RESIDENTS WANT CHARGES FOR DENVER OFFICERS WHO KILLED TEEN

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

BY SADIE GURMAN

DENVER (AP) -- Some residents are calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the Denver officers who shot and killed a 16-year-old girl who police say hit an officer with a stolen car.

They plan to rally outside the office of District Attorney Mitch Morrissey on Tuesday morning. Morrissey's office normally decides whether to file charges in police shootings but many don't trust it to handle the case because officers are rarely charged.

The calls for a special inquiry come a day after several dozen people with candles and protest signs gathered near the scene of the shooting to demand answers about the deadly encounter and remember the girl identified by friends as Jessica Hernandez.

"We're angry about it. It's another life taken by another cop," 19-year-old Cynthia Valdez, a close friend and schoolmate of Hernandez's, said at the vigil Monday night. "She was trying to find her talent. She wanted to find out what she wanted to be. ... Who knows what she could have been?"

FULL story at link.



Cynthia Valdez raises her arm at left while Rev. Terrence Hughes, right in hat, leads people in prayer during a vigil near the scene of the early morning fatal shooting of a young woman who hit and injured a Denver Police Department officer while driving a stolen vehicle Monday, Jan. 26, 2015, in northeast Denver. Valdez said that she was a friend of the woman who was shot by police in the incident. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_POLICE_SHOOTING_DENVER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-01-27-10-57-45

[FLPanhandle]

1. Not a chance in hell there are charges

If someone uses a car to run into police, the car is considered a weapon.

There won't be charges and, if the police account is correct, nor should there be any charges.

[jtuck004]

2. Stop, don't stop, raise your hands, don't raise your hands, go to Yale, don't go to Yale -

What, exactly, is the return? Stopping for uniformed people who might kill you anyway...

From your perch atop your high horse of self righteousness you seem to have condemned this behavior, as if you are the keeper of the "List of things not to do".

But the "List of things that are supposed to keep you safe" seems just as deadly.

Ironic.

[Orrex]

4. If the car was stolen and she hit the cop with it, what should be the result?

From the information at hand, this story sounds very different from cases in which police summarily execute black men and women in the street.

[jtuck004]

5. You hand that death penalty out pretty easily to a scared 16 year old. Unburdened by humanity,

I guess, and cocksure about the result.

If that's a useful philosophy, maybe they should use flamethrowers, really send a message.

[Orrex]

6. I asked for an alternative response and you gave none. Interesting.

You hand that death penalty out pretty easily to a scared 16 year old. Unburdened by humanity,

I guess, and cocksure about the result.

What the fuck are you talking about? Do you normally answer questions with a blustering sermon and a heap of judgment? That's fucked up.


To restate the question: What is the appropriate response when a stolen car is being used as a deadly weapon?

[jtuck004]

7. The appropriate response is for a society to quit killing black folk so readily, quit

coming up with justifications like yours so quickly to administer the death penalty like it was delivering pizza.

We can excuse Americans killing others illegally with torture, excuse donors to political campaigns for using predatory lending to detroy the lives of millions of our neighbors, but we can't seem to come up with an excuse for a kid who may not have needed to die.

How about you just write to someone else. I'm gonna go take a shower.

[Orrex]

8. That's what society should do. What should have been done in this specific case?

Your refusal to answer the question as asked is basically an admission that you don't have an answer, and that you simply want to preach about how high-minded you are.

Issuing a proclamation about the evils of society is not an appropriate response to a life-threatening situation in real time. If your house were burning down, would that be the time for someone to lecture you on the evils of keeping oil-soaked rags? No, of course not; you put out the fire and then deal with the larger issue.

coming up with justifications like yours so quickly to administer the death penalty like it was delivering pizza.

That's bullshit, and if you're comfortable rolling in such bullshit, then...

I'm gonna go take a shower.

If you're comfortable rolling in such bullshit, then you probably need it.

[CANDO]

14. I'll answer.....

The roided up cop needs to jump out of the way of the car and not be so fucking trigger happy. Deadly weapon my ass. The car was parked and the kid didn't have it in park or her foot slipped off the brakes....whatever....this wasn't some out of control speeding car barreling toward the cop. It brushed his leg. For that a trigger happy asshole with a badge served the death penalty to a teenager.

[NickB79]

16. And then they'll be in a high speed pursuit

Where that car that "brushed" an officers leg may "brush" another person or car of people on the road. Maybe someone else's kid. Probably at a very high speed.

Fuck that.

[CANDO]

17. For that they need to die?

What the fuck is wrong with the psyche of cops and of some of their apologists and enablers where the death penalty is the go to answer for a vast array of situations? I'm fucking sick to death of these authoritarian type A's in our society seeking out the legal status of a badge so they can act out their psychopathic desire to dominate and command others. If you want to be a cop you should undergo a battery of psyche tests to determine your true intent for doing so. To serve and protect is clearly NOT the reason a vast majority of these authoritarians sought out the badge and the force of law behind it.

[Ash_F]

15. Any proof she hit the officer?

Don't take what killers say at face value. They will say anything to evade consequences.

[7962]

3. If the article is correct, then she tried to run them over. No charges.

16 yr olds out in the middle of the night in a stolen car. And one of the residents says "You've got stun guns. You've got rubber bullets. Why do they have to shoot all the time?"
So she thinks rubber bullets and a stun gun is a defense against a CAR? Wow.

[Bandit]

9. The story I heard was she got out of the car to run and did not put the car in park.

The car continued to roll forward and bumped into an officer causing no injuries. Deadly weapon...hardly..scared child ...hell yes..

[7962]

10. That version cant be true, according to the reports of the people looking out their windows

They are upset that she was taken out of the car and handcuffed before any aid was called for. So that means she was IN the car when it was shot at by the cops.

[snooper2]

11. I thought she was 17?

[vkkv]

12. Seriously? A stolen car? So she was trying to decide to be a car thief or a ... So. Cal Congressman

named Darrell Issa.. interesting potential there..

They should both be in jail.

[kiva]

18. An investigation is a good idea,

but can we stop pretending she was 'trying to park the car'?

The shooting happened after an officer was called to check on a suspicious vehicle, Chief Robert White has said. A colleague arrived after the officer determined the car had been reported stolen. Police have said the two officers approached the car on foot when Hernandez drove into one of them, and they both then opened fire.

The car's passenger said police had surrounded the car in the alley, and Hernandez was trying to flee, attempting to dive (sic) around one of the squad cars.

The car was stolen and she hit a cop. Odds are that an investigation will clear the officer, but given what's been happening around the country it should be done.