According to California Penal Code 192 (b); Involuntary Manslaughter, which is the least serious charge of manslaughter, applies when the killing occurs; 1) in the commission of an unlawful act, not amounting to a felony, OR 2) by way of a lawful though dangerous act, that is done in an unlawful manner or without due caution or circumspection.
According to California Penal Code 187; Murder (Second Degree) is defined as causing the death of another person with malice aforethought. To be convicted of murder it must be proven that: 1) the defendant committed an act that caused the death of another person; and 2) When the defendant acted, he had a state of mind called malice aforethought; and 3) He killed without lawful excuse or justification.
There are two kinds of malice aforethought; express malice and implied malice. A defendant acts with express malice if he unlawfully intends to kill. A defendant acts with implied malice if; 1) He intentionally commits an act; 2) the natural consequences of the act are dangerous to human life; 3) at the time he acts, he knows his act is dangerous to human life; and 4) he deliberately acts with conscious disregard for human life.
Malice aforethought does not require hatred or ill will toward the victim. It is a mental state that must be formed before the act that causes death is committed. It does not require deliberation or the passage of any particular period of time.
Personally, I feel that when you pull out a gun (that has a totally different weight, shape, and feel from a taser) and point it down at a subdued unarmed man's chest area and discharge your weapon (resulting in the death of said individual); you satisfy the elements of malice aforethought (express or implied). If you satisfy the elements of malice aforethought then you satisfy all the elements of murder. Thus the conviction of involuntary manslaughter is totally blowing my mind right now.
I guess I shouldn't be too surprised though. This was an LA jury that we're talking about here. You know, the same pool that produced the people who acquitted OJ (he did it folks...he did it) and those cops that beat Rodney King nearly half to death (that one was taped as well). This is the same pool that has failed to convict a police officer of murder since 1983. So I guess I'm really not surprised, but I'm still a little upset and saddened by this news. It is 2010 and this is the best we can (currently) hope for in terms of justice.
What is really sad is that given the history of these kinds of incidents (the culprits getting off "scott free", this recent conviction can be seen as progress. So until police protection extends to all members of American society, for young black males (and even younger black females)when encountering the police or any law enforcement authority in possession of a deadly weapon, the protocol remains the same...SURVIVE!
-Noface
Showing posts with label Oakland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oakland. Show all posts
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right!
White cop kills an unarmed black man in the subway:
Black man kills 4 police officers in a shootout:
What is the common factor between these two scenarios? The commonality is that they display the inherently evil actions of individuals. Another thing that they do is promote a negative stereotype of the group as a whole. Now that is a problem for everybody.
The thing about these incidents between the police (rather select members of the “police”) and minority communities(specifically the black community), is that they are actions taken by individuals that end up reflecting poorly on a whole institution or a whole racial group. The thing about the responses coming from certain voices in the groups to which these individuals belong is that they rarely address the problem with the situation at hand (i.e. individual culpability). Instead they choose to shift blame or make excuses for the incident or individual by pointing out the past faults of those in the other group (usually prefaced with “what so and so did was wrong, but …). Such knee jerk reactions are unproductive, to say the least.
If cops are not willing to call out the bad elements in the police departments throughout this nation, then they are promoting a climate where agents of the state are not protecting and serving all law abiding people. The message basically becomes, it’s ok if agents of the state brutalize and murder certain segments of society (no matter how nonthreatening or innocent they are) because, hey…they’re all criminals anyway. The same thing goes for minorities (African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, etc) who want to give dangerous criminals a pass (when it is clear that they are in the wrong), because they don’t want to help the police in any capacity. Never mind that it is those same criminals that make our communities unsafe and unpleasant places for good law abiding folk to live.
A cop murders an unarmed man (age doesn’t seem to matter these days) in cold blood, all police lose a little more credibility with the communities that they are supposed to protect. It is hard to protect a community that will not work with you because it fears you and sees you as a large part of the problem. A criminal (who happens to be black) decides he’s going to have a shoot out with police in broad day light (ending up killing 4 officers), reflects badly on all minorities (no matter what their station in life is). The whole community from which that criminal hails gets lumped into one big category labeled “Dangerous Threat”. That categorization (no matter how unfair) seems to be the natural response of many an individual in law enforcement, and that just ends up putting all of us non-white law abiding citizens (especially the male portion) at greater risk.
We have to weed out the bad elements among us. In order to do that we all have to be honest with ourselves and take a hard look at our communities and precincts, and create a climate wear their actions will no longer be tolerated. Its time we look at Oscar Grant and those four police officers, and declare what happened to them as simply wrong in the strongest possible terms with out any qualifiers or shifting of blame. That, I believe, is the way to progress and hopefully reconciliation between the community and the police.
-Noface
Black man kills 4 police officers in a shootout:
What is the common factor between these two scenarios? The commonality is that they display the inherently evil actions of individuals. Another thing that they do is promote a negative stereotype of the group as a whole. Now that is a problem for everybody.
The thing about these incidents between the police (rather select members of the “police”) and minority communities(specifically the black community), is that they are actions taken by individuals that end up reflecting poorly on a whole institution or a whole racial group. The thing about the responses coming from certain voices in the groups to which these individuals belong is that they rarely address the problem with the situation at hand (i.e. individual culpability). Instead they choose to shift blame or make excuses for the incident or individual by pointing out the past faults of those in the other group (usually prefaced with “what so and so did was wrong, but …). Such knee jerk reactions are unproductive, to say the least.
If cops are not willing to call out the bad elements in the police departments throughout this nation, then they are promoting a climate where agents of the state are not protecting and serving all law abiding people. The message basically becomes, it’s ok if agents of the state brutalize and murder certain segments of society (no matter how nonthreatening or innocent they are) because, hey…they’re all criminals anyway. The same thing goes for minorities (African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, etc) who want to give dangerous criminals a pass (when it is clear that they are in the wrong), because they don’t want to help the police in any capacity. Never mind that it is those same criminals that make our communities unsafe and unpleasant places for good law abiding folk to live.
A cop murders an unarmed man (age doesn’t seem to matter these days) in cold blood, all police lose a little more credibility with the communities that they are supposed to protect. It is hard to protect a community that will not work with you because it fears you and sees you as a large part of the problem. A criminal (who happens to be black) decides he’s going to have a shoot out with police in broad day light (ending up killing 4 officers), reflects badly on all minorities (no matter what their station in life is). The whole community from which that criminal hails gets lumped into one big category labeled “Dangerous Threat”. That categorization (no matter how unfair) seems to be the natural response of many an individual in law enforcement, and that just ends up putting all of us non-white law abiding citizens (especially the male portion) at greater risk.
We have to weed out the bad elements among us. In order to do that we all have to be honest with ourselves and take a hard look at our communities and precincts, and create a climate wear their actions will no longer be tolerated. Its time we look at Oscar Grant and those four police officers, and declare what happened to them as simply wrong in the strongest possible terms with out any qualifiers or shifting of blame. That, I believe, is the way to progress and hopefully reconciliation between the community and the police.
-Noface
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