"He Doesn't Have A Gun."

Keith L. Scott & his mom Vernita Walker

Last night as I was watching some of the live CNN coverage of the massive protests taking place across the city of Charlotte, it almost seemed to surreal.

It was just about two months ago that  I was blogging about having had such a positive experience in the city during the first week of August during our family reunion.

The same pleasant streets of downtown Charlotte where I was strolling with family members, visiting museums and enjoying restaurants and the hospitality of local residents, are now crowded with protesters of different ages and ethnicities coming out to protest the killing of Keith Lamont Scott.

The protesters demanding the release of the police body-camera and dash-cam video taken at the scene of the shooting reflect an intense need to understand how a man who was sitting in his parked truck waiting to pick up his child from the school bus ends up being shot and killed by members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

They were't even looking for him, they were there to serve a warrant on someone else, so what was it that he did or said to make the cops who were surrounding his truck react as they did?

Moments after shooting: was there a gun or not?

The troubling cell phone video taken by the victim's wife Rakeyia Scott that was released earlier today doesn't make clear what prompted the police reaction.

Nor does it actually show her husband being shot, or whether he had a gun, or a book as some witnesses claim.

Even the still images taken from the video don't make it clear if there was a gun at the scene or not.


Both the attorneys for the Scott family and Police Chief Kerr Putney agree that there is no definitive evidence that Scott had or was pointing a gun when he was shot after watching the dash-cam and body-cam video.

Regardless the sound of Rakeyia Scott's pleading for the officers not to shoot her husband are heartbreaking and difficult to listen to.

Aside from an apparently innocent man being shot and killed for reasons that are unknown, perhaps the biggest tragedy of this incident is the degree to which it further erodes an already fragile trust between some American communities and the police sworn to serve and protect them.

A trust made more elusive over behavior by some police officers during high-profile shootings of unarmed citizens in the past.

Michael Slager stand over a dying Walter Scott

For  example after North Charleston PD officer Michael Slager shot and killed African-American motorist Walter Scott on April 4, 2015 after a traffic stop for a faulty brake light, Slager lied to investigators about Scott taking Slager's taser and trying to use it against him.

Until cell phone video taken by a bystander not only showed Scott trying to run away; it showed Slager picking up the taser and bringing it over to where Scott lay bleeding to death on the ground and dropped it next to him.

Clear evidence that he was already concocting a false story to justify his having shot Scott.

And revealing the horrifying reality that instead of calling for an ambulance or trying to administer CPR, Slager was busy working on a coverup.

Chicago police spent more than a year dismissing eyewitness, illegally confiscating CCTV footage from nearby businesses and trying to block release of the dash-cam video of officer Jason Van Dyke shooting teenager Laquan McDonald sixteen times as the victim was walking away from Van Dyke and other officers with a small knife in his hand.

Again, police created a false narrative about having had their lives threatened and being forced to shoot and kill McDonald to protect themselves - Van Dyke and at least four other Chicago PD officers on the scene all lied to investigators about McDonald lunging at them with the knife.

Protesters in Charlotte Thursday night

Those are just two of many examples of the kind of behavior on the part of some American police officers that erodes trust between citizens and police; incidents that overshadow the thousands of law enforcement professionals across the country who work hard and risk their lives to protect the communities they serve.

And do it the right way.

So this is more than just yet another African-American man being shot by trigger happy cops.

And it's certainly way more complex than asinine Republican North Carolina Congressman Robert Pittenger's absurd comments to the BBC that the protesters in Charlotte "hate white people because white people are successful and they are not." - do those protesters in the photo above look like they hate white people?

Obviously this remarkably out of touch delusional gas-bag Trump supporter hasn't been watching the live coverage of the protests in the city he represents, because he would have seen large numbers of white people out there protesting Keith Scott's shooting as well.

I guess he missed the fact that the cop who shot Scott was black?

