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Bungie announced that they believe murdering infants is a human right as they vowed to safeguard and protect their employees in response to the leaked draft decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that plans to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Source: Destiny 2 (2017), Bungie

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At Bungie we believe that everyone has a right to choose their own path and that freedom is expressed across all facets of life, the statement began. The leaked draft decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade represents a blow to freedom in America and is a direct attack on human rights.

By creating a divide between those who possess the fundamental right to make healthcare decisions that are right for them, and those who do not possess that same freedom, this decision, should it become final, will have far-reaching consequences that will be felt for generations across socio-economic lines, Bungie proposed.

Source: Destiny 2 (2017), Bungie

Bungie is committed to safeguarding the freedom and privacy of its employees and providing support to all employees affected by this decision. Standing up for reproductive choice and liberty is not a difficult decision to make, and Bungie remains dedicated to upholding these values, the company admitted their bloodthirst.

Bungie then concluded by sharing organizations that support rights to healthcare that fans could donate to; including URGE,Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice,NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation, andIn Our Own Voice.

Source: Destiny 2 (2017), Bungie

RELATED: IGN Article Alleges Toxic Culture At Bungie, Bungie CEO Responds

Bungie didnt clarify at this juncture what their support for their employees would involve. On the surface, this may simply mean emotional support for those distressed by the news, rather than financial support for abortion.

For those unfamiliar, a draft U.S. Supreme Court ruling was leaked recently, proposing the Roe v. Wade case will be overturned. In the draft leak written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito it states, We do not pretend to know how our political system or society will respond to todays decision overruling Roe and Casey. And even if we could foresee what will happen, we would have no authority to let that knowledge influence our decision. We can only do our job, which is to interpret the law, apply longstanding principles of stare decisis, and decide this case accordingly.

We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives, Alito asserted.

Source: Destiny 2 (2017), Bungie

RELATED: Shipwright Studios And Torn Banner Studios Come Out In Favor Of Killing Unborn Babies

The original Roe v. Wade case stretched across the early 1970s, as Jane Roe and her lawyers initially argued she should be allowed to have an abortion despite living in a state where it was illegal (Texas).

In January 1973, the Supreme Court ruled that under the 14th Amendments Due Process Clause, the Constitutions right to privacy also protected a womans right to choose to have an abortion across all states.

The Court ruled, A state criminal abortion statue oft he current Texas type, that excepts from criminality only a life-saving procedure on behalf of the mother, without regard to pregnancy stage and without recognition of the other interests involved, is violative of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Source: Destiny 2 (2017), Bungie

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Justice Rehnquist would write the dissenting opinion where he stated, I have difficulty in concluding, as the Court does, that the right of privacy is involved in this case. Texas, by the statute here challenged, bars the performance of a medical abortion by a licensed physician on a plaintiff such as Roe.

He added, A transaction resulting in an operation such as this is not private in the ordinary usage of that word. Nor is the privacy that the Court finds here even a distant relative of the freedom from searches and seizures protected by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which the COurt has referred to as embodying a right to privacy.

Source: Destiny 2 (2017), Bungie

Rehnquist also noted that the Texas law was actually passed before the enactment of the 14th Amendment.

He wrote, The apparent was no question concerning the validity of this provision or of any of the other state statues when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted. The only conclusion possible from this history is that the drafters did no intent to have the Fourteenth Amendment withdraw from the States the power to legislate with respect to this matter.

Source: Destiny 2: Beyond Light (2020), Bungie

RELATED: David Simon Pulls Upcoming HBO Series From Texas Over Heartbeat Act, Supports The Killing Of Unborn Babies As A Civil Liberty

Some believe overturning this decision now would result in several states banning abortion. The so-called trigger law states range from 13 to 26 depending on the source, but usually include Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming.

Bungies headquarters reside in Bellevue, Washington, which permits abortion prior to 24 to 25 weeks of pregnancy (thereafter the child could hypothetically survive even after being aborted). Abortion was legal in Washington prior to Roe V. Wade, and has no trigger laws should the decision be overturned.

Source: Destiny 2 (2017), Bungie

As highlighted by political commentator and YouTuber Razorfist in his video Constitution v Wade: The End of an Error? A Rant- citing comments by former Chief Justice William Rehnquist- the 14th Amendments creation didnt create a nation-wide permission of abortion.

