VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Prison Tactical Team like this stormed into yard at Kinross after peaceful protest.

OCTOBER 9, 2016

Contact: Duncan Tarr, 313-409-8615, mailto:miprisonabolition@gmail.com

KINCHELOE, MI – More than two weeks after prisoners at Kinross Correctional Facility participated in a nationwide prison workers’ strike, the prisoners’ own accounts of what happened are beginning to emerge. Prisoners report that the facility was on lockdown from September 10 to the morning of September 22, preventing communication with their outside supporters.

Most prisoners, including kitchen staff, did not report for work on September 9 in conjunction with the nationwide work stoppage [in remembrance of the historic Attica rebellion in 1971.] The following morning, between 400 and 500 prisoners marched peacefully in the yard.

Slop for dinner at Kinross Prison

The deputy wardens came to the prisoners, who communicated their grievances, including low wages, the commutation process , restrictive visitation room seating in violation of MDOC policy, high phone rates, poor quality and quantity of food provided by private contractor Trinity Services Group, the way the yard is run, living conditions that squeeze eight men into a room intended for four, no re-entry programs, no bleach for clothes, MP3 players that break easily and cannot be fixed or replaced, not enough room in the law library, not enough room in the visiting room and so some visitors are turned away, and not being allowed to transfer to other facilities.

Prisoners also demanded no retaliation for their peaceful protest, and according to prisoners, the deputy wardens agreed to address the grievances or communicate them to the legislature if necessary. The prisoners thought they had come to a common agreement and began to disperse.

To their surprise, as soon as the deputy warden left, a tactical team stormed into the yard with guns, rifles, tear gas, and shields. The armed officers then started grabbing the men alleged to be instigators, handcuffed their arms behind their backs with zip ties, and threw the men to the ground in the yard. They were left for five to six hours in the rain, and were not permitted to use restrooms during that time, forcing some to soil themselves.

Kinross prisoners teargassed.

The violent assault of the armed officers triggered panic among the prisoners, who feared for their lives. Some reported being shot at directly with tear gas canisters. Others attempted to barricade their unit doors. Reportedly, fires were set in several units, at least one window was broken, and sinks and surveillance cameras were damaged after the officers began their assault. Media reports have focused on who was to blame for the damage to physical property, not the violence done to prisoners in violation of their human rights.

Evelyn Williams, a family member of a prisoner, said, “It’s a very racist facility, where they intimidate and harass prisoners on a daily basis. The men just wanted the broken policies to be fixed. They’re treated like animals, with no respect and no justice. They can’t even afford to buy soap on their wages.”

About 150 prisoners accused of being instigators were transferred to other facilities, where an unknown number were charged with inciting a riot and punished with isolation. Prisoners report that some punished had nothing to do with the protest. In violation of MDOC policy, guards destroyed the property of the accused prisoners and encouraged other prisoners to steal their personal food.

MEDIA AVAILABILITY: Prisoners, family members, former prisoners, and local organizers are available for interviews with local and national media.’

Related:

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/10/04/kinross-inmate-raid-pepper-spray-sparked-vandalism/91469310/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/09/12/remember-attica-michigans-kinross-prisoners-join-nationwide-strikes-protests/

https://supportprisonerresistance.noblogs.org/post/2016/09/29/call-for-renewed-actions-in-solidarity-with-the-prison-strike-october-15-22/

Some of more recent VOD stories related to prisoners’ struggles:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/04/23/u-s-military-says-84-prisoners-on-hunger-strike-at-guantanamo-abuses-at-obama-death-camp-reported-by-other-sources/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/07/17/tortured-georgia-prisoners-face-death-in-33-day-hunger-strike/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/05/29/mass-appeal-for-intervention-from-prisoners-in-mich-reformatory-at-ionia/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/02/29/time-for-voting-rights-for-michigan-prisoners/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/10/23/california-prisoners-on-mass-hunger-strike-hospitalized-suffering-organ-damge/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/10/11/12000-california-prisoners-resume-hunger-strike/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/09/26/mdoc-prisoners-mobilize-to-fight-costly-phone-contract/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/07/16/pelican-bay-prisoners%e2%80%99-hunger-strike-goes-state-wide-hundreds-of-prisoners-suffering-some-in-danger-of-death/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/06/23/families-demand-worthy-must-go-free-prisoners-convicted-on-falsified-crime-lab-evidence/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/06/01/civil-rights-organizations-file-motion-to-defend-law-counting-prisoners-in-their-home-districts/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/01/04/lucasville-ohio-prisoners-begin-hunger-strike-against-torture-conditions-in-new-year/

COPS OUT OF BLACK, LATIN, POOR COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE U.S.

Protesters against murders by cops block traffic on Woodward Avenue at Clairmount Sept. 24, 2016. They later released their balloons into the sky to remember their loved ones. Among others, they included Arnetta Grable, Mertilla Jones, and Kimberly Davis.

Rev. Jerome McCorry of Dayton, Ohio, who led the street protest, shouts encouragement. Many drivers honked their horns in support, even getting out of their cars to see what was happening.

