More Cop Thuggery: 65 y.o. Phoenix man tasered to death by police

[99th_Monkey]

Widow and Protesters Demand Answers After Phoenix Man Dies During a Run-In with Police
By Matthew Hendley * Fri., Oct. 17 2014 * Phoenix New Times

The widow of a man who died after an encounter with Phoenix police was at Phoenix City Hall Thursday with a group of supporters demanding to know more about the man's death. Balantine Mbegbu, a 65-year-old Phoenix resident, died on October 6 after being tased by a Phoenix police officer.

"I really want to know, why did they kill my husband?" asked Ngozi Mbegbu, Balantine's wife. According to Phoenix police, officers responded to the couple's home that night after a third party called 911 to report a fight between the Mbegbus.

Balantine Mbegbu "immediately became belligerent and confrontational" with responding officers, according to a statement provided by Phoenix police.

"As one of the officers was trying to calm him down, Mr. Mbegbu backed the officer across the room and assaulted him," the PPD statement continues. "The officers were then able to temporarily calm Mr. Mbegbu down. When the additional officers arrived to assist, Mr. Mbegbu began to actively fight with them and violently resisted arrest. Mr. Mbegbu spilled hot liquid on the officers and kicked an officer in the groin."

At that point, police say one officer deployed the taser, and shortly after being handcuffed, Mbegbu started having apparent medical problems. Police called for the fire department to respond and take Mbegbu to a hospital, and Mbegbu was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2014/10/phoenix_police_department_death_balantine_mbegbu.php

[Octafish]

1. ''I really want to know, why did they kill my husband?''

Because in the USA killing people is how problems get solved since Nov. 22, 1963.

[True Blue Door]

9. There is nothing even resembling reason in that statement.

[Octafish]

22. Let me explain it to you in simple terms, without links.

President Kennedy valued the lives of all human beings, including communists and people of color.

After his murder, President Kennedy's successors have made war on Congo, Vietnam, Dominican Republic, Cambodia, Haiti, El Salvador, Grenada, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and a whole bunch more that you can GOOGLE. That's how they solve problems, with bullets.

[True Blue Door]

42. The people who plotted the Vietnam War under LBJ were all Kennedy appointees.

They were carrying out plans Kennedy had ordered, albeit under a pretext orchestrated by LBJ. His recorded conversations indicated an intention to escalate in Vietnam. Moreover, as President, he affected the single biggest top-tier income tax cut until Ronald Reagan. Every President had things like that going on. Your fetishistic understanding of history does not bear scrutiny.

[Octafish]

44. Right you are: the Hawks couldn't get their war under Kennedy.

Kennedy had ordered withdrawal from Vietnam. Johnson rescinded those orders.

In National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) 263 JFK orders everybody out...



Then in NSAM 273 extends a blank check to stop the communists in South Vietnam...

Vietnam Withdrawal Plans

The 1990s saw the gaps in the declassified record on Vietnam filled in—with spring 1963 plans for the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces. An initial 1000 man pullout (of the approximately 17,000 stationed in Vietnam at that time) was initiated in October 1963, though it was diluted and rendered meaningless in the aftermath of Kennedy's death. The longer-range plans called for complete withdrawal of U. S. forces and a "Vietnamization" of the war, scheduled to happen largely after the 1964 elections.

The debate over whether withdrawal plans were underway in 1963 is now settled. What remains contentious is the "what if" scenario. What would Kennedy have done if he lived, given the worsening situation in Vietnam after the coup which resulted in the assassination of Vietnamese President Diem?

At the core of the debate is this question: Did President Kennedy really believe the rosy picture of the war effort being conveyed by his military advisors. Or was he onto the game, and instead couching his withdrawal plans in the language of optimism being fed to the White House?

The landmark book JFK and Vietnam asserted the latter, that Kennedy knew he was being deceived and played a deception game of his own, using the military's own rosy analysis as a justification for withdrawal. Newman's analysis, with its dark implications regarding JFK's murder, has been attacked from both mainstream sources and even those on the left. No less than Noam Chomsky devoted an entire book to disputing the thesis.

But declassifications since Newman's 1992 book have only served to buttress the thesis that the Vietnam withdrawal, kept under wraps to avoid a pre-election attack from the right, was Kennedy's plan regardless of the war's success. New releases have also brought into focus the chilling visions of the militarists of that era—four Presidents were advised to use nuclear weapons in Indochina. A recent book by David Kaiser, American Tragedy, shows a military hell bent on war in Asia.

