Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist
Red Bluff, CA — Henry Lane, 42, was in need of serious mental health help last month as he was seen banging on the door of a closed store. However, instead of mental health help, Lane got several Red Bluff police officers who chased him down and killed him. Body camera footage showing the cops execute the mentally ill man was just released this week.
According to police, they were responding to a call about a mentally ill man banging on the window of a closed business and screaming that he wanted a gun. When police showed up at the business, Lane was gone. However, they would catch up to him later that night as he waited for a bus carrying what appeared to be a skinny wooden stick.
To be clear, when police walked up on Lane that night, he had not committed a crime. He was merely accused of banging on some locked doors and screaming. He didn’t cause any damage to the business and was simply a man waiting at a bus stop when police caught up to him.
Instead of attempting to de-escalate the situation, police surrounded him, some of them pointing guns and tasers at him. Naturally, Lane appeared to be very frightened of the four armed men who began to surround him—so, he started walking away.
As Lane walked away, police escalated the situation and began firing bean bag rounds at him. The bean bags appeared to scare Lane even more and he continued trying to get away.
At this point, the officers surround Lane as one of them attempts to taser him. But when Lane raised the flimsy stick over his head, officer Stephen Harper—seemingly unable to contain himself—shot and killed Lane.
As the life flows out of Lane’s body, the officers scream at him and put him in handcuffs. For walking down the street with a stick, Red Bluff police officers shot and killed a mentally ill man.
“The police and the sheriff in this community in this county know better than anyone and they’ve dealt with these people years in and year out what their problems are and what their issues are and stopping them permanently with a bullet is not going to end the mental health crisis,” Myra Taylor, Henry Lane’s former Common Law wife said.
“We need help in our community and using a gun is not the help that everyone needs,” she said.
Naturally, however, the police disagree and are claiming that Lane presented a deadly threat to the four armed and armored men who had him completely surrounded that night.
“Ultimately, when one of the officers felt their life or the life of one of the other officers were in danger in terms of receiving a significant injury, a choice was made to utilize deadly force,” said Red Bluff Chief of Police Kyle Sanders.
He then went on to immediately justify the execution of a man whose only crime was walking away from cops while holding a stick.
“I think a use of a stick, in this case, was several feet in length and had some girth to it I think anyone who is reasonable could conclude that if that weapon were used against an officer or anyone for that matter and was to strike them particularly in the head would cause serious bodily injury to one of our officers,” Sanders said.
But the stick had no girth to it. The stick looked flimsy and appeared to bend when Lane leaned on it. If Lane would have struck one of the officers with it, it probably would have snapped in half. No, Lane’s death was not “reasonable.”
“Why couldn’t you guys spend more time with it? Why were you guys so anxious to you know, when there were no threats?” asked a witness who watched the cops kill Lane.
“Whatever the case may be, it’s not worth taking somebody’s life.”
We agree. Below is this most disturbing execution caught on video.
Audio of the 911 call starts at 3:17.
Audio between dispatch and officers starts at 4:15.
Body camera footage of the confrontation starts at 6:25.
As TFTP previously reported, in 2017, down the road, Madeira, CA, police shot and killed 32-year-old Sergio Valdovinos, a mentally ill man who police says was swinging at them with a large stick. Like Lane’s death, it was also caught on video.
“He then went on to immediately justify the execution of a man whose only crime was walking away from cops while holding a stick.”
Which is clear justification for any American national to shoot them dead as well… since they are clearly an enemy-force-in-occupation designed to murder us at any opportunity.
What goes around, @ssholes…