Aftermath of Rayshard Brooks killing seems to have caused wave of violence in Georgia

July 7, 2020. In this episode of Keeping the Peace on the Law & Crime Network host Bob Bianchi and guest Michael Koribanics discuss recent events involving policing and increased unrest around the country.

We start off by discussing the state of emergency declared by the Georgia governor. A wave of shootings and criminal activity attempting to disrupt peaceful protesting has spiked since the killing of Rayshard Brooks. In one night, the Atlanta area saw 23 shooting victims, 3 victims were killed as a result. One victim of this spike in violence was an 8-year-old girl sitting in a car. The interim chief of police in Atlanta spoke about this increased violence and how challenging it has been for the police force.

Koribanics and Bianchi discuss the fact that your constitutional right to protest goes so far to allow for disruption, but does not allow for harm to others. On the flip side of this, police officers may have concerns about stepping into these situations.

This conversation brings up the issues surrounding officers claiming that they are simply following their training when unintentionally violating civil rights. However, Koribanics brings up the point that if the training has been wrong, to begin with, the city and the force are still responsible for the actions that are caused by poor training practices.

After returning from the break, we discuss the shooting of a Phoenix man in a parked car. While there is still a lot to understand about this case, the two men discuss the nature of videos such as the bodycam video associated with this case and how it impacts the legal arguments to be had. There is a clear uptick in the sensitivity to police shootings and violence in recent weeks and months. However, we must also discuss the possibility that not all use of force should be seen as unnecessary or excessive.

In other news, it is the 4-year anniversary of the Dallas police ambush. Twelve officers were shot and five were killed during the protest on July 7, 2016. Sniper targeted officers on top of the parking garage. The suspect said he was upset over the black lives matter movement.