Tag: police shootings

Who Killed Adam Toledo?

On March 29, just after 2:30 AM, Chicago’s ShotSpotter alert system detected eight or nine gunshots in the West Side, largely Latino, neighborhood of Little Village, where gangs like the Latin Kings and Two Six have made gunplay a regular part of life. Chicago police officer Eric Stillman and his partner sped toward the gunshots once they received the ShotSpotter alert, doubtless hoping to nab the perpetrators and spare the community additional carnage. When they arrived on the scene, almost immediately after those shots were fired, they happened upon two individuals. One of them—who we now know to be 13-year-old Adam Toledo—took off on foot and, at one point, pulled a gun with his right hand. Stillman gave chase, and the world saw what happened next—at least the part highlighted (and, in one case, deceptively edited) by media outlets, many of which elided the actual events of Toledo’s shooting.

The immediate cause of Toledo’s death was the bullet fired by Officer Stillman. But it’s worth examining how a 13-year-old boy ended up in a full sprint through a dark alley at 2:30 AM with a gun in his hand and a police officer on his tail.

Start a few minutes before the shooting. Though it hasn’t gotten much attention, a video compilation that the Chicago Police Department released includes footage that seems to show Toledo walking with a young man before one (or both) fired the eight or nine shots at a passing vehicle near the alley where the police encountered Toledo. Exactly who pulled the trigger remains unclear (the footage is grainy), though CNN reported last Friday, citing prosecutors, that both Toledo’s hand, and the gloves of the man he was with, tested positive for gunshot residue. According to police, that man is a 21-year-old named Ruben Roman, who was arrested at the scene for allegedly obstructing Officer Stillman as he gave chase.

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Most Police Killings in 2020 Involved Calls That Had No Crime or Over Non-Violent Offenses

Unless you never turn on the television or go on the internet, then you likely know American police kill hundreds of people every year with impunity. 1,127 — that is the number of lives brought to an end by “peace officers” in the land of the free in 2020. One-thousand, one-hundred, and twenty seven lives taken by the bullets, tasers, vehicles, fists, and knees of American cops.

If the governments of other countries were killing their citizens in such large numbers, the United Nations would have declared it a humanitarian crisis. But in the land of the free, it’s policy. Of the 1,127 deaths carried out at the hands of US cops, just 16 officers were charged in 2020.

According to a recent analysis of police killings in 2021, carried out by the folks at PoliceViolenceReport.org, the majority of police killings involve calls in which there was no crime or that the suspect is only suspected of a non-violent offense.

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Oregon Newspaper: Man Fatally Shot By Police Was White So There’s No Reason To Riot

An Oregon newspaper included the race of a white man who was fatally shot by police in its coverage, then clarified it felt his race was important “in light of social unrest prompted by police shootings of Black people.”

“Recent shootings include Daunte Wright, who was killed by police in a Minneapolis suburb earlier this week, and two killings in Clark County in recent months,” the newspaper explained, nodding to the fact that those fatal shootings sparked rioting, looting, and other destruction.

Hours after it was published, however, The Oregonian deleted the paragraph and the tweet quoting it after the paper claimed the original statement was “poorly worded.”

“We included information in an earlier tweet about why we identified the victim’s race that was poorly worded. It was not intended to minimize what happened, only to provide context. We generally do not identify race in news stories but often do when reporting police shootings,” the newspaper’s clarification tweet stated.

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CBS Edits Out Gun of Black Youth Shot by Police

The “mainstream” media bears responsibility for helping to whip up the hundreds of race riots that have besieged America over the past year. To what extent will the left-wing activists who run the media blatantly deceive us to advance their destructive agenda? CBS News answers the question by editing the gun out of the hand of Adam Toledo, a black youth who was shot by Chicago police.

Fox News reports on video of Toledo and another person running from police:

Toledo stops for a moment before he turns toward the officer, at which point the cop tells him to, “Show me your f—— hands.”

Toledo appears to have his hands up when he is shot once in the chest. He ultimately died from his injuries.

Also shown in the footage is a brief glimpse of Toledo holding a gun, which he apparently discarded an instant before the fatal shot was fired.

CBS News, however, tweeted a video formatted for mobile devices. As a result, both sides of the bodycam footage were cropped and the image of Toledo holding the gun was omitted.

The impression created was that the police chased down and executed a child, when the actual story was a cop making an understandable mistake in a split-second life and death decision.

So-called journalists have gone from burying the lede to deleting it.

This is hardly out of character for CBS News, as it struggles to distinguish itself as the propaganda agency most aggressively devoted to promoting Democrats’ preferred narrative. A recent 60 Minutes smear job on Ron DeSantis was shockingly dishonest. Demonstrating that it is loyal only to the Democrat Party, not the public, CBS News arrogantly stands by the report.

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No charges, no identity of shooting officer: Feds close probe of Ashli Babbitt’s death

The federal government said on Wednesday it has shut down its investigation into the shooting death of 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt, a U.S. military veteran who was among hundreds protesting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Without charges. And without even identifying who shot her.

The Department of Justice issued a statement that did reveal it will “not pursue criminal charges against the U.S. Capitol Police officer.”

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia’s Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section and the Civil Rights Division, with the Metropolitan Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division (IAD), conducted a thorough investigation of Ms. Babbitt’s shooting” the statement said.

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‘He Couldn’t Even Bark Yet’: Cops Walk Into Fenced-In Yard, Kill 18-Week-old Puppy

Since Saturday night, Derek Brown and Julie-Barecki Brown have been morning the loss of their 18-week-old puppy named Apollo. Apollo didn’t die from being hit by a car or from medical complications, however, his life was taken from him by a member of New Orleans’ finest.

The couple told 4WWL they had gotten in a verbal argument the night a New Orleans police officer entered their yard and killed their puppy.

“Married couples do that,” Derek Brown said of the argument, adding that it shouldn’t have warranted a police response,” We weren’t drawing guns.”

Julie told the outlet she heard her gate open and just seconds later, she heard three gunshots. The couple’s puppy would be killed instantly.

“I ran out here, and the puppy was right there, writhing,” Brown said. “I feel responsible. It’s my job to protect that little guy.”

Two months before he was killed by police, the couple adopted their puppy from Marcus Gandy who fosters dogs who need a home.

“I have his brother here with me. They’re both small enough to carry under your arm,” Gandy said.

“Apollo and his mother arrived the day after the rest of the litter at the Trampled Rose Rescue & Rehab on the Northshore,” the program’s founder Holly Williams said.

“We actually took his mother and her 9 puppies into our rescue the day after they were born, Mama dog was so skinny you couldn’t tell she was pregnant,” Williams said. “Then popped out 9 incredibly tiny babies. Miraculously and thanks to the expert care of our vet, all of the puppies survived.”

“He was not at all a threat,” a friend of the couple, Jennifer Lee said. “He couldn’t even bark.”

“He’s the kind of dog that if he jumped on you, you wouldn’t even feel it,” Gandy said. “They killed a puppy.”

According to the couple, they had two dogs in the backyard and Apollo was the smallest as he was just a puppy. Their other dog weighs 65 pounds but apparently the officer felt more threatened by the harmless 18-week old puppy.

After police killed their puppy, they stayed at the couple’s home for four hours. Though police didn’t identify the officer who shot Apollo, Derek says it was easy to pick him out.

“It was obvious who the cop was that shot him because he was pretty distraught,” said Derek Brown, his voice breaking. “All he said was, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’”

Eventually, police left and took Apollo’s remains with them to conduct an investigation into the shooting. The couple has asked to get his ashes back when the investigation is complete.

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