Posted at 2:11 p.m. and updated with better sound: The first version of the video we posted included a cacophony from talk radio (presumably playing inside the patrol car) in the left channel. We’ve removed the left audio channel in the video below so you can hear Officer Birk’s mic much more clearly as he gives commands to Williams and recounts the events to officers afterward.
Here’s the just-released, 17-minute video taken from the dashboard camera of Seattle Police Officer Ian Birk’s patrol car before, during, and after he fatally shot John T. Williams:
Just after 1:00 minute, the video shows Williams shuffling across the street—carrying a board and minding his own business—in front of Birk’s squad car. Birk jumps out and yells, “Hey, put the knife down.” Then Birk follows Williams out of the frame. After two more commands (audible while the men are off screen) there are shots fired that killed Williams. A woman is also shown crossing the street who appears to witness the whole thing from maybe 20 feet away.
After 2:00, Officer Birk says, “Ma’am, he had a knife and he wouldn’t drop it.”
At 2:30, backup cars arrive.
At about 3:00, a voice (probably Birk’s) says, “Yeah, I am okay. He had the knife open.” (The investigation has since said that police found the knife closed.)
At 5:10, another officer can be heard telling Birk, “You did the right thing. Hang in there, Ian.”
@99: Then allow me to speak some truth to you, since you seem to be shaken by the right of Americans to speak their mind and opinion on matters independently of court proceedings: fuck you.
As to Officer Birk: May the earth bless him with a life long enough to see the error of his ways, may his body curse him with the memory of that violent hand, may the courts join this curse and this blessing forevermore that he may be humbled into seeking forgiveness.
Shaken? Nah. Disgusted by the bigotry and immaturity of the comments, but neither shaken nor surprised. After all, all of you are perfectly willing to pass judgement on not just this officer but his entire department based on this one video. Fairly childish and silly, but there you have it.
Truth is something of which you clearly have no knowledge. (For your edification, ‘fuck you’ is not ‘some truth,’ at least not in the context you used. It is a command from an intellectually and emotionally retarded person with nothing more cogent to say or any authority to put his commands in action.)
‘Some truth’ will come out in the inquest and other investigatory proceedings. Until then people like you are just venting your hatred of of the basic rules by which we all live. I don’t know what happened on Aug 30th. Nor do you. What you know is the evidence of a snippet of video which in fact ‘shows’ only audio.
The rule of law works. It is what makes civilization possible. For instance, in this case this shooting has been ruled unjustified and Officer Birk has been asked to surrender gun and badge pending the outcome of the inquest. Without the rule of law we would all be like you, so many chimpanzees throwing their own scat at each other.
@102: Truth, my friend, is that someone died and people are upset. I don’t know how to make it any clearer to you, but there you have it. You can prattle on and on using your ill-fitting Victorian condescension for as long as you want, but in the end you aren’t going to be seen as a defender of the rule of law or the cops, you’ll be seen as the jackass who spit on a casket.
Or should I say, “I take umbrage at your equivocation, @102, it’s pure and unmitigated piffle and balderdash. You assume the mantle of law and order but obfuscate the simple order at hand of one man’s death and a questionable handling by the constabulary hence. It would behoove you to comport yourself in a more respectful manner unto those expressing dolor and dismay at the dispatching of a man that has heretofore been treated as a criminal by the officers of law when we’ve found ample cause to question the need for his removal from the mortal coil. I ask that you cease and desist your trite and feigned erudition and allow those with an ounce of respect for the dead to carry ourselves as one would do in such a case.”
@104: Seattleblues is a troll, don’t feed him. Trust me, if this were a video of an Indian shooting a cop, the last thing he’d be doing is urging everyone to remain calm and saying that a person is innocent until proven guilty.
Anyone who is not disturbed by this video is not human. Remember that Williams was also hearing impaired. And since when it is it illegal to walk down the street whittling a piece of wood with a Swiss army knife? Isn’t the first badge we give to Cub Scouts their whittling chip? What, it’s illegal to do that in public?
