Prosecutors claim that a newly released and enhanced video showing the death of Tamir Rice indicated that “the 12-year-old boy reaching for his pellet gun moments before he was fatally shot by police.”

The slightly clearer still images will be presented to a grand jury that will decide if patrolman Timothy Loehmann or officer Frank Garmback should be charged over the death of Tamir last November.

The two videos do not appear to show any new substantive movement but an annotation on one of the clips suggests Tamir moved his hand towards his waistband in the instant before he was shot, according to the prosecution.

This combination of still images taken from a surveillance video and released Saturday, Nov. 28, 2015, by the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, shows Cleveland police officers arriving at Cudell Park on a report of a man with a gun. Twelve-year-old Tamir Rice was fatally shot by Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann, Nov. 22, 2014, after he reportedly pulled a replica gun at the city park. The enhancement by a California video expert will be presented to a grand jury that will decide if then-rookie patrolman Loehmann or his training officer should be charged criminally for Loehmann killing Rice. (Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office via AP)

The still images were taken by a security camera at Cudell Recreation Center. They show different angles than video of the incident previously released.

Police officials initially said that Loehmann, 26, yelled three times at Tamir to raise his hands, a claim witnesses have denied and no footage has shown.

The images back up later claims that the officer shot Tamir within two seconds of jumping out of a car.

The young boy had been holding a pellet gun moments before police arrived.

He was shot once in the torso and died on the operating table a day later.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty said the new footage was released in the ‘spirit of openness’. 

‘Once again … we are not reaching any conclusions from these or other isolated bits of evidence,’ McGinty said. ‘Individually they are simply pieces of a complex puzzle.’

Loehmann and Garmback, 47, were responding to a call about a young man waving and pointing a gun outside the rec center. A 911 caller had also said the gun might be a fake and the man could be a juvenile, but that information was never relayed to the officers.

A friend told deputies he had given the pellet gun to Tamir hours before the shooting with the warning to be careful because it looked real, according to court documents.

He said he had taken the gun apart to fix it and been unable to reattach the orange cap that goes on the barrel to indicate it isn’t the .45-caliber handgun it is modeled after.

Police shoot someone in Florida on average once every three days.

But Danny Banks doesn’t know that. He’s the special agent in charge for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in central Florida.

Seventh Circuit State Attorney R.J. Larizza didn’t want to hazard a guess on how often police use deadly force.

State Rep. David Santiago, R-Deltona, and other lawmakers thought the information was readily available and were shocked to learn it wasn’t.

Not even the FBI is aware of how often police in Florida use deadly force. Cities aren’t legally required to report officer-involved shootings to the FBI, and many of them don’t. Nor does any state agency track officer-involved shootings.

It took hundreds of public records requests, and combing through hundreds of media reports, for The News-Journal to uncover how often police shot people in 2013 and 2014 in Florida. Many agencies cooperated and turned over records, but others put up substantial barriers, charging hefty bills to provide the information and refusing to answer questions.

In 2013 and 2014, Florida law enforcement agencies shot at least 249 people, and 162 of the shootings were fatal. But even that number is likely an incomplete picture because agencies don’t have to release records for cases that are still pending. Based on a review of media reports, 53 people have been killed by Florida law officers so far this year.

As scrutiny mounts on police tactics, it’s unacceptable that the public has no accounting of how often people are shot and killed by officers, said Jim Bueermann, president of the Police Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based group advocating for better police training.

“This is problematic nationwide,” Bueermann said. “The official (federal) data could be as much as 50 percent under-reported. It’s a phenomenon we need to understand, and until we understand how often it happens, we may never get our hands around it and reduce the number of police shootings.”

Deadly force sometimes cannot be avoided. Just over half — about 55 percent — of the officer-involved shootings in 2013 and 2014 involved suspects who were armed with guns. Reports reviewed by The News-Journal describe incidents where officers acted heroically, sometimes defending themselves from a barrage of bullets.

But the lack of transparency surrounding officer-involved shootings also has obscured the public’s view of trends that deserve scrutiny:

• Time and time again, police are called to help the mentally ill and end up shooting and killing them. In Boca Raton, a Palm Beach Sheriff deputy shot and killed a 28-year-old mentally ill man who was holding a Phillips head screwdriver, and who had called police asking for help. In the small North Florida town of Gretna, an unarmed 24-year-old man was killed after his mother requested police help to compel her son to take his medication and a scuffle ensued that led to the man being shot. In Miami Gardens, police fatally shot a mentally ill man who was waving a broom at officers. Only two states spend less per person on mental health services than Florida, meaning it is often left to law enforcement to handle the mentally ill.

• Despite making up less than 8 percent of the population, black men comprised 40 percent of the people shot by the police. Thirty-eight people who were shot by police were unarmed. Twenty-one of those unarmed subjects — about 55 percent — were black men.

