Who Killed Andrew Brown Jr.?
Dear Editor,
Who killed Andrew Brown Jr.?
Mr. Brown was shot in the back by at least one deputy sheriff, but seven deputies are on paid leave. The family and their attorney want to see police body camera footage of the incident. So do I, and many other people. The unredacted footage should be released now.
We need a law, or constitutional amendment, that states that any police officer that kills someone will be banned from employment with any law enforcement agency.
Chuck Mann
Needless to say that the writer knows nothing about law enforcement. No good officer ever wants to take a life. I grew up with a Greensboro police officer that served for 28 years and I knew several officers who were killed in the line of duty during that timeframe.
Killing someone in the line of duty will haunt the officer for life and the many good officers are the first to push the bad ones out of the job..
Let’s give them the support they need and hope that they are there when you need them
Greensboro Police officer family member.
Several? Who? Jog our memories. There’s a memorial for 5 built in early 2000s for the last 100 years.
Quit making stuff up.
May be, but what you got?
Well, genius, there have been 11 line of duty officer deaths in the history of GPD, but the commenter never said he only knew GPD officers. He could have known officers from any agency in the surrounding area. Even so GPD has had 2 line of duty deaths in the last 15 years (one was just a couple of years ago) and 2 more in the 20 years before that. They have also had officers die who were not on duty, so those would not be counted in that number but the commenter might be including them. Any way, you are once again just making stuff up or being willfully ignorant of facts by choosing not to look stuff up, but I enjoy educating you.
May those who have died in the service of their fellow man rest in peace.
I like to know why everyone feels sorry for the suspect killed by police. The question never crossed the minds of the silly and uneducated, what did you do to bring attention to yourself. I say selling drugs, resisting, fighting all cause negative results. The suspect, Andrew Brown was a murderer himself, he sold drugs to many people and caused God knows how many deaths and pain and suffering, looks like God served his justice, live by the sword, die by it.
They were never convicted of murder. Maybe cops should barge into Purdue Pharmaceuticals and shoot up the board room by your standards.
Sal Leone I could not have said it any better. You are right on target. Drug dealers are committing murder day in and day out. The courts, legislators and district attorneys need to wake up and start dealing with them accordingly. Anyone who has lost a family member to drugs can understand this. This country is way too soft on dealing with convicted drug dealers. As for as Brown is concerned, if he had complied he wouldn’t have died.
Mann you obviously have some serious issues which I am thankful I don’t have. You have got to be a miserable person.
Mr. Mann are you volunteering to our city as a ride along social worker? Please let us know how that works out. Ok?
Maybe not fake news, but definitely cherry picked news. That’s all we ever get from Chuck Mann.
First everyone must listen and “respect” the officers command!!!I have noted that all the high profile “ cases” involved blacks.It seems they have a different understanding of a police command than all others that are stopped by the police.All they need to do when they give a command ,stop and show the officer respect .All of these cases have died but one and he is paralyzed.
By the way did all get the memo from Florida???? The Governor is giving every officer in Florida $1,000 bonus.In almost every Blue state wants to cut the police budgets .There seems to be a lot of difference between blue and red states.The red states appreciate all officers whereas all Blue states want to slash budgets. Thanks
States are not blue or red. The idiots that govern them are. Florida is literally where old white people go to die. That’s who votes for him – people still stuck in the old days.
The world changes a lot. Systems need to change and adapt too.
Another thing Chuck Mann and Namestar. Suspects can be shot in the back if they are moving towards (such as the fact the suspect was in a vehicle) another person in a manner to cause bodily harm. The officers behind him have every right under the law to protect other persons in his path. Read TN v Garner and Graham v Connor since you are so obviously uneducated in legalized use of force by a police officer. Because the state law does not allow an agency to release body camera video without a court (something I would like changed), you get to make assumptions based on “lawyers “ and “ministers” that show up at every shooting. Notice how Atlanta had to reinstate the officer in the Wendy’s taser shooting b/c he did not have due process. Have to Back pay him for a year.
LEOs are afforded the same 4th, 5th, 6th, and 14th amendment protection as any thug on the street. But maybe we could amend those amendments and not give those privileges to anyone. I’m for that. Just put them in jail or prison. It will be a tiny portion of police officers compared to the general public so have at it.
Name star appears to be a one-track mind, hating anything other people do which displeases him. His comment of . . .”Florida is literally where old white people go to die. That’s who votes for him – people still stuck in the old days” tells you a lot about him/her. Probably a case of arrested development and unable to deal with the fact that others have opinions as well. Maybe one day “Name star” will become one of those old people like the rest of us.
Is voicing my opinion somehow a sign that I hate others? You seem to be trying to shame me for expressing my own opinions about Florida and their terrible governor. It’s just an opinion. Don’t let it hurt you to bad.
Looking forward to reading your obituary!
Mustard been the Ebonics from back in the day.
