The police will give a hand up as we wind on down the road....
"Police killing of unarmed New Yorker dubbed ‘accident’" by Marc Santora, New York Times November 22, 2014
NEW YORK — A rookie New York City police officer accidentally shot and killed an unarmed 28-year-old man in a dark stairwell in Brooklyn late Thursday night, police said.
Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said the victim, Akai Gurley, was “a total innocent” and called the shooting “an unfortunate accident.” Gurley was not engaged in any activity other than trying to walk down the stairs, Bratton said.
Too many of those these days!
Mayor Bill de Blasio offered offer his condolences to Gurley’s family. “This is a tragedy,” he said.
No, it's murder.
Related: de Blasio Endorses Death Squads
Israel training U.S. police forces
Sort of explains everything.
The officer who shot Gurley, Peter Liang, has been on the force less than 18 months and was on probationary status.
Really? For what?
Liang, 27, and his partner, who was also new to the force, were patrolling the Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York Thursday night, part of an effort to increase the police presence at the housing complex, which had been plagued by a spate of violence, including two homicides.
The two officers had taken the elevator to check out the roof and, shortly before midnight, entered the eighth-floor stairwell to walk back down. The lights were not working, so both officers took out their flashlights.
Liang also drew his weapon, police said, and just as the officers started down the stairwell, Gurley and his girlfriend entered through a door on the seventh floor, 14 steps below.
Going out on a date, were they?
It was unclear why, but Liang accidentally fired a single shot that struck Gurley in the chest, police said.
The force of the blast sent Gurley tumbling down two flights of stairs. The officers found him with his girlfriend next at his side.
That poor woman.
Gurley was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. Following standard protocol, Liang was relieved of his gun and his badge.
Bratton said the decision to draw a weapon in the absence of a clear threat is left “to the discretion of the officers based on what they are encountering or believe they may encounter. There’s not a specific prohibition against taking a firearm out.” But he said the officers would have to justify taking the action.
I'm sure the official cover-up, 'er, investigation will absolve him.
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Btw, did you know that a report from the Cato Institute reveals Americans are 8 times more likely to be killed by police than by a terrorist, and other studies suggest U.S. citizens are 800 times more likely to be killed by a cop than citizens of Japan, Britain or Germany?
That's a lot of "accidental tragedies!"
"Investigation sought in N.Y. police slaying; Unarmed man killed by officer in dark stairwell" by Verena Dobnik and Jennifer Peltz, Associated Press November 23, 2014
NEW YORK — Stunned relatives of an unarmed man killed by a rookie police officer in a dark public housing stairwell looked on Saturday as the Rev. Al Sharpton and public officials demanded a full investigation into what law enforcement officials have termed an apparent accident.
He's the last guy you want to get involved!!
‘‘We’re not demonizing the police,’’ Sharpton said, but ‘‘this young man should not be dead.’’
Police said the fatal shooting of Akai Gurley in Brooklyn’s gritty East New York neighborhood appears accidental. However, Sharpton said, ‘‘How do we know until there is a thorough investigation of all that happened?’’
He spoke at a rally in Harlem, standing alongside Gurley’s 2-year-old daughter, her mother, and several elected officials. Gurley’s relatives remained silent during and after the rally.
The guy had a kid, too, huh?
Gurley’s death comes at a sensitive time, with a grand jury weighing whether to bring criminal charges against another officer in the chokehold death of a man on Staten Island, and the nation bracing for a potential announcement soon on whether an indictment will be handed up in the fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Mo.
Related: Government Fanning the Flames of Protest in Ferguson
"They are going to announce the decision the night before Thanksgiving when everyone is too busy mashing potatoes and stuffing turkeys to bother to riot" -- whatreallyhappened.com
‘‘Until we address the issue of police killing people of color, we’re going to always have the problem; we’re deaf on the issue,’’ Alex Mallory, 64, a Bronx resident who once lived in public housing, said after the rally. ‘‘I could have easily been this guy, walking down the stairs.’’
It's not just color; they are blowing away good old boy whites, too!
New York City police often conduct ‘‘vertical patrols’’ inside public housing complexes by going from roofs down staircases that sometimes are havens for crime.
Police Commissioner William Bratton has said the patrols are needed, and the development where Gurley was shot had recently seen a shooting, robberies, and assaults.
Officer Peter Liang and his partner, also new to the force, were patrolling a pitch-dark stairwell with flashlights late Thursday night, police said. Gurley, 28, was leaving his girlfriend’s apartment after she had braided his hair, according to the girlfriend, who is not his daughter’s mother.
