Man shot and killed by police in my city...

[A Revolutionary Tool]

On June 8th a man was shot outside a house by police and killed and now the family is filing a wrongful death claim. What the family says and what the police say are of course conflicting, the cops say that the man charged the police with a weapon therefore they were in the right to shoot and kill. The family says that's not what happened at all, they claim he was unarmed and that it was impossible for him to even charge them since his foot was caught in the seat belt as he tried to leave the vehicle, saying they even had to cut the seat belt off of him after they shot and killed him.

The cops stopped him because he was a "parolee at large" which means he could have been trying to run (who wouldn't) so the "he's a criminal who deserved it" angle is being extensively used by people, and for some reason it makes the cops more credible. We think the cops got it on tape with the video camera in their vehicle but it's not going to be released anytime soon. Here's an article about it from my local newspaper:
http://www.mantecabulletin.com/section/1/article/25085/

Anyways what steps do you take from here in organizing some action against the police? The family is being represented by the same person who represented Oscar Grants family with that incident.

[RedSquare]

This article from 9th June, from the same paper contains an update note that the deceased had a weapon, but it was not a gun:

http://www.mantecabulletin.com/section/29/article/24323/

I can't really advise you on activism in relation to this as thankfully most cops are not armed over here and police shootings are very infrequent. From what I've read after searching up reports of the incident, I'd say that its most likely a cop overreaction once they knew it was a black ex-parolee who might have a firearm, and so they're going to shoot first and ask questions later.

Hopefully the video footage will be received by the investigators and hopefully they decide to do the right thing if the facts indicate that what happened was wrong. Also anyone in that area with a police scanner could have knowledge of what was happening at the time, and might have the radio transmissions leading up to the traffic stop and after the shooting recorded.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

Yeah but it was the cops who said he had a weapon and I'm not very keen on just believing the police report when other people on the scene say he had no weapon. And he was Hispanic not black. On a side note you live in a place where the pigs aren't armed?

[RedSquare]

Yeah but it was the cops who said he had a weapon and I'm not very keen on just believing the police report when other people on the scene say he had no weapon. And he was Hispanic not black. On a side note you live in a place where the pigs aren't armed?

Yep, in most parts of the UK and in southern Ireland the majority of cops don't carry guns, but rely on specialist units based on geographical boundaries which they can call in if there's a need for armed support. But then again, guns aren't readily available here.

Regular cops here just carry ASP batons, pepper spray, handcuffs, and a radio.