Police & Protesters Clash In St. Louis Once Again

[Jagger69]

My old hometown is fast becoming the very acute epicenter of the serious racial divide that is presently consuming our nation. I am not completely familiar with all aspects of this case or what the judge's justifications for the ruling were but it would seem at first glance to be a serious miscarriage of justice sine the gun was likely to have been planted on the victim and the police officer was heard to say "I'm going to kill the motherfucker" on his radio prior to Smith's death....pretty compelling circumstantial evidence so not sure where the preponderance of a reasonable doubt is here. :dunno:

ST. LOUIS, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets during clashes with protesters in St Louis early on Saturday after a white former policeman was acquitted of murdering a black suspect.

A peaceful rally over Friday’s not guilty verdict turned violent after police confronted a small group of demonstrators - three years after the shooting of another black suspect in the nearby suburb of Ferguson stirred nationwide anger and debate.

Officers fired tear gas as people broke windows at a library and two restaurants and threw bricks and water bottles at officers. Protesters also threw rocks and paint at the home of St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, said Acting Police Commissioner Lawrence O’Toole.

Nine city officers and a state trooper were injured and at least 23 people were taken into custody, he said.
Michael B. Thomas via Getty Images
Law enforcement officers stand guard during a protest action following a not guilty verdict on September 15, 2017 in St. Louis, Missouri.

Following the violence, rock band U2 canceled a concert scheduled for Saturday night in St. Louis, citing safety concerns for fans who would have attended.

“We have been informed by the St. Louis Police Department that they are not in a position to provide the standard protection for our audience as would be expected for an event of this size,” U2 said in a joint statement with concert promoter Live Nation.

The verdict that ignited protests on Friday was the acquittal of former city policeman Jason Stockley, 36, who was found not guilty of the first-degree murder in the shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith, 24, on Dec. 20, 2011.

After the ruling, around 600 protesters marched from the courthouse through downtown St. Louis, chanting “No justice, no peace” and “Hey hey! Ho ho! These killer cops have got to go!” Some held “Black Lives Matter” signs.

“I’m sad, I’m hurt, I’m mad,” Reverend Clinton Stancil of the Wayman AME Church in St. Louis said by telephone. “We haven’t made any progress since Ferguson, that’s clear. Cops can still kill us with impunity.”

Ferguson became the focal point of a national debate on race relations after white officer Darren Wilson shot dead black teenager Michael Brown on Aug. 9, 2014. Protests and clashes broke out after a grand jury cleared the officer, giving rise to the Black Lives Matter movement.

After Friday’s verdict, one group of demonstrators tried to climb onto Interstate 40 but was blocked by police. Another group blocked an intersection by sitting down in the street for six minutes of silence.

After most protesters drifted away, a smaller group of people police described as “agitators” lingered on the streets in an upscale neighborhood near the mayor’s house. The group taunted officers who arrived in riot gear by the busload.

“Reports of bricks thrown at police. That’s not protest. That’s a crime. We stand behind our officers. This violence won’t be tolerated,” Missouri Governor Eric Greitens said on Twitter.

Smith was shot five times in his car after trying to flee Stockley and his partner, following an alleged drug deal, authorities said.

Prosecutors said that during the pursuit, Stockley could be heard saying on an internal police car video he was going to kill Smith.

At Stockley’s direction, his partner, who was driving, slammed the police cruiser into Smith’s vehicle and they came to a stop. Stockley then approached Smith’s car and opened fire with his service weapon, court documents said.

The former policeman believed Smith was armed, defense attorneys said, and a gun was found in the car. But prosecutors argued Stockley planted the weapon and that the gun had only Stockley’s DNA on it.

Stockley’s attorney, Neil Bruntrager, said his client was relieved at the verdict. “It’s been a long road for him,” Bruntrager said.

St. Louis prosecutor Kimberly Gardner called on protesters to avoid violence.

“I understand the verdict has created anger and frustration for many in our community,” she told reporters at the courthouse.

Stockley waived his right to a jury trial, allowing the judge to decide. He left the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in 2013 and was arrested last year.

Smith’s family settled a wrongful death lawsuit against the city for $900,000 in 2013, according to Al Watkins, an attorney for Smith’s fiancée, Christina Wilson.

