06 Oct 2000

ptsc <ptsc@my-deja.com>

Only in the People's Republic of California could such idiocy happen.

I had heard about this case before, but I hadn't heard of the outrageous stupidity of the city of Riverside in actually having the gall to sue a gun manufactuer because a couple trigger-happy cops pumped off 23 shots at a black woman.

http://home.pacbell.net/rsdotson/gov/govkills.htm

Riverside, CA: On December 28, 1998, Tyisha Miller, a 19 year-old black woman, was fatally shot and killed by three white and one hispanic police officers.

Early Monday morning, Tyisha Miller was in her car waiting for relatives to come help her change a flat tire. When the relatives arrived at the Riverside gas station shortly after 2 a.m., the two cousins were unable to wake Miller in her locked car and called 911. Officers responding to the call found the white Nissan Sentra locked and the engine running. According to The Associated Press, police said Miller was unconscious and foaming at the mouth, presumably as the result of an epileptic seizure, and appeared to be unconscious. Officers then saw a handgun in Miller’s lap, which according to later police reports, belonged to a friend, and was inoperative. Relatives said she probably had the gun to scare off would-be muggers because it was late at night and in a dangerous part of town. The officers decided that paramedics would not be allowed on the scene until Miller’s gun was retrieved. Police attempted to rouse Miller by ‘‘screaming and hollering’’ and pushing and banging on the car.

Police say Miller reached for the gun and that was when they opened fire. District Attorney Grover Trask told a news conference that of the twenty-three shots fired by the police, Miller was hit 12 times. Four of the bullets struck her in the head. A coroner’s report indicated all the bullets entered her body from the back. The officers were subsequently fired and Police Chief Jerry Carroll later stepped down from his position. Attorney Johnnie Cochran said he will file a wrongful death lawsuit and civil rights action on behalf of the family. Several reports are available about the killing at Yahoo!News and www.Channel2000.com.

Follow up: Incredibly, the city of Riverside claims in a lawsuit filed 4/06/00 that the police murder of Tyisha Miller is the fault of the manufacturer of the handgun! The city's attorney said that "This whole thing would not have occurred but for the presence of this loaded Lorcin L380." The lawsuit claims that by failing to educate users, "Lorcin proximately caused any and all harm sustained by Miller and her parents resulting from her tragic death" in spite of the fact that Tyisha Miller was not the owner of the handgun. This kind of pathetic excuse is tantamount to "The dog ate my homework" or "The Devil made me do it." Whenever city government officials begin trying to use outrageously lame excuses like this for their own evil actions, you begin to suspect that something is seriously wrong with our government officials. If they win the case in court on that basis, it's time to start rounding up the militia.