Slashdot Mirror
Police Asked Facebook To Deactivate Woman's Account During Deadly Standoff (abc7.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from KABC-TV: In the midst of a five-hour standoff that turned deadly, Facebook granted an emergency request from the Baltimore County Police Department to take offline the social media accounts belonging to a woman who wielded a shotgun at officers. Baltimore County Police officers shot and killed Korryn Gaines, 23, after she barricaded herself inside her Randallstown apartment with her 5-year-old son and pointed a shotgun at officers attempting to serve an arrest warrant. Police Chief Jim Johnson said Tuesday that the department made the emergency request to have Gaines' social media accounts suspended after she posted videos online showing the standoff. People who saw the postings, Johnson said, responded by encouraging her to not comply with police. Videos posted on Facebook and Instagram appeared to show Gaines, who was black, talking with police in the doorway to her apartment and to her son during the standoff. The standoff Monday began after three officers went to Gaines' apartment to serve arrest warrants on her and her boyfriend, Kareem K. Courtney, 39, according to police. Gaines' bench warrant stemmed from charges during a March 10 stop, including disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Authorities said she was armed with a 12-gauge pistol grip shotgun that was legally purchased last year and toward the end of the negotiations pointed it directly at an officer and said, "If you don't leave, I'm going to kill you." An officer shot at her and Gaines fired two shots, but missed the officers, who returned fire and killed her, police said. Facebook's policy says that it may grant law enforcement permission to suspend accounts in cases where there is a substantial risk of harm. Facebook has received roughly 855 requests for emergency disclosures of information to government agencies due to the threat of harm or violence between July and December 2015, according to their Government Request Report. About 73 percent of those requests were granted.
She can speak all she wanted. Facebook is not required to help. People egging her on while she is holding out with a 5 year old is not being helpful. How about the 5-year old's rights?
They need to Identify all those users and bring Murder charges against them for the woman's death And counts of attempted Murder against these FB users, because these people acted with intent to incite behavior which resulted in people dying and was calculated to result in dead police officers.
Like, "shut down the printing press because the letters to the editors page might have information that might cause the editor to behave unwisely"?
Even Russia didn't try to justify their actions with an excuse that stupid.
Hey look, a proper example of incitement to violence not protected by the first amendment. Bravo sir.
I'm a huge believer that police often overstep boundaries, but no, that is exactly what they should not have done. Then you go from having 0.1% of arrests going badly, because someone became violent and police had to counter that with force, to more like 20%, because "holy shit I might be able to actually WIN!" This isn't Game of Thrones: we can't allow Trial by Combat - if we do, even legit nonprejudiced cops (however many of those there are) will get hurt, good people who feel like "I just can't afford to be put in jail, it's worth a shot" will get hurt or killed... or more likely, both will happen, often in the same incident.
Cops kill woman and shoot child over traffic stop warrant. What's to twist?
Learn to love Alaska
They pointed first.
At some point, the cops should try some tactic other than always escalating the situation.
Learn to love Alaska
Oh, and some white federal park squatters will almost certainly be used as a functional counterpoint in this argument. Enjoy..
Wrong.
By law you're free to say any thing at anytime to any one. That can never be criminalized. It's literally part of the highest ranking legal document in the land. You can be held responsible for the DIRECT actions of your speech. Even if you believed a comment on Facebook contributed to the outcome, they're 2 or 3 steps removed from what happened. The cops shot her, then she fired back, then the cops emptied their guns into her and killed her.
She did not take violent action. She took defensive action. She may have been wrong to resist arrest and ignore the warrant, but she was 100% right to defend herself once the cops opened fire first. The cops could have easily waited her out.
They also have a duty to police and yes, they absolutely need to make people respect their authority. "Oh no, he/she showed a gun ... better mosey on out of here and leave them alone" is not an option. If that starts working then how are you ever going to arrest any body?
You have to understand that when a judge issues a constitutionally sound warrant and execution order, the police are obligated to serve it.
Nope. The cops have sued in court that they have no duty to stop a crime in progress, prevent a planned crime they have the details, or take any action that may put them in any kind of risk. I don't think the judgements specifically included or excluded serving a warrant, but they would imply inclusion.
They have no choice in the matter
Cops have complete discretion. There are millions of unserved warrants in the US. Cops are under no duty or obligation to serve them all by next Tuesday.
Learn to love Alaska
Can't defend her actions . . . .
So let me ask, what actions would you expect to start seeing as Police continue to rack up body counts of people they interact with ?
People surrendering PEACEFULLY ( see guy laying in street with hands in the air ) have been shot. Folks IN CUSTODY have been killed. ( and magically, no police ever go to jail over it )
When the police arrive, it's almost justified to say " I was in fear for my life ".
Welcome to the world police brutality creates.
In recent years I've met only two kinds of people:
1) affluent boot lickers who think law enforcers only brutalize working class and poor people
2) folks who are absolutely scared shitless of American law enforcers
I'm white, middle aged, clean cut, and don't hang out with crooks. Law enforcer brutality is not a race issue, no matter how hard the financialist media try to make it into one. It's an issue of cops, as a caste, holding the common people in open contempt.
Nationwide, law enforcers are rampaging out of control - almost always with the consent of their masters in the judicial oligarchy. Our once-free country is headed down a bad road. I fear things may get much worse before they get better.
When she started to resist, the police gained justification in escalation of force.
Only in the legal sense that they won't be tried for murder.
In every moral sense, they had an obligation to deescalate the situation. She was not a threat to anybody but the cops, and the video proves it.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Why not just wait outside the house for a few days? Nobody had to die.
Because she's a danger to the public and an armed combatant resisting arrest.
If they wait too long, she's more likely to take unexpected actions.
Also, they'll be tying up more law enforcement resources for a longer period; which can compromise the
safety of the public due to reduced resources elsewhere.
Somebody else can die, because the officers are too busy at this scene: response time is increased.
In these situations, the officers are expected to take the steps to best ensure safety of the public,
including establishing control of the situation expeditiously.
In a standoff, she is at risk of shooting her kids, shooting herself, or firing off stray bullets that accidentally hit
neighbors.
Protecting public safety in the situation entails taking down the offender, using any means necessary,
as soon as an opportunity presents itself to minimize the risk to others besides the offender.
After 4 hours worth; it's pretty obvious that the offender is not backing down, and waiting more hours only serves
to increase risk and disruption and interference with their neighbors and the rest of the public.
Of course the cops would get blamed regardless of the outcome. Murder/Suicide? It's the cops' fault! She shoots first, kills a cop, then gets killed? It's the cops' fault for not handling the situation better! The police are in a no win situation at this point in time when dealing with black suspects. Because of all the anti-cop rhetoric being thrown around, people are disrespecting the police or resisting arrest more and more, making matters worse and worse.