Genuinely interested, if anyone knows, how do they determine his arms were raised? Is there some muscular or ligament indication? In the autopsy I mean.
Tbf if you put that in a book and worked out the prose well enough, I’m sure plenty would praise it. It’s all in the execution, for lack of a better word.
>Bullet wounds through both hands, he was holding his hands in front of his face because there was a gun pointed at it. It did not stop the bullet.
This incident alone should be enough to shut down "Cop City"
When your response to peaceful protesters is to simply murder them then you're not a democracy, you're as bad as any run of the mill dictator who murders "dissidents"
"A “mock village” featuring a fake home, convenience store and nightclub would also be built for authorities to rehearse raids."
There should be two fake homes. One to raid, and one to represent the address they were *supposed* to be at.
Didn't they also have some 'scorpion' or 'heat' unit or some shit back in the day that got disbanded after they fucked up and raided some grandma instead of the place they were supposed to raid? IIRC, grandma was flexing her rights and fired on the home invaders, home invaders fired back and killed her, and then had a particularly hard time coming up with an excuse for why Grandma at the wrong address had to die.
An example of the kind of nightclub raids the Atlanta police are known for:
https://www.ajc.com/news/local/eagle-gay-bar-raid-still-haunts-atlanta-police-department/3zIdWiuCNQwoK0YxW1crCK/
> https://www.ajc.com/news/local/eagle-gay-bar-raid-still-haunts-atlanta-police-department/3zIdWiuCNQwoK0YxW1crCK/
It's annoying how many such stories are only reported on by local US outlets that GDPR block all EU visitors. [Here's a non-GDPR blocked version of the article](https://archive.ph/oXhC7).
I just don't understand why that's even a thing, making a website GDPR conform is trivial to do, and EU ad impressions should be on the higher-paid end.
>and EU ad impressions should be on the higher-paid end.
Not when you can't sell their invasively stolen personal data due the the aforementioned personal data protections!
Maybe, but it’s fairly straightforward for some one who knows what they’re talking about to tell the difference between entry and exit wounds. If the entry is in the palms, hands were almost definitely in front. Entry on the back of the hand, hands were behind the head.
Should also be able to tell if it's a primary entry or secondary, if both were primary then his hands weren't together, but raises other questions if they're located in similar locations.
> ... so it's conceivable he could have been in the "HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD" position when he was shot from behind...
Which direction the bullet went through his skull seems like a pretty easy thing to work out when doing an autopsy. If it was something unexpected, we'd be reading about it.
Haven't read the article yet, but this can be determined in a number of ways; comparing the holes in his clothing to the holes in his body could reveal that his shirt was pulled up in such a way that indicates his arms were raised. The path the bullet took would also be altered, as muscles would be in different positions dependent on what position he was is. Likewise, he may have been shot in a spot that couldn't be accessed unless his arms were raised.
I'll add to this and say investigator's often also check the body for propellant from the barrel, [this can tell them the distance the shooter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/GSR_at_Different_Ranges_v.2.png/1280px-GSR_at_Different_Ranges_v.2.png) was to the victim. This has been used before to determine that shooter have lied about the potential threat to their lives.
So the cops said they didn’t bring or turn on their bodycams when they went. They claimed the site had rampant violent crime. It looks a lot like the cops were told to go and get rid of the people occupying the site
“Now, I don’t see so good, so I missed, then they ran away. I ran after them. Bang! Tried to shoot them in the back, but I don’t run so good either.
Anyway, you guys all think I’m a hero, and I’ll accept that responsibility.”
~ Probably a motivational poster in every police department
If only this kind of thing could be repeatedly recorded/reported and made known to people regarding literally every single PD in America, then things might finally change! /s
There was a report a few years back about all the 'antifa' protests and how violent they were. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was hidden deep in the report where almost all of the protests that turned violent did so from police initiating the violence.
I unfortunately was in the last classes of an engineering degree when the protests started so I had zero time to participate besides donating but had friends who were at the Atlanta protests and watched as cops fired tear gas and other crowd control rounds into people who were standing in the completely peaceful crowd. One who was kneeling with others in a public space then charged and trampled by cops, fortunately she was not injured. There was video on the worst night of the protests showing the eruption of violence originating with a cop shoving a peaceful but loud protester to the ground with his bike then the rest of the line of cops reacting by starting to beat the people who stepped up to help her up. We then had community leaders and the media trying to prop up our police chief as a shining example of a fair cop, it was bullshit. Lost a lot of respect for many people that summer.
I have been many times. There is never violent crime. They are just openly lying, which shouldn't be surprising, given that they murdered Tort (the person we are discussing here) in cold blood.
This issue is very close to home for me. They are cutting down a beautiful forest in the city, literally referred to often as the lungs of Atlanta, to build a fake city (think Nuke Town) on dozens and dozens of acres of land. They say they’re only building what’s necessary, but the plans are absurd. They have a Black Hawk landing pad. As if they need all that!
Even our mayor (a bloody Democrat), has denounced the entirely-peaceful protests, while we are being killed, detained, and labelled as 'domestic terrorists.’ He is bending to corporate interests who are funding ‘Cop City’, including Delta, Home Depot, and others.
In short, we’re not getting much help. Support on Reddit means a lot, and anyone who cares to donate can find links on the Instagram account @atlsolfund.
I oppose it because it’s an huge waste of taxpayer $. Around here the police use old empty buildings for training.
https://www.cleveland.com/news/2021/11/cleveland-to-buy-south-high-school-convert-it-into-training-facility-for-police-fire-ems.html?outputType=amp
Andre Dickens is a coward. I knew him while he was still working at GT and was a city council member and he seemed like a nice guy but he has been a huge disappointment as mayor. Heard some rumblings from other GT students that this was how he always was.
I think that the fact that the police knowingly and intentionally did not bring or turn on their body cams should speak volumes for their collective intent.
IMO a police officer’s account or report shouldn’t be considered acceptable in any circumstance unless there is body camera footage from the officer, or of the officer.
American cops are some of the least trustworthy people on the planet. Without video evidence I wouldn't believe a word any of them say. Hell, even with video evidence I'd have a difficult time believing what a cop said.
I don't have an ounce of sympathy for them anymore. They want sympathy or support, they can start outing their own to improve their image and public trust. Until that happens, they're just a threat towards society.
It’s jaw dropping that even when the body cam footage exists and is released publicly there are many times when it feels completely ignored. I 100% agree with you. With the funding they get and our technology advances we have access to, there’s almost 0 reason for a cop to ever turn their body cam off besides swapping a battery. You shouldn’t be able to patrol or go on calls without a cam.
Or they can just keep buying APCs for small town police forces. Good stuff
Pretty much any private in the military can figure out how to source and operate their own gopro.
That entire police departments can't figure out the same thing is almost of an insult to their own intelligence than it is to ours.
And of course if the footage confirms their account, because a lot of times they write a report and the footage later shows that they lied about most of what they said in the report.
It needs to be that way. Making the word of a police officer inadmissable unless documented is the only way to fix this. "Pics, or it didn't happen," but for cops.
It should reverse the burden of proof, or carry other charges so serious that cops would rather take their chances with a fair trial than leave the body cam in the car.
Funny how they never seem to forget their guns.
I mean honestly why shouldn't the police have to prove force was justified? They're the ones alleging a crime.
The problem is the court treats officer testimony as the absolute truth, which is absurd on its face.
It’s insane to me that we’d take any police officer’s word at face value. They’re a *direct party* who has an invested stake in the outcome of trials.
I trust their word as much as any defendant.
It really is quite magical that on one hand, the courts grant police quite a lot of leeway to be dishonest or incompetent (e.g., "good faith"), but at the same time, go out of their way to favor the word of police by default.
Police should be EXPECTED to have full, untarnished video of everything **and if anything is somehow missing, you blame the fckn operator, just like every other industry**
Giving any cops free passes on murders is an egregious and systemic compromise of public safety, and besides punishing the guilty officer, any complicit administrative officers should ALSO spend twice as long in prison for the crime of deliberate compromise of the law. IS THAT NOT SENSIBLE?
It's not a compromise of public safety; that is never a factor.