White police officers killing black male motorists seems to be a seriously common occurrence in the USA these days. I think that if I were a black man driving around on the streets in America that I would be extremely frightened were I to see a police car in my rear view mirror.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...tockley-acquittal_us_59bd0ceae4b086432b076f18

 

[Jagger69]

This is what happens when people feel like they have no hope under the current system.

St. Louis police arrested more than 80 people Sunday after a peaceful protest turned violent as night fell. In a concentrated area downtown, some protesters smashed windows and overturned trash cans, while others threw chemicals and rocks at police, authorities said.

It marked the third day of turmoil in the city since former police officer Jason Stockley was acquitted Friday on charges of murdering a black motorist in 2011.

“After the demonstration, organizers announced that the daytime protest was over,” Mayor Lyda Krewson said in news conference at about 1 a.m. Monday. “But a group of agitators stayed behind, apparently intent on breaking windows and destroying property.”

She declined to take reporters’ questions.

Some protesters complained that police were unnecessarily aggressive. Further inflaming tensions, a St. Louis photographer reported he and others heard police chant “whose streets, our streets” after making some arrests.

Police just chanted "Whose Streets, our streets" on Tucker Blvd after making arrests

— David Carson (@PDPJ) September 18, 2017

The photojournalist, David Carson, later tweeted that he’d spoken to the commander at the scene, who said that he did not hear the chant but that it was unacceptable and he would “deal with it.”

The Associated Press also independently reported on the police chanting. The phrase used is commonly chanted by demonstrators, particularly Black Lives Matters protesters.

I spoke with the commander at the scene, he said he did not hear the chant, but said chant was not acceptable, said he would deal with it.

— David Carson (@PDPJ) September 18, 2017

At around 11:20 p.m. Sunday, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s Twitter feed said “multiple warnings to disperse” had been given near the intersection of Washington Avenue and North Tucker Boulevard. They soon started arresting those that hadn’t left.

But several protesters said police had encircled them and there was no way out. Caught in the melee was St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Mike Faulk, who tweeted, “Less than 100 of us including media blocked in at wa and Tucker on all four sides.”

Shortly afterward, Faulk was among those arrested. In a photo, he appeared to be wearing a media badge around his neck at the time of his arrest.

Less than 100 of us including media blocked in at wa and Tucker all four sides. People moving toward bike cops looks like best option

— Mike Faulk (@Mike_Faulk) September 18, 2017

Post-Dispatch reporter @Mike_Faulk among those arrested by @SLMPD at Washington and Tucker #STLVerdict pic.twitter.com/U2Z7Px8AQk

— Greg Jonsson (@Jonssonville) September 18, 2017

At a news conference early Monday, Interim Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole repeatedly referred to those arrested as “criminals.”

“These criminals that we’ve arrested should be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he said. “We’re in control. This is our city and we’re going to protect it.”

O’Toole said some officers incurred “moderate or minor” injuries, but didn’t say how many were hurt.

“I’m proud to tell you the city of St. Louis is safe and the police owned tonight,” he said. “Once again, a group of criminals set out to break windows and destroy property. Tonight, those criminals are in jail.”

Chief O'Toole – Those who set out to do damage were arrested & should be prosecuted. This is our city & we will protect it. #STLVerdict

— St. Louis, MO Police (@SLMPD) September 18, 2017

SLMPD Media briefing https://t.co/33m7P6bzKf

— St. Louis, MO Police (@SLMPD) September 18, 2017

According to local media, about 1,000 people had gathered outside a downtown police station before sunset and marched peacefully before nightfall. The violence appeared to erupt about 8 p.m. as a small group broke away and began smashing windows at several businesses.

Those protesters were eventually greeted by police officers dressed in riot gear. Police said they gave demonstrators an hour’s notice before making the mass arrests just before midnight.
A man throws a rock into the window as during protests in St. Louis on Sept. 17. (AP)

Earlier Sunday, news outlets reported that the Department of Justice had opted not to pursue a federal civil rights prosecution of former officer Stockley. The decision was made a year ago, but the department waited to announce it until after Friday’s verdict in the criminal case.

Stockley, 36, was charged in May 2016 with first degree murder in the fatal shooting of 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith after a police chase. Stockley and his partner had pursued Smith by vehicle after failing in an attempt to arrest him for a suspected drug deal at a Church’s Chicken.

