Police Interactions.

[hanimmal]

https://apnews.com/article/shootings-police-jacob-blake-kenosha-rusten-sheskey-0324120f7524162d89424ac89e2aba00

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — The Kenosha police officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times last month told investigators he thought Blake was trying to abduct one of his own children and that he opened fire because Blake started turning toward the officer while holding a knife, the officer’s lawyer contends.

Brendan Matthews, the attorney for Officer Rusten Sheskey and the Kenosha police union, told CNN that when Sheskey arrived at the scene on Aug. 23 in response to a call from a woman who said Blake was at her home and shouldn’t be there, he heard a woman say, “He’s got my kid. He’s got my keys.”

Sheskey saw Blake put a child in the SUV as he arrived, but he didn’t know that two other children were also in the back seat, Matthews said. He said Sheskey told investigators he opened fire because Blake “held a knife in his hand and twisted his body toward” the officer, and that he didn’t stop until he determined Blake “no longer posed an imminent threat.”

Matthews said if Sheskey had allowed Blake to leave and something happened to the child, “the question would have been ‘Why didn’t you do something?’”

Cellphone video captured by a bystander and posted online shows Sheskey and another officer follow Blake with their guns drawn as he walks around the front of the parked SUV, opens the driver’s side door and lean into the vehicle. Sheskey, who is white, then opened fire, hitting the Black man seven times and leaving him paralyzed from the waist down, according to his family members and lawyer.

The shooting sparked outrage and led to several nights of protests and unrest, including a night in which authorities say an Illinois 17-year-old shot and killed two protestersand wounded a third.

Ben Crump, an attorney for Blake’s family, did not immediately respond to a Sunday email seeking comment about Matthews’ interview and his voicemail wasn’t accepting new messages. But he previously said Blake was only trying to break up a domestic dispute that day and that he did nothing to provoke police, adding that witnesses didn’t see him with a knife.

Blake’s uncle, Justin Blake, said Saturday that the allegation that Blake was attempting to kidnap his own child was false, the Kenosha News reported.

“That’s ridiculous,” Justin Blake said. “It’s gaslighting. Outright lies.”

The bystander who recorded the shooting, 22-year-old Raysean White, said he saw Blake scuffling with three officers and heard them yell, “Drop the knife! Drop the knife!” before gunfire erupted. White said he didn’t see a knife in Blake’s hands.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice, which is leading the investigation, previously said in a news release that a knife was found in the vehicle, but it didn’t say whether Blake had been holding it at any point during the confrontation or whether police knew it was there before Sheskey shot him.

In a statement previously released by Matthews on behalf of the police union, Matthews said Blake was armed with a knife but that officers didn’t see it until Blake reached the passenger side of the vehicle. As Blake opened the driver’s door of the SUV, Sheskey pulled on Blake’s shirt and then opened fire. Three of Blake’s children were in the backseat.

The mother of the three children, who called police that day, filed a complaint against Blake that had led to felony charges being filed in July accusing him of sexually assaulting a woman in May. Blake, who was wanted on a warrant for those charges when police arrived at the scene Aug. 23, pleaded not guilty to the charges earlier this month via video from from his hospital bed. A trial date was set for Nov. 9.

Sheskey and the other two officers who were at the scene were placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

 

[hanimmal]

https://apnews.com/article/breonna-taylor-shootings-police-chicago-kentucky-6a0deae41c71e90c95effd4b566e1c72

CHICAGO (AP) — A man walks up to a squad car and opens fire on two sheriff’s deputies sitting inside. Two police officers are shot after responding to sounds of gunfire during a protest.

The shootings — one in Los Angeles and the other 2000 miles (3,200 kilometers) away in Louisville, Kentucky, less than two weeks later — are stark reminders of the dangers law enforcement officers face at a time when anger toward them in the wake of police killings of Black Americans, such as George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, has boiled over.

