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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCover Up found in Shooting Death of 13yr old Boy Andy Lopez
Abby Martin speaks with Arnoldo Casillas, attorney for the family of Andy Lopez, a 13 year old who was killed by Santa Rosa police while holding a toy gun. They discuss the community reaction to Andy's death and the lawsuit to hold officers accountable for the murder.
Very telling the attorney explains Andy lay dead on the ground within 3 seconds of the officers stopping the car. Not the 10 to 25 seconds the Sheriffs Dept. has been reporting to the News Media.
Obvious Police Cover Up in shooting death of 13tr old Andy Lopez
In the video you can hear yet a 3rd Witness to the shooting claiming the officers only called out once from inside the vehicle.
Two women who claim to have witnessed the shooting death of a 13-year-old boy carrying an imitation assault rifle in Santa Rosa, Calif., said deputies only shouted at the teen once before they opened fire.
<snip>
The women said they heard the deputies shout, "Drop the gun" just once, before opening their car doors and firing at Lopez without giving him a chance to act, KGO-TV reported.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/witnesses-cops-shouted-13-year-opening-fire/story?id=20697613
And of course the Sheriffs Dept. keeps trying to maintain the officers ordered Andy to drop the gun twice AFTER they exited the vehicle
http://abcnews.go.com/US/witnesses-cops-shouted-13-year-opening-fire/story?id=20697613
Of course the Santa Rosa Police and Sonoma county Sheriffs Dept have responded to the contradicting witness testimony by attempting to harass and suppress the witnesses
http://sfbayview.com/2013/national-day-of-protest-saturday-for-andy-lopez-13-murdered-by-santa-rosa-deputy-sheriff/
Please support the Justice for Andy Lopez Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Justice-For-Andy-Lopez/662773033753360
And sign the Petition Demanding Eric Gelhaus stand trial for Murdering Andy Lopez
https://www.change.org/petitions/fire-arrest-and-indict-sheriff-eric-gelhaus
boston bean
(36,186 posts)gangs of persons, mostly men, can trot around out in the open, enter stores with their guns, rifles, AR's showing.
Police think they are within their 2nd amendment rights to intimidate people this way, while, allegedly protesting any common sense solution to the gun problem in this country.
A police officer in a hispanic town, sees a young kid with a "play" gun and blows him away....
WTF is wrong with this country?
FreakinDJ
(17,644 posts)One of the first thoughts that occurred to me too and a lot of residents in Santa Rosa. Some of the first News coverage had a White Gentlemen claiming "This never would have happened in the affluent neighborhoods of Santa Rosa"
State the Obvious
(842 posts)I have relatives in Santa Rosa who are saying the same thing.
otohara
(24,135 posts)I've watched enough Datelines where the beginning always starts out "it was a perfect community, beautiful homes, church going folks". For some reason "murder" amongst these folks is a better solution vs divorce, or money in order to get life insurance payoffs cuz they are in debt up to their eyeballs.
jsr
(7,712 posts)I doubt they allow gangs of hispanic or black persons trot around out in the open, enter stores with their guns, rifles, AR's showing.
Xipe Totec
(43,872 posts)Where is the NRA in all this? Why aren't they huffing and puffing about their "constitutionals" right now?
boston bean
(36,186 posts)minorities having guns, either play guns or real guns, doesn't matter.
they must be able to be the good guy with a gun, even when they themselves turn out to be the bad guy with a gun.
FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)GreenStormCloud
(12,072 posts)boston bean
(36,186 posts)Not that I want them to be, but why aren't we reading about it?
FreakinDJ
(17,644 posts)and don't ever remember a cop pulling over to talk to me about it
Of course it was in a more affluent "White Neighborhood"
NutmegYankee
(16,177 posts)In some states it's acceptable to carry a rifle on one's back in public. I think the key difference is police are trained to account for that in those states. In addition, the people with the guns have then holstered or shouldered to avoid looking like a threat. Carrying a rifle horizontally will always look a bit threatening. even with a toy air soft rifle. What was lacking here was proper training and action by the officer. He wasted absolutely no time in shooting a child, whereas most people would have gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid a shooting.
In the end, this officer had trained to think of the citizens of his community as the enemy rather than people to protect and serve.
