Earlier today we ran a report that indicated that the Louisville police had opened fire when a rioter took a shot at them and some National Guard troops early this morning. They returned fire, killing David McAtee, the owner of a restaurant adjacent to the area where the crowd had formed.
Subsequent investigation revealed that none of the Louisville Metro Police Department cops in the area had activated their body cameras…in the middle of a riot. As a result, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, fired LMPD Chief Steve Conrad who had announced his retirement at the end of June following the controversy over the shooting death of Breonna Taylor by LMPD officers.
Here’s the AP’s report on the latest PR disaster for the LMPD:
By Bruce Schreiner and Sophia Tulp, AP
Louisville’s police chief was fired Monday after the mayor learned that officers involved in a shooting that killed the popular owner of a barbecue spot failed to activate body cameras during the chaotic scene.
David McAtee, known for offering meals to police officers, died early Monday while police officers and National Guard soldiers were enforcing a curfew amid waves of protests over a previous police shooting in Kentucky’s largest city. Police said they were responding to gunfire from a crowd that had gathered there.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer revealed that authorities lacked body camera video for the investigation just hours after Kentucky’s governor demanded the release of police video.
“This type of institutional failure will not be tolerated,” Fischer said. “Accordingly, I have relieved Steve Conrad of his duties as chief of Louisville Metro Police Department.”
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
Conrad had previously announced his resignation, which was to take effect at the end of June. Deputy police chief Robert Schroeder will step in as acting chief immediately, Fischer said.
Police did retrieve video from crime center cameras that show how the shooting unfolded, Schroeder said.
“It is taken from a distance, but it gives an overview of the scene and clearly shows the officers reacting to gunfire,” he said.
Two Louisville officers and two Guard soldiers returned fire, he said. The two officers violated policy by not wearing or activating body cameras, Schroeder said, and have been placed on administrative leave.
“That is completely unacceptable,” he said.
McAtee, whose YaYa’s BBQ Shack is near where the shooting occurred, was mourned by hundreds of people who returned to the site hours afterward.
Christopher 2X, an anti-violence activist and executive director of the group Game Changers, said McAtee was well liked, adding: “I’ve never known him to be aggressive in any kind of way.”
Schroeder agreed that McAtee was friendly to police officers. “Over the years he’s been a good friend to the police officers … frequently making sure our officers had a good meal on their shifts,” he said.
Gov. Andy Beshear, who had pressed Louisville police to release video from the shooting, authorized state police to independently investigate or oversee the probe into the shooting,
“It’s really important for the truth to get out there,” he said. “But I think it’s also really important in ensuring that we don’t have violence, if people can see it and know that – good, bad or ugly – we’re being absolutely transparent about it.”
Before his dismissal, Conrad confirmed the shooting happened around 12:15 a.m. Monday outside a food market on West Broadway, where police and the National Guard had been called to break up a group of people violating the city’s curfew.
Someone fired a shot at law enforcement officials, and both soldiers and officers returned fire, he said. Several “persons of interest” were being interviewed, he said.
News outlets showed video taken by someone in a car parked at a gas station. It recorded the sound of bullets being fired as groups of police and National Guard soldiers crouched behind cars.
Kris Smith said he was at a restaurant — “just outside having a good time, having drinks, eating barbecue” — when the soldiers arrived.
“As soon as I walk to my car they jump out with the sticks, the police jump out with their sticks and their shields and stuff on,” Smith said. “It looked like something out of a movie. It looked like a freaking war zone.”
He heard a loud noise, and a few minutes later gunfire erupted, he said.
Smith, who is black, said the group had nothing to do with the protests.
“Never thought I would experience that here in America,” he said.
Last week, before the Kentucky National Guard was mobilized, seven people were wounded when gunshots erupted during a protest in downtown Louisville. Police said none of the seven, who are recovering, were shot by police. They have not announced any arrests.
Protesters have been demanding justice for Breonna Taylor, a black woman killed in her home in Louisville in March. The 26-year-old EMT was shot eight times by narcotics detectives who knocked down her front door as they attempted to enforce a search warrant. No drugs were found in the home.
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, pleaded for peace while demanding justice for her daughter.
So they’re gonna charge the cops instead of the organizers of the riot!? Figures.
Did I miss something? I did not see anything about charging those cops. There will be an investigation, but that is as it should be. Probably a reprimand for not activating their body cams, but that is to be expected when protocol is broken, no?
A crowd does not shoot a gun, a person does. You don’t shoot in to a crowd. Those cops are responsible for every round that left their guns and shot innocent people. They should eat it.
That being said…. this is insurrection 101. Antagonize the authorities into responding in an indiscriminate and disproportional way and turn the population against the authorities.
“Enforcing curfew” is a very ambiguous statement. Were these people rioting? Looting? Exercising their Constitutionally guaranteed rights in defiance of the curfew? The intent and perception of the police doesn’t seem to be very well articulated.
Not having cameras or not turning on the camera are both all too common for LMPD. It has happened in every questionable police-involved shooting in Louisville since the city brought in body cameras – but of course, that is purely a coincidence.
According to the Mayor and both the now-fired Chief of Police and the newly-named Acting Chief, LMPD is “not” enforcing the curfew except in cases of violence or other crimes — but somehow someone dispatched LMPD and KyNG to the scene at 26th & Broadway to “disperse” a “crowd” even though the crowd was not involved in the protests (which were completely elsewhere) and by all accounts was not engaged in any violence prior to the arrival of LMPD and the soldiers.
Likewise, both the Mayor and the Governor had announced that Ky National Guard troops would not be deployed into West Louisville — but several hours later the Ky NG troops were back at 26th & Broadway supposedly assisting Louisville Fire Department. At the Mayor’s press conference he stated that this was an unintentional mistake involving National Guard soldiers who had been assigned to assist the fire department. Apparently no one bothered telling either the National Guard or the Fire Department that the NG soldiers were not to be sent into West Louisville.