“I think it’s more than a suggestion that people are seeking to do harm to cops,” Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown told reporters at a recent briefing.

The suspect who shot the deputies in Los Angeles has not been caught, so it’s not known why he opened fire. And authorities have not said why the suspect in Louisville, who was captured, targeted the officers. Those shootings came during protests of a grand jury decision not to charge police for Taylor’s killing.

It is unclear how many times officers across the country have been shot at or otherwise attacked this year; police departments say such statistics are not readily available.

But the few statistics available, such as those compiled by the FBI, show so far this year 37 law enforcement officers in the United States have been “feloniously killed” in the line of duty compared to 30 such deaths at this point last year. There are some 8,000 police agencies around the country, and tens of thousands of uniformed law enforcement officers.

Experts and law enforcement officials agree that it is no coincidence that such violence comes at a time when Floyd’s killing and the resulting nationwide protests have thrust law enforcement officers into the spotlight. Videos of Black Americans being killed or wounded by police have played out across the nation’s television screens, including one that showed the last moments of Floyd’s life under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer and another showing a Kenosha, Wisconsin, officer firing seven bullets into Jacob Blake’s back, leaving him paralyzed.

In the ensuing demonstrations, police have both been criticized by those who saw their response in many cities as heavy-handed and the target of several violent attacks. Officers have been shot at, run over, blinded and jeered at by angry crowds who have wished for their deaths.

The very role of police has been called into question and become a central theme in this year’s election. President Donald Trump and his supporters believe violence against police deserves more attention in the national debate centered on addressing racial inequality in the criminal justice system.

“Part of what we are seeing is the response to images of officers killing people in ways the public sees as undeserved (and) rulings like the one in the Breonna Taylor case where it looks like the courts are willing to hold the safety of officers above the safety of civilians when they are often asleep and unarmed,” said Delores Jones-Brown, a retired professor from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

There’s no question that police officers all over the country feel they are under siege.

“We’re hyper vigilant anyway as a profession, but when officers are shot here and another parts of the country, it makes us even more concerned about the safety of our officers,” said Brown, Chicago’s police superintendent.

According to the police department there, 66 officers have been shot at thus far this year, compared to 17 at this point last year. Ten were struck by the bullets and wounded. Last year at this time, three officers had been hit.

In a “Potential Activity Alert,” first reported on by ABC 7 in Chicago, the FBI warned the police department that a person had notified the federal agency that several street gangs had “formed a pact to ‘shoot on-site any cop that has a weapon drawn on any subject in public.’”

Marshall Hatch, a prominent minister on Chicago’s West Side, condemned the violence against police, both because it is wrong and because it might put people at even greater risk of police violence.

“It’s going to make it more dangerous for everybody when you have police who are kind of spooked,” he said. “They are going to be hair-triggered.”

Further, Hatch said the attacks could undermine the political goals of liberal activists who are demanding police reform. Trump has made questions of safety and security central to his reelection bid, and continued violence against police could help draw voters to his law-and-order message.

National Black Lives Matter organizers also say they do not encourage or condone attacks on law enforcement or police supporters.

In New York, where a few officers have been shot this year, a pace similar to that of recent years, the police department said the protests have taken their toll.

“Since May 28th, 2020, our officers have been shot at, stabbed, assaulted with rocks, bricks and other debris, have been struck by vehicles and have even had Molotov cocktails (thrown) at them and inside their vehicles,” Sgt. Jessica McRorie, a spokesperson for the New York Police Department, said.

In all, 472 officers suffered some form of injury during the protests, she said.

 

[VILEPLUME]

 

[hanimmal]

https://apnews.com/article/louisiana-archive-a84a8378a6d6f9998dc9e980ab7228c5

In graphic, matter-of-fact chatter picked up on his body-camera mic, a Louisiana State trooper implicated in the death of a Black man can be heard talking of beating and choking him before “all of a sudden he just went limp.”

