A woman in Florida says her 55-year-old “medically fragile” father was falsely accused of theft at a Florida grocery store last week and then seriously injured in a violent encounter with police. Now, she says, he is hospitalized and has lost the ability to speak.

  • NegativeInf@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    We don’t have police. Just corporate enforcers. Pinkertons in different uniforms. Oh, you are accused of a 17 cent theft and didn’t do it? Eat lead I guess. I’m just so tired.

  • agent_flounder@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    She said he told her that he picked up four bananas, one of which he ate on the way to the register, and that he told the cashier that he needed to pay for four bananas even though she scanned only three. Anjelica Lee said her father told her he was followed closely while he was shopping by a white female employee, who, she said, accused him of stealing the banana he ate.

    “At first, I was trying to ask her what happened, and she was like, ‘People like you and him shouldn’t come into the store if you don’t have money to pay for things,’” Anjelica Lee said. “My mom is white, and my dad is Black. So I’m mixed. So I think she meant Black people. And it just escalated from that, and she went to cussing me out.”

    JFC. Racist piece of shit.

    Fuck the cops. Fuck this piece of garbage cashier.

    Fuck all this.

    • MuffinHeeler@aussie.zone
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      9 months ago

      Wow. Non American here. My kid regularly eats while I shop. I just bring empty packets to register for them to scan and they normally throw them out for me. No problem. Like zero problem.

      I don’t even think our police would show up if they were called. They take 3hrs to turn up to a home invasion, so I doubt they’d show up for a banana. This is a crazy level of policing.

      • OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        A lot of retail stores will have a police officer sit in their car close by so they can have a quick response to e for shoplifters. I see it a lot in areas that have several larger retail stores grouped together.

  • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    “At first, I was trying to ask her what happened, and she was like, ‘People like you and him shouldn’t come into the store if you don’t have money to pay for things,’” Anjelica Lee said. “My mom is white, and my dad is Black. So I’m mixed. So I think she meant Black people. And it just escalated from that, and she went to cussing me out.”

    You can almost guarantee the victim will be Black.

    Every. Fucking. Time.

  • Ibex0@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    A police spokesperson said Monday that the body camera video would not be released until the cases are resolved.

    That could take years! That’s unacceptable.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      They are hoping that by then people will forget about it and not notice when its dumped so theres no outrage.

    • fidodo@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      We need a national oversight agency where all this footage should be sent to so it is managed by a neutral 3rd party. Why the fuck would we allow criminals to manage the evidence against themselves?

      • rekabis@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        Why not a national police force, such that a disgraced cop can’t just mosey on to the next town over and get hired there?

        One of the big problems with America is that it is so frictionless for cops to just city-hop whenever they fuck up.

        At least in Canada, with the RCMP being in most cities and towns, it is damn difficult for any RCMP officer to job-hop. Especially when the RCMP is a clear cut above in training, and anyone who tries to job-hop from them to a city cop will be intensely questioned as to why they are downgrading so significantly.

        Yes, the RCMP has some pretty bad apples; power doesn’t corrupt so much as it attracts the corruptible like flies to excrement. And the RCMP gives its officers plenty of power, for sure.

        But in just the last few years alone, I have seen RCMP officers disciplined for behaviour that wouldn’t have even raised an eyebrow in any U.S. police force.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I the rules for body cam requests in the city I work for. It can only be denied for the following reasons:

      1. The video was taken in a private home and the homeowner does not consent to the release.

      2. The video is of a non-jailtime citation/interaction and the principal civilian captured on film doesn’t consent to the release.

      The second one is because the city is a tiny enclave for the super-rich (average new home is about 6 million dollars), and there’s celebrities and stuff getting pulled over pretty often. We had tons of ORRs from paparazzi for all incidents.

    • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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      9 months ago

      She said she feared for her father’s safety, so she got a bat from her car, approached the woman and told her to “pick on someone her own size, someone able-bodied.” She said she did not threaten the woman with the bat. Still, she said, the woman called police.

      the woman who called 911 told police that “after an incident with Joseph inside the store,” she encountered Anjelica Lee waiting outside with a metal bat in her hand. The woman told police that Anjelica Lee, while holding the bat, had told her to “clock out cause I’m gonna whoop your ass,” according to the affidavit. Anjelica Lee said she remembers telling the woman to meet her outside but not saying that.

      Afterward, the affidavit says, Anjelica Lee put the bat back into her car, went inside the store and knocked items off the shelves. She denies having done so. The woman told police she “was placed in a well-founded fear that” Anjelica Lee was going to cause her harm while she was holding the bat outside the store, according to the affidavit.