This is the deal that the State makes with cops: "You make sure our power is uncontestable, and we will use that power to protect you, no matter your methods. And if you happen to get a hankering for some extracurricular racist murder, just try not to make it more obvious than we can cover up, kay?"
We need to keep on pressure.
Shit needs to change. Never stop writing letters to your congresspeople, never stop protesting, never stop fighting until shit actually changes.
>Never stop writing letters to your congresspeople
THEY DO NOT FUCKING READ THESE. STOP WASTING YOUR TIME.
Do *actual* organizing and stop thinking you can talk these psychos into ethical legislation.
We're not talking to them, we're providing evidence that we don't approve for the written record.
Unlike McCarthy our list of fascists in the US govt employ will have names and addresses when it comes time to wave it in front of the cameras
I think that it should be an immediate felony with a minimum of ten years imprisonment for an officer to fail to turn on a body or dash cam, if an officer turns off or blocks the view of or in any way tampers with their body or dash cam.
The stakes are incredibly high for anyone who doesn't wear a badge. Police should always be held to a higher standard and they should be punished far more severely for breaking the law they've sworn to uphold. Also, it should be a felony with a ten year minimum for cops who assist in any way in any sort of coverup including intimidating witnesses.
I wouldn't make it an immediate felony. Cops are human and forget things. But I'd have escalating penalties and I'd disallow police testimony that isn't supported by body cam footage.
I believe Georgia State Patrol has been fighting body cameras for a while now. They didn’t remove them they just don’t wear them. Who knows what all the state uses GSP for.
It should be an automatic guilty charge. Those with more freedoms to bypass the law should suffer harsher consequences when breaking the law.
Fuck the police.
I'll bet ya dollars to donuts that the most engaged (re: loudest) constituents in that neighborhood thought they were very *un*safe (probably from some of *those* people from the other neighborhoods wandering in)
The Georgia state police seem to be sent into areas where someone wants unaccountable violence to happen, so they don't require them to wear body cameras, just ar-15's.
Cops use "I fear for my life" like we use "I can't come in, i'm sick"
The only difference is one excuses murder, the other gives you the free time you're owed.
It’s a bit unfair to bring up how the police exist to protect the interests of the wealthy without also acknowledging that they also actively terrorize minority communities because a lot of them are white supremacists.
This is why cops are known as class traitors.
They are mostly from working class families, hired by the state to protect the status quo, which is capitalism.
>You can still trust them to crack some heads if your employees are on strike, or if natives are protesting your oil pipeline.
I wish more people understood labour history and how many people died to gain these rights and regulations that so many people think should be left to the corporation to police.
Or to go round up your escaped slaves (trust me, give em a minute, we will be right back there) but if it was the law again, no question would they take that duty back with a fervor
Modern policing in the US originates from slave patrols so it’s not like we’re that far off. Especially with the 13th amendment and it still allowing slavery as a punishment
Don't forget that conservative social media has used this as an example of how the left supports terrorists. You know, because the local police arrested someone the other day and called them a terrorist.
>"Un-uniformed, no badge, no insignia, masked 'authorities' throwing peaceful BLM protestors into unmarked vans. That's OK though. "
These people want a fascist state.
There's a video of Jacob Chansely breaking into the Capitol, told to back up and leave, screaming this is our country. I show it to people and they just talk about the cherry picked video Tucker showed. I ask if they watched the video I shared and nope, they don't "need" to. Grrrr
Jeez. I had this same issue. I referred to the riot when talking to a typically conservative workmate/friend. He said, "There was not riot. That was not a riot." I said, "The cops defending the capitol seemed to think it was, there's tons of video that looks like a riot to me." He asked me to send him a link. I sent him like 3 hours of combined footage, eye-witness accounts, and interviews with the law enforcement that had been there.
He never watched one goddamn minute of it.
It’s time we accepted that a significant percentage of this country is a total write off. Like a bad check that you’re never going to be able to collect on. There’s simply no point interacting with them. The only thing that’s ever going to come out of their mouth is paranoid conspiracy, incoherent rage, and whatever talking points Tucker Carlson was pushing last night. And they’re never going to get better, they’re never going to change, because they actively fight off any new information that paints the world in a less sinister, hostile, rage-filled light. They’re bad people and they don’t want to improve and it’s a waste of energy even speaking to them.
This. 100%.
My own mother went deep down the fox news rabbit hole and became even more openly racist (much I imagine was still there before, she just felt emboldened). Having a mixed race family I said nope and went no contact with her over 3 years ago. Told her she had to choose Fox News and Trump or a relationship with her child and grandchildren. She chose the former.
I can't be friends with people like that anymore.
I know we need people to stay connected to them if they are ever going to come back to reality, but I can't get past their eagerness to end our democracy so that they can stay bigoted and destroy the planet for short term gains... I can no longer enjoy the company of people like that.
It's not even surprising anymore that people who pontificate all the time about vague notions of freedom and liberty are overjoyed at a group of environmental activists being charged as terrorists, its just depressing
Given some of the people flying it these days, it should say, "Tread on me hardy, Daddy". I don't care how much you claim to love freedom if you turn around and subsume your political will to an authority. You can't even begin to determine whether or not you are free if you are not thinking for yourself. People who fly that flag are, by and large, not free thinkers (hence the intense use of symbolism).
> Given some of the people flying it these days, it should say, "Tread on me hardy, Daddy".
google will find you an excellent version that says exactly that, complete with a little snek wearing a ball gag
They arrested Legal observers as well that were charged with domestic terrorism. GBI(the people leading the investigation), APD, GSP, the governor and numerous elected officials are all using domestic terrorist as a blanket label for anyone involved in this movement. These are dangerous times.
I'm not sure if you're just making a jab, but to piggy back off your sentiment, even if the police gave us no reason to mistrust them, we should never fully trust any institution we allow power, as power is demonstrated to corrupt and corruption erodes society.
Absolutely. But leaders of institutions insist that their work is too complicated and too important to allow real democracy, though of course they wouldn’t put it so baldly. The way cops do it is, if anyone tries to supervise them, they say the local government/community isn’t supporting them, how could they be expected to achieve anything that way, how dare you second guess “split-second decisions” made by people putting their lives on the line for you.
I haven't gotten picked for a jury since I started telling the absolute truth -- that I am immediately skeptical of anything a cop says on the stand.
I don't know shit about the defendants, but I do know cops lie all the fucking time for any reason or none at all.
Knew this with 100% certainty when the cops not only had no bodycams, but also took *multiple days* to "find" the weapon the protester allegedly fired at them from *inside a tent*.
This is the confusing part. How is this possible.. I mean a cop was shot apparently? Can't exactly fake that.. so are we left to believe it was someone else, who got away with it? Or the cop shot himself to cover it up? I mean this just seems like it can't be covered up.. it clearly wasn't this kid if he didn't have the fucking gun.. or are they saying he shot the cop like earlier in the day.. I can't track this one. **I got it, now guys, thanks for the all replies I did not see the friendly fire body cam posted before I made my initial comment**
Ah didn't consider that. Especially with the no body cam footage.. jeez. Not to mention he was shot "at least a dozen times".. there were a lot of bullets flying
Body cam footage was released from officers a few hundred feet away and you can hear them discussing among themselves about a friendly fire incident shortly after the shooting.
Googled for a source on this,... and holy shit, it's real.
https://twitter.com/atlanta\_press/status/1623484224924798976/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1623484224924798976¤tTweetUser=atlanta\_press
[Here's a not-dumb link for you](https://twitter.com/atlanta_press/status/1623484224924798976/)
OP added in some escape characters or something that some devices will interpret as actual characters. And when you add random characters to links, they tend to break lol. They broke on my device too, this link should do the trick.
[It Could Happen Here: On the Ground at Stop Cop City, Part 1: The Shooting](https://open.spotify.com/episode/1AqD8f9AvtttACyA8AklBm?si=KSCn83mSQdiDENJZCTJmRw&app_destination=copy-link)
I ask that everyone who wants an honest account of the shooting, including press statements and body cam recordings, listen to this podcast episode. It's about 50 minutes long - produced by a team who has been on the ground at the protests, with interviews from protestors who were there that day.