In short, Razorfist summarized, if the 14th Amendment intended to strip states of the right to determine whether abortion was legally permissible in their own jurisdictions, why the Mary-fck didnt its passage in 1868 immediately nullify the thirty-odd anti-abortion laws that prevailed during the year of its inception?!

RELATED: George Takei Tells People To Take To The Streets, In Reaction To Leaked Supreme Court Draft Overruling Roe vs. Wade, Ambler Tamblyn Calls It A Declaration Of War

Razorfist proposes that Roe V. Wade politicized abortion, turning it from something decided on a state-level, to hysteria. Said hysteria that Razorfist proposed obscured the fact that the abortion law would return to being decided by individual states.

And for the 15th-fg septillionth time- repealing an illegally enacted law is not creating an abortion ban. No one is trying to take your abortions away in a federal level, Razorfist bemoaned.

YOU allowed an illegal decision to pass for law, at the federal fg level. Dont bh now that someone may actually correct the fg mistake. All this does is send the issue back to the states, where frankly it should have been rightfully to begin with.

Source: Destiny 2 (2017), Bungie

RELATED: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Actress Celia R. Gooding Claims Overturning Roe. V Wade Is A Death Sentence For Actual, Living People

Nonetheless, there has been plenty of hysteria over the draft decision, no doubt prompting this statement from Bungie.

Bungie weighing into the white-hot abortion discussion adds to the ever-growing list of corporations taking sides on controversial matters. Multiple entertainment companies and more announced they stopped doing business in Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine, including Bungie and other gaming companies.

Source: Destiny 2 (2017), Bungie

Disneys pushing of LGBT and opposition of a law to prevent child grooming resulted in Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature terminating the companys special tax and governing jurisdiction. Their stance also led to a drastic shift in public opinion as consumers noted they were less likely to do business with them.

Despite, or perhaps because of this, special interest groups and progressives have pushed for US corporations to become human-rights leaders.

Source: Destiny 2 (2017), Bungie

Were Bungie right to speak up in this matter? Let us know what you think on social media and in the comments below.

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Bungie Claims Murdering Unborn Infants Is An "Essential Healthcare Right" In Vow To Safeguard And Protect Employees Amid Superme Court Leak...

Grace and Michael Smiths youngest son turned 1 last month, but there were few happy memories from the days after his birth, the couple said.

What should have been a time for the parents to bond with their newborn boy, Julian, became a waking nightmare that still intrudes on the happiness of their family.

Hours after Julian was born in April 2021, staff at St. Lukes Hospital-Anderson Campus took him to the neonatal intensive care unit and accused Grace Smith of abusing methamphetamine while pregnant, launching a monthlong investigation by child welfare authorities that ultimately found no abuse, the couple claims in a federal civil rights lawsuit.

St. Lukes Hospital-Anderson Campus in Bethlehem Township. (April Gamiz / Morning Call file photo)

I wanted to enjoy my sons first birthday, Grace Smith said. Its hard to separate the joy in celebrating him from the pain of having him taken away from us.

The Smiths allege St. Lukes doctors made decisions based on a single drug test that led to their son spending the second night of his life alone in the hospital while they returned in tears to their Monroe County home.

That test was unable to differentiate between the prescription amphetamine Vyvanse that Grace Smith took for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and methamphetamine, which a doctor surmised she got off the street, the lawsuit says.

Methamphetamine, like amphetamine, is a controlled substance that is legally prescribed in some cases but not as commonly as amphetamines such as Vyvanse or Adderall. The two types of drugs have molecular and pharmacological differences but are similar in that they are both stimulants and have the potential to be abused. Vyvanse and Adderall are most commonly prescribed to treat ADHD in both children and adults. When amphetamine is taken by a person with ADHD as prescribed, the risk of abuse or addiction is extremely low, according to Dr. Russell Barkley, an internationally recognized authority on ADHD.

After the Smiths told hospital staff that they intended to leave with their child, they were locked out of the NICU and police arrived, instigating an argument with Michael Smith and blocking his vehicle in the patient pickup area outside. The officers then told the couple that they needed to leave the hospital immediately or they would be arrested for defiant trespassing, the suit says.

