Police shoot black man after responding to his Life Alert

[Dominus Atheos]

Local News

What began as a mission of mercy at a public housing project in White Plains ended with police killing the very man they had been dispatched to help.
By the time the rapidly escalating conflict was over, police had zapped a 68-year-old former Marine and correction officer with a stun gun, shot him with a beanbag gun and blasted him twice in the chest. The chronically ill Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. died at White Plains Hospital shortly after the early-morning clash on Nov. 19.

Only now, more than four months after the fact, have authorities finally agreed to convene a grand jury to determine if the cops committed a crime.

Like 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, Chamberlain was African-American, and his death has added fuel to the growing national debate that has flared since the Florida teen was killed on Feb. 26.

As in Florida, the White Plains incident received little press attention for weeks and authorities resisted a grand jury probe.
Since then, accounts have surfaced that at least one officer was heard on a tape hurling racial epithets and taunts in the moments before cops removed Chamberlain’s apartment door from its hinges and burst inside.

During the past several days, nearly 200,000 people have signed an online petition demanding justice in Chamberlain’s case. White Plains Mayor Tom Roach on Friday issued his first public statement of condolences to the dead man’s family.

That’s a far different atmosphere and tone than in November.

Back then, police reports stated a deranged man had attacked officers with a hatchet and a knife before cops shot him in self-defense. White Plains Public Safety Commissioner David Chong quickly declared it a “warranted use of deadly force.”

But as the weeks passed, the official story became riddled with holes.
To begin with, the police who arrived at Chamberlain’s apartment in the Winbrook Houses about 5 a.m. were not responding to a disturbance or a crime in progress.

They were supposed to be there to help the man.

Chamberlain, who lived alone, suffered from a chronic heart condition and wore a pendant to signal LifeAid, a medical alert company, in case of trouble.

That morning, the company called police after the pendant went off and Chamberlain failed to respond to a two-way audiobox installed in his apartment. He appears to have accidentally set off the device while he was sleeping.

A LifeAid employee then requested that a squad car go by the house to check on him.

When police arrived, they started banging on his door. Chamberlain yelled out to them that he was all right, that they weren’t needed.
The dead man’s son, Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., and a pair of lawyers said LifeAid’s audiobox recorded every sound inside the apartment. They listened to the recording in February in the office of Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore, though authorities have not released it publicly.

According to the official police version, the officers heard loud noises inside and thought someone else might be in danger. They said they needed to force their way inside to make sure everything was okay.

But Chamberlain refused to open the door for them, according to the lawyers who listened to the audio recording. He was angry at being disturbed by the loud banging and by several police cars and fire engines. He became increasingly agitated as he saw more police arriving with guns drawn.

A nearly hour-long standoff ensued.

Chamberlain’s niece, Tonyia Greenhill, who lived in an apartment upstairs, came down and tried to talk with police, but was ignored. Her uncle sounded scared and was begging the police through the door to leave him alone, she recalled.

One of the family’s lawyers is Mayo Bartlett, a former Westchester assistant district attorney. He and the dead man’s son said someone can be heard screaming at Chamberlain on the LifeAid tape:
“I don’t give a f--k, n----r, open the door!”

One of the people banging outside was also reportedly heard yelling: “I need to use your bathroom to pee!”

Others were taunting Chamberlain’s military service after they discovered he was a former Marine.

The LifeAid dispatcher, who was listening to every word of the commotion, offers at one point to contact family members of Chamberlain to intercede, and even tries to cancel the call for police assistance.

But a police officer is heard saying “We don’t need any mediators,” according to the lawyers.
Two other video cameras captured part of the events that night, and the family and its lawyers have seen those as well.

One is a security camera in the hall of the building. Another is attached to the stun gun police used.

Those reportedly show police prying the door partly open. At one point, according to Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., a metal object is slipped through the gap in the door and falls in the hallway.

“It’s hard to tell what it is, but that could be what police are saying was a hatchet,” the son said.

The tape runs for several more minutes while cops and firefighters work to remove the hinges to the door.

When they finally do, a camera reveals Chamberlain Sr. standing inside his apartment, wearing only boxer shorts, with his arms at his side and his hands empty, according to the son and the family’s lawyers.

“The minute they got in the house, they didn’t even give him one command,” Bartlett said. “They never mentioned ‘put your hands up.’ They never told him to lay down on the bed. The first thing they did ... you could see the Taser light up ... and you could see it going directly toward him.”

