The Cop Who Pulled The Trigger

As discussed previously on this site, a young man by the name of Andrew Finch was shot, for no reason, by a police officer in Wichita, Kansas, on December 28 of last year. As it happened, the police had been responding to false information from a gamer in California, and had not made any attempt to discover the actual circumstances, that night. Tyler Bariss, the prank caller, has been arrested and extradited to Kansas and awaits further court dates in the Sedgwick County jail. For a long while, the only piece of the puzzle that was missing, aside from the reason for all of this police brutality in the first place, was the name of the murderer. It appears that we now have it.

It was reported by the San Jose Mercury that the pig who shot Mr. Finch was hired in 2010, and has appeared in several episodes of COPS. That, in your faithful blogger's research, narrowed the list down to two possible candidates. Further information, courtesy of The Daily Haze, has narrowed the list down to one possible person: an immature, unthinking thirty-three year old moron by the name of Justin Rapp.

Justin Rapp was hired in March of 2010, was present at the scene when Andrew Finch was fatally shot, and is now on paid leave. Chief Gordon Ramsey, of the Wichita Police Department, has tried very hard to hide Rapp's identity. In fact, he appears to think that if a cop murders someone in cold blood, the family of the victim should just accept it, and move on. Gordon Ramsey does not think that any murder victim of a police officer deserves justice, but he and all Kansas police departments have no problem with the concept or the reality of smearing the reputations of other defendants in criminal cases, prior to trial.

The family of Andrew Finch is now filing suit against the Wichita Police Department.

Abbie Hoffman Moment

Click Your Heels Three Times, Tyler Barriss!

Welcome to Kansas, Tyler Barriss! You now get to wake up in the land of tornados, flying monkeys, and the yellow brick road! You never thought it would happen, did you? Even if your mommy comes up with the money to pay your $500,000 bail and flies to Kansas to bail you out of jail in Sedgwick County, you'll just go to jail in Canada, where you called in a false police report on someone else you didn't like.

Today, inclement weather notwithstanding, Tyler Barriss, the California man who got angry with Andrew Finch, of Wichita, Kansas, and made a false report that sent a SWAT team to Finch's home; where a trigger happy cop shot and killed Finch; was picked up in Los Angeles and flown to Kansas. He is now in the Sedgwick County Detention Center, all 125 pounds of him, on charges of involuntary manslaughter, giving false alarm, and falsely reporting a felony.

While it is wonderful to see accountability in Barriss's case, the police officer who actually committed the murder of Andrew Finch still deserves to be held accountable, as well. We need this officer's name.

Fire, Fury, And The First Amendment

We have a new presidential biography on the market, called, Fire And Fury, by Michael Wolff. Donald Trump, styling himself as the forty-fifth president of the United States, has reportedly reacted badly to this book. At this point, Trump should know a few things about elected officials and publicly spoken and written words: primarily that after winning an election, the official is no longer a private person and therefore no longer protected by state and federal laws pertaining to libel and slander. Such an individual is still entitled to a certain amount of privacy, and making threats of violence against an elected official is unlawful in most cases, but satire and whistle blowing are fair game; more so than in the case of a private person. An elected official in northeast Kansas discovered this for herself in 2013. Satire and whistle blowing are still very acceptable under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Another very important aspect of the laws about libel and slander concerns specific losses that can be ascertained by the court. If one does not have those, one's case will generally be dismissed. Since we have laws about the types of income a United States president may rake in while in office, declaring a loss might be difficult for Mr. Trump. Using the White House for financial gain is legally defined as a conflict of interest for a president, and if published, written material impedes a president's ability to commit a civil tort, the president scarcely has legal recourse!

Donald Trump has been in office long enough to understand the legalities of satire and financial conflicts of interest involving elected officials, so it appears that he is only running his yap in an ongoing effort to distract the American public from matters that are more important that Fire And Fury. It is nice to see Americans take a renewed interest in reading books, though.

You're A Mean One, Ajit Pai

At the request of my two youngest children, I am posting this message to Ajit Pai, the Chairman if the Federal Communications Commission who would rather feed corporate greed than protect the internet for all of us. This is what many, many people, especially young people, think of you, Ajit Pai.

Another Kansas Cop

At a time when America has already heard too much about trigger happy police officers, a pig in Wichita, Kansas tips the scale, yet again. In response to an anonymous call that came in from California, phoning in a false police report, the cops in Wichita arrived at what they thought was the address indicated, (it wasn't) and opened fire when the door was answered. Andrew Finch heard noises near his home, and opened his front door; it was that simple. He had no idea that the police were outside his house with weapons drawn. In less than thirty seconds after he opened the door for them, they shot him. It almost appears that they had planned, in advance, to shoot whoever opened the door when they arrived. His children were forced to leave the house and stand outside in frigid weather with no shoes, while these public servants ripped through the house in a frenzied search for anything that might exonerate the pig who pulled the trigger. They ended up taking the screen door. A very important piece of information that has not been shared with the rest of us is the name of the cop who committed this murder. According to police in Wichita, the whole incident was the fault of a prankster in California, who has since been apprehended. As Wichita Police Chief Troy Livingston sees it, none of this was law enforcement's fault or responsibility. While making false statements to law enforcement is a terrible thing to do, no one should have to worry that a cop is going to knock on the door and shoot to kill over something he or she was told by someone else.

Kurt Kerns, the attorney who represents Andrew Finch's family, has given this statement: ..While the family is pleased an alleged swatter was detained, the swatter did not shoot an unarmed man stepping out onto his porch.That was a WPD Officer. While the WPD has attempted to deflect the cause of death to a phone call- Andrew was killed by a bullet fired by an officer who clearly had no cause to fire.
 
Prank or no prank- no officer claimed to have seen a weapon before firing, and that fact alone makes this shooting reckless at best. The family remains hopeful that all responsible are brought to justice including the shooter.