Patterico's Pontifications

5/9/2021

Constitutional Vanguard: Other Police Shootings of “Unarmed Black Men” in 2019 from the Washington Post Database: No. 3: Kevin Mason and Melvin Watkins

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 10:51 am



Today marks the third installment of my series examining shootings of “unarmed black men” from the Washington Post database of police shootings. The missive details two shootings. Here is a sample:

A pretty good chunk of the story is told by this compilation of 911 calls and bodycam footage, which I will summarize in detail.

. . . .

Then Mason places his own call to 911. At 1:58 in the video, he says: “I’m gonna come out there and I’m gonna blast their ass. I’m gonna kill every last one of them motherfuckers. You better check my motherfuckin’ record.” [More below about his record.]

Then we go to more footage from a bodycam video. At 2:21 you hear Mason yell: “You come in my yard, I’m gonna kill you.” Police tell him he is under arrest. At 2:46 he yells for them to “check my motherfuckin’ record. You come in my yard, I’m gonna kill you.”

All the Washington Post tells you is that another unarmed black man was shot. I tell you the rest.

Details at the link, for paid subscribers. You can become a member of that elite by signing up here.

By the way, subscribers know that talking about police shootings is not all I do, but lately I have been on a mission to complete an analysis of the 2019 shootings of “unarmed black men” and to get errors in that database corrected. My usual M.O. is to try to cover things that I think don’t get enough coverage, and right now, this is it.

15 Responses to “Constitutional Vanguard: Other Police Shootings of “Unarmed Black Men” in 2019 from the Washington Post Database: No. 3: Kevin Mason and Melvin Watkins”

  1. If I were a cop and the suspect yelled out “I got a motherf-cking gun!” while not cooperating, my first inclination is to take him at his word.

    Paul Montagu (26e0d1)

  2. I’m pretty sure we can field swarms of robots that can shoot him in the leg, but the robots are still going to be built, programmed, owned and operated by vestigial, systemically racist entities

    steveg (ebe7c1)

  3. The New York Times had a front page stpry on the shooting in Columbus, Ohio.

    Just like I thought, the 911 call was placed by the younger sister. And the girl killed was PK on school. And the visitor was the first one to pick up a knife.

    It ended when a second round started just as the police arrived – when a visitor spat in direction of the family of the girl who was killed. That angered her, and she raised a knife, and the rest is history.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/08/us/columbus-makhia-bryant-foster-care.html

    The NYT has a few criticisms, or what can be interpreted as criticisms, of the foster care system, particularly in Ohio. They make unrealistic demands of the natural mother and her family – and make unrealistic demands of foster mothers too (they are supposed to work outside the home, but it is a full time job) so it’s dysfunctional; and they pay unrelated foster mothers more than family members.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  4. Starting a Jerry Springer donnybrook just as police arrive is never a good idea.

    norcal (01e272)

  5. Ronald reagan signed the first major gun control law in california. Why? The black panthers were upset that too many black men were being shot by the police and car loads of armed black panthers were following police cars in black areas. Recently in atlanta white supremacists announced they would hold a rally in a park there ;but never showed up. However hundreds of black militants and white members of the john brown gun club did all heavily armed did. This is why the deep corporate state’s establishment has its democrat party leaders continue to push gun control. Large numbers of heavily armed black americans and their far left white allies are far more of a threat then trump yahoos with their gun fixation. The deep state can control the right not the left.

    asset (28f970)

  6. It’s not that sinister, asset. Lefties push gun control because they believe it will reduce gun deaths. It has nothing to do with who the gun owners are.

    norcal (01e272)

  7. I’d be interested in your take on the overall accuracy of that data base. If you look into 3 and they’re all in accurate that’s pretty damning. If you look into 20 and expose errors in the 3 bad ones it’s still a problem for the Post, but less so.

    Time123 (653992)

  8. After almost a day’s reflection, the only people I feel sorry for in both of the stories in the missive are the poor police involved and the American taxpayers.

    nk (1d9030)

  9. I’m pretty sure we can field swarms of robots that can shoot him in the leg, but the robots are still going to be built, programmed, owned and operated by vestigial, systemically racist entities.

    No doubt that if and when the day comes and the police robot shoots the perpetrator in the leg but completely severs the femoral artery causing the wounded to bleed excessively, go into shock, and ultimately die, suddenly “just shooting them in the leg” will also be considered excessive force.

    JVW (30a532)

  10. How could the femoral artery be severed if the police robot is shooting bean bags?

    norcal (01e272)

  11. I’m pretty sure we can field swarms of robots that can shoot him in the leg, but the robots are still going to be built, programmed, owned and operated by vestigial, systemically racist entities

    Their sensors would only see black people.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  12. Ronald reagan signed the first major gun control law in california. Why? The black panthers were upset that too many black men were being shot by the police and car loads of armed black panthers were following police cars in black areas.

    That may have been happening, but it wasn’t the reason the legislature passed that law.

    It was this:

    May 2, 1967: Two dozen armed Negroes entered the state Capitol at noon today and 10 made their way to the back of the Assembly Chamber before they were disarmed and marched away by the state police.

    The Assembly was in session at the time and Speaker Pro Tem Carlos Bee ordered the men removed from the chamber.

    Outside the chamber, the police took away the weapons. The men argued they could carry the weapons as long as they were not concealed.

    Apparently the fact the weapons were not concealed was the reason the men were able to get as far as the Assembly Chamber before they were disarmed.

    After the state police questioned the men, they returned the weapons to them because the intruders had broken no law.

    Following their release by the state police, the men left the Capitol and rejoined some companions who remained outside during the incident. They then drove off.

    Four or five carloads of the Black Panther group later drove into a service station at 15th and L Streets. Several police officers took the demonstrators to the city jail.

    An officer said they had not been charged with any offense, but added: “We’re going to take them all down and check them all out and we’re going to check out all these weapons.”

    Outside of the police office … one man who identified himself as Bobby Seale of Oakland read a page-long statement of the Black Panther Party. It declared: “The Black Panther party for self-defense calls upon the American people in general and the black people in particular to take careful note of the racist California Legislature which is considering legislation aimed at keeping the black people disarmed and powerless at the very same time that racist police agencies throughout the country are intensifying the terror, brutality, murder and repression of black people.”

    He apparently was referring to a bill by Assemblyman Don Mulford, R-Piedmont, which forbids carrying a loaded weapon within an incorporated area.

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/history/article148667224.html

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  13. And now Kevin’s a comedian. 🙂 I need to up my game!

    norcal (01e272)

  14. Here’s a case where an off-duty police officer refrains from shooting an armed and dangerous fugitive. It’s possible that the fugitive was responding to commands, and he wasn’t black.

    More like striped.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  15. 4. Jerry Springer was Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio in 1977-78. Although I suppose that’s neither here nor there.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)


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