The mentally ill homeless man pulled out a tiny pocket knife to protect himself from a lunging police dog. The cops didn't bother trying to use their tasers — They were anxious to use their guns to shoot somebody. That was two years ago. Barack Obama's Justice Department found no "sufficient evidence of willful misconduct."—Ronald David Jackson
 |
| The video was released two years after the incident by the ACLU. (Screen capture from video) |
On a quiet Sunday in July 2012 in broad daylight, six police officers in Michigan repeatedly shot an African-American man struggling with homelessness and mental illness. While the killing of Milton Hall prompted local outrage and a federal investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in February that it failed to find “sufficient evidence of willful misconduct” to prosecute the policemen.
This Monday, more than two years later, the ACLU released footage obtained from the Hall family’s lawyers and used it as part of its testimony before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an organ of the Organization of American States, in order to put pressure on the federal government. While a bystander video was shown on CNN shortly after the shooting, the newly released dashcam video shows the incident with unprecedented detail.
In the video, Hall, 49, is seen standing in a Saginaw, Michigan, parking lot surrounded by eight police officers with their guns drawn and pointed at him. During the short stand-off, a police dog began to growl and lunge toward Hall, who took out a small pocketknife in response. It was when he turned to the dog, the ACLU says, that police showered Hall with a stream of bullets.
Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment