In common style, whether it is America, Europe or the Caribbean, we see that the police have a common tactic of slandering the victims of police violence.  They portray the victims as criminals to make them seem as if they deserved what they got even if it was a mistake.  In this way the police hope that their own crime won’t seem as bad.  But we here at Malcolm-Che see through the slander and lies, we hope you do too.  Brenton Smith was murdered in cold blood by the police, something the police wouldn’t even admit at first!  Then, after they admitted it was a policeman’s bullet that killed him, they implied the youth was involved in a robbery even though he was unarmed at the time of his murder!  How many more teens will be killed recklessly by police before something changes?!  Our solidarity really goes out to the family of Brenton Smith right now.  Please check out the family’s website at the bottom of the article.

Slain Teen’s Reputation Sullied By Police

Hector Smith, father of Brenton Smith; the teenager who died after being shot by police in July, attempts to comfort his mother at a press conference yesterday. (Photo/Torrell Glinton)

http://www.bahamasb2b.com/news/story.php?title=slain-teens-reputation-sullied-by-police-1

The bereaved family of slain teen Brenton Smith accused members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force of leaking “misinformation” in order to “sully” his character and muddy the circumstances surrounding the young man’s death.

These accusations were strongly denied by Commissioner of Police Reginald Ferguson.

The claim was made by the family’s attorney, Damian Gomez, at a press conference held yesterday to refute allegations that appeared in a recent tabloid article.

“What they are attempting to do is to create the impression that the late Brenton Smith was a criminal and (you) need not be concerned with how he came to his death.

“Even he had been a criminal, which we say he wasn’t, he was unarmed. No form of walkie-talkie or other form of communication was found on him – there’s absolutely no basis for believing that he had (anything) to do with the robbery whatsoever,” said Mr. Gomez at a press conference at Gibson and Co yesterday.

” … Public confidence in the police force is not engendered by the sullying of victims,” he added

But the commissioner said the argument had no factual basis.

“Why should we leak information like that? (The RBPF) made an official statement on the death of the boy and it was widely published in the media. There is no way we are connected to that rumour or whatever was reported (in the tabloid) and we have nothing to do with that statement,” he said during a brief interview yesterday.

He offered no further comment.

Mr Gomez also questioned the RBPF’s firearm training procedures. He claimed that the unarmed teen was shot at “nearly point blank range” as he cut through a popular shortcut which leads to the nearby City Market food store on Village Road.

He also dispelled early reports of a cross-fire between police and suspected armed robbers and claimed only one officer was in the area when Brenton was shot.

“There was a police jeep that passed Brenton Smith almost 300 feet away from where he came to be shot. He walked that distance, as he was turning his body to get into the property … The supermarket property. A police officer shouted ‘Freeze’ and immediately shot him.

“He was unarmed, he stumbled backwards, he fell, and ten minutes later he died,” Mr Gomez said, flanked by emotional members of the Smith family.

This information was gleaned through his firm’s independent investigation into the shooting, Mr Gomez said.

” … More care ought to be taken by police when discharging a firearm at a person … One has to wonder about the training of police officers,” he said.

The “traumatised” family wants an expedited coroner’s inquest into the youth’s death. They also want the officer in question to be removed from active duty pending the outcome of the inquest and will fight for criminal charges to be filed against anyone found culpable’ of Brenton’s death.

They also have plans to file a civil suit against the relevant agencies.

The 2008 graduate of St Augustine’s College – who family described as an ambitious teen – was shot around 8 pm on July, 9 and died a short time later.

Officers were on the lookout for two armed robbers who held up the food store a short time before Brenton was killed.

Police have acknowledged that a ballistics report revealed the teen was shot by a police service weapon.

They said the case was turned over to the Coroner’s Court, however, a date for the matter has not been scheduled.

Last week a tabloid reported that the teen was on bail for charges stemming from an alleged stabbing incident. Brenton was not convicted of any charges and his family maintains his innocence.

