Two Louisiana Cops Charged With Murder for Killing of Six-Year-Old

State police chief called body camera footage, unreleased, "disturbing"

family photo

This is what passes for good news these days. Two cops in Louisiana appear to be being held accountable for shooting and killing Jeremy Mardis, a six-year-old, after firing into a car the boy's father was driving at the end of a police pursuit.

CNN reports:

Officers Norris Greenhouse Jr., 23, and Derrick Stafford, 32, have been arrested and charged with second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder.

"I've got to deal in facts. What's important to me is what caused those police officers to pursue," Edmonson said. "What caused them to open fire?"

"He (Jeremy) didn't deserve to die like that. We need to find out why," the colonel added.

The shooting occurred in Marksville, a town of 5,500 people about 90 miles northwest of Baton Rouge.

It's unclear why officers pursued or why shots were fired. Investigators say there were no outstanding warrants against the father, and no firearm was found in his vehicle.

The Louisiana State Police was invited to investigate the shooting, and the chief of the state police said "disturbing" body camera footage helped inform the decision to charge the two officers. That footage has not been released.

When I wrote about this incident last week, I said it was likely if anyone was charged for the boy's murder, it would be his father, who was injured but not killed. I'm happy I was wrong but, again, depressed that this is what passes for good news on the topic of police violence.

Comments

[sarcasmic]

Twenty bucks says the prosecution does everything they can to throw the case.

[Almanian's Rusty Woodchipper]

We are winning! Booyah!

hth

[B. Woodrow Chippenhaus]

+100 uniformed cops glowering in the courtroom.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I don't know. There seems to be some open animosity between this elected marshal and credentialed law enforcement.

[Just say Nikki]

Yeah. More from my link below:

At least one of the shooters was a Marksville police officer who was moonlighting for the city marshal's office, an agency responsible for serving court papers . But according to Marksville's mayor, John Lemoine, city marshal Floyd Voinche and his officers have recently begun overstepping their authority.

"I don't know why he felt the need to start patrolling in city limits," Lemoine said Thursday of Voinche. "It makes no sense to me."

[Hank Phillips]

And although I hate to judge before all the facts are in, it's beginning to look like General Ripper exceeded his authority.

[sarcasmic]

So the cops aren't being punished for murder. They're being punished for not following orders. That makes sense.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Well, they're being charged for the murder. I'd say they are offered up to be punished at least partly because local politics didn't like the way an elected office was operating.

It seems here they had gotten a little too comfortable with their own authority and crossed the line while wearing the wrong badges.

[Hank Phillips]

If you allow me 200-to-one odds I'd fade that with my 2? worth.* What sort of timeframe are we talking for a resolution that will settle the bet? How many days after elections?

*Translation: I would gladly fade that at reasonable odds if the proper authorities, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, were to assure me that I'd not be in violation of any Federal, State or local laws, ordinances, codes, regulations, enactments, or other resolutions, decrees, executive orders, provisional directives, warnings, postings, advisements or notices issued for the protection of the community and the preservation of order.

[Reflections]

This is the formula prosecutors use to get cops off for murder:1- release positive information about the officers involved to the media. 2-Attack the characters of any person even a child killed, portray the victims as worthless. 3-Remind the public the a video of the incident does not tell the whole story, Don't believe what your eyes see. 4- release more heroic information about the officers involved. 5- Always blame the victims for there own death, subject did not follow orders, he was reaching for his waist band and the favorite I thought he had a gun. Qualified Immunity Indefinite paid vacations courtesy of the taxpayers. The police have special privileges to kill anybody for any reason and not be held accountable, they are above the laws of the united states.

[d3x / dt3]

This must have been pretty egregious to actually charge the cops.

I plan to riot.

[R C Dean]

Looks like the corpse is white. No rioting necessary.

[Loki]

I'm a little shocked that CNN is even covering it at all, given the boy's skin tone. Where's the race angle?

[R C Dean]

Cops were black, so CNN is racist?

[Juvenile Bluster]

When I wrote about this incident last week, I said it was likely if anyone was charged for the boy's murder, it would be his father, who was injured but not killed. I'm happy I was wrong but, again, depressed that this is what passes for good news on the topic of police violence.

I'll wait until there's a conviction before I agree. I don't expect it to happen.

[sarcasmic]

The kid was white and the cops are black. Had it been the other way around nothing else would have happened. So obviously this is a racially motivated prosecution. It has nothing to do with murder and everything to do with punishing black cops for killing a white boy. In the name of equality, these charges must be dropped.

Or something.

[Old Man With Candy]

This was being touted yesterday on local Hate Radio by the show hosts. "When a white cop shoots a black man, they don't charge nothin', they gotta 'investigate' first. Like Michael Brown! This time, they dint do no investigation, they just charged the cops!"