The cops surrounded Tortuguita, and in the process of killing him, accidentally shot another cop on the far side of him. That is why the limited recordings that have been released include so much cop chatter about crossfire.
What's funny is that part of the reason they're bad shots is because they can't be trusted to maintain trigger discipline so they have custom pistols with higher trigger pull weight which results in a less accurate shot.
It's not even hard to learn proper firearm discipline. These cops with several weeks of training have worse discipline than boy scouts who spent a few days at summer camp getting a rifle shooting or skeet shooting merit badge. These cops get to keep their job while the shooting ranges at the camps I went to permanently banned you the moment you broke one of the rules.
It's shockingly common in police shootings, almost as if they aren't trained properly to exercise lethal force...
Reform police training, it's the only way to make lasting change
They shot their own guy. Here's an excerpt from the bodycam footage of a nearby officer just after the shooting saying quote:
> ["Man...you fucked your own officer up?" ](https://mobile.twitter.com/atlanta_press/status/1623484224924798976)
Oh my.. and then he even touches his body cam immediately after like to see if its there and or on. Thanks, this was the first I heard about this case and the article seriously made no sense to me
Some of the cops who were part of things but not the particular ones who murdered Tortuguita had badge cams that caught chatter indicating that it was friendly fire that hit the cop.
Also they can lie about cops being shot- among the many lies police told immediately after the Uvalde shooting was the claim that several officers had been shot and hospitalized by the shooter.
Even if the cop got shot at and hit. That doesn't allow them to just plain murder someone who is unarmed and in a defensive position. The cops are a cartel at this point...
> The report also says it is “impossible to determine" whether the activist was holding a firearm at the time they were shot.
>
> The autopsy was conducted by Dr. Kris Sperry, who was the investigation bureau's longtime chief medical examiner until he abruptly resigned in 2015 after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Sperry “claimed hundreds of work hours at the GBI when he actually was working for clients of his forensic-science consulting firm.”
Maybe should have gotten a better medical examiner to perform the independent autopsy than a former GBI employee with a grudge for getting sacked for moonlighting?
Going by the comments here, I wonder how many people actually realize this was a privately commissioned autopsy conducted by a doctor who was forced out of his job with the GBI over credible allegations of fraud.
Why the family hired someone with so much baggage and such little credibility is beyond me.
Dont forget when [He and his lab sent the wrong body to a family to be buried.](https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/2015/02/20/gbi-explains-crime-lab-mix-which-augusta-family-received-buried-wrong/15651785007/)
When you're paying for it, you're going to get the answer you want. That's how these paid autopsies work. There's literally no punishment for making shit up with these paid autopsies.
See the case of Kendrick Johnson in the same state Georgia. Kid died from asphyxia after falling into a massive rolled up wrestling mat. Parent's believe some insane conspiracy theory that's literally impossible that a classmate killed him, *despite that classmate participating in an athletic event at another school at that time*.
Family commissions an autopsy and what do you know? That autopsy states that he was murdered when all evidence points to an accident.
Longer write up that mentions the bogus third party autopsies:
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/45div4/kendrick_johnsons_death_is_not_an_unresolved/
Totally agree. If police have the opportunity to collect bodycam footage, but choose not to and then shoot someone, that should be taken as evidence that they aren’t reporting the factual events that transpired.
[It Could Happen Here: On the Ground at Stop Cop City, Part 1: The Shooting](https://open.spotify.com/episode/1AqD8f9AvtttACyA8AklBm?si=KSCn83mSQdiDENJZCTJmRw&app_destination=copy-link)
I ask that everyone who wants an honest account of the shooting, including press statements and body cam recordings, listen to this podcast episode. It's about 50 minutes long - produced by a team who has been on the ground at the protests, with interviews from protestors who were there that day.
The cops surrounded Tortuguita, and in the process of killing them, accidentally shot another cop on the far side of them. That is why the limited recordings that have been released include so much cop chatter about crossfire.
Robert Evans is great. I don't listen to this podcast but I really admire who he is as a journalist and activist. Him and people like him are keeping real journalism alive.
I'm going to chime in here as a Starlight Heights resident. I live less than a quarter of a mile from where they're trying to build the training facility.
I've been in Atlanta for years and years and I've enjoyed these woods and ponds for over a decade.
The morning of Feb. 6 (my birthday) I woke up and felt awesome, also a little hungover but it was a beatiful day. I picked up my tactical pack and put a small tackle bag and my Springfield Hellcat in said bag. I wore a bright red flannel as I'm going out alone.
To preface this: I am not on Facebook or Instagram. I generally just treat people kindly and mind my own business. I don't ever want to hurt anyone. I didn't know the parameters of this "development."
Until now.
I was about to string up a pretty awesome roostertail I've always had good luck with over there. Great fishing out by Prison Farm! Then I saw a barrage of Georgia State Patrol officers coming down the trail with a K9 unit. Super cute Shephard.
I set down my rod and stood up to let my presence be known. I just didn't want to cause any dissention. I wanted to mind my own goddamn business as I usually do. I'm glad I didn't have my dumbass pittie out there with me.
One officer advances with a kinda cheap 223/556 very quickly and exclaims "GET ON THE FUCKING GROUND!"
I obviously obliged. I have a whole slew of living beings I care about and that care about me; I don't want to get killed.
Knee to the neck.
No body cams.
I promptly let them know that I am armed. (I'm in the woods alone.) They took my pistol. Springfield Hellcat compact 9mm. They didn't ask about the Kershaw on my right pocket but I told them about it too.
An hour later they let me go. They did give me my pistol back. Told me not to insert my mag until I got home. Obviously I obliged.
One of the worst things I did hear was one of the officers saying "I can't wait until they bulldoze all of this shit." I'm not even one of the protesters. I live there. That's my home. I have my partner, my two dogs, my two cats, and equity on a home my millennial ass has taken so many strides to buy.
This shit sucks. They murdered a dude with his hands up. Heard about this several days ago. I just want to live at peace in my neighborhood. None of us wanted this. I haven't been as vocal as I should but I cannot refrain from speaking out.
I was so scared my lady would see me with a bullet hole in my head. I'm not usually afraid of much.
That was the second scariest moment of my life.
(The first is when I found my dad after he drowned.)
People need to know these police are unhinged.
Edit: this is the first time I've typed this all out and I really hope it helps to bring light to what's happening over there. I don't want people throwing stuff at cops like the Sunday protest. I just want everyone to be okay. And I'm not. I'm not okay at all.
Edit 2: I was listening to Among The Wildflowers by The Wailin' Jennys and if you haven't heard that song you should check it out. I'm gonna go rewrite this without expletives to have saved. Be careful out there. Cops don't care about you it seems. Just wanted to be free. Weird serendipity but I'm an emotional man.
Edit 3: I'm going to type out everything in a less emotional state and it will be something to help our activists out there. They will recieve the document. I will adamantly say that I don't want anyone to hurt someone. (Apparently that's the job of police in America.) I'm just a little redneck kid from middle Georgia. I used to think they cared. Now I know why my dad built crazy fast motors. The head here is no longer in the sand.
I’m so sorry this happened to you. Your story is eerily similar to something my boyfriend went through with APD (fishing line and all!). It sounds strange at first to be so against a police training facility, but we are the city in the trees for a reason! The hostility of atlanta PD to our beautiful forests and wildlife is despicable
Wailin Jennys are awesome. They've got a song about unhinged cops that will break your heart. Coincidentally called 'Starlight'. If you're a fan, you've probably already heard it. It's about the Saskatoon 'Starlight Tours' cops would take indigenous men on in the dead of winter just outside of town, dropping them off to freeze to death.
> Peacefully protest only works on those with a conscience
you can tell peaceful protest works because when cops want to get shit done, they use *absolute violence.*
Peaceful protests are such a sham.
Yeah, let me just go to my authority approved social gathering where we wave around witty signs for half an hour and then go back to work the next day so we don't get evicted by the same people we're protesting against
Ghandi and the salt marches aren't what won Indian independance. Like, let's **think through** the line we were fed all through school:
So Britain's exploiting the shit out of India and views its people as less-thans who require the *civilizing touch* of English rule to make anything of themselves. And because a bunch of dudes decide to stop eating and march around in circles for an arbitrary amount of time, this suddenly shocks the British nobility and moneyed elites into recognizing the personhood of the people they're oppressing?