The point that's going waaay over the head of Congressman Pittenger and the orange-haired presidential candidate he supports is that these protests are about justice, Constitutional rights, civil rights and the unchecked and unjustified use of deadly force against unarmed Americans taking place in this country.

So tonight while Trump and Pittenger and their ilk pontificate and shamelessly politicize the deaths of Keith Scott and Terrence Crutcher, members of the North Carolina National Guard now occupy the downtown streets where just a few weeks ago I was sitting with a couple of my cousins outside the downtown Hilton enjoying a drink with my cousins watching people wandering by on their way home from bars and clubs.

Now those streets teem with people seeking justice, who, like millions of people around the world are finding it hard to forget the sound of Rakeyia Scott voice on that cell phone video desperately pleading with police, "Don't shoot him. Don't shoot him. He didn't do anything."

Mistrial for William Porter & Jayvis Benjamin's Wait For Justice

Mistrial for Baltimore PD officer William Porter

It was a rather sobering day for those interested in seeing at least some measure of justice meted out by the Baltimore court system for 25-year-old Freddie Gray's gruesome death while handcuffed in the back of a Baltimore PD prisoner transport van.

Earlier today judge Barry G. Williams declared a mistrial after the jury remained hung on whether or not Baltimore police officer William Porter could be found guilty for charges including misconduct, manslaughter and assault for failing to respond to Gray's request for medical assistance and neglecting to properly fasten Gray into a seat belt to secure him in the back of the police van.

As Robert Lang and Tyler Waldman reported for the WBAL radio News 1090 Website:

"Porter testified that he did not put Gray in a seat belt, for fear he might grab his gun, even though Porter said that when he discovered Gray on the floor of the police van, he was having "an adrenaline dump," and was unable to move. Porter and other officers who testified described Gray as having suffered from "jailitis" where suspects try to fake an injury, hoping to be taken to the hospital instead of jail."

While I'm not a police officer, I doubt I'm the only person skeptical of a cop claiming he was worried about his weapon being ripped from his holster by an unconscious injured man laying on the floor of a police van.

Christie trashes Black Lives Matter on Face the Nation

Don't hold your breath waiting for conservatives like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to offer thoughts on what a mistrial in the Gray case might mean for the larger issue of the lack of trust between large segments of the public and police departments caused by the lack of accountability for officers who take the lives of innocent and unarmed people in custody.

Opportunistic reactionaries like the Christies and Trumps of this nation delight in embellishing their conservative street cred by unfairly and wrongly characterizing all protesters aligned with the Black Lives Matter movement (or anyone who protests the rampant abuse and killing of American citizens by police officers) as "anti-police" agitators who advocate the murder of police officers.

As Christie did on CBS during an October 25th interview on Face the Nation when he also clumsily tried to link President Obama to ongoing nationwide protests against illegal police killings in one of his many awkward efforts to pander to the right and prove his conservative credentials by trashing the President over - well pretty much anything.

The six Baltimore PD officers charged in Gray's death

Given the extent of the protests that gripped the city of Baltimore in the wake of Gray's death it's understandable that police are erring on the side of caution to prepare for any possible public reaction to the news of the mistrial.

As I write these words, NPR reports that protesters are gathering in front of the courthouse in Baltimore and chanting "No justice, no peace."

Which of course is their right to do under the Constitution.

But it's my hope that protesters in Baltimore remain peaceful and remember that beginning in January five other officers (pictured above) will face charges in court in Gray's death.

So at least there's still a chance that at least someone will actually be held legally responsible for a man's death while in police custody - a man who hadn't actually committed a crime.

Viewed in a larger context, the fact that State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby actually brought charges against the six Baltimore police officers within months of the incident has to be seen as a positive step.

It took well over a year for Illinois State's Attorney Anita Alvarez to file charges against Chicago PD officer Jason Van Dyke; which she finally did hours before the release of the video footage of Van Dyke emptying his pistol into 16-year-old Laquan McDonald as the teen was walking away from police officers.

