Jamar Clark (1991- ) is an unarmed Black American man who was shot in the head by police in north Minneapolis at 1.00am on Sunday November 15th 2015. The police say he is alive at the hospital. The hospital refuses to talk. His family says he is brain dead.
The police say that Clark was fighting them when their gun went off. The bullet struck him in the head.
Witnesses say that Clark had been handcuffed, knocked to the ground and then shot in the head “execution style”. There were dozens of people there at the time.
Jason Sole, criminal justice chair for the Minneapolis NAACP:
“Every witness account I heard said he was handcuffed. Every witness account. Put a knee on him and shot in the head. That’s the account I’ve heard from young people, older people, etc.”
The police deny he was handcuffed.
How it started: Clark was fighting with his girlfriend. The police and the ambulance arrived. When the paramedics were checking her out and putting her in the ambulance, he continued to argue with her. The police say they were trying to calm him down when he started to fight them.
Clark was out on probation, having been found guilty earlier in the year of making “terroristic threats”.
Two unnamed officers have been put on paid leave. The police will not say who they are.
The state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) is investigating. They are part of the Department of Public Safety.
Video: The police will not say if they have any video.
- body cameras: some Minneapolis police officers wear body cameras. It is unknown if any at the scene did.
- security cameras: there was one near the scene. The BCA told its owner not to talk
- citizen video: some of it has come to light already, but nothing damning so far.
Protest: The following afternoon 250 people marched from the scene of the crime to the police headquarters of the 4th precinct. They were led by Black Lives Matter and the NAACP. They banged on the doors of the precinct to be let in. About 20 of them staged a sit-in at the entryway, demanding to know who killed Jamar Clark. They stayed overnight.
Other demands:
- The police to make public what video they have.
- An independent investigation, not one by another police agency.
- The press to cover eyewitness testimony, not just the police account.
- Full community oversight with full disciplinary powers.
- Police officers to live in the community they serve.
On Monday, the 16th, the mayor asked the US Justice Department for a civil rights investigation.
A decade ago, Minneapolis set up a civilian review board in the wake of a drug raid gone bad. Like most such boards, it is apparently toothless.
In 2013, the police killed Terrance Franklin. It went to a grand jury. The grand jury believed the police, as they almost always do. The police got off.
– Abagond, 2015.
Update (November 18th): Jamar Clark died last night of a gun shot wound to the head. The BCA has named two police officers as responsible: Officer Mark Ringgenber and Officer Dustin Schwarze. Both have been police officers for seven years. They have been with the Minneapolis police for 13 months each. More.
Update (March 30th 2016): No charges will be brought against the two White killer cops. According to the state of Minnesota’s investigation, Clark was not handcuffed and had his hand on one of the officer’s guns and would not let go. The FBI investigation is still open. More.
Sources: AP, Time, Daily Mail, CBS News, Heavy.com.
See also:
- grand jury
- police brutality
- domestic violence
- NAACP
- Black Lives Matter
- The police
Abagond, have you seen this?: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/us-police-killings-tips?CMP=ema_b-counted1k_c-us_g-1&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=1%2c000+and+Counting&utm_term=137745&subid=2173732&CMP=
I wanted to post a link to this post there, but thought you should (if you wanted to) — in case they wanted to follow-up.
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@ Deb
I know that site very well. Clark would not count (yet) since he is still alive.
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@abagond
Oh, okay. I hope he lives, but after being shot in the damned head, “still alive” vs. “killed” seems awfully irrelevant to me. {smdh}
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This is exactly why we need cameras. But really, all those people were there and there’s no video footage? I find that hard to believe.
@Lord of Mirkwood
What poor white person has been shot execution style while in handcuffs according to witnesses?
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[…] Jamar Clark https://abagond.wordpress.com/2015/11/17/jamar-clark/ […]
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@ Pumpkin
I do not think so, but then I think they have every right to be angry, like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).
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@ Pumpkin
I never thought of it that way: not only is “Black lives matter” a Black framing of the issue of police brutality, it is a Black female one, insofar as women are traditionally the givers and nurturers of life (mother, nurse, teacher), men more its defenders (soldier, policeman). A male approach would tend to be more confrontational, like the Black Panthers, and therefore be less successful since it is meeting a White male power structure on its own, more powerful, terms.