Seattleblues and Supreme Ruler, are you sure you want the government to have the authority to stop you if you’re whittling on the sidewalk? Are you familiar with the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution? Is that really the kind of country you want to live in? Or is it that you want cops to have the authority to detain “other” people who are whittling on the sidewalk?
you who criticize all police based on the actions of a few are no better than republican hacks who think all muslims are terrorists because of the actions of a few.
double standard much?
@106: Heaven forbid you read the whole thread
use your eyes and ears. look at the video again with just your eyes and ears. from the 1:00 to 2:00 minute mark.
who is aggressive. who is passive.
who is shot, in the back, not the front, in less than 4 seconds.
also, out of curiosity, I just measured my big toe, on my right foot. it’s 2.5 inches long.
was Williams really on his way to commit a murderous rampage in downtown Seattle with a blade a 1/2 inch bigger than my toe?
Is it illegal to own a carving knife now? Is it illegal to have a knife out in public and carving on a piece of wood? or is it just illegal to be a black man in public still?
5:06 – “He was carving up that board with it, he kind of turned towards me”.
@89:
To whom was the knife a threat?
To this point in all the discussions, there does not seem to be any evidence whatsoever that Williams actually threatened anyone with the knife, was doing anything dangerous with the knife, or said anything to anyone that would indicate he intended to do anything with the knife at all.
There were in the video a number of pedestrians and a large number of vehicles, and nobody anywhere seemed threatened by a man carving a board while crossing the street in a crosswalk.
He wasn’t yelling anything, he wasn’t brandishing the knife at any pedestrians or vehicles, and he wasn’t waving the knife around in the air.
The closest I can really come to justifying the shooting is that the officer knew he had a knife, and in theory Williams was close enough to turn around and lunge at the officer with a knife. Except that there was no evidence at all that Williams did that or intended to do that, nor is there any history of Williams doing that or threatening to do that to any officer or anyone in the past that would have been pertinent to the officer’s appraisal of danger.
If the officer had stayed in his car and turned the corner and drove in front of Williams it would have been different.
If the officer hadn’t walked behind him and come up close to him, you couldn’t even invent the “well he was so close he might possible have done something maybe” excuse.
Here is the Seattle Police Department handling someone who was wielding a SWORD and clearly threatening people with it. They would have been very justified in shooting this man, yet they didn’t:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ayd0fbtE_…
Interesting that this video was released on a Friday afternoon the weekend before Christmas.
Someone wants it to go by unnoticed.
Un-fing-believable. When an uprising comes, the people that protect the worst traitors to the public ( bad cops) should be the first ones sent packing. One thing I have seen mentioned on here is that bevause our social system lets people like Williams slip through the cracks, he was deprived of the bssic human respect he would have gotten had he been mentalky stable and conformed to what this idiot cop considered normal. We need to reel in the police and strengthen our social programs. This is not supposed to happen in the “idea” of America, but the reality is now on the web for all to see….murder, plain and simple.
Notice how many of the pigs have shaved heads like a membership requirement of some bully boy nazi club. Typical of punk males wishing they had real testicles between their legs instead of needing to rely on a lame substitute for them sewn onto their jacket or pinned to their shirt.
Why didn’t an ambulance arrive with the police cars?
This is why you always do what a cop tells you. Even if it’s the most rediculous thing and against your rights, do it. Cops have real guns with real bullets. Just hope that unlike Mr. Williams, you have time to process those instructions before you’re dead on the ground.
@117: If someone behind you says “Hey hey hey, put your hands in the air” are you always going to put your hands in the air? Or are you going to turn around first to see what yokel is yelling at you (or possibly yelling at someone else)? Decide quickly, you only have a few seconds before that someone pumps four shots into you.
This makes me sick in the stomach. No wonder why there is so many people in the world that are anti America. America cops all a bunch of cowboys 🙁 ….. Can anyone tell me what punishment the officer got?
That fucking officer fired enough shots to be sure that innocent man wouldnt be able to tell his side of the story.I hope that cop rots in hell
Police paranoia. With just a knife, the solution is to kill…
MURDER
“Why didn’t an ambulance arrive with the police cars?”
Posted by Terry on December 18, 2010 at 1:17 AM
This is precisely the question that struck me, too.
My thoughts go out to Williams family and loved ones.
It’s starting to spread virally, I hope the SPD are shitting their pants right now, this thing is world-wide and white-hot. You are “foooked”.
