“Today we have been told — yet again — our lives have no value.”
May 24, 2015 7:16 PM   Subscribe

Cleveland Police Officer Acquitted of Manslaughter in 2012 Deaths [New York Times]
A police officer who climbed onto the hood of a car after a chase in 2012 and fired repeatedly at its unarmed occupants, both of them black, was acquitted of manslaughter on Saturday by an Ohio judge. The trial of the white officer, Michael Brelo, following harrowing episodes in communities such as Baltimore, Staten Island and Ferguson, Mo., played out amid broader questions of how the police interact with African-Americans and use force, in Cleveland and across the country.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson on Michael Brelo verdict: [Cleveland.com]
"Today's verdict ... is a verdict that will have a long-lasting effect not only here in our local community but, really, in communities throughout this country," Jackson said during an afternoon news conference at Public Auditorium. "This is a moment that will define us as a city, define us as a people as we move forward and address not only the issues around this verdict,"
Related:
Cleveland Police Cited for Abuse by Justice Department [Think Progress]
Cleveland police say 71 people arrested overnight in protests. [Reuters]
posted by Fizz (51 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
*sighs*
posted by Fizz at 7:17 PM on May 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


Apparently there are no circumstances in which police shootings are not justified.
posted by librosegretti at 7:22 PM on May 24, 2015 [22 favorites]


[slams head repeatedly against keyboard]
posted by orange swan at 7:22 PM on May 24, 2015 [4 favorites]


"This is a moment that will define us as a city, define us as a people as we move forward and address not only the issues around this verdict,"

Subtext: please don't riot
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 7:29 PM on May 24, 2015 [6 favorites]


Just think how brave a jury would have to be to go up against the police.
posted by srboisvert at 7:29 PM on May 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


Very sad.
posted by oceanjesse at 7:31 PM on May 24, 2015


Why did this man jumped on a car and shoot 15 more rounds. Was he afraid for his life...were the other 30 not enough?
UN frikkin believable.
posted by clavdivs at 7:33 PM on May 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


I can't even.
.
.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:34 PM on May 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


When is the last time you have heard a car backfire? Two or three decades ago?

Does a modern car backfire? It does not.
posted by peeedro at 7:34 PM on May 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Just think how brave a jury would have to be to go up against the police.
posted by srboisvert

These days? Dunno.
I don't think there was a jury in this case.
posted by clavdivs at 7:35 PM on May 24, 2015


When is the last time you have heard a car backfire?

I heard a noise come out of a car this afternoon that sounded like it backfired. I don't know what the noise was, but it sounded like gunfire and was most assuredly not.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:37 PM on May 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


FTP / ACAB
posted by feralscientist at 7:38 PM on May 24, 2015 [4 favorites]


A CNN post on this explains that this was a non-jury trial.

Unlike other recent cases of police brutality, Brelo's behavior is to my eyes understandable.

That is, his fellow officers had already shot more than 100 rounds into the car occupied by Russell and Williams, and those shots were fired by officers with reasonable expectation that the couple were dangerous (the vehicle rammed a police vehicle after a 22-mile chase that reached speeds upwards of 100 mph).

Convicting Brelo would merely be scapegoating him, especially given the couple had already likely received lethal wounds from the first round of gunfire.

Unfortunately (inevitably?), the report on CNN leads readers down the path of victim suspicion if not outright blame. That is, why did Russell and Williams flee? Would things have turned out differently had they surrendered? Did they have warrants for their arrest or otherwise fear cops (stupid question, I know).

United States of America 2015 WTF.
posted by mistersquid at 7:40 PM on May 24, 2015 [4 favorites]


Bench trial. He won because to prove manslaughter the prosecution had to prove that his bullets killed them. He won because everybody else was doing it too.

Many of the officers involved are suing the police department for the alleged harsh treatment they received.

I can repeat these arguments but I don't believe them. it's just heart breaking to see this in same city that killed Tamir Rice.
posted by anotherpanacea at 7:43 PM on May 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


Does a modern car backfire?

Not usually, no, but the car that had just led police on a 22 mile chase was a late-70s Malibu
posted by Venadium at 7:44 PM on May 24, 2015 [7 favorites]


Last time I heard a car backfire, Friday. And?
posted by NiteMayr at 7:51 PM on May 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


I used to live in Cleveland and I get the sense that the culture in the Cleveland Police Department is particularly rotten, even by the incredibly low bar set by behavior of other big city PDs. Along with Tamir Rice, last year an unarmed schizophrenic woman died in police custody.
posted by mcmile at 7:57 PM on May 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


And?