I’m guessing that in fact, the cameras were not turned off. They were on, captured the comps committing crimes, so the cops deleted the video.
Or, the police officers knew they were planning on being violent, so they turnEd the cameras off or failed to activate them before hand.
Either way, the police officers are guilty of multiple violations of department policy, state and federal law, and should be prosecuted.
Miner, I agree with your suppositions. When not just one, but several different people simultaneously violate department policy that blatantly, my automatic assumption is that it was no “mistake”, and giving them the benefit of the doubt says when they discovered the cameras proved they were involved in criminal activity, the recordings were destroyed. Without that benefit of the doubt, they knew they were about to violate the law, and therefore never turned the cameras on in the first place. Either way, it stinks.
A crime is a crime even when cops do it. You’re responsible for every round fired unless it’s wartime, but even then you can still be held responsible for a killing.
No one ever said cop could not commit crimes. Maybe pwrserge but who cares what he thinks.
Where has he been anyway?
Idk. I saw him in a youtube comment section for bloomberg news or something. I said hi but he did not respond. lol
Probably just burned out on here. idk though.
Perhaps he killed himself. I’ve always thought he was eventually going to.
Burned out? The guy is a paid Russian troll. What finally tipped me off is when Powerserge referred to Dallas as a small liberal city. The guy is not even in the US and very unlikely understands anything that is happening here. Nice to see Vlad is back as Chief Censor, nothing ever changes on this forum other than the constant stream of misinformation.
Could he have been a she? Might explain why he or she seemed to go bananas when confronted by a fellow female on here. If not perhaps they fell out of another window since that seems to be the new way Russia is getting rid of unwanteds.
Exfenestration. NOT “defenestration” which would be the removal of the windows.
According to Merriam Webster, defenestration’s first definition is: a throwing of a person or thing out of a window. The second definition is a swift dismissal or expulsion (as from a political party or office), which also would be a good description of what happened to the Louosville police chief.
There was no riot. There wasn’t even a demonstration happening.
This was over enforcing a curfew.
Anybody want to be a cop?
Me! I’m qualified — I can’t operate a camera either. Of course, I’d have to unlearn how to shoot straight, I’d have to forget the Four Rules, and I’d have to learn that trick of kneeling on a man’s head. But I can do it! Plus, I love donuts.
Sir, you need to learn the ways of a millennial militant officer of the fraternal order. Join the lodge. And learn to “get some!”
He can be your partner. He will show you how to make $225,000 a year.
This additional tragedy does absolutely nothing to promote the good police-citizen relationship…
RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET
Know what it is, what is in line with it, and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything you have not positively identified. Be aware of your surroundings, whether on the range or in a fight. Do not assume anything. Know what you are doing.
I see they are proficient in the Stormtrooper style of marksmanship.
Storm troopers are actually excellent shots. They have a better hit rate than the rebellion.
The police and national guard knew what their target was.
A community member, business owner, intelligent, articulate black man who was a friend to law-enforcement and the community at large.
A man whose experience and membership in the community could help defuse tense situations, without violence.
That’s why police and national guard were sent to his place of business, targeting articulate, effective members of the black community in order to remove community leaders.
Who was out at 12:15 a.m. Monday. Now I understand that a lot of people are out of work and being out after midnight should not be a death sentence, but why was he out that late with all the tension?
Having admitted in your question that it is a pointless and needless question, why don’t you just retract your question?
Because people were eating at his damn RESTAURANT? Just sayin’.
I hear the local kroger is having a sale on tin foil you may want to pick up a few rolls.
+1 This is what I have been saying all along. Having defined rules of engagement AND practicing tactical strategies using those rules is really effective in minimizing the probability of shooting innocents. Plus, by utilizing rules, the teams addressing disturbances don’t get “baited” by fringe groups who want nothing better than to cause another death to continue the narrative of police brutality and heavy-handedness. Do police departments need bottom up reform in dealing with their community? Absolutely. That along with breaking the culture of loyalty over duty. Mandatory police training should start with principles honed at West Point over the last 200 years.
“That along with breaking the culture of loyalty over duty.”
With President Trump in office that’s not likely to happen.
It seems President Trump’s motto for the troops is ‘My honor is loyalty’.
You may have heard that somewhere before…
Roflmao if that was anywhere near the truth your ass would have been tossrdvin a camp already. Stalin would be proud of you using his playbook, anyone who disagrees with you call a nazi.
Well, I also call him a hypocrite and a false prophet because of his words indeed.
Tell me, do you think the episode I have below demonstrates presidential leadership or is he seeking to fan the flames in order to promote his campaign?
“President Trump’s controversial foray to St. John’s Church on Monday is generating widespread criticism, after police and National Guard troops physically cleared out demonstrators and used tear gas to allow a photo opportunity outside the church. The bishop who oversees St. John’s is among the critics.
“He used violent means to ask to be escorted across the park into the courtyard of the church,” Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington tells NPR’s Morning Edition. “He held up his Bible after speaking [an] inflammatory militarized approach to the wounds of our nation.”
“He did not pray,” the bishop continued.
“He did not offer a word of balm or condolence to those who are grieving. He did not seek to unify the country, but rather he used our symbols and our sacred space as a way to reinforce a message that is antithetical to everything that the person of Jesus, whom we follow, and the gospel texts that we strive to emulate … represent.”
“Two Louisville officers and two Guard soldiers returned fire…”
What became of the other rounds that were fired?
Where were these guys/gals aiming?
Obviously not aiming. They shot the owner of the restaurant and none of the scum/thugs that fired the shot. It appears they fired in the general direction the other shot came from without identifying the perp.
They were aiming, and hit their targets.
Local business owner and patrons of his establishment.
That’s why there is no video of the incident.
