Dashcam Video Shows Cops Repeatedly Shot Unarmed Man, Lied About It

[Capt. Obvious]

In Sept. 2013, Dontrell Stephens was shot four times by a West Palm Beach, Fla., sheriff’s deputy, allegedly for running away from law enforcement. But newly released dashcam footage of the shooting, which left Stephens paralyzed from the waist down, shows he was just riding his bike and talking on his cell phone when cops started following him.

At the time, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw defended the shooting, saying, “Stop what you’re doing and comply with us. There’s nothing in the rules of engagement that says we have to put our lives in jeopardy to wait to find out what this is to get killed.”

....

Adams Lin, the deputy who shot Stephens four times, claimed the unarmed man had reached for a dark object in his pants. The dashcam video doesn’t show Stephens reaching for his pockets, just holding up the phone he was carrying the entire time.

Lin was allowed to return to duty four days later. The shooting was eventually ruled “justified.”

Gawker

[winstars]

1. "RULES OF ENGAGEMENT", why the fuck is that military lingo coming out of a cops mouth!!!!

This is getting stupid.

[daleanime]

14. +1

[awoke_in_2003]

27. Because to 90% of police

we are the enemy.

[malaise]

2. This is Bushco's new policing

but now we can see it

[tclambert]

3. His rules of engagement semantically equates to "Shoot first and ask questions later."

Anytime a police officer confronts anyone, it puts their lives in some amount of jeopardy. Cops sometimes get shot during routine traffic stops. So, to remove that jeopardy, they should just start firing from the start.

[frylock]

4. just call in a drone strike from the safety of their cruisers

[LiberalArkie]

7. The police I grew up around would have never pulled their "revolver" unless someone had started

shooting at them. But that was back when men became police officers to protect the public.

[ncjustice80]

17. Exactly.

Cops shouldnt be allowed to draw their weapons until they are both fired upon and can visually identify the source of the gunfire.

[Taitertots]

35. Where do I have to go to get the same mind reading classes as you?

Depending on how long ago they were cops, they probably lived in an era where systemic human rights abuses were standard operating procedure (pre-civil rights era).

[frylock]

5. fuck tha police

[onethatcares]

6. one nation

under suspicion

we're a police state now, it just hasn't sunk in to the white side of town.

[Madmiddle]

8. Running away from a moron cop is not engagement. It's running.

why are these horrible people allowed back on the job. Fire these cops for their military bullshit.

[Solomon]

33. He wasn't running away here.

He was just minding his business riding a bike. What the fuck!? The cop wasn't chasing him for any reason. As soon as he noticed the cop was after him he stopped riding. What the fuck!

[Rex]

9. Cops should never be allowed to get away with murder or attempted murder.

It causes more social unrest overall and less trust of LEO.

[Madmiddle]

10. Running away is not engagement. Sheriff needs to go home, open a dictionary and read. These people

shouldn't get away with this.

[NYC_SKP]

11. Turn your fucking AM/FM radio OFF while on duty, fucking murderers.

What the hell with the radio playing?

[hfojvt]

12. unless there is another video or a wider angle

the video does not show the main part of it. At least on my computer, the dude steps outside the camera range, behind a car and then is shot. I didn't hear any sirens or any commands, although I can hear the radio playing and the shots fired.

What is the background of this? It appears in the video that the cop drove his car up somebody's lawn right at this bicyclist. Why? Was the bicyclist already some kind of suspect? Or did the cop just decide to hassle a black guy on a bike?

Okay that's what the story says - he just decided to hassle a guy he saw riding a bike down the street - and drove his car at him?

[justiceischeap]

16. The guy that was shot and subsequently paralyzed

had been arrested for prior cocaine possession. He was riding his bike, while talking on his phone, and the cop pulls up behind him. The guy gets off his bike walks towards the cop. I'm guessing the cop saw the cell phone, thought it was a threat to his life and started firing. The guy ran but didn't run fast enough.

The cop also claimed he yelled some commands before shooting but you don't hear that in the video.

