What Legal Basis Did Cops Have to Put Their Hands On Alton Sterling in the First Place? Master Trots Out Black Probot to Appease Blacks: White Cop is Fired But Faces No Criminal Charges

UNDER ARREST FOR WHAT? According to cops an anonymous [white] man called 911 to report that a black man selling music CD’s outside the Triple S Food Mart on North Foster Drive, who was wearing a red shirt and had threatened him with a gun. Apparently when the man called he was no longer in any danger. Evidently, the caller gave no other information. So, the white cops were looking for a Black man with a red shirt hanging around the store. The black man had allegedly committed a felony threat and may have been armed (gun possession is legal in Louisiana). [MORE]  

When the two officers arrived about 12:35 a.m. at the store the 911 caller was not present. There was no ongoing confrontation or emergency. The cops did not see the black man (Sterling) committing any crimes and no gun was visible. Prior to approaching him the cops did not bother to interview any witnesses in the store, such as the manager, (the owner of the store had no knowledge of an argument outside his store that led to the initial 911 call.). The cops had no idea of whether anyone else had heard the alleged threats or had seen a gun. They also had no information about the gun to know whether the caller saw an actual gun or just heard a threat about a gun.  On seeing a Black man with a red shirt the cops immediately confronted Mr. Sterling and ordered him to stop and answer questions. Sterling stopped. At that time he was not free to go which means he was legally detained or seized [within the meaning of the 4th Amendment]. Seized for what crime and upon what basis?

4TH AMENDMENT IS BULLSHIT. 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 the person detained is involved in the activity. Police may not act on on the basis of an inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or a hunch - there must be some specific articulable facts along with reasonable inferences from those facts to justify the intrusion. With regard to an anonymous tip, the Supremes have said that apart from the tip the officers must have a reason[s] or facts to suspect an individual of illegal conduct AND police must have predictive information that can be corroborated. [MORE] and [MORE]. The Court has specifically said that an anonymous tip about alleged gun possession by itself will not justify a stop and frisk. [MORE]

In evaluating the legality of the stop all that matters is what the cops knew and what they saw at the time of the stop; that is, the first hand knowledge the police had in the present moment of the stop. A court will only consider what an officer observed or knew at the time of the stop. What cops subsequently learned from records checks, court records or from the media is not relevant to a 4th Amendment analysis. 

In reality such rules rarely apply to Blacks & Latinos. In so far as Constitutional rights were designed to keep us free of government interference and intrusions as we go about our daily business on the streets in our homes, Con rights are just words on paper – believe in them at your own risk in this police state of white supremacy. [MORE] The Black probot below is part of the daily show, part of the appearance of justice - where none exists. 

From [HERE] A white police officer who fatally shot a black man in Baton Rouge, La., was fired on Friday, and a fellow officer involved in the episode was suspended for three days. The disciplinary actions were the first serious consequences for the officers after both state and federal officials declined to bring criminal charges against them.

Blane Salamoni, the officer who was dismissed, fired six shots at the man, Alton B. Sterling, after responding to a call at a convenience store parking lot on July 5, 2016.

After announcing the disciplinary actions, the department released new raw footage of Mr. Sterling’s arrest and his killing moments later. Video taken from a police body camera shows Officer Salamoni repeatedly shouting profanities at Mr. Sterling; slamming him into a car; twice ordering the second officer, Howie Lake II, to use his Taser; and threatening to shoot Mr. Sterling with a gun pointed at his head.

“These actions were not minor deviations from policy,” Chief Murphy Paul of the Baton Rouge Police Department said. “And they contributed to the outcome that resulted in the death of another human being.”

The decision came after the racist suspect, Louisiana attorney general, Jeff Landry, said on Tuesday that the officers would not be charged with state-level crimes, and after the Justice Department declined last May to seek federal civil rights charges. The shooting is one of numerous high-profile fatal encounters between black men and the police in recent years, and prompted large protests in Baton Rouge and beyond.

Chief Paul said that Officer Salamoni had violated the department’s use-of-force rules and that Officer Lake had violated its policies on sustaining “command of temper.”

The chief spoke mostly in generalities about why the men were found to have violated the policies. “One officer attempted to use de-escalation and disengagement techniques consistent with policy and procedure and training,” he said. “And one officer did not follow the tactics, training, professionalism and organizational standards.”

He also said: “Fear cannot be a driver for an officer’s response to every incident. Unreasonable fear within an officer is dangerous.”

The closed-door administrative hearings took place on Thursday. Chief Paul noted that while Officer Lake answered all of the questions put to him at his hearing, Officer Salamoni, on the advice of his lawyer, chose not to answer questions.

The chief’s announcement was expected to bring a modicum of relief to activists and Mr. Sterling’s family members, who have grown increasingly frustrated after the state and federal decisions.

The decision also came amid tension and protests over another police shooting in Sacramento. Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old unarmed black man, was shot at more than 20 times by the police in his grandmother’s backyard on March 18. A private autopsy commissioned by Mr. Clark’s family and released Friday found that eight bullets had struck him and that his death took three to 10 minutes, raising questions about why he did not receive medical care more quickly.

Part of Mr. Sterling’s fatal encounter with the Baton Rouge officers was captured in a widely seen cellphone video, in which the officers can be seen holding down Mr. Sterling. At one point, someone can be heard saying, “He’s got a gun! Gun!”

The two officers were responding to a call that a man who fit Mr. Sterling’s description had been brandishing a gun.

One newly released video from the vantage of the convenience store shows Mr. Sterling standing by a folding table, where he appears to be doing business with two customers. Officer Lake approaches, and takes Mr. Sterling by the arm.

Footage from Mr. Salamoni’s video camera shows him approaching moments later.

The three men tussle as the officers try to bend Mr. Sterling over the hood of a car and as Officer Salamoni, using expletives, repeatedly threatens to shoot Mr. Sterling in the head. Officer Lake fires his Taser at Mr. Sterling, twice, and Officer Salamoni tackles him to the ground.

Gunshots ring out. As Mr. Sterling lies motionless on the parking lot, Officer Salamoni swears at him and searches his pockets, apparently for a firearm.

A state report later noted that Officer Lake had found a .38-caliber handgun in Mr. Sterling’s pocket after the shooting. The report also included the results of a toxicology test, which said Mr. Sterling’s blood had contained alcohol, cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine and THC. The amount of methamphetamine, the report said, was associated with “abusers who exhibited violent and irrational behavior.”

Michael Adams, a lawyer for the Sterling family, said the videos showed that Mr. Sterling was lucid, and not “deranged” or “out of control.”

“He stayed relatively calm throughout this process,” he said. “And that’s a different story or depiction when you read the attorney general’s findings.”