COOKOO! COOKO! 🐦
WTF COOKO?
Friend, you need to have a serious talk with your handlers and trainers about their instruction in colloquial American language.
Maybe that’s what they’re called in Russia or your mom’s basement or wherever you’re writing from but your use here is hilarious!
Probably what you meant to say was cuckoo, am I right?
Around these parts, we’d just say you ain’t got no sense. I don’t think you’re firing on all eight.
It looks like they all got scared and fired over the vehicles at the general direction of the sounds of gun shots like you do when you get ambushed in Iraq. You don’t give a shit about which Iraqi gets their head popped, they are an unfortunate causality of war. Get some…
I didn’t see any optics on the rifles of the NG. It looks like two cops fired their handguns as they moved around. The weapons handling was lacking.
This is a marked deviation from normal police practice. Normally, they kill hostages but only wound bystanders.
Ralph,
Dark, dark humor. But I guffawed, out loud. That was funny, right there.
I’ll be here all week. Don’t forget to tip your bartender. And try the veal. It’s the best in town.
Ralph
Not always.
NSW police managed to hide for about a year that two of the three people killed at Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney were shot by them.
Hardly surprising considering they flash banged themselves on entry. Miracle half of the entry team didn’t kill the other half.
That entry is now widley considered a textbook example of what not to do.
I thought the flashes seen from outside the doorway of the Lindt cafe were too regular for flash bangs. In my opinion the officers were all lined up to each do a mag-dump into the perp.
There’s a video from a security camera that shows what happens. One of the guys who tosses a flashbang hits an object he didn’t see and the flashbang bounces back at the breaching team.
Chaos ensues.
Instant karma.
That’s sad. Unfortunately, it’s also not surprising given the chaos.
Shoot & scoot from a crowd is a known tactic. You need to be an asshole to employ it but human shields are not a new idea.
“Department cops in the area had activated their body cameras…in the middle of a riot.”
Bodycams need to be developed that start recording the moment they come out of the charging dock, and have no way to stop the recording before going back in the dock at the end of the shift…
Kids can live stream their entire life. I’m sure they can do the same for officers.
I concur, and it should be prima facie evidence of both police corruption and immediately exculpatory for any charges against defendants. Asset seizure and forfeiture laws need to be enacted to take all finances away from crooked cops and their pensions made nil and void. Furthermore, no officer shall be armed with a weapon which is illegal to be carried or owned by civilian citizens. If they wanna be Tactical Timmy they can go join Delta or Seal teams.
We must end our steady march toward police state. Not enough officers speak against it. I know, they are only following orders. I had an uncle in the SS, that excuse didn’t work for him either.
No, you need to be able to talk to Folks reporting things who, don’t wish to be identified along with a host of others things ,like taking a dump for one .
how about if you want privacy while at work, don’t be a cop.
If bodycam catches your dump, it is aimed wrong. If you have confidential informant your superior can erase the segment after you are off duty without incident. There is a way, and it is imperative. We all know we’re talking about extreme corruption, here, those who insist it is necessary need to be investigated.
Most police administrators and politicians dont wear cameras and dont want to be held responsible for the thing that they say in presence of police body worn cameras. So good luck with that.
While we’re at it we should integrate voice and facial recognition in to the body worn cameras. With enough cops and enough cameras constantly recording the .gov can maintain massive databases of legally admissible evidence (without the need for pretext or warrants) on citizens just going about their day.
Then those senior officers and politicians should be replaced.
Justice… They keep using that word. I don’t think it means what they think it means.
If you want to handle rioters, then the cops will need to crack some heads. And you expect them to wear body cameras while doing it?
Personally, I would love to see the footage of the head cracking, but with democratic leaders willing to punish law enforce me for standard duty behavior of returning fire when someone shoots at them, why would they put themselves in jeopardy by wearing cameras?
They definitely can wear cameras.
Soldiers and Marines do it all the time. Shit, there’s mounts for GoPros that attach specifically to the NVG mount on nearly every modern ballistic and bump helmet.
Soldiers have been wearing cams for many years. They use them for after action reports too. It started out for personal videos.
I never would of guessed. *eyeroll*
That’s why people are protesting and rioting. There is no equal protection under the law and no accountability for crimes committed by government workers.
If you got nothing to hide…
‘Head cracking,’ although very gratifying, and sometimes both justified and effective if properly focused on the deserving, is not quite the same as indiscriminately ‘returning’ fire in the general direction from which one is fired upon in an urban setting that is NOT a declared war zone, without localizing and targeting the person who fired the shots, and putting an errant bullet into an unarmed and uninvolved bystander who used to like cops before he became dead.
No, that’s not ‘head cracking.’ It’s ‘2nd Degree Murder Due to Depraved Indifference.’
Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
No amount of missing body-cam footage, or even some intact body-cam footage, is going to explain away the death of an innocent from police bullets, particularly given these circumstances.
Fire them, investigate them, indict them, arrest them, and imprison them on conviction. That’s justice.
Well said; thanks.
They are simply doing what the ACLU wants. The ACLU wants the cops to turn off their cameras.
Where are all you 2nd amendment zealots when the ‘president’ starts talking about using military force on domestic soil?
He’s the President, not the “president,” like it or not, and he is talking about using military force to stop the violent rioters, in other words, to protect the American people, because the states and cities are too feckless and/or unable to do so.
What is it that you believe involves the Second Amendment in that concept?
I feel like one of these PD’s may try a local coup.
From the article:
“Smith, who is black, said the group had nothing to do with the protests.”
As long as we keep pounding on the supposed necessity to comment on a person’s skin color, we will continue to see racial tensions in our society. I just don’t see the need to keep calling out everyone’s melanin content. Geez…
Good point. Going in a tangent, we’ve had some protesters in Ventura County, i’ve been scanning pics and vids, daily for Antifa types among them.
How you think you can tell? Is all that black shit some kind of uniform?
