Courtesy of CNN:
A day after a video captured white officers pinning down and shooting a black man outside a convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, federal authorities are investigating the case.
Alton Sterling, 37, is dead. The U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is leading an investigation into what happened. And the president of the NAACP's local branch is calling for the city's police chief and mayor to resign.
As of this post the two police officers who shot that man have been placed on administrative leave.
The FBI and state police have been called in to assist with the investigation.
The incident has already sparked protests.
And neither the police chief nor the mayor have any intention of resigning at this time.
Witnesses said that the man did not have his gun out when he was shot, but that police pulled it from inside of his pants pocket after he was already dead.
I would assume that they will say he was reaching for it to justify the shooting, but from the video it is pretty clear that they had his left arm under control and it seems ridiculous to assume they could not control his right arm and keep it from grabbing his gun, IF that was what he was trying to do.
Shooting a man standing in front of you reaching for a firearm is one thing, but killing a man who is being partially restrained by two police officers simply because he has a gun on his person seems indefensible to me.
P.S. Sorry that this is the first thing to greet you this morning. I wanted to share it yesterday but I found myself slammed with work and overwhelmed by breaking news so I simply did not get to it.
Source http://ift.tt/29QTKoI
A day after a video captured white officers pinning down and shooting a black man outside a convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, federal authorities are investigating the case.
Alton Sterling, 37, is dead. The U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is leading an investigation into what happened. And the president of the NAACP's local branch is calling for the city's police chief and mayor to resign.
As of this post the two police officers who shot that man have been placed on administrative leave.
The FBI and state police have been called in to assist with the investigation.
The incident has already sparked protests.
And neither the police chief nor the mayor have any intention of resigning at this time.
Witnesses said that the man did not have his gun out when he was shot, but that police pulled it from inside of his pants pocket after he was already dead.
I would assume that they will say he was reaching for it to justify the shooting, but from the video it is pretty clear that they had his left arm under control and it seems ridiculous to assume they could not control his right arm and keep it from grabbing his gun, IF that was what he was trying to do.
Shooting a man standing in front of you reaching for a firearm is one thing, but killing a man who is being partially restrained by two police officers simply because he has a gun on his person seems indefensible to me.
P.S. Sorry that this is the first thing to greet you this morning. I wanted to share it yesterday but I found myself slammed with work and overwhelmed by breaking news so I simply did not get to it.
Source http://ift.tt/29QTKoI
