Updated to add a photo of Jonathan Price.
His name was #JohnathanPrice. In Wolfe City, TX he was known as a hometown hero. Motivational speaker, trainer, professional athlete and community advocate— he was dearly loved by so many.
Yesterday he noticed a man assaulting a woman and he intervened. When police arrived, I’m told, he raised his hands and attempted to explain what was going on. Police fired tasers at him and when his body convulsed from the electrical current, they “perceived a threat” and shot him to death.
Here is a link to support his family is.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/25o7kmjy5c…
I have spoken to the family and have agreed to do whatever it takes to get justice for JP. – Lee Merritt
This is big. https://t.co/UpHKqaDjGd
— Jolie McCullough (@jsmccullou) October 6, 2020
WOLFE CITY: This statement from the Texas Rangers confirms witness accounts in the death of Jonathan Price.
Price was walking away when the officer used his taser, then fired the fatal shots from his service weapon. The Wolfe City police officer is now charged with murder. pic.twitter.com/hc8HbZavsh
— Morgan Chesky (@BreakingChesky) October 6, 2020
A hopeful sign in a horrible story. More of this, please. Or better, stop killing people of color.
Open thread
Immanentize
Great publicity for Cabelas! Get your deadly weapons there! Used by moderately obese criminals.
Baud
I’m so jaded, I can’t help but wonder whether the officer killed Price in the hopes of setting off more protests that he believed would help Trump.
November can’t come soon enough.
brantl
So, now your involuntary twitching can be construed as a threat. JFC, what will they come up with next? “He was bleeding all over me, after I hit him with the baton, I thought he was trying to infect me with AIDS, so I (fill in the blank).”
Jerzy Russian
This happened about 3 days ago? Jesus, I can’t keep up.
Aziz, light!
In Texas, a jury of his peers will acquit him of all charges.
Tim C.
Huh…. I was under the impression that cops are perfect and we don’t need any changes to policing because all police
shootingsmurders are justified.scav
Objectively reasonable v. objectionably reasonably. Discuss.
Jerzy Russian
@Baud:
I was going to suggest switching back to the Gregorian calendar, but that makes it worse as it would be the middle of September.
It is hard to know that that officer was “thinking”. I usually start with “asshole” and “stupid” and go from there.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: I bet their social media and PR teams are having a stroke this morning.
Soprano2
It shouldn’t be, but it’s shocking to me how easily police will perceive a threat from a person who isn’t white. In a situation where it’s obvious there is no threat, they will pull a weapon and shoot. Perhaps they need to be trained to understand that not every black person is an automatic threat to them. What a terrible loss for his family and the community.
Benw
This is so awful. RIP Mr. Price
Josie
@Aziz, light!:
That depends on where in Texas the trial is held.
germy
Test all police weekly for steroid use.
Eric S.
I assume there must be video. There’s no way they would charge him in only 3 days otherwise.
Baud
@Jerzy Russian:
I’m most likely wrong for speculating about “political” motives. I guess I should just be thankful that there was no delay on bringing charges.
Gravenstone
@scav: Yeah, that news release makes on scratch their head with “objectionably”.
Brent
Interesting thing about Price is that he had pointedly defended the police in the past:
Obviously, it didn’t help.
Lige
Most cops shouldn’t even be carrying guns. They’re a crutch that encourages them to try to simply assert their authority instead of understanding a situation. I doubt they even make the cop safer – certainly they don’t make anyone else safer.
Almost Retired
So, it was news to these asshats that convulsions are the inevitable result of being well and thoroughly tased? Nice circular reasoning, there. Tase ’em and shoot ’em for the threat posed by the human body’s natural reaction to the tase.
Robert Sneddon
@brantl: I know of a Canadian citizen who was charged with striking a US Customs and Borders officer’s fists with his face when he was slow to get face-down on the ground in freezing slush when ordered. The US court found him guilty of this offence.
VeniceRiley
How horrible for Mr. Price. Absolutey sick of this. But it’s the way it should go. Forget Grand Juries. No accountability there. Public pressure on DAs to prosecute is preferable.
Marcopolo
This is awful. At least there doesn’t seem to be any fuckery over charges being brought here. That is the only good thing about this. In a normal society, after all the outcry & protests we’ve had this year over police killing POC during calls, you might think police departments across the US would have held special sessions regarding the use of firearms. Apparently you’d be wrong. I just wonder how long it will take, if we ever get there, for law enforcement to actually embrace & embody positive change. Getting rid of qualified immunity is the least that can happen.
scav
You can’t talk to a man
With a shotgun in his hand
debbie
If that cop hasn’t dabbled heavily in steroids, I will find a hat to eat.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Baud:
Interesting that the dude is in a sweatshirt. From prior photos, he’s got a massive ink collection, not sleeves. Now, he may simply enjoy adornment, but then again, given the volume (uncharacteristic for LEOs) there may be some questionable marks.
