(US) in-custody murder of Ronald Greene

Overheal · 20-05-2021 3:41pm #1

The details of this are pretty disturbing even for your average police-suspect death scenario. The footage revealing a police coverup was just leaked to the associated press. He was beaten and tazed to death while in handcuffs and ankle shackles. The police reported he died from injuries sustained from his vehicle wrecking. State and federal officials claim it has been under investigation these past 6 months. The states Coroner did not report the same injuries discovered by the families independent autopsy.

Relatives of Ronald Greene were initially told that he had died from injuries he sustained in a crash after he failed to stop for a traffic violation outside Monroe, La., in May 2019, according to a lawyer for the family.

But body-camera footage obtained and published by The Associated Press on Wednesday showed Mr. Greene, 49, screaming, “I’m sorry” and “I’m scared,” after troopers opened the door to his car and jolted him with a stun gun after a high-speed chase.

“I’m scared!” Mr. Greene screamed, according to the video. “I’m your brother! I’m scared!”

According to The A.P., which said it had obtained 46 minutes of video footage from the encounter, one trooper wrestled Mr. Greene to the ground, put him in a chokehold and punched him in the face. Another trooper briefly dragged him by his ankle shackles as he lay on the ground, according to the footage.

Mr. Greene was jolted again with a stun gun while he was on the ground and handcuffed, the footage shows. The A.P. reported that the troopers, who were white, left Mr. Greene, who was Black, facedown and moaning for more than nine minutes, as they wiped blood from their hands and face.

“I hope this guy ain’t got AIDS,” one of the troopers said on the video, adding an expletive.

Mr. Greene’s death is under investigation by the F.B.I. and other federal agencies.

The body-camera footage had been shown to Mr. Greene’s mother and sister last fall, according to the family’s lawyer, Lee Merritt, but had not been released publicly, unlike body-camera footage in other violent encounters with the police across the country. The A.P. did not say how it had obtained the footage, and Mr. Merritt said he had not released it.

[… … …]

The A.P. published the footage more than six months after photos circulated online that appeared to show Mr. Greene’s bruised and bloodied face and damage to his car that the family said was inconsistent with a fatal accident.

The photos were shared on social media after the president of the N.A.A.C.P.’s Baton Rouge branch posted them on Facebook.

The images were also included in a wrongful-death lawsuit that Mr. Greene’s family filed in May 2020 arguing that he died as a result of a struggle with troopers that “left him beaten, bloodied and in cardiac arrest.” The lawsuit is pending, Mr. Merritt said.

A single-page crash report reviewed by The Associated Press said that troopers tried to stop Mr. Greene for an unspecified traffic violation just after midnight on May 10, 2019. Mr. Greene, who lived in Monroe, refused to pull over and troopers pursued him, The A.P. reported, citing the document.

The report says the chase ended when Mr. Greene’s vehicle crashed, according to The A.P.

“Greene was taken into custody after resisting arrest and a struggle with troopers,” the report says, adding that he “became unresponsive” and died as he was being taken to a hospital. The report did not mention any use of force by troopers, The A.P. said.
According to the lawsuit, officers called for an ambulance and, when it arrived, emergency medical technicians found Mr. Greene unresponsive with multiple Taser barbs in his body.

Mr. Greene’s death was ruled accidental and was attributed to cardiac arrest, Renee Smith, the Union Parish coroner, told The A.P., adding that his file mentioned the car crash but not a struggle with the police.

The family commissioned an independent autopsy that found severe injuries to Mr. Greene’s head and skull, and several wounds to his face, Mr. Merritt said.

One of the officers who was suspended is back on the beat, another officer involved died in an unrelated car crash while on administrative leave.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/19/us/Ronald-Greene-Louisiana-State-Police.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

This is the type of street justice we often hear offhand comments about, (just beat up the scum teach them a lesson etc) but I wonder what those people would say about it if they saw how ugly it actually gets. Did the suspect deserved to be brutalized for the high car chase? It doesn’t seem like a component of healthy justice to me.

20-05-2021 3:54pm

Sounds like a very dangerous country to live in, you should probably think about moving to somewhere else.

Overheal · 20-05-2021 4:17pm

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Sounds like a very dangerous country to live in, you should probably think about moving to somewhere else.

Thanks for the advice but I’d rather stay, I’m something of a Patriot you see.

Would you flee Ireland because of some bad AGS press in the news? If something like the above happened? Why?

hawley · 20-05-2021 4:55pm

This is a really serious incident, they tried to cover it up for the last two years. There are some sections of the footage which don't show anything, as Ronald and the police are out of the shot. It seems like they just attacked him for no reason. There's no evidence that shows him being uncooperative or belligerent. I don't think they meant to kill him, but there seems to be an element of racism in play. They are using that old trope of the black man with Aids. It's incredibly reductive and it must be demoralizing for minorities in the USA. This happened in the middle of Trump's presidency, he enabled this type of behavior.