Another thread about this this morning.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6559056

[hfojvt]

22. cocaine has nothing to do with it

presumably the cop does NOT know who he is when he rides up a lawn at his bicycle. You don't generally "pull up behind" somebody on a lawn. Where the hell is that considered acceptable driving? Yeah, the guy gets off his bike. He is looking back probably wondering "why the hell is this guy trying to run me over?" That's what I would be thinking in the same circumstance.

Like I said, you cannot see on the camera what happens right before the shots are fired.

Why should the cop expect there to be a threat? He's trying to talk to a dude who was just biking down the street. True there could always be a threat in any stop, but more so with a car, because a driver might have something in the car he wants to keep hidden. Less so on a bicycle. You can't just start shooting people whenever they move, or you are just too nervous to be a cop.

The chief or sherrif's attitude that "we have the right to shoot anybody who does not immediately obey us, if we feel threatened" is a load of crap. He works FOR the people, he does NOT rule the people. That cop seems to think he is living in a police state rather than a republic.

[justiceischeap]

25. I'm just telling you what the story I read said the police were claiming. nt

[Taitertots]

36. The police have given no reason for the stop

The cop just decided to hassle a black guy on a bike for no reason. SOP in America

[Iggo]

13. It's.What.They.Do.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. I wonder how many of the local white people support this crap....

There was that hotel in Florida recently where they talked about calling the cops because there were black people visiting.

[Comrade Grumpy]

18. And they want us to cry over dead cops?

[d_legendary1]

19. So basically "stand your ground" is afforded to anyone with a badge

since taking down unarmed perps is considered too dangerous?

[Liberal_in_LA]

20. kick

[marym625]

21. so very very very sick of this

What do we need to do to make this stop!?

[Eleanors38]

23. Unfortunately, LEOs are being converted to a first line defense of the State...

which is not their job, hence the blather about "rules of engagement." LEOs are singularly unable to provide a State defense, so the comply-or-be-shot policy is the "best" they can do. And they Will continue this policy as the courts And juries will protect the police.

[marym625]

26. No one gives a shit.

If it isn't making money for the oligarchs, it doesn't matter.

[Eleanors38]

32. Since I was a kid it was pretty much understood that the police have a free pass.

[marym625]

34. I thought I understood

I had no idea it was this bad

[beam me up scottie]

24. When is it ever not "justified"?

Cop shoots you it's your fault, no matter what. They'll always get to say they thought their lives were in danger.

Keep those cell phones handy, folks. It's possible that lives have already been saved because cops knew they were being recorded.

[libdem4life]

28. Citizen's Cell Phone Brigade aka Neighborhood Watch Program. Many whites are shocked...trust me

and once informed, have to make a decision. No.

[beam me up scottie]

29. They should be shocked.

Hopefully they're realizing they're not immune to police brutality because they're the right colour.

I photographed the aftermath of an incident in my neighborhood a few years ago - police fired shots at a vehicle, took the suspects away and then cleaned up the scene. I posted about it on DU.

[libdem4life]

30. I'm a white woman and have never even thought about police brutality affecting me.

Once I got called that my son had been stopped, and so I went...couple of miles away. Think he was about 17...still in high school. When I got there, the group were just sitting on the curb...it was my son's vehicle and they had found a smidge of MJ leftover in a pipe in the glove compartment. I took him home, we went back and got his Jeep, and that was it.

That was about a decade ago, but I doubt it's any different where we lived. Whites are innocent until proven overwhelmingly guilty. Blacks are guilty until proven overwhelmingly innocent...or shot. It makes me sick.

[beam me up scottie]

31. I lived near the "bottoms" in a southern city.

I saw it almost every day.

Our friend came close to getting shot by the cops. We were sitting out back having a few beers and watching a thunderstorm roll in when we noticed the cops pulling over a late model sedan. It was C's elderly mother. He knew she was scared of the police so he went over to see if he could help. They drew their guns on him.

What. The. Fuck.



You're right, it is sickening. We notice the difference while bigots blather on about how poc shouldn't run or "resist arrest".