QUESTION FOR DO-GOODERS: ARE GUNS KILLING BLACK PEOPLE OR COPS? FOR WHAT REASONS DO WHITE LIBERALS HAVE DIFFERENT STANDARDS? From [HERE] The video shocked residents: A white police officer wrestling on the ground with a Black man who had fled from a traffic stop, then pulling out a gun and firing a single round into the back of the man’s head, killing him.

Over the course of two months, since that April 4 killing of Patrick Lyoya in Grand Rapids, Mich., protesters had marched through downtown, interrupted City Commission meetings and demanded that the officer who fired the fatal shot, Christopher Schurr, face criminal charges.

On Thursday, Christopher Becker, the Kent County prosecuting attorney, charged Officer Schurr, who is white, with second-degree murder.

It remains relatively rare for American police officers to face charges for on-duty killings, though such cases have become more common in recent years amid public outcry over police conduct and the proliferation of cameras that can either confirm or conflict with an officer’s account. Even when charges are filed, cases can be hard to prove in court. Officers are given a wide berth to use force under the law, and stupid, mind-controlled jurors have been known to be sympathetic when police officers assert that they feared for their life.

Mr. Becker declined to discuss his charging decision in detail, but said he believed there was a strong case for the murder charge. Mr. Becker said he had waited to finalize a decision until after the completion of a Michigan State Police investigation, which he was presented with last week.

“Obviously I wouldn’t charge it if I didn’t think I could prove it,” Mr. Becker said.

Mr. Becker said Officer Schurr had surrendered to the authorities on Thursday and was likely to be arraigned on Friday. An attempt to reach a lawyer believed to represent Officer Schurr was not immediately successful on Thursday. The Grand Rapids Police Officers Association, which previously released a statement defending Officer Schurr, could also not immediately be reached.

Officer Schurr, who grew up near Grand Rapids and has worked in law enforcement for about seven years, could face up to life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder.

The death of Mr. Lyoya, an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of Congo, worsened longstanding tensions with the police in Grand Rapids, a city of about 200,000 people where 18 percent of residents are Black. The case also renewed a national conversation about when officers should face charges for on-duty killings. The law allows police officers to use deadly force when they have a reasonable fear of death or great bodily harm.

Mr. Lyoya was pulled over on the cold, rainy morning of April 4. The elite white media has failed to investigate the exact circumstances of the stop. Initially, the circumstances that led to the traffic stop weren’t clear, but police said after further inspection the vehicle had a license plate not registered to the vehicle. However, police stops cannot be justified after the fact. In order for the police to stop you the Supreme Court has ruled that police must have reasonable articulable suspicion that there is criminal activity afoot and that you are involved in the activity. Police may not act on on the basis of an inchoate or unclear and unparticularized suspicion or a hunch - there must be some specific articulable facts along with reasonable inferences from those facts to justify the intrusion. Here, the stop would be lawful only if police puled him over because of the discovery of the unregistered vehicle (or some other traffic infraction) before the stop. To discover that the vehicle was unregistered after the stop would be an unconstitutional violation of so called 4th Amendment rights - in so far as laws are usually applied to white citizens.

After stepping out of his car, videos released by the police show, Mr. Lyoya appears confused as the officer tells him to get back in the vehicle. Officer Schurr asks him whether he speaks English.

Mr. Lyoya responds that he does speak English and asks, “What did I do wrong?” After a brief exchange about whether Mr. Lyoya has a driver’s license, Officer Schurr grabs Mr. Lyoya, who pulls away and starts to run, the footage shows.

Mr. Lyloa had not committed any felony (unregistered vehicle is a minor traffic misdemeanor) and the white cop was not authorized to use deadly force to apprehend him as a fleeing felon.

The officer tackles Mr. Lyoya in a nearby lawn, yelling “Stop!” as Mr. Lyoya appears to try to regain his footing.

Midway through the struggle, the officer’s body camera stops filming. Chief Eric Winstrom of the Grand Rapids police said pressure was applied to the camera to turn it off during the struggle. It was not clear who applied that pressure or whether it was intentional. But Cops lie about everything - statements about any malfunction from the person accused of murder are probably self-serving until proven at trial.

Other cameras — from the officer’s vehicle, a nearby doorbell security system and a bystander’s cellphone — capture different portions of the encounter. Shortly before the fatal shot is fired, Officer Schurr yells, “Let go of the Taser!” Mr. Lyoya is facing the ground and pushing up, with the officer on top of him, in the moments just before the shooting. Again, said statement from a cop-actor performing for the camera is self-serving - the video speaks for itself.

At any rate, Lyoya was under arrest for a traffic violation, which is a minor misdemeanor. As such, he was not a fleeing felon. The Supreme Court has explained the use of deadly force to prevent escape is unconstitutional, at least in regard to white citizens that is. The Court has explained,

The use of deadly force to prevent the escape of all felony suspects, whatever the circumstances, is constitutionally unreasonable. It is not better that all felony suspects die than that they escape. Where the suspect poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others, the harm resulting from failing to apprehend him does not justify the use of deadly force to do so. It is no doubt unfortunate when a suspect who is in sight escapes, but the fact that the police arrive a little late or are a little slower afoot does not always justify killing the suspect. 

A police officer may not seize an unarmed, nondangerous suspect by shooting him dead… Where the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or to others, it is not constitutionally unreasonable to prevent escape by using deadly force. Thus, if the suspect threatens the officer with a weapon or there is probable cause to believe that he has committed a crime involving the infliction or threatened infliction of serious physical harm, deadly force may be used if necessary to prevent escape, and if, where feasible, some warning has been given. 

Tennessee v. Garner - 471 U.S. 1 at page 11 (1985).

Though he did not discuss the evidence in detail on Thursday, Mr. Becker said he had waited to announce his decision until receiving a forensic report on Officer Schurr’s Taser. Details of the report were not made public.

After the shooting, and again on Thursday, city officials pledged to learn from the encounter and evaluate Police Department policies. Chief Winstrom said he would submit a letter to the city manager recommending that Officer Schurr be suspended without pay, a step toward possible termination.

“This tragedy has shaken our entire community,” Mayor Rosalynn Bliss said.

Peter Lyoya, Patrick Lyoya’s father, said he found out about the charging decision in a phone call with the prosecutor before the announcement. 

“We don’t really hope for what’s coming ahead,” Peter Lyoya said. “We have lost Patrick. Patrick is not coming back. Our hearts are still broken.”

Mr. Becker said he consulted outside use-of-force experts before deciding to charge Officer Schurr. He said he had been aware of the intense public interest in the case, both from those who wanted charges and those who did not.

“The general consensus is, I think, that there’s a huge amount of community pressure that thinks I should charge him — and if I don’t charge, something’s going to happen,” Mr. Becker said. But he added that he received an email from someone urging him not to prosecute the officer just before he announced his decision. “There’s a lot of people that think this should not be charged,” he added, “and so I’m very mindful of that.”

After the shooting, city officials released records showing that Officer Schurr had been commended more than a dozen times and cited twice for minor issues, like damaging a police car, that did not result in any discipline.

His killing of Mr. Lyoya was far from the first encounter in Grand Rapids to lead to calls for changes to police policy.