Iz dat sum freeeeeeeedom? Stupid Americunts.
MURDER. MURDER.
The SPD are harboring killers and thugs among their number.
@119 et al
I have a home in Italy at which my family spends a couple of months a year. When there we frequently take short trips into Germany or Austria.
If I were to pick a place in which to run afoul of the law I would pick the United States. (Or you could always just obey the damn law and not have to deal with law enforcement at all. But that would just be silly!) In Italy I’ve had a carabinieri step in front of our car and do a document check. We weren’t doing anything wrong, and got no ticket. He was just bored and wanted to push someone around. Look at Amanda Knox, who was beaten by police during interrogation (without a translator, attorney, rest, food or bathroom breaks for 14 hours.) She was recently tried for using that interrogation as a defense in her murder trial. Never mind that in fact that she had been beaten by police. In Italy truth is not a defense when accused of slandering public officials. How about the journalist Spezzi in Florence who together with Douglass Preston was railroaded by Italian police and prosecutors and even accused of murder for following a story and being critical of a botched serial murder investigation? In Germany I watched a man physically thrown by an officer for refusing an order to move out of the way. No arrest, no warrant, he just picked the man up by his lapels and chucked him into a bush. I take each of my nieces and nephews on a month long tour of Europe for graduation and give them this advice- You are in a foreign country without the civil rights you enjoy in the United States. If ordered to do something by an official, just do it. See, I don’t want them to sit in a British or French or German jail cell for a year waiting to be charged, never mind go to trial.
So to all of those anti Americans posting- I wish you a very merry Christmas and a prosperous new year. If you don’t like this country you are cordially invited to stay out of it.
Nice try, but nope. The SPD and county prosecutors are investigating a crime in the same way they would if you were accused of criminal behavior. Offcer iBirk has surrendered badge and gun, and a review board has judged this shooting unjustified. Sure, since he is law enforcement union regulations change some of the steps and some of the presumptions. So what? Officer Birks will face an inquest and whatever follows just as you or I would. All of you would lynch the man without giving him the due process that apparently Mr. Williams, tragically, did not receive.
For all of you who hate the police just because- Please don’t call them when your home is burglarized, or when your daughter calls in panic at a college bus-stop on account of the creepy guy stalking her. Please hire personal security to patrol your neighborhoods. When the idiot 16 year old with the souped up Honda barrels down your residential street at 50 narrowly missing your kids on the bikes, don’t call the cops. That road raging jerk who just pulled a pistol after nearly forcing you off the road? Your problem, but don’t call the State Patrol.
Not all cops are good people, and some are downright bad people. With 1300 or so officers in the SPD, even with screening and reviews some will slip through. This is why we have disciplinary divisions within the police, and courts where these fail. All of you have the freedom to slander the vast majority of public minded decent officers keeping your streets safe. I respect that freedom, but not the use you make of it.
@128: No, you lost, you’re an asshole and you’re trying to take a high road you can’t even reach. Fuck off.
@115: You can fuck yourself up the ass with a cactus dipped in hydrochloric acid. My uncle’s a cop with a shaved head.You know why he shaves his head? Because he’d rather have a shaved head than show off his male-pattern baldness all over the place. Go eat a bag of horse dicks and choke on them. Yes, I’m a wee bit mad.
@129: Baconcat, the good Seattleblues is sadly impervious to logic. Don’t get all worked up about him.
@128: How ya doin’ there, Bullet Head? You know, we’re not calling for Birk to be lynched. We just want him brought to justice, and we think, based on the evidence, that justice entails him going to college for a graduate degree in making license plates. You can support the police and still go after the bad apples among them, for your information.
@130
‘Fuck you’ is now a syllogism? I mean, I know that it’s the only response the average liberal has when losing an argument, but that hardly places it on the footing of ‘logic.’ You might retake that course, if that’s all you gleaned from logic 101.
What evidence? Or aren’t they teaching ‘innocent until proven guilty’ at your university? See, back when I was being educated this was considered a cornerstone of American criminal law. Since the libs took over the universities, I guess that’s changed. So what’s the standard now, young man? We don’t like cops, so they’re all guilty before a trial? One cop apparently
comitted a crime, so they’re all criminals. Oh brave new world….