Citizen Alan
@Baud: “Most likely,” yes. But it is a testament to how far this nation has fallen that your speculation can’t be dismissed as completely absurd. We have, after all, just spent a week seriously debating whether Shitgibbon went into the debate knowing that he had Covid but thinking he was asymptomatic, and then deliberately spending 90 minutes bellowing at Biden with the intentional goal of infecting him. That is genuinely a completely plausible theory about what a Republican did in a Presidential Debate. So no, it’s really not beyond the realm of possibility that a racist cop who I’m certain is a MAGAt summarily executed a black man for the sole purpose of stoking racial tensions.
Baud
@debbie: Just like the president!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@scav:
Much prefer the Quincy Jones version to the frivolous Carole King performance. Jones tells the story as it should be – with a sense of both menace and justice.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Citizen Alan:
Query on my part – how many people shared the same microphone at the ACB victory lap?
E.
@Baud: You are probably incorrect but . . . anyone else seeing the Nazi haircut? Is that just me?
Mary G
What a tragic loss for Texas in Mr. Price. May his memory be a blessing for his family and friends.
Officer Lucas looks like he may be proud to be a boy. It’s irresponsible not to speculate, after all.
Gin & Tonic
Great vids from Bishkek, unfortunately attached to an idiotic comment. You’d think someone with his CV who runs something called “Eurasia Group” would know a fact or two about the recent history of Kyrgyzstan.
MisterForkbeard
@Lige: Can’t imagine that would ever work, thanks for 50+ years of Republicans making guns so ubiquitous that underage teenagers can get them without much trouble.
Parfigliano
@germy: Winner!!! Test for steroids weekly.
West of the Cascades
@brantl: “He talked back at me, I thought he was trying to spread coronavirus so I shot him.”
Aleta
Atrocious and despicable. They’ve learned nothing. Do they think charging him lessens their culpability or need to protest? If there’s a conviction I’ll celebrate but today, only despair.
MJS
@Mary G: Agreed. Proud Boy on steroids but not committed enough to actually do any work in the weight room, so he’s just flabby and enraged. And pants-pissing scared every time he was on the streets.
p.a.
The tell is the cops always get off on the criminal charges, but many districts are really in the red in civil penalties over police misconduct. Wonder how many local gvts try to get rid of these civil liability cops but can’t because of union contracts- there’s little incentive for pols to drive hard bargains with what they look at as a built-in vote source, and what other voters view as ‘the thin blue line’. Contrast w teacher treatment.
stacib
@Baud: Isn’t this the same guy that was doing tweets about how black folks should ignore racism? He also has many posts defending the police in these shootings.
Adam L Silverman
@brantl:
This one has actually been used. NYPD if I’m remembering correctly.
David Rickard
White cop, Black victim, Texas… he’ll never be convicted.
Elizabelle
Breaks my heart.
When we have President Biden and VP Harris, and a just Justice Department, we need to really crack down on police departments and their recruiting and retention of substandard officers.
Germany is being surprised by how deeply rightwing extremists have burrowed into its police forces. We likely have the same issue here; authoritarians with might makes right.
And for dog’s sake, change the training programs. There is a lot that police can do before employing lethal force.
brantl
@Adam L Silverman: Jesus, really? That is so fucking sad.
Snarki, child of Loki
Death penalty, by injection.
With Lysol and Bleach.
Elizabelle
@David Rickard: Excuse me. Didn’t that white woman who shot a black man in his own apartment get convicted? Yes, woman, but pretty sure a male could be convicted too.
Please don’t be so cynical.
October 2, 2019: The Texas Tribune: Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger sentenced to 10 years in prison in murder of Botham Jean
Ten years is too light, but it is a conviction, prison and she is off the force.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: Bremmer’s new(ish) not for profit spin off “think tank” of his for profit Eurasia Group, known as the Eurasia Group Foundation, is funded by Charles Koch. Because the goal of Bremmer’s not for profit is to promote a genteel version of American isolationism, which was the conclusion he started with as a premise and then argued himself to as the conclusion in his book Superpower: Three Choices for America In the World. Bremmer’s entire schtick, aside from the puppets, is that over the past 30 to 50 years the international institutions created after World War II have been allowed to either degrade or been allowed to be purposefully degraded, which has resulted in significant international instability. He refers to this as a G-Zero World, which is also the name of his puppet based broadcasts. This is a correct assessment. Where he goes off the rails is in regards to fixing them.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks for filling in. Unfortunately, he seems to know shit about KG. They’re way ahead of BY.
smedley the uncertain
@E.: I’m seeing the round moon face of a heavy steroid user. Someone above suggested routine tests of LEOs for steroids.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@MJS:
He’s probably got the testosterone level, blood pressure, pulse, liver function and virility of an overweight 75 year old man.