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I think this will be one of those matters where the truth is unfortunately obfuscated by sensationalist media coverage and/or law enforcement dishonesty, leaving the public is left with hollow partisan bickering based on sheer speculation. I would note a few things:
Jamar Clark has a history of beating up his woman. He is a low-life scum.
That alone does not rise to the level of capital offense, and no matter how despicably he may be as a human being, the police do not have authority to turn themselves into judge, jury, and executioner.
Conversely, if he was in fact assaulting EMT and/or police, the police are correct to use force to stop that. In fact we hire police for the specific purpose of using force in those circumstances. And the force they use needs to always be at least one level higher than the force that is being leveled against them, because in the end their job is to win the fight. Period.
Conversely, police cannot misuse their authority, yet they do it all the time. One way they often do this is by arrogating to themselves the right to use the tools of force given to them along with their badge to avenge personal anger or hostility. They absolutely can never be allowed to do this. The bargain for giving them these tools is that they can only be used where duty requires it.
In most cases the envelope of constitutional rights is pushed by people who are at least unsympathetic, often downright despicable. But it is hugely important to mind the edges of that envelope because government (and police is government), left to its own devices, will erode those edges and squeeze them toward the middle. Therefore, what is really necessary is a cold, objective review of the facts to “Monday morning quarterback” what occurred.
Unfortunately, we cannot trust (a) the media, nor (b) law enforcement, to engage in a cold, objective review of the facts. It is highly likely the public may never know the facts.
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“Unfortunately, we cannot trust (a) the media, nor (b) law enforcement, to engage in a cold, objective review of the facts. It is highly likely the public may never know the facts.”
.
The above describes the hallmarks of a corrupt society existing in the early stages of a police state.
No more war protests. No more photos taken of Amerikan coffins coming back from overseas. No more public dissent (free speech) unless it’s in a state regulated free speech zone. If you protest, you will be subject to arrest. Police have a free reign to handle citizens however they see fit, regardless of the law.
And it’s going to get worse.
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@ Ab – You know… I never thought of it as a Black women’s organization until now.
Looking at their site lately it seems to have become so all-inclusive that I have no idea what they are battling. (Now I am a Cis-male? What the heck is that?)
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The are testing the ground for future fascism using black lives. When they finally establish their power well enough everyone will be killed no matter what color they are. Too much competition in the world market but the Greedy still want more. When they start war again all Americans will be demonized by Fox News and fear and torture will be used to keep people quiet.
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@ Pumpkin
…there isn’t this same mentality to defend Black women when Black women are brutalized
Really strange, I must say.
All over the world menfolk see as a honor to defend “their” womenfolk.
To defend “their” women is to defend their sisters, their mothers, their lovers and their daughters.
It is what you see when White men “defend” White women, going even to the extent of murdering men of other races who dare to “disrespect” them. It’s very primeval, very basic and somewhat irrational. Maybe Freud could help explain that. Or Jung…
So, if you said that Black American men somehow have already given up the defense of Black American women then this is a sign of extreme weakness from their (men’s) part and I would be surprised if they weren’t aware of that (weakness). Sense of weakness and shame…
I only hope that the racist grip that holds the Black population back and maintains the Black menfolk unable to behave as protectors of their women soon will fade away and some kind of normalcy is restored inside this important segment of the American society.
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@ munubantu – There seem to be a lot of Black men absent from their families in some areas. I just got back from dropping off lunches to elderly ladies and their families and doing repairs around their homes. The thing is, these women have sons and grandsons who should be doing what I’m doing.
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[…] Source: Jamar Clark […]
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@ Uglyblackjohn
Cis male means you were born with a penis and identify as male. I wrote a post about those sort of people:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2014/01/c/cisgender/
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@ villagewriter
Terroristic policing of Black Americans goes back hundreds of years. The only difference now is that we have Twitter and cameras on our mobile phones. We no longer have to wait for the newspaper or the 11 o’clock news NOT to report it or just report the police cover-up.
More:
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@ Blanc2
“The public may never know” not because of the police or the press, but because they do not WANT to know. It is not 1993 any more.