Action marks revival of Detroit movement triggered by Lamar Grable’s 1996 murder by Eugene Brown, Vicki Yost

“This is a fight we all better fight”–Pastor McCorry, Dayton, Ohio

By Diane Bukowski

October 2, 2016

VOD: before and since this Sept. 24 action, held in Detroit, cops have continued their deadly rampage across the U.S. Three brutal executions of Black men happened in California alone within two days during the past week. A man and two teens died in Taylor and Livonia, Michigan after police chases. Videos and links to those stories are below this one.

Group gathers after blocking traffic.

DETROIT – As the U.S. rises up against the genocidal slaughter of Blacks by police from Charlotte, S.C. to Columbus, Ohio, to Tulsa, Arizona, family members from Detroit, New York City, Dayton, Ohio, Kenosha, Illinois and elsewhere blocked Woodward Avenue for an hour Sept. 24 to demand justice for their loved ones’ deaths.

Drivers honked their horns in solidarity as the families chanted and released white balloons heavenward, with the names of Adaisha Miller, Terrance Kellom, Aiyana Jones, Lamar Grable, Kimoni “Kodak” Davis, Justus Howell, Malcolm Ferguson, John Collado and Emmet Till printed across them or displayed on t-shirts and signs.

Balloons fly skyward in memory of those murdered by police.

“Only in policing can you kill a person one day, take a vacation, come back on restricted duty, get a raise and retire with a large pension,” Pastor Jerome McCorry of the Faith and Justice Social Alliance of Dayton, Ohio said. “All you did was kill somebody who didn’t look like you. The same madness is going on with mass incarceration.”

Pastor McCorry and P.O.S.T (Protect Our Stolen Treasures), headed by Yolanda McNair, based in Detroit, and members of the Original Detroit Coalition against Police Brutality led the militant action. They sponsored held a day-long conference at St. Matthew’s and St. Joseph’s Church on Woodward and Clairmount to solidify their ties with each other and reach out to others.

At an afternoon panel, family members told heart-wrenching stories.

Kevin Kellom, Pastor Jerome McCorry, and Yolanda McNair, leader of P.O.S.T., holding poster with her daughter Adaisha Miller’s photo.

“Adaisha was my jewel,” said her mother Yolanda McNair. “She left a little six-year-old daughter. She loved kids, she loved life, and became a massage therapist. She was killed one day before her 25^th birthday by Detroit cop Isaac Parrish III.”

Parrish claimed his gun, which he was carrying in a side holster while he danced with Adaisha during a party involving drinking went off accidentally July 8, 2012. The Detroit police covered up for him, smearing Adaisha’s name. He was never charged, not even with reckless endangerment. He was not tested for alcohol or drugs.

“I have a tattoo to remember Adaisha, and my grandkids come up and kiss it,” McNair said. “Her death did not just affect me, it affected everyone who loved her. She deserved to get old, fall in love, and have kids. Now, I’m proud to be the leader of this group. I’m going to fight not just for Adaisha but for everybody. If it happened to us, it can happen to you.”

Arnetta Grable comforts Kevin Kellom as he speaks during panel.

Kevin Kellom, who attended the event with his wife Yvette Johnson, remembered the Detroit and federal police execution of his son Kevin Kellom, 18, on April 27, 2015.

“I called him Tee-Tee,” Kellom said. “I always told him, when you bring kids into the world, you have to take care of them. He had a warrant out, but I told the police,‘ I will bring him in the day after his daughter is born.’ ”

Terrance Kellom, Facebook

Kevin Kellom with grandbabies Terranae Kellom, Terrance Kellom.

The day they killed him, four I.C.E. agents, two DEA agents, and three Detroit police came to my door. I wouldn’t let them in without a warrant, but they snatched the door out of my hand. I heard them upstairs telling Tee-Tee, ‘Freeze or I’ll blow your brains out.’

“Then they brought him downstairs, two cops in front and two in back. His hands were in his pockets, but then he put his arms out to me, calling ‘Dad.’ They shot him eight times, then one put his foot on his shoulder and one kicked him, and another turned him over, and shot him again.”

Police claimed Kellom threatened them with a hammer, but Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said during a press conference announcing that no charges against the cops would be brought, that no fingerprints were found on the hammer.

Kimberly Davis with son Kimoni “Kodak” Davis. FB page.

Kellom broke down, blaming himself for not raising his son better, but Aaron Grable, brother of Lamar Grable, told him, “It ain’t about what you didn’t do, it’s about what they did. I was the bad kid in my family, and Lamar was the good kid, but they killed him anyway.”

Kimberly Davis, mother of Kimoni “Kodak” Davis, said he was killed during a car chase in a speed trap set up by Hanging Rock, Ohio police, who said he was going 11 miles over the speed limit as he was coming back home on an Ohio highway. His 17-year-old friend Airshawn Warren of W. Virginia also died. White Hanging Rock cop David Caruso, who had participated in four such other chases, drove the lead car.

State Highway Patrol photographs of the freeway embankment Davis drove up on before flying over three lanes and crashing in a gulley show tracks from two sets of cars, indicating that police may have followed and pushed his car over the road.

Two sets of tire tracks going up embankment where Davis car went airborne. The one on the left appears to be veering toward one on the right. OHP photo.