      Seems the father’s problems had less to do with the banana and more to do with his piece of shit daughter.

      • EdibleFriend@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        And what part of that justifies beating the father? The daughter was a bitch(possibly) so you say its ok that the police put the father in the hospital?

        Is that just how its supposed to work in your eyes? if your child acts up the police get to beat you into a fucking coma?

        • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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          9 months ago

          What beating?

          I ctrl-f’d the page for the word “beat” and found nothing. The only claims I see from the daughter or the father (I’m ignoring police claims) of any physical contact with the father are that he was pushed against a car by “nine or 10” of the 8 responding officers who were also arresting her, and then pushed to the ground.

          In the hospital photo provided by the family, I see no bruises, abrasions, or other injuries consistent with a “beating”.

          He interfered with the officers attempting to arrest his daughter, who had just threatened people with a baseball bat; a deadly weapon. Both pushing against a car and pushing to the ground are reasonable uses of force in detaining an uncooperative subject.

          It seems the daughter went bat shit crazy in the store, threatened employees, police responded in force, and dad got between them and the violent criminal they were there to arrest. He was quickly arrested by some of the cops while the others arrested the daughter.

          What do you think they should have done differently, once the daughter had began threatening people with a deadly weapon?

          • EdibleFriend@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Anjelica Lee said her father, who already had a pacemaker, sustained an acute kidney injury in the encounter and is undergoing dialysis. She also said he can barely talk and is disoriented and confused. “He’s waking up panicked,” she said. “He doesn’t know where he’s at. He can no longer feed himself. We have to do that for him. They’re saying that some of the injuries could be long-term.”

            Read instead of ctrl-fing for an exact word i used in an attempt to be a pedantic bootlicker. He’s in the hospital, one of his kidneys is fucked up. But your right. they just pushed him around a little. and, again, he absolutely fucking deserved to have one of his kidneys trashed because he didn’t raise his daughter right.

            Thank you. You have enlightened me on how the world works.

            • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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              9 months ago

              I cited all claims of physical contact with the father: a highly exaggerated claim of being pushed against a car, and a claim of being pushed to the ground. Both claims were made by the daughter. I excluded all claims made by police.

              The daughter’s own claims suggest he was interfering with her arrest, telling her to ignore their instructions. The physical force she claims was used against him is consistent and reasonable for a non-compliant subject.

              Based entirely on her biased and exaggerated claims, I’m not seeing how their force was excessive or improper.

              Perhaps video evidence will arise showing something she didn’t see. She’d better hope they do, because her own statements have pretty much ensured police and the city will prevail if she tries to sue.

              • EdibleFriend@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                So they lied about his kidney injury? Him being in the hospital altogether is a lie? You say this is appropriate but, you yourself, say at the worst he tried to get them to stop arresting her. Your main claim as to why he deserved what happened to him is what his daughter did. Thats your go to.

                • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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                  9 months ago

                  Lied? No. Misrepresented? Likely.

                  She acknowledged he was in poor health to begin with. She described chronic conditions, as well as acute symptoms occurring immediately prior to the altercation. They stopped at the store because his arms and legs were cramping up “due to an infection,” and he thought potassium would help.

                  Infection can cause acute renal failure. One of the early symptoms of acute renal failure is general cramping due to electrolyte imbalances. I think that it rather likely the kidneys were “injured” prior to the altercation and not during it.

      • DragonTypeWyvern
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        9 months ago

        👅🥾

        Gotta admit, “the pigs HAD to beat him, someone said his daughter was violent before they got there” is a new one.

      • john_fla@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Yes, though lately it’s been taking a lot longer. The state government under 25 years of GOP rule isn’t too fond of the Sunshine Law.

  • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    I see they opted for the Israeli definition of “measured and equitable response”.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      9 months ago

      Reminder that the IDF trains US cops. Palestinians are used as guinea pigs for policing techniques.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Hey morons, that Monty Python sketch about defending yourself from being attacked with a banana by shooting the attacker was supposed to be a joke.

    I sure hope they disarmed the guy.

    • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Afaik over there are all out of shape so I would use the term “sport” loosely, but I’m all for more people getting into sports, especially the ones that benefit the society.

      Probably should be televised, have events with a panel of judges to score each shot.

  • yuriy@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    The cops’ report noted that she “struck him in the arm against his will”.

    I am absolutely fucking disgusted by this weasely use of language

  • nifty@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    This case needs to be highlighted to a DA or an org that will bring a suit to have the PD pay for this man’s hospitals bill and some sort of settlement for the distress caused to him and his family.