If Only All Police Wore Body Cams?

All this time that we’ve reported on law enforcement killing unarmed civilians, and there are times I feel overwhelmed because the cases, and knowledge of cases, come faster than I can keep up.  Because of new situations almost weekly, if not daily, it’s also difficult to follow-up on cases previously reported.

There are times I feel hopeless because each time we think we have an answer to reduce or stop the number of police involved shootings of unarmed citizens, we find the end result is always up to a human being who listens to the story of the cop who fired the gun. The living have opportunity to say what they thought and felt. The dead do not.

Dillon Taylor

Dillon Taylor

I cry. This time, I cry for Dillon Taylor and I also cried for Bron Cruz, the cop that killed him. I cried for Cruz because he wanted so badly for Dillon to be armed, that while Dillon’s blood was running like a river, and he went into seizure, that did not hinder Cruz from searching Dillon not once, but twice. I cried for Cruz because he planted seeds of blame in his garden of life rather than seeds of compassion.

 

On August 26, 2014, I wrote a comment on this blog about Dillon Taylor. It was shortly after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Dillon was miles away, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson was not wearing a body cam when he shot Michael Brown numerous times killing him.  Bron Cruz was wearing a body cam.

It didn’t take long for Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill to clear Cruz. On September 30, 2014, he released a statement that Cruz was justified in the South Salt Lake City shooting of 20-year-old Dillon Taylor in August. In November, the police department released the body cam video. Gill stated that Bron Cruz had good reason to think that Dillon was pulling a gun out of his pants.  Thus, even with the body cam, it took one person with a title and authority to see things Cruz’s way.

As it turns out, witnesses believe that Dillon reached into his pants pocket to turn the music down on the music device. Dillon was wearing ear buds/headphones, and couldn’t hear Cruz’s commands.

Cruz shot Dillon once in the chest, and once in the stomach. The video from the dash and body cam is below, but be forewarned – it is graphic and disturbing.

Are body cameras the answer? It sure wasn’t the answer in this case.

R.I.P. Dillon Taylor

Butterfly_tears_by_Dandelion_lion

Posted on 06/04/2015, in Cases, Cops Gone Wild, Dillon Taylor and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 55 Comments.

  1. Mr. Militant Negro

    Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.

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  2. This sick SOB had his gun out when he exited his car. He opened fir for no reason. Then he handcuffs a dead body.

    May this cop rot in hell. He then says “..talk to me buddy” Are you kidding me ??

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    • Racer, that’s the “intent” part. Cruz was aiming at Dillon’s back and the second that Dillon turned around, he was shot.

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      • This guy should never have been on the force if that’s the way he reacts in a situation like that. There are no “do – overs” once you pull the trigger.

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        • Racer, I just don’t understand. I don’t understand a person who voluntarily applies for a job being so afraid that pulling and aiming their gun to kill is the first action they take. You are so right — there are no do-overs once the trigger is pulled.

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  3. Jackie Saulmon Ramirez

    Body cameras are the answer. I ache with every piece of news of yet another death.

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    • Hey Jackie! I wonder if using rubber bullets would be better. Then again, some people have died from being tazed.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Xena….while Dillon was unarmed, the call was for a man brandishing a gun……rubber bullets don’t offer much of a defense against someone with a real gun.

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        • Towerflower, the problem is not suspects with guns, but unarmed people who are being killed at the blink of an eye on allegations of what cops “thought” and what they feared. Human error is taking human lives, and no human has the power of resurrection. Accountability and consequences are what citizens look for. Citizens make human errors and are punished nonetheless.

          Just wondering out loud, but did the cops ever find the guy reported to be waving a gun? Is this a case where the guilty get away, while the innocent dies with his face covered in his own blood? Does the guilty merely have to dress and meet a common “profile” in order to escape?

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  4. yahtzeebutterfly

    Xena, I watched this video yesterday filled with tears, anger and despair. A beautiful life mowed down by an officer that was so hardhearted that he went through Dillon’s pockets instead of trying to save Dillon’s life.

    You know, I personally thought that Cruz was shouting for Dillon to hang in there and “Talk to
    me!” because Cruz did not want to get stuck with a conviction for unjustly murdering an innocent person.