Why anyone would use a stun gun on a man with a known heart condition is astounding in itself.

But the cameras don’t capture anything more after that point, according to the son and lawyers. Police say Chamberlain later came at them with a knife, and one cop fired two shots. More than four months after the incident, authorities have refused to identify that cop.

Public Safety Commissioner Chong’s office declined Tuesday to say anything about the case, saying only that there’s an ongoing investigation.

Late last Thursday, following the national furor over the failure of authorities to take Trayvon Martin’s death to a grand jury, and following weeks of protests by Chamberlain’s family, District Attorney DiFiore met with the dead man’s son and the lawyers.

At last, she confirmed to them that a grand jury will begin hearing evidence in the case this month.

A medical alert, then killed by a cop

Nov. 19, 2011

5:08 a.m.: Kenneth Chamberlain’s medical alert device accidentally goes off, triggering a response from the White Plains
Department of Public Safety.

5:25 a.m.: Police knock on Chamberlain’s door. He says he doesn’t need help and refuses to open it.

6:00 a.m.: Cops snap the lock and attempt to use Tasers on Chamberlain. One officer fires on the 68-year-old. Cops say he had a knife; the family’s attorney says he was unarmed.

7:09 a.m.: Chamberlain dies during surgery at White Plains Hospital.

Feb. 15

Chamberlain family files notice of claim saying they plan to sue the Police Department.

March 29

Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore tells Chamberlain’s family the case would be presented to a grand jury within a month.

March 30

White Plains Mayor Tom Roach releases a statement giving his “condolences” to Chamberlain’s family.

April 2

Chamberlain’s son petitions White Plains City Hall to pressure police to release the shooting officer’s name.

More information:

"My name is Kenneth Chamberlain. This is my sworn testimony. White Plains police are going to come in here and kill me."



And that's just what they did.

In the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011, U.S. Marine veteran Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. accidentally hit his LifeAid medical-alert pendant, presumably while sleeping. The 68-year-old retired corrections officer had a heart condition, but wasn't in need of help that dawn. Within two hours, the White Plains, N.Y., police department broke down his apartment door and shot him dead. Chamberlain was African-American. As with Trayvon Martin, the black teen recently killed in Florida, there are recordings of the events, recordings that include a racial slur directed at the victim.

The opening quote, above, was related to us by Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., when he appeared on the "Democracy Now!" news hour talking about the police killing of his father. Ken Jr. was holding on to the LifeAid pendant that his father wore around his neck in case of a medical emergency. Perhaps unbeknownst to the White Plains police who arrived at Ken Sr.'s door that morning, the LifeAid system includes a box in the home that, when activated, transmits audio to the LifeAid company, where it is recorded. Ken Jr. and his lawyers heard the recording in a meeting at the office of the Westchester County district attorney, Janet DiFiore.

Ken Jr. repeated what he heard his father say on the tape: "He says, 'I'm a 68-year-old man with a heart condition. Why are you doing this to me?' ... You also hear him pleading with the officers again, over and over. And at one point, that's when the expletive is used by one of the police officers."

One of Chamberlain's attorneys, Mayo Bartlett, told me about the racial slur. Bartlett is a former Westchester County prosecutor, so he knows the ropes. He was very explicit in recounting what he heard on the recording.

"Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. said to the police, 'I'm a sick old man.' One of the police officers replied, 'We don't give a f--k, n-----!'" (that last word rhymes with "trigger," which they would soon pull). The recording also includes a taunt from the police, as related by Bartlett, "Open the door, Kenny, you're a grown-ass man!" It was when Ken Jr. related how the police mocked his father's military service that he broke down. "He said, 'Semper fi." So they said, "Oh, you're a Marine. Hoo-rah. Hoo-rah." And this is somebody that served this country. Why would you even say that to him?" Ken Jr. wept as he held his father's Marine ring and Veterans Administration card.

The LifeAid operator that November morning, hearing the exchange live, called the White Plains police in a desperate attempt to cancel the call for emergency medical aid. Chamberlain's niece, who lives in the building, ran down, trying to intervene. Chamberlain's sister was on her cellphone, offering to talk to her brother. The police denied any attempt at help. One was heard on the recording saying, "We don't need any mediator."