I have to admit laughing at their reaction to actual good news.

[sarcasmic]

Yep. Just like cops shooting more white kids in the back would be good because of equality.

[Hank Phillips]

Well... it is a kind of affirmative action when you look at the numbers from a collective viewpoint. I mean, aren't 2-party elections a sort of collective viewpoint?

[Scarecrow & WoodChipper Repair]

That is perfectly in line with their economic goals.

[TimothyZ]

The path to equality should be littered in corpses and debris from riots, or something like that. I may need to check my revolutionary's handbook, but that seems to be a fairly common modus operandi.

[GILMORE?]

""This time, they dint do no investigation, they just charged the cops!"""

when the footage of that 6yr old robbing a liquor store comes out, people are going to be very sorry for jumping to conclusions

[Hank Phillips]

Robbing a liquor store while toking a joint and chatting profanities on the cellphone... just you wait! It'll all Come out in SSolicitor Crissy Adams' report.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Wasn't the (white) cop that shot Walter Scott in the back charged pretty quickly?

[Hank Phillips]

Only because of the Cecil B De Mille photoshopping of that fake video making it look like it wasn't self-defense. He'll be acquitted once "both" parties are made to see how the officer's live was in danger, just you wait.

[PBR Streetgang]

And the white cop that murdered that man in Cincinatti

[GILMORE?]

If Oberlin doesn't cancel class for a week so people can deal with this I'm going to go on a hunger strike.

[SugarFree]

Or something.

On the other hand, we don't have the usual suspects here claiming that the white child had it coming and inventing stories about him pulling a gun on the cops.

[perlchpr]

Wasn't sure if this was sarcasm until the last line, at which point I looked at the username.

It's not only sad that this is what passes for good news, butt hat this comment wasn't even immediately obviously sarcasm.

[Just say Nikki]

From the Guardian's story:

A short while later, Few pulled up next to Dixon at a stop light ? Marksville is a small town ? and tried to get her to come home with him. "I wouldn't do it," she said. "I'm stubborn."

Moments later, she said, as the cars pulled away from the light, she saw two marshals' cars ? marked in black and white ? approaching from behind with their lights flashing. She looked into Few's car as he pulled away, and he was pointing at his son's head, indicating that he was in the car and he wasn't sure what to do.

Few was afraid of the marshals, she said, because he and and one of the marshals on the scene had a prior personal conflict.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I one-upped you with my link below.

[Crusty Juggler]

Ew.

[Hank Phillips]

This is clearly a miscarriage of justice. Surely SS Solicitor Crissy Adams could write a 23-page letter explaining how the father was trying to run over the troopers, attach fake chats, get him accused of murder 1 and the cops given commemorative Positive Christianity Hitler medals and paid vacations by union leaders and politicians from "both parties."
It is a miracle the same thing didn't happen when Herbert Hoovers Government-Owned-Prohibitionists shot Henry Virkula in the back with his wife and kids in the flivver in 1929. Canada and Mexico have evidently decided to no longer follow 'Murrica's Godly example sending cops to murder unarmed peaceful citizens in cold blood, the godless barbarians!

[Juvenile Bluster]

If you want to see why these cops are going to be acquitted and why killer cops are always acquitted, here's the idiot foreman of the jury that acquitted the killer cop in Pennsylvania explaining why they acquitted him.

"I'm not saying mistakes weren't made in the incident," Benoit said on Sunday. "Certainly there was some questionable judgment here and there, starting with when she saw the expired sticker and the little police chase that happened afterwards. Things could have gone a lot differently than they did."

"But based on the evidence given us and the it way presented, I couldn't really get beyond the fact that I had reasonable doubt that she wasn't justified in her action. The way it was phrased, if you have reasonable doubt, you have to find the defendant not guilty. That's what we did."

"Part of what we had to do was find if she had reasonable fear for her life," Benoit said. "I think we were all in agreement that she did. She did fear for her life at that point. What we were tasked to do and come to consensus was is reasonable to the point it required her to shoot and that's basically what it boiled down to. That's what we spent the majority of the time discussing during the deliberation."

[foghornleghorn]

You have to take a good look at your fellow countrymen and then you'll understand why cops will always get away with this shit. You're talking about a nation of 300 million whining, simpering, pussies. People in this country shit their pants and have a nervous breakdown if you just barely raise your voice to them.

I'll bet these limp-wristed dumb fucks did believe she feared for her life because they would have feared for their own in that situation.

Think of the panics over Halloween, an unexpected knock on the door (Hell one of the writers here wrote about how they won't open their apartment door if someone knocks and they weren't specifically waiting on someone), walking alone at night, etc.

Now you know why juries will always acquit cops. Because they're scared little rabbits that would've put 100 rounds into the guy whereas the big, tough cop only put 20.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Law enforcement confirmed to CBS News they are probing whether one of the officers arrested has a personal grudge against Few and may have sought revenge with gunfire.

