North Carolina police have shot and killed a man, John Livingston, in a case that should send chills down the spines of Constitutional advocates everywhere. At 3:30 on Sunday morning, police knocked on Mr. Livingston’s door while looking for a man who no longer lived there. That was mistake number one — you don’t get people out of bed at 3:30 in the morning and expect them to act rational or normal. The police asked for “permission” to search his trailer; Livingston told him they couldn’t without a warrant. An eyewitness describes what happened:
Clayton Carroll told WNCN that his roommate, 33-year-old John Livingston was shot several times by a Harnett County Sheriff deputy during the incident.
Carroll says sheriff’s deputies knocked on their door around 3:30 a.m. Carroll said they were looking for someone that no longer lived there. When deputies asked Livingston if they could search the trailer, Livingston said “not without a search warrant,” according to Carroll.
Livingston then closed the door.
The cop then proceeded to kick in the door and beat Livingston. Whether or not he went for the officer’s taser is beside the point — the officer did not have the right to be there in the first place. This seems to be an effort to blame the victim after the fact. I believe Mr. Carroll over the officer because Mr. Carroll had every right to be there, while the officer did not.
The actions described by the Official Story (TM) do not match up to the person that his friends and family knew. A kid is without his dad and best friend because someone who is not fit to wear a badge showed up on his doorstep at 3:30 in the morning.
Livingston’s friends call him a very kind man and an incredible carpenter, they say he built the front porch deck a month ago for everyone to have a good time on.
The father of three is described as a hard worker and very loving.
“That’s the blanket I kept putting on him and telling him to breathe until he was gone because I knew he wasn’t breathing anymore,” said Bristol Edge, a friend, pointing to a blanket still on the blood-stained front porch on Sunday afternoon.
You can view pictures related to the shooting here.
Last night, a vigil was held in his memory attended by over 30 people. Said one friend:
“He’d give you anything he can to make sure that you’re comfortable. I really wish we’d all have to meet here for this reason and everything but it makes me feel good to know that you all cared about him as much as he cared about you all,” a friend of Livingston’s said as dozens of candles lit the darkness near the trailer where Livingston died.
Police brutality affects all of us. We can’t rest in the struggle against police brutality until it is no longer an issue anymore. Over 1,000 people have been killed by police this year, including people of all races. We can’t stick our head in the sand anymore and claim that it doesn’t affect us. I’ll let the mother of Mr. Livingston have the last word:
Livingston’s mother Kathy said “This police officer is at home, he gets to sleep at night, I don’t get to sleep.”