It's The Police's State, We Just Live In It

The mayor said law enforcement expects a “period of civil unrest” after the footage is released. https://t.co/TPuTlPBGy5

— Geena Arevalo (@GeenaA_WAVY) April 26, 2021

"A period of civil unrest"? D'ya think?

Attorney Chantel Cherry-Lassiter, who is representing the Brown family, explained that Pasquotank County attorneys had limited the video the family was able to see to 20 seconds.

"This was an execution," Cherry-Lassiter said. "Andrew Brown was in his driveway, the sheriff truck blocked him in his driveway so he could not exit his driveway. Andrew had his hands on his steering wheel. He was not reaching for anything. He wasn't touching anything."

They run up to his vehicle shooting," she explained. "He still sat there in his vehicle with his hands on the steering wheel while being shot at."

Cherry-Lassiter explained that Brown was "trying to evade being shot" when he backed away from the officers.

 

"Stop it, motherfucker!" she recalled one of the officer's yelling.

The attorney said that she lost count of the number of rounds officers fired with handguns and assault weapons during the 20 second clip. 

It was not immediately clear when the body camera footage would be released to the public.

That's only 20 seconds worth.  What's the rest look like? 

And even without the bodycam videos, there's a bit more to this:

A copy of Andrew Brown’s death certificate obtained by CNN says Brown died as a result of a “penetrating gunshot wound of the head” and died within “minutes” of being shot.

The certificate goes on to categorize Brown’s death as a homicide. pic.twitter.com/wvZ45tVICJ

— Victor Blackwell CNN (@VictorBlackwell) April 26, 2021

Well, and the account of the shooting from the neighbor whose house was also shot up:

Facts have been difficult to come by. What’s known is that Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived Wednesday morning at 421 Perry St., just south of downtown Elizabeth City, with warrants to arrest Brown and search where he was living. Brown, a felon with a history of drug-related offenses, attempted to drive off, his tires spraying mud.

Deputies fired shots, Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten said in a taped statement, but how many shots remains unknown, as does the reasoning behind such force. Demetria Williams, who lives farther down Perry Street, and who knew Brown well, said she heard the first shot and ran outside and watched deputies continue firing.

“They unloaded on him,” she said. 

Brown drove through a small grassy lot and across Roanoke Avenue, a narrow two-lane road, before crashing into the crepe myrtle in Gordon’s front yard. Williams said she saw authorities remove Brown from his vehicle and attempt to revive him but, “of course, I knew he was gone.” One of the shots deputies fired tore through Gordon’s house. 

It entered above the numbers nailed to the outside wall — 500, the street address — and shattered the glass of a clock on the other side of the wall. The bullet went from there through a picture frame on the opposite wall, above a chair where Gordon’s wife often sits in the living room. From there the bullet continued through the kitchen. 

“It hit my Crockpot,” Gordon said in a matter-of-fact way, pointing at it on Thursday, “and landed on the floor.”

Normally Gordon would have been home Wednesday morning, at the time of the shooting, and a day later he was still thanking God that he had not been home — that his wife hadn’t been, either; or that the grandkids hadn’t been over to visit. Gordon, an Army veteran, never saw combat and never came close to being shot at during his military service, he said.

Instead, such violence found him in his neighborhood. A national scourge arrived, in a literal way, at his doorstep. Like a lot of people, Gordon, who is Black, has followed the conversation surrounding police violence against Black people. “It’s sickening,” he said, “what’s going on in the world today.” A small ray of light beamed through the hole the bullet left. 

His wife could’ve been sitting in her chair. Gordon could’ve been standing in his living room.

“That’s the right height of my damn head,” he said, looking at the broken glass of his clock.

"but how many shots remains unknown, as does the reasoning behind such force."  I think we've found that "one true sentence" Hemingway was looking for. 

Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/article250892369.html#storylink=cpy