Criminals didn’t turn on their body cameras to record misconduct? Let me show you my shocked face.
-_-
It’s time for the President to activate COG plans and shut down internet routing partially. FaceBook, Youtube, and especially any messaging service need to be made to go dark.
Communications needs to be cut off between the different rioting groups.
Step one.
This post looks familiar…….
Nothing says “freedom-loving patriot” like a call to abrogate the First Amendment.
The first amendment was not violated for the first 200 years when we did not have cell phones, just turn them all off. Say, at the onset of curfew. 8 PM, *blink*.
In these times of societal strife and political cowardice a police bodycam is nothing but a liability. Politicians don’t support the police officers in their communities, and will crucify the police officers who are actually doing their jobs. I wouldn’t turn on a bodycam if I were a police officer today.
The chief was fired? The mayor should have been fired with him. I guess the buck no longer stops here.
Meh…my local 5-O did squat. Just let rioting & looting continue unabated. I don’t care! Not a fan of the po-leece or the looting scum.
I think the police need to go home and protect their own. Let the Rioters and Looters have their way with each other and all those people screaming for justice. The police are in a no win situation. Damned either way. Just let Shit go the Hell and clean up the mess when it’s over. Those of us who have been prepared for this shit will survive just fine. With any luck they’ll take out of few of the politicians, media and Hollywood types who are kissing their asses to look like they care. Keep’n My Powder Dry. Your Powder is Your Problem.
Ever notice that police unions are “fraternal”? This should tell you something. The “thin-blue-line” is a gang, little different than street gangs–at least when it comes to “covering-up” their questionable and quite often, illegal and criminal behavior.
In today’s day and age, “officer safety” trumps de-escalation of force. This, in part, is due to the militarization of the police along with training in Israeli police tactics. This becomes a problem, with the “us vs. them” attitude that is fosters, along with the fact that Israel is a very different place, being on a constant “war footing”, its police tactics are very different.
There are too many instances of police being “given a pass”, even when incontrovertible video and audio evidence is presented. Grand juries, guided by police-friendly prosecutors, quite often refuse to charge those police officers who abuse their authority.
Police officers, who want to do the right thing, are quite often marginalized and put into harms way, by their own brethren…When a police officer is beating on someone that is already restrained while yelling, “stop resisting” THAT is but one reason police have a “bad name” in many instances…this makes the “good cops” who are standing around, witnessing their “brethren in blue” beating on a restrained suspect, culpable as well…
Here are changes that can help reduce police-induced violence:
1. Get rid of police unions. Police unions (fraternities) protect the guilty, and are responsible for the massive whitewashing of questionable police behavior that is presently being committed.
2. Eliminate both “absolute” and “qualified” immunity for all public officials. This includes, prosecutors and judges, police and firefighters, code enforcement and child protective services officials, and others who deal with the citizenry. The threat of being sued personally would encourage them to behave themselves. Require police officers to be “bonded” by an insurance company, with their own funds. No bond= no job.
3. Any public funds disbursed to citizens as a result of police misconduct should come out of police pension funds–NOT from the taxpayers.
4. Regular drug-testing of police officers as well as incident-based drug testing should take place whenever an officer is involved in a violent situation with a citizen–no exceptions.
5. Testing for steroid use should be a part of the drug testing program. You know damn well, many police officers “bulk up” with the “help” of steroids. Steroids also affect users mentally as well, making them more aggressive. The potential for abuse of citizens increases greatly with steroid use.
6. Internal affairs should only be used for disagreements between individual officers–NOT for investigations involving citizen abuse. State-level investigations should be mandatory for all suspected abuses involving citizens.
7. Prosecutors should be charged with malfeasance IF any evidence implicating police officer misconduct is not presented to the grand jury.
8. A national or state-by-state database of abusive individuals who should NEVER be allowed to perform police work should be established–a “blacklist” of abusive (former) police officers.
9. Most people are unaware that police have special “rules” that prohibit them from being questioned for 48 hours. This allows them to “get their stories straight” and makes it easier to “cover up” bad police behavior. Police must be subject to the same laws as civilians.
10. All police should be required to wear bodycams and utilize dashcams that cannot be turned off. Any police officers who causes a dash or body cam to be turned off should be summarily fired–no excuses. Today’s body and dash cams are reliable enough to withstand harsh treatment. Body and dashcam footage should be uploaded to a public channel “on the cloud” for public perusal.
11. All interrogations must be video and audio recorded. Police should be prohibited from lying or fabricating stories in order to get suspects to confess. False confessions ARE a problem in many departments. Unknown to most people, police can lie with impunity while civilians can be charged with lying to police…fair? I think not…
12. Any legislation passed that restricts the rights of ordinary citizens, such as firearms magazine capacity limits, types of weapons allowed, or restrictive concealed-carry laws should apply equally to police. No special exemptions to be given to police. Laws must be equally applied.
Police work is not inherently dangerous…there are many other professions that are much more dangerous.
A little “Andy Taylor” could go a long way in allaying fears that citizens have of police.
That being said, I have no problem with police officers who do their job in a fair, conscientious manner…however, it is time to call to task those police officers who only “protect and serve” themselves.
“Get rid of the police. Make it virtually impossible to detect, arrest, and prosecute criminals. Make police work such an unattractive, unpleasant, and potentially personally disastrous career as to dissuade virtually anyone with common sense from wanting to perform it except social justice warriors and ACLU attorneys. Place the task of dealing with armed felons and criminal madmen in the hands of those same social justice warriors and ACLU attorneys.”
See? I shortened it for you, and managed to say exactly the same thing.
You’re welcome.
Do you disagree with this statement by our friend above?
“There are too many instances of police being “given a pass”, even when incontrovertible video and audio evidence is presented. Grand juries, guided by police-friendly prosecutors, quite often refuse to charge those police officers who abuse their authority.”
