Piggish Behavior

Have you heard the story of Jaleel K. Stallings? He’s a 29-year-old man from Minneapolis who was recently found not guilty of eight counts, including second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, and second-degree riot. If he’d been convicted, he almost certainly would have spent the rest of his life in jail. The charges sound pretty serious. And they should. Stallings fired three rounds at police officers back in May of 2020. It was all caught on video.

So why wasn’t he convicted?

Because he did nothing wrong. In fact, it was the police officers who were breaking the law that night and might be the ones losing their jobs and (hopefully) being charged with a crime. Here’s what happened:

In the days following the murder of George Floyd, things in the Twin Cities got a little crazy. There were protests, mostly peaceful ones, despite what some news outlets like to portray. In places where property damage (including looting and arson) did occur, several of those have been attributed to outside instigators, white men from outside of the cities coming to start violence in an attempt to stain the movement. This isn’t speculation, it’s an admitted fact. That’s not to say that ALL of the violence and damage was caused by them but their presence in the cities is an important aspect of Stallings case.

People within the community KNEW there were outside agitators in their midst. There had been multiple reports on social media that armed white supremacists were in the area looking to start trouble. Jaleel Stallings was permitted to legally carry a handgun. He is also an Army veteran. And so when he went out that night he made sure he was armed. After all, Governor Tim Walz had told everyone earlier in the day that drug cartels and white supremacists were in the area looking to incite violence.

This is where we pivot to the police and their behavior and actions during this period. I’ve written about this many times before. They basically turned our cities into militarized zones. I was scared. A lot of my friends were scared. Not of the protestors, or even the “rioters” but of the police themselves. I documented some of that presence here. If you lived in the cities during that time, here’s what you could expect:

Look at that behavior. Simply appalling. I don’t really care what alleged justification the police and national guard had for acting like that. If people are standing on their own property, doing nothing but watching as you goosestep your forces through their neighborhoods, they do not deserve to be shot at. By ANYTHING. And listen to how the police speak to these citizens they are charged with protecting. It isn’t about lawful orders or safety. It’s about power and control. “Light ‘em up’?? What kind of man shoots a woman on her own porch? DISGRACEFUL.

So that is a good example of the mindset that police had towards the communities they “serve and protect” on the night of May 30th, 2020. And listen, the video above is FAR from the only example of the police using absurd levels of force on civilians. We know a bit more now about their behavior from the videos that were used in Jaleel’s trial. They are disturbing AF.

The video (which I copied from this Star Tribune article) jumps around a bit to show different perspectives of what transpired that night. At the beginning of the video, you can see the police riding around in an unmarked van targeting civilians with gunfire. Giving no warning, they would fire at different groups of people. As they approach Jaleel’s location in a parking lot, they open fire, hitting him in the chest with a less-than-lethal round. Jaleel doesn’t know these are police, since they’re in an unmarked van and make no announcement about who they are. So he returns fire, thinking it might be one of those groups of supremacists here to make trouble. But as soon as he realizes they are police, he throws his weapon down, lies prone on the ground, and surrenders. What do the cops do? They run over to him, kick him several times in the head, punch him a number of times, and basically beat him to a pulp. At no point does Jaleel ever resist arrest or show himself to be a danger to them.

I should note, the police have specific instructions when conducting sweeps like this. For starters, they aren’t supposed to be using the type of ammo they’re using here. It can easily be mistaken for real gunfire. It’s also very dangerous to shoot someone in the head or chest with rounds like these and is generally not allowed. The police are also supposed to identify themselves and give warnings that they intend to fire on you. The cops in this case did none of those things and that’s why they got shot at. Incidents like this are the reason why those rules are in place.

You might be wondering how the police initially reported this interaction. Funny you should ask. Here’s a great breakdown from this article on the case. See if you notice any differences between the video and what they said happened:

Here’s what police and prosecutors said happened in a press release: SWAT officers were patrolling Lake Street in an unmarked white van to “control the crowds that were causing severe property damage” when they came upon a group near 14th Avenue.

While several people dispersed, Stallings stepped out from behind a pickup, walked toward the officers and crouched by the driver’s side door as if to pick up something.

The officers, concerned that he was planning to throw debris or rocks at them, fired a 40-mm marking round at Stallings, who fired “three to four shots in the direction of the officers, narrowly missing them,” according to the criminal complaint. (The complaint said officers “deployed one 40-mm round at Stallings” even though officers fired two rounds before Stallings returned fire.)

Stallings “quickly ran away” and was handcuffed “after a struggle,” according to a press release issued by Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, who said Stallings was charged for “shooting at police officers amidst riots and protests” and “firing multiple shots at SWAT officers during riots.”

“None of the officers, nor Stallings, were injured,” the release said, even though Stallings’ bruised, scraped face on his mugshot clearly indicates otherwise, and he was taken to a hospital after his arrest.

