The Sound of the Harvey Police: "Come Here!" “You touch the phone, I will shoot the shit out of you!” “Yeah, I shot the dog (and the Black man) What the f**k you gonna do about it?”

From [HERE] and [HERE] The city of Harvey is currently facing two lawsuits from a December incident in which officers shot a Black man in the leg without cause, shot and killed a Black witness’s puppy, and threatened a witness. Harvey, a far south suburb of Chicago, has a median income and home value of about half the statewide median. 

Paul Manning claims officers in a squad car followed him as he walked down a street on December 30. As described in the lawsuit, the officers stopped their car and told Manning to “come here”; Manning, however, who was unarmed and had done nothing wrong, kept walking.

(Apparently, there was no legal basis for the stop - no reasonable articulable suspicion that criminal activity was going on and that Manning was involved in it. And Manning obviously did not voluntarily consent to the police stop.) 

As he kept walking away from the squad car, Manning slipped and fell. When he tried to get up, one of the officers shot Manning in the back of the leg. After Manning fell yet again, the officers fired still more shots at him. While Manning was lying on the ground, one of the officers stood on the man’s back and handcuffed him.

(Police also had no legal basis to forcibly prevent him from leaving after he fell down. It seems then that the violent stop was unconstitutional (as the 4th Amendment is applied to white people that is) and a use of excessive force. To the extent that you might be dealing with a racist police officer, attempt to comply with orders. In face to face confrontations with police, white supremacy is your reality. Nevertheless, avoid incriminating yourself and resist participating in your own oppression - bw.) 

A nearby witness tried to record the incident on his cell phone. The officer, however, grabbed the witness’s cell phone and threw it while, as Manning describes in the lawsuit, saying, “You touch the phone, I will shoot the shit out of you.”

Meanwhile, Karnischa Miller heard gunshots and opened the back door to witness, as she claims, “a young man, Paul Manning, lying on the ground after having been shot. He was screaming and asking for an ambulance.”

Powerless Class. What's the remedy? 

Her 14-week puppy Nemo ran out through the open door. An officer yelled to Miller’s boyfriend to come get the dog, but as LeShon Wright advanced to follow the order, an officer raised his gun towards Wright and the dog.

Wright stopped in his tracks, but the dog kept walking towards the officer. Although Nemo “did not growl, bark, or act aggressively in any way”, the officer shot the puppy.

The city of Harvey has admitted that the officers shot Miller’s dog. Miller claims that the officer’s response was, “Yeah, I shot the dog. What the fuck you gonna do about it?”

Miller claims that she and her children were so disturbed by Nemo’s brutal murder, and from “being forced to helplessly watch him die”, that they moved from Harvey to Wisconsin. She is now suing the city of Harvey, Officer James Sinnot, and Officer Davres on the grounds of excessive force, illegal seizure, failure to intervene, and emotional distress. (note that much of the coverage of this story in the white media  is about the dead puppy (Michael Vick style)  - not the unjust treatment and disregard of Black people's rights by law officers -bw). 

Manning, who has sued the city of Harvey, Officer Sinnot, and Officer O’Shea, is seeking punitive damages for excessive force, battery, and emotional distress.