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Title: The Gun in Atatiana Jefferson’s Hand Will Be Far from Irrelevant
Source:
Dallas Observer
URL Source: https://www.dallasobserver.com/news ... he-cop-who-killed-her-11781823
Published: Oct 20, 2019
Author: Jim Schutze
Post Date: 2019-10-20 08:45:35 by nolu chan
Keywords: atatiana, jefferson
Views: 32341
Comments: 119
The Gun in Atatiana Jefferson’s Hand Will Be Far from Irrelevant Jim Schutze The mayor of Fort Worth says there is no relevance or importance in the fact that Atatiana Jefferson, killed by a Fort Worth police officer Saturday, had a gun. The mayor is wrong. According to the murder warrant for the former police officer who killed her, Jefferson, 28, pointed her gun toward the window at the police officer moments before the cop shot her. I am not arguing that the cop was within the law. That will be a very complicated question for courts to resolve. But I know this much right now: The gun is everything. Read the murder warrant for former Fort Worth Police Officer Aaron Dean, as it talks about an interview of Jefferson’s 8-year-old nephew by a police investigator: Sure, Jefferson had every right to keep a gun in her house. We do not know yet if she had legal authority to carry a concealed weapon. But this has nothing to do with gun rights anyway. This is about guns. Her gun is what got her killed. Does that mean the cop was within his rights in shooting her? No, not necessarily. I’m not talking about rights. Rights are abstract. Atatiana Jefferson is dead. Death is not abstract. Guns have their own cruel logic, no matter who holds them. If I want to survive a gunfight, I need to be one jump, preferably two jumps ahead of the other guy when it happens. Or I’m dead. It’s all about who gets the jump. It’s not about who has a right to have a gun. It’s about who shoots first. In and of themselves, guns don’t make anybody safe. All a gun does is take you to a gunfight. Once you’re there, you’re there. You’re in a gunfight. It’s not a conversation. Firing a gun is a process. The gun is not a button to be pushed. It has to be unholstered or removed from a purse or place of safekeeping. The gun may have to be manipulated to place a cartridge in the chamber ready for firing. A safety mechanism designed to make it impossible to shoot the gun may have to be switched off. Then the gun is aimed. Then the trigger is pulled. This will be read, I am sure, as a boot-licking, cop-loving defense of Dean for shooting Jefferson. This will also be read as racist, because Dean is a white cop and Jefferson was African American. But I’m really the last person to offer expertise on either of those questions in this case. As we learned from the Amber Guyger/Botham Jean tragedy, in which a white Dallas police officer shot and killed a black man in his own apartment, the law can be complex and arcane in these matters. The Fort Worth shooting will be even more complicated than Guyger, because the cop in Fort Worth will have a better argument for self-defense. This also will be a tougher prosecution because the Fort Worth cop resigned from the force before he could be questioned and before an internal affairs investigation could be launched. We should expect to see more of that. The Guyger/Jean case reminded me that, quite apart from nominal liberalism and conservatism, white people and black people in this country still view social reality through very different lenses based on very different experiences. I believe that, whatever kind of terrible mistake Guyger’s shooting of Jean may have been, it is possible for it not to have been racial. I don’t think I know a single black person who agrees with me. The ungodly procession of internet videos in the last few years showing white cops shooting unarmed black citizens rips away the curtain, my black friends say, on what really dwells in the white heart. What is there, they say, is a superstitious tribal fear of the other. That inner fear is what makes white cops shoot black people quicker than they shoot white people, and the unmistakable pattern is the undeniable proof. For that reason, black people must live in fear that every transaction with a white cop may suddenly explode and cost them their lives. That may all be true, every word of it, but none of it changes the reality of guns. I own guns. Always have. Grew up with a .22 rifle. Never hunted, just because my dad didn’t. I like hunters. They love the forest. I worked on ranches and farms as a young man, carried some kind of rifle in the jeep or pickup for varmints. Never shot a varmint. I like varmints. Shot clay pigeons with shotguns with my son when he was a kid. Keep a few guns in the house for protection. So I understand why people keep guns in their homes. I do it. But I know this. If a cop comes to my house and I meet him with a gun in my hand, I stand a really good chance of getting shot dead. I don’t want to get killed, so, if I see a cop coming, I’m going to put down my gun and probably put both