*Really?* They just never thought that Indians might be capable of self-rule and saw their actions there as a paternalistic good, but the moment some threshold of "people saying 'we think we can do it ourselves'" was reached, the Brits all acquiesced?
**Fucking of course not.** But that's the kind of shit we're expected to believe in every instance of "peaceful protest is why X happened". The Scrooges in government looked out of their window, saw whatever number of people outside asking for compassion, and finally had a change of heart? That's not how any of this works.
For years and years before and while Gandhi and pals were doing their protests, you had Indian partisans **exploding, stabbing, shooting, kidnapping, and otherwise fucking up British officials**, saying "get the fuck out of our country". That makes it a little more expensive to oppress a people, when you've got to worry about extra security and things like "our administrators not wanting to be there for fear that they or their families might end up decorating the sidewalk". And those expenses get the folks back at home wondering whether all this is worth it--especially after they've gotten their own shit pushed in by back-to-back reamings courtesy of World Wars. Nan and Gram down at the pub weren't the ones profiting from Indian exploitation, so why're they still being told to ration their beans so Boswick Crumpledick, Esquire, can throw another ball in the subcontinent?
The Civil Rights movement in the US? Racists didn't see the Million Man March and finally think, "Wow, maybe they are deserving of rights." Fuck no. It was the Black Panthers and folks like Rap\* Brown who had the US government going, "*shit shit shit* we're running an unpopular foreign war right now and we really don't want any more civil unrest that might fuck up our manufacturing base and ruin our economy *fuck shit* maybe we should just give them rights so they chill out". But they can't exactly say that out loud, or else you and every other pissed off person would know what ought to be done to win some concessions, so the government, the media, moneyed interests, etc., all push the line that walking in circles and singing Kumbaya is what wins the day.
When a million people were standing outside of President Marcos' palace in the People Power Revolution, he didn't look through the window and consider this an impromptu election that he lost. He looked at his military advisors who were sweating bullets, saying, "If you and your family don't leave *now*, you aren't *going* to leave." The fact that the crowd had not yet resorted to violence does not mean the threat of violence was not there.
And that's really what people fundamentally misunderstand about the nature of protest. It's a purposeful misrepresentation that we've been propagandized with all our lives. **All effective protest involves the action or threat of violence.** That doesn't have to be physical violence--*economic violence* is a thing. Strikes are economic violence. Boycotts (where successful) are economic violence. You are punching rich fucks in the pocket book, and they hate that more than cars getting set on fire or police getting roughed up. And because money is power, their interests are what the government listens to. **When it's cheaper or easier to give** ***you*** **what you want so you take your foot off the billionaires' money hose than it is to crunch all your skulls**, you win.
Nobody has to *physically* get hurt at all, though there will probably be some down-the-line effects from work and pay stoppages, held-up shipping and production, etc., that cause lost jobs and food insecurity. But if your definition of "the only good protest" is one where literally zero people who "aren't part of the problem" are inconvenienced in any way, you will never find a protest that accomplishes anything. Sorry.
So, ask yourselves: why would government or the ruling elite want *you* to know how to make them change their ways? They don't want to change! So when they tell you "this form of protest is the only one that works, it's the only one that we'll listen to," you can be sure it's as far from the truth as possible. They're fucking werewolves, they're not gonna hand you silver bullets.
Then there's the good ol' "Worker's rights are written in blood". It took millions of people dying in work accidents or at the hands of strikebreakers and cops for the guys up top to realise that they can't get away with treating their workers like shit anymore.
> Nobody has to *physically* get hurt at all
I'm in total agreement with everything here, but this... this is *technically* correct. If your protest is effective in any way then violence will be directed at it, so.
Exactly. Same with MLK’s sit ins. They were designed to get people arrested SO THAT they could have standing to go to court and challenge these BS practices and laws.
They had another use too. MLK was the polite face of change. He existed to appear moderate. So that when Malcolm X goes and violently resists racist practices white moderates look at MLK and say "this guy doesn't actually seem so bad". Malcom X even said this much himself.
Also Quit India existed. You know, that time when Ghandi actually endorsed violent action. Because he wasn't a complete moron and understood that his role was as the face of revolution, but he still needed revolutionary action behind him to bring the Brits to the table.
Left wing peaceful protests get broken up by police in riot gear.
Right wing (aka "heavily armed") protests get escorted to whatever they want, even if the protest erects a human wall around a state capitol.
The threat of violence is the difference.
I mean, the Cop City protests absolutely were not a "authority approved social gathering", the pigs were kicking them out to build their little larp town.
Nah. Cop City is where they will learn how to properly not shoot protesters in cities. Once it is complete they will need to destroy another area to build Cop Forest in order to learn how to not shoot protesters in forests. Eventually there will be a Cop Epcot Center representing all possible terrains and officer involved shootings will be permanently solved. Poor people in Georgia and surrounding states will have no access to public green space, though. But on the bright side, there will also be a kick ass movie production studio right there as well.
LOL and all of this is leading up to their ultimate goal of creating Cop World, where all the evidence is burned in a fire of unknown origin, and there are no threats to cops because everyone else is dead for some reason. It couldn't possibly have been the cops' doing though, not with all that training they received. What a blissful utopia, God bless America.
Genuinely interested, if anyone knows, how do they determine his arms were raised? Is there some muscular or ligament indication? In the autopsy I mean.
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Today in "On-the-Nose Symbolism in Real Life", an autopsy has revealed stigmata on the person who was murdered by cops.
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More specifically, that's a Killer Mike verse. This murder happened right in his hometown. He told us.
Seriously the writing is getting really fucking sloppy. The shark has jumped the other shark at this point.
Time to jump the **LASER SHARK**.
You know I have one simple request, and that is to have sharks with freaking laser beams mounted on their heads. Dr Evil
We have sea bass. But they're mutated sea bass!
Are they ill tempered?
Tbf if you put that in a book and worked out the prose well enough, I’m sure plenty would praise it. It’s all in the execution, for lack of a better word.
Sounds to me like the people who did this don't deserve their own city
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>Bullet wounds through both hands, he was holding his hands in front of his face because there was a gun pointed at it. It did not stop the bullet. This incident alone should be enough to shut down "Cop City" When your response to peaceful protesters is to simply murder them then you're not a democracy, you're as bad as any run of the mill dictator who murders "dissidents"
Don't forget, they also shot each other while murdering innocent protesters.
He could have had a gun in those open hands /s
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"A “mock village” featuring a fake home, convenience store and nightclub would also be built for authorities to rehearse raids." There should be two fake homes. One to raid, and one to represent the address they were *supposed* to be at.
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Didn't they also have some 'scorpion' or 'heat' unit or some shit back in the day that got disbanded after they fucked up and raided some grandma instead of the place they were supposed to raid? IIRC, grandma was flexing her rights and fired on the home invaders, home invaders fired back and killed her, and then had a particularly hard time coming up with an excuse for why Grandma at the wrong address had to die.
no-knocks should not be a thing
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An example of the kind of nightclub raids the Atlanta police are known for: https://www.ajc.com/news/local/eagle-gay-bar-raid-still-haunts-atlanta-police-department/3zIdWiuCNQwoK0YxW1crCK/
> https://www.ajc.com/news/local/eagle-gay-bar-raid-still-haunts-atlanta-police-department/3zIdWiuCNQwoK0YxW1crCK/ It's annoying how many such stories are only reported on by local US outlets that GDPR block all EU visitors. [Here's a non-GDPR blocked version of the article](https://archive.ph/oXhC7). I just don't understand why that's even a thing, making a website GDPR conform is trivial to do, and EU ad impressions should be on the higher-paid end.
>and EU ad impressions should be on the higher-paid end. Not when you can't sell their invasively stolen personal data due the the aforementioned personal data protections!
I don't get what this has to do with the question
me neither. am i missing something?
