, to say the least.
There is an Arab proverb reminding us that while it’s all very well to trust in providence and have faith that everything will work out, it does not let us off the hook from doing whatever we can at the same time to ensure a favourable outcome.
A related story tells of a man who is trapped on his roof-top during a flood. First his neighbour passed by in a rubber dinghy and asked him to jump in. “No thank you,” he said, “God will provide.” He gave the same reply when a police speedboat and then a military helicopter offered to rescue him.
When he died and went to heaven, he accused God of not saving him. God boomed, “I sent you two boats and a helicopter, what else did you expect?”
http://www.joyfuldays.com/trust-in-god-but-tie-up-your-camel/
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^Semantics!
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@Legion said: “In response to blakksage. It’s never about falling back on prayer alone and being some sort of noble figure of divinely inspired martyrdom. Your advice is underwhelming, to say the least.”
I agree with you Legion, when you read black history and the Bible, it’ll be revealed at some point that black people are essentially warriors. Perhaps I should’ve expressed myself more succinct because up to this day, most black people are totally unaware of who they truly are. Additionally, the disunity; the bickering amongst ourselves; capitulating to the other side; worshipping false prophets (MLK) and listening to charlatans like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson has advanced us to nowhere except further in the depth of hell in Amerikkka. Furthermore, the calculated distrust sowed for centuries by our enemies and the lack of a willingness to fight is the root of the problem.
I encourage all black people to save the energy put forth towards crying, protesting and bickering for the event of war. Because this is essentially what the white man has waged against us for the past 500 years while being unarmed. My advice, pick up the Bible in one hand and a rifle in the other. Freedom isn’t given to anyone, it must be taken. But first, we must ORGANIZE!
At bottom, it appears as if black people are afraid to die!
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Cops did the right thing. Bravo CPD. Advice to black Americans: don’t be a part of the Black Kollective of whiners, excuse makers, deadbeats. You’re better than that. Come join the rest of us who see character first and color not at all.
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@Bill in Oregon,
get back to the comforts of your cave!
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@Bill in Oregon, I have a verse for you below.
Obadiah 1:3 The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?
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cleveland has some extreme!!! hoods
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i’m not trying to justify anything especially that. but i was there and the store i was working at was scared, it was like wow, i have been all over the us
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“How are you not in an asylum?”
Because he’s white. This is the typical mindset of the average white american. This line of “thinking” is the reason we are in this mess in the first place. The oblivious white. YOU are the most evil, oppressive, divisive group of people on the planet. By now, the whole world is hip to your shenanigans. You fool no one. Your karma awaits.
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Also, there is always an excuse by whites to rationalize with the police/vigilante’s/other whites’ atrocities towards Black people, and colored people in general no matter what. I think it’s imprinted in their DNA to hate and destroy, no matter the cost.
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Obviously it has nothing to do with DNA. Its just good old tribalism.
It’s all in the head.
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@Lord of Mirkwood,
I don’t care what you think, that’s reality, deal with it, or CHANGE.
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What is this country coming to?
http://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/7/71/587596/judge-wont-seal-photo-cpd-cops-posing-african-american-man-antlers
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[…] Michael Brelo, a cop who murdered unarmed Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams in 2012, was acquitted and cleared of any wrong-doing (of course). He “doesn’t remember” standing on the hood of the car, firing directly into the windshield as if he were in some Grand Theft Auto game. I’m sure everyone is just breathing a huge sigh of relief that he gets to go back on patrol, eh? Meanwhile, the parents of Tamir Rice are STILL waiting to be able to bury their son…we know what will happen to his killer – absolutely nothing. It’s very disheartening: and to top off all of that, anyone who is justifiably angered over the shooting death of a 12-year-old boy by some cop who saw him as a criminal, well…we’re told that we need to protest “just so” or “say the right things” to be heard, listened to, or paid attention to. We have to do things “the right way.” Guess what? Opening my mouth and speaking on it, or typing these words here and clicking the ‘Publish’ button, IS the “right way!” […]
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“If you spend your life on a moral hill-top, you see nothing but the mud below. If, like me, you live in the mud itself, you get a damned good view of clear blue sky and clean green hills above. There’s none so evil-minded as those with a moral mission, and none so pure in heart as the depraved.”
― Stephen Fry, The Hippopotamus
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..Awesome quote, Candy!
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^^^^ I agree.
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@King
I have been wondering if it is a matter of the world coming to or the world was always. Is it just possible that the rise in technology is showing us what it really is?
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This is how mainstream America thinks. The only thing that’ll change that is if they or their children experience what Black Americans experience on the regular.
In the meantime, Black folks should step back and let the American Empire shamble along to its death. Be “in the world, but not of it,” so to speak. It might take a few decades or even a few centuries, but the pillars are tumbling and crashing into one another. And instead of trying to curry favor with a people who’ve clearly demonstrated they hate every atom of your being, you wash your hands of them and have nothing more to do with them.
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Thanks @Mz.Nikita and @sharinalr
Just doing some reading for class and came across this quote. Very appropriate in soo many ways. I knew that I had to share.
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@King; I don’t know what to make of that photo. It’s despicable i saw it on another website never knew if it was real or if this was something of a sick joke. It’s utterly appalling.
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@ sharinalr
I’m sure you are right. Its always been, but boy, to have to SEE it! It’s unnerving, isn’t it?
@ Mary Burrell
It seems to me that someone needs to get to the bottom of it. Who is the Black “animal” being gown as prey for the two policemen? Under what circumstances was this photo taken? Was it coerced? This isn’t something that should be allowed to simply fade away without further explanation.
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@King; One comment board i was on we were having this same discussion and it was a split among the posters if this was some sick joke or if this poor man had really been brutalized by these racist cops. Whatever it is it is disgusting and yes something needs to be done but it just goes with the rest of the deplorable actions of racist whites in America. If they brutalize and kill black people with impunity nothing will be done about this disgusting photograph. I wouldn’t hold my breath.
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“Pumpkin:
i’m sick of this. i’m sick of all of this. our lives aren’t valued, they never have been. the marching and kumbayaing isn’t working. change tactic. I vote for Marcus Garveyism.”
This all day. This, this and more this.
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@ Candy-it sounds like an interesting class! @ Diasporan-I have been thinking and encouraging this for sometime, as well..
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@King
“I’m sure you are right. Its always been, but boy, to have to SEE it! It’s unnerving, isn’t it?”—Yes, but it also is a matter of feeling tricked. Naive. All this going on around me and living in so much of a bubble to believe it was fine. Sigh*
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@Candy
I personally appreciate you sharing.
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[…] Warren (Dotham, AL) 2012: Justin Slipp (New Orleans, LA) 2012: Kendrec McDade (Pasadena, CA) 2012: Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell (Cleveland, OH) 2012: Nehemiah Dillard (Gainesville, FL) 2012: Ramarley Graham (New York, NY) 2012: […]
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[…] Warren (Dotham, AL) 2012: Justin Slipp (New Orleans, LA) 2012: Kendrec McDade (Pasadena, CA) 2012: Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell (Cleveland, OH) 2012: Nehemiah Dillard (Gainesville, FL) 2012: Ramarley Graham (New York, NY) 2012: […]
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[…] Warren (Dotham, AL) 2012: Justin Slipp (New Orleans, LA) 2012: Kendrec McDade (Pasadena, CA) 2012: Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell (Cleveland, OH) 2012: Nehemiah Dillard (Gainesville, FL) 2012: Ramarley Graham (New York, NY) 2012: […]
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