• Nothing in Florida law requires an outside investigation of police shootings, and numerous law enforcement agencies across Florida investigate shootings involving their own officers. One of Florida’s largest counties, Palm Beach County, handles its own investigations and has fought efforts to set up an independent citizen’s review board to examine officer-involved shootings, despite calls to do so from citizens. Only one-third of law enforcement agencies have memorandums of understanding with FDLE to investigate officer-involved shootings.

• Officers occasionally shoot people while off duty and not in uniform. Most recently, the shooting death of Corey Jones by a Palm Beach Gardens officer who was not in uniform has captured headlines. But a review of records by The News-Journal found this is not an isolated case. For instance, an off-duty Palm Beach County deputy was not carrying identification but was carrying his gun when he shot a man multiple times who was trespassing in an apartment complex hot tub with his girlfriend in 2014. The deputy said the man threatened him with an empty wine bottle, and the shooting was found to be justified following an investigation by the deputy’s own department. In Daytona Beach, a deputy in plain clothes shot and killed a 52-year-old hearing impaired man who was involved in a dispute at a tow yard.

• Officers continue to shoot into moving cars, despite most major police departments and the U.S. Department of Justice discouraging the practice. Shooting at moving cars is banned by many agencies because it is viewed as ineffective at stopping the threat and dangerous for innocent parties. Despite this, police identified vehicles as the primary threat for 25 people shot in 2013 and 2014.

• Police involved in shootings are rarely prosecuted on charges of excessive force. The last time a Florida police officer was successfully prosecuted for an on-duty shooting was in 1989, according to a survey of state attorney offices. An appellate court eventually overturned that conviction.

‘A TRAGIC, TRAGIC INCIDENT’

Beyond the statistics exist the stories of heartbroken families who must deal with the death of their loved ones and the police officers who must grapple with a split-second decision that can change their life.

On a rainy Oct. 21 afternoon, Sheila Cruice walked into a Volusia County courtroom. Her eyes grew watery, and it wasn’t difficult to know what was coming next. She took a seat on a bench in the courtroom. Family and friends surrounded her.

On March 4, deputies had arrived at 6:30 a.m. to serve a narcotics search warrant at the home of her 26-year-old son, Derek Cruice. A gunshot rang out. Cruice, wearing nothing but basketball shorts, fell to the ground with a gunshot wound to the face.

His hands were empty.

State Attorney R.J. Larizza walked to the podium. Just moments before he had broken the news to Cruice’s family. The clicks of cameras and flashes filled the room. After two days of deliberations, a grand jury had declined to indict Volusia County Deputy Todd Raible, the man who shot and killed Sheila Cruice’s son.

“This was a tragic, tragic incident,” Larizza said with Sheila Cruice’s sobs in the background. “It was an incident that nobody wanted to happen. It’s an incident that if we could turn back the clock, we would.”

It’s a scene repeated across Florida. Investigative files contain numerous incidents where officers make split-second decisions. In this case, Raible forced his way into the home after someone locked the door, and Raible said he saw Cruice clasp his hands together, according to investigative reports. Raible pulled the trigger.

Raible recalled going outside as Cruice lay on the floor dying. He took off his belt and dropped to his knees, thinking or speaking out loud about the gun he thought he saw.

“It was there. The gun was there. He was pointing something at me,” Raible said in an interview with investigators.

Police searched the home. They found about half a pound of marijuana, $3,000 in cash, a drug ledger and a scale.

One thing they didn’t find — weapons. As she left the courtroom, reporters flocked to Sheila Cruice. She bowed her head and clutched a tissue in her hand. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

“It hurts,” she said. “It shouldn’t have happened the way that it did.”

While the deputy won’t face criminal charges, the Cruice family plans to pursue the matter in civil court.

Edward P. Miller’s family is also considering legal action in another Volusia County shooting.

On Sept. 20, 2014, a Volusia Sheriff’s deputy in plain clothes and Miller, who according to family members was classified as profoundly deaf by a hearing aid specialist, mixed in a fatal combination that continues to echo in the family’s memory. Miller, 52, was sitting in his SUV getting ready to drive away after taking his son to get his pickup from Fryer’s Towing in Daytona Beach. But after a complaint by Fryer’s workers, deputy Joel Hernandez, wearing street clothes and a badge, cuffs and gun on his belt, walked toward Miller. Hernandez announced he was a deputy, reports said. But Miller didn’t have his hearing aids, his family said. The hearing aids were in the shop being repaired.

After Hernandez opened the door to Miller’s SUV, Miller pulled his gun from his pocket, the report states. Miller had a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Hernandez shot Miller to death. Larizza determined that the shooting was justified.

Miller had worn hearing aids since age 3, said his sister Irena Crouch, 62, of Port Orange. Crouch, who is also deaf and depends on hearing aids and lip reading to communicate, dabbed at her eyes with tissue to wipe away the tears as she spoke about her only sibling.

“It’s a tragedy because a beautiful human being is no longer here,” Crouch said. “He was my baby brother.”