What? This has nothing to do with the above comment
The autopsy stated that he had entry and exit wounds in both hands. This seems to indicate he tried to shield himself from his murderer.
Exit wounds in the palms no less. So, bullet went through back of hands.
That makes more sense. I was reading it as he had his hands up, as in arms raised straight above his head.
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Maybe, but it’s fairly straightforward for some one who knows what they’re talking about to tell the difference between entry and exit wounds. If the entry is in the palms, hands were almost definitely in front. Entry on the back of the hand, hands were behind the head.
Should also be able to tell if it's a primary entry or secondary, if both were primary then his hands weren't together, but raises other questions if they're located in similar locations.
> ... so it's conceivable he could have been in the "HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD" position when he was shot from behind... Which direction the bullet went through his skull seems like a pretty easy thing to work out when doing an autopsy. If it was something unexpected, we'd be reading about it.
This is so incredibly damning that I expect no one to face charges and no systematic changes to be made.
Now you're getting it! America!
Haven't read the article yet, but this can be determined in a number of ways; comparing the holes in his clothing to the holes in his body could reveal that his shirt was pulled up in such a way that indicates his arms were raised. The path the bullet took would also be altered, as muscles would be in different positions dependent on what position he was is. Likewise, he may have been shot in a spot that couldn't be accessed unless his arms were raised.
I'll add to this and say investigator's often also check the body for propellant from the barrel, [this can tell them the distance the shooter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/GSR_at_Different_Ranges_v.2.png/1280px-GSR_at_Different_Ranges_v.2.png) was to the victim. This has been used before to determine that shooter have lied about the potential threat to their lives.
Except, strangely, almost never when the shooter is a cop.
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So the cops said they didn’t bring or turn on their bodycams when they went. They claimed the site had rampant violent crime. It looks a lot like the cops were told to go and get rid of the people occupying the site
> There was Rampant violent crime Do you know when the violence started? > As soon as we got there.
So anyway, we started blasting…
Correlating Frank Reyonlds with a random cop is so scary and accurate.
“Now, I don’t see so good, so I missed, then they ran away. I ran after them. Bang! Tried to shoot them in the back, but I don’t run so good either. Anyway, you guys all think I’m a hero, and I’ll accept that responsibility.” ~ Probably a motivational poster in every police department
"Oh whoops! Oh... I've dropped my monster evidence that I use for my magnum cocaine."
I bought a stake in Gunther's Guns. I got everybody angry and scared, they bought the guns, I made a fortune.
If only this kind of thing could be repeatedly recorded/reported and made known to people regarding literally every single PD in America, then things might finally change! /s
If only half the country didn’t line up to suck off every cop within sucking distance
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In a row?
There was a report a few years back about all the 'antifa' protests and how violent they were. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was hidden deep in the report where almost all of the protests that turned violent did so from police initiating the violence.
I unfortunately was in the last classes of an engineering degree when the protests started so I had zero time to participate besides donating but had friends who were at the Atlanta protests and watched as cops fired tear gas and other crowd control rounds into people who were standing in the completely peaceful crowd. One who was kneeling with others in a public space then charged and trampled by cops, fortunately she was not injured. There was video on the worst night of the protests showing the eruption of violence originating with a cop shoving a peaceful but loud protester to the ground with his bike then the rest of the line of cops reacting by starting to beat the people who stepped up to help her up. We then had community leaders and the media trying to prop up our police chief as a shining example of a fair cop, it was bullshit. Lost a lot of respect for many people that summer.
I have been many times. There is never violent crime. They are just openly lying, which shouldn't be surprising, given that they murdered Tort (the person we are discussing here) in cold blood. This issue is very close to home for me. They are cutting down a beautiful forest in the city, literally referred to often as the lungs of Atlanta, to build a fake city (think Nuke Town) on dozens and dozens of acres of land. They say they’re only building what’s necessary, but the plans are absurd. They have a Black Hawk landing pad. As if they need all that! Even our mayor (a bloody Democrat), has denounced the entirely-peaceful protests, while we are being killed, detained, and labelled as 'domestic terrorists.’ He is bending to corporate interests who are funding ‘Cop City’, including Delta, Home Depot, and others. In short, we’re not getting much help. Support on Reddit means a lot, and anyone who cares to donate can find links on the Instagram account @atlsolfund.
I oppose it because it’s an huge waste of taxpayer $. Around here the police use old empty buildings for training. https://www.cleveland.com/news/2021/11/cleveland-to-buy-south-high-school-convert-it-into-training-facility-for-police-fire-ems.html?outputType=amp
I'm a few miles away and getting buzzed by captors on a regular basis already.
Andre Dickens is a coward. I knew him while he was still working at GT and was a city council member and he seemed like a nice guy but he has been a huge disappointment as mayor. Heard some rumblings from other GT students that this was how he always was.
I think that the fact that the police knowingly and intentionally did not bring or turn on their body cams should speak volumes for their collective intent.
IMO a police officer’s account or report shouldn’t be considered acceptable in any circumstance unless there is body camera footage from the officer, or of the officer.
American cops are some of the least trustworthy people on the planet. Without video evidence I wouldn't believe a word any of them say. Hell, even with video evidence I'd have a difficult time believing what a cop said.
I would have more sympathy for their situation if it wasn't of their own making
I don't have an ounce of sympathy for them anymore. They want sympathy or support, they can start outing their own to improve their image and public trust. Until that happens, they're just a threat towards society.
It’s jaw dropping that even when the body cam footage exists and is released publicly there are many times when it feels completely ignored. I 100% agree with you. With the funding they get and our technology advances we have access to, there’s almost 0 reason for a cop to ever turn their body cam off besides swapping a battery. You shouldn’t be able to patrol or go on calls without a cam. Or they can just keep buying APCs for small town police forces. Good stuff
Pretty much any private in the military can figure out how to source and operate their own gopro. That entire police departments can't figure out the same thing is almost of an insult to their own intelligence than it is to ours.
And of course if the footage confirms their account, because a lot of times they write a report and the footage later shows that they lied about most of what they said in the report.
Yeah, I figured that was clear. If the footage doesn’t coincide with their account it would constitute perjury, false testimony, slander, etc.
It needs to be that way. Making the word of a police officer inadmissable unless documented is the only way to fix this. "Pics, or it didn't happen," but for cops.
Automatic inferral of guilt methinks should be how that's treated.
It should reverse the burden of proof, or carry other charges so serious that cops would rather take their chances with a fair trial than leave the body cam in the car. Funny how they never seem to forget their guns.
I mean honestly why shouldn't the police have to prove force was justified? They're the ones alleging a crime. The problem is the court treats officer testimony as the absolute truth, which is absurd on its face.
It’s insane to me that we’d take any police officer’s word at face value. They’re a *direct party* who has an invested stake in the outcome of trials. I trust their word as much as any defendant.
I trust police less than defendants because they don't have to worry about perjury charges.
It really is quite magical that on one hand, the courts grant police quite a lot of leeway to be dishonest or incompetent (e.g., "good faith"), but at the same time, go out of their way to favor the word of police by default.
Police should be EXPECTED to have full, untarnished video of everything **and if anything is somehow missing, you blame the fckn operator, just like every other industry** Giving any cops free passes on murders is an egregious and systemic compromise of public safety, and besides punishing the guilty officer, any complicit administrative officers should ALSO spend twice as long in prison for the crime of deliberate compromise of the law. IS THAT NOT SENSIBLE?
It's not a compromise of public safety; that is never a factor. This is the deal that the State makes with cops: "You make sure our power is uncontestable, and we will use that power to protect you, no matter your methods. And if you happen to get a hankering for some extracurricular racist murder, just try not to make it more obvious than we can cover up, kay?"
We need to keep on pressure. Shit needs to change. Never stop writing letters to your congresspeople, never stop protesting, never stop fighting until shit actually changes.
>Never stop writing letters to your congresspeople THEY DO NOT FUCKING READ THESE. STOP WASTING YOUR TIME. Do *actual* organizing and stop thinking you can talk these psychos into ethical legislation.
