Police use stun gun on Liberty City squatter

[Judi Lynn]

Miami-Dade Friday, Mar 2, 2007

Miami-Dade Posted on Fri, Mar. 02, 2007
LIBERTY CITY
Police use stun gun on Liberty City squatter

Police arrested two Umoja Village residents after they refused to leave the side of a fellow squatter who was hit by a car near the shantytown.

BY ROBERT SAMUELS AND DAVID OVALLE
[e-mail]

A resident of the Umoja Village shantytown was Tasered Thursday evening after he pulled a knife on officers responding to a traffic accident, according to Miami police.

The resident and another man were taken into custody after police said they wouldn't back away and grew confrontational.

Thursday's incident marks the first major confrontation between squatters and police since the homeless settled on an empty lot at 6201 NW 17th Ave. in October 2006.

The dispute began after another member of the shantytown was hit by a car as he tried crossing Northwest 17th Avenue.

Leroy Walker lay bleeding in the middle of the road, his head being cradled by his girlfriend, a pastor and another squatter, Mike Davis.
(snip/...)

http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/28726.html

[tblue]

1. Why don't I believe the Miami police when they say "he pulled a knife on officers"?

Sure he did. Sure.

[seriousstan]

2. You don't believe it because it is the only way to rationalize your hatred of the police.

When the police or EMT arrive ALL bystanders must back off and let them do their job. They were not there to arrest anyone, they were there to assist an accident victim. They would have been irresponsible if they had allowed a homeless and potentially mentally ill person direct traffic after they had arrived.

[tblue]

3. Did I say I hate the police? Are you having a bad day?

Sorry, but I can't ignore things like this:

[TX-RAT]

6. And that has what to do with the OP?

[seriousstan]

7. There is a difference between ignoring something and letting it blind your judgment.

[tblue]

21. Oh, so now my judgment is blind

It's not that there are not good cops. Of course there are, but I can't ignore years of evidence of police brutality. If you want to, that's your business.


Ask any black man in America, including my dad, my brother, my nephews, my uncles and cousins if all police are fair and honest and kind. Do you dare?

And how do you know what really happened in Miami? Were you there?

[Judi Lynn]

22. Your judgement is based upon a lifetime of observation, like mine.

As for angry denial of brutality, bullying, it seems to be a right-wing, power-worshipping thing. It's actually a disease,regressive, morbid!

Fascination with power, slavish attachment to it is unhealthy. To worship it so much a person lashes out at people who discuss the abuse of power, a well established recurring crime in this country, unfortunately, indicates unbalance. It's demanding that you keep the lie in place, and support the use of force without question, no matter how wrong it is, how criminal it has been shown to be in so many situations, even denied and covered up, and that's insane.

We know it, everyone knows it.

It's from the same malfunctioning zone that controls people who say that you hate soldiers if you question the lies _Bush used to force this country into a bogus war.

These are people you want to avoid in person, believe me. I always get as far away from them as possible. They are by nature, not interesting people. Maladjusted, hostile, ungracious, not comfortable around others.

[TX-RAT]

4. Thank You.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[w4rma]

14. An exception to your statment will disprove it entirely.

And you and I both know its not very hard to find a good cop.

So, consider your own credibility when you make sweeping statements like that, in the future.

[manic expression]

15. It was a general statement

and so one exception does not disprove my claim. If I had said "ALL cops are...", then that would be a different story.

[VegasWolf]

18. Great response!!! Some are challenged by logic. nt

[bilgewaterbill]

19. You did say "all cops" by not qualifying your statement

that began "Cops." You didn't say "some cops" or "most cops". You said "Cops".

[manic expression]

23. Lack of qualification

does not automatically equate to "all".

"Cops" is a general statement without specific qualification, and so it stands.

[bilgewaterbill]

24. "Cops" stands?. ... If you wish to imply that you did not mean "all" cops

by that statement, a simple clarification on your part will suffice. Just say you mis-stated your point. An apology is not a big thing for someone who knows they're wrong and big enough to admit it. If your original statement "stands", I will take issue with you, sir. Please, for sake of this minor argument, clarify your stance. Were you erroneous in your original statement?

[bilgewaterbill]

25. Damn! I'm arguing w/ a deleted message! nt.

[cigsandcoffee]

17. Sure. As opposed to aggressive panhandlers....

...and the large number of substance-intoxicated homeless people. Many of those people should be in rehabilitation programs instead of out on the streets.

[Judi Lynn]

8. It's not as if the Miami police haven't had a record for many years of extreme brutality,corruption,

falsifying stories, evidence against people they killed, using throwdown guns, etc., etc., etc., etc.

Shooting homeless men in wheelchairs, men listening to Walkmen, old people in the wrong house, like a grandfather slaughtered in front of his 8 or 9 year old granddaughter, even going into prison cells and beating prisoners to death.

Even where I live, in the Midwest, a department not nationally known for brutality and associated criminality also makes up tall tales to cover murderous behavior.

It's actually standard. Happens ALL the time. There's actually no room to debate your suspicions. I completely agree, based on a lifetime of awareness. I've even seen it happening. The end.

[ngant17]

13. I tend to side with the homeless people in this case

A 4-inch pocket knife, unless the law has changed, is not illegal to carry.

The Miami policeman instigated the problem and he didn't have any justification of attacking the man. Pulling a 9mm handgun on a man walking away from him, my guess is that the policeman shot him in the back with the Taser, after all, Miami police have had a nasty habit of shooting African-Americans in the back in this part of town (one incident caused the Overtown riots, which happened after the Liberty City riots).

I suspect the city of Miami is trying to up the ante against the homeless town, aka Umoja Village, and they are going to escalate more in the future. And they will use their hired thugs, aka the ever-corrupt Miami police department, to do the dirty work for them.

[donsu]

16. agree

nt

[tblue]

20. Thank you

[RebelOne]

5. Anyone going into Liberty City is putting their life at risk.

So, I can see why the cops reacted that way.

[nodehopper]

9. oh noes, it's full of black people!

anyone who goes there puts their life at risk. It's populated not with people, but with savages so sociopathic that they were attending to their peer who was hit by a car.

Oh noes, cops are totally justified in reacting that way in Liberty City, after all, that's where the riots in 1980 happened, I mean, all those officers did was beat a black motorist to death.

Liberty City. Everything there is scary. Especially LIFFT.

[Judi Lynn]

10. And the injured party was himself on a mission to find food for his girlfriend.

Sounds like a whole lot of cooperation, of concern for others in an area filled with sub-human monsters, as they are portrayed by some of the more astute ones among us.

[ngant17]

12. If anyone goes into Liberty City

and they were putting their lives at risk, would its population be reduced to zero eventually?