    Too many cops have blood on their hands. There is too much wickedness that is being allowed.

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  5. Just so horrible. Like so many, like too many

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    • Glenn, same here, and the son of my neighbor.

      Liked by 1 person

    • EXACTLY !!!!!! This is only one of the reasons I get involved with these issues. Trayvon could have been our neighbor, our son’s friend and on and on. It’s sickening that in this day and age, anyone needs to shooting at someone who is no threat at all.

      Cruz was looking to inflict his agony on someone of that there is no doubt.

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  6. kindheart101

    The emotions I feel after watching this is almost unbearable. My chest actually hurts, I have shortness of breathe, and my heart aches.

    This quickly took me back to over 40 years ago when I gave birth to my first child, and how at awe I was with my tiny baby, and how I vowed I would always protect him. Then my memory took me to the birth of my second, and third child, and the pain I felt whenever they were afraid, hurt or sick.

    As I looked at Dillon laying in the street, I saw what could have been one of my children. I saw a lack of compassion shown toward Dillon that both sickened and angered me. As I sit here writing this, I cry just thinking of the pain his parents, family and friends must live with daily. How watching this video of Dillon had to tear them apart. This was their tiny baby that will never call again. Never have another birthday, or celebrate another holiday. Dillon will never wish them a Happy Mother or Father’s Day again, or know that joy himself.

    I saw a Cold, Calculating, Unremorseful “being” standing over Dillon in that video. Cruz shamed the uniform he was wearing, as much as if he defecated on it. His badge is tarnished, and his name will always be whispered amongst others in shame.

    It is because of So-Called Police Officers, and District Attorneys like these, that I fear for my children and grandchildren. Cruz is nothing more than a murderer wearing a uniform and badge, with the District Attorney being his accomplice!

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    • yahtzeebutterfly

      I thank you, Kindheart, for articulating so movingly what I (and so many of us must be) am feeling and thinking.

      You are a beautiful spirit and I am so grateful that you share your gift of words with us.

      I need you to know that you have cause release of feelings within me that have been wadded up tightly in my heart.

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    • Kindheart, your comment is so excellent that it deserves more than the drive-by reply I’m able to write now. Just one thing for now — You mentioned about Dillon’s parents. That is another part of this that causes me pain. Both of his parents are dead, and he and his brother were raised by his grandmother. So, standing in his grandmother’s shoes for a moment, not only did she lose her own child, but also her grandchild.

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      • kindheart101

        Yet another crushing blow that makes me feel even worse.

        I have written about my life many times. When I married, I became a military wife, moving every two to three years. Though I always stayed in close contact with my parents, I had to fly in from over seas, or cross country to see them. They didn’t see their grandchildren in person but a handful of times. They didn’t see them over Christmas, birthdays, or holidays, although we always talked via phone.

        This lifestyle made me cherish the connection I had with my Grandmother all the more. As a child, my father would bring my Grandmother over weekly to have Sunday dinner. I would beg to go with him to pick her up. I would sit in the back seat and smile when I smelled her perfume as she entered the car. My Grandmother had a poodle, CoCo, that loved table food, so I would cook some ground beef, and sneak it in her purse. LOL

        Every time I would fly home, I would purchase my ticket to Detroit, so I could visit my Grandmother. Though my parents lived 7 – 8 hours away, near the Upper Peninsula, I would rent a car and drive up after spending time with my Grandmother. I found it quite sad that few of her grandchildren stayed in contact with her. (Including my own siblings that unlike me, lived nearby) This was when I started to realize how selfish, and uncaring even family members could be. My siblings were always too busy to talk to anyone, or help our parents if they were ill. I flew in from Connecticut, California, and Hawaii, when my parents needed help, and never saw my siblings one time! (My parents are gone now, and so are my sicklings….I disowned them decades ago!)

        I never forgot one birthday or holiday for my parents or Grandmother. I always said my Grandmother was my best friend, and when she passed at Thanksgiving 1996, at the age of 94, I felt a loss impossible to explain.

        If I lost one of my children, then one of their children, my grandchild I was raising…..I don’t know if I could cope.

        So, I am sending heartfelt prayers to all of Dillon’s family and friends.

