Black Lives Matter Camping Out In DeKalb Ahead Of Robert Olsen Grand Jury
Tonight, Rise Up Georgia and Black Lives Matter activists will begin camping out at the DeKalb County courthouse in Decatur, awaiting the decision of a grand jury looking into the police shooting of Anthony Hill last year.
It’ll be 19 degrees tonight on the courthouse steps, with a high of 41 on Tuesday. It will be raining most of the week. It will be uncomfortable. It will look uncomfortable. In a sense, it’s the antithesis of hashtag activism.
I first heard about this protest at a talk by activist Shaun King at Agnes Scott College last week. King, a former class president at Morehouse who now writes for the New York Daily News as a justice columnist, grew to prominence chronicling one high profile police shooting after another through social media last year.
He’s questioning that, now.
“I operated under the impression that if I made the injustice known, that justice would be done,” he said. “And I was wrong. … It’s not good enough. I thought it would do a lot more than it has done.”
The frankness of that admission startled me. But so do the numbers.
The Guardian’s meticulous count of deaths attributed to police last year topped out at 1134. A disproportionate number of those deaths were of young black men, even accounting for higher crime rates in the black population.
“Despite making up only 2% of the total US population, African American males between the ages of 15 and 34 comprised more than 15% of all deaths logged this year by an ongoing investigation into the use of deadly force by police,” according to The Guardian’s count. “Their rate of police-involved deaths was five times higher than for white men of the same age.”
The Washington Post’s coverage of police shootings last near noted that about a quarter of all police-involved deaths had some connection to a mental health crisis, just like that of Anthony Hill’s shooting death.
DeKalb County police officer Robert Olsen killed Air Force veteran Anthony Hill in March. Hill was having a bipolar mental health episode, and had disrobed, running around naked — and unarmed — in an apartment complex. Olsen killed Hill two minutes after responding to the 911 call.
No police officer involved in a fatal shooting last year has been convicted of a crime yet, King noted.
While activists want Olsen held accountable for Hill’s death, they’re also looking for systemic changes to police responses, said Nelini Stamp, an organizer with Rise Up Georgia. The movement wants this demonstration to be the start of a long-term conversation that ends with changes to how DeKalb County police respond to mental health crisis, she said.
“Mobile crisis units are not enough,” she said. “Our immediate goal is to put pressure on the DA for an indictment, and we want to say that there’s a bigger fight that people can participate in.”
She is working to present a draft ordinance to the county, requiring crisis intervention training for police and a shift of resources away from jail and into treatment of mental health disorders.
“Las Vegas and San Antonio have models that work,” she said. “Police don’t want to be in this position.”
About Author
George Chidi
Former staff writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other publications. Former Pine Lake city councilman, Former corporate spy. Occasional contributor to The Guardian.
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Freezing your ass off will likely not accomplish much. Mr. King should understand that this issue is a blue one, not just black. Even an acquaintance of mine who is with the GBI would be in favor of a law requiring another county’s DA and/or Grand Jury reviewing police shootings. Preferably with at least a two-county geographic separation. The DA who must work with his or her own county police force daily cannot logically be considered to be impartial. Put to the legislature correctly this shouldn’t even be a partisan issue, certainly not a racial one.
“The DA who must work with his or her own county police force daily cannot logically be considered to be impartial.”
And it explains in part why legislation changing the status quo will get tepid if any support from many DAs.
In the first 13 days of 2016 there were at least eight shootings in Dekalb including a young woman murdered at a bus stop and a man murdered when he walked in on a home invasion. None of these shootings were done by the police.
In 2015 Atlanta had the highest number of murders in seven years. A couple days ago a pregnant 15 year old was shot at a MARTA station.
Strangely, the only folks that talk about these acts of violence are the police and family members of the victims.
My point is that this case gets an inordinate amount of attention while the daily nonpolice shootings get little attention.
These groups camp out at the courthouse and their main objective is to pressure grand jurors. Is this how justice operates, by pressuring grand jurors to return an indictment?
You may want to also research Black Lives Matter. This group has advocated killing police, has disrupted businesses and has made many inaccurate statements.
@gcp. As a society we recognize that bad things happen. Murders occur at far too high of a rate. We know that – and to a certain degree have become numb to it. These are done by bad people for whatever their reasons, but they don’t have institutional defenders. We don’t accept it, but we recognize it. It’s on the news every night.