Or are you in favor of this policy because it serves your interests?
Do you think you quoted a policy proposal?
Spoken like a true leftist, comrade…..
all good reforms, except I would want to see the body cam footage (unwarranted monitoring of citizens either way) have restricted release to involved parties w/o court order. You can video of your interaction w cop, but a busybody cannot just peruse footage of random citizens.
Can we riot for David McAtee?
No shit. Sounds like a damn good man.
Body cam off and shooting into a crowd? Sounds like negligence to me.
I learned really early that I am responsible for EVERY ROUND that I fire (taught by my instructor, former SWAT instructor).
Shocking this Cop didn’t learn that lesson from his instructor.
That level of incompetence and carelessness, in and of itself, should be a firing offense.
“Body cam off and shooting into a crowd? Sounds like negligence to me.”
That’s not negligent, negligence is forgetting to turn your headlights on after local sundown. Negligence is filing your report a few hours late because you sat at lunch too long.
What these officers did was intentionally conceal their wrongdoing by violating department policy and turning off their cameras. Then they recklessly fired into a crowd, with completely depraved indifference to who was hit.
That’s murder three, and the police officers and National Guard who fired need to be arrested and charged.
Or we’ll just have some more riots, I guess. Maybe that’s just what they want…
Agree.
Two sets of video footage were released today from security cameras, including one from McAtee’s own barbecue restaurant, that show McAtee firing a gun during the incident before being struck.
I guess being a sworn police officer and providing a statement doesn’t matter anymore.
I know the officer in the photo you’ve used and he wasn’t there. That photo has nothing to do with this story. He’s taking legal action for you to change it. I’d change it now.
So they’re gonna charge the cops instead of the organizers of the riot!? Figures.
Did I miss something? I did not see anything about charging those cops. There will be an investigation, but that is as it should be. Probably a reprimand for not activating their body cams, but that is to be expected when protocol is broken, no?
A crowd does not shoot a gun, a person does. You don’t shoot in to a crowd. Those cops are responsible for every round that left their guns and shot innocent people. They should eat it.
That being said…. this is insurrection 101. Antagonize the authorities into responding in an indiscriminate and disproportional way and turn the population against the authorities.
“Enforcing curfew” is a very ambiguous statement. Were these people rioting? Looting? Exercising their Constitutionally guaranteed rights in defiance of the curfew? The intent and perception of the police doesn’t seem to be very well articulated.
Not having cameras or not turning on the camera are both all too common for LMPD. It has happened in every questionable police-involved shooting in Louisville since the city brought in body cameras – but of course, that is purely a coincidence.
According to the Mayor and both the now-fired Chief of Police and the newly-named Acting Chief, LMPD is “not” enforcing the curfew except in cases of violence or other crimes — but somehow someone dispatched LMPD and KyNG to the scene at 26th & Broadway to “disperse” a “crowd” even though the crowd was not involved in the protests (which were completely elsewhere) and by all accounts was not engaged in any violence prior to the arrival of LMPD and the soldiers.
Likewise, both the Mayor and the Governor had announced that Ky National Guard troops would not be deployed into West Louisville — but several hours later the Ky NG troops were back at 26th & Broadway supposedly assisting Louisville Fire Department. At the Mayor’s press conference he stated that this was an unintentional mistake involving National Guard soldiers who had been assigned to assist the fire department. Apparently no one bothered telling either the National Guard or the Fire Department that the NG soldiers were not to be sent into West Louisville.
I’m guessing that in fact, the cameras were not turned off. They were on, captured the comps committing crimes, so the cops deleted the video.
Or, the police officers knew they were planning on being violent, so they turnEd the cameras off or failed to activate them before hand.
Either way, the police officers are guilty of multiple violations of department policy, state and federal law, and should be prosecuted.
Miner, I agree with your suppositions. When not just one, but several different people simultaneously violate department policy that blatantly, my automatic assumption is that it was no “mistake”, and giving them the benefit of the doubt says when they discovered the cameras proved they were involved in criminal activity, the recordings were destroyed. Without that benefit of the doubt, they knew they were about to violate the law, and therefore never turned the cameras on in the first place. Either way, it stinks.
A crime is a crime even when cops do it. You’re responsible for every round fired unless it’s wartime, but even then you can still be held responsible for a killing.
Here is the video mentioned in the article.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HJG-ENqgqo
No one ever said cop could not commit crimes. Maybe pwrserge but who cares what he thinks.
Where has he been anyway?
Idk. I saw him in a youtube comment section for bloomberg news or something. I said hi but he did not respond. lol
Probably just burned out on here. idk though.
Perhaps he killed himself. I’ve always thought he was eventually going to.
Burned out? The guy is a paid Russian troll. What finally tipped me off is when Powerserge referred to Dallas as a small liberal city. The guy is not even in the US and very unlikely understands anything that is happening here. Nice to see Vlad is back as Chief Censor, nothing ever changes on this forum other than the constant stream of misinformation.
Could he have been a she? Might explain why he or she seemed to go bananas when confronted by a fellow female on here. If not perhaps they fell out of another window since that seems to be the new way Russia is getting rid of unwanteds.
https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-police-colonel-being-treated-for-covid-19-falls-from-moscow-hospital-window/30646886.html
Exfenestration. NOT “defenestration” which would be the removal of the windows.
According to Merriam Webster, defenestration’s first definition is: a throwing of a person or thing out of a window. The second definition is a swift dismissal or expulsion (as from a political party or office), which also would be a good description of what happened to the Louosville police chief.
There was no riot. There wasn’t even a demonstration happening.
This was over enforcing a curfew.
Anybody want to be a cop?
Me! I’m qualified — I can’t operate a camera either. Of course, I’d have to unlearn how to shoot straight, I’d have to forget the Four Rules, and I’d have to learn that trick of kneeling on a man’s head. But I can do it! Plus, I love donuts.
