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Mississippi AG drops charges against police officer who killed unarmed black man and planted gun on him

Noodle

Noodle

Banned
Aug 22, 2018
3,427
Mississippi to drop charge of white ex-cop in man's death
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The Mississippi attorney general said Thursday that a manslaughter charge will be dropped against a white former police officer in the October 2015 shooting death of an African American man because her office reviewed the case and concluded the officer acted in self-defense.

The killing of Ricky Ball sparked protests in 2015 in Columbus, a mostly black city of 23,000 in northeast Mississippi.

Republican Lynn Fitch became attorney general in January.
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apnews.com

Mississippi to drop charge of white ex-cop in man's death

A white former police officer in Mississippi will not be prosecuted in the October 2015 shooting death of an African American man.
apnews.com apnews.com

In October 2015, former officer Boykin stopped a car where Ball was the passenger. Ball fled the scene and a chase and gunshots ensued. Few of the other facts about that evening have been agreed upon.

Boykin, who did not activate his body camera, alleged that Ball pointed a gun as he fled. The Ball family insisted that Ball did not own a gun.
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The gun found by Ball's body belonged to another Columbus police officer, who claimed that it had been stolen from his house. But the officer did not file a theft claim until 12 days after Ball was shot and killed. Then Boykin was fired and the former police chief resigned. In January, the Guardian revealed that the Columbus police altered a document labeled "uniform incident report". In February, Boykin sued the city of Columbus for racial discrimination, claiming that he was fired because he was white and the man that he killed was black.

On Wednesday, a grand jury ruled against Boykin's version of the story.
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www.theguardian.com

Mississippi grand jury indicts ex-police officer in killing of Ricky Ball

Former officer Canyon Boykin fatally shot Ball last year during a traffic stop, and observers say manslaughter indictment against an officer is ‘highly unusual’
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

Documents obtained by the Guardian show police altered a document labeled "uniform incident report" in Ball's death. An initial version published by the Commercial Dispatch said an officer "tased" Ball before he fled. A new version of the incident report released to the Guardian does not include any mention of Taser use.

"One of these two reports is not true," said Philip Broadhead, director of the criminal appeals clinic at the University of Mississippi law school. Broadhead said he's never seen an incident report altered the way the document was in this case. "For police officers to offer up this type of information in the form of an incident report as sworn law officers … It's a violation of their oath."
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Suspicion in Columbus grew as police did not release any information about the incident until five days after Ball's death, and then only in small increments.
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On 28 October 2015 – almost two weeks after the shooting – the police department issued an incident report, its first official account of events, as well as a press release that stated that a handgun, marijuana, narcotics and a scale were found within arm's reach of Ball's body. The press release said the three officers failed to activate body cameras during the incident, and only one officer activated a camera after the shooting.
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Police also said the handgun was stolen from the house of Columbus police officer Garrett Mittan, one of the first officers to arrive at the scene.

The very same day, police issued two reports for alleged burglaries at officer Mittan's house. Although one alleged burglary occurred more than a year earlier, in September 2014, and the other occurred several months earlier in August 2015, police did not report them until after Ball's death.

The September 2014 report claims that the robbery occurred while Mittan was at work. But a police schedule obtained by the Guardian says he was not at work that day.
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www.theguardian.com

Why did Mississippi police release two versions of fatal shooting report?

Ricky Ball was killed by police in October 2015, but attempts to obtain official documents have left many unanswered questions and a community outraged
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

Trust the system. Follow the law. Nothing to hide, nothing to fear.
 
hordak

hordak

Member
Oct 31, 2017
2,532
Anaheim, CA
"Columbus fired Boykin as he was trying to resign after the shooting, saying he had broken department policy by not turning on his body camera, by inviting his then-fiancee to ride along without permission and by making derogatory social media posts about African Americans, women and disabled people."

holy fuck this not the time, Missippi
 
Lactose_Intolerant

Lactose_Intolerant

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,751
Arizona
Sadly, if they didn't try to cover it up, they all probably could have gotten away with it.

Edit: I guess they did get away with it if the AG is dropping charges. Just some of them lost their jobs.
 
OP
OP
Noodle

Noodle

Banned
Aug 22, 2018
3,427
Buttzerker said:
What...interesting timing for them.
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It happened Thursday, before the protests really blew up, but it highlights yet another case of a white policeman openly murdering a black man and the family having to suffer through 5 years of going through the system the "proper" way before having their efforts thrown back in their faces.
 
Heshinsi

Heshinsi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,091
Prosecutors work hand-in-hand with the police as part of an apparatus of injustice. The whole god damn system is fucking rotten.
 
robot

robot

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,467
This happened Thursday before shit really hit the fan over the weekend but boy that is some bad timing.
 
TheYanger

TheYanger

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
10,139
Why would you ever fucking do that tonight of all nights. It's SHOCKING how fucking brazen these assholes are getting.
 
KingTrainJumper

KingTrainJumper

Alt account
Banned
Jan 10, 2020
425
This probably won't get much attention as it will be drowned out by the George Floyd situation.

Sickening none the less.
 
Antrax

Antrax

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,270
The timing of this is that we just lost our Dem AG, Jim Hood, who prosecuted Klansmen. MS replaced AG Hood with a woman who wears one instead.
 

SasaBassa

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,058
Like you can only expect people to take so much bullshit from the justice system before they start dishing out their own. America's crumbling systems and its leaders/electorate who put it on this path should be extremely ashamed.

I feel like only worse things will come for politicians and officials who keep towing this line. Getting scary out there.
 
Messofanego

Messofanego

Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,109
UK
They went through the peaceful channels and nothing got done. Mississippi indicating to everyone they don't care about justice so better get ready for riots.
 
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