Karen S.
@Soprano2: Black people aren’t generally assumed to be innocent in the way that white people are. (Saying this having spent a lifetime as a Black person in the U.S.)
scav
@smedley the uncertain: After the last couple of days, aren’t steroids — the stronger the better — the official magic joy juice of all true Trump-umphant believers?
Nora Lenderbee
He got charged. With murder. In Texas. And the po-po publicly said it was unreasonable.
I’m sure he won’t get convicted of anything serious, but still, things are shifting.
tokyokie
Wolfe City only has about 1,400 residents. The chances of the cop knowing the victim, or at least knowing who he was, are very high. Just like the Minneapolis cop who kneeled on George Floyd’s neck. Which is probably why this latest asshole is facing a murder charge.
Adam L Silverman
@germy: @Parfigliano: It doesn’t work that way. If you’re testing for testosterone, even if he’s on supplementation, he may still test within the normal range. Another issue with this is that what is and is not clinically “normal” hasn’t been updated for over 40 years, largely because of all the public misconceptions about “steroids”.
What you’d need to be testing for is three different things. The first is for testosterone level, the second for human growth hormone, and the third for synthetic steroids and other illicit performance enhancers. In the case of the former, someone is going to have to make the call if testing above the top of the clinically acceptable level is somehow a problem. If you’ve not been testing someone’s testosterone levels over time, you have no idea what that person’s baseline is. So you don’t know if they’re naturally above the top of the 40 year out of date clinical range or this is the result of taking supplementation. The second is for human growth hormone (HGH). Here too you have a similar problem, but there are other signs of illicit HGH use, specifically cranial-facial skeletal growth. That’s how everyone knew that the SF Giants baseball player was on HGH: his head started growing again and got humongous. Roger Stone was, if not still is, on it and it is the reason his head is now weirdly shaped. The third are tests for synthetic and illicit performance enhancers. This is more straight forward. But just testing for “steroids” isn’t going to get you very far.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: You’ve got an email en route.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@p.a.:
Fun Fact – according to two of my Louisville Metro Council friends, whichever idiot had previously served as negotiator on the LMPD CBA handily put in a provision that simply rolls over most terms, particularly the ones about the disciplinary process.
The council has no idea who included that in prior agreements.
There has been “no new contract” for something like 3 years. There’s absolutely no way to get that to reset without getting the LMPD FOP to agree to it. Probably the only way to get that done would be to refuse COLA increases, maybe even claw some money back from cop pay on the basis of budget pressure; there is unfortunately no working consensus for that to happen.
Immanentize
@smedley the uncertain: I think that just might be the round moon face of a twice daily Whataburger eater.
Lyrebird
@Immanentize:
Yeah. Ugh.
Gotta give another shout out to Dick’s Sporting Goods for getting rid of at least some of their stock at their own cost.
Condolences to the family are not remotely enough.
I made us a BLM sign design last night, time to get it printed and out there… and vote out all the malevolent people who are fine with this happening again.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
What trips up sportsballers in drugs testing is often the diuretics used to help them excrete HGH, testosterone and the like. It’s one of those endless cycles, as the cheating advances and then the testing technology and protocols respond. Rinse and repeat.
Winners in track and field, cycling etc. head straight to the testing tent. IIUC in many pro sports the rules are laid out in the CBAs, and I’m sure it varies a good deal from league to league.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Immanentize:
“Dispatch, give me 15 on a 10-44 for a snack break”.
“Son, this is your third snack break this morning, and you’re already on extenders on your holster. You sure you need that?”
trollhattan
@Immanentize:
“Mmm, do-nuts!”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Immanentize:
We had one of those in my hometown here in CA back in the early 70’s, good burger.
Kent
Former Texan here. And as much as I’m happy to bash Texas, they do have a better track record of convicting cops for murder than pretty much any other place. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Botham_Jean
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: Got it. Thanks.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: You are correct and it does. But it also trips people up. I’ve seen reports of athletes running afoul because of their asthma inhalers. Or other legally prescribed and disclosed treatments for allergies or chronic problems.