        RIP Dillon….please look for my parents and grandparents as they will shower you with Love.

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      • yahtzeebutterfly

        It is also unbearably heartbreaking to hear Dillon’s brother’s anguish and wailing in the background on the video….his desperate disbelief, pain, and anger that Ofc. Cruz would shoot dead his innocent, unarmed brother. The agony and pain he endured witnessing the horror!

        Now he is without his brother after already losing his parents through their deaths.

        I am praying for him.

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  7. Watch this video…..this is the view of an officer from the front. The man looks like he is complying with the officer but watch his right hand. An officer approaching from the rear sees what the officer in front does not……a gun, a gun that the suspect grabs.

    Yes, the story of Dillon is tragic, a man who may not have heard commands due to the ear buds. He turns and sees an officer with a gun pointed at him……..WHY would anyone then make a move into their waistband? It turns out it was an innocent move to possibly lower the volume. BUT, what if it wasn’t?

    What this doesn’t say is the reason why the gun was pulled in the first place. The officer was responding to a call report of a man brandishing a gun in the area and Dillon matched the description of the man with the gun……hence why the gun was out and trained on Dillon. The officer believed he was encountering the man with the gun and then Dillon makes an innocent move to an average person…….but in the mind of the police officer he could’ve been making a move to get the gun.

    This isn’t/wasn’t a call of a no harm type of crime like loitering, it was a call someone made of a man brandishing a gun.

    In this case the shooting was deemed justifiable due to the circumstances. This was a case of reasonable fear on the part of the officer based on the nature of the call and Dillon’s actions. This body cam did protect the officer and IMO rightfully so.

    You all know from my past postings that I don’t always agree with police actions but there are times when I do feel they are justified in their actions. Sometimes we need to know the whole story behind things to fully understand a situation.

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    • It was too easy for that officer to fire his weapon. What is in the minds of people who take jobs knowing that they might have to take human life?

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      • My dad was a cop from the racist time of 1957 to 1986. Even then they were trained that shooting was an absolute last resort and they were paid to put their lives on the line. Back then it wasn’t much, but that’s their job.

        This crap of shooting 1st then coming up with some BS excuse or “I was so scared” makes me want to vomit. Get off the force if you scare easily………..and don’t be jumping on the hood of a car then claim you had to eliminate the “threat”

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        • kindheart101

          Amen Racer, well said.

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        • Two sides to a story

          Amen to that. Our society is simply far too violent anyway. I have respect for the 2nd Amendment, but it does create huge problems. There was a time when everyone had hunting rifles at home, but few but cops and detectives or security guards had handguns, which serve one purpose only – to kill people. And cops were still violent even in simpler times, but at least they weren’t shooting unarmed people frequently.

          Body cams are part of the answer, but so is a gentler, more compassionate society. Smarter hiring policies for police are a must, possibly even not allowing people to make it a lifetime career so they can’t get into PTSD situations, no more internal investigations – we must have outside boards, and real consequences for overuse of force, including standard investigations with every use of extreme force or with every single death.

          There are always a host of factors that create a problem to begin with and so these complex problems have to be solved with multi-pronged approaches. I believe we can fix this police brutality problem, but it will take a lot of pushback from the public to make this work.

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      • Being a cop is not a job for an average person for the reason that they may be forced to take the life of a person. I couldn’t do it.

        I put up that one video to show how quickly a situation can change….from compliance to attack. In that video the man could’ve just been adjusting his pants from the view the officer in front had. Imagine the situation, a WHAT IF, of the same situation of Dillon….

        Officer gets call of man brandishing a gun and sees a person matching description….but he doesn’t pull his gun out ahead of time and calmly approaches the suspect to talk to him. The suspect turns, sees a cop reaches into his waistband and fires before the officer had a chance to pull his own weapon out.

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        • Towerflower, I understand what you’re saying, and maybe I can explain my position better. I’m against killing. Life is too precious, and can be taken too quickly, for mankind to operate based on “what if’s.”

          The phone calls to 911 about a man brandishing a gun are becoming all too common. Robbers don’t brandish guns out in public. Think about it. How many people have been killed by cops in the last 12 months based on a phone call about someone with a gun or a knife in public? Had the man not called 911 about a kid on the playground with a gun, Tamir Rice would be alive today. Had the man not called 911 about a man in WalMart pointing a rifle at people in the store, John Crawford would be alive today.