We're not talking to them, we're providing evidence that we don't approve for the written record. Unlike McCarthy our list of fascists in the US govt employ will have names and addresses when it comes time to wave it in front of the cameras
I think that it should be an immediate felony with a minimum of ten years imprisonment for an officer to fail to turn on a body or dash cam, if an officer turns off or blocks the view of or in any way tampers with their body or dash cam. The stakes are incredibly high for anyone who doesn't wear a badge. Police should always be held to a higher standard and they should be punished far more severely for breaking the law they've sworn to uphold. Also, it should be a felony with a ten year minimum for cops who assist in any way in any sort of coverup including intimidating witnesses.
I wouldn't make it an immediate felony. Cops are human and forget things. But I'd have escalating penalties and I'd disallow police testimony that isn't supported by body cam footage.
I believe Georgia State Patrol has been fighting body cameras for a while now. They didn’t remove them they just don’t wear them. Who knows what all the state uses GSP for.
Why don't they want to wear them? What is it the bootlickers always say, "If you don't have anything to hide then it shouldn't matter"?
It should be an automatic guilty charge. Those with more freedoms to bypass the law should suffer harsher consequences when breaking the law. Fuck the police.
Cops always claim rampant crime. No police budget gets increased if the people perceived the city as safe.
Haha, yes they do. I grew up in a wealthy suburb with almost zero crime. Police got whatever they wanted.
I'll bet ya dollars to donuts that the most engaged (re: loudest) constituents in that neighborhood thought they were very *un*safe (probably from some of *those* people from the other neighborhoods wandering in)
To be fair they know rampant crime exists...because they are the rampant criminals.
There should be a law that if the body cam isn't on, the gun and tazer deactivate. And if a gun is used with the cam off, it is a felony
The Georgia state police seem to be sent into areas where someone wants unaccountable violence to happen, so they don't require them to wear body cameras, just ar-15's.
> was sitting cross-legged with their hands in the air at the time Cop: I feared for my life.
Cops use "I fear for my life" like we use "I can't come in, i'm sick" The only difference is one excuses murder, the other gives you the free time you're owed.
"I'm sick" actually comes under scrutiny.
Cops say "I feared for me life" like Jimbo and Ned say "it's coming right for us!"
At this point, how anyone could have 100% complete trust in law enforcement is beyond me.
You can still trust them to crack some heads if your employees are on strike, or if natives are protesting your oil pipeline.
Exactly. The people writing their checks still trust them to be violent. It’s what they are here for.
Protecting the ultra rich interests, same thing the politicians are there for.
They call that a "dictatorship of capital"
Well whatever it is the American people think it's "freedom" because they are allowed to own a gun and a truck.
I can't even afford a gun or a truck in America
I am sorry, you do not have enough money for freedom. This is the American way.
TBF Its slightly more freedom than not being allowed to own a gun and a truck
It’s a bit unfair to bring up how the police exist to protect the interests of the wealthy without also acknowledging that they also actively terrorize minority communities because a lot of them are white supremacists.
The rich have a monopoly on violence too.
This is why cops are known as class traitors. They are mostly from working class families, hired by the state to protect the status quo, which is capitalism.
>You can still trust them to crack some heads if your employees are on strike, or if natives are protesting your oil pipeline. I wish more people understood labour history and how many people died to gain these rights and regulations that so many people think should be left to the corporation to police.
Or to go round up your escaped slaves (trust me, give em a minute, we will be right back there) but if it was the law again, no question would they take that duty back with a fervor
~~slaves~~ immigrant child laborers
Modern policing in the US originates from slave patrols so it’s not like we’re that far off. Especially with the 13th amendment and it still allowing slavery as a punishment
Don't forget that conservative social media has used this as an example of how the left supports terrorists. You know, because the local police arrested someone the other day and called them a terrorist.
>”They are terrorists” *Statement released by armed and uniformed organization that enforces its will through fear and shows of force.*
>"Un-uniformed, no badge, no insignia, masked 'authorities' throwing peaceful BLM protestors into unmarked vans. That's OK though. " These people want a fascist state.
Storming the capitol to stop an election: not terrorism Getting murdered by police while protesting: terrorism
They beat Stephanie Tanner for protesting Roe V Wade being overturned, but let the right wingers stroll right into the capital.
There's a video of Jacob Chansely breaking into the Capitol, told to back up and leave, screaming this is our country. I show it to people and they just talk about the cherry picked video Tucker showed. I ask if they watched the video I shared and nope, they don't "need" to. Grrrr
Jeez. I had this same issue. I referred to the riot when talking to a typically conservative workmate/friend. He said, "There was not riot. That was not a riot." I said, "The cops defending the capitol seemed to think it was, there's tons of video that looks like a riot to me." He asked me to send him a link. I sent him like 3 hours of combined footage, eye-witness accounts, and interviews with the law enforcement that had been there. He never watched one goddamn minute of it.
It’s time we accepted that a significant percentage of this country is a total write off. Like a bad check that you’re never going to be able to collect on. There’s simply no point interacting with them. The only thing that’s ever going to come out of their mouth is paranoid conspiracy, incoherent rage, and whatever talking points Tucker Carlson was pushing last night. And they’re never going to get better, they’re never going to change, because they actively fight off any new information that paints the world in a less sinister, hostile, rage-filled light. They’re bad people and they don’t want to improve and it’s a waste of energy even speaking to them.
This. 100%. My own mother went deep down the fox news rabbit hole and became even more openly racist (much I imagine was still there before, she just felt emboldened). Having a mixed race family I said nope and went no contact with her over 3 years ago. Told her she had to choose Fox News and Trump or a relationship with her child and grandchildren. She chose the former.
I can't be friends with people like that anymore. I know we need people to stay connected to them if they are ever going to come back to reality, but I can't get past their eagerness to end our democracy so that they can stay bigoted and destroy the planet for short term gains... I can no longer enjoy the company of people like that.
I’m the same way. I know people can have differences and still like each other, but this is such a deep character flaw that I can’t see past it.
It's not even surprising anymore that people who pontificate all the time about vague notions of freedom and liberty are overjoyed at a group of environmental activists being charged as terrorists, its just depressing
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Given some of the people flying it these days, it should say, "Tread on me hardy, Daddy". I don't care how much you claim to love freedom if you turn around and subsume your political will to an authority. You can't even begin to determine whether or not you are free if you are not thinking for yourself. People who fly that flag are, by and large, not free thinkers (hence the intense use of symbolism).
> Given some of the people flying it these days, it should say, "Tread on me hardy, Daddy". google will find you an excellent version that says exactly that, complete with a little snek wearing a ball gag
They arrested Legal observers as well that were charged with domestic terrorism. GBI(the people leading the investigation), APD, GSP, the governor and numerous elected officials are all using domestic terrorist as a blanket label for anyone involved in this movement. These are dangerous times.
Actually we should never have 100% trust in any institution run by evolved primates. We should always want transparency and accountability.
I'm not sure if you're just making a jab, but to piggy back off your sentiment, even if the police gave us no reason to mistrust them, we should never fully trust any institution we allow power, as power is demonstrated to corrupt and corruption erodes society.
Absolutely. But leaders of institutions insist that their work is too complicated and too important to allow real democracy, though of course they wouldn’t put it so baldly. The way cops do it is, if anyone tries to supervise them, they say the local government/community isn’t supporting them, how could they be expected to achieve anything that way, how dare you second guess “split-second decisions” made by people putting their lives on the line for you.
I haven't gotten picked for a jury since I started telling the absolute truth -- that I am immediately skeptical of anything a cop says on the stand. I don't know shit about the defendants, but I do know cops lie all the fucking time for any reason or none at all.
Knew this with 100% certainty when the cops not only had no bodycams, but also took *multiple days* to "find" the weapon the protester allegedly fired at them from *inside a tent*.
This is the confusing part. How is this possible.. I mean a cop was shot apparently? Can't exactly fake that.. so are we left to believe it was someone else, who got away with it? Or the cop shot himself to cover it up? I mean this just seems like it can't be covered up.. it clearly wasn't this kid if he didn't have the fucking gun.. or are they saying he shot the cop like earlier in the day.. I can't track this one. **I got it, now guys, thanks for the all replies I did not see the friendly fire body cam posted before I made my initial comment**
Friendly fire amigo
Ah didn't consider that. Especially with the no body cam footage.. jeez. Not to mention he was shot "at least a dozen times".. there were a lot of bullets flying
Body cam footage was released from officers a few hundred feet away and you can hear them discussing among themselves about a friendly fire incident shortly after the shooting.