You know what, you seem to be a bright boy. Probably with some life experience and the completion of your education you’ll gain a bit of wisdom to leaven your intelligence. Until then, some courses in reading comprehension might be to your advantage. I clearly and frequently wrote that the problem isn’t potentially prosecuting this officer. If he broke the law, if he murdered someone, he will pay for it. The problem is that you and your buddies here are calling for exactly the same lack of due process you believe Mr. Williams received.
tried to watch this a 2nd time but thought i’d vomit.
(where is that woman now?)
128/Seattleblues: Offcer iBirk has surrendered badge and gun, and a review board has judged this shooting unjustified. . . All of you would lynch the man without giving him the due process that apparently Mr. Williams, tragically, did not receive.
Many people here, myself included, merely feel what the review board has concluded: the shooting (and killing) or Mr. Williams by Officer Birk was unjustified.
You are (or certainly seem to be) confusing having opinions about a person’s actions with wanting to deprive them of due process. Just because someone feels that Officer Birk is guilty of murder (or manslaughter) it hardly logically follows that they want to lynch him without a trial.
Anyone else notice how well behaved the bums have been recently?
@131: Who said “fuck you”? You’re imagining things, Seattleblues.
When I refer to evidence, I’m talking about the findings of the review board, the revelation that the knife was found closed, and the extremely short time elapsed between the orders given and the shots fired.
Anyone in this country who hates the police is an idiot. Anyone who approves of the police, but thinks that it’s a crime for the state to tax its citizens is a hypocrite. I’m not saying that anyone is; I’m just throwing that statement out.
The law says he’s innocent until proven guilty. I think he’s guilty, based on my assessment of the facts, and I think the law will agree. Are you saying that we shouldn’t express our opinions until the case is decided?
And for the record, until we “libs” took over the universities, Jews, homosexuals, blacks, and Asians were generally not allowed to study alongside you Real Americans, and any science professor who gave mention to the theory of evolution through natural selection might be in danger of losing his job. Conservatives of the past century or so don’t have a very good record in terms of academic integrity.
You murdered an innocent man.
Fuck.You.Ian.Birk.
114 um just what uprising would that be , who would be in it , and who would be the target in that up rising exactly? just curious.
Rich Oneil from the police guild should be charged with rendering criminal assistance. He made up the false statement that birk signed back at the clubhouse. He’s twice as guilty as Ricky Hinton. Ian Birk is a cold blooded killer.http://www.flickr.com/photos/soggydan/5124701233/
This is horrible. FUCK THE POLICE
@139: You mean this?
Do Americans really believe the national anthem ?
Would those that do please wake up now that there are dozens of countries those two lines describes more accurately than the USA.
Home of the brave. (yeah brave cop)
Land of the free. (free to walk the streets without fear)
Can you relate? We’re living in a police state.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7FJ4AvdT…
every person who feels Birk must be vigorously prosecuted should write a strongly worded letter, followed up with a phone call- it’s possible public pressure would make it impossible to not file charges. Anyone who OKs Birk’s behavior by inaction gets the government and the police force they deserve. Unfortunately, the rest of us have to put up with it too. So please, everybody take a few minutes and do your part…
Contact Mayor McGinn: http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/citizen_res…
Contact SPD OPA: https://www.seattle.gov/police/OPA/Compl…
Contact federal officials who review such incidents: Thomas Perez
Assistant Attorney General
United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division,
Special Litigation Section
950 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20530
Honorable Jenny Durkan
United States Attorney
700 Stewart St.
Seattle, WA 98101
Inquest begins January 10, 9AM. King County Courthouse.
@135
You referred to the erudite rebuttal offered at 131 when pointing out my so clear lack of ability to be logical. The sum of that rebuttal appears to be ‘I know you are, but what am I?’ followed by a ‘fuck you.’ Yes, I realize that this is the height of logical form for most liberals, so I guess I AM ignorant of logic if this is logic.
For the rest, since I see no disagreement you show with the bigotry and hatred of the police displayed here in post after post, I assume you share it.
Re 138
Any, you know, proof of that allegation? No? Huh.