And nothing, it's just your bog standard homocide-by-cop apologia.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 8:33 PM on May 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


Honest question: Could any of the cops be convicted for manslaughter in this case, if you need to prove which was the fatal bullet? "It wasn't mine- it was the other guy's!"

If two people shoot at one person and one bullet delivered a glancing wound and the other one deadly, why does it matter who fired the deadly bullet?
posted by BungaDunga at 8:39 PM on May 24, 2015 [5 favorites]


Subtext: please don't riot

Well, yeah. What's he supposed to say, "Burn, motherfucker, burn"?

All told the response has been pretty impressive, both the cops and the protesters (although shutting down the Shoreway isn't going to endear anyone to the cause). A bunch of arrests but no looting or rioting. Smart move announcing the verdict when they did. Just a shame that drunk protesters made a scene at the Greenhouse Tavern of all places, forcing them to shut down early for the night--it's probably the most leftist restaurant in the city, and most likely filled with people who are (or were) sympathetic to the cause.
posted by holybagel at 8:48 PM on May 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


Two things:

1. In North Carolina, the law was changed this past year to allow defendants to have their criminal cases tried by a judge instead of a jury in some cases if they choose to do so. I was immediately opposed to this law. As a criminal defense attorney, I can tell you that you are typically hoping for at least one person to find that there is reasonable doubt. If that happens, then a mistrial is declared. The state will then typically either not try the case again, or they will make a much better plea offer. With a jury, the chances that one person might find that there is reasonable doubt is literally twelve times greater than it is if the case is heard in front of a judge. For me to choose a judge over a jury, I would have to have some incredibly strong reason to think I know what the judge is going to do with the case. The fact that a bench trial was selected in this case sends up enormous red flags for me. What was the judge's relationship with the defense attorney? Are judges elected in Ohio? If so, who supported this judge's campaign? What sort of relationship did the judge have with the police department? I truly don't know the answers to those questions. However, the whole situation concerns me a great deal.

2. So what would happen in a case where an officer died and it could not be determined that the defendant directly caused that death? A conviction for second degree murder. Anthony Pierce was being stopped by the police who were in pursuit with their blue lights on. Pierce refused to pull over the vehicle and threw five one-pound bags of marijuana out his window. Since Pierce wasn't pulling over, the pursuing officer radioed for help. Across town, officer Richard Matthews was on patrol and decided to come render assistance. He drove 105 miles per hour down a road with a 50 mile an hour speed limit to try to provide assistance. He swerved to avoid a box in the road and hit a tree, dying instantly. He was still more than one mile from where the other officer was pursuing Pierce. Pierce was charged with second degree murder of Matthews. A jury convicted him of that.
posted by flarbuse at 8:51 PM on May 24, 2015 [51 favorites]


Whether or not any of them could be convicted for manslaughter if you can't prove which bullet was the fatal one is a complicated question which I keep going back and forth on... but it seems to me ultimately irrelevant. Because there is another charge for just such a situation: felony murder. If the cop was engaged in a felony and someone died as a result you don't have to show he was the one that fired the fatal shot.

But it's all a red herring because the judge ruled that the actions were all reasonable. And because Brelo wasn't, according to the judge, engaged in a crime when he was firing he couldn't be convicted of any kind of homicide whether or not he fired the fatal shot.

(on preview, see flarburse. You can convict of a bunch of serious charges without proving who fired the shot. But the judge says there wasn't criminal activity. That's the real issue.)
posted by Justinian at 8:55 PM on May 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


~Does a modern car backfire?
~Not usually, no, but the car that had just led police on a 22 mile chase was a late-70s Malibu.


So? Over the course of my life I've owned a variety of cars from the 70's, 80's, 90's, etc. (all bought very much old and used) I've not had a single backfire from any of them. And I'm no shade tree mechanic. Honestly, "backfire" is there with "I feared for my life" on the big list of shit cops say to excuse their actions.

Cops are supposed to be the ones in control (or so they seem to insist) not the maniacs jumping on the hood of a car and unloading a clip into the occupants. This was fucking murder.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:55 PM on May 24, 2015 [13 favorites]


To be honest it sounds like roid rage or something. Who does that outside of an action movie?
posted by Justinian at 8:56 PM on May 24, 2015 [5 favorites]


He was still more than one mile from where the other officer was pursuing Pierce. Pierce was charged with second degree murder of Matthews. A jury convicted him of that.

That right there is one butterfly-effect-ass miscarriage of justice.
posted by busted_crayons at 9:12 PM on May 24, 2015 [8 favorites]


The Cleveland Plain Dealer has an incredible video that is an animated re-creation of the final scenes in the parking lot. There is crazy bumper car action and even crazier gun firing. I don't how officers were not killed in the cross fire.

http://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/index.ssf/2014/05/video_animation_of_deadly_clev.html
posted by llc at 9:17 PM on May 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


To be honest it sounds like roid rage or something.

