Category Archives: Gun-violence

Man Fatally Shot By El Cajon Police Was Holding A Vape Pen: LAist – Classic Excuses to Justify Killing Black People

Alfred Olango, the unarmed black man fatally shot by police in El Cajon Tuesday afternoon, was holding a vape pen, according to a statement issued by the El Cajon Police Department Wednesday evening. Olango was a Ugandan refugee who emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 12 in 1991, according to NBC San Diego. His death has sparked protests in the San Diego suburb.Two police officers had responded to 9-1-1 calls about a man walking in traffic and acting erratically around 2 p.m. on Tuesday. According to NPR, one of the calls was made by Olango’s sister, who said that she told police her brother was mentally ill and unarmed. NBC San Diego reports that police arrived about an hour after Olango’s sister had made the call, and that the shooting happened within two minutes of their arrival.In a YouTube video shot in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Olango’s sister is seen screaming and weeping as she tells police that her brother was mentally ill, and that she had called for police to help him. “I called for help. I didn’t call you guys to kill him,” she is heard telling the officers.

Source: Man Fatally Shot By El Cajon Police Was Holding A Vape Pen: LAist

Video of police shooting that killed 6-year-old autistic La. boy released – CBS News

Parish investigators initially said marshals were chasing Few because of an outstanding warrant, WAFB reported.. However, WAFB checked with the Clerk of Court, the District Attorney’s Office, Marksville Police Department and City Court and did not find any outstanding warrants. Col. Mike Edmonson said so far, their investigation shows the same.   WAFB has posted the first minute and 35 seconds from the shooting. They are currently reviewing the rest of the body cam footage. Part of the video can be found below. Video may be disturbing and graphic for viewers.

Source: Video of police shooting that killed 6-year-old autistic La. boy released – CBS News

Charlotte girl weeps over police shootings at city council meeting | 3CHICSPOLITICO

 

“It’s a shame that we have to go to their graveyard and bury them. And we have tears. We shouldn’t have tears. We need our fathers and mothers to be by our side.”Zianna made her tearful statements during a highly-charged, emotional City Council meeting — the first after protests over the police shooting of Keith Scott.Charlotte residents packed City Hall, delivering blistering criticisms for how Mayor Jennifer Roberts and the city’s police handled the death of Scott, an African-American man who was shot by an officer last week.

Source: Charlotte girl weeps over police shootings at city council meeting | 3CHICSPOLITICO

The Killing of Unarmed Black Man #TerenceCrutcher in Oklahoma | 3CHICSPOLITICO No justification for the killing- have mercy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmU_cCpDJVo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmIfTEZRBko

 

“He refused to follow commands given by the officers,” MacKenzie said. “They continued to talk to him; he continued not to listen and follow any commands. As they got closer to the vehicle, he reached inside the vehicle and at that time there was a Taser deployment, and a short time later there was one shot fired.”

Source: The Killing of Unarmed Black Man #TerenceCrutcher in Oklahoma | 3CHICSPOLITICO

Video: Israeli sniper shoots youth during assault on refugee camp | The Electronic Intifada

 

This video shows part of an incident in which an Israeli military sniper severely wounded 22-year-old Palestinian Muhammad al-Amsi during a massive army raid on al-Fawwar refugee camp in the southern West Bank city of Hebron in mid-August.Al-Amsi was standing on his roof talking on the telephone when the sniper shot him four times.It was filmed by Mahmoud Abu Yousef, a videographer with the Ma’an News Agency, and published on Friday by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem as part of a report into the Israeli raid in which another youth, 19-year-old Muhammad Abu Hashhash, was shot dead by Israeli forces.A separate B’Tselem investigation has found that Abu Hashhash was killed as he posed no danger to anyone.Meanwhile, two Palestinians and a Jordanian citizen – one reportedly 15 years old – were shot dead by Israeli forces on Friday in separate incidents. Another Palestinian was shot dead on Saturday morning. On Thursday, a person died from wounds he received when Israeli forces shot him during a raid on his village. Last week, a Palestinian youth was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Source: Video: Israeli sniper shoots youth during assault on refugee camp | The Electronic Intifada

Trump hints at Clinton’s assassination again after retracting ‘birther’ theory | US news | The Guardian