What is shocking and disturbing is that the people who are supposed to be looking over us, out for us, are too often committing the very same acts. Is this a new phenomenon? No. There has been institutional defenses that have kept it from coming out in the open. Camera footage and social media have brought it out into the open.
This doesn’t imply all police are bad – far, far from it. But shouldn’t we want to remove the bad ones instead of blindly defending them? Shouldn’t we as a society be outraged when our public protectors are unmasked? Shouldn’t we strive for better?
The criminal that knocks over a convenience store doesn’t work for me. He hasn’t sworn to protect me. I can do little to control him. The police officer in my neighborhood works for me and has sworn to protect me. There is the difference.
“But shouldn’t we want to remove the bad ones” Of course, but justice will occur inside the courthouse by a group of grand jurors and possibly a jury, not from a mob outside whose main objective is to “pressure” the DA and the jurors.
Ahhhh, the old “sit down, be quiet, and let justice run its course” gambit. Do you see the flaw here? That works out ok when you control the justice. But you’re asking the system to indict itself. Many of the individuals responsible for said justice are part of the unjust system (consciously and subconsciously). The protesters don’t believe that they’re being heard by the system. Years of patient complaints and cries have systematically fallen on deaf ears.
The system has failed them for years. Police Departments and DA’s across the nation have given them reason to be skeptical. I don’t really begrudge them for wanting to make noise and put whatever pressure that they can to get justice. Being quiet sure hasn’t worked.
It is an ugly spiral down. Yes we need to address mental issues better, don’t know why the naked bi-polar was charging a cop and wasn’t tasered or sprayed as said available, but the more usual situation is a thug refusing to respond to a cop who knows he/she is in more danger than ever in their career.
The best step now is to encourage every attempt to be a law abiding citizen and if so be given the benefit of the doubt in court. The activistists need a bit of community responsibility. And thug cops need to be drummed out quickly.
If not the better trained cops, daring thugs and innocent citizens will continue to die needlessly.
I think that all police shootings should be investigated by the GBI and decisions about prosecution (and prosecution itself should it be appropriate) should be made by someone who isn’t part of the local DA office. Regardless of whether there is actual bias locally, there is a perception of bias right now that we need to work to fix.
I know that several jurisdictions have established policy to involve the GBI but I think it should be enforced at the state level. I don’t know enough about the DA side but it seems like adding a group to do the prosecution to the state Attorney General’s office seems appropriate.
(I think that investigations of local politicians for corruption should also be handled like this …. 🙂 )
I’m good with that and if, meanwhile, a mob burns and loots your home or business I expect our safety folks shoot the looters.
I should note that police officers are substantially more likely to take someone’s life than those “looters” you’re describing.
Black. male suspects committed roughly 2500 murders last year. There are about 16 million black men in America, which makes about one in 6400 a murderer last year.
The Guardian’s count indicates that police killed 1134 people last year. There are roughly 750,000 sworn police officers in America. That means about one out of 661 police officers took someone’s life last year — more, since more than one officer might commonly be involved in shooting a suspect.
Put another way, there were about 12,000 homicides last year, by the FBI’s count … which would not include officer-involved deaths. Include them, and it’s about 13,100. Homicide — the intentional taking of a life by another, as defined by forensic reporting. That’s the term on the coroner’s report.
Police are responsible for 8.6 percent of all homicides in the United States … a bit more than one out of 11.
One other thing I think that would benefit is to have each situation analyzed to determine what could have been done better. It may be that a particular situation is considered “justified” but there might be something that would make future similar situations less likely to occur. (For example, what was done that triggered Gwinnett police to ask for weapon lights in the new budget?)
The key is to have the analysis done by a group that is non partial and that is perceived as being non partial by both police and the community.
George,
Didn’t say anything about looters killing, it was looters looting.
For stats the FBI reports are always interesting and, hopefully, closer to neutral territory in debate:
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-offense
Enjoy
Yes, that would be where I drew the homicide figures from. The numbers for police killings come from The Guardian’s “The Counted” project, which the FBI has acknowledged is a better, more comprehensive examination of the phenomenon than their own numbers. The FBI intends to adopt elements of The Guardian’s methodology as a result.
That’s in case you think the whole “closer to neutral” dig has any merit.