“He made me a grandmother at the age of 14,” Davis said. “Now his baby is the only part of him I have left. He had just called me to say, ‘Ma, I’m on my way home, don’t worry about me.’ Instead he went home to Our Lord because he was a brown face in southern Ohio. My son lived one day, and he died in my arms in a hospital in West Virginia. He was not even recognizable. His grandson tells me how much he misses his father. It’s not a good feeling to know they are killing us. Many cops are half-crazy. They don’t tell on each other, but then they get mad because we don’t snitch in the hood.”

Aaron Grable, brother of Lamar Grable, speaks at conference Sept. 24, 2016.

Arnetta Grable, Sr. recalled, “I remember like yesterday the first time I set eyes on my first baby Lamar, and I remember like yesterday the last time I saw him, dead in the hospital with 50 police cars outside. Cop Eugene Brown claimed Lamar shot him, and they told me Brown was ‘clinging to life’ at the same hospital. It was all lies. Brown and Vicki Yost were chasing a stocky, dark-skinned man who was 5’6.” My son was 6’3,” light-skinned with red hair, and he only weighed 120 lbs. Brown just decided to execute him after he turned him over and realized his mistake.”

As explained in the previous story on the 20^th anniversary commemoration of Lamar’s death, the truth came out during a civil trial, “Lamar’s day in court,” that his mother fought seven years to bring about. It resulted in the U.S. Department of Justice intervention into the Detroit Police Department on consent decrees lasting over 10 years.

“They tried to get my mother to settle for $1 million,” Aaron Grable said. “But I told her, ‘You can’t miss what you never had.’”

Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway, killer cop Joseph Weekley, Aiyana Jones

Mertilla Jones, grandmother of Aiyana Jones, 7 when she was viciously shot to death in the head with an AK-47 by Detroit cop Joseph Weekley, leading a military-style assault team on May 16, 2010, also spoke. Her family has gone through unspeakable harassment, frame-ups, and torture since they lost their beautiful little girl.

Jones was sleeping on a living-room couch with her favorite grandchild when police broke in. They had no search warrant for the family’s home, only for an upper flat above their address. Detroit cop Joseph Weekley went free after several mistrials deliberately caused by Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway in league with the prosecution and defense. He is now back on the force. His brother Nate Weekley was recently disciplined for posting on Facebook that Black Lives Matter is a terrorist group.

Mertilla Jones speaks Sept. 24, 2016 about DPD murder of her granddaughter Aiyana Jones, 7, on May 16, 2010.

“I saw the light go out of her eyes,” Jones said. “Aiyana was born July 20, 2002 and put in my arms by her maternal grandmother July 21, 2002. I speak for Mertilla Jones, and I speak for Aiyana Jones. They said my family were gang members, but we are survivors of police murder and torture. They locked up Aiyana’s father, my son Charles, for 40-60 years, and every man in my family with the name Jones. I raised six Black men, and have over 30 grandbabies, most of them boys. I am fighting for all of us. I am here to support all these families.”

Latoya Howell, mother of Justus Howell, 17.

LaToya Howell of Kenosha, Illinois, said that when she was told her 17-year-old son Justus Howell had been shot to death by police, “I left this planet. My soul left out of my body. We are the ones that go to the ends of the earth for our children, we teach them everything. You are not going to lie on my baby, he didn’t have a gun. They showed the world the tape. You thought you could take my baby’s life, but it will not be without a fight. If just a fraction of people that have the ears and soul that you all have would join forces, we can stop these killings.”

News reports said Howell had been shot twice in the back by Kenosha police as he ran from them, in early April 2015. Protests followed. At one held in Zion, Ill. People carried signs declaring “Blood on their badges,” “Stand up 4 Justus,” “Black Power: Our children are the power,” “Hands up, don’t shoot,” and “Black Lives Matter,” according to the Kenosha News.

March in Zion, Illinois to demand justice for Justus Howell; Photo Kenosha News

Ericka Gordon-Taylor, a cousin of Emmett Till, lynched in the South in 1955, attended the conference with her mother, both wearing T-Shirts commemorating the 14-year-old child and his mother Mamie Mobley, who insisted on an open casket funeral to show the world how vicious racists had savaged her child’s face and body.

Ericka Gordon-Taylor remembers Emmett Till.

They had just returned from the grand opening of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History, which featured the first display of that casket. Till was exhumed in 2005, and could not be re-buried in the same casket.

“That casket symbolizes that all of our families and loved ones are still being slaughtered, 61 years later,” Gordon-Taylor said. “We still see the stain of Emmett Till’s blood on the fabric of America.”

Also in attendance were Joshua Lopez of New York City, whose uncle John Collado was murdered by an undercover cop in 2011 as he sought to break up what he thought was a neighborhood fight, but instead was the cop beating another man. Lopez has been very active since, traveling across the country to numerous rallies.

Joshua Lopez (center in red cap) during march for his uncle John Collado in NYC.

