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Phoenix Police Execute Man in Parked Car in Front of Shocked Neighbors, Sparking New Protests

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hqanon
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Residents of Arizona have responded with fury and protests after a man was shot to death on July 4th, in broad daylight, while seated in his parked car.

Residents of Phoenix, Arizona, have responded with fury and renewed community protests after a Latino man was shot to death on July 4th, in broad daylight, while seated in his parked car in a shocking incident captured on video by neighbors.

In the video, several uniformed officers can be seen surrounding the parked vehicle while shouting and pointing their guns at 28-year-old James “Jay” Porter Garcia. One of the officers shouted “Hey, stop f*cking moving! I will f*cking shoot you,” as bystanders watching the scene pleaded, “Don’t shoot him!”

Seconds later, officers appear to have shattered the passenger-side window, followed by the sound of a shout. After a brief moment of silence, police rapidly fired on the man from point-blank range about ten times.

As officers continue to shout and bark commands at the wounded Garcia, whose head was slumped over onto the window sill, witnesses could angrily be heard shouting at the officers, “That’s f*cked up … What the f*ck!” and “He’s dead, what are you guys doing?”

Garcia was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to the Phoenix Police Department.

Video footage of the deadly shooting in the majority-Latino/Chicano neighborhood of Maryvale Village quickly went viral over the weekend, leading to raucous community protests.


On Sunday, community members from across West Phoenix and beyond marched on the Maryvale Estrella Mountain police station, where they were blocked from storming the building by dozens of officers clad in riot gear, according to social media reports.

The killing of Garcia adds to mounting grievances over nationwide police brutality and killings of Black and Latino people. However, the PPD have garnered a notorious reputation for being national leaders in terms of police violence. In 2019, police shot and killed 12 people. In 2018, PPD had 23 fatal shootings after averaging 21 per year from 2009 to 2017.

Advocates, elected officials, and community groups have voiced outrage over the Phoenix police’s seeming unwillingness to address its culture of brutality and use of excessive force.

The Phoenix PD, headed by Chief Jeri Williams—who herself is Black—has also been engulfed in controversy after a report last June revealed thousands of racist, anti- homophobic and bigoted social media posts by Phoenix police officers.

Williams — who arrived in Phoenix after departing her scandal-plagued tenure as chief of police in Oxnard, California — was forced to place dozens of officers on “non-enforcement assignments” after what she called the “embarrassing and disturbing” revelation. The social media posts showed Phoenix officers gleefully bragging about their use of excessive force and brutality against civilians.

Critics have also blasted the department for routinely withholding basic information about police shootings such as police reports, 911 calls, and body-worn camera footage for cases that were recorded, according to AZCentral.

“It does not shock us that despite all the scrutiny from community Phoenix PD continues to respond violently to calls,” Carlos Garcia, a member of the Phoenix City Council, said in a Facebook post.

“The department also issued a premature statement leaving out facts about the case. We cannot allow for dishonest narratives to be built by violent departments. we will continue to call for independent investigations into officer-involved shootings.”

Phoenix police claim that they were responding to a 911 call about an aggravated assault, and allege that James Garcia was holding a handgun and brandishing it toward an officer before they unloaded the salvo on him. Spokeswoman Sgt. Mercedes Fortune said officers spoke to Garcia for roughly 10 minutes before shooting him, and that he was only killed after he told officers to shoot him and lifted his gun in their direction, according to the New York Times.

In body-camera footage from an officer who arrived at the scene following the shooting, a handgun could be seen being retrieved from inside the vehicle.

Join us tonight at 6 PM to hold a vigil for James Garcia, who was killed by Phoenix Police on Saturday. We will march to…

Posted by Poder in Action on Monday, 6 July 2020

Neighbors and friends of the victim, however, dispute that the man was carrying any weapon.

“They put the gun on his head like this and they’re still telling him not to move, to get his hand off a gun he don’t have and then they shot him again,” Steven Merry, a friend of Garcia, told KSAZ.

Neighbor Lisa Wagner said that during the encounter, “It sounded like a war had broken out in front of my house.” Wagner, whose 26-year-old son Shawn Hansen considered James Garcia a best friend, described him as “very well mannered, very well-dressed [and] pretty much an all-around good guy.” 

She also said that he was easily frightened and “kind of scared of his own shadow at times.”

“I keep thinking it’s a bad dream and we’re going to wake up and we’re all going to laugh about this, but unfortunately I walk out to my driveway and I realize that it’s real,” Wagner added. “Everyone kind of feels like they (police) murdered Jay.”

Community organizers are demanding that the Phoenix PD release body-camera footage from the two officers who killed Garcia, but remain skeptical about whether the footage would be made available to them.