of my hands on my head. For Atatiana Jefferson, it wasn’t that simple. She didn’t have that option. It doesn’t look as if either person, Jefferson or Dean, had enough time to perceive who and what the other was. She didn’t have time to see that he was a cop. He didn’t have time to see that she was in her own house. All of that goes to the dismal algorithm of guns. Things will go wrong. A welfare check gets dispatched wrongly as an “open building.” To the cop, that means break-in, which means bad guy inside, probably armed. Does the cop announce himself at the door? Of course not. Why would the cop do that? If the bad guy is in there with a gun, the cop who announces himself at the door is just giving the bad guy time to get two jumps ahead of the cop in the process of shooting. The cop, by practice and by instinct, always wants to be at least two jumps ahead. The cop always wants the advantage. It’s not a sport. Should cops go around fearing that every bad guy they encounter has a gun? Of course they should. Because we have flooded our society with guns. According to The Washington Post, the United States crossed a line of demarcation in 2008. In that year, the number of guns in the country exceeded the population. In 1996, there were fewer than 250 million civilian firearms in the United States. By 2017, the number of guns was approaching 400 million. According to the BBC, America is by far the most gun-owning country in the world, with two and three times more guns per resident than the runner-up countries of Yemen, Serbia and Montenegro. If those other three look like lawless, violent places to you, and if civilian gun ownership is any indicator, then we must be the most lawless, violent society in the world. Doesn’t feel that way to you? Perhaps you think of this country as a relatively peaceful and secure place. That probably depends a lot on where and who you are. In 2016, the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation published a study of global disease, injury and risk factors. It found that six nations accounted for half of the world’s total gun deaths that year not related to war or terrorism. The United States was second after Brazil. Mexico was third. The same study put us much lower on the ladder for gun deaths per capita. We were No. 20 on that list. So that could mean our gun deaths are evenly distributed everywhere, from Minnesota farm country to the nation’s major cities, or our gun deaths are concentrated in places that must be among the most violent and dangerous in the world. I think we know the answer. When cops go into our cities looking for bad guys, they go looking for bad guys with guns. While that may make police training all the more important, it also pushes training to a certain human limit. Former Dallas police Chief David Brown, one of the most respected police officials in the country and a lifelong cop himself, told me he believes escalation of force and diversity awareness training are indispensable elements in any effective, responsible police academy curriculum. But he also told me something else. He said he knows that the minute a freshly minted rookie from the academy climbs into a patrol car with a veteran trainer, that trainer tells him to forget everything he was taught in the academy. Brown told me the trainer will tell the rookie that the academy training will get the rookie killed, which may be OK with the trainer, but it will also get the trainer killed, which is not OK with the trainer. What does that mean? I think you and I can answer that for ourselves by putting ourselves in the position. We are approaching an open house where we have reason to believe there may be an armed intruder (because in this country intruders must be presumed to be armed). Do we announce ourselves to the intruder? No. We already have our guns in our hands. The safeties are off. The rounds are chambered. What happens when we suddenly see the muzzle of a gun looking back at us? That moment is not about rights. It’s not about training. It’s about guns and basic survival instinct. It’s about staying alive in a world of guns. There’s only one way to change that. Make it a different world. Jim Schutze has been the city columnist for the Dallas Observer since 1998. He has been a recipient of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies’ national award for best commentary and Lincoln University’s national Unity Award for writing on civil rights and racial issues. In 2011 he was admitted to the Texas Institute of Letters. https://www.scribd.com/document/431151697/Aaron-Dean-Arrest-Warrant-ico-Atatiana-Jefferson
Dalas Observer
October 17, 2019 | 4:00am “(The nephew, name redacted) told (the investigator) that he and Jefferson were playing video games in the back bedroom. Jefferson told (the nephew) that she heard noises coming from outside, and she took her handgun from her purse. (The nephew) said Jefferson raised her handgun, pointed it toward the window. Then Jefferson was shot and fell to the ground.”