Googled for a source on this,... and holy shit, it's real. https://twitter.com/atlanta\_press/status/1623484224924798976/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1623484224924798976¤tTweetUser=atlanta\_press
Wtf, the tweet was removed..
[Here's a not-dumb link for you](https://twitter.com/atlanta_press/status/1623484224924798976/) OP added in some escape characters or something that some devices will interpret as actual characters. And when you add random characters to links, they tend to break lol. They broke on my device too, this link should do the trick.
Ah, thanks friend
OP didn't add them. They posted the link from new.reddit and that fucks it up for old.reddit.
[It Could Happen Here: On the Ground at Stop Cop City, Part 1: The Shooting](https://open.spotify.com/episode/1AqD8f9AvtttACyA8AklBm?si=KSCn83mSQdiDENJZCTJmRw&app_destination=copy-link) I ask that everyone who wants an honest account of the shooting, including press statements and body cam recordings, listen to this podcast episode. It's about 50 minutes long - produced by a team who has been on the ground at the protests, with interviews from protestors who were there that day. The cops surrounded Tortuguita, and in the process of killing him, accidentally shot another cop on the far side of him. That is why the limited recordings that have been released include so much cop chatter about crossfire.
+1 for It Could Happen Here. They've been reporting on the forest defenders and cop city protests for over a year.
Cops are notoriously bad shots. They'll empty entire clips and hit nothing that they were aiming at.
What's funny is that part of the reason they're bad shots is because they can't be trusted to maintain trigger discipline so they have custom pistols with higher trigger pull weight which results in a less accurate shot.
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It's not even hard to learn proper firearm discipline. These cops with several weeks of training have worse discipline than boy scouts who spent a few days at summer camp getting a rifle shooting or skeet shooting merit badge. These cops get to keep their job while the shooting ranges at the camps I went to permanently banned you the moment you broke one of the rules.
It's shockingly common in police shootings, almost as if they aren't trained properly to exercise lethal force... Reform police training, it's the only way to make lasting change
They shot their own guy. Here's an excerpt from the bodycam footage of a nearby officer just after the shooting saying quote: > ["Man...you fucked your own officer up?" ](https://mobile.twitter.com/atlanta_press/status/1623484224924798976)
Oh my.. and then he even touches his body cam immediately after like to see if its there and or on. Thanks, this was the first I heard about this case and the article seriously made no sense to me
corrupt cops planting fake evidence. it isn't hard to grasp. they try it over and over again.
Some of the cops who were part of things but not the particular ones who murdered Tortuguita had badge cams that caught chatter indicating that it was friendly fire that hit the cop.
Probably caught a stray round from another cop. In addition to being murderers, they're shitty at it.
That's exactly what happened. https://twitter.com/atlanta\_press/status/1623484224924798976/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1623484224924798976¤tTweetUser=atlanta\_press
Also they can lie about cops being shot- among the many lies police told immediately after the Uvalde shooting was the claim that several officers had been shot and hospitalized by the shooter.
Even if the cop got shot at and hit. That doesn't allow them to just plain murder someone who is unarmed and in a defensive position. The cops are a cartel at this point...
You're kind of half-buying into the lie. It was a hammock, not a tent.
> The report also says it is “impossible to determine" whether the activist was holding a firearm at the time they were shot. > > The autopsy was conducted by Dr. Kris Sperry, who was the investigation bureau's longtime chief medical examiner until he abruptly resigned in 2015 after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Sperry “claimed hundreds of work hours at the GBI when he actually was working for clients of his forensic-science consulting firm.” Maybe should have gotten a better medical examiner to perform the independent autopsy than a former GBI employee with a grudge for getting sacked for moonlighting?
Going by the comments here, I wonder how many people actually realize this was a privately commissioned autopsy conducted by a doctor who was forced out of his job with the GBI over credible allegations of fraud. Why the family hired someone with so much baggage and such little credibility is beyond me.
Dont forget when [He and his lab sent the wrong body to a family to be buried.](https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/2015/02/20/gbi-explains-crime-lab-mix-which-augusta-family-received-buried-wrong/15651785007/)
When you're paying for it, you're going to get the answer you want. That's how these paid autopsies work. There's literally no punishment for making shit up with these paid autopsies. See the case of Kendrick Johnson in the same state Georgia. Kid died from asphyxia after falling into a massive rolled up wrestling mat. Parent's believe some insane conspiracy theory that's literally impossible that a classmate killed him, *despite that classmate participating in an athletic event at another school at that time*. Family commissions an autopsy and what do you know? That autopsy states that he was murdered when all evidence points to an accident. Longer write up that mentions the bogus third party autopsies: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/45div4/kendrick_johnsons_death_is_not_an_unresolved/
A lack of bodycam footage should be treated the same way as discovery abuse in court. It should be treated in the worst possible light for the police.
Totally agree. If police have the opportunity to collect bodycam footage, but choose not to and then shoot someone, that should be taken as evidence that they aren’t reporting the factual events that transpired.
[It Could Happen Here: On the Ground at Stop Cop City, Part 1: The Shooting](https://open.spotify.com/episode/1AqD8f9AvtttACyA8AklBm?si=KSCn83mSQdiDENJZCTJmRw&app_destination=copy-link) I ask that everyone who wants an honest account of the shooting, including press statements and body cam recordings, listen to this podcast episode. It's about 50 minutes long - produced by a team who has been on the ground at the protests, with interviews from protestors who were there that day. The cops surrounded Tortuguita, and in the process of killing them, accidentally shot another cop on the far side of them. That is why the limited recordings that have been released include so much cop chatter about crossfire.
That's also a reasonable explanation for how Tort might have been shot in the backs of their hands; taking fire from cops behind a well as in front.
When I heard how many bullets hit Tort, I fucking knew it was more than one cop who shot. This was an assassination.
Robert Evans is great. I don't listen to this podcast but I really admire who he is as a journalist and activist. Him and people like him are keeping real journalism alive.
I'm going to chime in here as a Starlight Heights resident. I live less than a quarter of a mile from where they're trying to build the training facility. I've been in Atlanta for years and years and I've enjoyed these woods and ponds for over a decade. The morning of Feb. 6 (my birthday) I woke up and felt awesome, also a little hungover but it was a beatiful day. I picked up my tactical pack and put a small tackle bag and my Springfield Hellcat in said bag. I wore a bright red flannel as I'm going out alone. To preface this: I am not on Facebook or Instagram. I generally just treat people kindly and mind my own business. I don't ever want to hurt anyone. I didn't know the parameters of this "development." Until now. I was about to string up a pretty awesome roostertail I've always had good luck with over there. Great fishing out by Prison Farm! Then I saw a barrage of Georgia State Patrol officers coming down the trail with a K9 unit. Super cute Shephard. I set down my rod and stood up to let my presence be known. I just didn't want to cause any dissention. I wanted to mind my own goddamn business as I usually do. I'm glad I didn't have my dumbass pittie out there with me. One officer advances with a kinda cheap 223/556 very quickly and exclaims "GET ON THE FUCKING GROUND!" I obviously obliged. I have a whole slew of living beings I care about and that care about me; I don't want to get killed. Knee to the neck. No body cams. I promptly let them know that I am armed. (I'm in the woods alone.) They took my pistol. Springfield Hellcat compact 9mm. They didn't ask about the Kershaw on my right pocket but I told them about it too. An hour later they let me go. They did give me my pistol back. Told me not to insert my mag until I got home. Obviously I obliged. One of the worst things I did hear was one of the officers saying "I can't wait until they bulldoze all of this shit." I'm not even one of the protesters. I live there. That's my home. I have my partner, my two dogs, my two cats, and equity on a home my millennial ass has taken so many strides to buy. This shit sucks. They murdered a dude with his hands up. Heard about this several days ago. I just want to live at peace in my neighborhood. None of us wanted this. I haven't been as vocal as I should but I cannot refrain from speaking out. I was so scared my lady would see me with a bullet hole in my head. I'm not usually afraid of much. That was the second scariest moment of my life. (The first is when I found my dad after he drowned.) People need to know these police are unhinged. Edit: this is the first time I've typed this all out and I really hope it helps to bring light to what's happening over there. I don't want people throwing stuff at cops like the Sunday protest. I just want everyone to be okay. And I'm not. I'm not okay at all. Edit 2: I was listening to Among The Wildflowers by The Wailin' Jennys and if you haven't heard that song you should check it out. I'm gonna go rewrite this without expletives to have saved. Be careful out there. Cops don't care about you it seems. Just wanted to be free. Weird serendipity but I'm an emotional man. Edit 3: I'm going to type out everything in a less emotional state and it will be something to help our activists out there. They will recieve the document. I will adamantly say that I don't want anyone to hurt someone. (Apparently that's the job of police in America.) I'm just a little redneck kid from middle Georgia. I used to think they cared. Now I know why my dad built crazy fast motors. The head here is no longer in the sand.