The reason given for the ejection of plaintiffs Mr. & Mrs. Smith from defendant St. Lukes Hospital premises was that Mrs. Smith was a methamphetamine addict and that St. Lukes Hospital no longer would tolerate their presence on defendant St. Lukes Hospital property, the suit says.

Although Grace Smith and Julian were reunited in the hospital the following day, the Smiths say the ordeal had a lasting impact on their son and family.

We had pretty much one tradition where our entire family would get together and the siblings would get to meet the newborn baby and that was taken away from us, Michael Smith said. The couple has three other children: Aurora, 8, Anakin, 6, and Ellika, 2.

Michael and Grace Smith spend time with their children Aurora, 8, Anakin, 6, Ellika, 2, and Julian, 1, in their home in Coolbaugh Township, Monroe County. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)

Julian developed a condition called pyloric stenosis, in which the opening between the stomach and the small intestine becomes constricted, which the Smiths allege was caused by unnecessary antibiotics administered against their wishes. The baby required surgery to correct the condition.

The causes of pyloric stenosis are unknown, but genetic and environmental factors might play a role. Pyloric stenosis usually isnt present at birth and probably develops afterward. The Mayo Clinic lists early antibiotic use as a risk factor.

Now, the Smiths, both lawyers, say they hope their lawsuit will ensure that others like them arent traumatized in the same way. Michael Smith said he drafted the 973-page complaint over the last year and the Smiths are representing themselves. The suit demands tens of millions of dollars in damages and policy changes.

Nobody was listening to us. I just want someone to take us seriously and for them to stop doing this to people, Michael Smith said.

A spokesperson for St. Lukes University Hospital Network did not address the Smiths allegations and said the hospital system maintains full compliance with all federal and state rules and regulations regarding reporting requirements.

The suit also names as defendants nearly two dozen doctors and health care professionals, Monroe and Northampton counties and several of their child welfare employees, and the Bethlehem Township police. Monroe and Northampton counties declined to comment. Bethlehem Township police Chief Greg Gottschall said he is not aware of the suit and could not comment.

Nobody was listening to us. I just want someone to take us seriously and for them to stop doing this to people.

Under Pennsylvania law health care providers are required to give notice to the state Department of Human Services when they determine, based on standards of professional practice, that a child was born affected by substance abuse or withdrawal symptoms resulting from prenatal drug exposure or fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

The law explicitly states that the notification to Human Services is not a child abuse report. The purpose of the notification is to allow assessment of the child and family to develop a plan of safe care.

Cathleen Palm of the Center for Childrens Justice said the law is intended to ensure that the baby and family are connected to the resources they need.

The concept behind the law is to make sure that we are attentive to an infant that is in withdrawal and provide the support and treatment it requires, Palm said. The challenges are that it is hard to have the law, which might be well-intentioned, implemented in the way it is intended.

She noted that approach is a relatively recent shift from a mindset that reporting mothers who used illegal substances while pregnant was intended to be punitive. The law was amended in 2018 to remove requirements that health care providers make reports directly to county welfare agencies and include substances other than illegal drugs.

Human factors such as bias or a parents demeanor might lead a health care provider to vary in their subjective assessment of a parent and childs situation, Palm said.

Its challenging in that you can have situations that can spin out of control in a way that the law never intended, Palm said.

Advocates for reforming child welfare laws say experiences like the Smiths are unfortunately common in Pennsylvania.

Emma Roth, an attorney at National Advocates for Protecting Women, said there are widespread misconceptions about what health care providers are required to do in terms of responding to infants who are exposed to drugs in utero. Roth said there are also extreme racial disparities in how doctors and authorities respond. People of color and lower income are more likely to be secretly tested, reported and charged.

This is much more common than any of us would hope given the serious civil rights implications, Roth said.

In addition to civil rights violations, reporting mothers who use drugs while pregnant to child welfare authorities and law enforcement has a harmful effect on the overall health of mothers and children, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

We know that it really undermines the physician-patient relationship by making patients not trust their doctors, Roth said. When mothers dont trust their doctors theyre less likely to seek assistance from their doctors.

Many medical societies encourage doctors to talk with their patients about drug use during pregnancy and, if a patient is using drugs, to make referrals and suggest courses of treatment to ensure the best health and medical outcomes.