Overheal · 20-05-2021 6:00pm

hawley wrote: »

This is a really serious incident, they tried to cover it up for the last two years. There are some sections of the footage which don't show anything, as Ronald and the police are out of the shot. It seems like they just attacked him for no reason. There's no evidence that shows him being uncooperative or belligerent. I don't think they meant to kill him, but there seems to be an element of racism in play. They are using that old trope of the black man with Aids. It's incredibly reductive and it must be demoralizing for minorities in the USA. This happened in the middle of Trump's presidency, he enabled this type of behavior.

Except for the high speed chase?!

That said, the chase having ended and him being in handcuffs and ankle cuffs, I can't see how there would be any cause to say he was belligerent or resisting at that point, they've got in cuffed top to bottom and completely at their mercy/custody.

jimmycrackcorm · 20-05-2021 6:05pm

The US might actually do better if police officers could be personally held liable for their actions as much as their employer. It would help restrain them from being adrenalin junkies.
E.g. only shoot if you are being shot at.

Will_I_Regret · 20-05-2021 6:14pm

Overheal wrote: »

Thanks for the advice but I’d rather stay, I’m something of a Patriot you see.

Why don't you find a site where like-minded American patriots such as yourself, can discuss/debate topics and issues regarding America.

Only thing yourself and that Hawley lad are doing is making your country out to be a complete basket case. Not very Patriotic.

banie01 · 20-05-2021 6:20pm

Overheal wrote: »

The details of this are pretty disturbing even for your average police-suspect death scenario. The footage revealing a police coverup was just leaked to the associated press. /quote]

I watched the available videos this morning.
The arrest, restraint and outright brutality inflicted are hopefully going to be tried appropriately.

The worrying aspect in my view was the complete indifference of the police to the brutality they were inflicting.
It's more and more apparent that a large swathe of US policing has descended to "Them v Us" and rather than protecting and serving their communities, they are approaching them as adversaries.

That's not ever how policing should be conducted.

Overheal · 20-05-2021 6:26pm

Banie01 wrote: »

I watched the available videos this morning.
The arrest, restraint and outright brutality inflicted are hopefully going to be tried appropriately.

The worrying aspect in my view was the complete indifference of the police to the brutality they were inflicting.
It's more and more apparent that a large swathe of US policing has descended to "Them v Us" and rather than protecting and serving their communities, they are approaching them as adversaries.

That's not ever how policing should be conducted.

It's easy to see why prosecutors are upset the video leaked, it will go wildly viral, which does make any prosecution harder when it is high profile. Unfortunately, that valid excuse for keeping things under wraps gets often enough abused by 'good old boys' to hush up controversy. I cannot understand how that one officer has his job back, though, if the state and feds are treating this properly. That's some police union bs I imagine.

BattleCorp · 21-05-2021 12:13pm

I haven't seen the video but if the cops acted the boll1x, then they should face the full rigours of the law.

Normal One · 21-05-2021 12:34pm

I’m writing to my TD about this

21-05-2021 12:54pm

BattleCorp wrote: »

I haven't seen the video but if the cops acted the boll1x, then they should face the full rigours of the law.

Not only brutality but they actively lied about the cause of his death.

hawley · 22-05-2021 1:42pm

“It literally was torture,” said David Thomas, a professor of forensic studies at Florida Gulf Coast University who worked for 20 years as a street cop in Michigan and Florida. “There was no regard for humanity. … As a Black man, I am torn between what I know a good cop should be and what this profession is doing to my community,” Thomas said.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1268223

He was wrong to engage the police in a high speed chase, but after that the police are culpable for his death. There are so many bad cops in the US. They need to attract a higher quality person and perform psychological tests, so that they have the ability to stay calm in tense situations.

Overheal · 22-05-2021 5:22pm

CNN Punditry: 'this was a lynching'

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/watch-msnbcs-tiffany-cross-overcome-with-emotion-as-elie-mystal-goes-off-on-lynching-of-ronald-greene/

“This was a lynching that the Louisiana police covered up for 2 years, knowing full well what they did! What can we do about this lynching? Well as always, it starts with holding these people accountable for their actions. That sounds so simple and unsatisfying in a way, given what we all just saw, but it’s the first step, and it’s the first step that this country refuses to try! Hold these people accountable for what they admitted to doing on tape, and for what we saw them doing on video, as a first step.”

22-05-2021 5:29pm

Overheal wrote: »

CNN Punditry: 'this was a lynching'

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/watch-msnbcs-tiffany-cross-overcome-with-emotion-as-elie-mystal-goes-off-on-lynching-of-ronald-greene/

“This was a lynching that the Louisiana police covered up for 2 years, knowing full well what they did! What can we do about this lynching? Well as always, it starts with holding these people accountable for their actions. That sounds so simple and unsatisfying in a way, given what we all just saw, but it’s the first step, and it’s the first step that this country refuses to try! Hold these people accountable for what they admitted to doing on tape, and for what we saw them doing on video, as a first step.”

I'd be very uncomfortable about the use of the emotive and race baiting use of the word lynching.

It's unnecessary and inflaming what is already a tinderbox waiting to explode.

Again, another example of sensational and provocative journalism

That's not to downplay any possibility of racism. If any is found, throw the book at them and highlight it. But do it in a responsible way

(US) in-custody murder of Ronald Greene

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