“I beat the ever-living f--- out of him,” the trooper said in a 27-second audio clip obtained by The Associated Press.

It is the most direct evidence to emerge yet in the death last year of Ronald Greene, which troopers initially blamed on injuries from a car crash at the end of a chase. The long-simmering case has now become the subject of a federal civil rights investigation and growing calls for authorities to release the full body-cam video.

Master Trooper Chris Hollingsworth, who himself died last week in a single-car crash, is heard recounting the May 2019 arrest of Greene in rural north Louisiana on audio provided to the AP through an intermediary who asked not to be identified because the case remains under investigation. Its veracity was confirmed by two law enforcement officials familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity. State Police did not dispute the tape’s authenticity.

“Choked him and everything else trying to get him under control,” Hollingsworth is heard saying, apparently in his part of a phone conversation with a colleague.

“We finally got him in handcuffs when a third man got there, and the son of a b----- was still fighting him, was still wrestling with him trying to hold him down,” he said. “He was spitting blood everywhere and all of a sudden he just went limp.”

“It is shocking that this evidence has been withheld for over a year,” said Lee Merritt, an attorney for Greene’s family. He called on state officials to immediately release the full footage.

Eugene Collins, president of the Baton Rouge branch of the NAACP, called Hollingsworth’s remarks “disgusting and morally bankrupt” and said the recording raised new questions about the actions of other law enforcement officials familiar with Greene’s death.

“How far did this coverup go?” Collins asked in an interview. “We are deeply saddened in the actions of State Police and call on the governor to take swift and aggressive action.”

Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, told reporters last week that footage of Greene’s arrest would be made public at the conclusion of the state and federal investigations.

Hollingsworth, who was white, was the only one of six troopers placed on leave last month following an administrative investigation that State Police did not open until late August.

He died in a single-car crash last week hours after he learned he was being fired for his role in the Greene case. Even after the trooper’s death, the State Police have refused to comment on Hollingsworth’s use of force or say which policies he was accused of violating in Greene’s arrest. The agency declined to comment due to ongoing investigations.

Initially, Greene’s family was told that the 49-year-old died from injuries suffered in a crash into a “shrub/tree” at the end of a long car chase that began over an unspecified traffic violation.

A State Police crash report obtained by AP omits any reference to troopers using force — or even arresting Greene — but notes that he was not wearing a seat belt in the crash. State Police later acknowledged there was a “struggle” with troopers who were trying to arrest him.

Greene’s family has a filed a federal wrongful-death suit alleging troopers “brutalized” him, shocked him three times with a stun gun and left him “beaten, bloodied and in cardiac arrest.”

Last month, they disputed the car crash narrative by releasing graphic photos of Greene’s body that appeared to show deep bruises on his face and cuts on his scalp, as well as photos of the SUV he was driving showing it with only minor damage.

Greene, a barber who had lived for years in central Florida, was not known to be wanted on any charges at the time of the police chase. He had a criminal record in Florida that included arrests ranging from theft to drug possession. Court records show he served more than a year in prison following a 2015 conviction for burglary and grand theft.

The State Police crash report does indicate whether alcohol or drug use was involved.

 

[hanimmal]

 

[captainmorgan]

Police=Organized Crime

Bridgeport Police Chief And Personnel Director Plead Guilty To Rigging City’s Police Chief Search

www.justice.gov

 

[go go kid]

i got a cannabis posession charge for having about 12 dead leaves of an old cannabis plant on my floor once, they couldent find anything else to charge me with, just wish id known my solicitor back then

 

[hanimmal]

i got a cannabis posession charge for having about 12 dead leaves of an old cannabis plant on my floor once, they couldent find anything else to charge me with, just wish id known my solicitor back then

One of the things I think might actually help out our nation a lot with police justice, would be that every citizens has access to a free public personal attorney their entire lives. Basically make it a public service provided by our government, someone to always have the best interest of their client, and get advice anytime they are thinking about putting a toe out of line to figure out the costs. And best part any police interaction would immediately follow with 'I want to contact my lawyer'.

