15-year-old Jordan Edwards was trying to leave a house party, then police killed him

Will he be the next Michael Brown? Who do think is right in this instance? Do the police use too much force?

https://www.vox.com/identities/2017...olice-shooting-texas-balch-springs?yptr=yahoo

15-year-old Jordan Edwards was trying to leave a house party. Then police killed him.
The latest in a long line of police shootings of black boys and men.
Updated by German Lopez@germanrlopezgerman.lopez@vox.com May 1, 2017, 12:37pm EDT
Jordan Edwards, a 15-year-old who was shot and killed by police in Balch Springs, Texas. Mesquite Independent School District via WFAA
Jordan Edwards, 15, was trying to leave a house party that had gotten out of control on Saturday. But the black teenager would never get home that night — because a police officer shot and killed him.

Police in Balch Springs, Texas, a majority-minority Dallas suburb, claim there was an altercation with the vehicle, where Edwards, who was reportedly unarmed, was sitting in the front passenger’s seat. The car was packed with four other unarmed teens, including Edwards’s brother, according to family attorney Lee Merritt.

Police say the car was backing up toward responding officers, prompting one to shoot at the vehicle. A bullet broke through the front seat passenger’s window and hit Edwards. Shortly after, Edwards was rushed to a hospital, where he died from gunshot injuries. No officers were injured in the incident.

Neighbors told local reporter Gabriel Roxas that the party Edwards left was crowded, with unsupervised, drunk teens fighting before gunshots were fired. According to the family attorney, Edwards “was leaving a house party because he thought it was getting dangerous.”

Edwards’s coaches and community members reportedly attended a press conference demanding answers for the shooting. Mesquite Independent School District, where Edwards was a freshman in high school, in a statement called him “a good student who was very well liked by his teachers, coaches, and his fellow students.” He played football at the school, with one of his teammates calling him “the best running back I ever played with.”

The Dallas County Sheriff’s Department will investigate the shooting. The officer who shot Edwards, whose name has yet to be released, is on administrative leave.

Black people are much more likely to be killed by police than their white peers
An analysis of the available FBI data by Dara Lind for Vox shows that US police kill black people at disproportionate rates: They accounted for 31 percent of police killing victims in 2012, even though they made up just 13 percent of the US population. Although the data is incomplete, since it’s based on voluntary reports from police agencies around the country, it highlights the vast disparities in how police use force. (Similar reports from the Washington Post and Guardian have shown similar disparities since 2012.)

A chart showing police killings by race.
Alvin Chang/Vox
Black teens were 21 times as likely as white teens to be shot and killed by police between 2010 and 2012, according to a ProPublica analysis of the FBI data. ProPublica’s Ryan Gabrielson, Ryann Grochowski Jones, and Eric Sagara reported: “One way of appreciating that stark disparity, ProPublica’s analysis shows, is to calculate how many more whites over those three years would have had to have been killed for them to have been at equal risk. The number is jarring — 185, more than one per week.”

There have also been several high-profile police killings since 2014 involving black suspects. In Baltimore, six police officers were indicted for the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody. In North Charleston, South Carolina, Michael Slager was charged with murder and fired from the police department after shooting Walter Scott, who was fleeing and unarmed at the time. In Ferguson, Darren Wilson killed unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown. In New York City, NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo killed Eric Garner by putting the unarmed 43-year-old black man in a chokehold.

One possible explanation for the racial disparities: Police tend to patrol high-crime neighborhoods, which are disproportionately black. That means they’re going to be generally more likely to initiate a policing action, from traffic stops to more serious arrests, against a black person who lives in these areas. And all of these policing actions carry a chance, however small, to escalate into a violent confrontation.

That’s not to say that higher crime rates in black communities explain the entire racial disparity in police shootings. A 2015 study by researcher Cody Ross found, “There is no relationship between county-level racial bias in police shootings and crime rates (even race-specific crime rates), meaning that the racial bias observed in police shootings in this data set is not explainable as a response to local-level crime rates.” That suggests something else — such as, potentially, racial bias — is going on.