Police said the officers walked down the stairs onto an eighth-floor landing when Gurley and his girlfriend opened a stairwell door one floor down, having given up on waiting for an elevator.
Aren't they being inspected?
Police said Liang, walking with his gun drawn, fired without a word and apparently by accident, hitting Gurley from about 10 feet.
Mallory, the former public housing resident, said an officer should never patrol a building with a gun drawn.
C'est la vie.
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And regarding the protest leader there:
"Al Sharpton and businesses owe millions" New York Times Syndicate November 19, 2014
NEW YORK — The Rev. Al Sharpton, who spent years marching through the city in a track suit while shouting indignantly at men in power, stood quietly on a stage last month for his birthday party at the Four Seasons restaurant, his now slender frame wrapped in a finely tailored suit, as men in power lined up to exclaim their admiration for him.
Meaning Al has been a charlatan the whole time.
Obscured in his ascent, however, has been his troubling financial past, which continues to shadow his present.
Wait until you see who is paying him. It is why he didn't pay.
Sharpton has regularly sidestepped the sorts of obligations most people see as inevitable, like taxes, rent, and other bills. Records reviewed by The New York Times show more than $4.5 million in current state and federal tax liens against him and his for-profit businesses. And though he said in recent interviews that he was paying both down, his balance with the state, at least, has actually grown in recent years. His National Action Network appears to have been sustained for years by not paying federal payroll taxes on its employees.
You will soon see why he got away with it.
With the tax liability outstanding, Sharpton traveled first class and collected a sizable salary.
Sharpton and the National Action Network have repeatedly failed to pay travel agencies, hotels, and landlords.
Sharpton acknowledged his financial troubles in recent interviews. “You can say I’m not a great administrator,” he said. “You can’t say that I’m not committed.”
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Related: LBJ Overshadows MLK
I think Al over$hadows them both.
Now you know why he has a TV show.
Also see: N.Y.'s spending problem? A $5b surplus
Al's money?
Time to go in the other direction:
"Man killed by train was pushed onto tracks" Associated Press November 17, 2014
NEW YORK — A man standing with his wife on a Bronx subway platform Sunday morning was pushed onto the tracks by another man and was struck and killed by an oncoming train, police said. The assailant fled.
Police said an unidentified man pushed 61-year-old Wai Kuen Kwok of the Bronx off the platform at the Grand Concourse and East 167th St. station in Highbridge, an act that appeared to be unprovoked.
Kwok was struck by a southbound D train at around 8:40 a.m. and pronounced dead at the scene. His wife was not injured.
There was no indication that Kwok knew the man or had had an altercation with him before he was pushed, police said. Witnesses told police they believed the man fled the subway station after shoving Kwok and jumped on a city bus.
There have been three other incidents in recent years that involved a person being pushed onto the tracks.
I'm sure I could find them were I not in a rush.
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"Police search for attacker in fatal subway push" New York Times November 18, 2014
NEW YORK — Police officers fanned out with wanted posters of the man, offering rewards for information. The chief of the department’s transit bureau called the search a “24/7 operation.”
But by Monday afternoon, no major leads had developed, nor had tips come in from the posters or from surveillance video released late Sunday by the police. The video showed in some detail the man — at this point wanted only for questioning — as he walked from the 167th Street subway station, exited a Bronx bus, and smoked a cigarette near a deli in the minutes after the attack.
The rider, Wai Kuen Kwok, 61, had been waiting for a downtown D train with his wife, both immigrants from Hong Kong, as they made their weekly Sunday trip down to Chinatown for dim sum and shopping.
I'll be getting back to Hong Kong soon.
But about 8:45 a.m., as the train roared into the station, Kwok, 61, was shoved from behind and pushed onto the tracks, police said.
Elsewhere....
"A worker fell screaming 11 stories from the roof of a bank building Friday morning onto a moving car, crushing its roof and sending shattered glass flying into the street, police and witnesses said. The man, identified by police only as window washer, was moving equipment on the roof of a bank building in the heart of San Francisco’s financial district and was not on a window-washing platform when he fell, San Francisco police Sergeant Danielle Newman said."
Also see: Judge scolds NYC tower skydivers, won’t toss case
The events there on 11 September 2001 towering over everything happening in our world today.
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From the highest peak to the lowest valley.
Time for me to go grab a slice of heaven.
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