LAWSUITS AGAINST POLICE

If the Cruices and Millers take their cases to court, they’ll face an uphill battle.

Suing the police is immensely difficult, and for good reason, said Christopher Dillingham, a civil rights attorney who worked for the DeLand Police Department before becoming a lawyer.

“As a societal policy, we want the police to do their job without fear of lawsuits,” he said.

The 1989 court case Graham v. Connor gives guidance on when it is appropriate for police to use deadly force. Judging an officer’s actions should be based on the judgment of a “reasonable” officer on the scene rather than based on hindsight. Factors to consider when evaluating the use of deadly force include the severity of the criminal act, whether the suspect poses an immediate danger to the officers or others, and whether the suspect is resisting or evading.

At one time, Florida law allowed police to shoot any fleeing felon. The 1985 case Tennessee v. Garner limited that to only instances in which the fleeing suspect poses a significant threat to the officer or others.

Indictments of police officers for the use of deadly force are extraordinarily rare, and even successful lawsuits against the police are uncommon, Dillingham said. He estimates he receives hundreds of complaints about the police in a year, but he only has filed one lawsuit involving allegations of excessive force in 2015.

Officers are entitled to qualified immunity, meaning to be successful he must show the officer acted in bad faith in blatant disregard of someone’s constitutional rights.

SIMILAR SHOOTINGS, DIFFERENT RESULTS

Officers are unlikely to face sanctions in court. Even when it comes to internal disciplinary action, penalties can vary greatly by department.

In St. Petersburg, two officers were suspended and another terminated for shooting into a fleeing stolen car in April 2013, wounding 19-year-old Shaquille Sweat and a 15-year-old female passenger. Officers found the car backed into an alley and fired a collective 20 rounds when the car fled. One of the bullets struck a nearby house. Both Sweat and his passenger survived.

The city’s policy instructs officers to avoid moving cars, not shoot at them. Police are only authorized to use deadly force if the occupants are threatening them with a firearm. The girl in the car told investigators that neither she nor Sweat had a weapon.

Officer George Graves was fired for his role in the shooting, and former St. Petersburg Police Chief Chuck Harmon wrote that Graves was 90 feet away from the car when he fired and it was driving past him.

An arbitrator reinstated Graves in 2014 with back pay on the grounds that the disciplinary action wasn’t in line with that issued to other officers.

Compare that shooting to one that happened in DeLand.

DeLand police officers tried to stop Sean Grant on Oct. 21, 2013, after a convenience store clerk said he stole a 24-ounce can of Bud Light and a sandwich. Officer Joshua Santos opened fire after Grant backed up and hit another car, then pulled forward in the direction of Santos and out of the store’s parking lot. Bullets struck Grant and a backseat passenger. Both survived. At his trial, Grant’s attorney argued that he was just trying to get away. A jury found Grant not guilty of aggravated assault on an officer.

Officer Santos didn’t face any disciplinary action, and DeLand Police Chief Bill Ridgway defended the officer. He added that officers don’t receive any special instruction regarding shooting into vehicles, and he thought Santos’ actions were used only as a “last resort.” After an FDLE investigation, the 7th Circuit State Attorney’s Office determined the shooting was justified.

LAWMAKERS WANT ACTION

Riots in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore have directed the public’s attention on police shootings, but officers are likely using less deadly force than they have in the past, said Eugene Paoline, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Central Florida.

Officers also have access to less lethal options, such as stun guns, that weren’t available in the past.

“The use of force is a rather rare event,” Paoline said. “There is no evidence to suggest police are using more deadly force. If you compare it over time, it is less because the policies are more restrictive.”

But assessing how the use of force has changed over time or how it varies by department is difficult because of a lack of reliable data, Paoline said.

State Rep. Fred Costello, R-Ormond Beach, found it hard to believe there was no accounting of officer-involved shootings in Florida.

“I would have thought that there was one,” Costello said of an accounting of police shootings in Florida. “We can’t decide if there is a problem until we can measure what is happening.”

In terms of establishing a database of shootings, Costello thinks the cost would be negligible, and he’d support making it mandatory for FDLE to investigate all police shootings in Florida.

Other state lawmakers joined Costello in calling for more oversight.

Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, said she plans to introduce a bill requiring the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate any officer-involved fatality in the state, whether it’s an officer-involved shooting or the person dies due to some other cause, such as police use of a chokehold or a Taser. Thompson said she wants a third agency to be involved since prosecutors who work daily with police also make decisions on whether to charge police with crimes.

“I want impartiality, particularly because the state attorney now makes this kind of decision and the state attorney depends on law enforcement to make the cases that they pursue,” Thompson said in a phone interview. “I believe a third party that is removed and impartial should be involved, and that would be FDLE.”

One bill supported by the Legislative Black Caucus would create a 15-member panel to review police shootings. Members would be appointed by the FLDE commissioner, and at least five could not be current or former law enforcement officers.

State Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs , believes someone should be tracking how pervasive police shootings are in Florida. More importantly, he said, lawmakers need to focus on addressing the issues that contribute to police shootings. Increasing education funding to provide an extra hour of instruction at low-performing schools would be a good start.

“There exists a segment of society that feels like they have no future,” he said. “There are places in American cities simply stated where many people don’t want to go. What we have to do is we have to deal with the underlying problem. Education is the great equalizer in our society.”

In October, The News-Journal asked Republican Gov. Rick Scott whether he thought Florida adequately tracked officer-involved shootings and if a database is needed to track the shootings.

“First off, let’s think about where we are. We are at a 44-year-low in our crime rate. Whether you talk to FDLE … whether it’s FDLE, whether it’s our sheriffs’ offices, our police departments, I mean, they’re working everyday to keep everybody safe,” Scott said.

Santiago, the Deltona representative, thinks the public deserves a clearer picture, and a database of police shootings would be a good place to start, he said.

“It educates us,” Santiago said. “It lets us know what is happening. It doesn’t mean I am demonizing the cops. Data is still data.”

From gainesville.com

Two San Francisco police officers are in the hospital and a man is dead after officer’s opened fire in the the city’s fifth officer-involved shooting this year.

The San Francisco Police Department says the two Sergeants are at local hospitals in stable condition. So far, all that’s known about the that was man shot is that he is Hispanic and in his 20s.

Hours after the shooting, community members came together to protest the police force.

As word spread of the officer-involved shooting, a Stockton couple made the decision to drive to San Francisco. Dionne Smith Downs says police killed her son. That was all the reason she needed to join protesters at Market and 8th streets.

“It’s time for a change and it starts with us as the people to come together and educate ourselves to address the system,” Downs said.

Market Street is closed between 7th and 9th streets in San Francisco as police investigate an officer-involved shooting on Thursday, October 15, 2015. (KGO-TV)

Earlier in the day, the area was filled with law enforcement following the fatal officer-involved shooting.

A nearby construction worker initially flagged down two sergeants. Someone was throwing glass bottles at the construction site, a safety concern that became even more drastic when the sergeants attempted to handcuff the man.

“A violent struggle ensued. The sergeant on the ground yelled to his partner, ‘He’s getting my gun, he’s getting my gun, he’s got my gun. Shoot him,” San Francisco police Chief Greg Suhr said.

The Suhr said two shots were fired, killing the man. Also that the sergeants involved are senior officers.

Man shot for brandishing two-foot pipe

On September 7, a Fresno, California police officer shot and killed Casimero “Shane” Carlos Casillas, 45, for brandishing a two-foot-long pipe, which a police officer deemed as life-threatening, subsequently shooting him in the chest.

The incident occurred after a routine traffic stop in central Fresno at roughly 5 p.m. Casillas reportedly sped away, running several traffic lights before the chase was called off.

A short while later, Casillas was spotted and officers continued the chase around Fresno Yosemite International Airport until Casillas stopped and abandoned his car and hid near a home.

Officers approached him and saw that he was holding a two-foot black pipe. The original report claimed it was made of PVC, a synthetic plastic often used for plumbing. A secondary report indicated that it was metal. Casillas’ family still maintains it was PVC.

Officers allegedly demanded Casillas surrender. However, Casillas supposedly ran toward the officers, brandishing the pipe. It is reported that upon witnessing this, a Fresno police officer “feared for his life” and shot Casillas in his chest. Casillas would later die in surgery at Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno.

It is reported that Casillas had an “extensive criminal history,” including a charge of battery against a police officer. He was also sought for a felony warrant tied to violating post-release community supervision. There is no indication that the officer who shot Casillas knew anything of his background. Moreover, it has not been made clear if Casillas suffered from any kind of mental illness.

Casillas’ sister, Josie Lewis, said of her brother, “He’s never been known for that. I mean, he’s always been a cool guy, he’s sweet.” Wondering why it was necessary to shoot Casillas, Jessica Grijalva, Casillas’s niece, said, “There’s other things they could have done, they could have pulled out a taser, they could have pulled out anything else.”

The officer who shot Casillas, who was not wearing a body camera, has since been placed on administrative leave pending a further investigation.

Responding to the incident, Jerry Dyer, Fresno Police Department chief, stated: “What we have seen this week is an increased level of aggressiveness towards officers, and when officers fear for their life, or for the life of someone else, they use deadly force, and unfortunately we’ve had three of those incidences occur in the last week.”

This comes at a time when, according to Killedbypolice.net, at least 829 people have been killed by police in the US since January 1 of this year. Last year, 1,106 people were killed. Since May 1, 2013, at least 2,703 have been killed.

Police shoot 17-year-old boy

On September 5, Fresno police shot and paralyzed a 17-year-old boy after he allegedly stole and crashed a car. The suspect, who has not been named, reportedly crashed his stolen vehicle at about 2 a.m. in West Central Fresno after apparently carjacking a woman approximately an hour earlier.