One reason to believe racial bias is a factor: Studies show that officers are quicker to shoot black suspects in video game simulations. Josh Correll, a University of Colorado Boulder psychology professor who conducted the research, said it’s possible the bias could lead to even more skewed outcomes in the field. “In the very situation in which [officers] most need their training,” he said, “we have some reason to believe that their training will be most likely to fail them.”

Part of the solution to potential bias is better training that helps cops acknowledge and deal with their potential subconscious prejudices. But critics also argue that more accountability could help deter future brutality or excessive use of force, since it would make it clear that there are consequences to the misuse and abuse of police powers. Yet right now, lax legal standards make it difficult to legally punish individual police officers for use of force, even when it might be excessive.

 

How about parents stop letting 15 year olds attend unsupervised parties? How about parents stop letting their kids have such parties in the first place? How about parents raise kids who wouldn't dream of holding a party their parents hadn't approved of and were supervising? And how about when crimes are reported, race isn't mentioned (because it shouldn't be - and in some countries it would be illegal to do so)?

 

I'm so glad I moved from there 13 years ago. My brother teaches at a high school in that district. He says I wouldn't recognize the place, it has become so bad.

 

Does he blame the police?

 

The Chief of Police blamed the officer who lied about the shooting. He was recorded shooting at the vehicle as it drove away, not charging toward him in reverse, which it never did.

 

Ya, I wouldn't be invoking Michael Brown, that case kinda backfired on you folks.

 

No. Most of his complaints are about the lack of discipline by parents.

 

There is a new story out that the police spokesman misspoke and should have said that the car was moving forward toward the officer. The facts will come out, whatever they are.

 

I will hold judgement until after I read a non slanted article.

 

Parents of the police?

 

Probably not just misspoke, but miswrote in his report as is usually the case police reports of shootings are inevitably short on the truth.

 

Partying While Black.
Didn't his parents teach him better?​

Seriously, it is a sad story.
The Police malfunctioned.

 

I don't have the same inside knowledge that you must possess. I only grew up there and may even know the cop. They haven't released a name, but I know several. He/she may be guilty, but I'll let the system work.

 

No, he was initially reporting the officer's lie that the vehicle was traveling toward him and other officers in an aggressive manner. Only when they reviewed the video did they realize all of the officers lied. They should all be fired and the shooter should be tried for murder. It's time we stop protecting the crooked, corrupt police in this country.

 

Conjecture at this point in time.

 

It's Darwinism at work. Try to run the cops over with your car you put everyone in danger of being shot. His parents should be the ones going to jail, what's a 15 year old doing being allowed at a party where there is drinking?

 

It's pretty simple:
1) if he was driving toward the officers in what they would reasonably (key term) believe was an intent to harm them, then shooting was justified. They don't have to get out of the way, they are lawfully attempting arrest, and he should have complied. A car used in that manner is a deadly weapon and a danger to the public.
2) if they shot him as he fled when he had not threatened them with the vehicle (or if there was no cause for such a belief to be reasonable) they've likely committed murder of one stripe or another.
3) if he threatened them with the vehicle and then began to flee (like a fake out) they might be able to slide under the fleeing felon rule (a cop can shoot a fleeing felon with a weapon if they reasonably believe that persons presents further danger to the public; a car used as a deadly weapon). But that's pretty thin ice to skate.

Them lying about it doesn't encourage a belief in point 1.

 

The same type of parents that allow their 15 year old attend drinking parties, are the parents that 15 year olds to participate in animal like store mob events. I think we need to investigate these parents an discourage this destructive parental negligence.

 

All I said was that "the facts will come out". If they are crooked, I hope they fry. If not, I wish them well. Isn't that how the system is supposed to work?

 

oh good grief! Can you link to a piece that isn't so incredibly biased? He didn't get shot because he was leaving a party, or because he was fifteen years old, or because he was black.

 

Even under your number 1, shooting a passenger is not justified. Under the circumstances of 1, spraying the car with bullets isn't justified. Shooting the driver, maybe. But killing passengers - no.

 

There are a lot of parents at my son's school who let their 15-year old kids attend drinking parties - it is just that a lot of those parents don't know it ...

 

It could be that the cop-sniper just flinched and accidentally shot.

That would be a manslaughter, depending on the jury.

 

Bad idea.

 

Yup still too early to tell.

It will depend on what the officer "thought" was happening versus what actually happened.