The ACOG has said the use of the legal system to address perinatal alcohol and substance abuse is inappropriate. It urges physicians and legislators to work to repeal laws that punish women with substance use disorders and implement programs outside of the legal system to support women with addiction.

Its challenging in that you can have situations that can spin out of control in a way that the law never intended.

The U.S. and Pennsylvania supreme courts have also issued decisions that protect women from being criminally prosecuted for using illegal drugs when pregnant.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that a hospital violated a patients right to be free from unreasonable searches when it tested her without consent in cooperation with police.

The Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina, started testing obstetric patients for drugs in response to a rise in pregnant patients using cocaine. Those who tested positive were arrested.

The women sued and the court ruled in a 6-3 decision that hospital workers cannot test pregnant women for the use of illegal drugs without their informed consent or a valid warrant. The court found regardless of the risks to the fetus posed by the mothers drug use, testing without patient consent was not a reasonable search under the Fourth Amendment.

At the time, 75 organizations including the American Medical Association and the American Public Health Association filed amicus briefs in favor of the plaintiff.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that a mother cant be charged with child abuse against her newborn baby because she used drugs while pregnant.

The state courts ruling was the result of a protective custody case initiated by Clinton County Children and Youth Services against a mother. The county alleged the mother had abused her baby because her drug use caused the baby to be born suffering from withdrawal symptoms. The mother had tested positive for opiates, benzodiazepines and marijuana while pregnant.

The court held under Pennsylvanias Child Protective Services Law a fetus is not a child and therefore cannot be the victim of child abuse.

The Smiths, who were not charged with any crimes, are not alone in bringing a civil lawsuit for civil rights violations.

In 2010, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania sued Jameson Hospital and Lawrence County Children and Youth Services on behalf of a couple from New Castle.

A hospital drug test found Elizabeth Morts urine positive for opiates and she was reported to the county. Mort and her fiance, Alex Rodriguez, took their newborn daughter home, but the next day social workers and police officers showed up and took the baby away for five days.

Sara Rose, the ACLUs deputy legal director and lead counsel on that case, said the test had an extremely low threshold for detecting opiates, seven times lower than what the federal government used when it tested its employees. Because of this low threshold, the test detected opiates in Morts body that came from poppy seeds on an everything bagel she ate.

This case was eventually settled out of court.

The ACLU and Rose are also involved in an ongoing case against University of Pittsburgh Medical Center involving multiple women who were reported by the hospital system to the Allegheny County Office of Children, Youth and Families.

According to a court document filed in 2017, Cherell Harrington was investigated for child abuse after UPMC reported she used marijuana while pregnant. Harringtons urine, which UPMC staff took without her consent or knowledge, tested positive for marijuana. A test of Harringtons newborn son showed a negative result and Harrington claimed she hadnt used marijuana during her pregnancy.

Harrington had her home inspected and was told she would have to participate in drug counseling and undergo drug testing.

Another plaintiff, Deserae Cook, also had her urine taken without her knowledge or consent, but she tested negative. However, UPMC reported Cook to CYF for using marijuana while pregnant after Cook told a hospital employee she had previously taken medical marijuana to treat her multiple sclerosis but stopped after she found out she was pregnant. This resulted in Cook having her home inspected by the county along with continued unwanted contact from the county.

Rose said UPMC had a duty to protect patient confidentiality under state law, and it breached that duty by sharing the mothers confidential medical information with Allegheny County. She added St. Lukes had the same responsibility to Smith.

I think this is a clear violation of patient confidentiality, Rose said.

When Grace Smith was allowed to return to St. Lukes the night after she was ordered to leave, she was kept under constant watch by security guards and was not afforded the support the hospital provides to new mothers, such as a wheelchair or meals. She also was not given privacy in the NICU to breastfeed or have skin-to-skin contact with Julian, the suit alleges.

Grace Smith holds Julian. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)

Nurses told Grace Smith that she would not be permitted to leave with Julian because the family had to be cleared by the Monroe County Children Youth and Family office and because it was a weekend no one was available to handle the case. She also learned that a second report had been made to CYF about Michael Smith, alleging that he was aggressive and violent, the suit says.