Sir, you need to learn the ways of a millennial militant officer of the fraternal order. Join the lodge. And learn to “get some!”
He can be your partner. He will show you how to make $225,000 a year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3TFV2bTj38
And eat a lot of donuts? I’ll just get my coat. 🚪
This additional tragedy does absolutely nothing to promote the good police-citizen relationship…
RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET
Know what it is, what is in line with it, and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything you have not positively identified. Be aware of your surroundings, whether on the range or in a fight. Do not assume anything. Know what you are doing.
I see they are proficient in the Stormtrooper style of marksmanship.
Storm troopers are actually excellent shots. They have a better hit rate than the rebellion.
The police and national guard knew what their target was.
A community member, business owner, intelligent, articulate black man who was a friend to law-enforcement and the community at large.
A man whose experience and membership in the community could help defuse tense situations, without violence.
That’s why police and national guard were sent to his place of business, targeting articulate, effective members of the black community in order to remove community leaders.
Who was out at 12:15 a.m. Monday. Now I understand that a lot of people are out of work and being out after midnight should not be a death sentence, but why was he out that late with all the tension?
Having admitted in your question that it is a pointless and needless question, why don’t you just retract your question?
Because people were eating at his damn RESTAURANT? Just sayin’.
I hear the local kroger is having a sale on tin foil you may want to pick up a few rolls.
+1 This is what I have been saying all along. Having defined rules of engagement AND practicing tactical strategies using those rules is really effective in minimizing the probability of shooting innocents. Plus, by utilizing rules, the teams addressing disturbances don’t get “baited” by fringe groups who want nothing better than to cause another death to continue the narrative of police brutality and heavy-handedness. Do police departments need bottom up reform in dealing with their community? Absolutely. That along with breaking the culture of loyalty over duty. Mandatory police training should start with principles honed at West Point over the last 200 years.
“That along with breaking the culture of loyalty over duty.”
With President Trump in office that’s not likely to happen.
It seems President Trump’s motto for the troops is ‘My honor is loyalty’.
You may have heard that somewhere before…
Roflmao if that was anywhere near the truth your ass would have been tossrdvin a camp already. Stalin would be proud of you using his playbook, anyone who disagrees with you call a nazi.
Well, I also call him a hypocrite and a false prophet because of his words indeed.
Tell me, do you think the episode I have below demonstrates presidential leadership or is he seeking to fan the flames in order to promote his campaign?
“President Trump’s controversial foray to St. John’s Church on Monday is generating widespread criticism, after police and National Guard troops physically cleared out demonstrators and used tear gas to allow a photo opportunity outside the church. The bishop who oversees St. John’s is among the critics.
“He used violent means to ask to be escorted across the park into the courtyard of the church,” Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington tells NPR’s Morning Edition. “He held up his Bible after speaking [an] inflammatory militarized approach to the wounds of our nation.”
“He did not pray,” the bishop continued.
“He did not offer a word of balm or condolence to those who are grieving. He did not seek to unify the country, but rather he used our symbols and our sacred space as a way to reinforce a message that is antithetical to everything that the person of Jesus, whom we follow, and the gospel texts that we strive to emulate … represent.”
“Two Louisville officers and two Guard soldiers returned fire…”
What became of the other rounds that were fired?
Where were these guys/gals aiming?
Obviously not aiming. They shot the owner of the restaurant and none of the scum/thugs that fired the shot. It appears they fired in the general direction the other shot came from without identifying the perp.
They were aiming, and hit their targets.
Local business owner and patrons of his establishment.
That’s why there is no video of the incident.
COOKOO! COOKO! 🐦
WTF COOKO?
Friend, you need to have a serious talk with your handlers and trainers about their instruction in colloquial American language.
Maybe that’s what they’re called in Russia or your mom’s basement or wherever you’re writing from but your use here is hilarious!
Probably what you meant to say was cuckoo, am I right?
Around these parts, we’d just say you ain’t got no sense. I don’t think you’re firing on all eight.
It looks like they all got scared and fired over the vehicles at the general direction of the sounds of gun shots like you do when you get ambushed in Iraq. You don’t give a shit about which Iraqi gets their head popped, they are an unfortunate causality of war. Get some…
I didn’t see any optics on the rifles of the NG. It looks like two cops fired their handguns as they moved around. The weapons handling was lacking.
This is a marked deviation from normal police practice. Normally, they kill hostages but only wound bystanders.
Ralph,
Dark, dark humor. But I guffawed, out loud. That was funny, right there.
I’ll be here all week. Don’t forget to tip your bartender. And try the veal. It’s the best in town.
Ralph
Not always.
NSW police managed to hide for about a year that two of the three people killed at Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney were shot by them.
Hardly surprising considering they flash banged themselves on entry. Miracle half of the entry team didn’t kill the other half.
That entry is now widley considered a textbook example of what not to do.
I thought the flashes seen from outside the doorway of the Lindt cafe were too regular for flash bangs. In my opinion the officers were all lined up to each do a mag-dump into the perp.
There’s a video from a security camera that shows what happens. One of the guys who tosses a flashbang hits an object he didn’t see and the flashbang bounces back at the breaching team.
Chaos ensues.
Instant karma.
That’s sad. Unfortunately, it’s also not surprising given the chaos.
Shoot & scoot from a crowd is a known tactic. You need to be an asshole to employ it but human shields are not a new idea.
“Department cops in the area had activated their body cameras…in the middle of a riot.”
Bodycams need to be developed that start recording the moment they come out of the charging dock, and have no way to stop the recording before going back in the dock at the end of the shift…
Kids can live stream their entire life. I’m sure they can do the same for officers.