CONTINUED with very important IMFO links:

http://www.history-matters.com/vietnam1963.htm

That's why when you wrote "Your fetishistic understanding of history does not bear scrutiny," you are wrong. It's like pretending not to understand, being in error is a distinguishing characteristic, True Blue Door.

[Jenoch]

2. It's not a good idea to fight with

cops, kick them in the groin and throw hot liquid on them. The guy was out of control. The widow should ask wjy her husband caused his own death.

[A HERETIC I AM]

3. Damn those civilians and their tasers!

If only more civilians would stop causing their own deaths when police are really close by, then the cops wouldn't look so bad. We could all start calling them Officer Friendly once again!


YAY!


Kick a cop in the balls = death sentence.

Whodathunkit?

[Jenoch]

7. He must have had an underlying heart condition.

Some police departments have stopped using them because of this. Of course then they would have probably used batons to subdue the out of control perp who was attacking the police officers.

[scarystuffyo]

5. I know

[99th_Monkey]

6. I agree.

That fighting with cops is generally not a good idea. However, there is this from another source:

"Maupin said Mbegbu's wife simply answered the door when they knocked, and then the police barged in.

"He became both angry and inquisitive about why the police were there, as any normal person would," he said.

Maupin said that according to the family, the officers were the first to get physical.

"They handcuffed him face-down, and he begins to foam at the mouth," he said. "At this point, 911 hasn't been called yet. They roll him over and attempt several times to sit him up."
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/10/15/phoenix-police-taser-death-abrk/17321969/

[scarystuffyo]

8. .

The Rev. Oscar Tillman, president of the Phoenix NAACAP, said he’s not suspicious that the officers did anything wrong

[99th_Monkey]

11. Clearly

we don't have all the information.

However, yet another black man is DEAD <-- i.e. now unable to even tell his side of the story. So all we have are police reports, and police lie habitually about such things. e.g. "he was trying to grab my gun", "he was reaching for a weapon" "well I thought that cell phone was a gun", etc.

[Jenoch]

10. The person you are quoting

was not present during the incident.

[scarystuffyo]

12. I bet he talked to the family before making a statement like that

Then other people get involved and tales sometimes change




But critics of the department, including the Rev. Jarrett Maupin, a Phoenix activist and unsuccessful candidate for Congress, were planning a protest at 2 p.m. today at City Hall

[Jenoch]

14. Do you believe that

the cops showed up at that house, without being called, barged in where the husband and wife were both calm and cool with no domestic disturbance going on, and the cops tased the guy with the intention that he die?

[scarystuffyo]

16. No why would you think I think that?

It was a 911 call and I believe the guy was out of control before they got there and after.
His wife opened the door because she wanted the cops in the home, barge in... ? come on
The guy flipped out as soon as the door was opened just by the actions that were described .

If he hadn't died from a medical condition we wouldn't even be talking about it.
His wife was contacted by an ambulance chasing lawyer and this is the result.

[Jenoch]

17. I'm on a phone and maybe

I responded to you by mistake.

The point I am attempting to make is that so far, it appears this incident was not one of the cases where the LEO were wrong in their actions and I don't believe it should be lumped together with situations where cops do illegal acts.

[scarystuffyo]

18. Exactly

This is not a Michael Brown incident where an unarmed man was shot in the street
or the other countless times police have abused their power all the way down to murder

[99th_Monkey]

13. "according to the family"

means what it says. The dead man's wife WAS there. She opened the door and "the police barged in"

[Jenoch]

15. That's what happens when

police respond to a 911 call about a domestic disturbance. If there was no 911 call, the cops would not have been at that house.

[G_j]

36. so I take it you believe the police report

the fact that they lie so often, makes it very hard to really know what happened in these types of cases.

[Jenoch]

38. In this case,

I believe that the cops responded to a domestic disturbance in which the man was out of control, was tased, and died.

I do not believe the cops stopped at some random house, barged in to a calm situation and tased a man for no reason.

Those are the two scenarios offered here. Which do you believe and why?

[G_j]

43. actually, I don't know what to believe

is the point I was trying to make.

[scarystuffyo]

4. She was there , sounds like the guy was out of control and the taser was properly deployed if you

read the article.



Ngozi Mbegbu said


""I really want to know, why did they kill my husband?"

Really.........

[99Forever]

19. Cops lie, almost all of the time.

Nothing but street gangs with badges, guns, bad attitudes and a system designed to let them get away with just about anything and everything.

[nomorenomore08]

20. Which is why I don't believe them even when they seem to be (possibly) in the right.

They've more than earned our collective distrust and suspicion.