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 28.
#7. To: All (#0)
It was NOT a wellness or welfare check. The cops were sent on a report of an OPEN STRUCTURE. That is treated the same as a suspected armed robbery or burglary in progress until revealed otherwise. It is assumed that an armed bad guy is inside until revealed otherwise. The cop does not approach the door or window and call out, "Yoohoo, mister armed robber, are you in there?" The occupant put her own life at risk by pulling out a gun, and appearing at the window with it trained outside. If she was not going to shoot the damn thing, she should not have been pointing it around. https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article236163388.html Officer in shooting acted as if responding to burglary, not welfare check, expert says By Nichole Manna [excerpt] Asked on Saturday afternoon what exactly dispatch told the responding officers and what the call was labeled as when officers were sent, Officer Buddy Calzada wrote in an email that more information would be shared during a press conference on Sunday. That question was not answered during the press conference. It’s important to know what information the officers were given because Benza said officers who are going to a burglary call should react much differently than if they’re checking on someone’s welfare.
Riddle me this Mr. Hart: How often do armed robbers break into a home, leave the lights on, sit down in a bedroom and play video games? “The nephew, told the investigator that he and Jefferson were playing video games in the back bedroom. The cops were snooping outside the window, they most certainly would have heard the cacophonous soundtrack coming from a video game being played inside the house. You would think that at least one or two of these porcine poltroons would have said: "That don't sound like no robbery to me, sounds like a kid playing a video game or watching TV. We should ring the doorbell instead."
“The nephew, told the investigator that he and Jefferson were playing video games in the back bedroom. The cops were snooping outside the window, they most certainly would have heard the cacophonous soundtrack coming from a video game being played inside the house. Questions and outrage after Fort Worth officer fatally shoots 28-year-old woman in her home By Dana Branham [excerpt] About a minute-and-a-half into the video, he swivels toward a window, then yells, “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” and fires into the window within about three seconds. Jefferson's nephew in the room observed Jefferson playing video games. The officers did not. They first observed Jefferson at the window, after she had taken out her gun. The interaction between the shooting officer and Jefferson lasted a few seconds. He observed Jefferson at the window, yelled for her to put her hands up, she did not comply, he did not mistake the gun pointed at him as part of a video game, and he fired. People should not point guns at cops if they are not seeking suicide by cop.
Cops shouldn't shoot people in their own homes unless they want to be Bubba's personal homeboy for the next 10 years or so. The neighbor who called the cops avoided the use of the 911 number and instead called a non-emergency police number. This strongly indicates that the neighbor did not believe that a crime was in progress. If you believe your neighbor is being burglarized or beaten or raped or is in a home invasion, you call 911. The neighbor deliberately chose not to call 911. I notice the ex-officer is now being referred to as Aaron York Dean. He's getting the serial killer treatment by the press. He'll almost certainly go to prison for homicide. It will be interesting to see how the prosecution and defense is conducted in the wake of the Guyger case.
Irrelevant. The caller gave information of an open structure. The responding officers were not on the call. The person who took the call classified it as an open structure call, and dispatched the officers on an open structure. It will be contrasted with and distinguished from the Geiger case, arguing the lack of any relationship at all. It will be argued the officer did not zone out and walk in, but was dispatched to an open structure. He encountered an armed individual who did not respond to command. If it was not properly classified as an open structure call, the dispatcher is the responsible party, not the responding officer.
I dearly wish that you should encounter such a police officer and fail to "respond to command" and see how you like getting shot up because some nosy neighbor saw your inside doors open and tipped off the cops to do a "wellness check". Apparently, you believe that the police can issue commands to anyone at any time even in their own home and just execute them instantly if they don't obey. In the middle of the night in their own homes. Now you want to put the police dispatcher on trial. Maybe you could give a medal to that cop who blew away the homeowner while you're at it. And a promotion. Maybe a bigger gun and a bigger badge too. So, in your opinion, are the police entitled to execute anyone without consequences if they are snooping around in a place that has been reported as "an open structure" by some neighborhood busybody? You're a disgrace. Are you trying to compete with misterwhite for some Copsucker Of The Year award?
