Cops Hiding the Footage, Cops Hiding the Truth

[XLFD]

Two absolute truths I've learned while being an advocate for police accountability:  1) If body/dash cam footage for a major incident should be available but isn't released in the first week after the fact, the footage is damning for the police agency, and 2) if that damning footage is eventually released it will happen on a Friday afternoon many weeks after the incident.  

At about 11:30 AM on Wednesday April 17 in Kentwood, MI just outside of the Burger King near the intersection of Eastern Avenue and 52nd Street, a man by the name of Samuel Sterling was ran into by an unmarked vehicle driven by a Michigan State Police trooper.  There was a lot of questions at the time about whether the trooper's actions were lawful and/or responsible.   Sterling would die later that afternoon.  The MSP's Fifth District Investigative Response Team would handle the investigation, saying, "This investigation requires a very detailed and meticulous process, and we ask that you be patient as we work to gather all of the evidence and facts."

As several officers pursue on foot, the unmarked vehicle begins a fatal pursuit to serve a warrant, photo still courtesy of the MSP's release of body cam footage over three weeks later.

Thursday and Friday passed without any release of the footage or anything committal from the involved agencies while the community mourned the death of Sterling.  If there was truth to the official line that police procedures were followed, the absence of disclosure of the footage, proved it false.  Had there not been eyewitnesses to the horrific incident happening during the lunch rush, would this have been brushed under the rug by the MSP and the other police agencies involved?  For three more weeks the official silence would continue while the community would begin to adopt their own versions of what happened.  

The parents and children of Sammy Sterling along with their friends would not let up and would not believe that bodycam and dashcam footage of the incident were being kept from them.  Those are public records showing the facts from an unbiased perspective.  Amazingly, when they were finally released on Friday afternoon (naturally), 23 days later, Trooper "Death Race 2024" did not have his bodycam or dashcam operating, but thankfully for justice, four others did.  The best one from an officer on foot pursuit shows the sequence that appears here, where the officer uses his unmarked truck to jump the curb and pin Samuel Sterling to the wall of the Burger King.  

Some will say Samuel Sterling deserved such a fate for his past actions and his attempt at eluding police, but those people may want to withhold that opinion when they find out Sterling was wanted for a probation violation reported as having too much marijuana, in a state where marijuana is legal, and that the trooper's action appears to justify vehicular homicide charges, rather than acceptable police action.  

Michigan's governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general have all expressed aninterest in getting justice and accountability following the release of the footage shown below:

What does this case have to do with Ludington, you may ask, other than the proximity of Kentwood to Mason County?  Ludington Police Department Chief Christopher Jones and City Attorney Ross Hammersley, two unelected individuals who answer to our elected city council and city manager, have decided upon their own initiative to put illegal fees onto bodycam footage of the LPD.  

They have attached a $120 price tag to approximately 6 minutes of bodycam footage associated with the February 29 tackle and arrest of a local businessman for a noise violation, they have placed nearly a $900 figure to about 20 minutes of footage of a February 15 warrant arrest of a man and an associated woman who appears to have been guilty of no real crime and who is still incarcerated. 

They created their own policy to attach a $250 amount for a simple arrest that took place in Hamlin in January, where the arrested individual was improperly arrested (as seen on MCSO videos) and jailed for a crime where the alleged victim has been adamant in saying never happened.  They doubled the amount they wanted to extort from this media agency when their illegal scheme was caught.

The LPD has only adopted their recent moneymaking schemes when the footage is revealing to the lack of protocols and/or training followed by their young and gung-ho staff which seem to escalate each situation they get involved in.  The footage costs will be found to be excessive and extortive when these are considered by a fair court, and the chief and city attorney will also show their lack of training and/or protocol in their determinations made in order to shelter the truth from the public.

[Willy]

Definitely a tragic situation. If the blame can only be pinned on one person it would have to be person running from the police. If you start running then anything can happen because the police must pursue. How are all the police supposed to know the exact reason they are pursuing this individual. As far as the officer in the car is concerned, one has to wonder what the heck he was thinking when he pinned the runner against the building. Absolutely a bonehead move and I'm sure he will pay dearly for making that decision. He may even be jailed and I'm sure the taxpayers will be forced to pay millions to the family of the man who was killed. Two stupid decisions made that day. 

[XLFD]

I must agree with everything you say, but unfortunately the hypothetical of pinning the blame on only the person who was fleeing and eluding from the police on foot does not apply here.  Had he been caught according to protocol nobody would have a problem with tacking on the extra charge.  

I would even love to give the benefit of the doubt to the driver, who may have tried to block an escape route by pulling in front of the elusive man but hadn't anticipated Sterling's quickness.  But in looking at the extended footage, I don't see such admission or any contrition by him at any point for what seems to point to vehicular homicide.