In a sometimes bizarre 45-minute speech on Friday night, which opened with the unfurling of a new “Les Deplorables” battlefield flag backdrop, the Republican nominee went off-script to call for his opponent’s bodyguards to “disarm immediately” – adding, “Let’s see what happens to her.” “Take their guns away!” Trump demanded to loud cheers during a section of the speech in which he said his rival wanted to “destroy your second amendment” and he accused Clinton of “arrogance and entitlement”. In a statement, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook denounced Trump’s comments: “Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for President, has a pattern of inciting people to violence. Whether this is done to provoke protesters at a rally or casually or even as a joke, it is an unacceptable quality in anyone seeking the job of Commander in Chief.”“But we’ve seen again and again that no amount of failed resets can change who Donald Trump is.” The call to leave the Democratic nominee protected by unarmed secret service agents, first made by Trump in May, raised eyebrows as a reversion to the undisciplined candidate of the primaries rather than the more scripted one of recent weeks. Trump also suggested in August that if Clinton was elected president, “the second amendment people” might be able to stop her from appointing judges. That statement was widely interpreted as a veiled assassination threat as well at the time.

Source: Trump hints at Clinton’s assassination again after retracting ‘birther’ theory | US news | The Guardian

A Holiday in Palestine? An Indian Woman Travels through Guns, Graffiti and the Strange Denial of Stamps – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger

We walked through the souk, the market in the old city, and took a turn towards the entry of the Al-Aqsa mosque. Three Israeli soldiers stood at the corner. Overhearing us talking in English, they approached to ask us where we were going. This, because there are two entrances to the Al-Aqsa mosque, one for Muslims, and another for non-Muslims, which sort of translates into one for locals and the other for foreign tourists.We were headed to the Muslim entrance. Assuming we were tourists, they probably wanted to tell us we weren’t allowed entry from this side. As they approached us, AK retorted, “why?” They asked us where we were going. Why are you asking us, she snapped back. Where are you from, they insisted. It’s none of your business. We are trying to help you, they responded. We didn’t ask for your help. We walked away. One of them walked ahead of us and into the mosque. We stopped to look at an Afro-Palestinian neighbourhood. We then walked over to the entrance of the mosque where we were stopped and asked if we were Muslim. We were asked to recite a verse from the Quran. Neither of us could. After a short altercation we returned.As we approached the same corner again, one of the two remaining soldiers called out to us. AK snapped back again. He stopped us and asked where she was from. I’m Palestinian, she answered back. Can I see your ID, he responded. AK has a Blue ID because she resides in Jerusalem. Those living in West Bank and Gaza have a Green ID. She handed over her ID in anger and told him to keep it because she wasn’t going to sit around and be made to wait for hours as they harassed her. She had broken no law and there was simply no need for her to be stopped, she snapped and walk off. I followed her silently, wondering what would happen next. Don’t you need your ID to cross the checkpoint to go to work tomorrow, I asked. Yes I do. She called her cousin who ran a juice shop in the same market and turned around to get her ID back before the soldier disappeared with it. When we returned to the corner he told her she needed to stay there until he was done with her. She asked what his problem was again. So hurt simply because I wouldn’t listen to you? As she carried on, enraged, he snapped back, “Ok you need to shut up now.” At this point she lost all cool that she had left and demanded to see his captain.

Source: A Holiday in Palestine? An Indian Woman Travels through Guns, Graffiti and the Strange Denial of Stamps – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger

Ferguson protest leader Darren Seals shot and found dead in a burning car | US news | The Guardian

More than 100 people gathered Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil at the site where Seals’ body was found, friends said. Activists who attended the vigil said they were furious to find that police had not taped off the crime scene, and that there were still bullet casings on the ground they thought police should have collected as evidence.“We were literally stepping on the ashes from his car and his body,” said Tamara “Bates” Dodd, a St Louis hip-hop artist and activist. “That was probably the thing that shook me up the most, seeing little kids walking past, not knowing what they’re standing on.”Local activists were also troubled by the parallels between Seals’ death and the 2014 murder of 20-year-old Deandre Joshua, who was shot and left in a burning car on the same night a grand jury chose not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in Brown’s death. In all, according to one activist’s count, five other men in the St Louis area have been shot and left in burning cars since 2014.“Many people are really worried. We don’t know if there’s some type of movement serial killer on the loose,” said Patricia Bynes, a protester and former Democratic committeewoman for Ferguson.