What you just did is called libel (or slander, depending on whether venting a hateful and ignorant if not actually intentionally dishonest opinion on some blog is publishing or speaking.) If Rich Oneil has any sense he’ll sue you for whichever fits best.
Re 141
Then move to one of those ‘dozens’ of countries which are in your opinion fit the lines better.
Re 142
You’re a racist and a fool. The ‘music’ you linked to is ugly chanting to a cannned drumline with no actual musical content. People like those who created this ‘music’ are much of the reason for lingering racism in caucasions incapable of separating scum like that out from law abiding hard working minority populations. Like all hip hop it has more connection to the mindless rhyming of a 4 year old child to no particular rhythm or harmony than to Bach or even Springsteen. Heck the violent kenetics of Black Sabbath come closer to music than the trash that is hip hop. Sorry, a correction is in order. If an angry, deeply psychotic and violent 4 year old misogynist child was mindlessly singing to himself, it would sound like this hip hop. Thank God libs don’t have charge of children until kindergarten, or such a child might possibly exist.
Seattleblues, you’re a fucking pathetic excuse for a human being. Die in a fucking fire.
He gave his reason why he shot the man, because he had a “knife” and wouldn’t put it down”…
As an innocent man walks across the street, what threat did he impose on the “officer” or more importantly, the public? As the man was trying to continue on with his life, why was he shot down?
Then to find out the knife was closed, again what threat did he impose on the “officer” or the public?
Is it alright for “officers” to shoot us citizens down now a days?
How do we defend ourselves against this? Are we safe?
Seattlebullshitblues: “The SPD and county prosecutors are investigating a crime in the same way they would if you were accused of criminal behavior. “
Bullshit. If you or I were accused of MURDER, we would be in JAIL! Ian Birk is NOT IN JAIL where he belongs!!!!! Other than that, I find you to just generally be full of shit.
If we were indicted for murder and were either refused or could not raise bail then yes, we would be in jail, as would Officer Birks.
Since Officer Birks has not actually been charged with a crime he isn’t now in jail. After the inquest on January 10th that may change. There are differences in initial process between you or I and law enforcement for very good reasons that are established within the law. I don’t have time to educate you on basic civics and jurisprudence. However, you hate the police, are willing to judge them and this officer on the basis of a few seconds of video and aren’t intelligent enough to understand these concepts anyway.
I get that in the fuzzy vague half light that is a liberal mind concepts like rule of law, due process, innocent until proven guilty and so on are subjective. I understand that you believe them to be applicable only to rapists or minorities or traitors like Bradley Manning or valueless scum like Julian Assange. For those of us with a grasp on reality these terms do apply to miscreants who aren’t law enforcement. But they also apply to those in the law enforcement community charged with crimes. The standard isn’t ‘do I like the accused?’ but ‘is the accused due a day in court like any other person?’ Again, I know that liberals don’t get this, but there you have it.
Incidentally, I love the well reasoned arguments against providing this officer with the same treatment any of you would want in similar circumstances.
My basic premise has been the following-
Officer Birks looks to have comitted a crime, based on a few seconds of video in which neither man is actually in camera range. Within standard police investigative procedure he was judged to have fired his weapon without justification. He now has neither badge nor gun and cannot act as an officer of the law until the facts are established by the normal rules of evidence any of us would insist on were we in similar straits. An inquest is scheduled into the tragic and possibly criminal death of John Williams. If the inquest finds criminal intent, Officer Birks will likely face charges of at least manslaughter, if not murder. The law is doing what the law is supposed to do in these cases. Failing the ability to bring Mr. Williams back, all it can do is dispassionately investigate the incident and dispassionately prosecute a crime if one occured.
To which the responses have been adolescent, at best. ‘Fuck you’ stands in for rational dispute, while ‘you’re full of shit’ is somehow intended to refute any of the above.
The reason America is a center right nation is that liberals are so manifestly paralyzed in maturation. Your beliefs, reasoning abilities and maturity levels are those of a 13 year pothead rather than a adult citizen. Accordingly, you are in the minority politically and will remain so until you grow up.
Seattleblues- while you are being quite logical, your “you libs…” comments are equally if not more immature than the “fuck yous” you reference.
Take your own advice and grow up.