title:  This Staggering Ruling Makes It Legal For Cops To Kill Unarmed, Homeless People (VIDEO)
text: A 43-year-old Cameroonian immigrant man was barely surviving on LA s infamous Skid Row when he was brutally gunned down by cops last year. Despite the victim being unarmed and vulnerable, the LA Police Commission has ruled this killing  justified.  Coming as it does, among a string of such killings, it seems it is now legal for LA cops to shoot unarmed, homeless people with impunity.Last March, Charly Keunang died after being shot six times by the LAPD. Officers claimed he was reaching for one of their guns, but a bystander video undermines this story. The LA Police Commission refuses to release their body-cam footage of the shooting, and the ruling seals the footage from public view permanently.As can be seen in the bystander footage, several cops charge into Keunangs tent while he is sleeping and begin swinging at him. He was known to be in a poor state of mental health, and it is little surprise at all that such a traumatic incident would have terrified him and provoked a fight or flight response. How might you react if you awoke with several men in your face who were hitting and dragging you? The cops then  reacted  to a crisis of their own creation.Members of the man s family are now suing the LA for $20 million.One would hope that a case like the horrific death of Charly Keunang would be unique. However, it is all too commonplace in LA. In September of the very same year, 37-year-old mentally ill homeless woman Norma  Angie  Guzman was gunned down by the LAPD too. Again, a mental health crisis was turned into target practice session by the LAPD.And it s not just LA. Over in Albuquerque, New Mexico, city police shot and killed 38-year-old homeless man James Boyd for the crime of camping in an unauthorized area of local foothills.In the same month, a cop in Miami shot and killed a homeless man in a public park. The man was well-known and liked by regulars of the park, and a maintenance worker at the park found it almost impossible to believe the officers account. He stated that the deceased man was a regular feature in the park with a routine: To sit down and go to the library and use the computer, read the newspaper, that s his thing every morning and wait for me to open up the door,  he said.  Man, for that to happen to a guy like that, no I don t understand that. This really is where the issues of under-investment in public services, and police brutality combine to create a perfect storm. Millions of dollars has been stripped form LA s homeless services budgets in the last five years, while homelessness has risen 12 percent in just the last two years. At the same time, mental health support services have also been cut. This means more people are on the streets, with less support, and when a crisis occurs  the police are getting called instead of mental health professionals.So while this is a problem for the police, it is also a matter for legislators and voters. If we want our streets to be safe, it serves us all to invest in the proper treatment and support of vulnerable people. While police and some civilians may perceive a homeless or mentally ill person as the threat, they are far more likely to become a victim of violence than to commit violence. Either from ruthless policing, or unscrupulous passersby. Featured Image via Screengrab