Here in "the worlds leading Democracy", the wait for justice for African-American and Hispanic victims of excessive police violence can take even longer - if it happens at all.

Consider the case of Jayvis Benjamin, a 20-year-old college student who was shot and killed by Avondale Estates Police Department Sgt. Lynn Thomas back on January 18, 2013.

Jayvis Benjamin, killed by police in 2013

As an article in the New York Daily News by Shaun King reports, Benjamin (pictured left) was accused by police of having stolen a car when he allegedly ran through a red light and crashed into the yard of a home.

In what has become an all too familiar refrain in America, police officers claim Benjamin tried to attack an officer and Sgt. Thomas was forced to shoot Thomas in the chest, killing him.

But Benjamin was unarmed at the time.

His mother Montye Benjamin says the car he was accused of having stolen actually belonged to his grandfather and he had permission to drive it.

Benjamin also had no police record - so given these circumstances why no charges in the case?

Benjamin's mother says police have videotape of the incident, but they still refuse to release it.

DeKalb County DA Robert James

As King's article details, the prosecutor, DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James (pictured left), and police are coming under fire for dragging their feet in an investigation that's now stretching into almost three years.

For over a year James has been assuring Jayvis Benjamin's family and the media that a grand jury will review the case so what's up?

Is he hoping the case just goes away?

There's a hope that increased public interest in the case driven in part by the national media attention on the prosecutions in Chicago and Baltimore can function as leverage to motivate the DeKalb County DA to make a decision on bringing charges against Sgt. Thomas in the death of Jayvis Benjamin.

Time will tell but there's a sense that the longer they wait in DeKalb County, the more suspicious the absurd length of the investigation seems - two years and counting?

In the past, the refusal of police and the prosecutors they work with to release the video tape of Benjamin's death and the lack of charges of any kind being filed for his death may have once worked as a way to shield police from facing responsibility for the death of an unarmed civilian under murky circumstances.

But given the changes that have taken place in the wake of other high-profile police killings - the lack of action on the part of the DeKalb County DA comes off as the kind of bureaucratic foot-dragging that  blew up in the face of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuele and the heads of police departments in Chicago, Baltimore, Ferguson and elsewhere.

It's been an unreasonably long wait for the mother and family of Jayvis Benjamin to get some kind of closure, but in this age of the rapid evolution of social media the old adage that parents, grandparents and teachers have told generations of children rings more true than ever - the truth eventually comes to the surface.

In the interests of ethics, the public trust and the concept of justice, the DA Robert James and officials within the Avondale Estates Police Department don't want to be on the wrong side when the truth about Jayvis Benjamin's death finally surfaces in DeKalb County Georgia.  

Black Friday On The Miracle Mile & Film Editing CPD Style

Black Friday shopper Joy Ramey carries a TV to checkout

Back in June in his stunning encyclical on climate change, Pope Francis warned of the dire effects of "compulsive consumerism" on the environment.

As Joe Romm observed on ThinkProgress.org in an article about the fragility of the global economy earlier today, Pope Frances warned that:

“Obsession with a consumerist lifestyle, above all when few people are capable of maintaining it, can only lead to violence and mutual destruction.”

Here in the United States, we place a premium on the freedom to do whatever we want, so more power to ya' if you're fortunate enough to be a member of one of America's wealthiest households.

The still-fragile economy recovery has doled out the lion's share of income growth and asset recovery to the bank accounts and balance sheets of the top 7% since 2009 - so if you like to shop and you've got the coin by all means knock yourself out if it makes you happy.

If you're a member of the 99%, it certainly wouldn't be fair to fault you for taking advantage of Black Friday sales specials - especially those who are still unemployed, underemployed, haven't seen a meaningful paycheck raise in years, or those living on a fixed income.

As I've blogged about in the past, I personally have no desire to be anywhere near the crowded consumer orgies that take place in some stores on, or near the first official shopping day of the holiday season.