He was joined by Juanita Young of New York City, whose son Malcolm Ferguson was shot and killed March 1, 2000 in the Bronx, by plainclothes officer Louis Rivera. Like the family of Lamar Grable, she fought in court for years and in June 2007 a jury awarded her $10.5 million for the killing of her son, which was later reduced on appeal.  She and her family have been subjected to constant police raids and brutality since that time, like the family of Mertilla Jones. Young leads the organizing of national events like the one in Detroit Sept. 24.

Members of Dayton, Ohio BLM group at conference.

Pastor McCorry summed up the conference in tears, saying, “This is my family. I love everyone sitting at this table. I refuse to ever sell you out.

“This is a fight we all better fight. It is as much about white folks as Black folks. A boat cannot rise from the flood waters until the people at the bottom are saved.”

Family members gather at end of conference. They had just been awarded posters declaring solidarity between African-Americans and the struggle of the Palestinian people.

Videos and stories on recent killings by police across the U.S. and Michigan.

REGINALD THOMAS, FATHER OF 8, KILLED BY PASADENA, CA COPS Sept. 30, MASS PROTESTS FOLLOW

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/authorities-release-video-and-911-call-as-detectives-probe-death-of-man-who-struggled-with-pasadena-police-officers/ar-BBwRzGm?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=thanksDHP

EL CAJON, CA. COPS KILL ALFRED OLANGO SEPT. 29, HUNDREDS PROTEST FOR DAYS

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/28/police-killing-black-man-el-cajon-san-diego-protest

CARNELL SNELL, JR. 18 KILLED BY LA COPS SEPT. 30, PROTESTS ERUPT

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/carnell-snell-jr-black-teenager-shot-dead-police-los-angeles-lapd-chase-younger-sister-black-lives-a7341361.html

 DASHCAM VIDEO SHOWS COPS TRIED TO RUN OVER ROBERT MANN BEFORE SHOOTING HIM 14 TIMES IN SACRAMENTO, CA JULY 11

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/%e2%80%98i%e2%80%99m-going-to-hit-him%e2%80%99-dash-cam-video-shows-officers-tried-to-run-over-man-before-shooting-him-14-times/ar-BBwSPY9?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=thanksDHP

LOUISIANA COPS KILL 6-YR-OLD AUTISTIC BOY, WOUND FATHER

FLAT ROCK, MI MAN ROBERT PARENT SHOT TO DEATH BY STATE TROOPERS AFTER CHASE SEPT. 3O.

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2016/09/30/police-corner-gunman-after-shots-fired-at-troopers-in-van-buren-twp/

FAMILY FILES $10 MILLION LAWSUIT IN KILLING OF DETROIT WOMAN JANET WILSON BY DEARBORN COPS

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2016/08/family_sues_for_10_million_ste.html

BELOW: VOD stories related to families at Sept. 24 conference (many had multiple stories, but only one is cited for sake of space. To see others, put the victim’s name in the VOD search engine at upper right.)

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/09/29/community-honors-lamar-grable-murdered-20-yrs-ago-by-detroit-cops-eugene-brown-vicki-yost/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/10/22/a-voice-for-kimoni-kodak-davis-19-killed-in-high-speed-chase-by-white-ohio-cop-damon-caruso-24/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/09/18/stunning-revelation-in-cop-killing-of-aiyana-jones-7-direct-contact-gunshot-could-have-killed-her/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/08/21/no-justice-for-young-detroit-dad-terrance-kellom-worthy-refuses-to-prosecute-killer-cops-again/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/01/06/boycott-dearborn-charge-white-cop-who-executed-detroits-kevin-matthews-unarmed-harmless/ (to this day, Prosecutor Kym Worthy has not named or charged the white Dearborn cop who killed Kevin Matthews just before last Christmas),

To read listing of Detroiters killed by police since 1992, click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/DETROITERS-KILLED-BY-POLICE-SINCE-1992-edited-2.pdf

Mourners at Tyre King funeral Sept. 24, 2016

Tyre a “small-framed adolescent boy, standing 5’0” and weighing less than 100 lbs.,” who suffered gunshot wounds to his left temple, one to his left collarbone and one to his left flank.

By: Kirsten West Savali  

September 21, 2016

Tyre King, the 13-year-old boy who was fatally shot by Columbus, Ohio, police last week, was “more likely than not” running away at the time he was killed.

According to an autopsy performed by Dr. Francisco Diaz, an independent medical examiner retained by Tyre’s family, “Based on the location and the direction of the wound paths, it is more likely than not that Tyre King was in the process of running away from the shooter or shooters when he suffered all three gunshot wounds.”

Tyre King, 13

Diaz described Tyre as a “small-framed adolescent boy, standing 5’0” and weighing less than 100 lbs.,” who suffered gunshot wounds to his left temple, one to his left collarbone and one to his left flank.

The results from the local coroner’s office won’t be available for at least six weeks.

As previously reported by The Root, Tyre was shot and killed by Police Officer Bryan Mason on Sept. 14.

Mason, a nine-year veteran on the force, was responding to reports of an armed robbery—in the amount of $10—and a group of teenagers were the alleged suspects. Mason claimed that as he approached, Tyre pulled a BB gun from his waistband that looked like a real firearm, so he opened fire.

Columbus cop Brian Mason had killed before in 2012.

