Alton Sterling Case Study

On August 5, 2014, five days prior to Michael Brown’s death, John Crawford III was fatally shot by police officers in an Ohio Walmart aisle. At the site of Crawford’s shooting, there were two hundred surveillance cameras, many showing him holding a toy gun, him on his cell phone, and other details of his death. After receiving a call from Ronald Richie, another patron, police officers responded to the scene with loaded guns and without any de-escalation fatally shot Crawford. Likewise with many other African American shootings by the police, the grand jury also failed to indict the officers who shot Crawford. Crawford’s outcome demonstrates one reason to be skeptical about the Police CAMERA Act because although there are high-quality camera footages police officers are still not getting indicted and these violent acts are still ongoing. However, as stated previously, body-worn cameras creates a sense of “self-awareness” in police officers than any other video capturing device can. According to the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology, though Crawford’s death is a “miscarriage of justice, the filming itself by bystander or any form would not generate the self-awareness and consequent behavior modification during the incident.” Dr. Barak Ariel, a member of the Rialto Study from the Cambridge Institution of Criminology, explained that the body-worn camera present a ‘preventative treatment’ that carry a straightforward, pragmatic message that everyone is being watched, videotaped, and are expected to follow the

There is so much crime which occurs in our society today, which it is very difficult to put an end to it. But there is a thing which is common among these crimes which are the criminals. According to the article, "Police body Cams: Solution or scam? Nwanevu the author has stated many questions to which he gathers the responses from three panels who is Mariame Kaba a member of the Chicago antipolice violence organization, David Fleck a vice president and he is also a major manufacturer of the police body cameras, and Connor Boyack who is a president of Utah 's Liberates Institute. This article mentions the popular magazine such as Time magazine, this magazine reports that over a quarter of the country 's police departments are already testing or actively using cameras, including the NYPD and the LAPD (Nwanevu, 2015). Also the author Nwanevu states that The Obama administration has called for the federal funding to support the deployment of as many as 50,000 devices to state and local law enforcement agencies. The administration 's reasoning captures the perspective of most camera supporters. According to the status the usage by police officers will help sustain trust between law enforcement agencies and the communities they interact with (Nwanevu, 2015). Reformers have suggested that the video could have gone a long way towards resolving the ambiguities of the Michael Brown case where eyewitnesses had given conflicting stories and also the death of Eric Garner according to

This case provides the story of the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald (17 years) in Chicago by Police Officer Jason Van Dyke on or about October 21, 2014. McDonald died after having been shot 16 times late on that evening by Van Dyke as he and others responded to a report of a man armed with a knife breaking into vehicles in a truck yard (CQ Research, 2016). McDonald, who had a record of juvenile arrests, allegedly refused the officers’ demands to drop his knife (CQ Research, 2016). After 400 days of the incident, the video from a police vehicle showed that McDonald, who was holding a knife was walking parallel, but away from the officers when he was shot 16 times by Van Dyke (Police Charges, 2015). The public has a right to know as much as possible about the rules governing the police and about investigations into allegations of police misconduct. Transparency holds police accountable and accountability builds trust in Police Department.

In the aftermath of the Rodney king beating a lot of things changed with police on the field. “In the wake of the Rodney king case; cameras became standard equipment in patrol cars all over the nation” (Marcou). In doing this police now cannot cover up an incident that they were a part of. “As far as citizens recording police, there is still much disagreement about how it should be handled” (Marcou). Nowhere in the constitution does it say the citizens cannot film stuff that is happening outside their house. “When it comes to training, officers are told “have your camera going at all times. A professional police officer has nothing to fear from being recorded and always act as if you are being recorded, because in today’s world you probably are” (Marcou). Thanks to cases like Rodney Kings, law enforcement is much more aware of misuse of force in the field.

On a Wednesday evening at 9:05pm in Minnesota, an African American couple was driving in their car with a four-year-old daughter in the back seat. After being pulled aside by Joronimo Yanez, a police officer, for a broken tail light, Philando Castile, the driver, stopped his car. Officer Yanez asked Castile for his license and registration. Castile handed the officer his car license and registration, but also told him he has a weapon in his car, for which he was licensed to carry. Officer Yanez immediate words were “Don’t move!” As Castile put his hands up where the officer could clearly see them, officer Yanez shot him repeatedly four times in the arm to the horror of Castile, his girlfriend, and their four-year-old daughter. Completely stupefied by the event, Castile’s girlfriend, Reynolds, took out her phone and began streaming an online video directly to Facebook showing the immediate aftermath of the incident. In the video, Reynolds narrates the accident’s story and exclaimed, “You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his license and registration, sir. Please don’t tell me he’s dead.” While recording, her four-years-old asked “Mammy, I’m scarred!” Reynolds answered, “It’s okay, I’m right here with you.” Officer Yanez returned and ordered Reynolds on her knees out of the car. Still being recorded, the other officers on the scene asked officer Yanez of his mindset, checking if he’s ok, completing ignoring the true victim, Castile. Castile was left bleeding

Explain your answer. The officer had probable cause. Also there was a call from someone that seemed lives could be endangered because he had that handgun. There's no way of knowing if someone actually has a valid permit to carry by just looking at them. You have to do a search to find out. The best thing to do is take the gun until they get the information of whether they have a permit or not. You need to do this to insure you and the witnesses are safe. Since it was found the man had a permit and had committed no actual crime he was let go.

