Monday, March 31, 2014

Some people are getting fed up with police murders


And the good people of Albuquerque NM let their frustration boil over yesterday.
A protest over deadly police shootings in Albuquerque, N.M., turned from peaceful to “mayhem,” the city’s mayor said late Sunday, as officers in riot gear clashed with demonstrators.

Protesting what they say is an increasingly violent police force, hundreds of city residents marched through the streets of Albuquerque on Sunday, blocking traffic and shouting slogans. A social media campaign, which included an apparent hours-long takedown of the Albuquerque Police Department’s (APD) Web page by the activist group Anonymous, coincided with the offline events.

But the confrontation between police and protesters escalated, with reports of gas canisters being thrown and Albuquerque police and Bernalillo County sheriff's deputies charging at the crowds, which had mostly dispersed by late Sunday.

Richard Berry, the mayor of Albuquerque, said one police officer was injured. At one point, protesters trapped police in a vehicle and tried to break the windows, the Albuquerque Journal reported. Berry didn't know of any arrests, and multiple messages left for the police department weren't immediately returned. Video by KRQE-TV showed people being led away in restraints, but it was unclear if those people were arrested.

The protests came a little more than a week after a video posted to YouTube by local TV station KQRE showed city police officers fatally shooting James Boyd, a 38-year-old homeless man who they confronted for camping in an unauthorized section of the city’s foothills.

The video, which has drawn nearly 900,000 views, was taken by a lapel camera worn by an APD officer, and showed a defiant Boyd talking to police from a distance. At one point an officer throws a flashbang, or stun grenade, at Boyd, who then, according to police, pulled out a knife. Then, several shots are fired into Boyd’s back, and he falls to the ground.

Police Chief Gordon Eden added to the controversy when he said the shooting was “justified.”

The video and Eden's defense of the officers prompted harsh words from Albuquerque citizens, rights groups, and some city officials. On Friday, the FBI announced they were investigating the shooting, a move praised by Albuquerque’s mayor.

“I think it’s the right thing,” said Mayor Richard Berry. “We need answers as a community. I want answers as a mayor.”

But the shooting is only one of many incidents that show the APD is too quick to resort to violence, protesters said.

Days after the shooting of Boyd, and hours after a protest against APD, another Albuquerque resident was shot dead by police.
Seems the police need to be taught that policing is more than pulling out your gun and blasting away.

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