White lives matter! Another police killing goes unchallenged

Very disturbing story today out of Fairfax VA, as reported by Neil Macdonald, CBC News's man in Washington. The only place you'll find it in the US mainstream media is the Washington Post, which published this photo of a Fairfax cop about to shoot an unarmed white man, standing with his hands up in front of his own home.

Here are the facts, as laid out in the CBC report:

In April 2013, John Geer's common-law wife, who was breaking up with him and moving out, called police to report he was angrily throwing her possessions onto his front lawn. Asked whether Geer had weapons, the woman answered yes, but they were legally owned and secured. No, he hadn't been drinking.

Two squad cars — four officers — initially responded. Geer, on seeing them, retreated into his home, refusing to answer questions. A few minutes later, Officer Rodney Barnes, a trained police negotiator, arrived, and as the four other policemen stood close behind him with weapons drawn, he began trying to coax John Geer out onto the porch.

Barnes would later recall that Geer was polite, but reluctant to leave his home, saying repeatedly he was frightened of being killed. He said "I don't want anybody to get hurt," the negotiator told investigators a few months later. "I don't want to get shot."

Barnes asked Geer if he owned a pistol. Geer said yes, and fetched it. He held it up, holstered, for Barnes to see and set it aside, raising his hands again. He offered to let Barnes come into the house and retrieve the weapon. He asked for permission to scratch his nose, Barnes said, and did it slowly, then raised his hands again. He asked to reach into his pocket for his phone; Barnes asked him not to, and he obeyed.

"He said 'I know if I reach down or drop my hands I can get shot," Barnes told detectives later. "I said, hey, nobody's going to shoot you…" But Geer pointed to one nearby officer in particular: Adam Torres, who kept raising his Sig Sauer pistol from the "ready" position (pointed at Geer's legs) to aim at Geer's chest.

"Please ask him not to point his gun at me," Geer begged Barnes. Geer even offered to come out and be handcuffed voluntarily if Torres and the other patrolmen would agree to move "way back." Then he asked to scratch his nose again. Barnes consented. And Torres fired.

Geer, grabbing his wound, screamed in pain and stepped back, slamming his door. "And I'm like, who the fuck shot?" Barnes told detectives later. "I kinda got a little pissed."

Torres acknowledged it had been him, and began muttering how he was sorry, and that his wrist was hurting. Then, unbidden, he told Barnes how he'd had a fight over the phone with his wife just before arriving on the scene.

Asked by Barnes why he'd fired, Torres said Geer had dropped his hands to his waist suddenly, that he appeared to be going for a weapon. "I said I didn't see that," said Barnes later. "You know, and I never took my eye off him (Geer)."

The other three officers who'd been present told investigators the same thing. So did two civilian witnesses. But prosecutors and police commanders and county officials buried the case. Fairfax County's top prosecutor declared a conflict of interest and referred the shooting to federal authorities. Federal investigators did investigate, and have reported to the US attorney in Virginia, who has done nothing.

All this was done under a cloak of secrecy, until, earlier this month, a judge finally ordered disclosure of nearly 11,000 documents, containing interviews with nearly everyone involved. According to those official documents (including audio of the witness statements), now available on the Fairfax County website, the shooter — a cop with significant anger issues (he once screamed and cursed at prosecutors in open court) — is contradicted by four fellow officers and two civilian witnesses. That sort of rank-breaking is practically unheard of.

And yet [Mr. Macdonald continues] there has been no judicial action, and almost no public uproar. Most politicians have remained silent. Those who have marched against police shootings in the past have been largely uninterested. A protest at Fairfax police headquarters drew a couple of dozen people. Only the Washington Post has taken a serious interest in the case.

But the killing of John Geer should frighten everyone. It is the best example yet that while police often target minorities disproportionately, their basic and overriding demand is total and unquestioning submission to their authority. Resist, however peacefully and even in your own home, and heaven help you, no matter what your skin colour.

That, dear readers, is the stone truth about the police state Americans (and Canadians too) live in today. Cops do not discriminate. You can be black, white or striped; they'll shoot you anyway.

Here are the links you need to read the complete stories.
CBC News - "In Fairfax, Va., a different, no-less-scary police shooting" - I've copied most of Neil Macdonald's well-written piece above.
Washington Post - "Seven unanswered questions in the Fairfax police shooting death of John Geer" - This article is a follow-up to the original reports, and there are a couple of updates since. Search "Fairfax police" or "John Geer" on the Post website and you'll see all the stories.