Kentucky dispatchers repeatedly told police officers the address of a house they were supposed to raid over an alleged stolen Weed Eater, only for the cops to raid the wrong home and kill the man inside.

But the man who police say admitted to stealing the Weed Eater from a home of a local judge had already been in custody prior to the deadly raid that took place minutes before midnight last month, according to WLEX. That man told police he had stored the stolen Weed Eater at a home at 489 Vanzant Road which is a rural area outside of London city limits.

97 points

Check to see if there’s a development looking to buy all the land in that area. You know. Like the last time police did this, and it got buried for years until public outcry made the legal system reluctantly look into and find out there were very rich people who wanted the home of Brianna Taylor, and got it for what $1.00 after she was murdered in her bed by a cop who snuck behind the house to her bedroom and opened fire.

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54 points

I found an article verifying the price, but do you have a source that connects the rest of the dots? I’m shocked (not that shocked) this isn’t on screaming front page headlines

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38 points

I found these articles with a little more information.

Business Insider, paywall

Business Insider, Archive Link

Wave3, local news station

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39 points

Good stuff, key point from the BI article:

Mary Ellen Wiederwohl, head of the city’s economic development foundation Louisville Forward, the city’s economic development organization, told local news channel Wave 3 that the updated lawsuit “is a gross mischaracterization of the project,” and said that the foundation had worked with community organizations throughout. She added that the foundation is discussing the creation of a community land trust “to ensure investment without displacement.”

And yet I found more using a search of "Place Based Investigations " as the main keyword: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/metro-government/2020/07/24/breonna-taylor-shooting-what-know-police-unit-linked-case/5443452002/

it was revealed that the “no-knock” warrant police used to force their way into Taylor’s apartment, leading to her death, was obtained by a member of the Place-Based Investigative team.

The dots are connected enough for me. PBI obtained the no-knock, likely on Wiederwohl’s initiative. Further lead: https://www.acceleratorforamerica.org/who-we-are/

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91 points

Why the fuck do they need to raid any house for a fucking weed eater!? That is serious small time shit.

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47 points

And the thief was already in custody. He had “stored” the weed eater at the address they were supposed to be searching (er, raiding), meaning whoever would have been present there wasn’t even the thief.

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30 points

Maybe because it was a judge’s weed eater

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23 points

Because we train cops to kill and give them military surplus and they’re just itching to use it.

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9 points

It was the Judge’s weed eater.

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4 points

The whole raid and SWAT tactics are insanely ineffective and deadly. Before that detectives would just come by in the day time and knock and be like ‘we have a warrant’.

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44 points

They broke into his house, and he got a gun out. Which is one of the few times it is reasonable to brandish a weapon… And they use that as justification to kill him. Over a weed eater.

The police don’t give a shit if someone steals your catalytic converter, your whole car, or all of your tools. But I guess if you’re a judge they will kill for your weed eater.

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23 points

It was stolen from a judge. So the police treated it as important. You know, the same as when a rich person is harmed

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8 points

The cops deserve to reap what they sowed.

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8 points

But they won’t. Qualified immunity, which means they can and will murder with impunity.

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6 points

They sow death so they deserve to reap death. Legality is not a factor in my proposition.

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3 points

A lot of people have proven self defense against police breaking into their home and attacking him. Legally speaking.

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8 points

Which is why they go all the way. Can’t prove self defense if you’re dead.

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35 points

stealing the Weed Eater from a home of a local judge

Aha, so that’s why they suddenly give a shit about property theft, because it was from a member of their little club.

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7 points

you know, I just now realized it was a weed eater and not a weed eater

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3 points

Perhaps Weedeater were hanging out with the judge and he kidnapped them? Just kidding, Weedeater would never hang out with a judge.

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32 points

So police get to kill anyone over anything with the word ‘weed’ now? I can’t think of any other reason to raid the home for a fucking $300 item.

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7 points
*

It belonged to a judge so they sent a death squad after it, and cops are so fucking stupid they didn’t realize the thief was already in custody. It’s either that simple or they wanted this man dead for another reason.

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THE POLICE PROBLEM

!thepoliceproblem@lemmy.world

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    The police problem is that police are policed by the police. Cops are accountable only to other cops, which is no accountability at all.

    99.9999% of police brutality, corruption, and misconduct is never investigated, never punished, never makes the news, so it’s not on this page.

    When cops are caught breaking the law, they’re investigated by other cops. Details are kept quiet, the officers’ names are withheld from public knowledge, and what info is eventually released is only what police choose to release — often nothing at all.

    When police are fired — which is all too rare — they leave with ‘law enforcement experience’ and can easily find work in another police department nearby. It’s called “Wandering Cops.”

    When police testify under oath, they lie so frequently that cops themselves have a joking term for it: “testilying.” Yet it’s almost unheard of for police to be punished or prosecuted for perjury.

    Cops can and do get away with lawlessness, because cops protect other cops. If they don’t, they aren’t cops for long.

    The legal doctrine of “qualified immunity” renders police officers invulnerable to lawsuits for almost anything they do. In practice, getting past ‘qualified immunity’ is so unlikely, it makes headlines when it happens.

    All this is a path to a police state.

    In a free society, police must always be under serious and skeptical public oversight, with non-cops and non-cronies in charge, issuing genuine punishment when warranted.

    Police who break the law must be prosecuted like anyone else, promptly fired if guilty, and barred from ever working in law-enforcement again.

    That’s the solution.

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