A website has been set up in his honour www.brentonhectorsmith.com and a special service will be held in the parking lot of City Market on Village Road tonight.

NAACP seeks police changes after Ill. man killed

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gi8GN9OpAw8JJIbPsDQZlGjhebDQD9ALCT3O0

The NAACP is renewing a push for federal standards on police use of force after the shooting of an unarmed black man by two white police officers inside a church while day care children watched.

Witnesses say the man was surrendering, but officials in Rockford, Ill., near Chicago dispute that version of events, saying that Mark Anthony Barmore grabbed for an officer’s gun after they cornered him in the church.

Both sides do agree, however, that Barmore fled when officers approached him in the church parking lot, which highlights the suspicion and fear that can poison relationships between police and minority communities across the country.

“There are no national standards for the use of force (or) training for use of force,” Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Friday.

The issue “is not primarily about racism,” Jealous said, citing the recent case of a 72-year-old white woman tasered by a white Texas officer during a traffic stop. “We want to make sure the standards are the most modern and appropriate ones possible.”

The NAACP scheduled a rally Saturday in Rockford and a march Oct. 3. Jealous was planning to attend both; it would be his first march since taking the NAACP’s helm a year ago.

The NAACP is seeking the reintroduction of the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act, first offered by John Conyers, D-Mich., in 2000. It was co-sponsored by 34 legislators but was never voted on by the full House.

Conyers plans to reintroduce the bill during this session of Congress, according to a House Judiciary Committee staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity because the timetable had not been determined.

Jim Pasco, executive director of the national Fraternal Order of Police, disputed the notion that police are inadequately trained in the use of force, which he called “the most serious and awesome responsibility a police officer has.” He said that the majority of the public has faith in police and that the proposed law would be “oppressive to police officers.”

In the case in Rockford, a city of 155,000, police received a complaint that Barmore, 23, had been in a domestic disturbance with his live-in girlfriend. Barmore had recently been released from jail and had a series of arrests, including charges of assaulting a police officer with a firearm.

On the morning of Aug. 24, Barmore went to the Kingdom Authorities Ministries church, which he sometimes attended, to seek counseling about the problem, said the pastor, Rev. Melvin Brown.

According to Brown, Barmore spoke with the pastor’s wife and 17-year-old daughter in the church driveway. Two officers drove by, spotted Barmore, and approached with their guns drawn. Barmore ran inside the church, which also operates a day care center for children ages 4 and up.

Barmore was cornered inside a boiler room, Brown said, as the pastor’s wife, daughter and several of the young children watched.

Witnesses said Barmore emerged with his hands up but was shot several times in the chest and back; the officers said Barmore fought them and tried to grab one of their guns, according to Police Chief Chet Epperson.

“My daughter was about five-feet away. When he hit the ground, she sees the cops shooting him in the back. We saw slugs in his back when we went to see the body,” said Brown, the pastor.

City officials would not comment Friday on the shooting, citing an ongoing investigation by state police and the Cook County state attorney’s office — a rare case of outside agency intervention.

The NAACP was calling for a full Justice Department investigation instead of currently assigned mediators, who were sent to calm racial tensions.

One of the officers who shot Barmore, 37-year-old Oda Poole, had shot three previous suspects in Rockford, one fatally, in the past three years, according to the Rockford Register-Star newspaper.

The fatal shooting was of a 66-year-old man who Poole said pointed what appeared to be a weapon at him and refused to drop it. It was actually a hammer in a sock. Police said they found a suicide note on the man.

Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey said Friday that he welcomed a thorough investigation and hoped that Barmore’s death would improve conditions in a city where black youths have a greater chance of getting arrested than graduating from high school.

The mayor said it was impossible to know why Barmore ran from police, but “the broader and more relevant question is, do we have an approach between our officers and community members that’s one of sufficient trust so that we can avoid unnecessary conflict and unnecessary use of force?”