Monsters like him probably get a hard on from judge Dredd comics.
tblue37
(64,979 posts)The department used him as their frontline trainer for new officers! He also wrote articles disseminating his "Shoot first, ask questions later" philosophy of policing.
FreakinDJ
(17,644 posts)I'm sure the Lopez family attorney has tons of screen shots as evidence but they are extremely telling of the attitude cops like Eric Gilhaus has of us "Perps"
tblue37
(64,979 posts)In fact, amazing how many people in general don't understand that. They tweet and post on Facebook or other social media sites with no thought to the trouble they could get into with some of the things they say or show.
IrishAyes
(6,151 posts)marble falls
(56,353 posts)FreakinDJ
(17,644 posts)Though the autopsy eventually bore out his statements about how many shots were fired, Oliver says that in the days following his statements on TV, he's been targeted by law enforcement.
"I've been harassed real bad over this," he says. "I've been arrested twice in one day, and then I just caught a bogus DUI for nothing because they said they had a report of a drunk driver, which wasn't the case. They saw me, and then they had six cops follow me. Six cops for a traffic stop. And then twice, they got me. The other one, you know, I kind of understand where their standpoint was on that, because I got pretty extensively verbally violent with them. But to me, it's still harassment."
http://www.bohemian.com/northbay/gun-crazy/Content?oid=2502580&storyPage=3
boston bean
(36,186 posts)At first I wasn't paying much attention, thinking it was an awful mistake and tragedy, so didn't post much on the subject.
Your posting has convinced me otherwise.
FreakinDJ
(17,644 posts)Ordered the Sonoma County Sheriffs Dept. and Santa Rosa Police Dept. to "Back Off" the witnesses and then conduct a REAL Investigation.
I'm just waiting to hear about other witnesses being deported
boston bean
(36,186 posts)Please keep posting about it. Something is very wrong with this.
FreakinDJ
(17,644 posts)It was posted again on Nov 4th but I missed it already by the 12th
Th1onein
(8,514 posts)How DARE they harass witnesses?
Decaffeinated
(556 posts)Nanjing to Seoul
(2,088 posts)Badge sniffer, please defend this.
KG
(28,748 posts)immediately.
FreakinDJ
(17,644 posts)that was the one statement the attorney brought home quite well I thought.
boston bean
(36,186 posts)if they thought that, how did they know he didn't have a right to be carrying it around.
Maybe the law is different out there, I have no idea and don't really think it matters.
My feelings are if this was in a upper middle class white neighborhood, this would have never happened. Profiling took place, I hope the cop serves some time, and that the parents win millions in a law suit, not that that brings back their son. How sad.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)TBF
(31,919 posts)and probably turned the toy gun at the same time without realizing he was pointing it at people.
With all the stories I see this has got to be a systematic problem. They must be trained to shoot certain things on sight rather than process for a couple of seconds what might be going on - and I think that is a serious problem.
boston bean
(36,186 posts)Not walk up to the guy with a gun....
I mean I am sure they train them not to do this, right?
If they had just stayed in the car or took cover, they might have given themselves more than three freaking seconds to make a decision. The cops put themselves in this position.
TBF
(31,919 posts)that's what concerns me. You're absolutely right - you would think procedure would be to take cover and assess the situation. Too often they seem to be rushing in blindly shooting, along with shooting pets, and we seem to be accepting this as a society.
It's very troubling.
boston bean
(36,186 posts)Their actions show they weren't. This cop walked right up to him.
TBF
(31,919 posts)By the state. Honestly would not surprise me.
RiffRandell
(5,909 posts)Here's a link to a post I started last night about how cops are now taking classes on how to justify force after using it. Sick and scary.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024041386
FreakinDJ
(17,644 posts)Gelhaus has followed that to the T
mountain grammy
(26,568 posts)Where are the "pro-life" marchers?
Communities have to get serious and vote out any elected official who does not speak out and work against this travesty of laws that legalize murder. Organize, organize, organize!
rrneck
(17,671 posts)FreakinDJ
(17,644 posts)"to protect the officers" don't you know
rrneck
(17,671 posts)That's what it's going to take to straighten this mess out.
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)Great work on this.