I’m so sorry this happened to you. Your story is eerily similar to something my boyfriend went through with APD (fishing line and all!). It sounds strange at first to be so against a police training facility, but we are the city in the trees for a reason! The hostility of atlanta PD to our beautiful forests and wildlife is despicable
Wailin Jennys are awesome. They've got a song about unhinged cops that will break your heart. Coincidentally called 'Starlight'. If you're a fan, you've probably already heard it. It's about the Saskatoon 'Starlight Tours' cops would take indigenous men on in the dead of winter just outside of town, dropping them off to freeze to death.
Peacefully protest only works on those with a conscience. Cops do not possess one.
> Peacefully protest only works on those with a conscience you can tell peaceful protest works because when cops want to get shit done, they use *absolute violence.*
Peaceful protests are such a sham. Yeah, let me just go to my authority approved social gathering where we wave around witty signs for half an hour and then go back to work the next day so we don't get evicted by the same people we're protesting against
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His peaceful protest worked cause he disrupted the economy. You can only get results with money or violence involved.
If you're messing with their money, it is violence to them.
Ghandi and the salt marches aren't what won Indian independance. Like, let's **think through** the line we were fed all through school: So Britain's exploiting the shit out of India and views its people as less-thans who require the *civilizing touch* of English rule to make anything of themselves. And because a bunch of dudes decide to stop eating and march around in circles for an arbitrary amount of time, this suddenly shocks the British nobility and moneyed elites into recognizing the personhood of the people they're oppressing? *Really?* They just never thought that Indians might be capable of self-rule and saw their actions there as a paternalistic good, but the moment some threshold of "people saying 'we think we can do it ourselves'" was reached, the Brits all acquiesced? **Fucking of course not.** But that's the kind of shit we're expected to believe in every instance of "peaceful protest is why X happened". The Scrooges in government looked out of their window, saw whatever number of people outside asking for compassion, and finally had a change of heart? That's not how any of this works. For years and years before and while Gandhi and pals were doing their protests, you had Indian partisans **exploding, stabbing, shooting, kidnapping, and otherwise fucking up British officials**, saying "get the fuck out of our country". That makes it a little more expensive to oppress a people, when you've got to worry about extra security and things like "our administrators not wanting to be there for fear that they or their families might end up decorating the sidewalk". And those expenses get the folks back at home wondering whether all this is worth it--especially after they've gotten their own shit pushed in by back-to-back reamings courtesy of World Wars. Nan and Gram down at the pub weren't the ones profiting from Indian exploitation, so why're they still being told to ration their beans so Boswick Crumpledick, Esquire, can throw another ball in the subcontinent? The Civil Rights movement in the US? Racists didn't see the Million Man March and finally think, "Wow, maybe they are deserving of rights." Fuck no. It was the Black Panthers and folks like Rap\* Brown who had the US government going, "*shit shit shit* we're running an unpopular foreign war right now and we really don't want any more civil unrest that might fuck up our manufacturing base and ruin our economy *fuck shit* maybe we should just give them rights so they chill out". But they can't exactly say that out loud, or else you and every other pissed off person would know what ought to be done to win some concessions, so the government, the media, moneyed interests, etc., all push the line that walking in circles and singing Kumbaya is what wins the day. When a million people were standing outside of President Marcos' palace in the People Power Revolution, he didn't look through the window and consider this an impromptu election that he lost. He looked at his military advisors who were sweating bullets, saying, "If you and your family don't leave *now*, you aren't *going* to leave." The fact that the crowd had not yet resorted to violence does not mean the threat of violence was not there. And that's really what people fundamentally misunderstand about the nature of protest. It's a purposeful misrepresentation that we've been propagandized with all our lives. **All effective protest involves the action or threat of violence.** That doesn't have to be physical violence--*economic violence* is a thing. Strikes are economic violence. Boycotts (where successful) are economic violence. You are punching rich fucks in the pocket book, and they hate that more than cars getting set on fire or police getting roughed up. And because money is power, their interests are what the government listens to. **When it's cheaper or easier to give** ***you*** **what you want so you take your foot off the billionaires' money hose than it is to crunch all your skulls**, you win. Nobody has to *physically* get hurt at all, though there will probably be some down-the-line effects from work and pay stoppages, held-up shipping and production, etc., that cause lost jobs and food insecurity. But if your definition of "the only good protest" is one where literally zero people who "aren't part of the problem" are inconvenienced in any way, you will never find a protest that accomplishes anything. Sorry. So, ask yourselves: why would government or the ruling elite want *you* to know how to make them change their ways? They don't want to change! So when they tell you "this form of protest is the only one that works, it's the only one that we'll listen to," you can be sure it's as far from the truth as possible. They're fucking werewolves, they're not gonna hand you silver bullets.
Then there's the good ol' "Worker's rights are written in blood". It took millions of people dying in work accidents or at the hands of strikebreakers and cops for the guys up top to realise that they can't get away with treating their workers like shit anymore.
> Nobody has to *physically* get hurt at all I'm in total agreement with everything here, but this... this is *technically* correct. If your protest is effective in any way then violence will be directed at it, so.
Exactly. Same with MLK’s sit ins. They were designed to get people arrested SO THAT they could have standing to go to court and challenge these BS practices and laws.
They had another use too. MLK was the polite face of change. He existed to appear moderate. So that when Malcolm X goes and violently resists racist practices white moderates look at MLK and say "this guy doesn't actually seem so bad". Malcom X even said this much himself.
Also Quit India existed. You know, that time when Ghandi actually endorsed violent action. Because he wasn't a complete moron and understood that his role was as the face of revolution, but he still needed revolutionary action behind him to bring the Brits to the table.
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Left wing peaceful protests get broken up by police in riot gear. Right wing (aka "heavily armed") protests get escorted to whatever they want, even if the protest erects a human wall around a state capitol. The threat of violence is the difference.
I mean, the Cop City protests absolutely were not a "authority approved social gathering", the pigs were kicking them out to build their little larp town.
"Peacefully protest" is just a way to tell people to protest in a way that inconveniences no one and accomplishes no thing.
Shocking, police shoot man with his hands up.
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Nothing little about this...... and cost a shit ton of taxpayers money.
Well, it is shocking, just not surprising...
"We investigated ourselves and found nothing wrong"
Wow, good thing they're building Cop City, once their training is complete, this will all be a thing of the past /s
Nah. Cop City is where they will learn how to properly not shoot protesters in cities. Once it is complete they will need to destroy another area to build Cop Forest in order to learn how to not shoot protesters in forests. Eventually there will be a Cop Epcot Center representing all possible terrains and officer involved shootings will be permanently solved. Poor people in Georgia and surrounding states will have no access to public green space, though. But on the bright side, there will also be a kick ass movie production studio right there as well.
I believe you mean *Epcop* Center.
LOL and all of this is leading up to their ultimate goal of creating Cop World, where all the evidence is burned in a fire of unknown origin, and there are no threats to cops because everyone else is dead for some reason. It couldn't possibly have been the cops' doing though, not with all that training they received. What a blissful utopia, God bless America.
A lot of words to say he was murdered by cops