“What we want is the whole footage,” said Viri Hernandez, executive director of Maryvale-based community organization Poder in Action, during a Monday candlelight vigil attended by about 100 people. “Every single body camera. Every single cop who showed up. Everything from when they were driving to when they got there to when they killed him.”

Family members have also been grief-stricken by the loss of their loved one.

“Please help me get justice for my brother,” a woman identifying herself as Garcia’s sister told the crowd as she weeped. “Please. That’s all we want, that’s all we want. We love him so much. He was a great father, a great brother and a great son.”

Jacqueline Fernandez, a sister of Garcia, also told New York Times: “I can only tell you what a good man [Jamess] was  … How kind and loving. Good father, son and brother. I can tell you that we are going to fight for justice, that we want to fight for the release of the body cams so that we can move forward.”

At the end of the vigil, community members tearfully sang “Lean on Me” by Bill Withers outside of the home where the shooting occurred. Dozens of protesters then marched once again to the Maryvale Estrella Mountain Precinct, blocking traffic at one point to bring attention to the killing.

 

Young Black Activist Found Hanging From Tree – Residents Don’t Buy That It Was Suicide

By
hqanon
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0

Many people believe that it was a hate crime.

Robert Fuller, a young black activist who has previously documented neo-nazi activity and housing discrimination, was found hanging from a tree in Poncitlan Square, a park directly behind city hall in Palmdale, a suburb of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department claims that the initial coroner’s investigation has ruled the death to be a suicide, but many people in the community believe that it was a hate crime.

Last Wednesday just before 4 am, someone walking in the area noticed Fuller’s body hanging from a tree and called 911.

The initial statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department read:

“On June 10, 2020 at approximately 3:39 A.M, a passerby noticed a male (later identified as 24 year-old Robert L. Fuller) hanging from a tree in the 38300 block of 9th Street East, in the city of Palmdale. Personnel from the adjacent fire station (Station 24) responded and determined the victim was deceased.

Deputies established a containment of the scene and representatives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau and the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office responded to the scene. Although the investigation is on-going, it appears Mr. Fuller, tragically, committed suicide.

A full autopsy is anticipated in the immediate future.”

Lt. Brandon Dean with the Palmdale sheriff’s office, who was also called to the scene, says that the death was determined to be a suicide because there didn’t appear to be any signs of a struggle.

“From initial investigation of the scene and everything we’ve recovered, all signs right now lead us to believe this was a suicide. Without going into too much detail, it doesn’t appear there was any sign of a fight or struggle,” Dean said.

City officials have promised a thorough investigation and a full autopsy to determine the cause of death, but are still Insisting on pushing the suicide theory. This theory was once again repeated in a statement from Palmdale City Manager J.J. Murphy, who said that “sadly, it is not the first such incident since the COVID-19 pandemic began.”

“[Many people] are suffering extreme mental anguish and the City wants everyone to know that help is available,” he added.

At a press conference on Friday, residents expressed their anger that the police would announce these findings before completing a full investigation.

Palmdale Mayor Steve Hofbauer admitted that that “we should have stated it better, that the finding is preliminary, but we were going off of what the coroner was telling the sheriff.”

Hofbauer also said that the only cameras in the area are low-resolution and only made to follow traffic, not record the park.

Officials continue to post suicide hotline numbers and warnings about mental health when discussing the case, adding to the frustrations of community members who believe that the incident was a lynching.

https://twitter.com/_SJPeace_/status/1271470155474915329

Kim Kardashian, who has helped free numerous wrongfully imprisoned people, has put her celebrity behind the cause, and posted a petition demanding a full independent investigation to her 65 million followers on Twitter.

By Saturday, a GoFundMe page that Robert Fuller’s sister Diamond Alexander created in his memory had raised over $150,000.

How This City Dissolved It’s Police Department

By
hqanon
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1

Camden adopted an 18-page use-of-force policy. The rules emphasize that de-escalation has to come first….An officer who sees a colleague violating the edict must intervene. Reports of excessive force complaints in Camden are down by 95% since 2014.

Across the U.S., protesters have taken to the streets to express rage after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin. The demonstrations themselves have led to more police shows of force. In Brooklyn, two cops rammed their New York City Police Department SUVs into a crowd of protesters. In Philadelphia, officers sprayed tear gas at demonstrators who were penned in between a highway and a fence.

But across the Delaware River from Philadelphia in Camden, N.J. (population 74,000), officers left the riot gear at home and brought an ice cream truck to a march on May 30. The police department’s chief, Joseph Wysocki, who is white, brandished a “Standing in Solidarity” poster alongside residents holding “Black Lives Matter” signs.