The heavily armed police used a special device to take Chamberlain's door completely off the hinges and, as chillingly captured in the Taser-mounted camera, burst into the apartment. Mayo Bartlett recounted seeing Chamberlain shirtless in the video, hands at his side, without the knife or hatchet that police claim he wielded, standing in his boxer shorts. "The minute they got into the house, they didn't even give him one command. They never mentioned, 'Put your hands up.' They never told him to lay down on the bed. They never did any of that. The first thing they did, as soon as that door was finally broken off the hinges, you could see the Taser light up, and it was charged, and you could see it going directly toward him."

The last thing Bartlett hears on the Taser tape is "shut it off," meaning, turn off the video recording, which the police did. Within minutes, they would shoot Chamberlain twice. Four months later, no one has been charged with the killing. "Democracy Now!" co-host Juan Gonzalez revealed the name of the shooter through his reporting in the New York Daily News, as White Plains Officer Anthony Carelli. Carelli is to be tried in coming months for alleged police brutality against two brothers, the sons of Jordanian immigrants, who say Carelli beat one of them, Jereis Hatter, while handcuffed, and called him a "raghead."

Trayvon Martin was killed Feb. 26. A Florida grand jury is expected to begin the investigation into his killing on April 10. The next day, April 11, a New York grand jury is scheduled to begin hearing evidence in the case of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. He was killed last November. In both cases, an African-American male was gunned down. In both cases, an African-American male was gunned down. In both cases, the shooter is known to the police. In Chamberlain's case, it is the police. And no one has been arrested.

In a just world every officer on the scene would be charged with felony murder and every higher-up who knew what happened and didn't do something about it would be charged as an accessory-after-the-fact. Of course, the American legal system is not a just world, and it will be a miracle if the actual shooter gets convicted of anything.

[Dominus Atheos]

Oh, and this bears reposting:

When confronted by an armed individual, assume that this person is the police. As such, begin by placing your hands behind your head, fingers interlaced. This will assure that in the eventuality that you are shot and executed, there will be minimum opportunity for analysts and pundits to later ponder if you were the aggressor. Keeping your fingers behind your head is key as it prevents your fingerprints from ending up on your assailant or his weapon. If at all possible, turn your back on the person (whom we will assume always to be the police). In this manner, you will be shot in the back, another telltale sign that you were the victim.

You will not survive your encounter, so it is important to remember to show investigators, the courts, and critics alike that you were in fact the victim. This will be difficult as the assumption is ever-present that somehow, in some way, you did something wrong. That perhaps there was something different you could have, should have done. Perhaps you should have worn something different or walked in a less suspicious manner. I assure you, my son, this is not the case. Regardless of your actions, you were not meant to survive. All you can hope for is an easier postmortem investigation. This will be of some comfort to your mother and I as we cope through your loss, and so I ask you to follow these directions carefully.

Be clear and concise in your cries for help. This will not in any way add to the chance that you will survive the encounter. Instead, it serves to ensure that bystanders and anyone recording just the audio of the encounter will have a clearer depiction of what is happening. Phrases such as "help me!" are not enough. You must be clear. "Please do not shoot me! I am just a kid!" will alert others to the fact that it is you that is about to be shot, rather than your assailant. "I do NOT have a weapon! Please don't shoot me!" further emphasizes that you are unarmed (for after your death, no one is ever certain).

You may be tempted to avoid such circumstance through excessive precaution. Know that this is futile. You might choose to avoid visiting public spaces such as parks and recreational facilities to minimize your encounters with police. This automatically makes you a suspect, for the one time you do happen across a public space, you will be the unknown, an unfamiliar Black male, and a target for execution. You might also avoid after-school activities, and commute to and from school only with large numbers of people. This too is pointless, for they will come to your school and they will place guns at your temple, under the direction of your principal. Success will not be your shield, as your accomplishments hide not your race. Even with a college education, you will be subject to unreasonable circumstances, and will likely be killed.

Most of all, you may try to avoid driving, for this is where you will most likely be stopped, and possibly killed. This may offer some limited comfort. In my teen years, by not having a car I avoided many of the humiliations endured by my cousins and friends. One of my cousins, a doctor whose father is a diplomat, can tell you of the time he was told to get out of his father’s vehicle (which bore a diplomatic license plate) and lie face down, spread eagle on the side of the highway. He was on his way home from a residency interview. The same police officers came to the other side of the van and asked his white brother-in-law if everything was okay.

Know that we have already tried to take these precautions for you. We agonized daily over what neighborhood to raise you in and what schools you should attend. We thought about being actively involved in your afterschool activities and your PTA. In the end, we realized none of it mattered. Your greatest achievements will be fluff for your eulogy.

