Thursday 21 July 2016

Any Justice For Daniel Shaver?

Nice family pic to show he was a good guy.

It's easy to second guess and say what is right or wrong if you weren't there, then there are times when the evidence tells and shows you quite plainly what the fuck happened. 

In Arizona in January 2016 an unarmed white guy was shot to death by police. I just mentioned he was white because going by the media you'd think that only black guys get shot. The US is hung up on the color of unarmed people getting shot rather than the fact that cops are doing it quite a bit.
At a La Quinta Inn hotel in Mesa Arizona, police got a report of a man pointing a rifle out of his hotel window. 

Daniel Shaver aged 26 had a job of shooting birds that got trapped in Wal-Mart stores. He traveled for his work and had two BB rifles with him that he was showing to a couple of other guests in his room. They had been drinking and I guess it went with him telling them about his job and them saying, 'hey can I see your guns?' The call to police was from someone outside that saw them in the room. 


Philip Brailsford is a 25 year-old who gave up wanting to be an actor to join the police. He's married, has a son and plays in a band and likes motorcycles, football and target practice. He was with the police for 2 and a half years. His father was a lieutenant in the police Internal Affairs dept and a US army vet in Afghanistan and got a bronze star.     

The Mesa police union support the younger Brailsford and his actions that led to the death of Daniel Shaver.  

About 6 officers went through the hotel to confront Shaver at his room # 502. The released body cam footage shows before and after the shooting but not the shooting. Shaver's wife has been told not to talk about the case but is insisting upon justice as she believes that Brailsford will not be treated as everyone else is because he was a cop.  

Other cases with average people get a large bail amount and prison straight away because the cases are so serious. The judge says you can't compare cases as they are all different then said because he was a cop he was doing his official duty .... so yeah, treated differently.

You're fucked points to the mentality of the person that owned the rifle.

Brailsford was fired after the shooting, one reason was that he had 'you're fucked' inscribed on his AR-15, his own weapon he was allowed to use. These words are against police policy but only offensive after you shoot someone. 

   
Shaver was instructed to crawl towards the police on his hands and knees, his last words were him begging the police not to shoot him. Brailsford saw Shaver reaching back and thinking he might have been drawing a gun he shot him 5 times in the back. 

As you can see from the picture it would have been very difficult to keep and conceal a heavy pistol with what he was wearing and that Shaver was reaching back to pull up his pants. 

Shaver had been drinking so he probably just did it out of instinct. When your pants are falling down you pull them up right?



The judge not posting bail indicates her husband's life meant nothing says his wife Laney. 

Brailsford is shocked that he was charged with 2nd degree murder as he thinks he did nothing wrong ..... 5 times in the back.  He has never been taken into custody.

Brailsford was released without a bail being set as he did not appear to be a flight risk or a risk to the public, except for Shaver that is. He is not allowed any firearms, to talk to the victim's family or return to the scene of the crime hotel.

Of course he's going to be treated differently, cops should be considering what they have to do but when they fuck up like this or abuse their authority then the full weight of the law should come down on them. Examples are made with people who break the law so why not cops?

A well lit hotel hallway with a frightened bloke crawling on the floor as ordered wearing elasticated shorts and 5 other cops as back up standing over him is not the same as a dodgy bloke in a darkened alleyway. In the body cam footage Brailsford asks a fellow officer how many clips he has. When the officer answers 3 Brailsford asks for one for his back pocket.

None of the other officers felt the need to shoot. 

A standard magazine carries 20 ish rounds so maybe the 20 in his rifle, whatever others he had and 45 rounds he had for his Glock handgun wasn't enough. Instead of one guy with a rifle pointing out of a window there might have been at least 18 potential criminals he could shoot into 5 times each. Maybe it was an ISIS convention, Shaver did have a beard. 

Bearing in mind it was a police call, not a crime scene until the cops got there. No one should be above the law but we all know there are plenty that are. 
 

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