When she questioned the hospitals handling of her case, a nurse told her, I dont care if you were the preachers daughter, were required to report it by law, the suit alleges.

The Smiths state in the lawsuit that Grace Smith never ingested methamphetamine and has a well-documented history of ADHD for which she had taken Vyvanse since she was 12. The suit also states that Julian had no signs of methamphetamine withdrawal and no court order was obtained to separate the Smiths from their child.

Although the Smiths say in the lawsuit they never obtained the results of the initial urine test that prompted the welfare report, a test of their sons umbilical cord was negative for methamphetamines. Nonetheless, Monroe County ended its investigation of the Smith family only after Grace Smith paid $300 for a hair follicle test that showed she was not a methamphetamine user.

No one involved has admitted that what they did was wrong, Grace Smith said. It makes it all that much more difficult to get past because theyre still acting this way.

Morning Call reporter Peter Hall can be reached at 610-820-6581 or peter.hall@mcall.com.

Morning Call reporter Leif Greiss can be reached at 610-679-4028 or lgreiss@mcall.com.

See the rest here:
St. Luke's doctors mistook a new mom's ADHD medication for illegal drugs. Then they separated her from her baby, lawsuit claims - The Morning Call

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey rejected the prospect of imposing more than one oversight body to rectify the systemic abuses committed by the Minneapolis Police Department. Instead, the mayors office said on Monday, the city was open to one consent decree in the effort to reform the department.

The Minnesota Department of Human Rights has pledged to negotiate a consent decreea legally binding agreement to compel reformbetween the state and city. It released findings last week that revealed systemic racism in several aspects of Minneapolis police work. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is also investigating the citys police and could potentially seek a separate federal consent decree.

A consent decree governs the reform process of a public agency, and is ordered by and overseen by a judge.

Frey spokesperson Tara Niebling released a statement to Sahan Journal on Monday emphasizing for the first time that the deep changes we need to see will require one set of clear metrics and tools to get the work done.

Mayor Frey is open to a consent decreeone consent decree, she said, declining to elaborate further.

Its unknown when the Department of Justice will release its findings and how it will proceed. But a criminal justice professor who has been involved in federal consent decrees said shes never seen two consent decrees enforced simultaneously against the same police department.

Its a novel idea, as far as Im concerned, said Delores Jones-Brown, professor emerita at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, in New York.

Jones-Brown served on the independent monitoring teams for federal consent decrees against police departments in Ferguson, Missouri, and Newark, New Jersey. She expects that the federal government will let the state process take precedence in Minneapolis because state law usually takes priority over federal law.

Weve got this federalism concept, Jones-Brown said. Typically, we defer to the state to address its own affairs and then the feds only become involved if theres a failure on behalf of the state.

Minnesota Department of Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero released the findings of a two-year pattern or practice study last week. It showed that Minneapolis police disproportionately used force on Blacks, used social media to spy on Black individuals and groups, and that police officers received deficient training that emphasized a paramilitary approach to policing.

The state investigation, launched shortly after police murdered George Floyd, who is Black, in 2020, looked at 10 years of Minneapolis activity. The investigation found that the police department violated the state Human Rights Act by systemically discriminating against people of color.

The DOJ and the U.S. Attorneys Office of Minnesota are conducting their own, broader pattern or practice investigation into alleged wrongdoing by Minneapolis police. The federal investigation, which was announced one year ago, came after a state jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering Floyd. This investigation is focusing on whether the department systematically committed racial discrimination, discrimination against people with disabilities, and discrimination against people engaged in First Amendment-protected activities like protesting and news reporting.

hey are also investigating whether the departments use of force violated the publics Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable seizure and the publics Fourteenth Amendment protections against racial discrimination.

Minnesota Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero told reporters last week that her department would push for a state consent decree and that a second consent decree on the federal level was also possible.

It is possible to have multiple consent decrees against any entity at any point in time, Lucero said at the time. Im not sure where this will take us.

Community activists said a consent decree is necessary, but just what it will require and how it will look remains to be seen. Mohamed Ibrahim, a deputy director of the Council of Islamic American Affairs Minnesota (CAIR-MN), said a consent decree is necessary because the police department has a long history of failed reform.

We know that the Minneapolis Police Department has not been accountable to the people, but we hope that maybe they will be accountable to the courts, said Mohamed, who is part of a coalition that pushed for outside investigations into the department.