My son, you will die. You will perish at the hands of those who fear you. Your death will be likened to a hunting accident. The best you can hope for is that it is not your body that dies, only your spirit, as has been the case with me, your father. When you are older, you will know that you were never meant to be a man. Your very existence, your lifespan and quality of life, are indeed not determined by a heavenly Father, but by the complex societal trappings that deem you, somehow, to be faulty, potentially dangerous, and ill-equipped to exist on equal footing. My son, how could you ever be a man? My prayer for you is that you will grow to adulthood and you will have a family of your own, but know that even in adulthood (should you ever make it there) manhood is a plateau upon which you will never stand.

A man holds at least some sway over his fate, for this is God-given. A man is free to protect his person and his loved ones, for this is just. Most of all, a man is granted autonomy. My son, in this country you were never meant to be a man. From the moment you adjust your behavior to avoid being perceived as a threat (walking with extra precision in a white neighborhood or carefully avoiding walking too close to a white person), you have been stripped of the opportunity to define your own existence, of the opportunity to be a man.

You will read that slaves sometimes spared their children from the cruelty of their condition by ending the child's life. It is out of my own vanity that your mother and I could not do this. I need your inevitable suffering to be witnessed by many. I need you to feel the confusion and helplessness I felt everyday growing up, and continue to feel now. At times, I truly felt I was going mad witnessing the consistent assault against and eradication of us. I need you to experience this abomination so that I know I am not riddled with insanity, but that in fact what I have seen over so many years, the clear and concentrated intent to eradicate masculinity from Black males, is real. Perhaps it is merely for selfish reasons that I hoped to have a son, so that I might observe firsthand what has been weighed upon me all these years. For my vanity, for my selfishness, I apologize. You will needlessly suffer in this world for no other reason than you were brought into it by a Black mother and father. All I can leave you with is what Rudyard Kipling wrote to his unborn son:

"If you can fill the unforgiving minute
with sixty seconds worth of distance run
Yours is the earth and all that's in it
And what's more you'll be a man my son"

His words are inspiring, but the expanse of their promise is not meant for you. My words to you are much more simple, more appropriate for your lot in life:

Live with humility, that you may die with grace, for this is all we have been allowed on this earth, in this country.

I suppose we will see if doing these things actually to help, although the letter is right that you will still be killed regardless.

[Alyeska]

Are you through beating your chest like all ITGs? Yes, there are guilty people. But throwing around blatant Guilt By Association accusations and wanting people put in prison for life simply for being there. You're a fucking idiot.

Yes, this was horrible. Yes, this was a crime. The guilty should be punished. The department and its command elements need to be cleaned up.

Not Everyone Is Guilty.

[Dominus Atheos]

Are you through beating your chest like all ITGs? Yes, there are guilty people. But throwing around blatant Guilt By Association accusations and wanting people put in prison for life simply for being there. You're a fucking idiot.

Yes, this was horrible. Yes, this was a crime. The guilty should be punished. The department and its command elements need to be cleaned up.

Not Everyone Is Guilty.

You're a dumbass who needs to look up Felony Murder:

felony murder doctrine

n. a rule of criminal statutes that any death which occurs during the commission of a felony is first degree murder, and all participants in that felony or attempted felony can be charged with and found guilty of murder. A typical example is a robbery involving more than one criminal, in which one of them shoots, beats to death or runs over a store clerk, killing the clerk. Even if the death were accidental, all of the participants can be found guilty of felony murder, including those who did no harm, had no gun, and/or did not intend to hurt anyone. In a bizarre situation, if one of the holdup men or women is killed, his/her fellow robbers can be charged with murder.

Since the cops didn't have a warrant and didn't have probable cause, breaking down that man's door should (in a just world) be considered a felony.

Edit: If a group of black men broke into a white persons house and one of them shot the resident, they would all be charged with murder. Even providing a car that is used to commit a crime in which a person is killed can lead a black man to get life in prison.

[Ultonius]

I have a similar pendant and box to the one described in the article, since I'm physically disabled and live alone. It would be quite easy to roll over onto it and set it off if I wore it while I was sleeping, which is why I don't do that (though in my case, if there was no reply, the responder would contact one of my neighbours or relatives first, rather than the police). Of course, since Mr. Chamberlain had a heart condition, he may have justifiably thought that the need to access the pendant quickly at all times in case of an emergency outweighed the risk of setting it off accidentally, so he can't be faulted for that until we know the exact nature of his condition.