          Given, law enforcement has to check out those reports, but they should do so while keeping in mind that the caller might not be telling ALL of the truth, or the truth at all. There’s caution, and then there’s paranoia. People with authority to operate a gun in the line of duty should not be paranoid.

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          • I agree Xena…..the caller with Crawford (the Walmart shooting) should have been brought up on charges IMO, he caused the deaths of 2 people that day.

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          • Towerflower,
            Absolutely! The store video is evidence that the caller lied. He should have been arrested.

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    • Two sides to a story

      I don’t see this as a reasonable reaction at all. This society is devolving. Our (in)justice system allows murder all too often. In many countries, armed people are apprehending with shooting in the leg and then are arrested and have their day in court. The self-defense mentality in the USA is absolute crap, both by citizens and by the police. We act and think like a bunch of teenage movie cowboys. It needs to stop.

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    • “He turns and sees an officer with a gun pointed at him……..WHY would anyone then make a move into their waistband? It turns out it was an innocent move to possibly lower the volume. BUT, what if it wasn’t? ”

      OMFG I stopped reading there!! “WHY would anyone then make a move into their waistband/”
      SERIOUSLY????? SERIOUSLY??? WHO CARES WHY HE goes for his waistband!!! ITS HIS WASITBAND! HE DID NOT HAVE ANY FUCKING REASON NOT TO GRAB HIS OWN WAISTBAND IN THIS FREE COUNTRY UNDER HIS FREE WILL BECAUSE NO MATTER WHAT EXCUSES YOU WANNA COME UP WITH GRABBING A WAISTBAND IS NOT A FUCKING CRIME!!
      WHY DON”T YOU BLAME THE COP FOR JUMPING OUT OF HIS CAR POINTING A DEADLY WEAPON & SCREAMING AT AN INNOCENT MAN???
      I seriously don’t understand how you expect UNTRAINED CITIZENS to DO EVERY FUCKING THING FOR THE TRAINED ARMED POLICE OFFICERS! including read their minds & not wear earbuds & walk backwards so when any random time any random cop decides to pull up behind them the CITIZEN will see them & go ahead & jump in the cops back seat using his mental telepathy!!

      NO! I know you are sensitive to police & I respect you for the things you’ve taught me about guns & shit, but this isn’t it. You’re dead wrong if you think the same thoughts about “grabbing waistbands” goes though the average persons minds as it apparently goes through yours & police. most ppl just don’t think about that. no.

      but there’s nothing more disgusting than blaming the victim!

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      • kindheart101

        You go girl, I have your back, and totally agree.

        PS……I found your site, and I followed.

        Liked by 1 person

      • i agree and have commented to tower about this very thing in the past……police are paranoid meaning they have irrational fears that law abiding citizens dont have……i see a person walking towards me on a sidewalk, they see some threat “advancing on them”……i reach into my pockets often but so far NEVER to grab a gun….

        Liked by 1 person

    • yahtzeebutterfly

      Towerflower,

      Your video is a poor example to use when comparing it to Dillon’s situation. Dillon was doing nothing like the rifle-carrying man in the video to make him suspicious. Dillon was not flashing a gun plus he was walking away from Ofc. Cruz when Cruz arrived.

      We have heard of instances where deaf people have been victims of police brutality because they did not hear the commands of officers. Dillon couldn’t hear because of what he was listening to with his earbuds.

      You know, until I heard gz in the NEN call saying Trayvon had his hand in his waistband and then reading comments about what that implied, I never knew that some people and all officers consider that a threat.

      I imagine that thousands of citizens who are not gun owners do not know that police and others assume/interpret a hand near/going to the waistband means a person is going for a gun.

      This puts innocent, unarmed people at risk of being shot by a jumpy/antsy/trigger-happy/ PTSD-former-soldier/paranoid person or officer.

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      • yahtzeebutterfly

        I meant to add “or” in my last sentence with multiple adjectives:

        / OR paranoid

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      • yahtzee…..the video was not to compare it to Dillon but only to show how quickly a situation can change, nothing more.