The rich will still pay for them because they don't just get one, they want dozens of lawyers. And I can't imagine the lawyer special interests would fight it.

It would stop stupid things like busting someone for a few leaves.

 

[hanimmal]

 

[hanimmal]

https://apnews.com/article/college-football-shootings-police-football-archive-8ed6618a63822f470eece334ea48e90e
WOLFE CITY, Texas (AP) — A white police officer has been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a Black man following a reported disturbance at a convenience store in a small East Texas town over the weekend, authorities said.

Jonathan Price was walking away from Wolfe City Police Officer Shaun Lucas when Lucas opened fire Saturday night, killing Price, the Texas Rangers said.

Lucas, 22, was booked Monday into the Hunt County Jail on Monday night, the Texas Rangers said in a statement released by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Jail records show bail was set at $1 million.

“The preliminary investigation indicates that the actions of Officer Lucas were not objectionably reasonable,” the statement said.

It wasn’t immediately known if Lucas had a lawyer who could comment on his behalf.

According to the statement, Lucas responded to a disturbance call on Saturday night following a report of a possible fight. He encountered Price, 31, who was reportedly involved in the disturbance, and Price “resisted in a non-threatening posture and began walking away,” the Texas Rangers said.

Lucas used a stun gun before shooting Price, who was taken to a hospital and died, the statement said.

Police didn’t release details about the disturbance, but family and friends of Price said Monday that the one-time college football player was intervening in a domestic disturbance when he was shot.

“When police arrived, I’m told, he raised his hands and attempted to explain what was going on,” said civil rights attorney Lee Merritt in a Facebook posting. “Police fired Tasers at him and when his body convulsed from the electrical current, they ‘perceived a threat’ and shot him to death.”

After Lucas’ arrest was announced, Merritt posted: “This didn’t happen quickly. It should (have) happened the day he murdered JP. John should still be here.”

Price’s relatives and friends said Price, a Wolfe City employee, was a figure well-known about the closely knit community. The town has about 1,500 residents about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northeast of Dallas.

Price played football in 2008 for Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. Hardin-Simmons football coach Jesse Burleson tweeted that the university “lost one of our own in a terrible situation. Jonathan Price was an awesome young man during his time with Cowboy football.”

Former Major League Baseball third baseman Will Middlebrooks, who grew up with Price, said on Facebook: “I’m sick. I’m heartbroken... and I’m furious.” Middlebrooks started an online fundraiser for Price’s family that surpassed its $50,000 goal in less than 24 hours.

 

[hanimmal]

https://apnews.com/article/arrests-los-angeles-archive-98f37f2e5138eee87506bc36f2b4d4d7

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles police released shocking videoWednesday that captured a brutal attack on an officer inside a station last month, including footage from the officer’s own body-worn camera that shows a violent struggle for his gun.

The 21-minute video compilation of the Sept. 26 assault includes footage from a surveillance camera at the station and the body camera of Officer Anthony Freeman, as well as from the body cameras of officers who arrested suspect Jose Cerpa Guzman.

Freeman, a veteran of the department for more than 30 years, survived the attack. At one point, the graphic footage shows his blood dripping onto the lobby floor of the Harbor Station in the Sen Pedro area of Los Angeles as he shouts for an ambulance, breathing heavily and saying, “I’m starting to black out!”

Guzman, 29, was arrested after a brief vehicle pursuit — parts of the chase and the takedown were captured on camera — and authorities say they found Freeman’s gun in his truck.

Guzman is being held on $2.2 million bail, records show. He is scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 16 on charges of attempted murder on a peace officer and assault with a semiautomatic firearm, as well as robbery, evading and resisting an officer. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

“This was a brutal, unprovoked attack on one of our officers where the suspect clearly tried to kill a cop,” said Craig Lally, president of the union that represents rank-and-file officers, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, in a statement. “Thanks to the efficient and professional work of our officers, this menace is off of our streets and we hope he stays there. There should be no leniency for an attempted cop killer.”