[Count Chocula]

I'm confused about the title. Are you saying the police murdered a Marine because he was black, or are you just stirring the pot?

Edited to change "an" to "a"

[Beowulf]

I'm pretty sure he's saying a cop murdered a Marine because he was black, and the cop was a racist motherfucker, and then the cops have been blocking attempts to investigate the shooting of an unarmed old man in his home.

[Simon_Jester]

I have a similar pendant and box to the one described in the article, since I'm physically disabled and live alone. It would be quite easy to roll over onto it and set it off if I wore it while I was sleeping, which is why I don't do that (though in my case, if there was no reply, the responder would contact one of my neighbours or relatives first, rather than the police). Of course, since Mr. Chamberlain had a heart condition, he may have justifiably thought that the need to access the pendant quickly at all times in case of an emergency outweighed the risk of setting it off accidentally, so he can't be faulted for that until we know the exact nature of his condition.

For that matter, the fact that his behavior risked a false alarm on his Life Alert is sort of irrelevant. Doing something risky and having a bad thing happen only makes you responsible for the bad thing if it was a reasonable, foreseeable consequence.

Triggering a false alarm and having an ambulance visit you unnecessarily (and having to pay for that) is a reasonable, foreseeable conseequence.

Becoming the target of a police siege after they roust you in the middle of the night and decide you're behaving suspiciously, until they beat your door down and shoot you dead because you aren't acting compliant enough? That isn't something citizens should expect to have to fear as a consequence.

[Count Chocula]

Well then I guess they should have just disappeared him under the auspices of the latest Defense Reauthorization Act and then race would never have been an issue /sarcasm.

It appears that the police poorly handled the situation, but like the shooting in Sanford, the jury's still out...and so's my opinion. It seems clear that DA thinks this man was shot for being black. None of us know for sure, and the critical LifeAlert recording is not in the public domain. So OBVIOUSLY it's a racially motivated shooting in backwards Confederate White Plains NY. Maybe Bruce Springsteen will write a song about it /doublesarcasm/.

[Stark]

Dude, even if it's not racially motivated and the cops are just horrible wankers, they still killed an elderly man because his heart alert went off accidentally. What do you think was going on in their heads for the time they spent trying to force the door? Meth lab? AKs wall to wall? Hostages?

There's tragic misunderstanding and then there's fundamental overreaction. I can only imagine living in a country where the police will kill you if you don't allow them to help you.

[Alyeska]

You're a dumbass who needs to look up [url=http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=741]Felony Murder

Perhaps you should look up "mens rea". Felony murder requires people to know they are committing a felony in the first place.

Since you are so gungho on Guilt By Association, you should be charging those firefighters with felony murder as well.

[Aaron MkII]

Maybe he should have gone with "conspiracy to conceal a crime" or the equivalent. But as with Florida, good luck proving anything.

[Patroklos]

How did the first responders know he was black. It appears 99% of the situation took place without the cops seeing the guy, so accusations similar to the Florida case of "I saw a black man and killed him because of it" really don't make sense here.

Out of curiosity, what is the course of action for police if they deem an immediate danger inside a home during a call like this? I really don't know, I am asking.

[Slacker]

He probably 'sounded like a black man'. Or, more likely, they inferred based on his niece.

[Zixinus]

I might be reading this wrong, but... didn't the news article say that they believe that the guy refused to open the door to the police?

I am not trying to protect the guilty here, but why didn't he open the door and assure the police that everything is fine? Was Chamberlain lazy or fearful on the police on principle?

[Dominus Atheos]

You're a dumbass who needs to look up [url=http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=741]Felony Murder

Perhaps you should look up "mens rea". Felony murder requires people to know they are committing a felony in the first place.

People who called a man a "nigger", taunted him about his service as a Marine, and broke down his door after he triggered his Life Alert but said he was fine didn't know they were committing a crime?

Since you are so gungho on Guilt By Association, you should be charging those firefighters with felony murder as well.

In a just world where white cops are treated the same way as our legal system treats black men; yes, because that's what a group of black men would be charged with if they broke down the door of a white cop and shot him regardless of any other extenuating circumstances.

[Alyeska]

Are you fucking stupid or something? You are advocating for every single fucking one of the people on sight to be charged with MURDER. You are blaming ALL of them for this crime without a single fucking shred of evidence. Yes, a crime was committed. Yes, the guilty need to be punished. But unlike you, my response isn't KILL THEM ALL!

[Tanasinn]

How did the first responders know he was black.