Attorneys for Tyre’s family released the following statement:

“Dr. Diaz determined that Tyre King suffered three gunshot wounds with entrance paths on the left side of his body, any of which could be determined to have been the cause of death. Tyre suffered a gunshot wound of entrance on the left temple that passed left to right and slightly downward and exited through the right temple. The entrance wound was above the left ear and the exit wound was in front of the right ear. Tyre also suffered a gunshot wound to the left collarbone area. Lastly, he suffered a gunshot wound to the left flank. There is an exit wound on the right flank.

Dr. Diaz notes: “Based on the location and the direction of the wound paths it is more likely than not that Tyre King was in the process of running away from the shooter or shooters when he suffered all three gunshot wounds.” Dr. Diaz describes Tyre as a “small-framed adolescent boy, standing 5’0” and weighing less than 100 lbs.”

Based on this new information and as more facts emerge, the family asks for the public to continue to withhold final judgment until all the facts are known and vetted. The Columbus Police Department, the City of Columbus and most importantly Tyre King and his family deserve the benefit of an investigation from a law enforcement agency that has no direct impact from the outcome of that investigation.

The family continues to request a full, thorough and independent investigation by an outside law enforcement agency and are requesting that the Columbus Police Department and the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office remove themselves from any involvement in the investigation.

Memorial for Tyre King, 13

Tyre’s autopsy results were released as news about the police shootings of Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Okla., and Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, N.C., is still developing.

Kirsten West Savali is a cultural critic and an associate editor at The Root. She was named to Ebony magazine’s 2015 “Power 100” list and awarded a 2015 Harry Frank Guggenheim Fellowship. Her provocative commentary explores the intersections of race, social justice, religion, feminism, politics and pop culture. Follow her on Twitter.

Like The Root on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

Related:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/09/23/uprisings-in-charlotte-n-c-after-police-kill-keith-lamont-scott-father-of-7-black-protester-justin-carr/

SKY BANNER FLIES FOR LAMAR GRABLE, KILLED 20 YRS. AGO BY DETROIT COPS EUGENE BROWN, VICKI YOST

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/09/20/tulsa-cops-shoot-terence-crutcher-an-unarmed-black-man-to-death-without-cause/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/09/15/again-and-again-columbus-ohio-police-shoot-kill-black-13-yr-old-tyree-king/

Charlotte protests continue, with plans to blockade Sunday’s Panthers game.

SEPTEMBER 25, 2016

Keith Lamont Scott with mother Vernita Walker.

VOD UPDATE 3: Charlotte police have released partial videos of the killing of Keith Lamont Scott, (see below) which raise more questions, particularly since they are clearly edited. 

Why does the cop in the first segment ask someone to go to his car trunk to get his “bag,” then clarify that saying, his “gun,” after Scott is already dead on the ground and handcuffed? The video then clearly shows a cop handing an object to another and something being tossed on the ground.

Charlotte police reported that a “forensic examination shows Scott’s DNA and fingerprints on the loaded gun retrieved from the scene and that Scott was wearing an ankle holster” according to the AP.  It is clear from Mrs. Rakeyiah Scott’s cell phone video below this one that the cops spent a long time maneuvering over Scott’s handcuffed body, giving them plenty of time to put the gun in his hand.

Regarding that cell phone video, the following comment was made on the VOD Facebook page:

Patty Rowell Does anyone else besides me see the officer standing closest to the right of Scott drop something on the ground next to Scott after he is shot during the video? Watch closely. The officer on left is kneeling over victim. The video moves to left and no view of victim. As soon as it goes back with victim and officers in view, the officer standing immediately right of victim drops what appears to be a dark object on the ground.

Rakeyia Scott with her husband of 20 years, Keith Lamont Scott.

UPDATE SEPT. 23, 2016–Rakeyia Scott, wife of Keith Lamont Scott, has released her heart-rending cell phone video of the moments before police shot and killed her husband, the father of seven, in which she tells them, “He has a TMI (Traumatic Brain Injury).” She talks to him, telling him to get out of his car, but the police do not ask her to intercede in whatever situation was happening. Instead they shoot her husband of 20 years to death in front of her eyes. She tells them, “He better not be dead.”

Protests continue for two days after Charlotte police kill Black father Keith Lamont Scott

Justin Carr shot to death, protesters say by police rubber bullet, nine injured, 44 arrested during uprisings

Eyewitness disputes police report that Scott had a gun; family says he was waiting for his son’s school bus while reading a book.

Police let family see video, will not release it to public 

 Scott the sixth man killed by police in Charlotte-Mecklenberg area this year; Justin Carr makes it the seventh

(VOD: Updated Sept. 23 with inserts from other sources, photos, videos)

September 22, 2016

By Daniel Wallis, Scott Malone

CHARLOTTE, N.C. [One Black protester, Justin Carr, was shot to death in the head,] at least nine people were injured and 44 people were arrested during a second night of violent protests in Charlotte, North Carolina, the city’s police chief said on Thursday, following the fatal police shooting of a [Black father of seven, Keith Lamont Scott.]

[During Wednesday night’s demonstrations, a protester was shot in the head in what the police described as a “civilian on civilian” episode. But some protesters accused the police of opening fire. Early Thursday evening, just about the time a crowd was gathering, the police announced that the man had died earlier in the day and that the department had begun a homicide investigation.

