Vinyard was in the vicinity of a gunshot victim when the off-duty Center Township (just minutes from Monaca) police officer John Hawk did indeed push Vinyard to the ground, and Vinyard did indeed die. There is cell phone video of all this, but I haven't found it yet.
I said "vicinity of a gunshot victim" because different articles describe Vinyard as "rushing to the victim's side" and "rendering aid", or approaching on-duty, uniformed police near the crime scene to offer evidence. The two scenarios seem mutually exclusive, but because the latter description is what the AG ultimately based their charges against Hawk on in late 2023, I tend to believe that.
The article just linked seems to contain the most cogent description of events on November 6, 2022, in Monaca:
The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office said Vinyard, 48, approached an officer who responded to a shooting scene to offer potential evidence he wanted to provide to police. The AG's office said Hawk, an off-duty Center Township Police Department officer in casual clothes, confronted Vinyard and "pulled him away from the officer."
The AG's office alleged that a short time later, Hawk struck the victim in the chest — while performing a leg-sweep maneuver — which knocked the Vinyard to the ground.
Vinyard was later pronounced dead at a hospital. A medical examiner concluded that the blunt-force trauma and accompanying stress contributed to Vinyard's death.
The AG's office also said that Hawk did not announce himself as a police officer and was not heard or seen announcing Vinyard under arrest. Hawk also did not have the authority at the time to arrest Vinyard, according to the AG's office.
Anyway - there's a ton of articles out there if you want to dig deeper on this case.
I couldn't stop myself. It's too often that "something written in Impact font over a picture" is just accepted as fact. It's no wonder that propaganda "works so well." And this one isn't even that bad. It's substantially true, even.
Memes aren't journalism, and it's important to do the work of fact checking, especially when the meme is rage-bait and/or something you're already primed to agree with.
Cop in Oklahoma slammed a 71 year old Vietnamese man, who barely understand English, into the ground (cops in OKC are really resentful of the “the gays, the Mexicans and the Asians”). He had a brain bleed and some other injuries. Oklahoma’s attorney general, who is the more “reasonable” pick for next governor between him and Ryan Walters, refused to press charges.
That’s been the point of the grandstanding. That or a Trump appointment (and ending Phyler v Doe/access to education for undocumented students). He was too stupid to realize that he wasn’t rich enough for Trump - even the Trump Bible grift wasn’t enough to get him the DOE nomination.
I don’t think Walters is going to win, but he effectively pulled the Overton window to make Drummond look like a “moderate.” Drummond will handily win, and I imagine even pull some Dems with the way he’s been trying to present himself as reigning Walters in.
My only hope is that someone gets video of Walters and one of his bosom buddies. “Sex, lies, and we wish we had a video tape” - to reference an illegal mailer in obscure local politics.
I will burn the state to the ground if he is elected. Guess I need to prepare myself to run for governor. No way can alllow either of those men run our state.
I have had no positive experiences with cops, even when asking for help, in earnest. One tried to fight me once while on duty. The worst person I know married a corrupt cop. I honestly think hating cops is just logical from my perspective, even if I didn't see videos and stories about the absolutely morally garbage things they do all the time.
I get what you're trying to get across but the meme format is not the best way to present actual information. How about linking an actual article instead?
They need to actually be held accountable directly and we need better training.
Oh and we need to have regular fitness testing. It blows my mind how many spherical cops I see. You think they are gonna chase someone or maybe just whip out the ol 9mm problem solver and start blasting?
Like I am in support of police from a societal need standpoint but the police we got right now ain't it.
Unfortunately it's easy for me to sit here in bed and point out all the problems. I have no idea how the fuck you even begin tearing down a problem that big with that many people involved across so many states. Like we would need to completely overhaul everything from the ground up.
KENNETH WAS AT WALMART WITH HIS FIANCÉ WHEN GUNFIRE ERUPTED IN THE PARKING LOT. INSTEAD OF CALLING 911, KENNETH BEGAN REDERING[sic] AID TO ONE OF THE VICTIMS UNTIL A MAN CAME OVER AND TOLD HIM TO STOP. SECONDS LATER THAT MAN, WHO IT TURNS OUT WAS A PLAINCLOTHES COP, SHOVED KENNETH SO HARD THAT HE FELL BACKWARDS, HIT HIS HEAD AND WAS RUSHED TO THE HOSPITAL WHERE HE DIED.
Basically don't share memes with badly researched text instead of articles. The actual facts are just as infuriating, its trivially dismissed for its flaws when again the actual facts are of vital import, and it trains stupid people to believe such posts when they are often used to spread lies.
This issue should be more known but this post should be more down voted.