So Chuck Mann, the officer in Columbus who shot and killed the “innocent” turning her life around Ma’khia Bryant who was inches away from stabbing someone (that person put out a statement supporting the officer) should never work in law enforcement again? Do you even read what you write? Police are called to protect other’s lives. That is in the oath they swear to the clerk of court in the county in which they work.
I am perfectly fine with GPD in particular to let certain neighborhoods police themselves. Let’s see how that goes.
There are a lot of ignernt and stoopid people out there……
Chuck Mann wrote. . .”We need a law, or constitutional amendment, that states that any police officer that kills someone will be banned from employment with any law enforcement agency.”
So. . . . . maybe they can also stop wearing guns for their protection and to save lives? And get rid of their mace and batons?
Chuck . . . . .what if you or a family member was confronted with someone with a gun. . . .would you want an officer there to protect you?
I have little confidence that police would make the situation better. Context matters.
Who is the person? Why are they confronting me with a gun? Who am I with? What are they saying to me or how are they acting?
An ex’s dad confronted me with a gun once and said, “do you want to go to the gun range?” I politely said no. How would the police have helped me in that context?
Did the police make things better in Boone last month? We’ll never know because we can’t play both sides of history, but we know several families were destroyed with the police their to protect. Bet those officer’s partners are very happy their spouse was there to diffuse the situation with their guns drawn.
If I do a bad job at my job I should be held accountable. Why should police get some golden pass just because of their job. If a police officer commits murder, they should not be able to EVER be a police officer again, anywhere, and they should live out their life as a slave in the prison system.
Regarding the Boone incident, the suspect’s parents were already dead. He ambushed the responding officers. Let’s just let them rot in their house until their crazy son decides to come out. Who else would you call to do a welfare check? Would a social worker or one of the “mental health” workers the city council insisted on hiring who sit on their hands all day have helped? When you argue with a monolithic attitude that does not evaluate the context of the situation, your arguments do not convince person who may be in the middle, trying to come up with solutions.
Your “context” is that any officer involved in a critical incident should never be a police officer. You deny the Supreme Court decisions that legislate use of force. The current president, Joe Biden, created the most stringent, racist drug laws in the nation based on the consistency of the narcotic (powder cocaine vs. crack cocaine). People seem to forget that in the early 1990s the Democrats were in control. The so-called “liberals” who in various times have had the power to correct the crime laws from the early 1990s, laws that have incarcerated more African Americans than any other race, failed to do so. For a part of Obama’s presidency, Democrats had the House, Senate, and White House. They did nothing. I am for police reform. But the conversation has to stop being all about the police and also focus on what is going on in society. You also fail to acknowledge that most of the time, the police are CALLED to the scene by citizens that are victims of crime or concerned about their neighbor. Are there better ways to handle some calls? Of course. But policing is not a profession like a doctor, lawyer, or accountant. There is no education required, beyond a high school diploma or GED, and a minimal number qualifications from the state. They are also not paid like a profession. You get what you pay for-and our city even with the proposed “raises” will still not have a higher salary than the agencies located within the same county. The council refuses to approve take home vehicles, a benefit that every other agency across the state has.
Thank you for pointing out the lack of education of law enforcement officers.
My point is context matters. I’m not saying an uneducated armed and badged individual can never have a positive effect on a situation, it’s that when they make a mistake that results in the loss of life unnecessarily, they should no longer have the privilege of having a shiny shield pin on their shirt. Don’t worry though, the law will always allow them to be uneducated and armed.
Let’s go on to Biden. Do you know what he did? He’s admitted that was a mistake. He’s acknowledged that those are not the decisions he would make today. The 80s were a pretty crappy time in terms of the maturation and growth of our society. GDP aside, we mostly came up with new strategic ways to oppress many while, as always, the rich got richer. You make a great point, dismantle those racist practices. Don’t call it out. DISMANTLE IT. Imagine a fair society where people of all races have equal access through all time to success. Unless you have a time machine there’s some significant make-up work and test corrections to turn in before we even earn a passing grade as a nation.
I agree. Address society. Good luck though. Human behavior is among the most difficult thing to change because it’s a battle between control and free will. You can’t even get half the loons that read this paper to get a flu shot, how are you going to get them to give up their “god given” advantage of being born white in a white society?
Try again, Mary. You can berate me all you want, but you aren’t going to convince me that police should be held to a lower standard than any other person. Sadly, our society is completely okay with that.
I don’t think police should be held to a lower standard. Quite the opposite. But you can’t pay $18 per hour for people who have little advanced education, are not felons, a minimum of 21 years old, and have taken a 20 week course to make articulate, analytical legal decisions on the side of the road. Once again you get what you pay for. As long as police agencies promote people based on demographics and hire based on lower standards then this is what you get.