Keith Lamont Scott at right, from family’s GoFundMe page

The police identified the victim as Justin Carr, 26, without elaborating further on his death.–New York Times]

Police used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades to disperse demonstrators who looted stores and threw rocks, bottles and fireworks.

(GoFundMe Page for Keith L. Scott at https://www.gofundme.com/2q773xg,)

Officials initially said Carr was shot by a civilian, but on Thursday Putney acknowledged some claims he was shot by a law enforcement officer.

“We’re here to seek the truth, so we’re investigating that to find the truth, the absolute truth as best as the evidence can show us,” Putney said.

Four police officers suffered non-life threatening injuries, city officials said.

Justin Carr being carried to the hospital, where he later died. Getty Images

The latest trouble erupted after a peaceful rally earlier in the evening by protesters who reject the official account of how Keith Scott, 43, was gunned down by a black police officer in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Tuesday afternoon.

Justin Carr, killed during protests against police murder of Keith Lamont Scott

The killing was the latest in a long series of controversial fatal police shootings of black men across the United States, sparking more than two years of protests asserting racial bias and excessive force by police and giving rise to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Scott’s killing marked the 214th incident of a black person by police this year, according to Mapping Police Violence, an anti-police violence group created out of the protest movement. There is no national-level government data on police shootings.

(VOD: Go to http://www.killedbypolice.net/killedbypolice.net, which lists 844 killings nationally this year as of Sept. 21  with the killings of Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Scott and Carr in Charlotte making it 847.)

Authorities say Scott was wielding a handgun and was shot after refusing commands to drop it. His family and a witness say he was holding a book, not a firearm, when he was killed.

[Scott’s grieving relatives watched videos on Thursday of the fatal shooting, a wrenching experience that they said revealed no hint of aggression in him and left the family members convinced that the videos should be made public. But the city’s police chief, who had arranged for the private viewing, held fast to his decision not to release the recordings.

Scott’s wife Rakeyia Scott and other relatives of the dead man, Keith L. Scott, watched his killing from two angles, recorded Tuesday by police dashboard and body cameras, and “it was incredibly difficult,” a family lawyer, Justin Bamberg, said in a statement.

Family members of Keith Lamont Scott gather outside the Mecklenberg courthouse. Photo: The Independent.

When told by police to exit his vehicle, Mr. Scott did so in a very calm, nonaggressive manner,” Mr. Bamberg said. “While police did give him several commands, he did not aggressively approach them or raise his hands at members of law enforcement at any time.” When an officer opened fire, he added, “Mr. Scott’s hands were by his side, and he was slowly walking backwards.”

On Thursday night, hundreds of people gathered at an intersection in central Charlotte, holding signs and chanting, “We want the tapes!” in a peaceful demonstration. New York Times]

Related Coverage

• VIDEOOne gravely wounded in North Carolina unrest
• VIDEOProtest erupts in Charlotte following police shooting
• VIDEOSecond night of Charlotte unrest
• VIDEOClinton: Killings of black men by police “intolerable”

A spokesman for the Charlotte Fraternal Order of Police told CNN on Thursday he had seen video from the scene showing Scott holding a gun.

“It is important that we have a full and transparent investigation of the original incident,” Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts told a press conference.

The pleas appeared to go largely unheeded. Overnight, protesters smashed windows and glass doors at a downtown Hyatt hotel and punched two employees, the hotel’s manager told Reuters. The slogan “Black Lives Matter” was spray-painted on windows.

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Looters were seen smashing windows and grabbing items from a convenience store as well as a shop that sells athletic wear for the National Basketball Association’s Charlotte Hornets. Protesters also set fire to trash cans.

“We had a lot of looting at a lot of businesses,” Putney said, adding that state police and National Guard troops would help to secure the area on Thursday.

The people arrested faced such charges as assault, breaking and entering and failure to disperse, he said.

It was the second night of unrest in North Carolina’s largest city, one of the biggest U.S. financial centers. Sixteen police officers and several protesters had been injured on Tuesday night and in the early hours of Wednesday.

Related Coverage

• Charlotte police chief says no curfew after violent protests
• Charlotte shooting video to be released with ‘compelling reason’
• Nine people hurt, 44 arrested in Charlotte protests overnight: police
• FACT BOX Slain Charlotte man described as courteous father of seven

Bank of America headquarters, Charlotte, N.C.

Bank of America Corp, which is headquartered in Charlotte, and Wells Fargo & Co, which has a large office there, told employees not to report to work at uptown offices.

The American Civil Liberties Union has called on the police in Charlotte to release camera footage of the incident. Authorities have said the officer who shot Scott, Brentley Vinson, was in plainclothes and not wearing a body camera. But according to officials, video was recorded by other officers and by cameras mounted on patrol cars.

Todd Walther, the Charlotte Fraternal Order of Police official, said the plainclothes officers were wearing vests marked “police” and that he saw them do nothing wrong. Releasing the video would satisfy some people, but not everyone, he added, and people will have to wait for the investigation to conclude.

