The people finally have spoken, unfortunately, in angry protests and hacking attacks.
On March 16, the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) authorities in New Mexico have shot a 38-year-old mentally ill, homeless man identified as James Boyd, said to have possible schizophrenic condition as well. The shooting came after a three-hour encounter with the victim in the foothills outside Albuquerque, after the victim has been found illegally camping there.
Further research says the victim has a history of violent crimes, and frequently claimed being on secret missions under the direction of former President Gerald Ford.
The incident between Boyd and APD officers has been captured on video and went viral. The video shows Boyd standing several feet away from the police officers while holding two knives. It also shows how the police shot the victim while the latter was about to turn away from them. The video allegedly captured the scene wherein Boyd agreed to go down the mountain with the officers as he picked up his belongings and took a walk toward the officers before they shot him. The police officers also shot beanbags at him and set free a police dog toward him, as he lied on the ground. The next day, Boyd died.
This has triggered the anger of the public, aside from the previous 37 shootings that killed 23 people by the same police department in the last three years. The 23-recorded killings have been considered among the highest per capita deadly police shooting rates in the country. The public has called these acts a history of excessive force by the said police department.
Around 1,000 demonstrators have marched to the Downtown headquarters of the APD on March 25, to protest the shooting and death of Boyd as well as other previous shootings recorded in the vicinity.
"Hey hey! ho ho! Killer cops have got to go!" the protesters have been shouting.
What was a peaceful protest over the latest police shootings has become a chaotic one. A clash between officers in riot gear and protesters has ensued after the latter has allegedly shouted anti-police slogans, committed vandalism and damages to property, blocked traffic and tried to get on freeways.
"We respected their rights to protest obviously, but what it appears we have at this time is individuals who weren't connected necessarily with the original protest ... they've taken it far beyond a normal protest," said Albuquerque mayor Richard Berry.
He claimed that an officer has been injured and that rocks have been thrown. He also said that protesters have trapped police in a vehicle and attempted to break the windows at one point. Other incidences such as throwing of canisters outside the headquarters by police officers, meanwhile, have been observed by witnesses.
The protest lasted for more than 10 hours, starting from the early afternoon of Sunday till late at night following an official announcement of the protest as unlawful by authorities.
Among the demonstrators seen on the scene were people wearing Guy Fawkes masks, which have come to be known as the symbol of Anonymous. It is a group of Internet hacktivists said to have targeted government websites following the video of Boyd, if it were to be based on the group's YouTube video posted that earlier called for the said march and threatened to interrupt local government websites.
The hacktivists frequently use distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks to bring down websites as a sign of protest. DDoS attack means flooding the website with more requests than the website can actually handle, occasionally by making use of bots and other tools, and therefore making the website unavailable.
Police spokesman Simon Drobik admitted the site has been hacked before 11 a.m. and has only been brought back late Sunday afternoon, yet he made no clear statements as to who was behind the attack.
The local government likewise justified the actions of its police officers toward Boyd's case. APD chief Gordon Eden said Boyd became a threat to one of the police officers. He also said a non-lethal force has been implemented earlier but to no avail.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has announced on March 28 that it has started its investigation of Boyd's case. The APD also has been under the watchful eyes of the Department of Justice for years, as the latter continues to investigate allegations of excessive use of force and complaints of civil rights violations.