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@Abagond
I agree. But look at it this way, corporations stole from African Americans from the days of slavery up to the 80s. They gave AAs bad loans, sold drugs in their neighborhoods, denied them jobs or gave them low paying jobs and restricted their access to healthy food. Now they are stealing from everyone. I think in a few years to come when tensions start getting high and a class war starts to rear its head, the police will beat up everyone who opposes the wealthy few. Is it too far fetched?
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“I think in a few years to come when tensions start getting high and a class war starts to rear its head, the police will beat up everyone who opposes the wealthy few. Is it too far fetched?”
.
Not too far fetched at all. The police are already beating/killing everyone. And the ones being mistreated aren’t opposing the wealthy (yet). They’re just the unfortunate practice dummies for that day when the police will be largely used as the first line of attack for that mission you just mentioned.
This is why they’re over equipped and permitted to practice playing judge, jury, executioner. The powers that are won’t reign in the police. They like them just fine – exactly the way they are, as enforcers for the elite.
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Update: Jamar Clark died last night of a gun shot wound to the head. The BCA has named two police officers as responsible: Officer Mark Ringgenber and Officer Dustin Schwarze. Both have been police officers for seven years. They have been with the Minneapolis police for 13 months each.
More:
http://www.fox9.com/news/51067870-story
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@abagond…and both, per the link, have been put on “standard administrative leave” — another paid vacation. {smdh}
Have you seen this?: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/11/18/my-white-neighbor-thought-i-was-breaking-into-my-own-apartment-nineteen-cops-showed-up/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_most
Please, do listen to the neighbor’s 911 call embedded in the article.
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@Pumpkin…I’m mad as hell at both of them! And yes, the Henry Louis Gates incident immediately came to mind as I read this, particularly after reading the comments where somebody suggested the Black, female police chief should call her up and apologize over coffee (I really gotta stop reading the vitriol in comments on articles like that one — they wear me the hell out)!
But please, don’t be frightened dear Sister, as that is the goal of all this siege-mentality madness going on against us. Fear, through terror, is the only weapon they have against us — and they know it. Instead, stand in the history and strength of our ancestors who prevailed, in spite of the fear and terror. Be prepared, armed with, the knowledge of the laws they’ve instituted (to protect their damned selves), as well as all the technological toys they’ve sold us that they never dreamed we’d use against them.
“white men are so hostile to black women, especially white police officers.”
Full disclosure, Sister, I’m married to a society-identified “white man” (who’s in fact Italian-American, but enjoys white privilege — at least until they know he’s married to me!), so I have to add the qualifier, “many white men” to your statement. After 35 years, I can’t cosign the generalization however — I deeply feel you. But, when it comes to the police, I think we have to consider that “thin blue line” that has convinced many of our brothers & sisters, both Black and Brown, that they need to act like savages to feel important and get them dollar bills (look at Freddy Gray’s indictees: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/22/us/six-baltimore-officers-indicted-in-death-of-freddie-gray.html?_r=0 — or the two Abagond wrote about on the Jeremy Mardis post).
Peace…
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Pumpkin,
“I want to know people’s thoughts on this. Do you feel that Black women give more than we receive in terms of the #Blacklivesmatter movement and do you think that it hurts the image of BLack women to get into these conflicts with men of other races on behalf of Black men?
Do you think it emasculates Black men?
If this is not the appropriate topic to bring this up on, I’ll find another one, but please Abagond let me know if it’s off topic so I can copy and paste it to another thread before you delete it.”
Do black women give more than we receive? Of course.
We live in a society that privileges men over women. Black society and society in general.
Are black women emasculating black men by protesting police brutality? This question is an example of how black men are privileged over black women. A black man’s sexist feelings are more important than a black woman’s safety.
A black woman only has as much right to life and the pursuit of happiness as a man is willing to give it to her. As woman am I not allowed to have agency of my own? Can I not pursue my own happiness? The only thing I need black men to do for me is stay out of my way.
I think women should stop putting the needs of men before their own. Women need to stop privileging men. Just like black ppl need to stop privileging white ppl. We decry men and whites as sexist and racist while we perpetuate racism and sexism against ourselves.
