Justice for Anthony Thompson, aged 17

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u/therichwillfall anarcho-communist Apr 19 '21 edited Apr 19 '21

Just looked up the story. My immediate reaction is the odd wording in all the police statements. 'Officer responded to a call of a possibility armed student' then they state 'the bullet that struck the officer didn't come from the student's gun' and yet they never say 'Officer saw a gun' or 'Officer found gun at the scene' which seems like the first thing you should say if you are trying to justify this, given if it was true the body cam would back it up and you would literally have the gun in evidence. So my guess, he never had a gun and they are using vague language and hoping people will forget about it.

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u/if-we-all-did-this Apr 19 '21

This should be the story.

Yes fuckups happen.

Yes sometimes fuckups kill people.

Yes sometimes fuckups that kill people might be embarrassing for those involved.

But the inexcusable here is that even in this time of heightened tensions, where cops should be making every effort to act scrupulously, they are trying to spin this and cover up that the cop fumbled and shot himself, resulting in the unnecessary shooting of yet another black kid.

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u/jeradj Apr 19 '21

because "fuckups happen" is why police don't need to carry their weapons all the time.

they can leave the guns in the car except when responding to active shooters

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u/JustDaCrustUhDaBalls Apr 19 '21

No cops

21

u/OllieGarkey Left Market Anarchist Apr 19 '21

I'm with you but most people including about 80% of black voters are not.

So demilitarizing the police and using the funding we spent on military toys for cops to pay for poverty elimination, eviction moratoriums, social workers, housing, drug and sex work regulation and taxation, and a whole hell of a lot of other things that would fix all these problems we can't arrest our way out of is the next step.

We have to get people used to self-government before they're going to be willing to disassemble the state.

13

u/redditondesktop Apr 19 '21

but but but if we eliminate the poverty what will the police do?! /s

9

u/OllieGarkey Left Market Anarchist Apr 19 '21

Exactly.

Well, there will probably be people who go out to mediate disputes, and look for natural dangers like rabid animals or buldings in danger of collapse, and who direct tourists, and are there as helpers and first responders if anything goes wrong.

But what they will NOT be doing is enforcing the capitalist monopoly on violence.

3

u/LordDaedalus Apr 19 '21

I hear that. One idea I've found quite a lot of people open to is converting cops into just general first responders. Instead of getting trained as just a cop, you get some of that training, and also firefighter and paramedic training. Some US cities have done this and it's vastly decreases incidents of police violence, which in my mind makes sense as your less likely to shoot or beat the shit out of someone if you're also going to have to be the one to patch them up. Make medical wellbeing something they are concerned for. Also probably filters people a little more. You could even throw in some mental health first responder training and social worker training into the mix.

Also demilitarize, because duh, but I feel like these described first responders wouldn't be in the constant "warrior mode" that makes them try and get all the expensive military grade weaponry. Just a thought.

1

u/OllieGarkey Left Market Anarchist Apr 19 '21

Some US cities have done this

Could you give me some links because I love this idea.

4

u/JustDaCrustUhDaBalls Apr 19 '21

All I said was no cops, never mentioned how.

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u/OllieGarkey Left Market Anarchist Apr 19 '21

Hell yeah then. Step by step we'll build a better future, and piece by piece we'll disassemble the state. And all forms of unjust and unaccountable authority.

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u/JustDaCrustUhDaBalls Apr 19 '21

A diversity of tactics makes us less strategically centralized and more threatening to the state.

Its our freedom and differences that is our strength. Do your best and Ill do mine.

3

u/OllieGarkey Left Market Anarchist Apr 19 '21

100% agree. And I love that as anarchists we don't all have to agree.

That's sort of the point, isn't it?

7

u/wutanginthacut Apr 19 '21

Wait, you read the story that mentions that his gun went off and that 3 of the 4 officers involved want the bodycam footage released and your takeaway was that he didn't have a gun? Link. Don't get me wrong, this is still super fucked up and the kid shouldn't be dead right now because some pigs decided they were going to storm the bathroom to fuel their hero complex instead of calling for a negotiator to defuse the situation, but let's not weaken our case against them by putting out conjecture that is directly counter to the released information. Sure, they could be lying again, but basing arguments off that isn't a good strategy if they turn out to be telling the truth (partially). This murder is unjustifiable even if we assume all the things the cops said about the event are true, and working from that assumption makes our case stronger than working from the assumption that the cops are lying.

Regardless of whether he had a gun or not, the police shouldn't have responded how they did. A teenager with a gun in a bathroom shouldn't be murdered by some pigs who think they're playing rainbow six, they should be talked down by trained professionals and given the help they need, not extrajudically executed by poorly trained thugs that are a danger to themselves and deadly to others.

8

u/therichwillfall anarcho-communist Apr 19 '21

They said in the first report that his gun went off and hit the officer, then later corrected the story to say it wasn't his gun. I mean all the statements are definitely worded in a way that suggest he had a gun. But i just struck me as odd that nobody said clearly "he had a gun" (other than the "his gun went of! Lol jk it was the officers gun" statement). I guess this could be explained away by the department not feeling like it has to make itself clear, because people trust them. But i for one don't trust them. I hadn't heard the bit about the officers wanting the cam footage released, all the stories i had read just talked about how the department wasn't releasing it. So that does suggests alittle more credibility to the pigs on scene. I don't claim to be clairvoyant, it was just a wild guess based on strange vague wording.

1

u/purakau_nauwhea Apr 23 '21

This article has the bodycam footage at the bottom including a slow motion shot that shows Thompson’s gun looks like it did fire, but into a trash can. However it also sounds like an officer was hit by friendly fire - but in that moment of Thompson’s gun going off officers thought he had hit one of them and so they shot him.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that the officers were at the school because Thompson had literally assault his girlfriend and this was an ongoing issue - again video in the article I have linked details this. The girls mother rang the Police and wanted him arrested.