Prosecutors said in a videotape during the chase, Stockley was heard saying “Going to kill this motherf—er don’t you know it” before telling his partner to drive into Smith’s slowing car. Prosecutors also suggested Stockley had planted a gun in the vehicle since the weapon contained the officer’s DNA, but not Smith’s.

In a 30-page ruling issued Friday, St. Louis Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson said he had agonized over his decision. “This Court, as the trier of fact, is simply not firmly convinced of the defendant’s guilt,” he said.

Protests erupted almost immediately on the streets of St. Louis.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-arresting-protesters-against-police-killing/

So the judge made a public proclamation stating that he had "agonized" over the decision but decided to rule in Stockley's favor without further comment? Gee, I wonder why the black community got so upset? I mean, isn't this like the first time a white police officer has ever shot an unarmed black man? No way was this going to get anyone in the black community riled up, right??

My God, I must say that if I were a black motorist and I saw a police car behind me with lights and sirens on I would not stop until I reached a well-lit and populated area and then I would immediately stop my car, slowly exit with my hands up and immediately lie on he ground with my hands behind my head to avoid being shot. All the while I would be petrified that a nervous cop was going to decide to put a bullet in me for something as egregious as a burned-out taillight. There seems to be a new crime out there called DWB (driving while black).

St. Louis is at the epicenter of the racial divide that is raging in America today. If you've ever been there it quickly dawns on you that the city is clearly divided on a palpable black/white basis. I grew up there....I've seen it first hand many times and it appears to be worse today than ever. And so the cops are chanting "Whose streets? OUR streets!!"?? Yeah, that'll help to calm things down.

I do wish to go on record as condemning the violent aspect of these (or any for that matter) protests. Destroying public or private property in response to a perceived injustice is not only misdirected and distracting toward the issue in question but it senselessly creates another innocent victim in the process. That being said, however, the fact that the protests turned violent in the aftermath of Wilson's ruling becomes all-too-predictable and is symptomatic of the black community's frustration and outrage over these repeated miscarriages of justice. When it appears that hope has been removed from a cause it creates an atmosphere that breeds such violence.

More details about the incident, testimony and decision by Judge Wilson....

The acquittal on Friday of former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley of first-degree murder charges in the 2011 shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith was all too familiar. Like in other cases, the local community took to the streets in mass protests soon after a white officer was found not guilty of murdering a black motorist. And like in other cases, it showed how difficult it is to hold police accountable in shooting deaths of black men, no matter what the evidence.

It was unusual in one big way, though. Because the verdict was decided by a judge after Stockley waived his right to a jury trial, the public got a rare insight into the thinking that goes into letting a cop go free despite stacks of evidence of wrongdoing. In Judge Timothy J. Wilson’s 30-page ruling you can see the mental gymnastics that went into acquitting a man who said to his partner of Smith, “we’re killing this motherfucker, don’t you know,” minutes before killing him.

There are many embarrassing parts of this verdict. Let’s start, though, with the particularly shameful portion that seeks to vindicate Stockley for this audio-recorded statement of apparent premeditation. During his own testimony, Stockley stated that he couldn’t remember making the “we’re killing this motherfucker” remark, but justified it by saying that “during a vehicle pursuit, there are many things that are said.” He added that “it’s hard for me to elaborate even what the context was, because I don’t even know.”
This dissembling answer was apparently enough for the judge to discount this clear statement of intent. Here’s what Wilson wrote:

People say all kinds of things in the heat of the moment or while in stressful situations, and whether Stockley’s statement that “we’re killing this motherfucker,” which can be ambiguous depending on the context, constituted a real threat of action or was a means of releasing tension has to be judged by his subsequent conduct. The court does not believe Stockley’s conduct immediately following the end of the pursuit is consistent with the conduct of a person intentionally killing another person unlawfully.
Stockley’s conduct immediately after making that statement was to instruct his partner to ram Smith’s vehicle, approach Smith's car, and almost immediately fire five shots into Smith’s body, including one that forensic analysts described as a “kill shot” likely fired within six inches of Smith. In his ruling, Wilson characterized this as a long period of time and accepted as fact the defense's argument that all five shots were fired at once (the prosecution argued that a final "kill shot" was fired a bit after the first four):

It was not until fifteen seconds after Stockley arrived at the driver’s side door, that he unholstered his service revolver and fired several shots in succession.