The incident came two weeks after two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies were ambushed as they sat in their police vehicle in Compton, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of San Pedro. The officers suffered serious gunshot wounds but both have been released from a hospital. A 36-year-old man is charged in that attack.

Parts of the LAPD videos do not have sound, as the body-worn cameras had not yet been activated by the officers. When turned on, the cameras are able to save the video — but not the audio — from the two minutes prior to activation.

The video depicts Guzman punching Freeman and knocking him to the ground in a seemingly unprovoked attack. As Guzman grabs Freeman’s gun, the footage shows the officer’s hands around the suspect’s neck and then trying to pull the gun away. Guzman pistol-whipped him with the weapon before pointing it at Freeman’s chest.

Guzman ran out of the station as the watch commander, Sgt. Robin Aguirre, came into the lobby.

Freeman shouted to her “he got my gun!” and she followed Guzman outside, where they exchanged gunfire. Guzman sped away, prompting a pursuit from other officers nearby. They wrestle him into handcuffs as he wails and upbeat music nearby is heard in the background.

 

[Fogdog]

https://apnews.com/article/arrests-los-angeles-archive-98f37f2e5138eee87506bc36f2b4d4d7
View attachment 4707163

His body cam was on.

Imagine that.

 

[hanimmal]

 

[Fogdog]

The guy was stopped for jaywalking. Do those cops detain jaywalkers every time they see it happen? I don't think so.

We all know what is happening there.

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

The guy was stopped for jaywalking. Do those cops detain jaywalkers every time they see it happen? I don't think so.

We all know what is happening there.

Are they the fashion police, or acting on a "report". Cellphones are doing the job, social change in response to technology, unexpected consequences, equality under the law for all, the camera does not lie, it is completely objective and evidence too. Police reform is just one result of this little ubiquitous technological marvel of accountability and truth. Sometimes it's not just policy or even law, it's a modern version of the pen is mightier than the sword, the cellphone tames the cops.

Next up voice pattern recognition and a database for called in threats and racially motivated swatting, catch the fucks. If a phone app can identify a tune, it should be doable and be simpler than facial recognition. A robot could call likely suspects using clever ruses to obtain identified samples and store them for future reference like finger prints. I'm sure someone has such a thing, if the phone network audio bandwidth provided enough data to sample the voice.

 

[TrippleDip]

equality under the law for all, the camera does not lie, it is completely objective and evidence too. Police reform is just one result of this little ubiquitous technological marvel of accountability and truth. Sometimes it's not just policy or even law, it's a modern version of the pen is mightier than the sword, the cellphone tames the cops.

Next up voice pattern recognition and a database for called in threats and racially motivated swatting, catch the fucks. If a phone app can identify a tune, it should be doable and be simpler than facial recognition.

I never thought we would be in 100% agreement about something diy. Gives me hope. Cctvs for all! Given that cars kill around 40x as many people as cops we should start by lining the streets with them. As a bonus now we can get rid of the cops on the streets altogether.

 

[hanimmal]

The final moments of Stacy Kenny’s life are captured on a recorded 911 call. Kenny, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, begs an emergency operator to explain why she’s been pulled over. Amid screaming and rustling sounds, police officers smash the windows on her red Nissan, Taser her twice, punch her in the face more than a dozen times and try to pull her out by her hair.

But Kenny, 33, who legally had changed her gender but still appeared to be a man, was anchored to the car by a locked seat belt. Her life ends, as does the 911 call, when she tries to flee by driving away with one of the officers still inside the car. There’s a burst of gunfire, then an officer says: “We are all okay. Bad guy down.”

