The mayor of Hartford, Connecticut, has fired a white police officer who fatally shot a Black man in a mental health crisis nine times.

A white Connecticut police officer who fatally shot a Black man in a mental health crisis was fired Friday as public outrage grew over videos showing he began shooting 30 seconds after arriving at the scene, where other officers had spent several minutes de-escalating the situation.

The officer’s firing came a day after the Rev. Al Sharpton and noted civil rights lawyer Ben Crump spoke at the funeral of the man who was killed, Steven Jones.

Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said he fired Officer Joseph Magnano because of what he saw on police body camera footage of the Feb. 27 killing.

The videos, released earlier this month by the state’s inspector general, showed that Jones was was on a city street holding a large knife, but that the first group of police officers who arrived backpedaled to keep their distance from him, spoke to him kindly, and seemed to have gotten him to calm down.

  • ramenshaman@lemmy.world
    31·
    2 days ago

    You raise some good points. Maybe I should have said “most of us Californians are normal” instead. I’m from the SF bay area but I’ve been to MAGA territory.

    • Buffalox@lemmy.world
      86·
      2 days ago

      California is better than average, but California was among the states that started the 3 times and you are out, and California doesn’t have universal healthcare. Los Angeles has also had major police brutality problems. So even California has major problems.
      But absolutely, in a country descending into fanaticism and madness, California is among the better states, and AFAIK SF is among the better places in California.
      I visited LA and SF in the 80’s and there was much to love, especially about SF, unfortunately in many ways it’s been going the wrong way since then for USA.
      One thing I noticed when I spoke with local workers, and I was shocked to learn, was that overtime without pay was a very widespread phenomenon. Here that is considered exploitation, and is completely unacceptable. Also the lack of holidays is crazy.

      I don’t think most Americans realize the depth of the sociopathic mindset ingrained in American society. And that even “normal” people have been conditioned to accept.