Tag: quotation

The legal question of “justification” is based on whether the involved officers held a reasonable belief that the use of force was necessary.   Based on the evidence and the law applicable at the time of Mr. McClain’s death, the prosecution cannot disprove the officers’ reasonable belief in the necessity to use force.  Based on the facts and evidence of this investigation I cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers involved in this incident were not justified in their actions based on what they knew at the time of this incident.

Here is more weasel-speak from a District Attorney, this time from Dave Young, the District Attorney for the 17th Judicial District that covers Adams and Broomfield Counties in Colorado. The quote comes from a news release Young made on June 25 regarding his decision not to prosecute the officers of the Aurora Police Department after they assaulted Elijah McClain—actions that ultimately led to his death in August 2019. It points to the weirdly symbiotic relationship that police departments and district attorneys share. The web page for the District Attorney’s office acknowledges their goal is “to create a safer community through positive partnerships with law enforcement,” a stance that all but ensures that the District Attorney will put protecting the police ahead of serving and protecting the community. Body cam footage of the encounter between Elijah and the police who assaulted him is now widely available on the internet. Reasonable people who view it will come away as I did, with the reasonable belief that the use of force was unnecessary and unwarranted, that Elijah McClain posed no threat to the Aurora police officers, and that they harried and frightened him to elicit a fight and flight response that would justify their manhandling of a gentle introvert who only wanted to have his personal boundaries acknowledged and respected. Do you want to disprove the officer’s reasonable belief that force was necessary? All you have to do is watch.

Trump is basically admitting that the actual number of cases doesn’t weigh on him in the least. He actively wants to create the illusion of fewer cases, and he’s openly advertising this goal to the world. It’s remarkable that we’ve sunk to a level where such a tangle of presidential depravity and pathology needs to be untangled and interpreted. But obviously, the man who is blaming a surfeit of testing for the spike in cases — and the man who sees these rising numbers as solely a problem for him, ones that should thus be subject to manipulation downward, regardless of the human consequences that might have — cannot be taken seriously as a voice demanding accountability for any aspect of this catastrophe.

Greg Sargent, in the Washington Post, Trump’s frantic shifting of blame for coronavirus has hit rock bottom. 

People ask me all the time, ‘How are you standing up?’ I’m telling them I do know that it’s through the grace of God. … You don’t get over nothing like this. It’s an empty feeling of loss when you don’t have your puzzle complete.

Samaria Rice, in an interview in USA Today. Her son, Tamir, was killed by police at age 12. He would have been 18 on June 25 this year.  

The Interview with Samaria Rice is a companion piece to interviews with 31 young black men who are turning 18 this year, on what it is like growing up in Tamir Rice’s America. It is essential reading. 

We are not going to strike foul blows in this case.  We are going to pursue the truth based on the law, whether that leads to convictions or exonerations.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, from remarks at a press conference regarding the death of Breonna Taylor on June 18. The entire prepared remarks can be read here. They are a first-rate example of legal weasel-speak, and a masterful justification for official dithering. After more than 100 days of even halfhearted investigation there can hardly be any new facts to be gleaned: Breonna Taylor was wrongfully murdered in her sleep by officers of the Louisville Metro Police Department. The only remaining considerations must be entirely political in nature, justice for Breonna be damned. 

Both the late Tom Petty and his family firmly stand against racism and discrimination of any kind. Tom Petty would never want a song of his used for a campaign of hate. He liked to bring people together. … Tom wrote this song for the underdog, for the common man and for EVERYONE. We want to make it clear that we believe everyone is free to vote as they like, think as they like, but the Petty family doesn’t stand for this [unauthorized use]. We believe in America and we believe in democracy. But Donald Trump is not representing the noble ideals of either. We would hate for fans that are marginalized by this administration to think we were complicit in this usage.

Adria, Annakim, Dana, and Jane Petty, in a statement after Tom Petty’s song I Won’t Back Down was used at Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  

Actions speak louder than words. Of all the cities dealing with the tragedies of officer-involved shootings and violence inflicted upon black lives, Louisville’s administration has been the least transparent, the slowest and the most frustrating. This administration simply believes it is above the law. Our administration in Louisville blatantly ignored our requests for an independent investigation. Here, our department continues to investigate itself, claims no video (while dodging the question of the existence video for any of the other 120 officers dispatched to the scene) and continues to allow plain clothes officers to execute warrants and conduct business as usual.

Attorneys for Breonna Taylor’s family, in a statement released to CBS/WLKY in Louisville. 

Americans want law and order. They demand law and order. Some of them may not even know that is what they want.

Donald Trump, Driveler in Chief and President of the United States, at a Rose Garden signing of a police reform executive order today.

To be clear, Mr. President, I know exactly what I want: an end to systemic racism, a revolution in public safety practices and policing and not mere reform, and an end to your malignant presence in public life. Be gone already. 

Trump’s only true skill is the con; his only fundamental belief is that the United States is the birthright of straight, white, Christian men, and his only real, authentic pleasure is in cruelty. It is that cruelty, and the delight it brings them, that binds his most ardent supporters to him, in shared scorn for those they hate and fear: immigrants, black voters, feminists, and treasonous white men who empathize with any of those who would steal their birthright. The president’s ability to execute that cruelty through word and deed makes them euphoric. It makes them feel good, it makes them feel proud, it makes them feel happy, it makes them feel united. And as long as he makes them feel that way, they will let him get away with anything, no matter what it costs them.

Adam Serwer in The Cruelty Is the Point in The Atlantic, October 3, 2018. I was reminded—again—of Donald Trump’s monstrous cruelty as he chose the anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub killings to rescind Obama-era health care protections for transgender Americans. Cruelty is his only guiding principle. 

“Images are like languages. While with different languages, many of us can hear and speak the words or extract the meanings, sometimes we still won’t know how to translate things perfectly, sometimes our real accents will still be there. In those cases we look to a native speaker to translate, to teach us, to give us the correct pronunciation or best meaning. That’s what I see black photographers and photojournalists to be at this moment, and for this movement. The translators of these times and the teachers of our stories.”  – Flo Ngala

The photo above (by photographer Jonathan Cherry) and quote from photographer Flo Ngala are from

Capturing the cry for change: photographers on the BLM protests

 in The Guardian, a collection of photos and narratives by black photographers covering the Black Lives Matter demonstrations.