“The clear facts will come out and the truth will come out. It’s unfortunate to say that we have to be patient, but that’s the way it’s going to have to be,” Walter said.Mayor Roberts said she planned to view the footage on Thursday, but did not indicate if or when it would be made public.

Rage in Charlotte.

The killing of Scott came just days after a fatal shooting of an unarmed black man in Tulsa, Oklahoma that was recorded on video. Protesters have held peaceful rallies demanding the arrest of the female officer involved [who has since turned herself in to face manslaughter charges.]

William Barber, president of North Carolina’s chapter of the NAACP, called for the “full release of all facts available,” and said NAACP officials planned to meet with city officials and members of Scott’s family on Thursday.

(Additional reporting by Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas, Dan Freed in New York and Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Writing by Daniel Wallis and Scott Malone; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt and Jeffrey Benkoe)

Recent related stories:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/09/20/tulsa-cops-shoot-terence-crutcher-an-unarmed-black-man-to-death-without-cause/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/09/15/again-and-again-columbus-ohio-police-shoot-kill-black-13-yr-old-tyree-king/

TO READ PARTIAL LIST OF DETROITERS KILLED BY POLICE SINCE 1992, CLICK ON http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/DETROITERS-KILLED-BY-POLICE-SINCE-1992-edited.pdf.

Video shows Tulsa man had hands up before police shooting

Helicopter cops called him a “big, bad dude” from above

Police chief: “There was no gun”

Twin sister demands charges

September 20, 2016

Terence Crutcher (center) and family/Family photo

TULSA, Okla. — An unarmed black man killed by a white Oklahoma officer who was responding to a stalled vehicle can be seen in police video walking away from officers and toward his SUV with his hands up before he approaches the driver’s side door, where he drops to the ground after being shocked with a stun gun then fatally shot.

In Tulsa police helicopter footage that was among several clips released Monday showing the shooting of 40-year-old Terence Crutcher and its aftermath, a man in the helicopter that arrives above the scene as Crutcher walks to the vehicle can be heard saying “time for a Taser.” He then says: “That looks like a bad dude, too. Probably on something.”

Cop Betty Shelby (l) shot Crutcher to death; Cop Tyler Turnbough tasered him first.

Police Chief Chuck Jordan announced before the video and audio recordings’ release that Crutcher had no weapon on him or in his SUV when he was shot Friday. It’s not clear from the footage what led Betty Shelby, the officer who fired the fatal shot, to draw her gun or what orders officers might have given Crutcher. Local and federal investigations are underway to determine whether criminal charges are warranted in the shooting or if Crutcher’s civil rights were violated.

Crutcher’s twin sister, Tiffany Crutcher, called for charges Monday.

“The big bad dude was my twin brother. That big bad dude was a father,” she said. “That big bad dude was a son. That big bad dude was enrolled at Tulsa Community College, just wanting to make us proud. That big bad dude loved God. That big bad dude was at church singing with all of his flaws, every week. That big bad dude, that’s who he was.”

Police video shows Crutcher walking toward his SUV that is stopped in the middle of the road. His hands are up and a female officer is following him. As Crutcher approaches the driver’s side of the SUV, three male officers walk up and Crutcher appears to lower his hands and place them on the vehicle. The officers surround him, making it harder to see his actions from the dashboard camera’s angle.

Terence Crutcher walks toward his car with his hands up, followed by cops.

Crutcher can be seen dropping to the ground. Someone on the police radio says, “I think he may have just been tasered.” One of the officers near Crutcher backs up slightly.

Then almost immediately, someone can be heard yelling, “Shots fired!” Crutcher’s head then drops, leaving him completely lying out in the street.

After that, someone on the police radio can be heard saying, “Shots fired. We have one suspect down.”

Officer Tyler Turnbough, who’s also white, used a stun gun on Crutcher, police said.

The shooting comes just four months after former Tulsa County volunteer deputy Robert Bates was sentenced to four years in prison on a second-degree manslaughter conviction in the 2015 death of an unarmed black man. Shelby worked as a Tulsa County sheriff’s deputy for four years before joining the Tulsa Police Department in December 2011, officials said. She has been placed on paid leave.

Shot from police helicopter video shows Crutcher at door of his car just before being killed.

The initial moments of Crutcher’s encounter with police are not shown in the footage. Shelby did not activate her patrol car’s dashcam, said police spokeswoman Jeanne MacKenzie, and the ground-level video released Monday came from the car of a second officer who arrived at the scene.

© The Associated Press In this image made from a Friday, Sept. 16, 2016 police video, Terence Crutcher, top, is pursued by police officers as he walk to an SUV in Tulsa, Okla. Crutcher was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead after… Initial police briefings indicated Crutcher was not obeying officers’ commands, but MacKenzie said Monday she didn’t know what Crutcher was doing that prompted police to shoot. Two 911 calls described an SUV that had been abandoned in the middle of the road. One unidentified caller said the driver was acting strangely, adding, “I think he’s smoking something.”

After the shooting, Crutcher could be seen lying on the side of the road, blood pooling around his body, for nearly two minutes before anyone checked on him. When asked why police did not provide immediate assistance once Crutcher was down, MacKenzie said, “I don’t know that we have protocol on how to render aid to people.”

