Mayor Responds to Police Shooting in LA
Offline According to this, they responded with Tasers and the fight continued anyway :
www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31702214
The Los Angeles police chief has presented evidence he claims shows that a homeless man reached for an officer's weapon before being shot dead.
Charlie Beck also said two officers were wearing body cameras, but he has declined to release the footage.
He did not release any details about the man - known as Africa - who was shot by three officers just after 12:00 local time (20:00 GMT) on Sunday.
Protests about police actions have been held across the US in recent months.
They were sparked by a number of instances where police shot dead black men after a confrontation.
In the latest incident in Los Angeles, a graphic film released on social media shows a violent struggle between the homeless man and several officers in the city's Skid Row area.
Chief Beck said the man engaged them in what he called a "brutal, brutal fight".
The quick response from both the Mayor of Los Angeles and the city's police chief shows how concerned the authorities are about the video which shows police officers killing a homeless man.
Police shootings, and videos of them which have gone viral, have led to street protests and violence in other parts of the US, and Los Angeles is keen to avoid any confrontation.
The shooting took place in the city's Skid Row where thousands of homeless people live on the streets - many of them suffering from a mental illness.
While Skid Row is a community, this is not the kind of tightly-knit neighbourhood you find in a place such as Ferguson, Missouri, and the fact two officers were wearing body cameras also gives other views on what happened.
The quick response from both the Mayor of Los Angeles and the city's police chief shows how concerned the authorities are about the video which shows police officers killing a homeless man.
Police shootings, and videos of them which have gone viral, have led to street protests and violence in other parts of the US, and Los Angeles is keen to avoid any confrontation.
The shooting took place in the city's Skid Row where thousands of homeless people live on the streets - many of them suffering from a mental illness.
While Skid Row is a community, this is not the kind of tightly-knit neighbourhood you find in a place such as Ferguson, Missouri, and the fact two officers were wearing body cameras also gives other views on what happened.
Flanked by a poster featuring several blown-up images related to the case, Chief Beck reiterated claims that the homeless man had attempted to grab an officer's weapon.
Video showed the man reaching toward the officer's waistband, he said, and the way that officer's gun was later found partly cocked and jammed suggested a struggle for the weapon had occurred.
Footage from the two body cameras being worn by police officers would not be released imminently, he said, but would be submitted as evidence if a criminal or civil case is brought against the officers.
Mr Beck said all the officers had been specifically trained in dealing with people living in Skid Row and initially dealt with the man "with compassion." At least one of the officers was African American.
The incident comes as police departments around the country face intense scrutiny for their tactics. Last year, highly publicised killings of black men sparked weeks of protests in the US. According to the LA Times Homicide Report
16 People shot by police in LA in 2014
252 people shot by police in LA since 2000.
606 People killed by police in LA County since 2000
38 People Killed in LA County in 2014.
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― Giordano Bruno
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The police need to learn a different way of handling things; not every thing is violent.
"Charlie Beck also said two officers were wearing body cameras, but he has declined to release the footage."
That right there discredits his claims.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
It is possible that they are worried about contaminating a jury pool, which could make it more difficult and expensive for any legal action. I don't really have a problem with them withholding video for a period of time until an official decision on what, if any, disciplinary or legal action is pursued against the officers involved. However, I think that all jurisdictions should have clear rules on where and when they release these videos that allow a reasonable timeframe for charges to be pressed or civil complaints filed, while ensuring that the public will see them in a reasonable time frame.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
I really don't understand why if a sequestered jurry is so important they don't just do trials on the other side of the country. In this day and age it is in no way necessary to have all parties in the same place at the same time. There must be a way to work around jurisdiction in order to facilitate a lack of bias.
I think every cop should always be wearing a camera when on duty, and that anything recorded should be immediately released to the public. I can accept a certain level of censorship in the interest of civil privacy. Having been in law enforcement I know that you often deal with people who aren't at their best and shouldn't be publically humiliated for it. But a few black marks on the video and its all good.
Cops are the employees of the public, and the public should therefore have full access to their activities.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
In the US, every state has their own laws for the entire court system and how trials are conducted. They are often very similar, but in specific cases the differences can be pretty huge, especially when you are dealing with things like the rules of evidence. If we had one national law, it wouldn't be an issue, but good luck ever getting agreement on that- there would be many more losers than winners in any such attempt.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
Well knowledge of law isn't required to be a jurist. There's no real reason to justify the inability of a New York citizen being a jurist in a Nevada case. The court itself could still be in the state with jurisdiction, and the defence and prosecution as well. Just grab jurors from well outside the area in question, tell them what they need to know (which happens anyway), and the whole contamination thing would be dealt with for the overwhelming majority of court cases. Only something that became national or international news would still be an issue.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.