It is kind of crazy to see all of these black women protesting this man’s death when there have been no protests when black men abuse and kill black women. Black lives should matter no matter who is doing the killing.
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@Agabond: perhaps more like 1984. The very first thing the police do in these circumstances is begin building a record. They are trained professionals at this. Sometimes the record they build is a lie, sometimes the truth, and sometimes a mixture. In every case their record is engineered to satisfy the elements of the rule that will ultimately be applied. Their heavily unionized environment has created a byzantine structure that enables them to do most of this in secret, behind closed doors.
The eyewitness testimony as reported in the media is scattershot and will vary over time and among witnesses. The media does not actually care about the victim; it is only interested in sensational headlines to sell copy. “If it bleeds, it leads.” Because of their whore’s nature, the media will undermine the credibility of eyewitnesses.
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@munubantu
“It’s very primeval, very basic and somewhat irrational. Maybe Freud could help explain that. ”
Dr. Welsing, MD explained that and why black men in the West don’t defend black women.
@Abagond
In the article you linked, I thought it was insane that “Evans did not confirm whether Clark was unarmed, but said there were no weapons found at the scene.”
What’s so hard about confirming the fact that he was unarmed? It’s psychotic behaviour.
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@ Pumpkin
People may care more about black men because they bring more money, most of the athletes in football and basketball are black men. We see more black men on tv, video games, movies, and sports than black women. Visibility is the advantage they have, people will not care about or protect what they do not see. Since black men have more platforms they will be seen as more valuable and their lives more precious than black women’s. When they die people will focus on what they could’ve been, (an athlete, a college student, or a thug to some) meanwhile when black women die most won’t even know her name.
Black women have always fought against injustice, I would never ask black women to stop, but just choose who u fight for and know why. It is tempting to say if they are not there for u don’t be there for them, but I think most black women are fighting for their sons, they know that even if a black man is killed isn’t their relative they know it could be next time.
I think the reason some of these black men would not come to black women’s defense is one because of desensitization and also they are used to the women in their lives handling everything. It seems most people will only step up when they have to, when nobody else is around then and only then will they do something. I know they did studies on it where people did nothing because they assumed someone else will, I show where nobody called 911 because they thought the other neighbors would and the woman was found stabbed to death days later.
While black women are out there starting movements, protesting, and jumping in front of mics, black men will feel as if they won’t have to. People may think well if black women are showing up for everybody else they must have themselves together because u don’t go clean someone else’s home while yours is a mess. Black women are like that friend that people use and go to when things are bad but the moment black women need help the same ppl will make excuses and are nowhere to be found.
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Black women shouldn’t get into confrontations with other races of men on behalf of black men because it is a lose lose. Unless it is a child and u confronting someone about ur child that is different, other than that no. I will not confront a grown man on behalf of another grown man, i’m not the go between and most of the time ppl shoot the messenger. I don’t care about the angry black woman bs that is used to shut us up, “angry” black women have been the ones to get things done like Harriett Tubman and Ida B. Wells. People just say angry black woman to silence our argument against injustice, while not having to come up with a good response. When they attack ur attitude or ur looks then u know they have nothing.
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“Black women can help, like I said by doing the “Black Mothers Against Police Brutality (BMAPB)” and raising money, writing letters, doing administrative stuff, but being out in the streets arguing and getting into fights with white men when we have no support, I just don’t think is safe for us. ”
They have support. The support of all of the other women protesting with them. Protesting isn’t safe for anyone black men or black women. Black men’s masculinity hasn’t protected them yet. I feel like you are missing the entire point of the protest. They are protesting because we aren’t safe. Not protesting isn’t going to make us any safer. I feel sorry that you feel you have to wait on someone else to speak up for you. That your happiness is someone else’s responsibility. If you are unwilling to demand you be treated like a full human being then you are dehumanizing yourself. All of this talk of the proper place of women in this movement is just another means to keep us oppressed. A way to limit or completely incapacitate us. To destroy the movement. I promise you won’t gain anything you seek by indulging in sexism. It wasn’t meant to benefit you. I know you feel that if you just go along with men or white people then you will be safe. But you won’t be. You are just a pawn. You are Ben Carson, Larry Elder, Herman Caine. Trying to seek salvation by throwing the rest of us under the bus. I’m not very religious but a scripture that captures my sentiment
“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.”
