Last Saturday, Roy Middleton went out to get a cigarette out of his mother’s car. A short time later, he would end up shot and bleeding on his driveway. Not the victim of a drive by or mugging mind you. The unarmed man was shot by police responding to a call of a man reaching into a car.
Middleton, 60, went out to the car at 2:42 am. I can understand why at that time a neighbor was concerned since car thefts tend to occur very late at night or in the early hours. He was bent over when the police arrived. and ordered him to “Get your hands where I can see them.” He says that he raised his hands and turned toward the deputies but that they opened fire. He was hit in the leg.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the incident Saturday.
Since he appears unarmed, the officers would have to argue that there was an object in his hand or some other reason that they thought he had a weapon. Given the relatively minor crime under investigation and his alleged compliance with the officers’ orders, this makes for a particularly bad case for the city to defend. It will be interesting therefore to see any response from the city, which should offer some initial explanation to the citizens when their own police gun down an unarmed man in his family’s driveway.
Source: PNJ
We all know w/ what the road to hell is paved.
LBJ’s War on Poverty … I was a young woman during that period of time and I knew a great many young men and women who took advantage of those programs becoming machinists, tool and die makers, butchers, bakers, cosmetologists, mechanics, medical technicians … the list goes on and on. These were young people who could not afford college or were not at all interested in the degreed programs offered at universities. Instead they went to school at the manpower agencies and then were placed in businesses that had partnered with the government to provide the further training. It was a win-win as the young people learned a skill and started a career and the businesses received tax credits and a skilled work force. Many of my black friends used this program to their advantage and waved goodbye forever to hamburg flipping and corner-hanging.
The manpower agencies even offered remedial math and english classes to help prepare the student who hadn’t done well in high school … GED’s were earned alongside the regular schooling for the trade chosen. During the 3 to 9 months they were in school the students were paid unemployment … after that they were paid a salary/hourly rate by the employer.
It was a great program that was killed, like so much else at the time, by the cost of the war in Nam.
nick,
I think LBJ’s “War of Poverty” was well intentioned, but incompetently executed. The program(s) simply threw money at problems instead of addressing and fixing systemic flaws in a substantive fashion. This is a parallel to the “War of Drugs” which insists on treating a medical/public health issue as a criminal law issue. A sure fire way to go wrong in fixing a problem (to use a medical analogy) is to treat the symptoms and ignore the cause.
I think J.H. is right. Where´s the neighor?
Wait, what?! The neighbor called because he was retrieving a cigarette from the car……And this call went through dispatch, was dispatched, and a police officer responded, and he was STILL retrieving a cigarette from the car?! Something way wrong with the timeline here.
“Kept in” poverty indeed. They were the victims in LBJ’s War on Poverty as they are w/ The War on Drugs.
It would not surprise me to learn there was not a 911 call. More likely the deputies saw someone reaching into a car. Did not have enough PC to investigate, yet did it anyways.. shot the guy.. then made up a 911 call to cover themselves.
Kairho,
Depends how stoned you are…… It can take a while…..
Just how long does it take to get a cigarette out of a car?
The Police need to voluntarily be no more, vamoose, vanish like smoke.
Who needs the Taliban. They are walking around in the USA in blue suits.
“7 shots fired and only one hit the man”
Apparently, double-action semi-automatics are standard police issue.
Like Zimmerman’s cheapo gun.
The ‘safety’ is primarily teh need for a long trigger pull that pulls back the hammer and then releases it.
This helps to ensure that cops can’t shoot for crap.
I read somewhere that NYPD (at least0 have a specification for extra trigger pressure to be required in this loooong trigger pull.
This safety feature probably assisted those NYPD cops to shoot nine bystanders near the Empire State a while back. Three direct hits on bystanders with teh other injuries due to ricochet or stuff objects breaking up on being hit,
One officer fired 9 rounds. The other fired 7 rounds.
I think they hit the target twice. I can’t finf that detail immediately.
Oh look! Sombody suing them http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/nyregion/bystander-shot-by-police-near-empire-state-building-sues.html
…. but NYPD claiming that nobody did anything silly/wrong.