Chief of police Dyer said, “He stuck what was described as a large handgun in her face and said, ‘If you want to live, you better give me your keys.’” The 17-year-old was subsequently chased by the police until he lost control of the car. Fresno police stated the teen ran from the crashed car with a gun in hand and policed opened fire.

Dyer has stated it is unclear if the suspect fired a single round from his gun.

Man shot holding water nozzle

Freddy Centeno remains in critical condition after being shot by two police officers late Thursday morning, September 3. Police had received a call from a woman who claimed she had been threatened by a man wielding a gun.

Responding to the call, officers arrived and found Centeno on the street. Officers demanded Centeno show his hands but he refused. Instead, he reached into his pockets and pulled out a water nozzle that allegedly resembled a gun. Police responded by shooting Centeno.

The officers were wearing body cameras, but footage of the incident has not been released. Centeno’s family has stated that he suffered from mental illness and drug abuse but believed that he did not pose a threat to the police. Fresno police have said Centeno had a criminal record and was deemed a “mentally disordered parolee.”

Centeno’s brother, whom he lived with, said there were no firearms in their home. He had been repeatedly seeking assistance from the city and county to help provide care for Freddy. He was told that “something needs to happen” before he could receive help. In response, his brother said, “Is this what needs to happen?”

Published by George Gallanis on https://www.wsws.org/

New York City police say a bystander has died after he was accidentally shot by a plainclothes officer who also shot an armed suspect three times after an undercover gun buy went bad.

Police say 61-year-old Felix Kumi of Mount Vernon died early Saturday.

Authorities say Kumi was shot Friday afternoon after a man pulled a gun on an undercover NYPD officer during a probe into the sale of illegal firearms.

The wounded suspect was shot three times and hospitalized with charges pending. The 37-year-old’s name was not released.

Police say a second suspect, 28-year-old Jeffrey Aristy of the Bronx, has been arrested on drugs and weapons charges. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.

Police said the men tried robbing the officer. That’s when the officer signaled to his backup team, which opened fire on the suspects as they fled with the money.

But two bullets struck Kumi as he stood on Beekman Avenue, WCBS 880’s Sophia Hall reported.

On Saturday, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton released a statement expressing condolences to Kumi’s family.

“I wish to express my profound sorrow and sympathy to the family of Felix Kumi, an uninvolved bystander who was struck and killed by police gunfire during an undercover gun-buy operation last night,” the statement said. “Mr. Kumi was blameless, and this tragedy has tested and tried his family. I pray that they may find comfort in their hope of resurrection and awakening, and I tender the Department’s support and service in their grief.”

The suspect who had put the gun to the officer’s head was also shot, police said. He’s listed in stable condition.

Investigators said the suspect’s weapon turned out to be a BB gun.

“We believe the gun that was put to our undercover’s head is a replica of a large semiautomatic pistol,” O’Neill said. “It was found behind a house where the suspect fled.”

Aristy, of the Bronx, is charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance and criminal sale of firearms. Police said charges are pending against the second suspect, a 37-year-old man who has not yet been identified.

William J. Lewinski

Matt Apuzzo at the New York Times has produced a lengthy profile of an expert witness who anybody interested in reforming police behavior absolutely must pay attention to. Meet William J. Lewinski. He travels around the country offering his testimony at trials justifying police shootings, even in cases where the victim was unarmed:

His conclusions are consistent: The officer acted appropriately, even when shooting an unarmed person. Even when shooting someone in the back. Even when witness testimony, forensic evidence or video footage contradicts the officer’s story.

He has appeared as an expert witness in criminal trials, civil cases and disciplinary hearings, and before grand juries, where such testimony is given in secret and goes unchallenged. In addition, his company, the Force Science Institute, has trained tens of thousands of police officers on how to think differently about police shootings that might appear excessive.

A string of deadly police encounters in Ferguson, Mo.; North Charleston, S.C.; and most recently in Cincinnati, have prompted a national reconsideration of how officers use force and provoked calls for them to slow down and defuse conflicts. But the debate has also left many police officers feeling unfairly maligned and suspicious of new policies that they say could put them at risk. Dr. Lewinski says his research clearly shows that officers often cannot wait to act.

“We’re telling officers, ‘Look for cover and then read the threat,’ ” he told a class of Los Angeles County deputy sheriffs recently. “Sorry, too damn late.”

What’s truly unnerving about the story is Lewinski’s role in teaching police to be absolutely terrified of every other human being they encounter. He and his students perform video experiments showing how quickly a person concealing a gun can turn and shoot at an officer and how quickly a person can pull a gun, then turn and run away (to justify cases where suspects end up shot in the back). Whether these situations are likely isn’t the point—just that they’re technically possible.

