What do you do when you shoot a man being evicted from his home for owing back rent?
Well, when you’re the Rochester, NY Police department, you immediately go into damage control mode, spin, twist, and change your story in order to justify using deadly force against a man holding a bottle of bleach.
In other words, you LIE.
That’s exactly what Rochester, NY Police Chief James Sheppard and his thugs with badges down at the Public Safety building did, after Rochester, NY Police officers Antonio Gonzalez and James Ott shot Timothy Powell, a former homeless man being evicted from his downtown Rochester apartment.
Here’s what happened.
The Volunteers of America, a social services organization which supposedly offers transitional help to individuals who were formerly homeless, called Rochester Police and asked that they accompany court marshal Joseph Polizzi, to serve an eviction warrant on Powell.
Once there, police say that Powell, who has no criminal history, except a citation for having an open alcohol container, for which he paid a $25 fine, allowed officers to enter his apartment and according to police, cooperated.
The next thing that happened was a call for an officer involved shooting made by at least one of the officers there, Antonio Gonzalez and James Ott.
Both officers had opened fire on Powell.
Standing across the street from the scene of the shooting, Rochester, NY Police department public information officer, Sgt. Justin Collins, told media that officers shot Powell and that Powell was armed with a bottle of bleach which he allegedly used to throw bleach at officers.
That was all.
Then, hours later, Sgt. Collins contacted media to tell them that Powell was also armed with a knife.
The story had now changed.
Not surprising.
You have two officers who shot a man being evicted from his apartment for owing back rent.
A man who allegedly threw bleach at officers.
Officers then open fire on this man.
It’s not surprising that Rochester, NY Police Chief James Sheppard, after looking at the situation and realizing his officers screwed up, knew he had to do something in order to justify shooting a man holding a bottle of bleach.
SO HE LIED.
And Timothy Powell, a man down on his luck, who has no criminal record, is now laying in a hospital bed, under 24 hour police guard, in custody, charged with felony assault on police officers.
And if you for one second doubt that the Rochester, NY Police department and Chief Sheppard are lying in order to protect their trigger-happy officers, think about this.
Rochester, NY Police Sgt. Justin Collins is a professional.
He is trained to communicate with the press.
That’s his job.
NO ONE in the Rochester, NY Police department moves without Chief Shepard’s permission.
Especially Collins.
He does NOT brief the media without first being given permission by Chief Sheppard.
So, with that being said, when Collins opened his mouth to address the media, he knew the facts that led up to the shooting.
Bleach.
NOTHING about any knife.
I mean what do you think would be more important for a police spokesperson to emphasize?
That a suspect came at officers with a bottle of bleach?
Or that a suspect attempted to attack officers with a knife?
I’m thinking the knife would be the one Collins would have wanted to mention, if it had really happened.
BUT IT DIDN’T.
Which is why he NEVER mentioned ANYTHING about a knife.
And why he ONLY spoke about bleach.
If Timothy Powell really had a knife, and attacked Rochester Police officers with it, he wouldn’t be in the hospital recovering from a gunshot wound to his hip.
If Timothy Powell really had a knife, and if he had attacked Rochester Police officers with it, his family would be planning a funeral.
No African-American or Latino man, or woman, who has ever brandished a knife at a trigger-happy Rochester, NY Police officer has ever lived to tell about it, much less shot in the hip.
They have been executed right on the spot.
Rochester, NY Police Chief James Sheppard is lying.
Lying to protect his gang members.
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Unfortunately, the people who are paid public servants to enforce the Law are nothing more than bought & paid murder squads. ANY interaction with LEO has a extremely high probability of injury or death. As with any interaction with a criminal, dealing with LEO should be conducted in the same manner. LEO suspensions & Lawsuits result in NO behavior or policy correction. At least their uniforms signifies that they are criminals, much like prisoner uniforms.
I agree with Itsa Payne, that you treat an encounter with a LEO the same as you would with a criminal. If a gun-toting criminal came into my home, weather waving it around or in a holster at the side, I’d be deeply concerned for my safety. Most criminals, and LEO’s are uneducated, low to average IQ individuals who do not handle stress well, but will react violently in situations where they don’t understand what is going on. Both groups spend a majority of their time trying to figure out how they can get away with committing crimes. There really is no difference between them. I actually think a cop entering your home is far more likely to shoot you than a criminal. Most criminals want nothing to do with you. They generally just want something from you and then they want to leave. Cops on the other hand will turn the most mild of circumstances into some three ring circus, five alarm fire where they need eight hundred cops to handle one irate hundred and twenty year old woman waving her knitting needles around because she is off her medication and can’t remember what day it is. And that woman would be shot dead. No criminal would ever think their life was in danger and they “feared for their safety and that of their fellow gang member” and just had to shoot her. They’d take granny’s stuff and leave her mumbling about how cold it is today. And if a criminal broke into someone’s house and they grabbed a bottle of bleach and threw it at the criminal, the criminal would either leave, or grab something to steal and leave. The homeowner would, in 99.999999% of all circumstances, be alive afterward. But both groups spend a lot of time figuring out how to explain to others what they did, so they can get away with it.
Yeah, get a badge, become a politician or banker and for some reason you suddenly turn into a lying piece of crap and that is not the word I wanted to use.
Did you want to use the word, “shit”? lol
But if one is a ~mere~ citizen, then one is what?
The term ‘crap’ as you employ it, is appropriate: Bankers =ARE= CRAP. In fact, THEY =ARE= SHIT!
Don’t be afraid to say it! BANKERS =ARE= SHIT!
They should also be OUTLAWED, and when found, taken to the nearest tree —or lamp post— and HUNG by the neck and left for a fortnight!
Cops, on the other hand, might become so, when they follow ILLEGAL orders.
As for politicians? Well, you get what you vote for!
Standard operating procedure for the boys in blue. Lying to cover each others asses is what they do best.
The guy (Powell) is lucky to be alive, and I hope he wins a nice big lawsuit against the Rochester P,D., but they still have time to kill him and blame his death on the hospital if they’re afraid of the truth coming out in court.
The guy with a hole in his hip will be lucky to avoid prison once the officers are done tweaking their version of events. If the guy was dumb enough to invite police into his apartment, he has probably already said more than enough to get himself convicted of something unpleasant. As far as compensation for the egregious violation of his civil rights, don’t hold your breath.
‘Police’ officer = ‘Policy’ officer. Their job is to find violations of policy (aka statutes) and punish those responsible to the fullest extent possible. They can and will lie to make that happen.