Pursuit rage is a very real thing. Just not much of an excuse.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:32 PM on May 24, 2015 [5 favorites]


Here's a more complete explanation of where the alleged backfire came into the story. It's not implausible on the face of it that a 1979 Chevy Malibu backfired (Mr. Russell was homeless and thus not in a great position to keep his 33-year-old car in perfect shape), but since the whole gung-ho hundred-officer high-speed chase was initiated on the report of two bystander officers that someone in the car shot at them as Mr. Russell pulled away from a traffic stop, I sympathize with the skepticism.
A plainclothes police officer spotted Russell's 1979 light blue Chevy Malibu by an area known as "the wall" on Lakeside Avenue known for drug deals. Shortly before 10:30 p.m. the officer called in the car's license plate. The plates came back clean, but the officer tried to pull Russell over for a turn signal violation. Russell instead sped away, and the police officer was unable to catch up.

At that point, Russell sped past two other officers outside the Justice Center on Lakeside. The officers heard a loud noise they believed was a gunshot from the speeding vehicle. Investigators later concluded the sound was most likely the Malibu backfiring. The police officers called in a report that someone shot at them from the speeding vehicle. This triggered the chase through Cleveland, onto the eastbound lane of Interstate 90 and into East Cleveland.
The reason given for the manslaughter acquittal is basically the firing-squad defense: among the 40+ bullets that struck Mr. Russell and Ms. Williams, none of Officer Brelo's 49 shots can be identified as the lethal ones. Appalling.
posted by gingerest at 9:35 PM on May 24, 2015 [5 favorites]


BungaDunga, I think if anyone was interested in justice here, the doctrine of joint liability could be applied. That is, collectively, the police who were there doing the shooting are all judged collectively responsible for their actions, and it is not up to the prosecution to actually establish who in particular fired the fatal shot.
posted by rustcrumb at 9:36 PM on May 24, 2015


And it all began with broken-window policing and a bullshit traffic stop, but those practices won't be on trial.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:44 PM on May 24, 2015 [8 favorites]


scaryblackdeath: Pursuit rage is a very real thing. Just not much of an excuse.

It would be a wonderful petard-hoisting if people started calling that sort of thing "excited delirium".
posted by traveler_ at 10:10 PM on May 24, 2015


Just a shame that drunk protesters made a scene at the Greenhouse Tavern of all places, forcing them to shut down early for the night

Yes, clearly this is the real tragedy. Moving forward, I hope and pray that the community stands by the Greenhouse Tavern as they work through this trying time.
posted by still bill at 2:37 AM on May 25, 2015 [9 favorites]


  Just think how brave a jury would have to be to go up against the police.

Even though this wasn't a jury trial, do you think that you could have a brave jury, with voir dire weeding out all but the most compliant?
posted by scruss at 5:30 AM on May 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


...with voir dire weeding out all but the most compliant?

Not necessarily. Voir dire isn't an open-ended process. Both sides are limited to a small number of dismissals. Yes, they try to get the most sympathetic jury possible, but it's not like they can keep dismissing jurors until it's nothing but automatons.

Still, I agree with the comment about "how brave a jury would have to be". I've served on juries, and all through the process, you are surrounded by cops (except in the jury room, of course) You are very much aware that you are on their home turf. It can be very intimidating. I can't imagine what it would be like if you were judging the fate of a cop. I have to think things would be a bit tense.

I really question the use of a bench trial here.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:41 AM on May 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


I hope and pray that the community stands by the Greenhouse Tavern as they work through this trying time.

So do I. Chef Sawyer and the 50+ people who work there do a lot for the community, and shouldn't have to worry about drunken assholes causing problems.

As for the obvious sarcasm, I get it, but it's disingenuous, and kind of a shitty reading of what I was saying. But stay on that high horse.
posted by holybagel at 5:46 AM on May 25, 2015 [3 favorites]


I really question the use of a bench trial here.

It worked perfectly for the defendants, who are the only ones with a say in the matter.
posted by jpe at 6:35 AM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Unlike other recent cases of police brutality, Brelo's behavior is to my eyes understandable.

That is, his fellow officers had already shot more than 100 rounds into the car occupied by Russell and Williams, and those shots were fired by officers with reasonable expectation that the couple were dangerous (the vehicle rammed a police vehicle after a 22-mile chase that reached speeds upwards of 100 mph).


Disagree. Or rather I think Brelo and the other officer's behavior is only understandable in the context of the "trigger happy policin'" (to quote the great Marvin Gaye) that very specifically applies to black people in this country.

