Wednesday, June 10, 2009
More on the Shooting
Police have released the name of the 27 year old man fatally shot by Park Police Monday night. His name was Trey Joyner. The Post offers more, and talks about a meeting held at Holy Name about the shooting. Right now there are lots of rumors swirling, and the police aren't able to release much information because of the ongoing investigation.
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16 comments:
The more I read about this, the more it sounds like no one knows anything, and the rumor-mongering is out of control.
In the absence of any facts, the police-haters are going to argue that "it's just another murder by the police", and the law-and-order types are going to argue that "the thug got what he deserved."
For what it's worth, I don't believe the police enjoy going around killing people, and think that the reason police are "rarely prosecuted" in situations like this is that there's rarely police misconduct in situations like this.
So I take the claims that this man was arbitrarily murdered with a small grain of salt. It's interesting that we've gone from "there was a huge crowd of onlookers who saw everything" in the first accounts to "Trey Joyner's family members...questioned anyone who might have seen something" in today's report.
I don't discount the tragedy of Mr. Joyner losing his life, but I think we as a community are far to accepting of the illegal and questionable behavior that often leads to young black men like Joyner being killed, whether by police or by another civilian resident.
The sad truth is that the gun Joyner was carrying around on Monday presumably to protect his life from some perceived threat, is the single most reason for why he is dead today. had he not been carrying that weapon, the chain of events that led to his death would have never happened. Period.
yet we will spend more time investigating these police officers than we will addressing why our young black men in this community are carrying weapons and engaging in behavior that really has no upside for their longevity.
We heard these gunshots on Monday while watching TV and I am sickened to find out that a young man died that night.
I don't discount the tragedy of Mr. Joyner losing his life, but I think we as a community are far to accepting of the illegal and questionable behavior that often leads to young black men like Joyner being killed, whether by police or by another civilian resident.
Right, the reason there's blood in the streets every summer is not that there are a bunch of comic book villains running around, but that a bunch of people with piss-poor decision-making skills make incredibly bad choices. Bad choices which are tacitly supported by a sizable minority of the community.
He was a generally good boy, who was only carrying an illegal gun around because he needed it for protection from other good boys carrying their illegal guns.
What happens when you've got a bunch of immature "good" boys, armed with deadly weapons, walking around every summer night?
A bunch of dead people.
The main difference in this case is that *usually*, the dead person is a 19-year-old new mom, or a 10-year-old sitting on a front stoop. Those are the sorts of folks who *usually* get shot when one of the "good boys" decides he's got to protect himself and his.
Meanwhile, you've got his father asking "Why was the Park Police pursuing him?" instead of asking "Why was he running around with a gun?"
After all, a 25-year-old man running through the streets with a gun is completely normative behavior.
Very tragic loss. Studies have also shown that the way that many young black men commit suicide is by pointing a gun at police. It's a much more valiant way to end ones life than to actually point the gun at yourself and pull the trigger.
I have no idea if this guy was suicidal, but if you walk the streets with a weapon, you've got to realize something bad could happen.
PS: What are park police patrolling Trinidad in the first place? Shouldn't they be helping lost tourists?
Does the Park Police provide good inner city police training?
Tom, if you would read even one of the articles on the shooting, you'd read that the Park Police was part of an FBI task force.
From the Post: "Park Police officers patrol city streets as part of Safe Streets, a national program dating to 1992, which uses local and federal agencies to target gangs and drugs."
Tom A. -
Please lets not look a gift horse in the mouth. I for one am VERY glad the DC police are getting help from the Feds. I dont want to be afraid of walking down the street in my own neighborhood. I say call in all the Federal police forces to use Trinidad as a training ground. Perhaps then criminals in our neighborhood will either reform or move to Maryland and the criminals in Maryland will stop coming to our neighborhood and will begin to terrorize their own neighbors.
On the question regarding US Park Police and their training. Park Police Officers attend the Mixed Basic Polce School at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia for 12wks and then attend another 4wks were they are taught US Park Police policy AND DC law. The receive extensive training in urban law enforcement and all new officers are assigned to DC before having the chance to transfer to firld offices in New York and San Francisco.
The best way to view the Park Police is as the state police for the District of Columbia. They are an agency of the Federal Govenment (the only counterweight to DC local governemnt) and focus on crime in and around park land. But they have the EXACT same (and actually more) jurisdiction that DC Police. Just like the Virginia and Mayland State Police, they focus on a particular aspect of law enforcement but can take action for any violation.
Personally, I have serious questions about the quality of many MPD officers I see. We read about their antics and arrests. When was the last time anyone heard of a federal officer (i.e. - US Park Police) being arrested for smoking pot and then leading cops on a chase? I'm happy to have DC's version of state troopers out in MY community.
Sad that we have over 4,000 MPD officers for about 66sq mi and a population of about 600,000 and our crime rate is what it is. Fairfax County has considerable for land area and about 400,000 more citizen with a police force of about 1,200. WHY?
Thank you FBI and USPP for being there.
Anon 5:47 - thanks for the info on the Park Police, but I think you may be mistaken about the number of people in Fairfax County. I remember a couple of years ago, Fairfax County had just hit the population mark of 1 million people. You bring up an excellent point though - Virginia residents probably have an exponential amount more guns than DC residents, but not nearly as much gun related crime. I know that is in part because of the differences in economic situations, but I believe it is also because of the strict laws, enforcement, and penalties in Virginia.
From what I hear, DC has a revolving door for gun possession crimes and those people who are convicted of possessing a gun on a particular morning are at home eating dinner that day or the next.
Although every death is a loss I concur with Oboe that thank God it was not an innocent bystander but an actual criminal.
Thanks to MPD for working so closely with the federal LEF to keep DC safe.
Thanks
Russ
only thing that is clear: those people who "invested" in this neighborhood, it is still a stone cold ghetto
mini golf on H street don't change that.
Glad to know there are more reasonable people from our community posting on here than those that are anti-police and pro the ignorant criminals running around with guns terrorizing our neighborhood.
The police were doing their job and I salute them for it! Thanks to all those in DC law enforcement who put their lives on the line everyday to protect us. You made our streets safer the other day.
haha you guys are funny.trey was my cousin.he had problems yes,but who doesnt? Just because he made a mistake doesnt mean he deserved to die. It makes of sick how people can just group him like he was a statistic. He was a son,a brother,a cousin, an uncle, and a friend. I advise you people think how you would feel if you were my aunt and happened to stumble upon these idiodic and uncareing opinions. Think people. At least offer condolences. JERKS!!!!!
Sorry for your loss Anon. 10:28. I think you should channel your anger to something more productive though. Your cousin was not murdered, he committed suicide the minute he decided to run from the police with a gun. I'm also sorry he made that choice.
Thank you law enforcement for a job well done. You likely saved many more lives that night.
I'm trying my best to reserve judgement in this case until I hear MPD's report. The big question in my mind is about the gun. Several people contend that Trey never had a gun in his hand during this encounter. It's difficult to imagine, but not impossible, that the gun fell onto the ground before the police grabbed him. If this unlikely scenario is how it actually played out then I'll have to ask what the justification was for using deadly force.
If he *did* have the gun in his hand, then all bets are off. The police are out there putting their lives on the line every day trying to keep order and keep us safe and their safety is more important than that of people holding illegal handguns.
Trey's cousin, you definitely have my condolences. Losing a family member is horrible, especially when people publicly try, convict, and sentence him before all the facts come out.
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