Seattle police kill black woman after she calls for help

[AmandaRuth]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article156881304.html

Details are just coming out, so take the reporting above as not confirmed. If there were mental issues, why not a taser - the woman was shot in front of her children. Breaks my heart this happened in my beloved Seattle. Black lives matter.

On edit: I didn't post in breaking news, as details are sketchy and you know once a story gets out there and the memes are made....

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

“They shot Leena!” screams Florida Carroll into her phone, after police fatally shot a 30-year-old woman who was Carroll’s stepsister, at the Brettler Family Place apartments on Sunday in Magnuson Park. (Bettina Hansen / The Seattle Times)

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/officer-involved-shooting-in-magnuson-park-leaves-3-children-in-protective-custody/

[onecaliberal]

2. :

[Stuart G]

3. k and r.

[furtheradu]

4. MyGod, MyGod, my God. Help us.

My Heart.

Thank You, please update when You can.
I have nothing to say. Too sad. Out of tears, it hurts to swallow.
Please, God. Blessings on us ALL.

[BlueIndyBlue]

5. And the list of names just keeps growing;

[samnsara]

6. no....not Seattle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[gollygee]

7. :(

So horribly sad.

[luvMIdog]

8. no words :(

[Ilsa]

9. Dammit. Lives are precious.

Why are people treated as expendable?

[Igel]

10. Dunno.

The day Scalise was shot and filled national news, local news here was full of this story:

http://www.bet.com/news/national/2017/06/16/10-month-old-baby-shot-and-killed-while-being-held-in-his-father.html

[nolabear]

11. This happened about two miles from me. I've been watching the vigil.

She'd had troubles; been a domestic violence victim, had "mental health issues" for which her relatives say she was trying to get help. She had her three kids there. And she was pregnant. Relatives say she was a tiny woman, barely a hundred pounds. She was scared and I guess she scared them and they shot her.

Two mayoral candidates were there, and they were pretty eloquent about the need for finding a better way, for de-escalation training and alternatives to shooting. There's a lot of pain and a lot of people wondering what on earth to do.

#BlackLivesMatter.

[Cha]

12. Why are so many police so damn murderously

STUPID?

[mythology]

18. I think it's several things

The biggest issue is that our society has so successfully demonized black people that the research shows we are primed to identify black people as carrying a weapon.

https://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/gunbias.htm

When asked to identify – within less than one second -- whether the second picture was a tool or a gun, participants were much more likely to misidentify a tool as a gun when the preceding picture was that of an African American.

Where in a study situation that doesn't lead to anybody dying, with cops who have guns, the consequences are real.

Also I think a big part of it is that cops have been conditioned that they are under threat, even as the objective number of cops who die in the line of duty (including things like heart attacks) has dropped by half over the last 40 years.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blake-fleetwood/how-dangerous-is-police-w_b_6373798.html

It seems likely that cops are primed to expect threats for reasons from our overall society and their own internal culture, particularly from black men, and thus are positioned to be likely see a threat.

That said, I think it's also very easy to sit here and criticize without being put to the test. I have taken part in a psychology study that was replicating being shown a black or white face and then a tool or gun and didn't fare as well as I would have thought. I suspect many if not most people would fall into the same category. We see still pictures knowing the outcome and that inherently influences our conclusions.

[Lee-Lee]

19. There is a catch-22 in your above statement

People like to point out that the number of line of duty deaths is declining as a reason to oppose many police tactics or polive being so defensive.

But at the same time those tactics are designed to reduce police deaths and injuries, so the declining rate of those events is due in good part to the same tactics people say are unneeded because of the decline.

That's not the only reason for the decline in deaths. It also has a lot to do with much better advances in medical treatment, faster medical treatment and much better communications allowing help to be called faster.

The job hasn't become safer. Assaults on police officers are the same or rising, they just result in death less often.

[Jim Beard]

31. How can the British Bobbies possibly keep peace without guns?

[Iggo]

24. According to the police themselves, they're scared shitless. (n/t)

[Judi Lynn]

13. The lady would not have called to police to get their help, and then attempt to kill them.

They have to be lunatics, or idiots too stupid to live.