In my view, retail employees should have the right to enjoy some time off work to spend with their families too, so I choose to opt-out of making any purchases in person or on my cell phone on Thanksgiving or Black Friday.

I was certainly thankful to be able to spend Thanksgiving with family yesterday and enjoy a generous calorie-rich feast; and I'll be thankful again shortly when I heat up some of those leftovers for dinner.

Black Friday protesters pack Miracle Mile in Chicago

But I'm also thankful to see that the overwhelming majority of the hundreds of protesters who took to the streets in Chicago for Black Friday are taking a page from the book of Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by engaging in acts of peaceful civil disobedience to express outrage over the dash-cam footage of CPD Officer Jason Van Dyke's shooting of teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times and prosecutor's taking over a year to file charges in the case.

Today's protests in Chicago were concentrated on the Miracle Mile in the ritzy downtown shopping district, where peaceful protesters engaged in non-violent civil disobedience by blocking access to the store entrances of major retailers like The Apple Store, Saks Fifth Avenue, Brooks Brothers, The Disney Store, Neiman Marcus, Tiffany's and Ralph Lauren.

Today's protests are also an expression of anger over the fact that hours after the shooting on October 20, 2014, members of the Chicago Police Department walked into a Burger King, demanded access to the security camera footage which shows the area of South Pulaski Road where the incident took place, then intentionally erased at least 86 minutes of video leading up to and around the shooting.

Burger King where CPD officers deleted security footage

As an article posted on Gawker.com reported on Tuesday Jay Darshane, the manager of the Burger King located at 4060 S. Pulaski Road in Chicago, (pictured left) reports that he gave the CPD officers the password to the security camera system and they then spent three hours going over the footage.

When they left, there was an 86-minute gap.

In the Gawker.com article, Darshane was quoted as saying about the Chicago PD:

“We had no idea they were going to sit there and delete files,” Darshane said. “I mean we were just trying to help the police officers.”

If it's proven that Chicago PD intentionally erased portions of the security camera footage, that's blatant destruction of evidence and interference with a criminal investigation - it certainly won't help Van Dyke's defense, or do much for the reputation and ethics of the Chicago PD.

Van Dyke himself spent his Thanksgiving in custody where he remains held without bond until a judge gets the chance to review the content of the dash-cam video on Monday to decide if he'll be released on bail - I'd have to believe he's seen it already.

I guess we should also be thankful that this guy isn't still out on the streets of Chicago in uniform with a badge and gun demonstrating the kind of restraint, professionalism and self-control he showed to Laquan McDonald last year.

We'll see what the judge decides to do soon enough but in the meantime the peaceful protests in Chicago and in other cities around the nation will continue through the weekend.

In an ideal world it would be nice if ethics, the rule of law and the desire for justice moves the gears of the Chicago judicial system to see that Jason Van Dyke is held responsible for his actions.

But money talks in this country and if it takes some high-end retailers loosing some customers and revenue to put pressure on the system to do right by Laquan McDonald, so be it.

Getting justice for a 17-year-old gunned down in cold blood is a lot more important than buying a bunch of stuff on discount anyway - those retailers have all the time in the world to recover any profits they might have lost today.

Laquan McDonald's short time on this earth was already taken from him.

Van Dyke, DCFS & The Tragic Death of Laquan McDonald

Chicago PD officer Jason Van Dyke

It's late Tuesday night at as I write this and it's about 40 degrees out in Chicago but there are reportedly hundreds of people assembling on the streets in response to the release of the police dash-cam footage showing the violent death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

Personally speaking, after watching the video a couple times myself, the presence of protesters on the streets shouldn't surprise anyone. 

You can see it on The New York Times Website, but with millions of people off on Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving it's going to be replayed a lot in the coming days as people try to understand why a teenager brandishing a three-inch knife while traipsing down a busy street in full view of at least 6 armed Chicago PD officers in two separate vehicles needed to be shot.

Chicago officials, including Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, tried to keep the footage from being released and now it's clear why - the video clip completely contradicts previous police statements that the shooter was in fear for his life after the teenager lunged at him. 

