´According to some news sources, toxicology reports later confirmed that McDonald had the dissociative hallucinogen PCP in his system[citation needed]; however, the toxicology report released with McDonald’s autopsy and signed by toxicologist Peter Koin shows that he was not tested for PCP and that he tested negative for three other substances[12].¨
1 Like
@AstralFire
¨Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said Tuesday that a 3-inch knife with its blade folded into the handle was recovered from the scene.¨ (emphasis added)
2 Likes
none of them can be trusted, from those cops, to their superiors, to the DA’s office to the mayors office. they tried to cover it up. if not for that whistleblower that prompted the FOIA, this would have been swept under the rug like usual.
1 Like
Yes, I’m aware. Trust me, I’m not taking the cop’s side for one second. Everything about this was wrong. But I’m taking this as a doorway for criticizing an entire system that builds cowardly cops who try to quiet every irrational fear by taking it out on the undeserving. We only hear about some of the worst incidences, the ones where no one’s willing to deny that it’s undeniably awful – but it translates to an oppressive system that works on the margins and gets excused by people in instances where the facts are less clear.
CarlosFiance, my comment is not “bullshit”, it’s fact based. Provide proof of any BLM reaction to this senseless taking of a young black life. Provide proof of any prolonged protests, similar to the one currently being conducted in Minneapolis. You cannot because they simply do not exist. Could it be that black lives only matter when they are taken by the police and the death of that black person can be exploited to create rage?
Here are two interesting comments regarding the reaction to the death that little boy, Tyshawn Lee. One is comments by a black news anchor in Houston, the other is a black woman. Watch them if you dare.
Astral, I was merely pointing out that one of the rationales for the shooting that was given from the get-go by the police - that McDonald was actively threatening the officers - could not have been true, based on the condition of the knife.
He uses the knife earlier to slash one of the tires on another car, I believe. I don’t know, I think the police have done a good job convincing themselves that the simple act of having a knife and being not-white, not-a-cop, and not-rich is itself a violent offense.
Your comment is bullshit in that you are criticizing an organization dedicated to the issue of crimes committed against the black community by the police, for not engaging in another issue i.e., crime within the black community. Would you have criticized MLK for advocating for civil rights without bemoaning at every opportunity, say, fraud within the black community? See the point?
2 Likes
Well, that´s what the police have reported. But inasmuch as every other fact that they´ve reported about the event is, not to put to fine a point on it, a lie*, and they have engaged in a cover-up, don´t you think that that factoid might not be true as well?
*see Jalus´ post up above.
1 Like
Why just focus on the police? The greatest threat to black lives in the U.S. isn’t law enforcement, it’s gangs. A study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics culled from its database 7,391 hospitalizations from firearm-related injuries in young people age 20 and under. Not only were 90 percent of those hospitalized male, but hospitalization rates for gunfire injuries were highest for black children and teenagers. The overall gunfire hospitalization rate for black males was almost 45 percent, 10.5 times higher than the rate for white males. The gunfire hospitalization rate for black teenagers 15 to 19 was a whopping 13 times higher than the rate for white teens in the same age group! Seventy percent of black children hospitalized for firearm-related injuries were victims of assault, compared with 32 percent of white children injured by guns, according to the study. Another study on black homicide rates by the Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit Violence Policy Center found black Americans are four times more likely to be murdered than the national average, and four out of five black homicide victims are killed with guns. BLACK LIVES CERTAINLY DO MATTER, however, with little focus being made on the root problems, and too much time & efforts are being put towards a problem that is dwarfed by the scourge of gang violence in communities of color - black mothers are going to continue to bury their children. Pull your head out of your a-s-s and see the real problem!
The point there is quite valid. We are seeing over and over that the definition of when a police officer can reasonably be afraid for his/her life is expanding.
But in this case, they are well on the outside of that expanding envelope. The knife was not open, and the boy was moving away, slowly, from the police officers. Indeed, another part of the story collapses with this video…that the officers originally responding to the call didn’t have tasers so they were waiting for back up that did.
Yet no tasers were ever deployed. No nonlethal attempts were ever made to detain him…they merely open fired, and continued firing well after he could have been seen as any threat to anyone. This was a police execution…and the multiple lies they made in covering it up for a year expose that the police knew perfectly well that they were breaking the law.
1 Like