Thread by @sahrasulaiman

I'm (slowly) doing a series digging into 👮 shootings, what they say about the way disenfranchised Black & brown communities are policed, and what that means w/ regard to what reimagining public safety should look like. First up, the #FredWilliams inquest. la.streetsblog.org/2021/02/01/las…

LASD once again proved themselves hostile to the inquest process, claiming a "credible threat of violence" against the deputy precluded them from revealing the deputies' names.

https://twitter.com/StoltzeFrankly/status/1354607547676680225

In this case, the detectives did not technically plead the Fifth, as they did during the #AndrésGuardado inquest.

https://twitter.com/sahrasulaiman/status/1333489337829183488

But they effectively did in spirit, claiming they couldn't answer any questions about the case because it would jeopardize the integrity of the investigation and require them to reveal information in the sealed documents that only the judge was privy to.

https://twitter.com/sahrasulaiman/status/1354867925610450949

25-year-old Fred Williams III had fled the Mona Park parking lot, where he had been hanging out with friends, when deputies approached from 121st.

Williams had recently gotten home after serving time for burglary and was trying to get back on track. Likely knowing how things tend to go when deputies pull up and knowing a gun charge would send him right back to jail, he immediately took off towards 122nd.

There is a certain tension that exists around the fact that Williams had a gun. By which I mean law enforcement narratives around who and what constitutes a threat have tended to carry great weight and shape the way these encounters are understood and assessed.

I've done threads on this before (most recently with regard to the #AndrésGuardado case, below) and what it means when the question of whether someone is armed becomes the focal point rather than the question of whether they actually posed a threat.

https://twitter.com/sahrasulaiman/status/1333473744774283264

And while we've just come to see it as normal when law enforcement boosts this message with the mugshots and criminal records of folks, as they did in the Critical Incident Video of the Williams shooting...

https://twitter.com/sahrasulaiman/status/1354875072935170049

It's rare to see discussion about why youth in disenfranchised communities are armed and the role that repressive over/underpolicing has played in making them feel like they must fend for themselves. [Yes, another thread. I know...]

https://twitter.com/sahrasulaiman/status/1274565738724855808

Here, Jamaica from Mona Parcc talks to @alexalonso101 of @streetgangs about his experience with the Sheriffs - what they put folks through just because they can (e.g. throwing them in the back of the car and turning up the heat to roast them, etc.)

It's one of a million stories about the extent to which folks are regularly reminded law enforcement is not there to protect or serve them - that they cannot call upon law enforcement for help.

So when we talk about Fred Williams being armed we have to look at it in that context and ask about what his carrying a weapon, most likely for defensive purposes, means for how his encounter with the deputy should be understood.

LASD continues to claim Williams pointed a gun at the deputy, prompting the deputy to shoot him (who the narrator of the critical incident video calls "William").

But what our breakdown of the footage shows is that Williams was not a professional stuntman and never even turned toward the deputy, much less tried to point the gun at the deputy while launching himself over the fence.

We'll have more stories on these issues in the coming days and weeks. In the meanwhile, please see the first installment here and our look at what the inquest process and the footage really show. la.streetsblog.org/2021/02/01/las…