As damning as it was, Stockley’s statement was not the only piece of evidence against him. Prosecutors alleged that he planted a gun that was found in Smith’s car. The evidence for this is that his DNA was found on the gun while Smith’s was not, he can be seen rifling through a bag in his police vehicle after the shooting, and he was seen returning to search Smith’s car before the gun appeared to him. Stockley testified that his partner warned him that Smith—who had twice rammed the police vehicle and clipped Stockley with his car as he fled when the officers first approached him after what they suspected was a drug buy—had a gun. In his ruling, Judge Wilson took this testimony by the defendant as fact:

Stockley had been warned by [his partner Brian] Bianchi that Smith had a gun.

One of Stockley’s fellow officers at the time who arrived on the scene immediately after the shooting, Elijah Simpson, had testified that he didn’t see a gun in the vehicle when he lifted up the airbag and looked in the car. Simpson also testified that it was strange that Stockley was allowed to go back and forth between his own car and the scene of the shooting, and that Stockley was the only officer to remove his gloves during evidence gathering. (This was how Stockley's defense team says the gun was contaminated with his DNA. The prosecution says he removed the gloves on purpose to have that excuse.) This testimony from a fellow officer was not enough for Wilson, because Simpson didn’t directly see Stockley actually physically plant the gun:

There were several officers standing around adjacent to the driver’s side of the Buick and not one of them was called to testify that they saw Stockley plant a gun in the Buick.

Stockley testified that he had actually gone into the bag in his vehicle to get QuikClot wound dressing from the car and administer it to Smith, but decided against it because “it was futile.” Simpson testified that no one attempted to help Smith even though “he appeared alive.”

Wilson brushes all this off by saying that no extra gun can be seen on Stockley’s person in the blurry cellphone camera footage of the incident that was the main relevant video evidence remaining after one of the officers involved turned off the police vehicle’s dashboard camera. From Wilson:

Stockley was not wearing a jacket; if he had such a gun in his possession it would have been visible on the cell phone video. The gun was too large to fit entirely within any of the pockets on the pants he was wearing, there was no bulge in any pocket indicating a gun within the pocket, and the gun would have been visible if it was tucked into his belt.

It’s inconceivable to Wilson that the gun was not visible in the limited available cellphone footage, or hidden elsewhere on Stockley’s person than one of the places he enumerates.

Finally, Wilson says that he cannot think of a motive Stockley might have had to “kill this motherfucker,” even though Smith had just clipped Stockley with his car. (Stockley was carrying a personal AK-47 at the time, a violation of department policies.)

These are not the only examples of Judge Wilson bending over backward to find validation for Stockley’s threatening words and repeated violations of department procedure in this killing of a man who another officer had found appearing to be unarmed. But they are the most egregious.

If there is one new lesson in this whole tragic episode, it’s this little bit of insight into the flawed logic, acceptance of hearsay as fact, and ugly ex post facto justifications that go into exonerating white men in uniform when there’s evidence that they have assassinated black motorists.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slat...ng_jason_stockley_of_murder_are_pathetic.html

 

[Ace Boobtoucher]

At least he could take a dose better than the pepperballs guy.

 

[Ace Boobtoucher]

 

[Supafly]

When ut of argumemts, and knowing your former colleagues are not what we all wished they would be, the protecters of justice and all cotozens, I understand you must resort to bitter humour.

It is painfully clear what a number of police officers - not all, but that doesn't help. as long as they get covered by their colleagues and judges - wage war on blacks, latinos, etc.

 

[darkwarrior3007]

White police officers killing black male motorists seems to be a seriously common occurrence in the USA these days. I think that if I were a black man driving around on the streets in America that I would be extremely frightened were I to see a police car in my rear view mirror.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...tockley-acquittal_us_59bd0ceae4b086432b076f18

To be honest, everytime I see a cop in the rear view mirror, I start looking for a place to move over because I don't want them behind me. I start wondering if this is the day I don't go home. I will say that I've never had an issue with cops in Connecticut, but it doesn't stop me from wondering.