There is a very disturbing videotape out today that left me stunned and frankly irate. While I have sometimes questioned the evidence of police abuse in some high-profile cases where there is a gun present or extenuating circumstances, I can see no such circumstances in the shooting of Charles Kinsey in North Miami. Kinsey is a dedicated caretaker at an assisted living facility who went outside to calm down a young autistic man. Neither was armed and, at the time of the shooting, Kinsey had his hands up as he tried to get the troubled young man to lay on his stomach. Police fired three rounds, hitting Kinsey.
Kinsey said that the autistic man simply had a toy truck in his hand that was mistaken as a gun. Someone called police to say that the man was threatening suicide. The man sat on the street playing with the white toy truck.
Kinsey is heard telling the young man “Lay down on your stomach,” but the autistic man responds “Shut up. Shut up, you idiot.” Kinsey remains professional and calm. He asks the police “Can I get up now? Can I get up?” He also tries to defuse the situation and tells the police that there is no threat: “All he has is a toy truck in his hand. A toy truck. I am a behavioral therapist at a group home. . . . That’s all it is [referring to the toy truck] That’s all it is. There is no need for guns.”
Police respond by shouting “Let me see your hands” and shouting at the autistic man to “Get on the ground. Get on the ground.”
As the autistic man makes noise, Kinsey says “Rinaldo, please be still. Sit down, Rinaldo. Lay on your stomach.”
Soon after the police fire three bullets and hit Kinsey near his right knee, exiting his upper thigh.
Police then put the injured Kinsey into handcuffs as well as the autistic man with the toy truck.
In this videotape, you hear a bystander in disbelief of why they shot the health care worker:
The responsible officer is on administrative leave pending an investigation. At a minimum, it would be helpful for the police to reveal the alleged justification for the shooting of Kinsey because none of this make any sense. Under Tennessee v. Garner, “deadly force…may not be used unless necessary to prevent the escape and the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious bodily harm to the officer or others.” Thus, the Supreme Court rejected the prior fleeing felon rule when the felon did not pose an immediate threat to society. Under Graham v. Connor, this is determined according to an “objective reasonableness” standard but a calculus that considers the split second decision-making in such circumstances. I see no such grounds in this videotape.
What do you think?
Well, Paul, when Hillary wins in November, we’ll have another dynasty. Not a monarchy but as close as you get in America.
phillyT – I want to restore the House of Windsor.
@PhillyT
Uh, foolish consistencies and an inability to distinguish reality are liberal traits. You are “projecting” again.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Come on. Not one conservative gonna spin this into synthetic justification for the cop?
You all are falling down on the job. I expect at least one blind no-holds-barred support for the police on every case.
How disappointing.
phillyT – I am so conservative I think they should restore the monarchy, but this shooting is wrong. And the hand-cuffing just makes it worse.
Well … I guess this finally puts to rest that old saw about ‘hands up, don’t shoot’.
Yet ‘lay down on your back, stick your hands up and still get shot’ just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Something is off about the cadence.
“Scot, the three shots maybe the setting for automatic fire”
Some military weapons are configured to fire a three shot burst with each pull of the trigger.
It will be interesting to learn if the weapon used in this incident had similar capability and if so, how was the fire control lever set.
bfm – since he hit the therapist in the leg and he fired three shots, who was he actually firing at? Could it be that he was firing at the kid and was such a lousy shot he hit the therapist? Stress does cause you to lose fine motor control, which is why the police fire hundreds of bullets and never hit a suspect.
The report from the shooter should be made public immediately. Instead the gang gets together to compare notes and video before putting pen to paper. You as a citizen are specifically prohibited from doing that.
This deserves a criminal prosecution.
If the facts are as laid out here, the shooting was unlawful.
Should be adjudicated, but this looks very bad.
I think that cop is a mental disorder and they they should all be disarmed.
A bit off topic but related due to a cop traumatizing a 5 year old at his birthday party.
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/police-kill-five-year-olds-dog?src=newsletter1060519
This is an interesting article which meshes with ideas presented by some of the commenters above: “http://www.blackagendareport.com/imperial-blowback01
@Jay
Plus, there is the difficulty in dealing with autistic people. If Rinaldo was autistically interested in his toy truck, then he would probably not respond very well to any attempt to take his toy truck. (Think Milton and his stapler, here.)
There is a lot of information on autism and violence. Here is one link:
http://www.ageofautism.com/2011/03/the-dark-side-of-autism-violence-assault-police-interaction.html
I am GUESSING this will have occurred here. Nonetheless, the police should not have been shooting unless they were in actual danger. Criminy, just throw a butterfly net over the guy.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
There’s an old saying that, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When all police have are guns (and maybe tasers), everything looks like a target to be shot and probably killed. (Though fortunately not fatally, in this case)
There is evidently no training these days in de-escalating “situations” without resorting to lethal force. Or even correctly assessing a situation as to whether there is a real threat or not.
@Feyd
I did go once, back when I was in college. It was way too loud for me. Now, if I want to get drunk and throw away my money, I can just go to the boats in Shreveport.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeaker,
Go to Las Vegas.
This one is going to cost them.
No Sqeeky? You must be pleased.
Hmmm. This really looks like a bad shooting. Here’s my odds:
Police Department admits this was a bad shooting: 9 to1 for admission.
Here’s my odds on Liberals admitting Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown were good shootings: 99 to 1 against admission.
Just FWIW, autistic people have a high correlation with violence. The only out for the Police is if the autistic guy attacked (with his toy truck or other dangerous weapon) and the therapist was just collateral damage.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Al, your idea is exactly what is going wrong in this nation. The police are uparmored to the teeth. The need instead to stand down and return to being a police force, not an army who, often enough, is literally an occupying force in certain areas.
Then there are people who recommend shooting police as “the answer”. This is unethical and does not show a desire for justice. Rather, it shows only a thirst for revenge. However, if an ethical reason will not be of interest to you, then I will give you a practical analysis.
You don’t have the weapons to take on USGinc. This govt. has underwater nukes, space based weapons, drones (regular and miniaturized), small nukes, killer ground robots and a military arsenal that is several orders of magnitude greater than the rest of the world combined. They work with corporations and other nations similarly armed to the teeth with both weapons and mass surveillance. This has what it has come to.
If you want to oppose such a force, violence will not be your friend. You have to have courage and you need what MLK called soul force. You can’t out weapon these people (many of whom have very high IQ’s but no wisdom).
As a people we need to reject violence as a way of dealing with everything in our path. Your way gives this govt. a way to its opoen dictatorship. Each act of senseless violence will be used against our population.
Only a courageous population using soul force has any chance. It has only a slim chance but it is the only one we have because it is the only way to show there is a differently way of doing things.
Many, many people around the world are sick of violence, hate and cruelty. We want justice and we want to live a good life. This does not include random or premediatate shootings by the police or the public.
Very interesting observation by Bulldog. That is one of my ongoing issues with all these wars. Growing up in a house with a parent with PTSD was no picnic and we actually had to run for our lives on a very cold winter night. We will find out more about this individual’s profile, but all these wars waste a lot of money and their total impact on society is seldom seen.