Chief Wysocki standing with Camden residents to remember and honor George Floyd on May 30.COURTESY: CAMDEN COUNTY PD

That Camden was able to demonstrate peacefully without escalation looked like a sign of progress in a city that’s one of the country’s poorest and was once considered its most dangerous. “What we’re experiencing today in Camden is the result of many years of deposits in the relationship bank account,” says Scott Thomson, Camden’s chief of police until 2019. He led the city’s high-profile pivot to community policing from 2013 until last year and oversaw what turned out to be a steep decline in crime. Homicides in Camden reached 67 in 2012; the figure for 2019 was 25. Over the past seven years, the department has undertaken some of the most far-reaching police reforms in the country, and its approach has been praised by former President Barack Obama.

The transformation began after the 2012 homicide spike. The department wanted to put more officers on patrol but couldn’t afford to hire more, partly because of generous union contracts. So in 2013, the mayor and city council dissolved the local PD and signed an agreement for the county to provide shared services. The new county force is double the size of the old one, and officers almost exclusively patrol the city. (They were initially nonunion but have since unionized.) Increasing the head count was a trust-building tactic, says Thomson, who served as chief throughout the transition: Daily, noncrisis interactions between residents and cops went up. Police also got de-escalation training and body cameras, and more cameras and devices to detect gunfire were installed around the city.

While many departments define “reasonable” force in the line of duty vaguely, Camden’s definition is much clearer. The department adopted an 18-page use-of-force policy in 2019, developed with New York University’s Policing Project. The rules emphasize that de-escalation has to come first. Deadly force—such as a chokehold or firing a gun—can only be used in certain situations, once every other tactic has been exhausted. “It requires that force is not only reasonable and necessary, but that it’s proportionate,” says Farhang Heydari, executive director of the Policing Project. Most important, “they’re requirements. They’re not suggestions.”

An officer who sees a colleague violating the edict must intervene; the department can fire any officer it finds acted out of line. By the department’s account, reports of excessive force complaints in Camden have dropped 95% since 2014.

Like most matters of policing, however, Camden’s success story isn’t that simple. Members of the police force are now more likely to live in the suburbs than in the city of Camden, according to the local NAACP chapter. “Ninety percent of Camden’s population is minority—we have a lot of young individuals who don’t look like us that are getting these jobs,” says Kevin Barfield, the chapter president.

The higher number of officers on the streets was uncomfortable at first, says Nyeema Watson, Rutgers University at Camden’s associate chancellor for civic engagement, who helped connect the new department to local youth in its early days. “You felt that this eye was on you. It took me some time to adjust to having [police] cars stationed on major thoroughfares,” she says. “That still raises the hair on my neck sometimes, but I know their approach is an attempt to say ‘We’re here, we’re visible.’ ”

In a 2015 report, the American Civil Liberties Union praised Camden for its reforms but noted a “significant increase in low-level arrests and summonses.” The department says it’s mindful of overpursuing petty offenses. “We know when we police a city that has 30% of the residents under the poverty line, a $400 speeding ticket or ticket in general would be absolutely devastating financially,” says Dan Keashen, a spokesman for the Camden County Police Department.

Community organizer Ayinde Merrill and other activists are pushing to create a civilian review board for cases in which force is used. Merrill says the May 30 march felt co-opted by police and city leaders: “We didn’t feel as though the police were truly standing with us. If you’re truly standing with us, come and march with us in plain clothes.”

As some activists call for cities to defund the police, Camden’s reforms are more incremental in nature. “I think the challenge is that you have 18,000 police departments” in the U.S., says Thomson. “It’s an industry that generally is averse to any type of change. The only time change comes is when it’s compelled.”

BOTTOM LINE – After rebuilding its police force, Camden drove down homicides and reined in use of excessive force. Local activists say police-community relations could still be better.

Scientists Are About To Release Millions of Genetically Modified “Rockefeller” Mosquitos in Florida and Texas

By
hqanon
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5

This already historic and unprecedented summer could mark yet another outlandish first: scientists plan to release genetically modified mosquitos.

This already historic and unprecedented summer could mark yet another outlandish first: scientists plan to release genetically modified mosquitos in Florida and Texas. An attempt at disease control via genetic engineering, the scientists argue their efforts will, over time, greatly reduce the number of next-generation mosquitos.

Helmed by the company Oxitec, which acquired an experimental use permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the plan calls for the release of millions of gene-hacked mosquitos every week for the next two years.

