Police in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Wednesday Body camera footage was released It showed that the officer shot a black man, Patrick Loya, to death. Officer Leo knelt with his back to the ground as he fired his weapon.
The footage was released at the request of activists and Lioa’s family, but there are still many unanswered questions about Lioa’s death. Who is the officer and what is his history of violence against civilians? Why did the camera darken the officer’s body before the deadly fight ended? First, what was the basis of the officer’s relationship with Leo?
Leoia, 26 years old Congolese refugee And it came to America in 2014 to prevent violence. April 4 then He was sitting in a car parked near the curb when an officer approached and asked for identification.
The officer said Leo’s license plates were not registered on the car he was driving. Lioa tried to flee while walking, while the officer and Lioi quarreled on the spot. The officer tried to give Leo an electric shock, but Leo took the gun and tried not to collide.
The officer took the gun and apparently shot him in the head or neck, killing him.
The demonstrations took place in front of the Grand Rapid Police Department For daysThe protesters demanded more information and charges against the police. The officer, a seven -year veteran, was placed There is paid leave.
“They must make the identity of the police public. “They should hold the police accountable for all the actions they took, because we saw the whole video,” Liao’s cousin said. He told her Local media. “I hate that he’s home now, sitting at home watching TV and still getting paid.”
Unstable beginning, deadly end
Experts are not convinced that the police should have involved Loia from the beginning because his car was parked and he did not seem to have committed any crime other than the inconsistency of the alleged license plates.
Scott Roberts, chief executive of the Justice and Democracy Campaign with civil rights group Color of Change, said it was a clear reason for a police officer to contact Lioya and ask for her ID.
“I believe this reason has been stopped,” Roberts said, referring to general police training when officers wrap a person under the guise of a minor offense to further investigate the person.
David Gans, program director for human rights, civil rights and citizenship at the Center for Constitutional Accountability in Washington, DC, said that in addition to being a form of harassment, these traffic jams can quickly become deadly.
“It was a horrible murder. “I’ll remind you that often what starts as a traffic jam is deadly and ends with a black man being brutally murdered by police,” Gansma told HuffPost.
“Obviously, you can’t shoot the prisoner because he’s trying to escape the scene,” he said. “You can’t shoot an individual at a car stop, because he can resist arrest. It’s very disproportionate in the situation.”
In the mid -1990s, the Supreme Court unanimously approved the practice of suspension of reasons. manager He said such stops were constitutional as long as there was a possible reason for any violations and “even a reasonable official would not stop the driver in the absence of any additional law enforcement objective.”
Racial bias can be seen in the way these stops are used. Researchers from Stanford University and New York University analyzed nearly 100 million traffic stops in the United States and Found yun Blacks are twice as likely than whites to be caught by police, even though as a group they have fewer drugs, guns, or other illegal items. Black drivers are more likely to stop after dark, which researchers suggest is because police officers cannot use bias when drivers are harder to see.
This bias can be seen in Grand Rapids. 2017 survey We found that Grand Rapids police were twice as likely to hit black drivers than white drivers. Parents Five black children They became angry the same year after their children, ages 12 to 14, were detained by Grand Rapids police and arrested while at gunpoint.
If the officer is finally charged with killing Lioa, there is a good chance he will call for a defense and mention that Lioa got his jaw -dropping weapon. Body camera footage shows the officer trying to place his dropping weapon and Lioya trying to stop him from being hit.
But Roberts did not see any evidence of malicious intent in the video. Lioia “did not try and took it [the stun gun] “And use it against the officer,” Roberts said. “He has never tried to beat an officer.”
The body camera cutscene was cut minutes before a police officer fired a gun at Lioa’s head or neck. Police said Wednesday the camera was “turned off.” Police officers suggested this could have happened while the officer and Lioia were arguing in the area.
But the missing footage robs the public – and prosecutors – of a closer look at what happened before the officer’s deadly action. The actual hunt was recorded only by a mobile observer a few meters from the officer and Lioya.
Lack of transparency
Jennifer Kalchuk, a spokeswoman for the Grand Rapid Police Department, told HuffPost that the department’s practice is not to name suspects until they have been charged with the crime.
But most state police departments assign police officers to kill civilians, said Samuel Sinianwe, an activist and police analyst. It collects data with Michigan police agencies on cases where the names of officers were found in incidents between 2017 and 2021. Police Violence Planning Group.
Not knowing the name of the officer makes it difficult to establish if there has been violence against civilians in the past. Even if your name is published, state laws may make it difficult to obtain this information.
Police disciplinary records are mostly limited to Michigan. The acts primarily demonstrated suspension, dismissal or any other form of severe discipline. Michigan is one of 38 states Whether baseless police reports or active investigations are confidential.
“Grand Rapids is less transparent than most,” Sinianwe told HuffPost. “They don’t publish data on the use of force on the Internet, so it’s very difficult to understand the scheme because they don’t have transparency.”
Source: Huffpost