I concur, and it should be prima facie evidence of both police corruption and immediately exculpatory for any charges against defendants. Asset seizure and forfeiture laws need to be enacted to take all finances away from crooked cops and their pensions made nil and void. Furthermore, no officer shall be armed with a weapon which is illegal to be carried or owned by civilian citizens. If they wanna be Tactical Timmy they can go join Delta or Seal teams.
We must end our steady march toward police state. Not enough officers speak against it. I know, they are only following orders. I had an uncle in the SS, that excuse didn’t work for him either.
No, you need to be able to talk to Folks reporting things who, don’t wish to be identified along with a host of others things ,like taking a dump for one .
how about if you want privacy while at work, don’t be a cop.
If bodycam catches your dump, it is aimed wrong. If you have confidential informant your superior can erase the segment after you are off duty without incident. There is a way, and it is imperative. We all know we’re talking about extreme corruption, here, those who insist it is necessary need to be investigated.
Most police administrators and politicians dont wear cameras and dont want to be held responsible for the thing that they say in presence of police body worn cameras. So good luck with that.
While we’re at it we should integrate voice and facial recognition in to the body worn cameras. With enough cops and enough cameras constantly recording the .gov can maintain massive databases of legally admissible evidence (without the need for pretext or warrants) on citizens just going about their day.
Then those senior officers and politicians should be replaced.
Justice… They keep using that word. I don’t think it means what they think it means.
If you want to handle rioters, then the cops will need to crack some heads. And you expect them to wear body cameras while doing it?
Personally, I would love to see the footage of the head cracking, but with democratic leaders willing to punish law enforce me for standard duty behavior of returning fire when someone shoots at them, why would they put themselves in jeopardy by wearing cameras?
They definitely can wear cameras.
Soldiers and Marines do it all the time. Shit, there’s mounts for GoPros that attach specifically to the NVG mount on nearly every modern ballistic and bump helmet.
Soldiers have been wearing cams for many years. They use them for after action reports too. It started out for personal videos.
I never would of guessed. *eyeroll*
That’s why people are protesting and rioting. There is no equal protection under the law and no accountability for crimes committed by government workers.
If you got nothing to hide…
‘Head cracking,’ although very gratifying, and sometimes both justified and effective if properly focused on the deserving, is not quite the same as indiscriminately ‘returning’ fire in the general direction from which one is fired upon in an urban setting that is NOT a declared war zone, without localizing and targeting the person who fired the shots, and putting an errant bullet into an unarmed and uninvolved bystander who used to like cops before he became dead.
No, that’s not ‘head cracking.’ It’s ‘2nd Degree Murder Due to Depraved Indifference.’
Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
No amount of missing body-cam footage, or even some intact body-cam footage, is going to explain away the death of an innocent from police bullets, particularly given these circumstances.
Fire them, investigate them, indict them, arrest them, and imprison them on conviction. That’s justice.
Well said; thanks.
They are simply doing what the ACLU wants. The ACLU wants the cops to turn off their cameras.
fyi
“ACLU Demands That Body Cams Are Turned Off”
https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/why-are-dc-police-keeping-their-body-cameras
Where are all you 2nd amendment zealots when the ‘president’ starts talking about using military force on domestic soil?
He’s the President, not the “president,” like it or not, and he is talking about using military force to stop the violent rioters, in other words, to protect the American people, because the states and cities are too feckless and/or unable to do so.
What is it that you believe involves the Second Amendment in that concept?
I feel like one of these PD’s may try a local coup.
From the article:
“Smith, who is black, said the group had nothing to do with the protests.”
As long as we keep pounding on the supposed necessity to comment on a person’s skin color, we will continue to see racial tensions in our society. I just don’t see the need to keep calling out everyone’s melanin content. Geez…
Good point. Going in a tangent, we’ve had some protesters in Ventura County, i’ve been scanning pics and vids, daily for Antifa types among them.
How you think you can tell? Is all that black shit some kind of uniform?
Criminals didn’t turn on their body cameras to record misconduct? Let me show you my shocked face.
-_-
It’s time for the President to activate COG plans and shut down internet routing partially. FaceBook, Youtube, and especially any messaging service need to be made to go dark.
Communications needs to be cut off between the different rioting groups.
Step one.
This post looks familiar…….
Nothing says “freedom-loving patriot” like a call to abrogate the First Amendment.
The first amendment was not violated for the first 200 years when we did not have cell phones, just turn them all off. Say, at the onset of curfew. 8 PM, *blink*.
In these times of societal strife and political cowardice a police bodycam is nothing but a liability. Politicians don’t support the police officers in their communities, and will crucify the police officers who are actually doing their jobs. I wouldn’t turn on a bodycam if I were a police officer today.
The chief was fired? The mayor should have been fired with him. I guess the buck no longer stops here.
Meh…my local 5-O did squat. Just let rioting & looting continue unabated. I don’t care! Not a fan of the po-leece or the looting scum.
I think the police need to go home and protect their own. Let the Rioters and Looters have their way with each other and all those people screaming for justice. The police are in a no win situation. Damned either way. Just let Shit go the Hell and clean up the mess when it’s over. Those of us who have been prepared for this shit will survive just fine. With any luck they’ll take out of few of the politicians, media and Hollywood types who are kissing their asses to look like they care. Keep’n My Powder Dry. Your Powder is Your Problem.
Ever notice that police unions are “fraternal”? This should tell you something. The “thin-blue-line” is a gang, little different than street gangs–at least when it comes to “covering-up” their questionable and quite often, illegal and criminal behavior.
In today’s day and age, “officer safety” trumps de-escalation of force. This, in part, is due to the militarization of the police along with training in Israeli police tactics. This becomes a problem, with the “us vs. them” attitude that is fosters, along with the fact that Israel is a very different place, being on a constant “war footing”, its police tactics are very different.
There are too many instances of police being “given a pass”, even when incontrovertible video and audio evidence is presented. Grand juries, guided by police-friendly prosecutors, quite often refuse to charge those police officers who abuse their authority.