You seem to need validation from men and white people alike. Until you get over that you’re going to be very miserable.
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Pumpkin,
“I just think more Black women need to revise our strategy for this BLM movement.”
Revise it to what? You think if these women were more lady like then the police would stop killing innocent black people? Seems like you want them to revise the strategy to sit down and shut up. You want all the benefits of the struggle without the risk. You should be applauding these women for doing what you are too afraid to do. Don’t try to diminish their strength because you are weak. You don’t have the same goals as these women. They want to be treated like full citizens and full human beings. You want to be a trophy wife. Which is fine, but don’t act like that’s what the rest of us aspire to.
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The entire police force needs to be taken apart and rebuilt.
Deprived neighbourhoods need to be provided with direct government funding.
A presidential apology needs to be issued and reparations need to be paid.
America needs to come to terms with its past as a slave economy, clean out every skeleton in its closet.
And, of course, every single encounter that a police officer has with a citizen (black or white) needs to be video recorded.
Those videos need to be then uploaded to the internet and available for anyone to watch.
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Police officers need to know, in the back of their mind, that they will be held accountable for every encounter they have with a member of the public.
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I don’t think there is anything wrong with protesting, but not every battle is won on the front lines alone. You need strategy, awareness, and a goal. Protesting brings awareness to these issues, but once u have the attention what do u do with it?
A plan of action in place would be best to utilize the attention while u have it, because we know the media is always on to the next one, new hashtags every week. Raise money or donate then have to decide where it goes and how to benefit the community.
Goals will help to keep people focused on the bigger picture, what is the goal?
Is it to end police brutality, have equality, have economic independence? Then it is a matter of being realistic, of these things what can we control? We know we can’t control how other people view us or how they treat us, (i know some feel u teach people how to treat u but that only works if the person has a conscience and the consequences deter them). We can control who we support, spend time with, and what we spend our money on.
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“also anyone ever notice how there’s always a majority black football team, but hardly any black female cheerleaders.”
Noticed that too, maybe because the cheerleaders have a easier time getting close to the football players and maybe being their mistress or whatever. which means gifts, status, and money. And also they know a black woman would go hard on the routine and make them look mediocre. Or even a black man can out dance them http://www.buzzfeed.com/candacelowry/a-football-player-interrupted-a-cheerleader-dance-break-and#.pdx08VZw0
i’ll take one of him. I know this off topic.
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Pumpkin,
You keep talking about black women being unprotected like protesting is what is making black women unsafe. Or that Black men can and should protect black women. They can’t and they dont, but the most important point I want to get across to you is that keeping you safe isn’t their job. It is the job of the government and the job of law enforcement. Black women should be protesting the justice department for not keeping us safe from violent men be they cops, gang bangers, boyfriends, or husbands.
You are saying since black women have no protection, no right to justice that we should just be more ladylike meaning not be seen or be heard then somehow we will magically get protection and justice.
Your “strategy” isn’t a strategy for progress it is the strategy of continued oppression. It is the status quo. And is the antithesis to the goal of these women.
Your goal and the goal of these women is not the same. They want freedom and you want black men to be willing to die and get beat in your name. They want justice by any means necessary and you want black men to love you. They want to be human and you want to be feminine. The funny thing is your strategy of looking as pathetic and defenseless as possible is not gonna make black men love you.
In summary, what you want is not what these women want. BLM is very much a feminist(or should I say womanist) movement. You don’t seem to be a fan of either.
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Pumpkin,
“Rather have them safe and doing their part not in the street. I don’t think raising money or writing letters is any less important than being out in the streets, sorry you don’t; agree. I actually thinking raising money is more important because money is power in this society. Look at how much power that black football players at Mizzou had, we need more of that, not running in the streets.
I still say black men should be the ones on the front, but that’s my opinion.”
Your female relatives aren’t safe. Not protesting will just make sure they remain unsafe. Do you get that? Why is it OK for black men to be attacked for protesting, but not you? Why can a man put his life on the line for what he believes but not a woman?
