Posted on 04/06/2022 9:57:32 AM PDT by Theoria
The Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot Amir Locke, a 22 year-old Black man, while executing a no-knock warrant in February won’t face criminal charges, prosecutors said.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman said in a joint statement Wednesday there was insufficient admissible evidence to file charges against Officer Mark Hanneman.
“The State would be unable to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt any of the elements of Minnesota’s use-of-deadly-force statute that authorizes the use of force by Officer Hanneman,” the statement said. “Nor would the State be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt a criminal charge against any other officer involved in the decision-making that led to the death of Amir Locke.”
Mr. Locke was killed on the morning of Feb. 2 when police officers were executing a no-knock warrant in connection to a murder investigation by the St. Paul, Minn., Police Department.
Mr. Locke wasn’t named in the search warrant and wasn’t a suspect in the investigation, prosecutors said. He was asleep on a couch as police entered the apartment just before 7 a.m. After police kicked the couch, Mr. Locke appeared to stir under a comforter and emerged holding a handgun, according to body camera footage released by police. The gun appeared to be held parallel to the ground, then dropped to a 45-degree angle, then held in the direction of Mr. Hanneman, according to prosecutors. Officer Hanneman fired three shots.
The officer said he feared for his life and the lives of his teammates, according to the joint report from the Hennepin County attorney’s office and Minnesota attorney general’s office.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
They were looking for one man, at 3 different locations, all of which a Minneapolis judge signed off on for no-knocks... Only to find out the guy they were looking for was in a completely different city...
Attend to your door security.
“Should be perfect for riots by Friday evening.”
Well, maybe if the cops get sick of having their cities burn every few years, they will decide that it’s worth it to just serve a damned warrant like the Constitution requires.
“should require the approving judge to be on sight before, during, and after the raid”
Nah, send the judge in first. That might put an end to it.
“By why the army olive drab?”
Because people associate it with the military, and people fear and respect the military more than they do cops. So the cops are hoping to get some vicarious fear and respect by playing dress up.
Irony...
The judge that signed these no-knocks was the same one in the Chauvin case.
“The sheriff’s office is liable for any and all damages and injuries resulting from a violation of this procedure.”
Well, liable for deaths and injuries means someone goes to jail. Otherwise they’re not really “liable” at all. Writing a check isn’t going to bring an innocent person back to life, or deter the people who murdered him from doing it again, since it isn’t even their money.
Wrong - you should realize it is NEVER a bad shoot unless you have twenty non-police witnesses 17 video recordings that show the officer gunning down some innocent, and then it's only a "bad shoot" .0002% of the time.
By large the municipality makes every effort to replace and repair any damage. They sadly have a department that performs such a task, but thats for another day.
The ugly part turns crazy when the cops shoot. At that point every power of the state is coming after every occupant including the dog. All common sense and decency goes out the window if the police shoot someone. If they don't things get fixed up rather politely and quickly in most cases. Even when litigated I've been impressed with the effort the municipality took to restore people's lives and property.
The key is NO SHOTS FIRED! If that's happened it's all down the crapper.
No way would I vote to acquit. The cop who shot was a thug and deserves to be getting gang raped in prison.
Apparently the evidence doesn’t support that. It may be true, but I can’t picture Ellison missing a chance to throw him in jail if he could make the case. Maybe the State is running short of cash, what with paying for the last round of riots, and all.
Even then... “qualified immunity”.
Pick up that can...
Too bad the guy didn’t shoot one of the no-knockers.
As it turned out quite rightly so
Many people would be surprised that if an applicant for work as a law enforcement officer scores above a score on an IQ test, they may very well not get hired. The excuse it that the applicant will get bored and leave the department not too long after finishing training.
What that leaves is cops with average to low average cops. And guess who gets promoted to Chief of police years down the road. Police departments are notorious for hiring people who have connections with the local politicians and other government employees who have no business being cops.
Lots of cops have anger management issues, or are knuckle-draggers. Certainly not true of all of them, but I’ve encountered more than a few.
Be very careful when dealing with a white shaved head cop with an attitude. I once had one of them follow me for about 200 yards outside a courthouse when he made some wise ass comment. He didn’t appreciate my rather clever responses. He wanted to fight me, but I wasn’t going to take that bait because he had a gun and I didn’t. I called 911 while I was walking away and he was put on administered leave for anger management training and transferred from his job as courthouse security.
Weather is pretty crappy here today. Should be perfect for riots by Friday evening.
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the police were looking for Amir’s cousin. Shouldn’t Mom Locke be bitching at her nephew, not at whitey?
I noticed Al Sharpton was in town. I thought it was odd that MN Atty General gave the press release. I suspect that the good people of MN are at the breaking point of the Racial anti white rhetoric. Elections are coming up. I think that the DFL wants to “tone it down” and avoid more riots, if possible.
This last round has worn away at my tolerance. Sorry to say.
Barb from New Hope.
My first thought was that this could be the end of Keith’s career. He didn’t get the result that was expected of him.
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