Shortly after two St. Louis police officers shot and killed 25 year old African American Kajieme Powell on Tuesday, St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said at a press conference that Powell had approached officers with a knife raised in an overhand grip, and was within three or four feet of them when they opened fire. The trouble is that Chief Dotson obviously didn’t know that someone had captured the entire episode on a cell phone camera.
Could the police have used a Taser on Powell? Could they have shot him in the leg since he was allegedly wielding a knife and not brandishing a firearm? Could they have backed away and tried to talk him down? Of course they could have, but they didn’t. They showed up and promptly shot him, and they obviously shot to kill.
This has to stop, and people of color shouldn’t have to bear the burden of stopping it on their own. ColorOfChange.org is asking for our help in demanding a full investigation into the killing of Michael Brown, and they’re also soliciting funds to hire a police accountability organizer in the St. Louis area. My wife and I are going to send them $100.00. You should too.
And then we need to demand immediate transparency regarding police training curriculum all across America. What is being taught at the Academy? Shoot first, and shoot to kill?
I don’t have the link at the moment Steve, but there have been several in the last few days re-stating the fact the it is commonplace practice for sheriffs, local police, state troopers and DHS operatives to be getting training through the IDF, Israeli Defense Force professionals. Google it.
What we have going on in the USA is the same civic destabilization used by our government (CIA) in funding the “separatist,” group in Syria to attempt to oust Syria’s elected president, which has morphed into ISIS (ISIL take your pick with the naming), the same thing as the US funded ($5B from Obama/Nuland) neo-nazi group in the Ukraine “saving,” the country supposedly from the pro-Russian rebels in the east, the same shock and awe in Iraq, destroy societies, move in with multi-national banks and extrative contractors to usurp whatever resources remain after ousting entire civilian populations from there homelands or simply killing tens of thousands of them, in the name of saving them for democracy.
DHS arming civilian police with the latest war surplus, demanding in contracts that recipients use it or lose it, is the current move to escalate divide and conquer tensions here, going on since the 60’s anti-war protests, Bay of Tonkin false flag ops, then the war on drugs, Raygun in Central America, NAFTA destabilizing of foreign economies allowing the Cargils and Monsantos free reign, this is just the next step to an out of control situation of suppression and forced order by the world owners. The illusion of capitalism is clearly on the wane.
Rant complete for the moment.
(Apologies, this may appear later, duplicated, as I miss-spelled my email address during the first attempt to publish this comment. Also corrected some spelling errors.)
I don’t have the link at the moment Steve, but there have been several in the last few days re-stating the fact the it is commonplace practice for sheriffs, local police, state troopers and DHS operatives to be getting training through the IDF, Israeli Defense Force professionals. Google it.
What we have going on in the USA is the same civic destabilization used by our government (CIA) in funding the “separatist,” group in Syria to attempt to oust Syria’s elected president, which has morphed into ISIS (ISIL take your pick with the naming), the same thing as the US funded ($5B from Obama/Nuland) neo-nazi group in the Ukraine “saving,” the country supposedly from the pro-Russian rebels in the east, the same shock and awe in Iraq, destroy societies, move in with multi-national banks and extractive contractors to usurp whatever resources remain after ousting entire civilian populations from their homelands or simply killing tens of thousands of them, in the name of saving them for democracy.
DHS arming civilian police with the latest war surplus, demanding in contracts that recipients use it or lose it, is the current move to escalate divide and conquer tensions here, going on since the 60′s anti-war protests, Bay of Tonkin false flag ops, then the war on drugs, Raygun in Central America, NAFTA destabilizing of foreign economies allowing the Cargils and Monsantos free reign, this is just the next step to an out of control situation of suppression and forced order by the world owners. The illusion of capitalism is clearly on the wane.
Rant complete for the moment.
Steve, thanks.
Ferguson and St. Louis PD have done more to pull back the covers on bad policing than anyone I know.
Powell was certainly a threat to the neighborhood and himself. Those officers should have arrested him, taken him to detox, gotten a mental health evaluation.
While his actions may meet the standard in Missouri for a threat to law enforcement, the video confirms he was no real threat to either officer. The video confirms that wasn’t “policing,” that was slaughter. Taser or a single gun shot to an extremity would have been more than sufficient. Nine (9) meant they didn’t want a witness.