So Lewinski plays an active role in convincing officers they are always in danger when dealing with members of the public. Then when one of these shootings happen, he turns around and helps justify these shootings to juries because the officer was afraid he was in danger.

Lewinski has infuriated researchers by using the concept of “inattentional blindness” — where focus on one task blocks out everything else — to justify police mistakes. Such an argument, one prosecutor noted, could be used to justify any police shooting, no matter the circumstances. But just imagine if a non-police citizen tried using the argument in a case. Would it end up like this one?

Robert Murtha, an officer in Hartford, Conn., shot three times at the driver of a car. He said the vehicle had sped directly at him, knocking him to the ground as he fired. Video from a nearby police cruiser told another story. The officer had not been struck. He had fired through the driver’s-side window as the car passed him.

Officer Murtha’s story was so obviously incorrect that he was arrested on charges of assault and fabricating evidence. If officers can get away with shooting people and lying about it, the prosecutor declared, “the system is doomed.” …

Dr. Lewinski testified at trial. The jury deliberated less than one full day. The officer was acquitted of all charges.

The increased attention on police shootings has resulted in some additional documentation of the actual numbers. As we’ve explained before, there is no national government database tracking the killing of citizens by police. The FBI does keep track of numbers, but participation is spotty and the figures are extremely incomplete. The Guardian is now operating an independent database counting police shootings.

We are up significantly this year compared to last year. July was a particularly bad month, The Guardian notes. The Guardian lists 680 people killed by police this year. According to volunteer database Killed by Police, the number last year at this time was about 645, so there’s an increase over last year if this rate keeps up (important caveat: These are simply flat numbers without any consideration of the circumstances of the killing, whether the other person was armed, or in the commission of a crime, et cetera).

Written by Scott Shackford, associate editor at Reason

In the wake of Baltimore’s “purge” (as April’s protests came to be known), two competing theories emerged about what effect the controversy has had on policing in America. We’ve outlined the two theories on a number of occasions, but for those unfamiliar, here’s a recap:

One theory — dubbed the “Ferguson Effect” — claims police are now reluctant to engage in “discretionary enforcement” for fear of prosecution. “Discretionary enforcement” of course refers to the use of lethal force in the line of duty and the implication seems to be that in light of recent events, law enforcement officers are afraid that their actions will be scrutinized by the public. In extreme cases, such scrutiny could culminate in social unrest, something no one individual wishes to be blamed for.

Casting doubt on the so-called Ferguson Effect is a report from The Washington Post which shows that US police are shooting and killing “suspects” at twice the rate seen in the past. More specifically, 385 people have been killed by police in 2015 alone. Unsurprisingly, minority groups are overrepresented in cases involving the fatal shooting of unarmed suspects.

Despite a notable spike in violence across Baltimore in the months since the riots and the persistence of violent crime in Chicago, the number of people killed by police across the country posted M/M declines in April, May, and June. In July, the trend was broken. Here’s The Guardian with more:

July was the deadliest month of 2015 so far for killings by police after registering 118 fatalities, according to the Guardian’s ongoing investigation The Counted, which now projects that US law enforcement is on course to kill more than 1,150 people this year.

The July figure brought an end to a steady decline in totals over the previous four months. After 113 people were killed in March, 101 died in April, 87 fatalities were recorded in May and 78 in June.

At least 20 people killed in July – more than one in six – were unarmed, including Samuel DuBose, who was shot by University of Cincinnati officer Ray Tensing in a 19 July traffic stop that has become the latest flashpoint in protests over the police’s use of deadly force.

Of the 118 people, 106 died from gunfire, making July also the first month of 2015 in which that number has exceeded 100. Two people died after officers shocked them with Tasers, two died being struck by police vehicles, and eight died after altercations in police custody.

Tensing had claimed DuBose dragged him with his car, but footage recorded by Tensing’s body camera refuted his account. The officer was charged with murder on Wednesday, when at a press conference the Cincinnati prosecutor Joe Deters called the shooting “senseless” and said Tensing “should never have been a police officer”.

Tensing, who turned himself in on Wednesday, was arraigned on Thursday and has been released on bail. On Friday it was announced by Deters’s office that two officers who appeared to reinforce Tensing’s false account will not be charged with any crimes.

For those who haven’t seen the body cam footage referenced above, here is the incident:

As a reminder, The Guardian’s effort stems from what it says is a generalized failure on the part of the US government to keep a “comprehensive record of the number of people killed by law enforcement” which it says is a “prerequisite for an informed public discussion about the use of force by police.”

Again, we’ll leave it to readers to determine what it says about police accountability in America when other countries feel compelled to put a face and a name to hundreds of people whose deaths, if left in the hands of the US government, might have gone unnoticed or worse, undocumented.