Hmmm. Seems a little different! There was no struggle. There was a beating, but no struggle. And Stallings made no attempt to run away. But he was definitely injured. Here’s his mugshot:

To be clear, the officers shot at a civilian because they thought he maybe might throw a rock at them? WTF? They’re in a van! And they’re wearing more gear than a Marine. Let’s also not forget that the video shows that at no time did he ever crouch to pick anything up. He had a gun in his hands! What a bunch of lying liars. I just told you last week that you cannot believe what the cops say about anything. They lie! All the time! This is just another example of them doing it.

As if what happened to Jaleel wasn’t bad enough, this rogue band of cops was up to plenty more bullshit that night. A few highlights of what else was picked up on body cams from this Star Tribune article:

• Footage from Stetson's body camera showing him repeatedly firing marking rounds at protesters before yelling "Gotcha!" while officer Kristopher Dauble laughs and the two fist-bump.

• Footage from officer Michael Osbeck's body camera showing him speaking with Lt. Johnny Mercil, who said "Fuck these media," and mockingly said, "Hold on a second, let me check your credentials, make a few phone calls to verify …"

"They think they can do whatever they want," Osbeck said.

"There's a fucking curfew," Mercil said.

Media were exempt from the curfews imposed after Floyd's death.

While observing a group and debating whether to make an arrest, Mercil said, "This group probably is predominantly white because there's not looting and fires."

Mercil, who oversees MPD's use-of-force training, was a prosecution witness in the trial of ex-officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted in April of murdering Floyd on May 25, 2020.

• Footage from officer Joseph Adams' body camera showing him commenting that it was a "busy night" to Cmdr. Bruce Folkens, who said, "Tonight it was just nice to hear 'We're gonna find some more people instead of chasing people around … you guys are out hunting people now, it's just a nice change of tempo … fuck these people."

Cool bunch of guys! I’m super glad they get to roam around our streets with guns!

So the guy whose job it is to train and teach other officers as to when and what kind of force they’re allowed to use is a racist. And people wonder why a white cop murdered a Black man in broad daylight. And yes, saying that a group of people must be white because they aren’t looting or starting fires is super racist. Plus, as I already mentioned, there were groups of white people going around starting fires and instigating violence. He’s not only a racist, he’s bad at his job too!

The most frightening aspect to all of this is that this is how the cops behave WHEN THEY KNOW THEY’RE BEING FILMED! Can you imagine how they acted before body cameras? Thank god for that surveillance video or we might have never seen the true story. They would be able to lie and get away with it.

Will anything happen to the officers who did this? So far, nope! From this Minnesota Reformer piece:

Under department policy, officers shouldn’t use 40mm rounds to target a person’s head, neck, throat and chest (in the vicinity of the heart) “unless deadly force is justified” because they could cause “permanent physical or mental incapacity or possible death.” Cushenbery said he’d been trained to aim at the chest, legs or buttocks.

MPD policy also directs officers to announce, whenever possible, the use of 40mm launchers so officers “do not mistake the sight and noise” with that of “live ammunition.” And yet Officers Stetson, Dauble and Bittell testified they did not believe the sight and sound of 40mm launchers can be confused with the appearance and sound of lethal firearms.

Cushenbery testified that an untrained person could confuse 40mm launchers with live firearms, and Judge Koch found Cushenbery’s testimony more credible than the other officers, particularly since the 40mm launchers were used at night from a moving vehicle “in an otherwise generally chaotic environment with potentially charged emotions.”

When contacted by phone, the prosecutor, Erin Stephens, said she didn’t have time to talk and would call back, but never did. Instead, Lacey Severins, spokeswoman for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, responded by email.

“Our office cannot always make trial attorneys and County Attorney Freeman available for every media request we receive,” Severins wrote.

I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Consider what would have happened to Jaleel Stallings five or ten years ago, before surveillance and body cameras were prevalent. I have no doubt he’d be spending most of his life behind bars. I mean, without the video, it would be easy to “prove” that he tried to shoot the cops. They’ve got his weapon, gunpowder residue on him, bullets to be matched to his gun, and a half dozen officers to back up the lie they initially told. Case closed.

Something MUST be done about the police and the way they treat the communities they are supposed to be protecting. Whether it’s rooting out the racist, white supremacists among their ranks or training them to use something other than force to control situations. I cannot and will not live in a society where it is OK for cops to joyride around our cities in unmarked vans gleefully shooting civilians for merely being outside. And I will not tolerate them beating up people who have surrendered peacefully. You want to know why people hate cops and don’t trust them. That video is exhibit 1 of 100,000.

If police really want to regain public trust and actually do their jobs of serving EVERYONE in their communities, then they need to do a better job than what we’ve seen from them lately. I do not believe in the theory of a “few bad apples”. On that night, in May 2020, there wasn’t a good one in the bunch. They all went along with the lies and escalating violence.

It’s time for a change.