FBI has not released full 2015 stats. however 2014 stats show 2205 black murder offenders ( both male/female, one offender/one victim). When you look at multiple victims/multiple offenders or one offender/ multiple victims or multiple offenders/one victim the total is 5173 black offenders.
I did not review assaults or other violent crimes however the above figures for murder are very troublesome and are likely reflected in other totals.
Taking you at your word for the numbers, since I can’t find the table you’re referring to, 5173 offenders … out of roughly 35 million black people over the age of 16. To which I say … the numbers remain small, relative to the likelihood that a police officer kills someone. 1134 police homicides. 750,000 sworn officers.
Here you go on police homicides, supposedly adj after challenges:
444 down in 2014 from prior year.
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/expanded-homicide-data/expanded_homicide_data_table_14_justifiable_homicide_by_weapon_law_enforcement_2010-2014.xls
The other tables on black deaths and who dun it and how and why are in the attachment.
Nothing wrong with insane asylums and better trained cops but the priority energy says it is Time to occupy some of those gang territories.
Ha. No.
The FBI is on record today saying that it’s methodology for counting police homicides is garbage and can no longer be trusted. The 444 number on the FBI’s report is simply wrong.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/08/fbi-chief-says-ridiculous-guardian-washington-post-better-information-police-shootings
I’ve ranted on here enough about the incompetence of the FBI and CIA but used their stats as best available….then their leader says they suck like he is an Observer ? …….My position would not change by doubling a small number.
The lawless, police and mobs are a problem and guess where the big numbers are, not the police.
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/expanded-homicide-data/expanded_homicide_data_table_3_murder_offenders_by_age_sex_and_race_2014.xls
also note over 4000 are “Unknown” which likely means unsolved
OK. Again. My point stands. Police are far, far more likely to kill someone than any other class of citizen right now. The sheer number of deaths attributable to police activity should be addressed as a operations safety issue.
Well yes, police deal with violent folks that you and I don’t have to deal with so obviously they will shoot more people.
The FBI murder totals in 2015 will likely be higher than 2014. Should look at assaults also because sometimes an assault is an attempted murder. Assault numbers are also racially disproportionate and of course the totals are larger than murder numbers.
Where did you get 2500 as the number of black murder offenders from last year?
The entire question here is how much police use of force is justifiable, given the threat. The numbers suggest that police use of force is completely disproportionate, since they themselves are responsible for nearly 10 percent of all homicides in the United States.
If we’re going to look at assault rates, we might take a look at police use-of-force statistics too … only, we really can’t, because the FBI’s statistics on force are as screwed up as their shooting statistics but we don’t have The Guardian tracking that. Police don’t consistently report their use of force to the FBI. Hell, they don’t consistently report their use of force to the public in any measure, even locally.
Given the fact that the FBI’s estimate for police homicide was off by a factor of three — and, seriously, that’s a massive blow to their statistical credibility right there — who the hell knows how often police decide to billy club or Taser or mace or just kick the snot out of suspects?
We can’t even have a reasonable conversation about whether police brutality rates are too high because we’ve been systematically denied the necessary information to judge. This, sir, is why we need cameras on every cop, and why the Black Lives Matter protests can be justified. The portion of the public on the receiving end of this is screaming that there’s a problem they can see, while people on the outside are screaming back that they don’t want to know.
First off, I am not familiar with the Guardian and their point of view. We disagree on the main problem here. You believe the main community problem is the police and I disagree. The young girl murdered at a bus stop on Flat Shoals, a young women murdered at a Stone Mtn convenience store, a pregnant girl shot at a MARTA station, a young man murdered during a burglary, even a double homicide near you….Notice I did not go all over the country for these examples.
These examples are local.
As for the police, yes some officers do need better training , supervision and leadership. Perhaps some departments could better select their officers. But in policing as in other professions you will never get perfection unless you hire Robocop.
As for cameras, yes I agree, but cameras would not have prevented any of the crimes I listed above. Would a camera have caused the officer not to shoot in this Dekalb case? None of us know that answer.
I think there’s value in impartial after-action analysis. I’m more concerned with legally-immune after-action analysis.
The analysis is utterly necessary, and I suspect that professional trainers — law enforcement scientists at POST — look regularly at this. It’s one reason I’m a strong advocate of bodyworn cameras. That footage is vital for the kind of Six Sigma iterative improvement in police operations, using actual scenarios.