Police officers, who want to do the right thing, are quite often marginalized and put into harms way, by their own brethren…When a police officer is beating on someone that is already restrained while yelling, “stop resisting” THAT is but one reason police have a “bad name” in many instances…this makes the “good cops” who are standing around, witnessing their “brethren in blue” beating on a restrained suspect, culpable as well…
Here are changes that can help reduce police-induced violence:
1. Get rid of police unions. Police unions (fraternities) protect the guilty, and are responsible for the massive whitewashing of questionable police behavior that is presently being committed.
2. Eliminate both “absolute” and “qualified” immunity for all public officials. This includes, prosecutors and judges, police and firefighters, code enforcement and child protective services officials, and others who deal with the citizenry. The threat of being sued personally would encourage them to behave themselves. Require police officers to be “bonded” by an insurance company, with their own funds. No bond= no job.
3. Any public funds disbursed to citizens as a result of police misconduct should come out of police pension funds–NOT from the taxpayers.
4. Regular drug-testing of police officers as well as incident-based drug testing should take place whenever an officer is involved in a violent situation with a citizen–no exceptions.
5. Testing for steroid use should be a part of the drug testing program. You know damn well, many police officers “bulk up” with the “help” of steroids. Steroids also affect users mentally as well, making them more aggressive. The potential for abuse of citizens increases greatly with steroid use.
6. Internal affairs should only be used for disagreements between individual officers–NOT for investigations involving citizen abuse. State-level investigations should be mandatory for all suspected abuses involving citizens.
7. Prosecutors should be charged with malfeasance IF any evidence implicating police officer misconduct is not presented to the grand jury.
8. A national or state-by-state database of abusive individuals who should NEVER be allowed to perform police work should be established–a “blacklist” of abusive (former) police officers.
9. Most people are unaware that police have special “rules” that prohibit them from being questioned for 48 hours. This allows them to “get their stories straight” and makes it easier to “cover up” bad police behavior. Police must be subject to the same laws as civilians.
10. All police should be required to wear bodycams and utilize dashcams that cannot be turned off. Any police officers who causes a dash or body cam to be turned off should be summarily fired–no excuses. Today’s body and dash cams are reliable enough to withstand harsh treatment. Body and dashcam footage should be uploaded to a public channel “on the cloud” for public perusal.
11. All interrogations must be video and audio recorded. Police should be prohibited from lying or fabricating stories in order to get suspects to confess. False confessions ARE a problem in many departments. Unknown to most people, police can lie with impunity while civilians can be charged with lying to police…fair? I think not…
12. Any legislation passed that restricts the rights of ordinary citizens, such as firearms magazine capacity limits, types of weapons allowed, or restrictive concealed-carry laws should apply equally to police. No special exemptions to be given to police. Laws must be equally applied.
Police work is not inherently dangerous…there are many other professions that are much more dangerous.
A little “Andy Taylor” could go a long way in allaying fears that citizens have of police.
That being said, I have no problem with police officers who do their job in a fair, conscientious manner…however, it is time to call to task those police officers who only “protect and serve” themselves.
Yay, Republicans. God bless the gangs.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZYbHXOXkAEoFCa?format=jpg&name=large
Allow me to summarize your missive.
“Get rid of the police. Make it virtually impossible to detect, arrest, and prosecute criminals. Make police work such an unattractive, unpleasant, and potentially personally disastrous career as to dissuade virtually anyone with common sense from wanting to perform it except social justice warriors and ACLU attorneys. Place the task of dealing with armed felons and criminal madmen in the hands of those same social justice warriors and ACLU attorneys.”
See? I shortened it for you, and managed to say exactly the same thing.
You’re welcome.
Do you disagree with this statement by our friend above?
“There are too many instances of police being “given a pass”, even when incontrovertible video and audio evidence is presented. Grand juries, guided by police-friendly prosecutors, quite often refuse to charge those police officers who abuse their authority.”
Or are you in favor of this policy because it serves your interests?
Do you think you quoted a policy proposal?
Spoken like a true leftist, comrade…..
all good reforms, except I would want to see the body cam footage (unwarranted monitoring of citizens either way) have restricted release to involved parties w/o court order. You can video of your interaction w cop, but a busybody cannot just peruse footage of random citizens.
Can we riot for David McAtee?
No shit. Sounds like a damn good man.
Body cam off and shooting into a crowd? Sounds like negligence to me.
I learned really early that I am responsible for EVERY ROUND that I fire (taught by my instructor, former SWAT instructor).
Shocking this Cop didn’t learn that lesson from his instructor.
That level of incompetence and carelessness, in and of itself, should be a firing offense.
“Body cam off and shooting into a crowd? Sounds like negligence to me.”
That’s not negligent, negligence is forgetting to turn your headlights on after local sundown. Negligence is filing your report a few hours late because you sat at lunch too long.
What these officers did was intentionally conceal their wrongdoing by violating department policy and turning off their cameras. Then they recklessly fired into a crowd, with completely depraved indifference to who was hit.
That’s murder three, and the police officers and National Guard who fired need to be arrested and charged.
Or we’ll just have some more riots, I guess. Maybe that’s just what they want…
Agree.
Two sets of video footage were released today from security cameras, including one from McAtee’s own barbecue restaurant, that show McAtee firing a gun during the incident before being struck.
https://www.wdrb.com/in-depth/police-say-video-shows-david-mcatee-firing-shots-before-being-hit-in-west-louisville-shooting/article_23e2fae2-a4ef-11ea-81bc-235715f2921c.html
Not passing judgment just the info
I guess being a sworn police officer and providing a statement doesn’t matter anymore.
I know the officer in the photo you’ve used and he wasn’t there. That photo has nothing to do with this story. He’s taking legal action for you to change it. I’d change it now.
Thanks Dan Zimmerman!
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