The strange case of Brandon Tate Brown, and another mass murder in middle America.

I have been watching the case of Tate Brown  here in Philly for awhile now.

This case, unlike other cases of police brutality, did not make national headlines.

I think I know why.

I also did not jump into the fray, because, quite frankly, I did not see an Eric Garner, or even a Michael Brown type scenario playing itself out here.

The truth is I represent a lot of people like Tate Brown. They are not angels or choir boys, and, if what is alleged is true, like Tate Brown, they make their living in the streets.    

So when I heard about the shooting death of Tate Brown on a street in Frankford section of Philadelphia, I gave the police officer (or officers) who shot him to death the benefit of the doubt. Although my instincts tell me that as a person of color I should have known better.
 

Now, sadly, there is a genuine issue as to whether Tate Brown was executed or he was shot to death by police officers following proper police procedures.

 

There has been no social media outcry or no calls for marches on a national scale, because Tate Brown had a gun in his car, and he had an extensive criminal record.

 

But does all of this matter? If he was not threatening the lives of the police officers who were arresting him, did he deserve to die?

 

Now the powers that be are giving us yet another story about what happened that night.

 

"THEY SAY the devil is in the details. And the details of Brandon Tate-Brown's December death at police hands are getting more devilishly contradictory daily, the lawyer representing the dead man's family said yesterday.

Meanwhile, the head of the Police Advisory Commission yesterday viewed videos pertaining to the incident and provided an account of what they show.

Initially, police said that the officer who shot Tate-Brown during a routine car stop on Dec. 15 in Frankford did so because he lunged for a handgun hidden in the console of his 2014 Dodge Charger as he struggled with two cops outside.

But now, they're saying Tate-Brown also "reached for his waistband" in the skirmish, according to a narrative of the incident police posted on their website.

A police spokesman attributed the discrepancies to the preliminary report issued to the public, which contained information that has since been updated as a result of further investigation.

 

Attorney Brian Mildenberg said Tate-Brown's autopsy report shows that cops gave the Medical Examiner's Office different details than what police officials have released publicly.

Specifically, police told the Medical Examiner that the officers asked Tate-Brown, 26, to step out of his car because they ran his plates and found they were registered to a different car-rental agency than where Tate-Brown told them he'd gotten the car.

One of the officers noticed the gun, the medical examiner's report notes, after he and his partner approached the car a second time - not upon their initial approach, as police officials have repeatedly said.

Police officials have maintained that the officers pulled Tate-Brown over on Frankford Avenue near Magee because his car headlights were out. However, the police statement made no mention of license-plate discrepancies. Meanwhile, the medical examiner's report makes no mention of the headlights. Instead, investigator Natalie Young notes only the license-plate issue.

Kelvyn Anderson, the executive director of the Police Advisory Commission, viewed footage from the incident yesterday at the behest of Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey.

He also reviewed statements from four witnesses at the scene, as well as other evidence." [Source]

Finally, another mass killing in America and another collective yawn from the citizens of our fine country.

Maybe if the killer had chosen to wear a dress with controversial colors he would have gotten our attention. 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh King, I think you dropped your pic of you and George holding hands: Let me get that for you.

I was going to blog about yet another mass killing in these divided states, (this time it was police officers and not civilians) by a wacko and a certifiable wingnut who thought that the folks with the black helicopters were coming to get his dumb ass and his guns. I was going to blog about it but what's the point? If you motherfuckers want to load up on your assault weapons and kill each other, please free to knock yourselves out. Thanks to your sacred NRA you can buy as much of them[guns] as you want, and any delusional psycho who happens to have lived below the radar of law enforcement all of his miserable pathetic life can get one. (Blogger alert! Nova is getting hosed as a write this, so I am not in a good mood)

So that's it, you win; you won't hear the field talk about your guns and your precious 2nd amendment rights anymore. Train your kids to use em, arm every person in your town, and just go ahead and strap em on like the old days. Hell, let's just have drive thru gun shops. Why even bother with a background check? I mean who are we kidding? Any minor who wants a gun can buy one easier than they can buy a pack of cigarettes, so let's just go for it.

The other thing on my mind tonight is the Obama bow and how my friends on the right are all in a huff over his bending at the waist to a foreign leader, a leader who happened to be a....gasp, MUSLIM! "DID OBAMA BOW DOWN TO SAUDI KING?" (Are his knees touching the ground?Oh wait, that would be kneeling, not bowing) Is that all the wingnuts want to know these days? Not how can we fix the economy; not how can we reduce crime; not how can we get A-merry-cans working again; and not how can we better fight the war on terror. No, the wingnuts want to know if Obama took a bow to a Saudi King. And their reasoning for this is so illogical, nonsensical and absurd, that only a wingnut mind could process it: "No US president is supposed to bow down to a foreign head of state because it indicates submission, and the American president does not submit to anyone". Well, not anyone that looks like a Saudi King. I am pretty sure it would be cool if he bowed to the Queen of England, or even the King of Spain, but this Muslim guy, not so much. And who says the A-merry-can president doesn't submit to anyone? Didn't the frat boy submit to big oil? Didn't he submit to the bankers and Wall Street? Didn't he submit to the neocon-artists in his party? Looks to me like A-merry-can presidents submit all the time.

Honestly, this bow heard round the conservative world has me laughing to myself at the stupidity of these people. Michelle Malkin has got the video up on her blog to dissect it for her wingnut friends. And she wants everyone to know that it was a "deep bow" and not just a curtsy or a slight knee bend. No, it was a BOW. (I could say something here, but I will leave it alone. I don't need the sexist label tonight) Ok Michelle and others, you win, it was a bow. So fucking what?

I swear I love you wingnuts so much that I wish I could bow for you like Obama allegedly did for King Abdullah. But there would have to be two conditions: First, my back would have to be turned to you, and second, my pants would have to be down.