Posted: April 1st, 2015

Criminal Justice

Criminal Justice

Order Description

You are the chief of police in the city of Felonious, Illinois. Your city has about 100,000 residents. Founded and inhabited by Black Americans in 1883, the In the past ten years, Blacks have migrated away from Felonious and were replaced by Native Americans who now comprise 70% of the population in Felonious. The remaining residents are 15% Black and 5% various races.

Your department has 200 officers, all of whom are members of the FOP. The racial makeup of your department is 95% Black, 3% White, 1% Native American and 1% Oriental.

With the great migration occurring in Felonious, there is little identification between the police and the residents. In fact, tensions have become pretty high, with the Native Americans claiming that your officers single them out for harassment and mis-treatment, a charge you vehemently deny

Over the past five years, crime has risen in your city at an alarming rate. While crime nation wide has been on the decrease, your crime rate rises about 23% each year, with violent crime up 44% this year alone.

To combat the rise in crime, you have adapted the “Broken Windows” theory of crime reduction. This has caused much resentment from the community. Assaults against your officers have gone up at an alarming rate of 250% this year. Additionally, your officers have been involved in six shootings this year with Native Americans, which resulted in three of them being wounded and four killed by your officers.

Last Friday night, one of your officers, Lucy Looser who is a petite, 4’11” tall, yet effective six-year veteran officer encountered three teenaged members of the community, Knowno Troof, Ripu Orf and Uzse Less who were spray painting the wall of a grammar school. Officer Looser yelled to them to stop. After an encounter, Use Less ended up shot dead with multiple gunshot wounds, and Officer Looser ended up in the hospital with a fractured nose. The events leading up to the encounter have two entirely different versions, depending on whom you ask.

Knowno Troof and Ripu Orf both say that they were just standing there in the school yard with their friend Uzse, they weren’t spray painting, when they saw a marked squad car approach. Troof then said he was walking with Less when the officer confronted them and drew her weapon.
“She (the officer) shot again and once my friend felt that shot, he turned around and put his hands in the air,” said Knowno Troof, a friend of Uzse Less. “He started to get down and the officer still approached with her weapon drawn and fired several more shots.”
Ripu Orf told News 4 that Less was shot once by the officer and then an additional nine times as he lie in the street. Police have not confirmed that account.

“It was around 1:40, two o’clock. We were walking through the schoolyard next to the empty street. We were just walking down, minding our business. We’re both headed home, and the officer’s approaching us, and as she pulled up on the side of us, she didn’t say ‘freeze,’ ‘halt,’ or nothing like we were committing a crime. She said, ‘Get the f*** on the sidewalk!’ I told the officer we were not but a minute away from the destination.”
“Less never once attempted to grab for this officer’s weapon.”
“The first car I see, I ducked behind for cover because I feared for my life. I’m scared. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t understand why this officer is shooting his weapon at us.”

“My friend stopped running, his hands went immediately in the air and he turned around towards the officer, face-to-face. He started to tell the officer he was unarmed and that you should stop shooting me. Before he can get his second sentence out, the officer fired several more shots into his head and chest areas.”
“It was definitely like being shot like an animal. It was almost putting someone execution.”
“He was a good kid. He didn’t live around here,” said Neverwatch Harris, grandmother of the victim. “He came to visit me and they did that to him for no reason.”
The Officer gave quite a different version of events:
The altercation on August 9 began after Police Officer Lucy Looser rolled down her window to tell Less and a friend to stop spray painting the school wall.
When Looser tried to get out of her cruiser, Less first tried to push the officer back into the car, then punched her in the face and grabbed for her gun before breaking free after the gun went off once.
Looser pursued Less and his friend, ordering them to freeze, according to the account. When they turned around, Less began taunting Looser, saying she would not arrest them, and then ran at the officer at full speed.
Looser then began shooting. The final shot was to Less’s forehead, and the teenager fell two or three feet in front of Looser, said the caller, who identified herself as the officer’s friend.
But other accounts of exactly what happened when Looser stopped Less vary widely.
Witnesses said they saw a scuffle between the officer and Less at the police car before the young man was shot. Several witnesses said Less raised his hands and was not attacking the officer.
Piggly Whiggly said she was sitting in her home when she witnessed the shooting. She captured video of the aftermath, including images of Less’s body lying in the middle of the street.
Whiggly said Less was running away from police and then turned around. She said that was when Less was shot.
Police provided a different narrative, saying Less struggled with the officer and reached for his weapon.
“So she goes in reverse back to them. She tries to get out of her car. They slam her door shut violently. I think she said Uzsle [Less] did. Then she opens her car again and tries to get out and as he stands up Uzsle just bum rushes him, and just shoves her back into her squad car, punches her in the face and then of course Lucy grabs for her gun and Uzsle grabs the gun. At one point she’s got the gun totally turned against her hip and then she shoves it away and the gun goes off.”
“The genesis of this was a physical confrontation,” Ragged County Police Chief Jon Stinkus said.
Looser tries to exit her vehicle but Less pushes her back into the car, according to the preliminary investigation, Stinkus said.
Less physically assaults the police officer and there is a struggle over the officer’s gun, Stinkus said.
A shot is fired inside the police car.
Police called for assistance from Ragged County and nearby municipalities as large, emotional crowds gathered at the scene. In all more than 100 officers from 15 departments responded to the area. Tactical teams in riot gear were also called to quell the riot. A section of West Florissant Avenue near the scene was closed for a time on Saturday evening.
Through Saturday afternoon and evening some among the crowds were yelling profanities at police demanding justice. At one point gunshots rang out in the area as investigators gathered evidence. That prompted numerous police canine units to move in and move the crowds back.
The Ragged County Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) says they have launched their own an investigation and plan to “get to the bottom of what has occurred and will work to ensure that justice is served for all victims involved.”
The BIA also released a statement saying: “We are hurt to hear that yet another teenaged boy has been slaughtered by law enforcement. “
“It could have been one of your kids,” Charles Staton, 35, yelled at police officers, the Dispatch Review, a local newspaper reported. “Protect and serve. They aren’t protecting.”
Television footage showed people standing on police cars, vandalizing vehicles and taunting officers clad in riot gear, the Dispatch reported. Some were seen looting a QuikTrip and a Wal-Mart, according to the Post-Dispatch. People also looted a check-cashing store, a boutique and a small grocery store, making off with goods, including bottles of alcohol. And at least one fire was reported.
WAKO-TV reported police called in 60 additional officers as well as officers from other jurisdictions to contain the crowd. Then, just after midnight, the station reported police were using tear gas to curb violence.
Thousands of people from all over the country have come to IL to support and sympathize with the Native Americans. Riots have broken out all over town. Many businesses are ablaze.
The Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs is sending lawyers to calling it “an investigation into the murder of a child.” The federal officers are calling for the arrest and conviction of Looser, the complete overhaul of the police department making it have many more Native American Officers, and your firing. You do not want to loose your job
Tensions are very high right now. A quarter of your town is on fire from arson. You do not know how to stop the riot. The only physical evidence that you have is Less’s autopsy report. (ATTACHED)
What should you do? Why? How can you accomplish this?

M.D. Assistant Medical Examiner

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