Murder Or Manslaughter? A Question Of Malice.

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

WHY???

Because there really are two Americas within these United States.
Because one of those Americas is really a third world country.
Because the citizens of third world America don't matter to those in first world America (it's doubtful that they truly ever did).
Because life is cheap in the hood and...well, life is just cheap in the hood.
Because "black" is truly the bottom rung in our society and if something bad happens to "black"...oh well.
Because the law is meant to protect the innocent in theory, but really ends up preying on (some of them) in practice.
Because the police officers were just doing their jobs (the description of which changes depending on the type of people being dealt with).
Because it appears that Reality TV drives people to do more and more outrageous things in order to "keep it real" (i.e entertaining).
Because even if an event is caught on tape, there is no guarantee that justice will be served.
Because WE are not outraged enough to do something drastic every time something like this happens.
Because justice has failed us because we have failed ourselves.
Because sometimes, life simply is not fair.

Rest in Peace Aiyana Jones

-Noface

Black Is What The Cops Recognize As A Threat!

What does it mean to be black? Recently, the fellow UBJ sought to stir discussion on this very question on his blog. My response to this question was that black was not a color but a state of mind (or rather a state of being) that people of my “race” are constantly in (especially in America). I believe Dubois called it the double consciousness. This state of mind is a result of how one views himself combined with how others viewed him in a mixture which can seem like a poisonous tonic at times.

I have found that in America, how one is viewed tends to hold more weight than how that person views himself. This is especially true when we are talking about how those in the dominant culture are wont to classify those in the minority culture. A prime example of this is racial profiling perpetrated by the police against the black man. If you are ever wondering about your racial make up just run afoul of some cops with racist tendencies. You’ll be sure to find out definitively.

Case in point: This article shows that yet again in this “post-racial” America, it is the police that will let you know if you’re black or not. No matter what level of education and notoriety you have, if you are a black man in a well to do neighborhood or in a well to do car (or in both), you are likely to get harassed by authorities because you fit “the description”. If Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. can be seen and treated like a potential threat, Pookie from across the way has NO CHANCE!

This part really got me…

Friends of Gates said he was already in his home when police arrived. He showed his driver’s license and Harvard identification card, but was handcuffed and taken into police custody for several hours last Thursday, they said.

Maybe next time he’ll have a card showing his DNA admixture results, which detail that he actually has more European admixture than African admixture. I’m sure that will clear up any confusion. Pffffft

-Noface

Cops That Give Police A Bad Name

After watching this video, I find that there are a lot of questions swirling around in my head. There is however one big query that dominates all the others. Was the Cop (Officer Powell) that stopped Ryan Moats a racist or was he just big jerk? I'm not sure which it is (perhaps he was both).

I'll say this though; Moats was pretty brave or foolhardy (which is understandable given the situation with his mother-in-law) for arguing with police officer given the hair triggers that some of these guys seem to have these days. Moats is lucky he didn't get 15 warning shots in his chest (we now know that Powell had his gun drawn). I’m just saying, two people could have died that night.


-Noface

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

IT'S '09 AND WE STILL CAN'T TRUST THE POLICE!

Wow! What a way to ring in the New Year (with gunshots sending bullets into the back of another unarmed black man)!




The video speaks for itself (pffft...so did Rodney King video and look at how that turned out)!!

Sometimes I wonder if the boys in blue are using us as target practice. Now of course, I'm not saying that all cops are like that *insert expletive here* BART Cop in the video, but as a black man, one never knows which kind of officer he is going to encounter when the cops come by. From the video, the victim, Oscar Juliuss Grant, appeared to be doing everything he could to show that he was not resisting and not a threat to the police yet he was still pinned down and handcuffed. Even after that this *insert multiple expletives here* BART Cop just steps back and murders (yes, murders) him execution style. The saddest part is that a little girl lost her father on New Year’s Day because of the actions of those who are sworn to protect and serve. Be safe out there folks and watch your backs (literally).

-Noface