Joe Biden has had almost 40 years to change the racist crack laws. Why hasn’t he done it? Why are the Democrats not passing a legitimate crime bill? They are in control and ram rodding all kinds of stuff through. Pass something and own it. For the record, I am a libertarian that believes as long as what you are doing doesn’t affect me (and does not include the abuse of children or animals) I don’t care. I believe in legal marijuana. I believe in the PROPER application of the constitution and for police to have a brain in their head. But this will not happen when the new officers look at their “leadership “ and see it was not established based on qualifications, education, work ethic or anything else relevant in private industry. It’s based on butt kissing, demographics, and sometimes who you have a “relationship” with. As a prominent pastor once said “America’s chickens have come home to roost.” America’s policing has come home to roost.
So what’s your solution NameStar? How would you have dealt with this situation?
If you didn’t bother to look it up, here’s what the officers knew prior to arriving. The homeowner’s employer had not seen their employee for a few days and called 911 expressing concern for their employee. The officers went to the house on a welfare check. That’s all they knew at the time. Nothing about guns, armed men, or deranged people lurking behind the door. (In reality, the suspect had already killed his mom and step dad, but the officers did not know that.) They knocked on the door to see if the homeowner was OK but the suspect opened the door and shot them without warning or provocation.
Sometimes the situation is “unwinnable”. Even so, I would rather go into an unknown situation with a gun, so that if the bad guy messes up, at least I would have a chance. That actually happened in Greensboro about 15 years ago. An officer went to a noise call, nothing suspicious about it, just a noise call. When he knocked on the door, the suspect inside shot him through the closed door. Luckily, the officer was only wounded and was able to return fire and escape with his life.
Back to Boone, so how would you respond with your mythical unarmed police force, Name Star? Let’s hear the big plan. You don’t have a gun, just your “plan”. Let’s hear it. Although, if you think someone asking you to go to the gun range is a “confrontation”, then I doubt you have enough guts to knock on a stranger’s door when you know the bullets could start flying any second.
Here’s a better question, what did they learn from that experience?
My solution, time machine and redo! Duh. There’s no turning back time and hindsight is 20-20. Given your facts, seems they should have taken a welfare check more seriously. They should have blazed in, guns firing, blat blat blat ! Oops wrong door, wrong dead guys. Ooopsie, but I’m an uneducated and underpaid police so free pass!
The point is the police are often in a no win situation. Lots of crime and homicides on the east side? GPD’s fault. Stopping too many cars on the east side? GPD’s a racist organization with a black, local police chief and a disproportionate minority/female command staff. You cannot have it both ways. City Council is 8 of 9 female and and 4 of 9 minority female. Most have been on the council for years. Guess what? Nothing has changed. They can keep throwing money at Cure Violence or any other fad program. It is not working.
Police do take welfare checks seriously. But you do not want them to illegally go in, violate anyone’s rights, or use force (which I agree with). Send social workers or people from Parks and Rec to these calls. Stop sending the police. See what happens.
That makes zero sense. Those are not my facts. They are THE facts of the Boone incident. You seem to avoid direct answers whenever someone calls you out. Other than taking it “more seriously”, you offered nothing substantive here. It seems by your comments that in your world all officers are gun crazy maniacs who can’t wait to kill someone. Luckily that is far from true, but convincing you otherwise seems to be a pointless endeavor. I’ll give it one more try.
The officers did not go there guns blazing, nor should they have based on what they knew at the time. I’m sure the officers did take it seriously, but the bad guy got the jump on them because they had no foreknowledge that there was anything wrong other than someone did not show up to work. There was no reason to have their guns out based on that information, no reason to call out SWAT, no reason to have a social worker or counselor or hostage negotiator staged down the block. All they could do was put their selves in harms way to see if someone needed some help.
Every call they go on, Officers have to go into situations where not much is known and then they are expected to make split second decisions based on rapidly evolving, ever changing facts and circumstances that will be put under the microscope of people who have the pleasure of an infinite amount of time to come up with the perfect solution of “how they should have handled it”. Real life does not work that way.
So seriously, how would you respond, without a gun to fall back on when things go wrong, to a welfare check where the guy, who has already killed his parents, opens fire on you as he opens the door? Oh, and you don’t know he has a gun or has killed anyone, just like these officers didn’t. What do you do besides run away and let him keep killing people?
And Name Star runs away again.
This isn’t a back of the school fight, buddy. I’m right here. If I don’t get to your comments quickly enough don’t take it personally, you can whine and moan on a different article. But I assure you, I’m not running away now or ever from the pathetic pieces of well you know what you are.
It’s not my job to respond to that. So I’d respond by putting my socks and shoes on, going to my job, coming home. I don’t need to have a solution to still see that what happened is terrible and hope that police could learn a damn thing even though they are poorly educated.
Another non answer. We’re done here.
Meet me at the saloon at high noon.
I owe you nothing, don’t forget that.
Oh, you’re THAT GUY! I just realized it. You’re the one who stands in the corner with a beer in his hand watching other people actually doing something and saying, “I wouldn’t have done it that way.” Then when someone asks you how you would do it, you just sip your beer and move on.