Waterloo shooting victim’s family protests as investigation continues

http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2009/09/14/news/local/11714636.txt

WATERLOO — Dozens of friends and family gathered downtown Sunday afternoon to protest the police shooting and killing Eric Rule, a man they maintain was a gentle giant and loving father who had put a checkered past behind him.

Autopsy results released Sunday morning ruled the death a homicide. According to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the classification means Rule died at the hands of another person and does not have any bearing on criminal intent.

The cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds, according to the DCI report.

Rule, 31, a father of two, died in the driveway of his home at 611 Keystone St. early Saturday. His wife, Bethany, called police at 2:18 a.m. for a domestic dispute at the home.

Officers Jamie Sullivan and Steven Bose arrived at 2:23 a.m, according to police department records. The next officers arrived six minutes later.

According to witnesses and police, a struggle developed, and an officer shot Rule — who was at least 6 feet tall and weighed 260 pounds ­— in the chest.

Officers were unable to restrain Rule despite using a number of control techniques, including a Taser, according to police. Rule then began to overpower one of the officers. The officer managed to draw his service weapon.

Officials pronounced Rule dead at the scene.

The officers involved are on paid administrative leave, DCI agent Jeff Jacobson said. Because the investigation is continuing, few new details from the officers’ standpoint have been released.

When completed, the DCI’s findings will be turned over to the Black Hawk County Attorney’s Office, Jacobson said.

Rule had a run-in with police in 1997, when he allegedly refused to get into a squad car and kicked an officer. In another incident four years later, Rule pleaded guilty to interference with official acts and paid a fine for refusing orders from Waterloo officers.

Between 2000 and 2004, police in Waterloo and Cedar Falls cited Rule multiple times for other offenses, including public intoxication and operating a vehicle with a suspended driver’s license.

Family speaks

Friends and family lashed out at police Sunday afternoon at Lincoln Park, hugging and crying.

“They shot an unarmed man twice in the chest,” said his wife, Bethany Rule, who witnessed the shooting. “The family will stop at nothing until they see a murder charge.”

Bethany Rule said she called police so they could take her husband to the hospital to detox. When asked by dispatchers, she said she told them she did not feel threatened.

Becky Daugherty, Eric Rule’s mother, acknowledged her son had been drinking.

“OK. He was drunk. That doesn’t give anyone the right to shoot him,” she said.

“Beth wanted assistance. And now she’s a widow,” Daugherty added.

Friends and family describe Rule as a dedicated father and older brother who had responsibility thrust on him at a young age.

Bethany Rule and her mother, Shelley Shimp, said Rule’s playful side came out around children. They added he never laid a hand on his wife or children.

Rule’s criminal record is clean since 2004 because marriage and fatherhood changed him, and Shimp called Rule “the best thing that every happened to my daughter.” She added her son-in-law was by Bethany Rule’s side every step of the way after the couple’s oldest daughter was born prematurely at 2 pounds.

The daughter, 4, cried so hard she vomited when she found out her dad was dead, Shimp said.

“I just want the truth to be out about what he’s like as a man, not what he did as a kid,” she added.

Daugherty was 14 when she gave birth to Eric, she said, and people told her it was a huge mistake.

When Rule was 14, Daugherty said, his stepfather died in a car accident. From then on, he worked long hours and never missed the birthdays of his six brothers and sisters.

“He helped me raise my kids. He was always there to help with everything,” Daugherty said.

With his first paycheck, Rule reportedly bought his youngest brother, Kevin Harris, now 18, a pair of Nike shoes. Harris said Rule was the “best” of his brothers and a role model because he was the only one who seemed to have a plan for his life.

“When I was younger he was never home because he was always working. He was always there with money for mom,” Harris said.

Aaron Westphal, a coworker with Rule at Martinson Construction, said his friend started at an entry-level position more than 10 years ago and worked up to field engineer. He added Rule always showed up early and often stayed late.

“He even went into work on his wife’s birthday because they needed him,” he said. “It’s going to take a huge person to fill his spot.”