Mai Naem mobile
Rounding off numbers Wolfe City only has a population of 1500 of which 200 are black so you figure there’s a 100 males. I am guessing the cop knew this guy because there’s probably not more than 20 guys in that town who fit Pryce’s age/build/color not to mention his facial features and his manner of walking and talking. I don’t understand why they had to shoot him after tasing him. Makes absolutely no sense.
L85NJGT
Texas AG Ken Paxton is causing problems for swing district Republicans.
WTF??
The Moar You Know
@Baud:I’m normally the last guy to “go there”, but you’re not wrong. I think almost every police “incident” since (and including) the murder of George Floyd has been a deliberate, coordinated action to stoke racial tensions and start riots.
No one will ever convince me that Derek Chauvin didn’t have cause to believe there was a state or federal pardon coming down the pipeline for him while he murdered a man in front of dozens of cameras. He wouldn’t have done it otherwise. And he will get a pardon, one way or another. He rendered the GOP a very valuable service.
marklar
The thing about steroids is that they don’t create aggression, but amplify it. The circuit in the brain that interprets situations as threats sends messages to activate the fight/flight circuits. Steroids/Testosterone works by amping up that connection (for those who care about details, it shortens the refractory period of the neurons in the stria terminalis connecting the amygdala to the hypothalamus so more messages get sent/second). Steroids, however, don’t activate the aggression circuit in the first place.
Why does this matter? If the officer didn’t perceive Price as a threat, steroid use wouldn’t have mattered. However, if he did perceive him as a threat, steroid use would amplify aggressive responses.
JustRuss
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah, right across the street from my high school. Haven’t had one in 40 years, now I’m craving.
Aziz, light!
@Kent: I lived in Austin for a couple years. I realize that Austin is not part of Texas.
The Moar You Know
@Immanentize: the decline and fall of Cabelas has been really sad. They were my go-to place for shoes before they canned their purchasing people back around 2008. It was a quick drop to shitsville after that. Everything from China and their purchasing people were apparently replaced by surplus NRA staff.
Also, there’s nothing “moderate” about that guy’s level of obesity.
Ruckus
@Lige:
Is it still true that most cops in the UK don’t carry guns? Because I see a logical answer here, if cops are so scared that they are going to be shot, but of course that answer is too much for many to understand.
Soprano2
I mention this when I try to explain to other white people what white privilege is. I tell them that they automatically get the benefit of the doubt about everything, while black people are often automatically assumed to be guilty of something. I also point out that no white person has to be an example of the whole white race, and that white people are able to be individuals rather than always just being stereotyped. I don’t know if it gets thorough or not, but it’s the truth.
Karen S.
@Soprano2: Thanks for making the effort anyway. I do appreciate it. Truly.
Betty
@Aziz, light!: To be fair, a Dallas jury did convict the police officer in the Jean case although her sentence was too light. Let’s hope this turns out OK. Mostly, I wish we could make it stop.
Dmbeaster
Richard Jewell gone bad.
J R in WV
@Adam L Silverman:
I am continually amazed at what people will do to themselves for what seems to be ridiculous reasons.
Roger Stone looks seriously abnormal, as in I wouldn’t want him to touch me with a long cornstalk abnormal.
Yet evidently he was a “successful” sexual swinger, meaning people were willing to be physically intimate with him… in group sex clubs.
Seriously, people, WTF??? Women let this — individual — be intimate with them? I just can’t. . . I guess no one would think whatever Roger has wrong with him was contagious, but not contagious is not the line I would want to draw~!~
OMG
That is all.
PS: Barry Bonds? HR hitter?
Won’t look for a picture.
I have trouble imagining a drug that can make your skeleton and skull grow misshapen, let alone voluntarily taking it and watching what it’s doing to you, thinking, “That’s good, getting stronger, more bulk!” OMG, he whispers to himself.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
When I worked in pro sports I had to help collection of samples as well as participate very occasionally in drug testing and I edited/published the rule book with all the drug rules taking about 25 pages. The fun part (not) was when a positive result or a suspicious result came back, the person was retested. And an official had to watch the collection. From start to caping the bottle. Fun times!
Ruckus
@J R in WV:
When your hormones take over and/or are drunk and/or stoned, just like their owner, there is quite often a lack of communication between your desires and what little is left of your thinking process. You’ll fuck almost anything.
After all, they didn’t go to a sex club to see mom and dad.
Lyrebird
@J R in WV:
I am similarly kinda shocked by the fact that even one woman would show up at the weird cult well-wishing protest outside Walter Reed. And K Conway & K McEnany exist. ugh.