[99Forever]

21. The default with cops is that they are dirty...

.. or they are covering for others that are dirty. Their actions have given me this belief.

[Jenoch]

23. I'll ask you this question.

Do you believe that the cops showed up at that house, without being called, barged in where the husband and wife were both calm and cool with no domestic disturbance going on, and the cops tased the guy with the intention that he die?

[Comrade Grumpy]

24. Not with the intention that he die, just with indifference toward whether he did or not.

Cops know a certain number of people are going to die from getting tased.

[scarystuffyo]

25. They could go back to the PR24 batons but those can be worst

if the officer doesn't continually train with it.

They become like baseball bats

[Jenoch]

27. Do you believe they tased him

without any provocation?

[99Forever]

31. Golly gee...

... couldn't you come up with a few dozen more fucking qualifications for that bowl of word salad? No sale.

I believe CITIZENS over cops because they have PROVED beyond any reasonable doubt that they will lie without batting an eye to protect the fucking murdering scum in their ranks. Does that clear up any confusion you have left about what I was saying?

[Jenoch]

32. I do not condemn an entire class of

people because of the actions of a tiny minority.

Qualifications? Either you believe what the news story says happened or you believe the cops lied and tased the guy unprovoked.

I happen to believe the guy was out of control and the officers used what is supposed to be a non-lethal tool to gain control of the situation. My brother was tased once. It took him right to the floor, but he did not have any repercussions from it. I also remember reading about a 20 year old male being tased and it killed him. Maybe cops should stop using Tasers and go back to using batons?

[99Forever]

33. "Tiny minority" my ass.

When they start doing something REAL about the murderous scum they now protect, beyond paid vacations, then back out on the street guns in hand, get back to me.

Who the fuck do you think you are fooling?

[Jenoch]

34. Law enforcement across the U.S.

have thousand of interactions with people every single day. How many of them end up with LEO doing harm to innocent people?

Most of the times people encounter police officers is because someone calls 911 because of a medical situation. At least that was the case of the cops I have known.

[99Forever]

35. Just stop already.

No one is buying your BS.

[Jenoch]

37. Exactly where am I wrong?

[99Forever]

39. Find another playmate.

I passed up this kind of nonsense long ago.

[Jenoch]

41. The entire point of DU forums

is to exchange ideas and opinions between DU members. If you wish to discontinue this exchange, that is fine with me. Have a good night, if you choose to do so.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

26. Body cameras. Cameras, cameras, cameras. (with audio)

There would be far less paranoia over whether or not use of force was warranted or excessive if we had video and audio of each public encounter.

From what's been said here, I'm open to it going either way. But then, from what was initially reported, the guy in the Beavercreek Walmart was 'waving a gun around, pointing it at people, and ignored police requests to drop it.'...and then the video finally came out showing he was doing no such thing, and that officers fired basically as soon as they saw him, without giving him any time to drop the BB gun.

So had cameras been present here, they might well present a completely different story as well, without 'hot liquids' or 'groinal assault'.

I won't be satisfied until every police interaction with any civilian has video and audio available for review.

[nomorenomore08]

28. Agreed. n/t

[Initech]

29. The police have declared war on us.

Like I said in another thread - it's becoming an epidemic and it needs to be stopped. When I was a kid the LA riots happened and I never understood why. Now with Furgeson, i fucking get it.

[99th_Monkey]

30. I totally remember the Watts Riot too, in a very personal way.

In fact, I was stranded quite by accident, dumped out on the raised freeway by a carload of Latinos with guns who had picked me up hitch-hiking. Once me and my future wife at the time got into the car these guys pulled out guns, saying they were going to "shoot some n***ers". We were horrified, and asked to be let out of the car, so they pulled over and let us out.

Problem was, we happened to be in the middle of the Watts Riot -- which we had no idea at the time what was going on with the burning buildings and sporadic gunfire. Finally a motorcycle cop pulls over and we're going whoa! great. what's going on? get us out of here, etc. Instead the cop writes us a ticket for being pedestrians on the freeway, I shit you not. (this was later thrown out by the judge).

Finally this cop agrees to have a police emergency vehicle drive us out. This truck was driven by a black guy, who said that taxis would not come into the area as it was too dangerous. Then WE had a fucking flat tire, still on the freeway. So there I was, all hell breaking loose between black and white, while I'm there on the freeway working with this black guy to change the flat tire for a good one.

Something I'll certainly never forget.

[Lars39]

40. Dang!

Glad you made it out ok!