Friday, January 27, 2023

The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 33: Officer Adjacent Deaths sadly, the Beating Shall Continue

US law enforcement killed at least 1,176 people in 2022, making it the deadliest year on record for police violence since experts first started tracking the killings, a new data analysis reveals.

I will probably watch the Body Cam Footage of the killing of Tyre Nichols, who was pulled over in Memphis Tennessee on January 7th.  But, anyone who doesn't want to watch it shouldn't feel compelled or pressured into it.  I'd like to read all the Police reports filed by the initial 5 Officers (who have all been fired and charged with various crimes relating to the incident) about the incident and then all the reports by those investigating the 5 officers conduct.

Officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr. and Justin Smith have each been charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, two charges of aggravated kidnapping, two charges of official misconduct and one charge of official oppression, according to both Shelby County criminal court and Shelby County jail records.

This incident really going to be fodder for rightwing on-line assholes.  First off, Nichols will be blamed for "failing to comply" with Officers orders.  Always remember, conservatives unquestionably support the extrajudicial killing of every black man or person of color.  There still are conservatives who defend Chauvin and slander George Floyd.  So, this will be no different but... what we will see is a disgusting cohort of conservatives revealing in this killing because it was done by black Police Officers.  All 5 Officers involved in this killing were black.  Whenever the trial rolls around I'm certain excessively on-line conservatives will come to the conclusion that 6 black men were responsible but, these bad apple blacks shouldn't dissuade the "Good Police Officers", from carrying out their sworn duty to harass and abuse people of color. 

Is it my place to wonder if these Officers couldn't have stopped themselves or at least paused to recognize, except for a few different circumstances, one of them could have been on the receiving end of this beating?

Is it as simple as an "Officer Coffey" attitude towards African-Americans in John Singleton's Academy Award-nominated film Boyz n the Hood (1991)?  Could the Officers have been so caught up in the chase as to ensure Nichols "Would pay the tax" for making them chase him?  Could it be even worse?  A paid targeted killing at the behest of someone?  AGang in Blue execution of a criminal co-conspirator?

I don't want to speculate but, when the Chief and assorted officials are giving out warnings as to the barbarity and inhumanity of the video, the question is why?

In Atlanta, a week ago, a non-binary protestor named Toruguita was shot and killed by Georgia State Police after Officers reported "they" shot a Georgia State Police Trooper in the stomach with a handgun.  There is no body cam footage.  However, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) has released several preliminary reports about the shooting and the handgun recovered, including a probable ATF/GBI firearm trace which indicates Toruguita (aka Maunel Esteban Paez Teran) purchased the recovered handgun in September 2020 and the forensic ballistics match the bullet which struck the GSP Trooper to that handgun.

Tortuguita and other "Forest Defenders" are the woods in DeKalb County trying to stop the Atlanta Police from building a massive paramilitary Police training Compound first proposed in 2021.  The Training site was planned for a heavily wooded area and abutted by mainly black and poor neighborhoods, of course.

In December of 2022, Police raids on the "Defend the Forest" protesters escalated.  A dozen or so have been arrested and charged as "domestic terrorists" because Police Forces know by labelling those arrested as terrorists they immediately win the Media narrative.  Governor Brian Kemp unleashed a combined Multi-Agency Law Enforcement Task Force on these Eco-Terrorists, whom he called "out-of-state rioters" and was able to fellate himself cause he'll "always back the blue".

For as liberal as Georgia has become and even though the trends indicate it becoming a very blue Democratic State, understand the Republican political apparatus and executive branch will come down on leftist agitation like a ton of bricks, protestors should not expect the leniency shown to violent rightwing extremists as in the Oregon Malheur Wildlife Sanctuary standoff or the January 6th terrorists.

Meanwhile, every year leads to more people dying Police Officer Adjacent Deaths and that trend is likely to continue.

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