As insane as this is to say, though, some kinds of analysis create legal headaches. Suppose through analysis, police discover that long-held practices actually create dangerous situations requiring force. That information could then be used by the recipient of force in court to show negligence on the part of police. It’s like how Congress has banned federally-funded research into firearm safety: if no one knows, no one can complain.
I suspect this is part of the reason the FBI’s record keeping on police homicides has been so weak. No one wanted to know.
Training.
Training.
Training.
Non-lethal force and training for safely handling cases of acute mental disorder. Contain the man and wait for specialists to come. Heck, anything but what happened – And we were not there. Adrenaline, fear, and self preservation. So hard to see these folks in the cold – Right or wrong, they showed up.
I would like to HOPE that the Officer would have shot a white guy who was acting out in a threatening manner, in the same circumstance – Which would have been equally awful.
Two lives affected; one gone, one shattered.
It’s bad that some shootings occur when a good cop makes a bad mistake. It’s a circumstance that makes criminality a hard line to establish.
(Some stand your ground gun enthusiasts think they should be entitled to make the same mistakes some police make—there should be a different standard for public and police in avoiding situations.)
There’s certainly room for improvement in investigating and reporting police shootings, and accountability. Meanwhile black men continue to disproportionately bear the brunt of deficiencies.
I’ll go with George and accept that the FBI stats are flawed and improperly reported but does he think table 43 is so messed up to not identify a hint why there is a disproportion of police deficiencies to population before even considering the reaction due to incitful leaders:
(Deficiencies are still not acceptable):
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/table-43
I guess if folks don’t believe FBI crime stats maybe they should just watch the nightly news.
As for police shootings, yes we may not have complete data, but once again, watch the news. We see relatively few police shootings and few of these shootings are bad shootings.
Improve pd training, supervision, selection for some departments but let’s keep the problem of “bad police” in proper perspective.
Again, it’s not that I don’t believe the FBI crime stats when they’re looking at the reported murder rate, or assault, or property crime or what not. But the FBI itself is telling the public that their data on police shootings is garbage.
The Guardian counted all the shootings and came up with a number three times as large as the FBI’s reported figure. Counted, as in documented each one. And given that the result shows that police are responsible for nearly 10 percent of all homicides in the United States, I suggest that a public outcry is exactly the proper perspective.
Once again, FBI has not released any full 2015 totals whether it’s homicides, murders , police shootings. Data that I referenced above from 2014 shows 13,897 total with racial breakdown. PD fatal shootings are separate from this total unless the officer was convicted of murder.
I will accept the decision of the grand jury and hopefully everyone else will accept that decision whatever it may be. They heard the evidence and they make the decision.
“Deficiencies?”
DBs word, should have used justifiable homicides. I’m not trying to downplay a small number of trigger happy cops but encourage you to accept that when a ratio of 10% of adults in a national population have members charged with over 50% of the total murders and the overwhelming percentage of murderers are within their racial group, it just might be the nobler but not the most popular cause for their leaders to focus on reducing.
To which I say — again — that having a police force that can be trusted to administer justice without bias and not to shoot willy-nilly with no consequences goes a long way toward reducing violence in the black community. Police accountability is an extension of this work, not an alternative to it.
More to the point, lets really examine some of the reasons why crime is higher in black communities. Biased police practices leave a swath of young men with arrest records, making them nigh-unemployable, which leads to more crime. The education system shortchanges poor communities, reducing employment options, which leads to more crime. Endemic discrimination in the labor pool lowers employability, which leads to more crime. Untreated mental illness, a consequence of weak public health options and less access to employer-based health insurance, which leads to more crime.
Regress these factors out, and the disparity between white and black crime rates largely disappears. “But … it’s culture!!” No. That’s a lie, told by people who prefer moral superiority to meaningful solutions.
Crime is higher in black communities than white communities, for the reasons I described. But crime remains the province of a tiny group of people in both black and white communities, and is objectively better by all measures. Crime has been falling precipitously for a generation, with the fastest declines in the black community. We’ve reached a point where law enforcement practices themselves are causing more problems than they’re solving, a consensus held on the right and the left.
No winners here:
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/dekalb-officer-xyxyx-shooting-naked-man/np9B5/
As to shouts of joy, “All six counts,” I repeat, no winners here….