Why are people making this a “race issue” period I get SO sick of EVERY time there is an unjust act by anyone POLICE, CITIZEN,OR NEIGHBORHOOD WATCHMEN. Folk immediately pull the race card!!! If these acts were looked at as they should be more people would be put away.
7 shots fired and only one hit the man. The officers get a paid vacation. Maybe the shot that hit his leg was the bad shot.
I assume the police will use as their defense Florida’s SYG–Shoot Your Gun–law.
We will deal w/ race before we deal w/ class, because we will NEVER deal w/ class. However, there is, and always will be, a dearth of “Class Guilt.”
The hazards of smoking listed on the warning labels don’t include “May cause bullet holes.”
And what Mike S. said.
“Then it will become a matter of economic class.” (Mike S)
That’s the way it’s trending
Mike Spindell – what does Black have to do with it? The man shot by police in the other story today was white:
http://jonathanturley.org/2013/07/29/fort-worth-police-shoot-and-kill-72-year-old-man-in-his-home-after-going-to-wrong-house-on-burglary-call/
“Mike Spindell – what does Black have to do with it? The man shot by police in the other story today was white:”
DavidM,
Likelihood……Though the way things are evolving race will matter less and less since it will all be a police state. Then it will become a matter of economic class.
Mike Spindell – Economic class is a much better predictor of injustices than race. It always has been this way.
“Economic class is a much better predictor of injustices than race. It always has been this way.”
DavidM,
I agree with you and think that is true throughout all human history. In the U.S., however, when Black history here began in slavery and continued through “Jim Crow”, Black people have been kept in and treated as economic pariahs.
Mike Spindell wrote: ” In the U.S., however, when Black history here began in slavery and continued through “Jim Crow”, Black people have been kept in and treated as economic pariahs.”
True enough about the history, but is this really the cause of their economic depression today? I question how much a role these old Jim Crow laws play in today’s world. From my perspective, no group has suffered more than the Jewish people, but they seem to rise right up economically no matter where they live. The Japanese were grossly mistreated here following World War II, but that hasn’t held them down. I could go on and on with other ethnic groups who come here and thrive economically.
“True enough about the history, but is this really the cause of their economic depression today? I question how much a role these old Jim Crow laws play in today’s world. From my perspective, no group has suffered more than the Jewish people, but they seem to rise right up economically no matter where they live.”
DavidM,
Yes it really is the cause of their economic problems today. Now I’m Jewish, 6 foot tall, have blue eyes and my hair was blond when I was younger. Also my last name really has no ethnic identity. I never had to deal with black skin. “Jim Crow” laws may be dead, but a “Jim Crow” society still exists.
Mike Spindell wrote: “a “Jim Crow” society still exists.”
Really? Do you yourself feel that way toward black people? Do your friends want to keep them down? Where do these people live?
I live in the South. I grew up in Mississippi. I don’t know anybody personally who supports Jim Crow laws. I did meet a man once who said he was racist, and I think he might want them, but very few people remain like this anymore. I certainly do not recognize a Jim Crow society as existing in the United States. Do you have a particular community in mind?
“Really? Do you yourself feel that way toward black people? Do your friends want to keep them down? Where do these people live?
I live in the South. I grew up in Mississippi. I don’t know anybody personally who supports Jim Crow laws. I did meet a man once who said he was racist, and I think he might want them, but very few people remain like this anymore. I certainly do not recognize a Jim Crow society as existing in the United States. Do you have a particular community in mind?.
DavidM,
We’ve had this discussion before. I’m glad you know no one personally who supports Jim Crow laws because they are illegal. I’m sure Mississippi and wherever you currently live don’t use racially derogative terms, especially in your social set. They merely elect representatives who ensure that “those” people are kept in their place. This is what voter ID laws are about. This is about the “War on Drugs” that ensures that 40% of young Black men have police records. This is also about NYC’s stop and frisk laws so it isn’t only a Southern problem, it is a nationwide problem. However, I know people like you don’t consider it a problem at all and I have no doubt that you can’t be convinced and as I’ve seen in debating this with you before you have all the rationalizations protecting your viewpoint. As for where I stand I’ll let these two links explain it:
http://jonathanturley.org/2011/11/26/the-incarceration-of-black-men-in-america/
http://jonathanturley.org/2013/06/21/post-racial-america/