President Obama addressing the nation after the deadly nightclub shooting in Orlando had this to say:
“Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation in the aftermath of it has become routine. We’ve become numb to this.”
The President was speaking about gun violence perpetrated by civilians against civilians, but the sentiment is also true for violence perpetrated by this nation’s police against its civilians. Police kill an unarmed person, concerned communities protest, the cop is placed on administrative leave, we are told of an internal investigation, killing is found to be justified, thus no charge against the killer, and we move on to the next victim. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Fifteen-year-old Jayson Negron was shot and killed by 30-year-old James Boulay of the Bridgeport Police department. His body was left unattended and uncovered in the streets for over six hours. Unforgivably, videos taken of the scene would show that the boy was not killed immediately as first reported by the cops, but that as he lay handcuffed faced down in the dirt, he was seen to be moving his head from one side to the other. The coroner would later report that contrary to the cops’ report, Jayson died from gunshot wounds to the torso and not a single shot to the head. In other words, they shot him, failed to offer help, and simply left him in the street to bleed out. You wouldn’t treat a stray, rabid dog that inhumanely.
On Monday, the word came from the Waterbury State Attorney’s office that James Boulay, a rookie cop at the time of the shooting, was justified in killing Jayson Negron. In a report that read as if James Boulay had sat in his squad car and prepared it, the State Attorney’s office discounted eyewitness’ account and chose instead to buy wholesale every nonsensical, self-serving lie told by the cops. Of course, the clincher was — all together now —“He was in fear for his life!”
"Officer James Boulay has stated that he was in fear of being dragged under the Subaru being operated by Jayson Negron and discharged his weapon only after he had been struck by the vehicle and believed that he was about to be subjected to serious bodily harm," the report reads.
The report goes on to state that witness statements, as well as physical evidence, support Boulay's claim. Multiple witnesses said they the car hit Boulay before the officer opened fire. There was also damage to the vehicle consistent with Boulay's version of events, the report said.
Questions
We are all caught in this vicious routine, so let me play my part and dutifully ask a few questions...again:
1. If Boulay’s only objective was to save himself from being dragged by the car door, why did he shoot the passenger? Why did he indiscriminately fire “several shots” in the car?
2. If you are afraid of being dragged by the car door, wouldn’t your first thought be to get out of the way?
3. If you are afraid of being dragged by the car door, how would shooting the driver prevent that from happening? Wouldn’t you stand a greater chance of being dragged as the driver loses control of the vehicle?
4. At the point of the shooting, Boulay knew that the child did not have a gun; why did he fire more than one shot? At least five shots were fired in that car and they were not aimed at the steering wheel.
5. Nobody offered help to the kid. Why not?
6. The report from the Waterbury office quotes the coroner as saying that there was a “low probability” of Jayson surviving his injuries. Is it the policy of the BPD to give up on people unless there’s a high probability of surviving injuries sustained at the hands of the police?
6A. Who gave BPD officers the knowledge and the authority to decide the probability of surviving? (h/t ThePhlebob)
7. Shouldn’t somebody be held accountable for that kid laying in the streets unattended and uncovered for six hours or more?
A statement from the ACLU of Connecticut:
"Jayson Negron’s death was preventable, not inevitable. Jayson Negron died because of an entire system that has failed to hold police accountable to the communities they are supposed to serve. Connecticut’s legislature has the power to change that system…
The Bridgeport Police Department’s many self-contradictions in the aftermath of Jayson Negron’s death raise serious questions about the department’s policies, transparency, training, and accountability. We are calling for the Bridgeport Police Department to, at minimum, immediately release department policies and Officer Boulay’s training history to the public.
We need to change the laws
The report generated by the State Attorney’s Office concluded that:
Officer Boulay acted in conformance with Connecticut General Statute 53a-22. Although not dealt with in detail in this report, I have reviewed the conduct of all officers present and have found that the use of force, if any, by each of them was appropriate and in accordance with our law.
Let’s put aside the subjective interpretation of the law for a moment; if a cop can kill an unarmed teenager and use the law to escape accountability, isn’t it time for us to change the law? To take away the crutches for would-be-murderous cops?
A reminder that we are not only here to chronicle the bad behavior of cops. We have actually put some thought into how best to solve this seemingly intractable issue. Awesome, hardworking members of our group have worked with over 700 Kossacks to draft laws that if implemented would go a far way into changing the very nature of policing in this country.
Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act
The Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act, as the name suggests, was born out of the horror and frustration of the murder of the unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014.
The proposed law would allow a citizen to become a one-woman or one-man Department of Justice. They could sue an entire police department that is discriminatory in its application of the law. But how would we know if the police discriminated against POC? The first section of the law requires police to report all stops, use of force, minority and language minority status of the person stopped or arrested and so on.
If a police department is found to be an “Over-policed” jurisdiction, then they are put on a year’s probation, audited, and must meet stringent requirements to be released from the court’s supervision.
The Good Samaritan Act of 2016
The Good Samaritan Law would make it illegal for cops to fail to render aid to those injured during the process of arrest or detention.
To require law enforcement agents to provide first aid to anybody injured in a stop or arrest, and to provide a rebuttable presumption, as provided herein, if first aid is not rendered...
Sec. 201. REBUTTABLE PRESUMPTION. If the law enforcement agent or the law enforcement agents have failed or refused to comply with the first aid requirements described in Title I of this Act, then there shall be a rebuttable presumption in any federal court that the law enforcement agent or the law enforcement agents have violated the constitutional rights of the suspect or suspects or other person or persons who were the subject of the use of force. The presumption may be rebutted by clear and convincing evidence that the law enforcement agent was her- or himself unable to render aid because, objectively and subjectively, there was an immediate danger of gunfire from other individuals present.
Clearly, we are not going to get these proposed bills enacted into law as long as the Republicans are in charge of the Legislative Branch of our government. Our first order of business has got to be the reclaiming of both houses of Congress come this November.
We have a lot of work to do.
RIP, Jayson. #JusticeForJayson