Here are two instances of police not killing suspects who'd led them on high speed chases over many miles, with police vehicles rammed, police vehicles being stolen(!) and many, many lives endangered. Before clicking, I invite folks to guess how the suspects in these cases are different from Russell and Williams. You only get three guesses and the first two don't count:

Incident #1 (Video of the chase.)

Incident #2

Please note that I'm not saying police since the police killed Russell and Williams, they should have killed the suspects in those cases. Quite the opposite: I think police in this country are far too quick to kill, and whenever they argue that they had to shoot some black suspect, it's very easy to find comparable incidents where they managed to apprehend dangerous white suspects without killing them.
posted by lord_wolf at 10:27 AM on May 25, 2015 [5 favorites]


Please note that I'm not saying police since the police killed Russell and Williams, they should have killed the suspects in those cases. Quite the opposite: I think police in this country are far too quick to kill, and whenever they argue that they had to shoot some black suspect, it's very easy to find comparable incidents where they managed to apprehend dangerous white suspects without killing them.

Case in point, John Crawford III vs. Joseph Houseman.

The system isn't systemically racist. Nope. Not one bit.
posted by Talez at 11:40 AM on May 25, 2015


BREAKING NEWS: Cleveland Reaches Settlement With Justice Department Over Police Conduct [New York Times]
The city of Cleveland has reached a settlement with the Justice Department over what federal authorities said was a pattern of unconstitutional policing and excessive use of force, people briefed on the case said Monday.

The settlement, which could be announced as early as Tuesday, comes days after a judge declared a Cleveland police officer not guilty of manslaughter for climbing onto the hood of a car and firing repeatedly at its unarmed occupants, both of them black. The verdict prompted hours of protests and reignited discussions about how police officers treat the city’s African-American residents.
posted by Fizz at 12:55 PM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


To be honest it sounds like roid rage or something. Who does that outside of an action movie?

The whole "jump on the hood of a car and unload guns into the windshield" thing looks cool in movies (Reservoir Dogs, Terminator 2) but I don't think it's something that is taught as a standard technique in police training.
posted by theorique at 1:19 PM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


At the time the defense requested a bench trial, did they know which judge would be trying their case?

Staking your client's life on the whims of a single person seems awfully risky unless you are fairly certain of the outcome.
posted by JackFlash at 2:07 PM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Just a shame that drunk protesters made a scene at the Greenhouse Tavern of all places, forcing them to shut down early for the night--it's probably the most leftist restaurant in the city, and most likely filled with people who are (or were) sympathetic to the cause.

I really hated racism and American law enforcement, but a protest against those things caused my favorite restaurant, the most leftist one in Cleveland, to close for the night, so now I'm not so sure I hate those things that much.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 2:23 PM on May 25, 2015 [3 favorites]


yeah, don't they know we're their allies.
posted by fullerine at 2:47 PM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]




Disagree. Or rather I think Brelo and the other officer's behavior is only understandable in the context of the "trigger happy policin'" (to quote the great Marvin Gaye) that very specifically applies to black people in this country.

I completely agree the "reasonable" part of the the CPD's killing of Russell and Williams is a term that (still!) needs proving. My main point was to trace the judicial logic for acquitting Brelo.

The details of the chase, CPD's attack, Brelo's actions, and Russell and Williams' demise are absurd. I personally imagine a 2-4 second pause after ONE HUNDRED rounds have been fired and a near-psychotic CPD officer jumping on the hood and desecrating the bodies with a few more rounds. Right. In. Their Faces.
posted by mistersquid at 2:56 PM on May 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


So if it was a drunk Tea Party protester against taxes, you'd be ok with them harassing people who had nothing to do with any of that whole mess?
posted by holybagel at 2:57 PM on May 25, 2015


So we've precedent for cops murdering people so long as there are enough cops and shots fired such that for any one cop there is reasonable doubt as to whether s/he fired the killing shots?
posted by persona au gratin at 3:40 PM on May 25, 2015 [6 favorites]


"If you're going to murder an unarmed civilian, just make sure you do it in a group, and empty your clips."
posted by persona au gratin at 3:43 PM on May 25, 2015 [4 favorites]


"Not usually, no, but the car that had just led police on a 22 mile chase was a late-70s Malibu"
I believe the initial police response and subsequent chase was initiated by the backfire report. I don't think the gunfire at the end of the chase was precipitated by a backfire. That's what I got from the article.
posted by AJScease at 5:45 PM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


This looks like mass punishment for running.


"How dare you disrespect me"


And then it looks like the system set up a shame trial whose ended was preordained.
posted by bottlebrushtree at 6:18 PM on May 25, 2015 [3 favorites]




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