The 2019 death in Springfield, Ore., was one of 1,324 fatal shootings by police over the past six years that involved someone police said was in the throes of a mental health crisis — about a quarter of all fatal police shootings during that period, according to a Washington Post database.



The police encounter with Kenny began after she pulled to the side of the road of her own volition, which an officer thought was “weird,” so he pulled behind her to investigate. Her side-view mirrors were covered in duct tape, and she tossed out a small plastic noisemaker that made a high-pitched squeal seconds after the officer approached. Then she slowly pulled back into traffic, signs of mental distress that the Springfield Police Department acknowledged in an interview with The Washington Post.

“They are shooting the people that can’t defend themselves,” said Christopher Kenny, the father of Stacy Kenny. “The victims are mentally ill, or homeless, or people of color or they are poor. . . . A lot of families don’t have the resources to do anything about it. We were able to fight.”

The Kenny family received a $4.55 million settlement in July from the city of Springfield — the largest lawsuit settlement involving police in Oregon’s history. The officers were not criminally charged. The department cleared the officers of any wrongdoing, saying they did not violate any laws or department policies. The city acknowledged that it needed to improve training and oversight.



The Post database was launched after the 2014 fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. During the first year, in 2015, more than 26 percent of those shot and killed by police were experiencing problems with mental illness, according to police reports. Each year after, those percentages have declined while the overall number of annual fatal police shootings have remained steady, at about 1,000.

So far this year, nearly 20 percent of fatal shootings involve someone who has mental health problems. The incidents often involve drugs or alcohol. Almost all of the decline in fatal shootings of the mentally ill happened in large metropolitan areas with populations of more than 1 million.

The decrease coincides with an expansion in new police training that teaches officers better ways to approach people with mental illnesses, typically called Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training. Officers are taught to de-escalate tense situations, slow down the interactions with people in crisis, speak in a calm voice, and take cover so they can safely take whatever time is needed to bring the person safely into custody.

Barry Spodak, who trains officers and agents with the Capitol Police, Secret Service and FBI to de-escalate encounters with the mentally ill, said they have become more receptive to the training.

“Early on officers said, ‘You are trying to turn me into a social worker,’ ” Spodak said. “That has changed. They see these skills as important tools they need. Still, it runs counter to their nature, which is to quickly move in and take action.”

The specialized training doesn’t guarantee success. Springfield Sgt. Richard A. Lewis, who broke Kenny’s passenger-side window, punched her repeatedly and then shot her five times, was in charge of Crisis Intervention Team training at that police department.

During a deposition for the lawsuit, Lewis said he saw that Kenny was unarmed and was buckled into her car. The other officer, who first encountered Kenny and smashed her driver’s side window, had received 40 hours of the special training.


Harsh realities
The Post database shows that the mentally ill people who died by police gunfire since 2015 were largely White, accounting for 58 percent of the deaths, with Blacks at 16 percent and Latinos at 13 percent. No other single race accounted for more than 1 percent of deaths. Men with mental health problems were far more likely to be fatally shot by police than women, accounting for 94 percent of the deaths.

The youngest were two White 15-year-old boys — Zane Terryn of Cocoa, Fla., and Jacob Peterson of San Diego — who were both suicidal on the nights they fired their guns in 2015 and 2017, respectively, at officers who returned fire, records show.

Among the oldest was 88-year-old Robert Coleman, a Black man from West Sacramento, who pulled his SUV behind several parked patrol cars one night last month and stepped into the darkness holding a gun. His family said he was struggling with depression and thoughts of suicide, and that police had no alternative but to shoot.

Coleman’s death reflects the harsh realities that police sometimes face when confronted with people who are mentally ill. Half the time the person with the mental illness had a gun; 28 percent had a knife or some other bladed weapon like an ax. In 36 percent of the cases, police said they were shot at or physically attacked.



Gonsalves immediately fired four shots. Olango was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. An autopsy revealed he had cocaine and a small amount of alcohol in his system.

Continues.

