Note from MN: Compare the events recorded here to what transpired with Mel Gibson. In that case, Attorney Lawrence Taylor, who has defended DUI clients for 35 years, told the LA Times he has seen similar cases thousands of times. "'Except for the comments he made and who he is, this is a very common, run-of-the-mill businessman case,' Taylor said." (That comment was buried in the last paragraph of the Times story, on p. 19 of the print edition.)
So of course, if you're a "businessman" -- read, rich, white and preferably famous and influential -- you have nothing to fear from the police, even if you're drunk and doing 85 mph, so you pull over and are treated with kid gloves during and after, and you end up with a wrist-slap. Also of course, if you're poor, young and Black, and you fear being beaten or worse, you keep going when the dome lights flash in your rear view mirror, and then, even though you're going so slow that a cop can run alongside your car, he will take aim and shoot 5 or 6 times, and you end up dead.--MN Witnesses Question Fatal Police Shooting of Suspect Near Compton Sheriff's officials say the officer believed the car-chase suspect was aiming his vehicle at another deputy. By Richard Winton and Ashley Surdin, Times Staff Writers August 3, 2006 The televised shooting by a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy of a car-chase suspect who appeared to aim his car at a second deputy has stirred debate in the community about whether the action was justified. It also marked the latest case of a deputy firing at a moving vehicle, a practice the Sheriff's Department has been struggling to curb with limited success in recent years. Lawrence Ronnell Taylor, 44, was fatally wounded about 7:45 p.m. Tuesday in the unincorporated area of Rosewood, near Compton, after a pursuit, sheriff's officials said. Taylor ran several red lights and swerved in and out of traffic during the 20-minute chase. At 142nd Street and Parmelee Avenue, Taylor's by then slow-moving Nissan appeared to swerve toward a deputy who was placing a spike strip in the vehicle's path, officials said. A second deputy fired seven shots at the driver. "The suspect pointed his vehicle at the deputy, accelerated toward him, and then a second deputy fired at the suspect in the car, hitting him multiple times in the upper body," said Sheriff's Capt. Ray Peavy. "The deputy fired because he believed his partner was going to be hit and killed by the suspect's car." Although the investigation is continuing, sheriff's officials said their preliminary view is that the shooting was justified under the circumstances. But several witnesses said deputies overreacted, because Taylor posed no threat to the officers with his low-speed evasion. They also said the deputy who fired his weapon multiple times endangered the lives of residents in the neighborhood of single-family homes. "It was ridiculous; they didn't have to do it," said Kerry Rosell, 44, a resident of 142nd Street who was standing outside about six houses away at the time. "You have 25 police cars chasing one car. Why don't they block the neighborhood off and stop him?" Shunta Smith, 20, also witnessed the shooting from her home at the intersection. "They didn't say, 'Get back,' they didn't say, 'Freeze,' they didn't say nothing," Smith said of the deputies on the scene. Michael Gennaco, head of the Office of Independent Review, said the Sheriff's Department would examine the deputy's tactics to determine whether he acted properly and whether other options were considered before he fired. Under the sheriff's new pursuit policy, deputies can shoot at a moving vehicle only when there is an immediate threat of death or serious injury. Officers are directed to, whenever possible, take cover from a safe distance, get out of the way and avoid firing in the direction of a fellow deputy. The televised footage shows Taylor's car swerving to the left of the spike strip toward the first deputy. The second deputy can be seen running along the right passenger side of the vehicle before taking aim with his 9-millimeter pistol and opening fire, hitting Taylor several times. He died a short time later at a local hospital. Some area residents said Wednesday that deputies harassed Taylor because of prior run-ins with authorities. Sheriff's investigators said Taylor had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, domestic violence offenses and evading arrest. Neighbors described him as the married father of three who was seen earlier in the day helping his mother move out of a neighborhood home. It was the second fatal shooting of a suspect in a moving vehicle by sheriff's deputies in two months. In June, several deputies fired more than 70 rounds at a moving car during a chase in the Walnut Park neighborhood, killing the driver. Investigators found a handgun in the vehicle but said deputies were unaware of the weapon when they opened fire. The case remains under investigation. Last year, a group of deputies fired dozens of rounds at a car-chase suspect in Compton, sending bullets flying into nearby homes. After that incident, officials vowed to improve deputies' training. Najee Ali, executive director of the nonprofit civil rights organization Project Islamic HOPE, said he planned to request an independent federal investigation of Tuesday's shooting and a meeting with Sheriff Lee Baca. "The suspect was shot several times in his chest in what appears to be an out-of-policy shooting by a sheriff's deputy who should have moved out of the way of any potential harm," Ali said. "There has been too many shootings by deputies in Compton." Note from MN: Compare that killing (also in terms of inches of media coverage) to the handling of Mel Gibson by the sheriffs out in Malibu, where top ranking officers huddled desperately and figured out how to protect Gibson's reputation and themselves: Some Attorneys Voice Surprise as Gibson Is Charged Only With DUI By Andrew Blankstein and Megan Garvey, Times Staff Writers August 3, 2006 Prosecutors on Wednesday charged Mel Gibson with two misdemeanor counts of drunk driving but decided there was not enough evidence to pursue more serious charges against the actor-director for belligerent behavior