Their hearts and brains are not in the right place, probably no where near their bodies.

Sad, sad times for her loved ones and neighbors.

[Lee-Lee]

23. People do just that kind of thing all the time

people do messed up stuff all the time.

[ansible]

14. This is why you should NEVER call the police for help anymore

Cops make the situation even worse than it already is, always remember that cops are NOT your friend.

[Tom Rinaldo]

15. It is so sad that this is so true for POC n/t

[Lee-Lee]

17. Of course coming at cops with a knife makes things worse too

Based on early reports that seems to the issue here..

[Dream Girl]

25. They always say shit like that. They are fucking liars.

[LanternWaste]

26. As well as simply sitting in your car, buckled up, and retrieving ID as instructed makes things wors

"coming at cops with a knife makes things worse too..."

As well as simply sitting in your car, buckled up, and retrieving ID as instructed makes things worse.

[Lee-Lee]

28. Bringing up the bad cases to paint all cops as bad

Is the same disgusting behavior and logic exhibited by islamophobes who paint all Muslims as terrorists or racists who who find examples of minorities commuting crimes and paint them all as violent.

Bringing up a totally unrelated case in discussion of this one is just the same as a racist bringing up some unrelated crime by a black person every time any discussion of black people happens.

[58Sunliner]

29. My neighbors-5 of them-all adults call the cops every week. Not exaggerating.

They are AA and have not been shot or anything. They have been there for 4 months now. So, not true necessarily.
Apparently they have family issues.One of them sits outside with a new neck brace on.
They threw something at their tv, it was tossed.

[lostnfound]

32. I know. I recently had to make that choice myself and opted not to get them involved.

Sometimes, things end badly.

Fortunately it worked out, but there are times you would like to have Andy Griffith around.

[Lee-Lee]

16. I hope there is body camera footage, but as to why not a taser

The taser is not a magic solution and isn't always usable or a good option depending on circumstances.

When dealing with a person with a knife if there is time and distance that allows it can be an option if the person behavior is such that it can be used. If the person is staying more or less stationary and not moving around and most importantly not actively attacking somebody then you can use it, maybe.

If the person is coming toward you or another person with the knife then it's not a valid option. Because it's hard to get a shot at a moving person that gets both barbs of the taser in and working on a person moving and failure in that circumstance, versus someone stationary with a knife, means that someone gets stabbed.

A persons mental stability really doesn't come into play in decisions to use a taser or not. Since it appears this was dispatched as a burglary report call there would have no reason for officers to expect an encounter with a person with mental illness as the complainant nor any reason for them to come in expecting to be assaulted with a knife by the same, they rolled in expecting to just be making a report. Shows how quickly these things turn sometimes.

I fully expect there will be a lot of irresponsible jumping to conclusions and accusations against the officers before most of the facts are out. On the ground there and here online. And I fully expect if the facts show the officers did act properly none of those same people will retract or admit they were wrong.

[AmandaRuth]

20. Agreed, but what bothers me is the

Person "was well known to the police", so maybe it should have been anticipated that mental issues were in play. Like you said, we will have to wait until the full story is known.

[Lee-Lee]

21. "Known to the police" can mean a lot of things

So it's really hard to say.

It could mean she had a history and there are police reports with her name on them, it could mean the officers personally had a history with her, it could mean that others in the agency knew her by name but not the officers responding.

And if it meant that the officers had a history with her it could mean they had a history that was just her being erratic, it could mean they had violent encounters before, it could be that they knew she was a danger to others based on prior experiences or it could mean they thought she was not a danger and were blindsided by a knife attack.

It really could mean so much its impossible to read anything into it.

[58Sunliner]

30. +1

[Smickey]

22. The problem is I am becoming numb to this shit and

I am an empathetic person. Where do we go from here? The planet needs some down time man.

[Cal Carpenter]

27. Charleena Lyles

#SayHerName
#BlackLivesMatter