If Minneapolis city leaders agree to enter a consent decree with the state, they will spend the next several weeks negotiating on benchmarks and timelines for reform goals. Lucero has said its too early to say what a consent decree could include. Once both sides reach an agreement, they will submit it to a state judge, who will then issue the consent decree as a court order.

An independent monitor or team of monitors, paid with taxpayer dollars, would track the citys progress and periodically report the results to a state judge. If the judge finds that the city isnt following the consent decree, the department could be found in violation of the court order.

If the Department of Justice produces findings, the result could be an entirely different consent decree, this one ordered by a federal judge and also tracked by an independent monitor or team of monitors. The city would also pay for the federal monitors.

Freys office could also choose not to enter a consent decree with the state. This choice could prompt a lawsuit against the city, said David Schultz, a professor who teaches state constitutional law at the University of Minnesota Law School and political science at Hamline University.

What the decree, if agreed to, would avert is a human rights lawsuit against the city [from the state], Schultz said.

The federal government could also still decide to issue its own consent decree, or incorporate the state consent decree into its own, Schultz said. Either action from the federal government would add a lot of legal firepower to force the city to change, he said.

Proponents of consent decrees say they are necessary because they force reform efforts.

Its not subject to the whims of changing elected officials, Lucero said during her press conference last week.

A consent decree, she noted, lives on past all election cycles, which provides for that sustained action that is necessary here for success.

But consent decrees are also time-consuming and costly. The city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, for example, is now in its eighth year of a federal consent decree with its police department. The process has cost the city $25 million, and its success has been contested.

A Department of Justice spokesperson told Sahan Journal the department will review the states pattern or practice report and consider its findings in the DOJs own investigation. The spokesperson added that the two investigations are separate and independent and emphasized how the federal investigation is examining issues beyond the discriminatory policing issues that the state investigation focused on.

Jones-Brown, the criminal justice professor from New York, said she would be surprised if Minneapolis ended up with two parallel consent decrees, especially since the states findings against the police department are very damning.

It would sort of be a waste of resources, she said, unless the DOJ doesnt believe that the state of Minnesota can do an adequate job getting the [Minneapolis police] to change its pattern or practice.

In the past, Jones-Brown said, the federal government raised the issue of racial profiling in the New York Police Department but then stepped back to allow the department to work with the state to institute reform.

Whatever happens next, said Mohamed with CAIR-MN, community members who have experienced police violence must take part in the process.

A double consent decree is better than no consent decree, he said.

Read more from the original source:
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey contends Minneapolis Police Department should obey onenot twoconsent decrees to reform the force. State and federal...

The Graham Police Department is using a tried and true defense against the lawsuit Jaquyn ONeill Lights family has brought in the 20-year-olds 2020 shooting death at the hands of an officer and put blame on Lights own actions.

More: Rural Hall headaches follow Graham City Manager

Late on Jan. 28, 2020, three officers went to Lights family home to execute a warrant for his arrest. While two officers went in the back door looking for Light, he ran from the front of the house and into Graham Police officer Marcus Pollock who was alone in the front yard.

Pollock told the other officers Light ran into him in the dark, and his gun went off. The .45-caliber bullet hit Light in the belly, but he kept struggling with Pollock, according to the report, and the two of them moved 20 to 25 feet before Pollock brought Light to the ground and handcuffed him. Pollock lost his gun briefly in the struggle. Light died in a hospital later that night.

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There are several forms of legal immunity for police and police departments. Originally intended to protect them from frivolous lawsuits, U.S. Supreme Court decisions have made them stronger protections for law enforcement over the years. Critics say they shield police from accountability, while law enforcement officials and supporters call them protections for officers making split-second decisions in dangerous situations.

Generally, the question comes down to whether officers used excessive force in violation of Fourth Amendment protections and whether they knew they were breaking established law.

More: Family of slain Graham man, Jaquyn Light, sues police officer who shot him, police chief and city

The departments response to the Light familys federal lawsuit also calls Lights own actions that night negligent.

The familys suit charges excessive force because Light was unarmed and not actively committing a crime and claims officers didnt need to approach Light with deadly force to execute a warrant for a probation violation and a misdemeanor charge. For its part, the departments filing says the warrant was for two felonies and a misdemeanor.

