This seems relevant again, regrettably.
2 Likes
2 Likes
Steve Grammas, the president of the Las Vegas police union, told USA Today that the camera may not have been activated because of āmalfunctions where wires come loose.ā
It must take a lot of work to get at those wires.
5 Likes
Did a group of agitators stay behind, intent on breaking windows and destroying property?
Yup.
3 Likes
Although the video here does raise a lot of questions about just what that officer was doing, there is apparently evidence that someone else had broken that window earlier in the evening:
2 Likes
Evidence that consists of a claim by the police and a video of someone throwing something at a target beyond camera range. Versus multiple eyewitnesses, video which includes the sound of a large amount of glass shattering, and the context of a police riot.
If the window had been cracked beforehand, would that change the overall situation?
1 Like
As well as an eyewitness account, complete with a photograph of the broken window from before the videotaped event.
Katie OāConnor, who lives in the neighborhood, says she and her husband witnessed a young man throw something at Culpepperās, through what was then an unbroken window, around 11 p.m., breaking it. Almost immediately after, she snapped the photo above. It clearly shows the large street-facing window has been broken.
It makes the story of āpolice break window to make it look like protestors do itā a lot more questionable, which makes it a bad story for people to rally around.
2 Likes
Cameramanās response to the police claims, from the DailyHaze link:
From the photo, if the timestamps etc are valid, it looks like the window was partially broken earlier.
But what does that do to excuse the cop smashing the rest of it? The claim was never that every window broken is broken by police; itās that police are deliberately creating destruction and blaming it on protestors.
3 Likes
Ok. So, he specifies that his video is from ā11:32PM I believeā.
And thereās a photograph of the broken window from a private citizen, ātime-stamped 11:04 p.m.ā according to the news article.
Soā¦ the police response of āedited videoā is obviously suspect bullshit, and the copās actions caught on video look very odd and potentially malicious. But, thereās also clearly some issues with the timeline here.
If the window had already been smashed by a protestor, then how does this story help support that claim?
By raising the question: why did the cop smash that window? Which he very clearly did, regardless of the prior damage.
There is certainly utility in using the strongest possible imagery for PR purposes, but giving the police the benefit of the doubt is not to your advantage at this time.
You break the rest of it to prevent it from causing accidental injury. Itās pretty standard that once non-safety glass breaks you smash the rest as much as you can.
2 Likes
And thatās why he skulked away when spotted. And left the footpath covered in broken glass.
I donāt think that this was a cop following explicit orders to break windows. I do think that it was a cop indulging in random destruction for the fun of it.
What kind of shop window isnāt made of safety glass?
This one doesnāt appear to be. Safety glass is both quieter and wouldnāt leave big chunks for the cop to break.
I guarantee he didnāt follow explicit orders, but the police are not given explicit orders often. The rules for cops are a lot looser than the military which is part of the problem, the expectation is for them to use their judgement with basically no oversight. I think he did something that he knew he was supposed to do, but did it poorly. I also guarantee that he enjoyed breaking it just like most people enjoy breaking things.
Iām sad to see this get more ink than the trampling of an old woman and the beating of someone trying to pull her away.
2 Likes
Well, yes. And if the intent was to blame the damage on protestors, why would he break a window that had already been broken by a protestor? Itās not as though a partially-broken windowpane is more valuable than a completely broken one.
If he did it to try to blame it on people who were there 20 minutes later, then why didnāt that happen in the lag before this video became available?
On the other hand, if blaming it on someone else wasnāt his intent, than what the hell was his reasoning? I havenāt seen a possible reason provided by the police, and Iām not at all interested in trying to come up with reasons for them. If they canāt come up with a good reason, then thatās a serious issue.
Itās just a weird story, it doesnāt really support the claim (of causing damage to blame on the protestors) very well.
But thatās extremely weird too. There were obviously plenty of spectators standing around and the windowās area was well-lit, was he somehow surprised that every eye turned towards him after it happened? Itās always possible he was just an idiot, but thatās a bit of a jump to conclusions.
Look at my other posts in this thread since then; the cops have expanded their abuses substantially since she was trampled and arrested.
Mass arrests, indiscriminate deployment of chemical weapons, police violence all over the place. Itās not retail anymore.
Sure, but we are talking about direct visual media and nothing I have seen is even remotely as clear and painful as that individual event. The rest is what the police are always going to do - surround the crowd so they canāt leave, demand they leave, then receive an order to use force and do so.
1 Like
