Judge set to toss lawsuit from police officers over Black Lives Matter mural

Glad to hear it.
Justice will be served.

This is a petty lawsuit that should never have been filed in the first place.

California Dreamin' is spot-on. First Amendment, anyone? If I filed suit every time my feelings were hurt by someone, I would be in debtors' prison by now!

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So glad this finally happened.

User note: One-word comments like "Finally" are unacceptable and get rejected.

As a white resident, I saw the mural as an "artistic expression" of the painters. Not everyone agrees with every "artistic expression" or even with what constitutes "art". But I do defend your right to express.

If, per the officers' attorney, African-Americans were (for once) favored over non- African American city employees, including non-African-American police officers; i say FINALLY. LONG TIME COMING!!!!!

But please note the "alleged favoritism" was only for several months. Now unfortunately, back to "normal".

The mural is gone; the killing of Black people in America continues.

Seems like the officers missed a great opportunity for serious introspection.

WOW! If I feel discriminated against by a colorful mural, how would it feel to have negative images of yourself, especially as a young Black man, projected against you your entire life? Judged FOREVER by the color of your skin; not by who you are?

A great learning opportunity .....missed.

Thank you Judge Manoukian. Now could you please award legal fees to the City.

Right on Rita!

I can't help but wonder if the officers expected to prevail. I think they were sending a message. Maybe they're sick of people trying to control the police. Palo Altans are only hurting themselves when they refuse to let the police do their job. The police are the main political target for the left, far left. It gets old. A long time ago.

I still say that the roadway is not the place for art. Roads are for traffic and should be left untouched so that stripes and other road instructions can be seen easily and without the hindrance of distraction. I doubt if autonomous vehicles can appreciate the message when they can't observe the important information expected in stripes and other essential road details.

"Maybe they're sick of people trying to control the police. "

The police are supposed to be controlled, they're not a law unto themselves where they can do whatever they want. If police officers can't do their job without abusing the population, they should find a different job.

They're supposed to be held accountable, not controlled by a certain political leaning who want to defund the police, etc. There's a difference. If citizens can't be law abiding that's their fault. Not the police.

Jennifer, Officer Andrew Hall was convicted of murdering an unarmed mentally ill man in Danville last autumn, two and a half years after shooting to death another homeless, mentally ill man.

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In 2015, a mentally ill man wielding a table knife was shot and killed by police here in Palo Alto.

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You have been heeding too much right-wing propaganda. We liberals actually don't want to defund the police. We want to diversify police hiring to include psychiatric experts and social workers to prevent the needless killing of the mentally ill by police.

Mental illness is not only not a crime but also no excuse for imposing the death penalty as the result of a call to police.

I am very glad to hear it. The case was specious from day one.

Their first charge, that the New Black Panther Party logo was incorporated into one letter, did not hold up to examination. (Go look up the logo and see if you can find it on the mural. I tried. It wasn't there.) Their second, that the mural made a cop-killer a hero, holds little water for anyone who knows much about the case against Assata Shakur. She *was* convicted of killing a police officer, but the preponderance of medical evidence supported her version of the incident.

As a supporter of the movement for black lives, I want ALL citizens, including police officers, to respect the rule of law and to be held accountable when they violate it. I thought that that hope was beautifully expressed by the artists who created this mural. I don't need the police to agree with my take on all political questions, but I do worry about the impartiality of officers who look at this affirmation of the beauty and dignity of black lives and see a "hostile work environment."

If you ignored testimony and only looked at material evidence in the Assata Shakur case, you would reach the conclusion that she was shot with her hands up without having fired a weapon. On the basis of officer testimony, she was convicted of killing a police officer. If she were on trial today, after the advent of ubiquitous cell phone video has pierced our illusions about the prevalence of police misconduct, she doubtlessly would have been acquitted.

I understand why PAPD, which has faced several brutality and abuse cases in the last several years, were triggered by her image --but in filing this suit, they were telling on themselves.

@vmshadle The next time a suspect is charging, screaming, at our officers in the dark with a knife raised. I hope the officers keep a cool head, call a time out and look for the sign around the individual’s neck indicating they are mentally ill and their diagnosis. Baring that, perhaps they could sit in the street and fully evaluate prior to getting a butter knife in the neck.

We wonder why our pd is gutted and can’t even field a traffic team. I suspect even more will move on to saner (no pun) cities.

If I were a Palo Alto Police Officer, I would feel disrespected by the mural and also some of the comments here. I believe in free speech, in artistic expression and do not support censorship of any kind. However, where street art is concerned, common sense should inform us as to where that art should be appropriately placed. We would not support frightening images, violent images etc for public areas. The PAPD has every right to bring this forward for discussion, especially since the reality here is that policemen and policewomen lose their lives every single day in this country, and their position is an extremely vulnerable one. If 6 people felt 2 of these images were inflammatory, they have every right to speak up.

Sorry, John, but our police and dispatchers have shown themselves to be woefully undertrained to spot illness, including seizure symptoms.

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Furthermore, sarcasm about reading imaginary signs around the mentally ill does NOT excuse the murders that result. The victims and their families deserve considerably more respect and sympathy than you offer.

vmshadle, so more training and pay for the officers, in order to make them capable of infallible streetside diagnoses, something even trained physicians cannot reliably do? You really do live in a fantasy world.

John, I have worked in health care for 35 years. I know what I am talking about. Do you? Why so snide?