directed at a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy. Because he is charged only with misdemeanors, legal experts said, the actor could plead no contest without going to court or receiving any jail time. The arrest was Gibson's first in California for driving under the influence of alcohol. Typically, first-time offenders have their licenses suspended, are ordered to pay fines, attend DUI offender programs and serve three years' informal probation. They may also be required to perform community service. Officials at the Los Angeles County district attorney's office filed the charges after several days of discussion about whether the conduct detailed in Gibson's arrest report rose to the level of prosecution. In his report, Deputy James Mee said Gibson "attempted to escape custody" and repeatedly threatened him. The star was clocked going more than 85 mph nearly twice the posted speed limit on Pacific Coast Highway about 2:30 a.m. last Friday. A breathalyzer test showed his blood-alcohol level to be 0.12% (the legal limit is 0.08%). In addition to drunk driving, prosecutors charged Gibson with an infraction of having an open bottle of tequila in his car. Some veteran DUI attorneys said they were surprised that an "excessive speed enhancement" was not filed against Gibson a charge that would mandate jail time. "If you're going 25 mph over the speed limit, that would greatly increase your chances of jail time," said attorney Jonathan I. Kelman. "The fact that they didn't file the speed enhancement that makes me wonder," Kelman said. "Ninety percent of my clients out of Malibu would face that enhancement if [law enforcement officials] thought they could prove the speeding." Under state law, a driver under the influence whose speed exceeds the posted limit by 20 mph or more on streets or 30 mph on highways faces a minimum of 60 days in jail. Paul S. Geller, another defense attorney who specializes in drunk driving cases, said the speed enhancement is a common but not automatic charge. Sometimes, he said, prosecutors use the threat of the charge as a negotiating tool. Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law School, said Gibson's bellicose behavior toward the deputy made it a borderline case for resisting arrest and making criminal threats, both felonies. "Prosecutors had to use their discretion. A different defendant, a different situation, you might have seen those charges added," Levenson said, adding that the charges filed appeared to be appropriate. "But I think people will be suspicious as to whether he has received celebrity treatment because of the way this case has been handled from the beginning." The sheriff's Office of Independent Review is looking into whether details of Gibson's behavior were deliberately kept from the media as a favor to the actor. In announcing the arrest, a sheriff's spokesman said Gibson was taken into custody without incident. Sources have told The Times that department officials debated for hours what to do with Mee's detailed narrative of the actor's behavior, eventually deciding to place it in a locked area in hopes that the public would not get hold of it. Mee's report described the Oscar-winning actor-director's behavior, including allegations that he made anti-Jewish slurs, blaming Jews for "all the wars in the world" and then asked the deputy, "Are you a Jew?" The details became public when someone leaked the file to the celebrity website TMZ.com. The disclosure was followed by other revelations about how sheriff's officials handled the case. On Tuesday, sheriff's officials acknowledged that a sergeant drove Gibson 10 miles from the Malibu-Lost Hills station in Agoura to a Malibu towing yard to retrieve his sedan. "It would be quite unusual to drive a defendant to a tow yard to pick up their vehicle after being arrested," said attorney Kelman, who has defended DUI clients for nine years. "I've had it happen once before, when a very beautiful client was taken to the tow yard three miles away," Kelman said. "Otherwise, all my other clients have been told to walk or get a ride." Then on Wednesday, the district attorney's office acknowledged that Gibson had been released Friday on his own recognizance. On Friday, sheriff's officials said Gibson was released on $5,000 bail. Several sources said that recent statements by Mee, the arresting deputy, and other sheriff's officials were considered when deciding whether to pursue more serious charges against Gibson. In an interview with The Times on Monday, Mee called the incident "just another routine stop that just got a little escalated . This is just another drunk driving incident. It just happened to be a celebrity versus Joe Blow public." Additionally, Sheriff Lee Baca, whose department has been criticized for giving the actor special treatment, has insisted that Gibson should only face charges related to the DUI and that his behavior after the arrest should not be an issue in his prosecution. "Our job is not to [focus] on what he said. It's to establish his blood-alcohol level when he was driving," Baca told The Times on Saturday. Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, declined to elaborate on the specific reasons prosecutors did not seek charges beyond those directly related to drunk driving. "Prosecutors reviewed all of the reports, all the audiotape from the scene, all the videotape taken at the station, all the evidence," she said. "And we filed the charges we believe we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt." Attorney Lawrence Taylor, who has defended DUI clients for 35 years, said he has seen similar cases thousands of times. "Except for the comments he made and who he is, this is a very common, run-of-the-mill businessman case," Taylor said. Gibson's attorney, Blair Berk, declined to comment on the charges being filed. "I will be the one lawyer not discussing the ongoing case," she said. Gibson has issued two public apologies since his arrest and said he suffered a relapse in his longtime battle with alcoholism. * Times staff writers Richard Winton and Stuart Pfeifer contributed to this report. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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