Thread by @SamTLevin

NEW: LAPD has repeatedly shot people holding harmless objects - most recently, Jason Maccani who held a plastic fork.

LAPD also shot ppl holding phones, lighters, a bike part, a car part + a wooden board.

🧵on the cases + families fighting for justice:
theguardian.com/us-news/2024/m…

There's a clear pattern: Cops instantly escalate an encounter w/ person in mental distress, fail to communicate, rush to shoot + then continue to blame the victim after learning they were unarmed.

Jason Maccani had a fork, but LAPD first reported it as man “armed with a stick.”

Jason Maccani's brother Mike told me: “LAPD's story keeps changing, and the details get more frustrating and sad, but it doesn’t change the end result. That’s what hurts the most. Jason was experiencing a mental health crisis and he was killed in his moment of greatest need.”

On Feb 3, 911 caller claimed a “homeless dude” entered his warehouse bldg in Skid Row, was “tweaking out" + had “stick or pole." A dispatcher radioed it as “assault with a deadly weapon”, saying the man was “armed w/ large stick”, “under the influence” and “attacking an employee.

Video showed 7 LAPD cops crowded in narrow hallway, shouted commands at Jason Maccani (who complied) + then quickly fired beanbags at him as he walked in their direction. One cop, rookie Caleb Garcia-Alamilla, fired fatal bullet in the scuffle, within roughly 15 secs of arriving.

LAPD claims Maccani had threatened ppl + charged cops, but videos show he was alone + calm when they found him + don't show him charging. LAPD claims he grabbed one cop's beanbag shotgun, but that’s also unclear in vids. Dept claims cops thought his fork was knife or screwdriver.

Mike said his brother had occasional mental health episodes, but that he was never violent: “It’s not lost on me that this shooting took place on Skid Row, an area with high rates of homelessness, drug use + mental illness, where ppl are overpoliced + victims of police brutality"

In 2022, cops instantly shot Jose Barrera as they approached in their car. They thought he was armed with gun, but he was actually holding a cellphone. He survived, and LAPD pursued an "assault with a deadly weapon" case against him even tho he was unarmed latimes.com/california/sto…

In 2020, LAPD killed Victor Valencia, an unhoused man holding a bike part, which police mistook to be a gun. The police commission said the shooting did not violate any policies, but the city agreed to pay $2 million to his family in wrongful death lawsuit latimes.com/california/sto…

2x LAPD shot ppl w/ lighters that looked like guns. LAPD shot Ramon Mosqueda instantly from inside police car. Ramon was exiting a car at his mom's house. Unclear from vids how cop could've gotten good view of lighter, but it was cited as evidence after. knock-la.com/los-angeles-po…

In 2019, LAPD shot John Penny who held piece of wood. A judge found the cop personally liable: “Holding a wooden board + refusing to drop it is insufficient by any objective measure to justify the force deployed." Despite personal liability, city will likely still pay settlement.

In 2022, two LAPD officers approached Jermaine Petit with guns drawn after 911 call for a “transient” with a “gun." Petit walked away from cops. One cop remarked, “It’s not a gun, bro.” Seconds later, third LAPD officer drives by in cruiser + shoots Petit from inside the vehicle.

One of the cops on foot (whose partner had just stated "it's not a gun") also fired at Jermaine, who was seriously injured but survived. He actually had a small car part in his hand. He was charged with “brandishing a replica gun." Read @sahrasulaiman: la.streetsblog.org/2022/09/03/vid…

Petit is US air force veteran w/ severe PTSD, his mom Charlotte Blackwell told me. LAPD continued to claim Petit “pointed” the object at cops even though video shows him running. “That hurt my heart. How could they do that to him, then say it was his fault? It was a firing squad"

Petit’s cousin André Horton: “I expected police to demonize Jermaine. LAPD has its purpose – to keep a certain sect of people in line.” It was still hard to process LAPD vilifying Petit so aggressively: “I had this feeling of helplessness and frustration that teetered on anger."

“The law enforcement identity creates a way of seeing things – where cellphones look like guns, cars look like weapons, poverty looks like criminality. It’s a hypervigilance for danger and it puts both the police and community in danger.”

theguardian.com/us-news/2024/m…

Advocates say best way to stop shootings is to reduce LAPD encounters with ppl in crisis. “Training is centered on all the possible threats–that anything can be used as weapon, anything can kill you + it can happen so quickly that officers who don’t assert control are vulnerable"

“I hope ppl understand this can happen to anyone. He had a bachelor’s degree, loving supportive family, he had resources, and this police brutality still happened. Now our family joins so many others who have needlessly lost loved ones to police violence." theguardian.com/us-news/2024/m…