This article featured originally on Zero Hedge

Left: Police Officer Ray Tensing; Right: murder victim Sam Dubose (h/t Rigel Robinson)

By Ian Reifowitz

The murder of Sam Dubose by University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing was truly horrible. The video captured by Tensing’s body-cam shows what began as a routine traffic stop. At first, the officer asks to see Dubose’s license, and ends up having to ask a number of times. Then, a series of events unfolds rapidly over just a few seconds. We see Tensing tell Dubose to take off his seat belt. Next, the officer grasps the handle to open the door on the driver’s side. Dubose subsequently puts one hand over the door—where the window had been rolled down—and pulls in an attempt to hold it shut, while starting his car. The video then shows Tensing reach into the car with one hand, twice call out “stop”—during which time Dubose revs the engine—and then, inexplicably, the officer pulls out his weapon and delivers one shot, fatal, to the head, as the car accelerates forward and ultimately rolls to a stop not far away.

Joseph T. Deters is the district attorney of Hamilton County, the person who secured an indictment of murder in this case. Deters has ensured that, this time at least, there will be a trial after the death of an unarmed, non-threatening black man at the hands of a cop. Here’s what Deters said about the killing of Sam Dubose, below:

I’ve been doing this for over 30 years. This is the most asinine act I’ve ever seen a police officer make. Totally unwarranted. It’s an absolute tragedy in the year 2015 that anyone would behave in this manner. It was senseless.

Thankfully, the video-cam provides the evidence necessary to bring the murderer to justice. At the press conference announcing the indictment, Deters explained that without the video, the authorities would have believed Officer Tensing’s story as described in the incident report—namely that he had been dragged alongside the car, that his life had been in danger as he “was almost run over,” and it was for that reason he fired his weapon.

We’ll see how the trial goes, and whether any new evidence comes to light, but at least now the justice that Sam Dubose’s mother rightfully demanded at her son’s funeral stands a chance. As bad as this murder was, at this point I want to focus on what happened afterwards, specifically on the officers who were perfectly willing to lie on Tensing’s behalf, to support his false account, and thus to cover up a murder.

Make no mistake. This was a deliberate cover up. When it comes to Tensing, am I surprised that someone capable of murder was willing to lie about it? Of course not. I don’t mean to dismiss his lies, but they are the least of his crimes that day. Let’s focus on what two other officers, Phillip Kidd and Eric Weibel, said after arriving on the murder scene.

Officer Weibel drafted the aforementioned police report. In addition to Tensing’s own lies, both Kidd and Weibel also bore false witness. As Weibel wrote: “Officer Kidd told me that he witnessed the Honda Accord drag Officer Tensing, and that he witnessed Officer Tensing fire a single shot.” You saw the video. Tensing was not dragged. Phillip Kidd lied. Weibel continued: “Looking at Officer Tensing’s uniform, I could see that the back of his pants and shirt looked as if it had been dragged over a rough surface.” You saw the video. Tensing was not dragged. Eric Weibel also lied.

What’s going to happen to these two officers? The Dubose family sure wants to know, and pushed for answers on that front from District Attorney Deters, who stated that his office is “looking at the issue.” That’s good, for a start, but we need to keep the pressure on to make sure they do more than look.

Unless the investigation uncovers radically different information from what we already know, Officers Kidd and Weibel must be punished severely for what they did. Their lies didn’t kill Sam Dubose. But they would have allowed his killer to get away with it. While Ray Tensing committed murder in an instant, Phillip Kidd and Eric Weibel sought to murder the truth in a calculated fashion. They had time to craft their stories, to get them just right before presenting them to their superiors as the official version of events.

On the matter of police reform, officers should use the minimum amount of force necessary. We should aim to be a society where there are no unjustified killings or other acts of violence committed against civilians by officers. Certainly our peer countries demonstrate that we can do much, much better than we are. There are countless numerical comparisons to be made, but this one is as shocking as it is simple to digest.

Whether or not we achieve of the goal of perfection, we must also reform our police departments so that if any officer does act in an unjust way toward a civilian, every other officer will work to ensure justice rather than obstruct it. The fact that Ray Tensing had no trouble finding willing co-conspirators, accessories after the fact in a sense, speaks volumes about why it is so hard to make progress in the fight against police abuse.

That abuse, disproportionately experienced by African Americans, Latino Americans, and American Indians, is so dangerous because—in addition to the direct harm it causes its victims—it further corrodes the relationship between those communities and law enforcement. If we could get to a place where that relationship works properly, where people trust rather than fear the police and the criminal justice system, more lives could be saved in the very communities that suffer most from crime and violence.

Right now, one of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of America getting to that place is the fact that too many people—mostly white, albeit not exclusively—don’t believe that this kind of police abuse is a real problem. When an officer uses force, and claims that it was justified, many people believe the officer every time, even when countered by statements from non-officers who say different.

I’m not suggesting that we should do the opposite, that we should never believe a police officer, or that we should always take the word of a civilian when their stories conflict. But the sheer number of cases where officers have lied about what they’ve done—lies we know about only because we have video evidence that was rarely available until very recently—makes clear that those who say we should always take the word of a cop over the person assumed to have done something illegal are either hopelessly naive, willfully blind, or simply too invested in their privilege to care.