You on some Orwellian bs. Oppression is freedom.
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Pumpkin,
You are entitled to your opinion. And I’m entitled to point out how your opinion is wrong.
I don’t know you, but I know your opinion on the matter. I know what your goal is. You’ve said it yourself. Your goal is for black men to protect you.
It is not about what being feminine means to me. It is about what it means to society at large which is what you subscribe to. It is what you are telling these women to do. To not be seen, to not be heard, to take up as little space as possible. To be hidden from the world by a shield of Black men who control what and who goes in but also what and who gets out. Being feminine means having no direct control over your own life. Only working from behind the scenes through manipulation and seduction of men. It means having your worth measured by how much attention you get from men. It means only existing as long as a man’s thoughts or eyes are on you.
Again your goal isn’t the goal of blm.
Your goal and the goal of BLM is not the same.
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Pumpkin,
“and also I’m human whether i’m decidedly “feminine,” or not. I’m human whether I’m a “trophy wife,” whether I’m running in the streets protesting, whether I’m sitting at home. My humanity isn’t continent on a label that is put on me.”
But is it feminine to be running in the streets protesting? To be shouting down white men?
Is it feminine to risk your life for freedom and justice?
Is it human to do those things?
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@ Deb
She went to Dartmouth and has a Duke MBA, so she has nothing to complain of. The police are just doing their job.
/sarcasm off.
Thank you.
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@Agabond – re: the burglary call. How many actual burglars stand for a long periods of time in broad daylight at a visible front door with a locksmith to break in for the purpose of committing a burglary? The 911 caller is a bigot.
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@abagond….You’re welcome.
“She went to Dartmouth and has a Duke MBA, so she has nothing to complain of. The police are just doing their job.
/sarcasm off.”
I know right???!!!
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@Blanc2
Burglaries occur in broad daylight all the time, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with calling the police if a burglary was genuinely suspected. Yes the neighbor could well have been a bigot, but it may not have been clear that a locksmith was breaking in. So it could be reasonable suspicion.
The problem was the reaction of the police. I’ve been in this same circumstance, and the officers who arrived at my house immediately asked for identification, which I provided, and they were helpful to me once they identified that I lived there.
19 cops was completely unnecessary, and those scumbags didn’t care that this woman lived there. They violated her rights, and she should sue the pants off the City and file a separate civil suit against the individual officers.
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@abagond…speaking of Dartmouth, Georgetown (to which I am still indebted for an MA in Journalism, after taking a leave of absence after one year), Yale & Ivy Leagues et al — some interesting commentary: http://www.childrensdefense.org/newsroom/child-watch-columns/child-watch-documents/UglyTruthsItsWayPastTimeforAmericatoFace.html#comment
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Update:
There is no dashcam or body cam video. There is some video from a security camera.
Three protesters were kicked out of a city council meeting on Friday. They want the video to be made public. The mayor said that would jeopardize the investigation (aka police cover-up?).
The two police officers have yet to be outed. The police will not even say what race they are.
The police union is using the old “he tried to reach for the officer’s gun” excuse, the same one used in the Terrance Franklin shooting.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/11/jamar-clark-protesters-kicked-out-of-minneapolis-city-council-meeting/
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@ Deb
Wow. I knew some of that but not all of it. Thanks. I did a post in that vein, based in part on Wilder’s book:
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Pumpkin
I have seen that. It is a classic. I agree: if she were White, he would not have called. He would have given her the benefit of the doubt instead of suspecting the worst.
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I don’t understand why people are making this such a big deal. The police shoot more white people than black and you never hear a thing about it. Native American’s were slaves also and had their land took but no one cares. They couldn’t even speak their language. They still are looked at badly to this day but no one helps them. Every other race has interrupter’s and are catered to. You cant even say the pledge to America anymore in school. This world is going down the drain fast. The cops are doing there jobs and the ones that hate them and want to protest are criminals cause they bust them. If I light a fire in the street I would get arrested but I guess that’s cause I am not black and have a job. I am sure none of them will be charged for stopping traffic on 94 either. Please start a group named WORKING LIVES MATTER.
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@everyone
See what ‘stop police hate’ just posted?
