It is the worst case scenario for most police officers. Gang members in Fresno, Calif. have threatened to retaliate against the police after a police shooting Sunday of a 24-year-old man suspected to be a key to a gang-related homicide.
This shooting is the department’s third officer-involved shooting of the year.
The officers fired upon the suspect, whose name was not released upon publication of this article, as the suspect attempted to flee and arm a handgun. The firearm was found on the suspect after the suspect was arrested. The man was taken to Community Regional Medical Center for treatment.
Police spotted and tailed the suspect, who — once realizing he was being followed — led the police in a chase on the freeway and through residential streets. Ignoring calls to pull over, the suspect tried to pull away, only to be P.I.T. (Precision Immobilization Technique, tactical ram) and spun-out by a police car. As the suspect tried to run away, the man was shot in the back when it appeared that he was drawing a weapon.
The officers were placed on administrative leave.
According to Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer, the suspect was involved in two violent incidents last Friday: a 3 a.m. gangland shooting that left a 23-year-old man dead and an assault with a deadly weapon later that night. Following the police shooting, the police received numerous reports that gang members “have armed themselves and made it well-known that they are going to shoot a Fresno police officer.”
The police is taking the situation seriously and have mobilized SWAT teams.
Frustration at the police
In recent months, frustrations with excesses taken by the police have caused individuals to react in destructive and/or threatening ways. Frustrations concerning the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) shooting of a 16-year-old Brooklyn boy last month triggered three days of protest and massive damage from riots, which included a non-damaging assault on a police precinct and police officers being pelted with glass bottles and rocks. The people felt pressured and brutalized by discriminatory NYPD practices — “including stop and frisk.”
In Macon, Ga., community members marched through the city in frustration concerning the shooting of local resident Sammie Davis Jr. by Macon police officer Clayton Sutton outside a Macon grocery store. The Macon police force has a convoluted history of police shootings and many residents feel that the police department is too liberal in its use of deadly force.
Last December, the Seattle, Wash. branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) protested at 23rd and Union, where several incidents of police brutality have taken place, including Leo Etherly being punched in the face by Seattle police officer Eric Faust.
In July 2012, White Plains, N.Y. residents were outraged when a 68-year-old Marine veteran, Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., was called a racial slur before being shot inside his own home by officers of the White Plains police department.
In audio released of the situation from the White Plains Police Department, the interplay between Chamberlain and lead officer Stephen Hart can be seen:
Kenneth Chamberlain Sr.: Don’t do that, sir. Don’t do that. Don’t do that, officer. Don’t do that. Don’t do that. Don’t do that. Do not do that! I’m telling you I’m OK!
Officer Stephen Hart: Open up the damn door, nigger!
Kenneth Chamberlain Sr.: I’m telling you I’m OK!
The officers broke down the door to Chamberlain’s apartment, tased him, shot him with a beanbag round from a rifle, and finally, he was shot dead by Officer Anthony Carelli. Chamberlain was not wanted for criminal charges; he accidentally set off his LifeAid medical pendant. The police claimed that Chamberlain tried to attack them with a knife.
None of the police officers were indicted on this situation and only Hart was placed on leave without pay.
Ultimately, threats and acts of violence are the natural recourse to police misconduct. For most, it is the only way to get the public to recognize the situation at hand. While many have reacted nonviolently (at least, initially) to incidents of police brutality, some haven’t.
The St. Paul incident
Last October, a threat to kill a Minneapolis or a St. Paul police officer in retaliation for the fatal police shooting of Victor T. Gaddy placed the two cities’ police forces on high alert, as reported by St. Paul City Councillor Dan Bostrom. “They’ve [the police forces] got everybody on high alert, and they’re not taking any chances,” Bostrom said.
On Oct. 23, Gaddy, 41, was fatally shot in St. Paul by St. Paul police during a Minneapolis police narcotics investigation. The Minneapolis police asked the St. Paul police to stop Gaddy’s car. Gaddy rammed an unmarked police car, nearly crushed a police officer between the cars and then backed into another police car.
Officers fired on Gaddy, assuming that their lives were endangered. Gaddy died on the scene.
It is not known who made the threats. St. Paul has been complacent with numerous claims of police brutality. Last November, the St. Paul City Council settled with Daniela Hobbs, 48, and Larelle Steward, 28, for $400,000 for a situation that accorded Oct. 28, 2010. Officer Matthew Yunker and two other officers investigated the Hobbs-Steward home with a search warrant for cocaine. Once allowed in by Stewart, the police ordered the two to the ground.
Hobbs, a diabetic with back problems, had difficulty complying with the police order. While being advised of the situation by Steward, the police kicked Stewart’s head into the floor, breaking his nose. The police followed by throwing a “flash-bang” grenade at Hobbs, which caused her to catch on fire. Hobbs suffered third-degree burns on her thighs and the bottoms of her feet.
Hobbs and Stewart, a mother and son, are Black. No cocaine was found at the premises.
The city paid $270,000 to Robert Kearney in 2004 when two police officers pushed him down a flight of stairs, and to Cosetta Morris, who in 2011, was thrown into a glass door by a police officer, requiring over 300 sutures. The police officer lied and claimed that she tripped into the glass door.