Perhaps you should ask the police officer recorded calling the deceased a 'nigger.'

Incidents like this are why I'm glad I live in a world filled with camera phones. There's fewer cases of "police kill a guy under suspicious circumstances, but there's no evidence so they're automatically right" nowadays.

[Kamakazie Sith]

A "loud noise" by itself isn't enough reason to force a door. In order to force a door without a warrant you need probable cause that someones life is in danger. A loud noise can be caused by many things, especially by an elderly man stumbling around in the dark. It seems like they're implying that he was under duress but if that is the case removing the hinges of the door is probably one of the worst ways to gain entry in a tactical situation. If they truly felt his life was in danger then should have kicked the door.

Sounds like they have plenty of evidence against the police. The taser video, the audiobox recordings, and other security video. Hopefully, we will get a chance to see and hear these in addition to reading the report.

DA - You need to educate yourself. There is such a thing called good faith exception. The only ones you can hold responsible are the ones at the door in a position to see and hear. You seriously want to charge the guy holding containment on the street with murder? That's absurd.

[Xisiqomelir]

Dominus, I'm pretty heavily anti-cop, even for an internet leftist, and I think Alyeska has it right here. There's a solid case against the shooters and taserman, and probably everyone who forced entry too, but you can't really pin this on backup drivers who might have been out on the street.

A "loud noise" by itself isn't enough reason to force a door. In order to force a door without a warrant you need probable cause that someones life is in danger. A loud noise can be caused by many things, especially by an elderly man stumbling around in the dark. It seems like they're implying that he was under duress but if that is the case removing the hinges of the door is probably one of the worst ways to gain entry in a tactical situation. If they truly felt his life was in danger then should have kicked the door.

Sounds like they have plenty of evidence against the police. The taser video, the audiobox recordings, and other security video. Hopefully, we will get a chance to see and hear these in addition to reading the report.

A lot of cops buy into covering up for other cops no matter what. I'm glad you're not like that, and I wish more of your profession were the same.

[Dominus Atheos]

I actually think that felony murder is a bullshit charge. Only the person who shot the gun is a murder, obviously.

That said, under the current legal system if a group of black men did the same thing to a white cop that this group of cops and firefighters did to a black man, they would all be charged; no good faith exception, no "I was just a driver" (did you read that link?), no nothing. They'd all be in jail, period.

[AMT]

I actually think that felony murder is a bullshit charge. Only the person who shot the gun is a murder, obviously.

That said, under the current legal system if a group of black men did the same thing to a white cop that this group of cops and firefighters did to a black man, they would all be charged; no good faith exception, no "I was just a driver" (did you read that link?), no nothing. They'd all be in jail, period.

Yes, because they would be breaking into a persons home a shooting him. A group of white non cops would also be charged thusly. Why? Because they aren't cops who can at least attempt to defend their entry with reasonable cause.

It's not a matter of color, it's a matter of shitty cops.

[Count Chocula]

DA, you're basing much of your apparent rage on what Mr. Chamberlain's son said he listened to on the LifeAlert tape. The recording itself is not available for listening, 'cause it's evidence. Your butthurt attitude may turn out to be for the right reason, but RIGHT NOW all you have is hearsay. I'm interested to hear what the grand jury says, when (or if) it's convened.

EDIT: Oops. It was Chamberlain's (Jr. I suppose) attorney who said the cops said the N word. Totally unbiased source.

[SirNitram]

An investigation and full review of this and other incidents with these police is warranted. Hell, necessary. This is such an overreaction and clusterfuck, the individuals responding should've been desked for heavy review a while ago.

[Alkaloid]

I don't understand this at all. The cops get a call from life alert saying this man might need help, he has hit his buzzer. More cops than seem necessary respond, as well as some fire fighters. They get there and knock on the door, the man yells "I'm OK, go away." Somehow, this escalates to the cops racially abusing the man through the door, mocking his military service (?) and eventually throwing something into his apartment, breaking down the door and tasering him, beanbagging him and shooting him twice in the chest. All the while the life alert operator is listening and trying to get the police to leave (and I really feel for this poor bastard, having to listen to and hearing this play out after he started it and trying desperately to stop it) and his niece has come down to try and mediate between the cops and the old man and is told to fuck off. At least with the Trayvon Martin case there was a series of events I could see playing out that showed the cops up as incompetent at best and actively trying to cover for a murderer at worst, but it at least made sense. Here I just have nothing.