Police
Unarmed College Student Killed By California Police
Many are calling him another Trayvon Martin. He has a name, and it is Kendrec McDade. Kendrec was shot and killed by Pasadena, CA police officers on March 24th, almost a month after Trayvon Martin was killed.
Many are calling him another Trayvon Martin. He has a name, and it is Kendrec McDade. Kendrec was shot and killed by Pasadena, CA police officers on March 24th, almost a month after Trayvon Martin was killed.
McDade was shot and killed by police officers after police received a phone call that a robbery was in process. There are so many things wrong with this case. One, he was unarmed. Two, the 911 caller had lied about the teen having a gun.
The death has led to tension in Northwest Pasadena area where African American residents say they were reportedly mistreated by police.
Pasadena police say this case doesn’t compare to Trayvon Martin, as McDade was allegedly a look out while his accomplice attempted to break into a cash register at a local restaurant. Lt. Phlunte Riddle of the Pasadena police department reportedly said race was not a factor in the killing but a ” response to an armed robbery that had just occurred with a full description.” He added that his officers felt their lives were in danger and were “highly upset” by the incident.
The 911 caller who lied about McDade having a gun is 26-year-old Oscar Carillo, who allegedly told police that two Black men stolen his backpack and computer from his car at gunpoint. He also told police that he was following the men and they split up, both running up different streets.
Police reportedly caught up with Kendrac McDade in an alley and opened fired on the teen because they thought he was reaching for a gun in his waistband. The 19-year-old who didn’t have a gun, was shot multiple times and later died at a local hospital.
Kendrec McDade was a college student and football star with no police record or gang affiliation. Family, friends, and activists are calling for action by demanding justice for the slain teen. Those who knew him say he was a good kid, “the apple of his mother’s eye.” The other teenager, who was 17, was arrested and charged with robbery.
The parents of McDade have filed a lawsuit, saying their son’s death is apart of a pattern of abuse by the department and “that the investigation “reeks” of a cover up”.
The lawsuit alleges McDade was apart of a pattern of police abuse and killings of black people in Pasadena, including Leroy Barnes Jr. who was shot 11 times by police officers.
Kenneth McDade and Anya Slaughter allege in the wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit filed on Tuesday that the Pasadena police department tried to cover up its wrongdoing in the shooting death of their 19-year-old son Kendrec McDade on March 24.
In the lawsuit, it says Officer Jeffrey Newlen shot McDade several times after pursuing him on foot, while another officer, Mathew Griffin, fired several shots from his police cruiser. The lawsuit also alleges McDade was never instructed to stop and police reports do not show the teen defied police officers.
McDade’s mother told the Associated Press, “I want the world to know that he’s not what the Pasadena police has portrayed him to be. He was one of those kids who stayed in school,” she said. “I don’t believe he did anything wrong. I think he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Police
Family of Black girls handcuffed by Colorado police, held at gunpoint reach $1.9 million settlement
The family of four Black girls who were wrongfully detained and held at gunpoint by Aurora, CO police have reached a settlement with the city.
Family of Black girls held at gunpoint reach settlement
Finalized on Monday, the families will collectively receive $1.9 million.
The settlement marks the latest payout the City of Aurora has been forced to make over officers’ excessive use of force.
In 2021, the city paid a $15 million settlement to Elijah McClain’s family, a 23-year-old Black man who died in 2019 after officers put him in a chokehold and paramedics injected him with ketamine.
The incident
In August 2020, four Black girls, ages 6, 12, 14 and 17, were held face down on the ground and put in handcuffs in a nail salon parking lot, crying and screaming, as officers towered over them.
Brittney Gilliam, the mother of the 6-year-old, was driving that Sunday morning with her relatives, because they were going to get their nails done together.
Wrongfully detained
But before they made it in the salon, Gilliam was detained after officers mistakenly thought she was driving a stolen S.U.V.
Police had mistakenly believed Gilliam was driving a stolen car.
And a simple second step police failed to take, resulted in the family being wrongfully detained.
