Another week, same story. Know your enemy. Hat tip Boston Bob.
Texas town shaken by officer shooting 93-year-old
By PAUL J. WEBER
— May. 9, 2014 3:13 AM EDT
Protesters chant during a rally outside the Hearne, Texas police department Thursday, May 8, 2014, following the Tuesday shooting of 93-year-old woman. Robertson County District Attorney Coty Siegert said Pearlie Golden was shot Tuesday night by Officer Stephen Stem. Stem was responding to a 911 call about a disturbance involving a woman with a gun. The Hearne Police Department says Golden “brandished a firearm” when Stem encountered her. He then shot her multiple times. The investigation into the shooting is being handled by the Texas Rangers. (AP Photo/Bryan College Station Eagle, Stuart Villanueva)
HEARNE, Texas (AP) — Friends say 93-year-old Pearlie Golden still shopped at the grocery store and greeted friends with a jubilant “Hey, baby!” Now they and the mayor of this small Texas town want the police officer who shot and killed her gone.
The fatal shooting of “Miss Sulie” — as residents say she was widely known — has raised tensions in Hearne and the Texas Rangers are investigating what led the officer to fire on Golden while responding to a 911 call at her house this week.
Hearne police have said in a statement that Golden “brandished a gun” when officer Stephen Stem arrived Tuesday night. Dozens of protesters, including some who came in from Houston, marched to police headquarters on Thursday and were met there by Mayor Ruben Gomez, who said he will recommend that the officer be fired during Saturday’s City Council meeting.
“It’s a loss of confidence in the community. We can’t have an officer the citizens have lost confidence in,” Gomez said.
Hearne is home to about 4,500 people surrounded by cotton farms and railways, one of which backs up to Gordon’s brick home.
Robertson County District Attorney Coty Siegert said a preliminary autopsy shows Golden was shot twice in the body and grazed by a third bullet. It’s the second time Stem has shot and killed a suspect since joining the department in 2012, Siegert said.
“There’s no justification. Any police officer would know not to kill a 93-year-old fragile woman when they could have backed off,” said William Foster, 64, a retired professor in Hearne. “She was no threat to him.”
Stem could not be reached for comment because a number for him could not be found. Siegert said he saw Stem’s lawyer this week but didn’t know his name, and Hearne City Attorney Bryan Ross didn’t return a phone message.
Hearne police have declined to comment beyond the statement issued this week. Stem has been placed on administrative leave.
Candles left in vigil remained outside Golden’s home two days after the shooting. Foster and others said she lived alone and that her husband had been a Hearne police officer himself.
A doghouse made of plywood sat in Golden’s recently mowed yard. Next door, a neighbor lived in a trailer surrounded by a barbed wire fence.
Authorities say a revolver believed to be the weapon Golden had at the time of the shooting was found at the scene.
Hazel Embra, a geriatric nurse and a City Council candidate in Saturday’s local election, said she ran into Golden last week at the grocery store.
“That lady should be living today. She should not have died like she did,” Embra said.
The circumstances surrounding Stem’s first on-the-job fatal shooting were very different. Siegert said a group of officers had responded to a call in the middle of the night and wound up chasing several suspects through an unlit area before Stem fired. He was cleared by a grand jury.
Police in Miami used 377 bullets to kill two unarmed men. Keynesian police work…..
Police Shooting Frenzy Raises Concerns
May 6, 2014
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – On December 10, more than two dozen police officers from across Miami Dade County converged on a blue Volvo that had crashed in the backyard of a townhouse on 65th Street just off 27th Avenue.
As the car was wedged helplessly between a light pole and a tree, nearly a minute passed before officers opened up – firing approximately 50 bullets at the car and the two unarmed men inside the vehicle.
The two men inside the car survived that initial volley of gunfire, according to witnesses, who said they could see the men moving inside the Volvo. Everything went quiet for nearly two minutes before the officers opened up a second time – unleashing an unrelenting torrent of bullets that lasted almost 25 seconds. By the time it was over, the two men inside the car were dead.
CBS4 News has learned a total of 23 officers fired a total of at least 377 rounds.
Bullets were sprayed everywhere. They hit the Volvo, other cars in the lot, fence posts and neighboring businesses. They blasted holes in a townhouse where a 12-year-old dove to the ground for cover and a four month old slept in his crib.
“It was like the Wild Wild West, man, crazy,” said Anthony Vandiver, who barely made it through the back door of his home before the gunfire erupted. “Shooting just wild; shooting all over the place. Bullets could have come through the window. Anything could have happened man. They weren’t thinking, they weren’t thinking at all.”
serving and protecting…
I’ll bet that old woman refused to obey a “lawful order”.
I’ll bet that old woman also “resisted arrest”.
I’ll bet that old woman is on the FBI terrorist “watch list”.
I’ll bet the Men In Blue FEARED FOR THEIR LIVES as the old woman tried some ancient Ninja mind-shit on them.
Texas is now a safer place because of the valiant efforts of the Hearne Police Department. Mission accomplished.
(Where’s the thumbs down button??)
Open freaking season.
At least this perp had a gun, way too many – like the two unlucky bastards in Miami – don’t have any weapon other than a car, which is pointed away from the cops whom feel justified in slaying us.
Until one – or all – of these “law” officers are prosecuted, jailed, then personally financially devasted, like each of us would be, this is not going to stop.
Amurika, we fire cops for shooting squirrels and kittens, award medals to them for tazing and killing seniors and confused mothers with children in their cars.
People that still defend this crap, while waving the Patriotic Ob ama is being a pussy to Putin flag, make me puke.
Then weep, we are so FUBAR.
These blacks would not be saying a damn thing if the cop was black or if the 93 year old was white .Stop feeling sorry for these fucking racist blacks
All government run police forces should be abolished and replaced with true free market policing. How long do you think a “privately employed” officer would stay on a company’s payroll after an incident like this.
Obama has convinced me of the importance of gun control. There are far too many police running around with uncontrolled guns! Why don’t we issue them diapers instead so they don’t shit themselves in terror at the sight of a homeless man armed with a knife and fork, camping in New Mexico, or a 93 year old woman? These lower level thugs are just aping the culture of violence emanating out of Washington. I was shocked to discover on a visit to a local social security office that the office staff included two armed federal “police” of some kind. That’s right, two guys in blue uniforms with loaded pistols. WTF!! Are the Raging Grannies going to attack the social security office? Is there a reason local community police couldn’t respond to the highly unlikely event of some incident at a social security office? Who the fuck decided to put salaried armed officers in a social security office? Probably the same people who decided to order all that hollow point ammunition for Homeland Security.
The meaning is clear. There are treasonous elements within the government who have very good reason to fear the people, who have aided and abetted the looting of America, have instigated false flags attacks against their own people in order to commandeer the military and now pose an enormous threat to civilization. We know who their collaborators are, the politicians who have turned their back on the Constitution and allowed the US to become a rogue nation not just one that suffers from garden variety corruption, but we’re not exactly sure who our new rulers are. Or are we?