Police officers aren’t the only people who lie about crimes. That’s not the point. The police are supposed to uphold the law. Criminals are supposed be the ones who break it. We should be able to tell the difference between them.

From top left to right, Philadelphia Police officers Thomas Liciardello, Perry Betts, Linwood Norman; from bottom left to right, officers Brian Reynolds, John Speiser and Michael Spicer

PHILADELPHIA — A report from The Philadelphia Inquirer claims six police officers who were acquitted after being accused of corruption have now been reinstated to the police force.

According to the report:

Mark McDonald, the mayor’s press secretary, said the former narcotics officers – Michael Spicer, Thomas Liciardello, Brian Reynolds, Perry Betts, Linwood Norman, and John Speiser – will get $90,000 in back pay and have their original badges returned.

McDonald said five of the officers would be assigned to districts and would not return to the Narcotics Field Unit. Norman will be assigned to the impound lot.

James J. Binns, who represented Spicer in the federal case, initially said his client and another officer, who was not charged, would receive promotions under the arbitrator’s ruling. Binns said later Friday that he was wrong and that promotions were not part of the arrangement.

When Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey fired the six officers, he called the case “one of the worst cases of corruption I have ever heard.” He told reporters that the officers’ badges would be destroyed.

Spicer’s trial in particular sparked public outrage, as Spicer was accused repeatedly over the years of intimidation and misconduct. In 2008, Spicer was suspected of stealing drug money and planting evidence, and in 2010, Spicer was accused of throwing a suspect from the third story of an apartment building. He was acquitted of all charges.

The report goes on to explain some of the far-reaching consequences of the accusations the officers faced:

Prosecutors alleged the men routinely beat and robbed drug suspects. The allegations prompted dozens of civil rights lawsuits, causing the reversal of nearly 450 drug convictions.

Philadelphia’s decision to reinstate the officers comes amid more accusations and an internal investigation into police misconduct and use of excessive force. TruthVoice reported Friday about an internal investigation prompted by a video of an April incident that shows nearly two dozen police officers repeatedly hitting and applying electric shocks to Tyree Carroll, who was restrained and unarmed. The report and video have since garnered national attention. (Video available below:)

In addition to the legal troubles it has faced recently, the Philadelphia Police Department has been widely criticized throughout the year following findings that its officers have shot someone roughly once a week for the past eight years. Over 390 people were shot, many of whom were reportedly unarmed.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (h/t Brendan McDermid)

UPDATE @ 7/13/2015 4:42 AM: State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the special prosecutor named by Gov. Cuomo, appeared on a New York talk show saying he hopes his position will improve trust in the police.

Schneiderman was on John Catsimaditis’s AM 970 radio show Sunday, elaborating on why he feels the governor’s decision was significant.

“There has been this tremendous erosion of public confidence,” Scheniderman said. “People really feel that police are held to a different standard than others.”

“No one has said that any particular district attorney engaged in any misconduct, this is just a matter of the public having that assurance that [the prosecutor] is a little more distanced from the local police.”

Schneiderman also said he believes reforms are overdue.

“We’re in a period of time, and I think it’s a good thing, there are a lot of reforms coming into our criminal justice system,” he said.

Schneiderman’s office will be taking charge of prosecutions that involve fatal police shootings, following an executive order signed by Gov. Cuomo lats week.

NEW YORK — New York will appoint a special prosecutor to handle investigations when civilians are killed during confrontations with police, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday.

Cuomo told reporters he would issue an executive order valid for one year that would place Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in charge of investigating and prosecuting police-involved killings, taking those cases out of the hands of district attorneys.

“We will be the first state in the country to acknowledge the problem and say we’re going to create an independent prosecutor who does not have that kind of connection with the organized police departments,” Cuomo said, according to the New York Times.

Cuomo said the appointment of a special prosecutor would help rebuild public confidence in law enforcement, following several high profile killings of unarmed black men by officers. Among them was Eric Garner on Staten Island in New York, who was choked to death nearly one year ago.

A grand jury in March declined to indict the officer who placed Garner in a chokehold, a maneuver banned by New York City police. The decision led to weeks of protests over law enforcement’s use of force.

The phrase “I can’t breathe,” which Garner was heard saying before his death, became a slogan of “Black Lives Matter” demonstrations around the country.

Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, attended a rally on Tuesday urging Cuomo to appoint a special prosecutor to handle deaths of civilians, saying some district attorneys are too closely linked with local police to conduct a fair investigation.

“It’s for future families. We don’t ever want to see this happen, what happened to my son,” she said in comments carried on local news broadcaster NY1.

The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the New York City’s largest police union, called the executive order “unnecessary” and said it could lead to the indictment of officers “for the sake of public perception,” a statement said.

Reported by Victoria Cavaliere for Reuters; edited by Larry King