But the homeowner is entitled to execute anyone without consequences if they are snooping around outside the window?
I said no such thing. Where is due process? Where is a policy that cops don't just immediately shoot anyone reported on a non-emergency call if they're in what someone (who knows who they are) says it is an "open structure". Is that cop code for "shoot anyone you see"? I think a jury and a judge are going to educate you and nolu about what they think about another black person in their own home getting shot by some trigger-happy cop who doesn't announce their presence but just starts shooting at the sight of a black person in their own home. Dumbasses. We'll have more threads on this case soon. I suspect they'll really throw the book at this guy, more so than in the Guyger case.
Sure you did. In post #19 you said, "If you are prowling around unannounced in someone's back yard in the middle of the night, then you are the one who should get shot"
#31. To: misterwhite (#28)
Are you suggesting that a homeowner has to first verify that a prowler is not a cop who has deliberately chosen not to announce themselves and then - and only then - are they entitled to pick up a firearm to defend themselves inside their own home? You have a very twisted notion of the right to self-defense in this country. Soon a jury in Texas will make it much clearer for you. This ex-cop is probably going to get 15 years. They won't let him off as easy as they did Guyger.
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Fort Worth Star-Telegram
October 13, 2019 04:59 PM, Updated October 14, 2019 10:29 AM The 911 records provided to the public don’t give any indication that dispatchers relayed to officers that the call was a welfare check. A police call sheet on Saturday labeled the call as a “burglary.” A written statement released by police on Saturday afternoon referred to the dispatch as an “open structure” call.
#9. To: nolu chan (#7)
It was NOT a wellness or welfare check. The cops were sent on a report of an OPEN STRUCTURE. That is treated the same as a suspected armed robbery or burglary in progress until revealed otherwise.
#11. To: Deckard (#9)
Riddle me this Mr. Hart: How often do armed robbers break into a home, leave the lights on, sit down in a bedroom and play video games?
DallasNews.com
7:52 PM on Oct 13, 2019 In body-camera footage released Saturday, the officer who shot Jefferson is seen walking around the backyard of the home.
#13. To: nolu chan (#11)
People should not point guns at cops if they are not seeking suicide by cop.
#18. To: Tooconservative (#13)
The neighbor who called the cops avoided the use of the 911 number and instead called a non-emergency police number. This strongly indicates that the neighbor did not believe that a crime was in progress. If you believe your neighbor is being burglarized or beaten or raped or is in a home invasion, you call 911. The neighbor deliberately chose not to call 911.
He'll almost certainly go to prison for homicide. It will be interesting to see how the prosecution and defense is conducted in the wake of the Guyger case.
#20. To: nolu chan, Deckard (#18)
It will be contrasted with and distinguished from the Geiger case, arguing the lack of any relationship at all. It will be argued the officer did not zone out and walk in, but was dispatched to an open structure. He encountered an armed individual who did not respond to command. If it was not properly classified as an open structure call, the dispatcher is the responsible party, not the responding officer.
It will be contrasted with and distinguished from the Geiger case, arguing the lack of any relationship at all. It will be argued the officer did not zone out and walk in, but was dispatched to an open structure. He encountered an armed individual who did not respond to command. If it was not properly classified as an open structure call, the dispatcher is the responsible party, not the responding officer.
#21. To: Tooconservative (#20)
are the police entitled to execute anyone without consequences if they are snooping around in a place that has been reported as "an open structure" by some neighborhood busybody?
#23. To: misterwhite, Deckard (#21)
But the homeowner is entitled to execute anyone without consequences if they are snooping around outside the window?
#28. To: Tooconservative (#23)
But the homeowner is entitled to execute anyone without consequences if they are snooping around outside the window?
I said no such thing.
Replies to Comment # 28. Sure you did. In post #19 you said, "If you are prowling around unannounced in someone's back yard in the middle of the night, then you are the one who should get shot"
End Trace Mode for Comment # 28.
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