And you think we will ever be viewed as anything but ‘other’?
He may be a troll, or he might just be what the average white person thinks.
The Empire is white and, according to the Empire, black men deserve to be shot.
And we are proud of the Civil Rights movement?
Acquire capital, pass on knowledge, but most importantly:
Study the Game.
‘Do not be afraid of the darkness, revel in it. For, whilst you are out of sight, you will have the opportunity to build your strength.’
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@ somaliprince
WOW your reply sounds like something a welfare baby would say. Why are you in America if you hate white people? For your info I am native aka ‘indian’ so you must be the troll or that’s just an average comment from a somali. The only reason you are mad is cause the truth hurts! ALL LIVES MATTER!
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@Stop police hate
I doubt you are native. Too much in your comment gives it away. At any rate I will respond to your other babble when and if I decide to make time.
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@Stop police hate
You are making it too easy for me. The ugliness of your writing, the wanton capitalisation, the lazy onomatopoeia, the base abbreviations, the poor punctuation, the crass ad hominem, the weak rhetorical question, the projection of your own emotional state onto mine, where do I begin?
Where do I end? How far do I push? Do I leave you feeling angered or feeling foolish? Do I try to convince you or do I instead, let you box yourself into your own corner?
Is the art of debating even to be used for such means? Am I in danger of misusing its power?
So many questions. Your vulgarity has left me feeling dizzy. Can words not be beautiful? Must you really let emotions uglify your prose?
I have formed so many preconceptions of you based on it, and I know I should not but as I said before, you are making it too easy for me.
I can see you now, sitting at your computer, a spotty aged teenager with badly formed ideas, undeniably white.
Perhaps it is your father, or a close acquaintance, who said to you ‘All Lives Matter’ and now, you are desperate to do that person justice.
Because you look up to that person and whatever that person has told you cannot be anything but true.
And now, here you are, confronted with an opposite reality, you do not know what to make of it.
And here I am, deciding what to do with you.
You are a product of the system, I cannot blame you. It is pity that I feel for you more than anything.
Move along young person, I have decided to spare you.
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[…] 15th 2015: Jamar Clark, 24, Minneapolis, MN, […]
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Update (March 30th 2016): No charges will be brought against the two White killer cops. According to the state of Minnesota’s investigation, Clark was not handcuffed and had his hand on one of the officer’s guns and would not let go. The FBI investigation is still open.
More:
http://www.startribune.com/No-charges-against-police-in-Jamar-Clark-shooting-death/373979481/
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There is a huge amount of coverage of this locally. For his part, the prosecutor laid out the factual basis for his determination in meticulous detail, and naturally if everything he says is factually true then his decision was probably the correct one.
However, the prosecutor’s version of the facts is largely based on and parallel with the version as reported by the two white police officers involved. Police lie to justify their actions. Police also tell the truth. They are professional witnesses who learn to shape their statements so that in court they will be consistent with their actions. It can be difficult to determine when they truthing or lying. The law enforcement industry generally does a grossly inadequate job of weeding bad apples out of the force, in large part because of the public union environment in which cops enjoy de facto immunity from firing except in the most extreme circumstances. Hence a general current of mistrust of law enforcement, including by yours truly.
There was a lot of eyewitness testimony by mostly African American witnesses that contradicted the cops’ version of the facts. There was inconsistency among and between various eyewitness on some details (his hands were cuffed in front of him; his hands were cuffed behind him; he wasn’t cuffed but he was restrained; etc.) . There is also at least one video (from a security cam on the back of the ambulance) that shows an apparently calm Jamar Clark standing outside the ambulance door, in contrast to the statements of the EMS driver that he was agitated and pounding on the door and shouting.
In other words, the prosecutor believed only the two white cops and ignored all of the eyewitnesses. If instead one were to give more or less equal credence to the cops and the eyewitnesses, the factual truth about this matter would be substantially in question. Without an established factual truth, the question whether the officers acted correctly cannot be answered.
One of the main uses of trial is to sort out factual truth where it cannot be sorted out by investigation, for example because of a surfeit of conflicting witness testimony. This reason alone augurs in favor of putting these officers on trial.