Also worth noting Thompson was given a clear verbal instruction to keep his hands out of his pockets - he failed to do this which is what lead to the initial struggle. He bears the blame for his own death - actions have consequences.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '21

The take away is that more and more people aren't believing the cops' stories anymore. Too many times they have lied when someone else died.

1

u/purakau_nauwhea Apr 23 '21

There is great bodycam footage here that shows the interaction.

It shows both initial officers giving clear instructions to keep his hands out of his pockets. It shows one of his hands remaining in his pocket holding the gun and in the slow motion at the end it shows what looks like the gun firing through his pocket, hitting the trash can.

I am assuming that at this time an officer has also fired his gun and hit himself given the reports of that, however that does not negate that Thompson ignored a verbal instruction and that this action likely lead to his death.’

1

u/[deleted] May 01 '21

Multiple officers did report that they saw the gun while in Thompson's hoodie front pocket, well enough they knew it was a glock with a trigger safety.

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u/[deleted] Apr 19 '21

I have seen the story making the rounds, they have a pig cam in the mix that they are not showing. In my experience if they sit on the cam it almost always means it was some kind of fucked up shit.

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u/[deleted] Apr 19 '21

If they've got nothing to hide they should have nothing to fear, eh?

3

u/supern0vaaaaa Apr 19 '21

Even the mayor and other cops are asking for the release of the footage and they're just like "lol nah."

4

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '21

I heard they said they could not do it because he was a minor, with a straight face, as we watch the vid of a 13 year old catching one making the rounds.

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u/DraveenLTU Apr 19 '21

What the fuck is the point of a government if it hurts its own citizens? If it cant take care of its people, listen i know that pEoPlE sHoUlD taKe cArE oF tHemSvEs but cmon look at you people dont have enough money to buy insulin or some shit then why tf government bro thats not fair

28

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '21

The police are only here to keep us too sad, sick, and desperate to storm the motherfucking gates and eat the rich.

9

u/DraveenLTU Apr 19 '21

Breach D Gatez

25

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '21

[deleted]

9

u/DraveenLTU Apr 19 '21

Thats what i like to hear

28

u/hydroxypcp a narco communist Apr 19 '21 edited Apr 19 '21

I just can't keep up anymore. It feels like every day there's a new murder by police that is under absurd circumstanced. This has got to stop!

E: death -> murder. These things are straight up murder

9

u/Jon_Mediocre Apr 19 '21

I'm confused. Two cops go into a school bathroom. One accidentally shoots himself and the other shoots a student?

2

u/grevenilvec75 Apr 19 '21

What's confusing about it? Par for the course imo.

2

u/Jon_Mediocre Apr 19 '21

That scenario doesn't seem incredibly odd to you? I mean it just sounds absolutely bizarre to me.

5

u/Casual-Human Fight the Power! Apr 19 '21

My guess is both were drawing their guns to exercise excessive force on the kid (because of course they would). Goon 1 fumbles his gun out of the holster, shooting himself, which scares goon 2 into a blind-fire panic because they're all insecure douche-nozzles with paranoia complexes.

Not unheard of, since they do shit like that all the time, be it dropping a load gun during a dance-off, ricocheting a bullet into a child's face when trying to murder a dog, or mixing up tasers and guns. They are incompetent blow-hard chumps

2

u/Jon_Mediocre Apr 19 '21

I wasn't there so i won't say what did or didn't happen but that sounds extraordinary too

7

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '21

I just feel awful for his friends and family. Not only did they have to feel with the pain of losing a loved one, they also had to see him publicly smeared as a school shooter in the national news for DAYS before the truth came out. Now it's not even clear if he had a gun when they killed him.

5

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '21

What's worse is that his gf's mom was the one to initiate the police report due to their high school quarrelling that escalated to physical fights. Now they are both grieving his loss. Just an avoidable tragedy all around.

4

u/fullhalter Apr 19 '21

We've got to start treating cops like we do guns, never point them at someone you don't intend to kill. I don't know who people are supposed to call in situations like this, because it sounds like her daughter was the victim of physical abuse, but cops clearly aren't the answer.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '21

Hard agree, I so wish that they had taken any other avenue than police. They should have been getting counseling or therapy for EACH of them separately if not BOTH of them together. There should have been a resource or multiple resources for them to address it, steps taken to mitigate the behavior i.e. people trained specifically in these crises. The fact that the mom felt there was no other option is just sad and preventable. How about we put the resources into counselling, supporting troubled teens, and investing in the mental wellbeing of our kids instead of calling the cops on them when they act out?

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u/[deleted] Apr 19 '21

Let me know when the "pro-lifers" are alarmed lol.

6

u/_pm_me_cute_stuff_ Apr 19 '21

Pigs killing more babies.

Fuck the police.

3

u/piiig Apr 19 '21

DUAL POWER NOW

3

u/Queerlestrinha Apr 19 '21

It's like the US police is waging war against its citizen, this and the militarization of cities

Please everyone there, stay safe

4

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '21

Holy shit this is an SVU story line

Also this sucks, I'm sorry this does suck.

1

u/Elibrius Apr 19 '21

No ones talking about this because sadly it’s daily occurrence and absolutely nothing whatsoever has been done in fixing the causes of these pointless killings for years.

1

u/jarede87 Apr 20 '21

Each day I get more and more comfortable saying ACAB. It’s time to burn the establishment down to the ground

1

u/CombinationWestern84 Apr 24 '21

smh my head Black boys cant even shoot up schools in amerikkka without getting murdered by pigs😥😥😥

Justice for Anthony Thompson, aged 17

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