One wonders if Few had been armed and able to defend his son how justice would have shaken out here.

[sarcasmic]

He would have been hunted down by hundreds of police officers who would have taken turns shooting his corpse after they beat him to death.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

There's no way he'd have gotten off that easy.

[Jerryskids]

Saw the sheriff(?) who's investigating the case on CNN this morning - said he doesn't know why the cops were going after the guy in the first place because they haven't told him yet. That seems to me to be a huge stinking turd - the cops don't even have any story to defend or explain their actions, no radio calls to dispatch, no requests for license plate checks, no recordings of any chatter, no nothing? They just opened fire for no reason as far as anybody knows?

[R C Dean]

I know, geez. They didn't even set up a tissue-thin pretext first.

Obviously, they need more training.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Reportedly, they did initially claim they were trying to serve an arrest warrant. According to the state police.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Isn't every cop discharging a weapon technically serving an arrest warrant?

[GILMORE?]

Speaking of shootings...

One Dead, 2 Injured In Shooting @ Penn Station

Wild speculation = Cop unloads on unarmed but aggressive homeless person, wounds commuters

[Ken Shultz]

I think it's great to see police charged when the evidence suggests there was a crime committed.

But juries are like a box of chocolates. We'll see.

Also, intuitively, I suspect cops are more likely to get charged for these crimes outside of our major cities--especially outside of the northeast. Democrat political machines control local politics there and who gets to be DA--and they're all beholden to the police unions. In the South and in more rural communities, it isn't necessarily like that.

I'd love to see some statistics on the likelihood of cops getting charged, and I suspect it varies greatly by region and local party affiliation. I'm just sayin'. It's always sad to see minorities direct their anger over a police shooting at urban Democrat politicians--who are mostly beholden to police unions and who are ultimately responsible for shielding the police from the criminal justice system.

[TimothyZ]

"But juries are like a box of chocolates." Or when the cop is white, like a box of crackers: you pretty much know what you're gonna get.

[Drake]

Saw the Colonel on Fox News - he described the body-cam video as one of the most disturbing things he's ever seen. Sure did not look like he was fucking around when he described the murder charges.

[Crusty Juggler]

The video of this incident must be exceedingly brutal because the state police have already spent a lot of time giving interviews damning the two who were arrested, which contrasts the normal procedure involving police crimes which is to obfuscate behind an "investigation" for six months.

[GILMORE?]

They're getting ahead of the story because they know the video will convict these guys in the court of public opinion

[Ken Shultz]

You have to wonder why they went so overboard. I doubt it was for kicks.

I imagine being a cop engenders a certain amount of paranoia. I doubt anybody becomes a police officer in the hope of shooting a six year-old child. Sounds like they just lost their marbles.

[sarcasmic]

I doubt anybody becomes a police officer in the hope of shooting a six year-old child.

You'd be surprised.

[creech]

OT- re Halloween treat tampering. Last week I reported the incident in Kennett Square, PA where two kids who didn't know each other found needles in their candy. The truth is now out: 11 year old was shown a picture of needles in a candy bar, spread by news media. Kid put needles in his candy and showed Dad, who called police.
Police did an emergency bulletin to all residents. 12 year old hears about the needles so he puts needle in a candy bar and shows his sister. It really hits the fan...cops and media spread out over neighborhood, grill people who gave out candy, etc. etc. Kids each finally confess to having doctored own candy. No charges will be filed.

[Crusty Juggler]

Ban needles.

[R C Dean]

Ban children.

For the children, of course.

[Rhywun]

No charges will be filed.

Haha just kidding.

[dantheserene]

Am I the only one who thinks Louisiana has some of the most messed up police and politics per capita of any state in the union?

[A Cynic's Guide to Zen]

Commonwealth and Parishes, inherently tribal. You are either with them or against them, that old fallaciously delicious standby.

[steve walsh]

Do these police pursuits and high-speed chases every end well?

[R C Dean]

They sometimes end with nice revenue opportunities for the locals, so yes.

[Loki]

So has the footage been released or not? The sub-head says unreleased but the quote from CNN says it is released. Surely CNN wouldn't fuck that up, would they, being the professionals that they are... / sarc

Glad to see these apes are being charged, but I won't hold my breathe on them being convicted.

[LemonMender]

Since I first heard about this, I've wondered if these cops weren't taking care (badly) of a private hit, with the pretext that they could shoot him for some alleged violation, but then they found out they'd killed a kid and didn't have a backup plan that would cover that. The more I hear about this, the more it sounds like that is what happened.

[sarcasmic]

It did say that one of the cops had a personal quarrel with the dude.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Now let's see if... Fuck it.