I realize that Jamar Clark was a lowlife piece of shit. He had a criminal record. He had just beaten up his girlfriend badly enough to need hospitalization. Any male who beats up a woman is not a man, and does not deserve life, in my version of morality. He was drunk and high at the time.
None of that rises to the level of capital offense in this nation. The envelope of Constitutional rights is usually tested and pushed by people we don’t like. It is critical to push that envelop because if it is not pushed the tendency of government, and especially law enforcement, is to gradually erode those boundaries and shrink the rights of all citizens.
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@ Blanc2
Great comment!
Cases like this should automatically go to trial simply due to the conflict of interest of the police (the government) investigating themselves.
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Forgot to add a few things.
One cop said Clark grabbed his gun during the struggle. Clark’s DNA was found on the gun and leather holster/belt area. His fingerprints were not. The DNA could have gotten there many ways: drops of sweat, a strand of hair, etc. The cop and Clark were struggling, and in fact the cop was on top of Clark, trying to pin him down, and Clark was trying to get away. In other words, that part of the evidence is more consistent with Clark NOT going for the gun, but rather simply struggling in general to get away.
Also, eyewitnesses (plus the time line) suggest that instead of attempting to de-escalate the situation, the cops were immediately aggressive and hostile toward Clark, moving quickly to dominate him, classic aggressive cop stuff. He was shot like a minute or so after the cops arrived. Acting as judge, jury, and executioner, as cops so often do.
A perennial and legitimate complaint within the African American community is that there are more deadly encounters between cops and black people because cops are quicker to do this with black people than with white. We see on social media all the time examples of white criminals – including mass shooters who are still armed and who just killed people – peacefully disarmed and arrested by cops, next to stories of black people accused of petty crimes getting beaten up to the point of hospitalization by hyperaggressive cops. Cops, for their part, say that black Americans are more often belligerent and aggressive toward cops. I reckon both are true to some extent. This is a classic vicious cycle.
The law currently says that a cop can in fact be hyperaggressive, incite somebody to violence, and then kill him. Cops rely on this rule all the time. They routinely goad people into conflict to create an excuse to hurt them. However, this is a minimum constitutional standard. States are free to impose higher standards on their police. As a philosophical matter, do we really want to live in a society where our law enforcement is able to do this? Because we know how this plays out in real life — the downtrodden and marginalized will be the primary victims of this kind of behavior.
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@Blanc2
I love how you went deep into this subject.
I want to add to your comment about police as professional witnesses. Frank Serpico, the subject of the movie Serpico, that dealt with New York police corruption in the 1970s penned an article entitled When Cops Cry Wolf.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/north-charleston-shooting-116871
In the article, Serpico examines the prevalence of police testilying or intentional perjury and obstruction under oath. This is how Serpico describes this practice:
I am in total agreement with your summation:
“It is critical to push that envelop because if it is not pushed the tendency of government, and especially law enforcement, is to gradually erode those boundaries and shrink the rights of all citizens.”
One thing (among many) that bothers me about police murders with impunity is that there is absolutely no due process. The police take it upon themselves to be law enforcer, district attorney, jury, judge and executioner all in the space of a few minutes. The murdered persons are not afforded the rights of process through the legal system that is supposedly the right of all citizens.
Of course we no longer live in a democratic republic….
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Police know that every statement they make after an encounter with a citizen in which force was deployed might end up being evidence in court. They are trained to make their every statement in a way that will play well to a potential jury. In fact part of their job description is testifying as a witness in cases against people they arrest. They are in fact professional witnesses.
Many police tell the truth in these statements. Some lie. Because they are trained in the grammar and structure of these statements, it can be difficult or impossible to determine the difference. This is exacerbated because police can use their tools of force to control the physical scene and the investigation of that scene. We have seen instances (from citizen video) of police altering the scene to make the physical scene consistent with their statements about the events.
This is why it is often said that police are “professional liars”. It’s not because all cops always lie, but rather when they do lie, they do it using the tools and skills of their profession.
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[…] Terence Crutcher (Tulsa, OK) 2015: Jamar Clark (Minneapolis, MN) 2015: India Kager (Virginia Beach, VA) 2015: Christian Taylor (Arlington, TX) […]
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