By introducing sterile breeds of the mosquito species, Aedes aegypti (called OX5034 by Oxitec), which has been developed from a non-native strain (the Rockefeller laboratory
strain, originally from Cuba) scientists believe they can interrupt the birth of female offspring and eventually destroy the entire wild population, thereby preventing the transmission of diseases like dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika viruses.

As a widespread vector for disease transmission, mosquitos are one of the deadliest creatures in the world and have long been a prime candidate for such genetic engineering.

Hundreds of millions of people around the world contract mosquito-borne illnesses every year with fatal consequences. In 2017, the transmission of malaria alone represented 435,000 deaths.

Florida’s government website notes that Floridians are vulnerable to contracting “West Nile virus disease, Eastern equine encephalitis, and St. Louis encephalitis.” Local Texas government officials add the chikungunya virus to the list of parasitic threats wrought by mosquitos.

Genetic engineering offers an unprecedented opportunity for humans to reshape the fundamental structure of the biological world,” scientists wrote in The Conversation.

However, a wide coalition of biologists, geneticists, and bioethicists, have expressed concerns over the current EPA’s ability to oversee and regulate the deployment of the GM mosquitos.

They point to the failure of a similar experiment in Brazil, where the release of these Frankenstein insects yielded unintended consequences, namely the creation of “super-resilient genetic hybrids.”

Oxitec scientists themselves noted the unpredictability of their work in this new field of research, writing, “…as new advances in genetic decoding and gene editing emerge with speed and enthusiasm, the ecological systems they could alter remain enormously complex and understudied.”

A public forum addressing the company’s permit application receiving overwhelmingly negative responses, indicating citizens of Florida and Texas are not altogether comfortable with the idea.

To address the conflict, the Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign organized a “Critical Conversation,” which gathered expertise and risk assessment observations from academic, government and nonprofit institutions.

Their recommendations included: 1) a government-funded open-source registry/database for GM organisms, 2) third-party analysis to “track the gene flow between GM and wild mosquitoes…[and their] ecological competitors,” and 3) “regulatory and funding support for an external advisory committee to review…[and] diverse expertise and local community representation.”

Alarmed at the lack of regulatory oversight by the EPA, experts say all “biological, ethical and social considerations” must be assessed, noting that new mosquito proteins could also cause allergy problems in some people.

George Floyd’s Smiling Daughter Says That “Daddy Changed The World”

By
hqanon
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0

“Daddy changed the world.”

In a video recently published online, George Floyd’s daughter, Gianna can be heard saying that, “Daddy changed the world.”

In the video, Gianna is seen sitting atop the shoulders of her “uncle” retired NBA star, Stephen Jackson, who was one of Floyd’s closest friends.

The video went viral after it was shared on Twitter by Bernice A. King, the youngest daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

King said that she understands Gianna’s struggle, because her father changed the world, and unfortunately died doing it as well.

https://twitter.com/BerniceKing/status/1268008668668272643

“Nobody knows her burden and pride like you,” she said in her tweet.

In a later statement, King said that she can relate to Giana’s pain, and was even bold enough to point out that her father was killed by law enforcement.

“I was five years old when my father was killed by law enforcement. I know that pain, I know that void, I know the journey of anger. I know what people are feeling. I feel it,” King said, according to The Grio.

During a press conference this week, Gianna’s mother Roxie Washington expressed her grief about how her daughter will now have to grow up without a father.

“Gianna does not have a father. He will never see her grow up, graduate. He will never walk her down the aisle. If there’s a problem she’s having and she needs a dad, she does not have that anymore,” she said.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CA9K06mF88W/

George Floyd’s death has already begun to change the world in just a little over week.

Never before has there been such a large movement against police brutality, and it has now become a global phenomenon. In cases of police murder, the officers involved rarely lose their jobs or face charges, and if they do, it usually takes a long time, since police departments often do their best to cover up the transgressions of their officers.

However, this time, all of the officers have been fired and are facing charges related to the incident. The officer directly responsible for Floyd’s death is facing murder charges.

Following the initial days of the protest, Minneapolis Public Schools announced that they were terminating their contract with the local police department.

The contract was worth over $1 million dollars, and put police officers in direct contact with children and teenagers on a regular basis, leading to many unnecessary assaults and arrests. Given how widespread these protests have become, it is highly likely that other parts of the country will follow suit with similar changes.

US lawmakers are also now pushing for monumental police reforms that seek to limit legal protections for violent cops, and strip police departments of their military equipment. The measures are being introduced or supported by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

People are more open to the idea of police reform than ever, and it is all because the case of George Floyd was so impossible to deny, excuse, and sweep under the rug as we have seen so often with police killings. Hopefully, real change can come in the aftermath of this tragedy.

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