 

[hanimmal]

Story above Concluded:

Ten minutes after the shooting, a Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) arrived. The team consists of a mental health professional and a specially trained officer. Only one PERT team works at any given time in El Cajon, a city of about 103,000 in San Diego County. This one did not arrive earlier because it was sent to investigate a trespassing report at a children’s recreation center, records show. That incident did not involve someone experiencing a mental health crisis.

El Cajon Police Lt. Randy Soulard would not comment on the incident but said “dispatchers keep PERT units available as much as possible. However, the officer may respond to crimes in progress and other incidents that require an immediate response.”

Mark W. Marvin, a psychiatrist who runs the PERT division in San Diego County that includes El Cajon, would not comment on the Olango case but described how those trained in PERT should use techniques that run counter to how Gonsalves handled the 911 call.

“The teams are trained that before you interact, you slow things down and get context. You find out what information the dispatcher may have on the person,” said Marvin, who runs the nonprofit organization. “You try to have a conversation with the person, connect.”

The department said a majority of its officers have received training through PERT, but Gonsalves’s lawyer, Mitchell Dean, said Gonsalves had not received PERT training.

Gonsalves was not disciplined or criminally charged. During testimony that he gave in a 2019 civil trial, Gonsalves said he received some form of specialized training for handling emergency calls involving people with mental health problems.

Gonsalves defended how he handled the call, saying he was trying to confine Olango to an area so he would not be hit by cars and that the escalation of the encounter was caused by Olango. The jury found in favor of Gonsalves and the city. Some aspects of the case are on appeal. “The jury took into consideration all the pre-shooting tactical conduct and how the situation unfolded” and sided with Gonsalves, Dean said.

A pledge to train

Ron Bruno, a 25-year police veteran and executive director of the nonprofit Crisis Intervention Team International, said it is a mistake for departments to have only one small team on call with specialized skills.

“There should be quick access to CIT officers on every shift,” Bruno said. “That means training between 20 to 30 percent of your department. If you are a small department where you only have one officer patrolling at a time, they all need to be trained.”

Soulard said most El Cajon patrol officers have received PERT training but declined to say what percentage of the force has completed it.
The departments that offer this type of robust training tend to be larger. For example, a year after Olango’s death, the International Association of Chiefs of Police launched its One Mind Campaign, which asks departments to pledge to provide the crisis training to at least 20 percent of its force and to forge partnerships with local mental health professionals.

So far, 551 departments have signed the pledge. That’s just 3 percent of the nation’s 18,000 police departments, although most of the signers are from large departments, said Louis Dekmar, past president of the association.

Neither the El Cajon Police Department nor the Springfield Police Department have signed the pledge. Both departments declined to answer questions about why they have not signed the pledge.

Dekmar said he was not surprised that shooting rates in rural areas are much lower than those for departments in small to medium-size metropolitan areas. Although rural areas have similar funding problems and attitudes about training, officers there often know the people in their town who suffer from mental health problems and develop a successful routine for getting them help.

“You know who the relatives are, so you call them,” said Dekmar, who started his career at a 10-person police department in a rural town.
“There is a lot of informal interventions or informal discussions that occur. That allow officers to rely on relationships to handle these encounters.”

In the case of Kenny, her parents believed the Springfield Police Department was small enough, with its 45 officers, to look out for their mentally ill child.

 

[schuylaar]

So the mask thing is getting stupid. As much as I’m the mask police at work and get totally pissed if someone isn’t wearing it I’m not sure how I feel about this interaction. On one hand it’s an easy thing to do (wear a mask)and I’m thinking this was just another trumper standing up for some asinine right. On the other hand It does seem like there was social distancing happening, was a mask necessary in that situation? We’ve made it mandatory in our downtown core to now wear one and there are fines issued for non compliance BUT they don’t tazer you .

it has been revealed to be airborne.

 

[Budley Doright]

it has been revealed to be airborne.

Yes it has