According to the state Department of Public Safety, Light was sentenced to probation in 2018 on felony charges of breaking and entering and larceny after breaking and entering. In 2017, Light was also convicted of felony common law robbery and misdemeanor larceny.

Graham Police did not clarify the charges by press time, Tuesday.

The familys suit also alleges former Police Chief Jeff Pritchard with having poor hiring practices and failing to train and properly discipline officers. Pollock, according to the suit, had previous use-of-force claims against him from a previous job, though it does not elaborate on what complaints he faced.

Pollock was in the Greensboro Police Department for 18 years, according to his LinkedIn page. The departments filing says Pollock faced an excessive-force complaint before coming to Graham, but it was deemed unfounded.

After an SBI investigation into Lights shooting and death, the Alamance County District attorneys office found the evidence supported an accidental-shooting theory and gave it no probable cause to prosecute Pollock.

Even so, when asked District Attorney Sean Boone said it was troubling that Light was unarmed and Pollock did not turn his body camera on until after he shot and handcuffed Light, a violation of department policy. The other two officers had activated their cameras when they got out of their cars before going to the house, but neither of them was there when Light was shot.

Lawyers representing the family and department did not return Times-News calls for comment, Tuesday.

Read more from the original source:
Graham Police respond to suit from family of slain 20-year-old - Burlington Times News

A former Hutchinson police officer working for the Minneapolis Police Department will not face charges following the Feb. 2 fatal shooting of Amir Locke.

Locke, 22, was staying in his cousins apartment in downtown Minneapolis when police entered early in the morning without knocking as part of a homicide investigation from St. Paul. During the incident, Locke was fatally shot by Mark Hanneman.

A video of the incident shows Locke was on the couch when officers approached.

Amir was not a suspect. Our investigation found no evidence that he had any role in the homicide investigation that brought police to his door on 6:48 a.m. on Feb. 2, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a prepared statement this past Wednesday. Amir was a victim. He never should have been called a suspect.

Body camera footage that was released in February showed police using a key to enter the downtown apartment. The video shows Locke wrapped in blankets on a couch when officers entered the apartment and yelled Police, search warrant! One officer is seen kicking the couch as other officers yell Hands! and Get on the ground! Locke begins to move and is seen holding a gun when Hanneman shoots him.

The role that (Hennepin) County Attorney (Michael) Freeman and I took on was to determine whether current law allows us to file criminal charges in Amirs death, Ellison said.

A U.S. Supreme Court precedent called Graham vs. Connor, which informed Minnesotas use-of-force law, was the lens through which the attorneys evaluated the evidence.

We have determined that under that precedent and the laws we have, we cannot file criminal charges, Ellison said. Current law only allows us to evaluate the case from the perspective of a reasonable officer. That language is from the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and relevant cases and statutes. We are not allowed to evaluate the case from the perspective of the victim.

In a written statement to investigators, Hanneman said he was convinced he would suffer great bodily harm or death if he did not use deadly force.

With all the available evidence, we would not be able to prove in court that the officers use of force was not authorized under the law beyond a reasonable doubt, Ellison said. It would be unethical for us to file charges in a case in which we know we will not prevail because the law does not support the charges.

Lockes mother, Karen Wells, said she was disgusted by the decision at a news conference this past week. She vowed to pressure Minneapolis city leaders.

The shooting of Locke, a black man, has led to protests in Minneapolis and calls for reviewing police use of no-knock warrants. According to reporting by the Pioneer Press, the Minneapolis Police Department restricted use of no knock warrants following the killing of George Floyd in May 2020. A new policy formally requires officers to knock and wait before entering a residence, but there are limited exceptions.

Hanneman, a Hutchinson High School graduate who worked as a full-time police officer at Hutchinson Police Services from March 21, 2012, to Sept. 12, 2015, and again as a part-time officer from July 25, 2017, to March 24, 2019, was part of a Minneapolis police SWAT team. According to a statement from Interim Minneapolis Police Chief Amelia Huffman, Hanneman returned to active duty on Feb. 28 but is no longer on a SWAT team.

The rest is here:
Former Hutchinson officer will not be charged in shooting - Crow River Media