The video showed no lunge, in fact McDonald was actually walking away when he was shot.

At 7:41am this morning, thirteen months after fatally shooting the teenager during a confrontation in Chicago on October 20, 2014, 37-year-old Chicago PD officer Jason Van Dyke walked into the Leighton Criminal Court Building and turned himself in to investigators.

While he'd been on paid desk duty during an extensive 12 month investigation, today he became the first CPD officer in 35 years to be charged with murder. 

Van Dyke and his partner were only on the scene about thirty seconds before the veteran officer jumped out of the car six seconds later and began firing shots at McDonald; who'd been accused of breaking into cars in the area and was holding a 3-inch knife which he'd used to punch a hole in the tire of a police vehicle at some point during his foot chase.

According to an article in The Chicago Tribune, autopsy reports reveal that nine of the sixteen shots that entered McDonald's body entered at a downward trajectory; meaning Van Dyke fired at least nine shots as McDonald, already wounded, lay on the ground.

Nine.

To me, part of what's chilling about the video, aside from the teenager being gunned down like an animal, is the reaction of the officers on the scene.

After McDonald is on the ground, there's a pause before one of the officers walks over and kicks the three-inch knife away from the teenager's hand - then not one of the officers bothers to approach McDonald to check his pulse, or see if he might still be alive.

The shooting wasn't some kind of behavioral anomaly for Officer Van Dyke.

According to data complied by the Citizens Police Data Project (CPDP) Website, at least 18 separate civilian complaints have been filed against Van Dyke since he joined the CPD in June, 2001 - charges that include verbal abuse (including multiple charges of using of the word 'nigger' while performing arrests or serving warrants), excessive force, misconduct and violations of arrest & lockup procedures.

Check out this article on Heavy.com if you want to read some more details about Van Dyke's extensive record of physical violence and excessive use of force.

The shooting wasn't an anomaly for the Chicago PD either, they were responsible for 70 fatal police shootings between 2011 - 2014, the most in the U.S. and more than New York and Los Angles which both have larger populations.

In contrast, non-military police in Germany have shot and killed fifteen people since 2009.

Protest against gun violence in Chicago,  2014

When you consider the extent of the global reaction to the approximately 128 people killed in the terrorist attacks in Paris recently, it seems like there should be more of a public outcry over the huge number of gun deaths that have taken place in the city of Chicago, Illinois this year.

Back in July, Rolling Stone explored that very question in a searing piece titled 'Inside Chicago's Endless Cycle of Gun Violence.


Without minimizing the horrific death toll of approximately 128 people in Paris at the hands of ISIS killers, according to the latest statistics tracked by staff members of The Chicago Tribune, as of today November 24th, approximately 2,712 people have been victims of gun violence in the Windy City this year.

Is it the race or social class of the victims in Chicago that doesn't seem to warrant global outrage? The neighborhoods they live in?

Think you had a rough Monday? At least seven people were shot on Monday November 23rd in various parts of Chicago. 

As statistics compiled by The Guardian project The Counted have revealed, 2015 has been a horrific year for the use of deadly police force against American citizens and the data is alarming.

According to The Counted: over 1,000 people have been killed by members of American law enforcement this year; and there are still six days left in November.

•  883 of those were killed after being shot by police
• 47 died after being shot by a taser
• 36 people were killed while in custody
• 102 people were unarmed
• 26% of the 248 African-American people killed by police were unarmed
• 18% of the 490 white people killed by police were unarmed

Disturbing stats like that are one of the reasons that the deaths of people at the hands of the police is often a focus of this blog.

It's not because I'm anti-cop or anything, I hold members of law enforcement in the highest regard as I was one of those kids raised to respect police officers and recognize the essential public service they perform.

In fact, it's because I hold them to such a high standard that I consider it critical to examine the alarming disparity with which people of color loose their lives during confrontations with police officers.