Protesters gather in Tulsa.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, which also called for charges, said Crutcher was left to bleed while officers stood by. The group’s executive director, Ryan Kiesel, said Crutcher’s death shows “how little regard” Tulsa police have for the community’s minorities.

Dozens of protesters gathered outside the county courthouse Monday evening holding signs that read, “Justice 4 Crutch” and “Don’t Shoot.”

With relations between police and blacks in Tulsa already uneasy, the community needs to be the place where change happens, Tiffany Crutcher said.

“This is bigger than us right here. We’re going to stop it right here,” she said.

U.S. Attorney Danny C. Williams said the Department of Justice’s civil rights investigation into the shooting will be separate from a local one into whether criminal charges should be filed.

“The Justice Department is committed to investigating allegations of force by law enforcement officers and will devote whatever resources are necessary to ensure that all allegations of serious civil rights violations are fully and completely investigated,” he said.

Speaking Monday in Tulsa, civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump said Crutcher committed no crime and gave officers no reason to shoot him.

“When unarmed people of color break down on the side of the road, we’re not treated as citizens needing help. We’re treated as, I guess, criminals — suspects that they fear,” said Crump, who is representing Crutcher’s family just as he did relatives of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed, black Florida teenager who was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer in 2012.

He said Tulsa police drew their own conclusions about Crutcher.

“So I guess it’s a crime now to be a big black man,” Crump said. “My God, help us.”

Associated Press writer Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed to this report.

 Moscow also blames the strike, which killed up to 80 Syrian troops, on America’s “stubborn refusal” to co-operate.

13:56, UK,Sunday 18 September 2016

Russia has accused the US-led coalition in Syria of being on the “boundary between criminal negligence and direct connivance with Islamic State terrorists”.

The stinging attack comes after the US admitted leading a coalition airstrike which reportedly killed up to 80 Syrian soldiers in the east of the war-torn country.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin confer over US-led air strike in Syria. AP

Russia’s foreign ministry said the strike jeopardised a fragile American-Russian brokered ceasefire in Syria.

It added that the strike was a result of Washington’s “stubborn refusal” to co-operate with Moscow in fighting Islamic State and other terror groups.

The Syrian military called the strike a “serious and blatant attack on Syria and its military” and “firm proof of the US support of Daesh and other terrorist groups”, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

The airstrike hit a base in the eastern city of Deir el Zour, which is surrounded by Islamic State militants.

Russia’s defence ministry said more than 60 Syrian soldiers were killed and around 100 wounded in four strikes by two F-16s and two A-10s.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group with contacts across Syria, cited a military source at Deir el Zour airport as saying at least 80 Syrian soldiers died.

A senior White House official said the US has relayed “regret” through the Russian government for the unintentional loss of life to Syrian forces.

US Central Command said the strike was immediately halted “when coalition officials were informed by Russian officials that it was possible the personnel and vehicles targeted were part of the Syrian military”.

A US military official told Reuters news agency the strike was carried out using US intelligence, and added that the possible targets had been followed for days.

Australia has said its aircraft participated in the airstrike and offered its condolences to the families of Syrian soldiers killed or wounded.

The Syrian military said the damage caused by the strike has allowed the IS extremists to advance their position on to a hill overlooking the base.

US-led strike that killed up to 80 Syrian government soldiers.

Three tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles, four mortars and an anti-aircraft gun were destroyed, a Syrian military spokesman said according to Russia’s TASS news agency reported.

Following the strike, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting overnight at the request of the Kremlin.

The US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, rebuked Russia for the move.

“Russia really needs to stop the cheap point scoring and the grandstanding and the stunts and focus on what matters, which is implementation of something we negotiated in good faith with them,” Ms Power said.

US airstrike hit Syrian govt. soldiers in Dayr Az Zawr.

She said the US was investigating the airstrike and “if we determine that we did indeed strike Syrian military personnel, that was not our intention and we of course regret the loss of life”.

When asked if the incident spelled the end of the Syria deal between Moscow and Washington, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said: “This is a very big question mark.

“I would be very interested to see how Washington is going to react. If what Ambassador Power has done today is any indication of their possible reaction then we are in serious trouble.”

Syrian activists in Aleppo protest U.S. failure to get ISIS out of their city.

He said he had never seen “such an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness” as displayed by Ms. Power at the acrimonious meeting.

The fragile ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia has largely held for five days, despite dozens of alleged violations on both sides.

It began on Monday, but aid convoys have been unable to enter rebel-held parts of the city of Aleppo – a key part of the deal.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already questioned US commitment to the ceasefire, claiming Washington was not prepared to break with “terrorist elements” battling Bashar al Assad’s forces.

Related:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/08/21/yes-obama-and-clinton-created-isis-but-trump-cant-explain-how-it-happened/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/12/09/russia-launches-missiles-against-isis-in-syria-from-submarine-says-u-s-attacked-syrian-govt-troops/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/02/19/the-u-s-empire-and-isis-a-tale-of-two-death-cults/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/02/09/the-covert-origins-of-isis-united-states-cia-in-libya-syria-iraq-afghanistan/