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        • yahtzeebutterfly

          The other officer (who also had his gun trained on Dillon) says at timestamp 1:20 “I saw him reaching. He was reaching.”

          Yet, that second officer with Cruz chose not to fire his gun at Dillon. Why? Was it because he did not believe in firing unless he actually saw a gun the way the second cop in your video also waited to fire until he actually saw a gun?

          Neither Cruz nor his backup officer saw a gun. Yet, Cruz chose to fire.

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  8. I’m sorry if I have offended anyone with my comments. If some do not remember, I have a close friend who is a police officer. I go to them when questions arise and we have gotten into many a disagreement when it comes to the various stories when they hit the news. I listen to their side, just like I listen to the sides of everyone here.

    Shannon….yes it is everyone’s right to put their hand in their waistband or to grab it. I’ve never said it wasn’t. But I was trying to understand why a person who when they turn around and see a cop with a gun pointed at them would make a move like that? It’s not like these situations all of a sudden just started to happen. I’ve even told my son that when or if he encounters a cop that he is to keep his hands in sight at all times and not do anything until told to do it. I want my son to come home too, just like the parents and friends of those killed wanted their sons/daughters to come home.

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    • Towerflower, I love your heart. Thanks for the apology but I think everyone here knows that you mean no offense. It’s good to think and talk these things out. In another comment, you stated along the lines of saying that it takes more than an average person to be in law enforcement. The word “average” stuck with me. “Average” can denote intelligence, income, or attitude. IMHO, law enforcement should be average, and have prior experience working with the public.

      So many professions, including physicians, require on hands training or what is call internship. Law enforcement is limited to training in the academy. Then they are put on the street with a senior officer. They need more experience working with people, getting to know various personalities, and above all, to know that not everyone is a “suspect.” They should and must use caution, but I keep going back to the ultimate question — it they were not equipped with a gun, would they want the job?

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      • Xena…..First this story made CNN today and they had some of the family members of Dillon on. They want to see some changes made like cops not being able to wait to write out a report……I’ve mentioned this before and the waiting is based on a study that shows a person remembers more after a few days…..while they afford a cop this luxury I wish they would also apply this to witnesses/suspects. They also blame the 911 caller for escalating a situation. Police/prosecutors need to look at these callers when needless deaths occur like with Crawford in the WalMart and charge them when they are proven to be liars.

        As to your question…..I’m not sure that too many people would take a LE enforcement job in which they were not armed……at least not in the present situation in the US. When you have countries like England and France that don’t arm the average LE officer they also have some of the most strict gun laws in the world. Remember when the magazine office in France was attacked? They showed a responding police car suddenly throw it into reverse to leave the shooting area….why? they weren’t armed, just like the security guard for the editor who was also killed….not armed. They had to wait for the armed police units to arrive and by that time the shooters had left the area. We live in a different world today. Back not to many decades ago, it would have been a shock to hear of someone trying to kill a LE officer, now today it seems like some don’t give it a second thought.

        Training for a cop is more than the police academy…..most require a college education in law enforcement (think of the courses that Z was taking because he hoped he could get hired as a cop). Also training continues after the academy. Maybe they should teach more self-defense situations…..like making sure they all know Karate or Judo, something where in close confines like with the preacher shooting, they could disable/pin a person without pulling their firearm.

        I don’t have the answers………..What are the answers. Baltimore is in the news, after Grey’s death the police are under scrutiny and RIGHTFULLY SO. But you now have cops who don’t patrol or intervene like before, my friend says they are afraid to do so. Afraid of being charged with misconduct or another crime; which kind of goes into your question would they do the job if they didn’t have guns….. But what do you have now, people are complaining about the rising crime and murders in the city and where are the police? What is the answer?

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        • Towerflower, if only we had the answers. (sigh) Classroom learning is not hand’s on experience. When it comes to working with the public, it’s necessary to understand the public. People are not robots and we have different personalities. When customer service went the way of “call centers,” most companies looked for applicants with experience with the product. They are trained to repeat/paraphrase the customer’s complaint to determine that they understand it. So, what I’m trying to say is that those applying for a job in law enforcement need a balance of actual experience working, communicating with the public.