Source: Ferguson protest leader Darren Seals shot and found dead in a burning car | US news | The Guardian

Israel admits it kills innocent Palestinian — again | The Electronic Intifada

A familiar narrative unfolded on Monday: Israeli forces killed a Palestinian, and media dutifully published a police spokesperson’s claim that the young man was shot dead during an attempt to attack soldiers with a car.But for the second time in just over a week, Israel soon admitted that the young man shot dead by its forces in Shuafat refugee camp near Jerusalem was not attempting any attack when he was killed.This was the news given to 27-year-old Mustafa Nimir’s parents by Israeli intelligence, who had summoned the couple to a police station in occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday.But the couple already knew that their son was not attempting an attack when he was killed, and that Mustafa and his brother-in-law, 25-year-old Ali Tayseer Nimir, were bringing home food and baby clothes when their car came under fire.Videos and a photo of the aftermath show the backseat of the vehicle with loaves of bread and shopping bags still sitting on the back seat, spattered with blood.Sprayed with bulletsMustafa and Ali were driving home after visiting Mustafa’s older brother when they came under fire. Palestinian youth were confronting raiding Israeli forces in the area at the time.A Palestinian eyewitness told the Ma’an News Agency that confrontations broke out when Israeli forces raided the street connecting the camp to the neighboring village of Anata.“The area of Shufat and Anata is surrounded on three sides by Israel’s separation wall – to the west, north and south,” according to Ma’an.The witness said that dozens of soldiers were in the streets, firing rubber-coated steel bullets at protesters.“During the clashes, a white Opel Corsa was driving in the area and Israeli forces opened heavy fire on the car,” he told Ma’an, adding that the car was moving at a moderate speed and soldiers were standing to the sides of the street.After being sprayed with bullets, the driver lost control of the vehicle, and ran into a parked car.Another camp resident told Ma’an that she was woken up by the shooting and she saw from her balcony that when the white car crashed to a halt, a soldier opened the driver’s side door and demanded that the driver, Ali, who had been shot, get out of the car.She told Ma’an that she saw the driver get out of the car with his hands up while stating repeatedly, “I didn’t do anything.”“Israeli soldiers pushed him on the ground, ordered him to take his pants off, and searched him, despite his injuries,” the witness said.Video of the scene shows soldiers shouting orders at Ali, who emerges from the car with his hands up before lying on the ground:The witness added that Mustafa’s body was left sitting in the passenger’s seat while Ali was left on the ground for half an hour without receiving medical care before both were taken away in Israeli military vehicles.Mustafa’s father Talal told Ma’an on Tuesday that “There are no justifications for killing our children.”“Even if soldiers really did order them to stop the vehicle, why would they immediately start shooting at them?”Killed on way to bakery, returning from pool partyThe incident in Shuafat is similar to the slaying of 22-year-old Anwar Falah al-Salaymeh in nearby al-Ram weeks earlier.Israeli forces claimed that soldiers fired on a “speeding vehicle heading towards them,” killing al-Salaymeh and seriously wounding one of the other two Palestinians in the car.“However, the surviving passengers in the car categorically denied that they had attempted to run over the soldiers,” Ma’an reported at the time, “saying that they were heading to a bakery and had been unaware that Israeli forces were deployed in the area.”And in June, Israeli soldiers in the central West Bank opened fire on a car full of young Palestinians returning from a late-night pool party celebrating Ramadan, killing 15-year-old Mahmoud Badran and injuring four others.In that case, too, Israel admitted that the youths were “mistakenly hit” while soldiers were responding to reports that Palestinians were throwing rocks and firebombs on a highway used by settlers.More than 220 Palestinians have been killed since a new phase of violence began last October, many shot dead in what Israel says were attacks or alleged attacks which have killed more than 30 soldiers and civilians.Human rights groups have condemned Israel’s reflexive use of deadly force in such incidents, saying it amounts to an unofficial shoot-to-kill policy encouraged by Israel’s top leadership.The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has also called for full investigation of incidents in which Israeli forces have caused death and injury.

Source: Israel admits it kills innocent Palestinian — again | The Electronic Intifada

North Dakota pipeline protest turns violent after cultural sites destroyed | US news | The Guardian

Tribe spokesman Steve Sitting Bear said protesters reported that six people had been bitten by security dogs, including a young child. At least 30 people were pepper-sprayed, he said. Preskey said law enforcement authorities had no reports of protesters being injured.There were no law enforcement personnel at the site when the incident occurred, Preskey said. The crowd dispersed when officers arrived and no one was arrested, she said.The incident occurred within half a mile of an encampment where hundreds of people have gathered to join the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s protest of the oil pipeline that is slated to cross the Missouri River nearby.The tribe is challenging the army corps of engineers’ decision to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access pipeline, which crosses the Dakotas and Iowa to Illinois, including near the reservation in southern North Dakota. A federal judge will rule before 9 September whether construction can be halted on the Dakota Access pipeline.Energy Transfer Partners did not return phone calls and emails seeking comment.The tribe fears the project will disturb sacred sites and impact drinking water for thousands of tribal members on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation and millions farther downstream.

Source: North Dakota pipeline protest turns violent after cultural sites destroyed | US news | The Guardian