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[penguinofhonor]

I would assume they're getting more attention because they happened in the past week and her shooting happened four years ago.

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

I would assume they're getting more attention because they happened in the past week and her shooting happened four years ago.

Her shooting was very overshadowed when it happened.

[penguinofhonor]

Ferguson happened between then and now.

[Loud Whispers]

Mr Castile had been stopped in Falcon Heights, a suburb of St Paul, because the car had a broken rear light, the woman, identified in local media reports as Diamond Reynolds (or sometimes as Lavish Reynolds) said.

Before he was shot, he had told the officer that he was licensed to carry a concealed gun and had one in his possession, she said.

"You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his licence and registration, sir," Ms Reynolds says in the video.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36732908

Castile apparently did everything responsibly, literally everything, informing the police in advance

Is Castile even the person the phone call was made about?

[SalmonGod]

I haven't read deeply into either.  What I know at a glance:

1 - Alton Sterling

This guy was selling CDs in the parking lot outside a convenience store.  Initial report was that police responded to a anonymous call reporting him as a threat.  Looks like there's more detailed information emerging today, claiming that the call was made by a homeless man who had been harassing Alton persistently to beg for money.  Alton was carrying a gun.  I haven't seen it definitively stated, but every mention of the incident points out that it's an open carry state, with the implication that he was carrying a firearm legally.  Supposedly, he flashed his gun at the homeless man and insisted that he be left alone, at which point homeless dude calls 911 and reports a black man brandishing a gun.  As far as I can tell at this point, police showed up and there was absolutely no conflict or anything suspect apparently happening. 

But police proceeded to violently arrest Alton anyway, throwing him to the ground and restraining his limbs.  Clearest details are from the video, which show Alton on his back, with officers kneeling on him.  He's squirming, but it doesn't appear to be serious resistance beyond natural reflex to having your joints ground into concrete.  One officer is feeling in Alton's pockets and announces that he has a gun.  Not sure if it's one or both officers, but the one closest to the camera at least immediately pulls his gun and unloads point blank into Alton's chest.

2 - Philando Castile

Officer pulls over Philando's vehicle due to a broken tail light, and approaches the window.  Philando informs the officer that he legally has a licensed firearm stored in the vehicle, and that he is going to reach for his ID.  As soon as Philando begins to reach into his pocket, the officer fires into him 4 times.  Philando's girlfriend immediately begins a livestream video to Facebook and describes in detail what just happened, and begins to narrate what's happening for several minutes, as the officer stands there with his gun pointed at the guy watching him die with zero fucks given.  I admire the hell out of that woman's composure in reacting to the situation.  This one's likely to be a lot of trouble, as I'm seeing headlines that Castile was a highly respected public school employee, regarded as a great role model to hundreds of kids.

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

Ferguson happened between then and now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Michael_Brown

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Rekia_Boyd#Shooting

[Loud Whispers]

tfw a hobo can get you murdered by police

Source on hobo?

Also yeah, when you've got someone already subdued, that's murder right there

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

I wonder if these cases will have the same kinds of evidence and media circus as the Michael Brown shooting. I really hope they are investigated impartially.

[penguinofhonor]

Okay, I was being unclear. The Ferguson community's response to Michael Brown's shooting was particularly strong, resulting in protests and riots. I don't know if anyone can say exactly why this evoked more of a response than other shootings, but I have most often heard it's because Ferguson had particularly strong tensions between the police and the black community. The scale of the protests made national news, and since then police violence has been much more prominent in the public consciousness. Because of this, police shootings have recieved increased media coverage and discussion since 2014.

[SalmonGod]

To be honest, I don't regard anything about these cases as especially noteworthy.  I see them reported on feeds all the fucking time.  I think I saw that police have killed over 550 people so far this year?  I've stopped paying serious attention.  Both because my life has been too overwhelming, and because it's just old.  I'm at least 3 years beyond the point where I have any hope that there's some threshold of ridiculous blatancy where everyone will agree that police are out of control. 

I'm only bothering to bring these up, because they both appear to nail the formula for major unrest:  the truly fucking random jackpot of explosively viral national attention + shock value.  To have two stories like this originating on the same day receiving this kind of response is quite something...

There's also been some major developments otherwise on the issue of police in 'Merica that I haven't bothered to pass along over the last few months... like Louisana making police officers a protected class covered by hate crime laws.

[SalmonGod]

tfw a hobo can get you murdered by police

Source on hobo?

CNN

But like I said... I haven't read deeply into anything.

Woops - sorry for double post

[Jopax]

Holy fucking hell, do cops even do a psych exam these days? Or is it a mere formality where they jot down a passing grade if you're capable of putting on your trousers yourself.

I'm not so much shocked by the shootings happening (because as SG said, they're kind of expected these days, which is a rather horrible thing in and of itself) but the fucking leaps of panicked logic these morons had to have made in order to act as they did. The last thing you want in a cop is a jumpy trigger finger that makes him go full retard at the slightest inkling of danger (real or not), but it honestly seems like these idiots are the exact opposite of that quality.

[SalmonGod]

Holy fucking hell, do cops even do a psych exam these days? Or is it a mere formality where they jot down a passing grade if you're capable of putting on your trousers yourself.

Courts have ruled that it's ok to bar people with high IQs from becoming police officers.  Yes, this is something that people have been rejected for, contested in court, and lost.

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

To be honest, I don't regard anything about these cases as especially noteworthy.  I see them reported on feeds all the fucking time.  I think I saw that police have killed over 550 people so far this year?  I've stopped paying serious attention.  Both because my life has been too overwhelming, and because it's just old.  I'm at least 3 years beyond the point where I have any hope that there's some threshold of ridiculous blatancy where everyone will agree that police are out of control. 

I'm only bothering to bring these up, because they both appear to nail the formula for major unrest:  the truly fucking random jackpot of explosively viral national attention + shock value.  To have two stories like this originating on the same day receiving this kind of response is quite something...

There's also been some major developments otherwise on the issue of police in 'Merica that I haven't bothered to pass along over the last few months... like Louisana making police officers a protected class covered by hate crime laws.

Holy fucking hell, do cops even do a psych exam these days? Or is it a mere formality where they jot down a passing grade if you're capable of putting on your trousers yourself.

Courts have ruled that it's ok to bar people with high IQs from becoming police officers.  Yes, this is something that people have been rejected for, contested in court, and lost.

Are they also allowed to bar people with low IQs?

[crazyabe]

PTW