          The thing with today’s LE, is that they want to make an arrest even if it’s one of “resisting arrest” when they had no reason to arrest the person in the first place. So, maybe what I’m trying to communicate is the attitude and intent. The idea behind neighborhood patrols was to hinder crime — criminals would not commit crimes when police were patrolling. What that did however, was lead to profiling.

          In my neck of the woods, 911 dispatchers ask if the caller wants to meet with the arriving officer. Maybe that should become a requirement when the caller is calling in a “suspicious” person, or someone brandishing a weapon in public.

          The answers? Wish we had them.

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        • BTW I remember you mentioning this a long time ago, but i JUST read a report about that waiting period for police like this past week!
          the new studies have debunked the theory of remembering better days later.. it said the waiting period thing is out dated and baseless.
          and personally i think all along it was probably a BS excuse for the cops to be able to get their story straight. it doesn’t make any sense in any other circumstance.

          I believe it was in reference to Baltimore or some other cop murder case but it was a report by like the ACLU or some organization that’s suing someone or for police reform or something. I swear I have such a horrible memory for these kinds of things. but I read from twitter & i’ll look for it & post it if I can find it.

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          • I don’t agree with the waiting period. I can’t think of any other group that has that luxury, not even a suspect has a waiting period…their only option is to request a lawyer to stop the questioning.

            Even when there was an incident in controlling aircraft, pilot or controller error, a controller has to submit a report about it right away. We were only allowed to listen to the tapes to refresh our memory but the reports had to be done that same day.

            I agree with you, in that allowing the delay it allows them to much time to come up with “excuses”.

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    • There are things that people get into the habit of doing, and it comes as first nature. One action is sneezing into your arm. Now imagine a person who has to sneeze, and they raise their arm to put it across their face when a cop is poised to shoot them to kill.

      What I’ve seen in numerous videos is that LE does not give people time to say squat, or if they try, they cannot be heard over the shouting commands. “Let me see your hands” is not always possible, for instance, if the person’s back is turned and they are carrying something in their arms that they cannot simply drop, such as an infant.

      So, what if Dillon had turned around without turning down the volume on his music device in his pants, and still was not able to hear Cruz’s commands? Would Cruz have given Dillon the time to say that he needed to turn down the volume before shooting him after repeating the command for the third time that Dillon could not hear?

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      • The dreaded what if…..IF this was me in Dillon’s place, after I turned and raised my hands I would have turned my head to show the ear buds and slowly move my hand to pull the bud from my ear but not have reached for the phone in a concealed area. Cops want to see the hands in the open, never moving to another area that could conceal a weapon. Will that guarantee a cop would still see the buds, one would wish the could especially with someone with short cropped hair, but nothing is a guarantee today.

        But in all honesty if I turned around and saw a gun pointed at me, LE or not, I would most likely faint from fright.

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    • yahtzeebutterfly

      Towerflower,

      Speaking for myself, I appreciate your sharing your point of view.

      Xena’s blog is a safe place for us to discuss issues and agree or disagree with the opinions we all share with each other in our caring community here.

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    • I suppose our opinion is based on how we perceive the details of these cases.
      but once in awhile it seems we’re not all even focused on the same details.
      like I still don’t understand why you don’t blame the cop for pointing a gun at an innocent person and screaming at him & then shooting him for no reason whatsoever? because no matter what his excuse is, he’s the ONLY one who did the wrong thing &he killed someone. and he did it in the most horrific way. he rolled up & shot some young guy and while the innocent person bleeds to death the cop is being an asshole towards him jerking him around and with his fake encouragement to ‘stay with me’ & ‘what were you reaching for’ so he can STILL BLAME HIM FOR HIS OWN MURDER!
      how’s that for the last thing you ever hear in your whole life?

      it’s just not ok to tell your kid he’s gotta worry about a police officer executing him because he moves his hands or even because he mouths off to a cop. that’s not what cops are for. cops are supposed to go after criminals. (and by criminals I mean murderers, rapists & robbers. which are what prisons should mostly be reserved for)

      by human nature or our culture, normal ppl will interact with little old ladies with more reverence then they would a 25 yo dude. normal ppl should (or used to) show police officers deference out of respect because it should be (or used to be) a respectable job.
      but they HAVE to be respected because they ARE respectable, NOT because we’re scared of them. and most ppl are not supposed to be scared of police. but they are because parents have to tell their normal kids to worry about not getting killed by cops.

      the cops are in that awesome position of power because we’ve entrusted it to them.
      and i expect them to behave civilly towards everyone, and especially towards our NORMAL, non-murderous, non-rapist, non-robbing sons, regardless of where they put their hands. and if the cop can’t tell our sons are normal then he needs to GTF away from them until he’s absolutely sure!