Officers didn’t type in the plate number in a second database to show them the make of the vehicle. If they had, authorities said, the officers would have realized that the plate number was registered to a motorcycle in Montana.
Black girls and mother held at gunpoint traumatized
Dozens of bystanders watched the ordeal unfold, and video footage of the incident went viral, sparking protests over racial injustice, citing excessive force on Black Americans.
After the video went viral, Aurora police had apologized for their grave mistake, but the emotional trauma had already happened.
The Aurora Police Department said its officers are trained to draw their weapons before telling passengers to exit the vehicle and ordering them to lie on the ground, The Post reported.
Officers who held Black girls at gunpoint
One of the two officers who drew their guns and handcuffed members of the family was initially suspended.
However, he and the other officer that pulled his firearm remain on the police force, the New York Times reports.
To date, no officers were fired or charged in connection with the incident.
Police
2023 saw a record year of killings by police in U.S.
The number of people killed by police in the United States reached a new high in 2023, according to new research.
The number of people killed by police in the United States reached a new high in 2023, according to new research.
2023 police killings increased dramatically
Mapping Police Violence, a non-profit research group, dockets deaths at the hands of police officers. Last year, it recorded the highest number of killings since its national tracking began in 2013.
Statistics explained
The data reported that police officers killed 1,329 people in 2023, representing nearly a 19-percent increase over the 11-year span.
Nearly 90% of those killed were fatally shot, according to Abdul Nasser Rad, managing director of research and data at Campaign Zero, who runs Mapping Police Violence.
There were only 14 days without a police killing last year and on average, law enforcement officers killed someone every 6.6 hours, according to the report.
Meanwhile last year, the number of people killed by gunfire and officers killed in the line of duty declined, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. There was an increase in the number of police officers shot.
The newly released data suggests a grim reality and a systemic crisis, with an average of about three people killed by officers each day, with slight increases in recent years. In 2022, 1,250 were killed by police.
The data also reported that Black people were about 2.8 times more likely to be killed by officers than their white counterparts between 2013 and 2023.
Recording police misconduct
For decades, many Americans have suffered various forms of brutality and injustice at the hands of “bad” law enforcement officers.
When a civilian puts in a complaint against the officer only a small percent of complaints result in the officer being disciplined —partly because the accusations are hidden.
Half of the battle is knowing who the “bad” law enforcement are and proper action being taken.
Missin Peace, a national police misconduct database that collects formal civilian complaints against law enforcement, helps fill that void.
In 2022, we had a conversation with the creators, who urged those who filed a complaint against an officer, to upload it on their website as well.
While there is still much work to do, it’s a start.
Police
14-year-old boy with autism tased by police in what family says was case of mistaken identity
An Illinois family is demanding answers after their 14-year-old autistic son was tased by police in what they maintain was a case of mistaken identity.
An Illinois family is demanding answers after their 14-year-old autistic son was tased by police in what they maintain was a case of mistaken identity.
14-year-old autistic boy tased by police
In an interview with WLS Chicago, the family says that the teen, Avarius Thompson, suffered injuries, including a fractured hip, during an encounter with Dolton police on the morning of Nov.
Police’s incident report
According to the Dolton Police Department’s incident report, Dolton police were assisting police in the nearby neighborhood of Riverdale in the search for four Black males who had fled from a crashed, stolen vehicle, two of whom were allegedly carrying rifles and a handgun.
Dolton officers spotted two subjects, one of whom matched the description of a suspect sought in the incident, in a nearby backyard and pursued them, according to the incident report.
An officer pursuing Avarius ordered the teen to stop before tasing him, according to the incident report.
The incident was captured on the officer’s body-camera footage.
“Hands up! Hands up!” a Dolton police officer can be heard yelling in the body-camera footage as he runs toward Avarius with his Taser extended. After the teen jumps over a fence, the officer deploys the taser, the footage shows.
Avarius attempts to get up when the officer deploys his Taser again a few seconds later, the footage shows.
“Don’t move. Don’t move,” the officer says. “You move, you’re going to get some more.”
Avarius’ father, Eric Thompson, told WLS that the footage was “frightening.”
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