Because the more these incidents happen, there's a proportional loss of respect for police authority that undermines the essential relationship that must exist between the community and those sworn to protect and serve them.

As the excessive use of deadly force has reached epic proportions in this country and police departments have come under increased scrutiny by the media, politicians, citizens and activist groups like Black Lives Matter, opportunistic push-button reactionaries like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Donald Trump have been quick to vilify and demonize activists who oppose police violence.

Not because what they say reflects truth, but because it reflects a warped perception of America, reinforces their internalized beliefs and fears; and serves their trite political objectives.

Laquan McDonald

In the coming days as the video of Laquan McDonald becomes the central focus of mainstream media coverage, watch how people like Christie and Trump react.

Watch who they vent their anger at and how they frame this shooting.

Despite the truth of the dash-cam footage showing McDonald wasn't actually threatening anyone when he was shot 16 times (and what was he going to do with a three-inch pocket knife anyway with three police vehicles around him??) you can be sure that conservative media will be hard at work vilifying the 17-year-old teenager.

Like Tryavon Martin, the news that traces of drugs were supposedly found in McDonald's system is already being offered up like some sort of iron-clad scientific proof that he was some kind of raving maniac on a deadly rampage.

Punching a hole in the tire of a Chicago PD cop car wasn't the brightest thing he could have done; but it was a tire, not a human being.

Only time will tell if Officer Jason Van Dyke is held accountable for taking McDonald's life.

But at the least, his being a member of a major metropolitan police force facing murder charges represents a significant step for growing public demands that members of law enforcement be made to take responsibility for their actions.

Regardless of the color of the victim's skin.

It's just sad that such a step had to come as the result of such a horrific and violent end to the life of a teenage kid who'd already faced such uphill battles in his young life.

As The Chicago Sun Times reported:
"Twice, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services removed him from his mother’s care — once when he was 2 years old and again when he was 5 — because of abuse allegations leveled at the mother’s boyfriend. As is too often the case, McDonald was allegedly sexually molested in two different foster homes, according to a source familiar with his juvenile court record."

Laquan McDonald didn't just morph out of thin air on that Chicago street with a knife in his hand, he'd faced unspeakable horrors in his young life before he ever had the misfortune to meet Officer Jason Van Dyke.

Maybe people should take a few minutes to read The Sun-Times piece by Mary Mitchell before simply dismissing this kid as some kind of monster.

Perhaps the folks at Fox News preparing to portray him as a knife-wielding criminal who was threatening a cop's life should learn a little about Laquan McDonald's life before condemning him.

Like the fact that "McDonald was particularly close to his grandmother, Goldie Hunter, and was in her care until she died last year. His daily life seemed to unravel after her death" 

Oh, and as Mitchell reports in her heart-breaking article, even though the Department of Child & Family Services reports that McDonald was a ward of the state at the time of his death and had been the subject of two separate abuse investigations in 2000 and 2003, “DCFS never did anything in terms of following up on the sexual abuse,”

As Mitchell reported, just two days before being shot on October 20, 2014, "DCFS had given custody of McDonald and his sister to an uncle. “The uncle had a live-in girlfriend, and the sister had spent the night away from home,” said the source familiar with this case. “When she came back the next morning, the girlfriend wouldn’t let her back in the house.

“DCFS came and took the sister and was trying to take Laquan. For the third time, he was made a ward of the state. It was a pretty upsetting thing.” 

Upsetting? I think that's a monumental understatement considering the sexual abuse he'd suffered as a ward of the state of Illinois when he was 9-years-old and 12-years-old.

Unfortunately, it appears that the last representative of the City of Chicago to follow up on Laquan McDonald was Chicago PD Officer Jason Van Dyke who used the only tool he knew how to use to deal with this troubled teenager; a gun. 

That's the teenager who was running down the street that night with a three-inch knife in his hand.

It's just too bad those Chicago PD officers didn't know or understand what Laquan McDonald was running from that night, had they known they might have treated him like a human being.