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  9. yahtzeebutterfly

    Following are two excerpts from the Salt Lake Tribune’s October 3, 2014 article entitled “Q&A: Exploring the fatal shooting of Dillon Taylor”

    This first excerpt details the 911 call. Notice how the caller made assumptions (and negatively labeled them) based upon how Dillon and his companions looked:

    Q: Things started with a 911 caller reporting that someone in Taylor’s group was “flashing” a gun. Who made that 911 call? What did the caller say happened, exactly?»

    A: The caller did not identify herself and declined to give a phone number when dispatchers requested it, but investigators later located her, said Gary Keller, spokesman for South Salt Lake police, who investigated the shooting because it occurred just south of the boundary with Salt Lake City.

    The caller said “some gangbangers” were walking on 200 East near 2100 South, and one of them had a gun. She said the man “flashed” the gun as he walked by. According to a transcript of the call, the dispatcher tried to clarify.

    Dispatcher: Did he threaten you or anything like that, or did he just flash it?

    Caller: Yeah, I just seen a gun as he walked by.

    Dispatcher: OK, but again, did he make threats at you, did he threaten to shoot you or …

    Caller: No, he did not threaten me in any way. I just saw it as he was walking by.

    The caller later said: “They’re obviously looking, looking for trouble, just the way they look.”

    The dispatcher asked where the gun was carried.

    “Uhh, waistband?” the caller said, then after conferring with another person: “He, he pulled it out of his pocket.” The caller said no one was in danger, but said, “I just thought I had to report this. It looked suspicious.”

    After the shooting, investigators asked the caller for more detail about what she saw. She said the suspects were acting suspiciously, with one reaching into his pants like he was trying to pull out a gun. “That’s where she got the idea they were armed,” Keller said.

    In this second excerpt the attorney for Dillon’s family states that “the shooting was a result of profiling.”

    Q: The attorney for Taylor’s family says the shooting was the result of profiling — that assumptions were made about Taylor and his companions because of how they look. Do police consider possible prejudice as they evaluate civilian reports?»

    A: “I cannot speculate on the people that call, whether there’s discrimination involved, or profiling,” Fritz said. “I don’t know that. What they’re calling on is what they see. We have a duty to investigate. Then we make the determination on whether or not it’s worth investigating any further.”

    Fowler said the bigger question is whether officers, or dispatchers who relay the reports, latch onto or mentally elevate details that align with a pre-existing image of a menacing public, like “gangbangers,” “suspicious,” or “looking for trouble.”

    “Was the information given to them in a rational, reasonable way?” Fowler asked. “Was the cultre in which [the officer] has been trained supportive of a rational, reasonable action?”

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    • wow! that’s horrible! again some idiot murdered that kid by proxy! she lied the gun. she totally just lied & I wonder if she really did know who she called 911 about or if she just randomly judged some stranger like that.

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  10. yahtzeebutterfly

    Sigh……..so many unarmed victims

    So much echoing in my heart…..Trayvon’s desperate cries for help, Kelly Thomas’ calling out for his dad, Eric’s “I can’t breathe”, and on and on

    Blessed are all of you who have tried to help bring about change.

    *tears* Will change ever come?

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  11. Florida just decided a case…..a young man was driving down a road and flipped off some officers in an armored vehicle. The officers, who just left a college football game (security), pulled him over…..pulled him over with their armored vehicle and arrested him for….flipping a bird.

    A judge tossed it all out, with the main part being that there is no law which forbids flipping off the police (freedom of speech). The police were also critized for pulling over a vehicle while in the armored vehicle. The agency has vowed not to do that again and has promised to come up with guidelines in the use of the vehicles with one of the cops involved sitting on the panel (smh).

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