Brown was unarmed and running away after the police stopped him and pulled a gun out for no apparent reason. The police pulled up next to him when and told him to “get the fuck on the ground”, words that shouldn't be needed if the teen wasn't doing anything wrong at the moment. Michael's friend, Dorian Johnson, recounted all the events of the day Brown was killed by the Ferguson police in an interview with MSNBC. Johnson was very close to Brown when the initial shot were fired off. The police say that the reason Brown was shot was because he tried to forcibly take the gun fro mthe officer, but Dorian says otherwise. According to Dorian, he had just met up with Brown and the two were walking to Johnson’s house and as they were nearly there, Johnson realized they were being tailed by a cop who ordered them to “get the fuck on the ground” to which Johnson replied saying they were almost where they were going. The officer then backed up and almost hit the two teens, and said “what did you say?” and tried to slam opened the door, but instead hit Brown and closed. The officer proceeded to grab Brown by the neck which Brown struggled to release the grip. This is what the officers say was the struggle for the gun by Michael and the officer. Johnson saw that the cop was reaching for something, but at first thought it was a stun gun until he saw the muzzle and had it pointed at

It is one that everyone is familiar with due to its high profile coverage. Although this incident occurred in St. Louis, Missouri, it is very relevant to police shootings all over the country. As a short recap, police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed unarmed teen Michael Brown. Ultimately, Darren Wilson was not charged with any crime. Wilson, like many officers before him, argued that he was afraid for his life and therefore used his weapon in self-defense. Unfortunately, this argument has been heard many times after Michael Brown’s death as well. When Laquan McDonald was shot and killed in Chicago in 2014, Jason Van Dyke “feared for his life”; dash-camera footage, though, showed otherwise. Police personnel and city officials even went so far in this cover-up as to pay Laquan’s mother millions of dollars not to speak to the media about what happened. Although video of the shooting was available in 2014, the video itself was not released to the public until late 2015, after Rahm was re-elected to mayoral office. As more details surfaced, it then became clear to the public that not only did the officers and top law enforcement attempt to hide this incident, but the Cook County State’s Attorney was also involved. I argue that had there been more diversity on the force, or in the very least sensitivity training, maybe these officers would have seen a person and been more compassionate, instead of seeing a threat and

He could have waited for Billy to leave the liquor store and approach him differently than withdrawing his weapon. The Fourth Amendment is In the Garner decision and it says that in excessive force claims becomes the matter of seizure and the court must balance when seizure is needed against the nature and quality against seizure to figure out if the seizure was reasonable (Ross, 2015) Under the Garner decision, the officer must have probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of serious injury or death to officers or citizens, Lethal force may be warranted to prevent an escape or to protect a citizen, It may also be used only when a felony has been committed. The felon must be dangerous involving violence or a threat of violence, A suspect is only dangerous if he threatens the officer with a weapon or the officer has probable cause to believe the suspect committed an offense which he inflicted or threatened to inflict serious physical injury. (Ross, 2015) The officer must also give warning before using lethal force. Billy could sue for punitive damages and compensation because the officer did not warn him before he fired the weapon. The officer was very

Citizens began to say that Officer Darren Wilson should have pepper sprayed the victim, tased him, or called for back up. All of those alternatives look good on paper, but in the moment when you are being beaten to what could have been death, you have to think either I am going to let this man beat me to death or I am going to go home to my family. The jury in this case decided not to indict Mr. Wilson, but since the incident, he has had a difficult finding another job being a police officer.

As the author describes story, “Chief Thomas Jackson says Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Brown, did not know Brown was a suspect in a strong-arm robbery that happened moments before the shooting. Wilson stopped Brown for walking in the middle of the street” (par. 45).

The officers then claimed to their supervisor, a prosecutor and in legal paperwork that the man had threatened another person with the gun, which they observed in his waistband when they arrested him, Vance said.

That being the case, if the police officers were commanding Armadou to get on the ground because they thought he had a gun and he wasn’t listening then the officers could have used the taser gun and apply however many volts in order to get him to give in, instead of firing 41

The shooting of African American teenager Michael Brown by white officer Darren Wilson has been a hot topic of debate. Those in support of Michael Brown believe that Darren Wilson racially profiled Brown and that the shooting would have never occurred had Brown been white. Those in support of Darren Wilson state that he acted in self-defense. This argument has more evidence supporting it than the argument that Brown was racially profiled.

Policing relies on the public trust, police legitimacy and accountability, which can be destroyed by unjustifiable police shootings (Squires and Kennninson, 2010). Within this country, there is a recognition that the police do not always adhere to the rule of law (Newburn and Reiner, 2012: 809), which has led to consistent public outrage at the lack of effectiveness and legitimacy the police has maintained. Therefore the deliberate decision to enforce police to attend to the streets unarmed was employed to reassure the public that the police were not to be feared (Waddington and Wright, 2010). Ultimately, concerns derive from the belief that the police are completely ineffective when dealing with gun crimes (Farrell, 1992: 20). However,