A woman with Asperger’s who posted a touching viral video with her service dog last summer has been shot dead by police.
Danielle Jacobs was killed by Mesa, Arizona, officers on Thursday after they arrived at her apartment for a suicide call around 11 a.m., her mother Stacia confirmed to the Daily News.
Police told local media that the 24-year-old came at them with a knife and they fired in self-defense.
Jacobs had garnered international attention last year for posting a courageous video where she sobs as her loving dog Samson provided comfort during a meltdown and used his paws to stop her hitting herself.
“This is what having Asperger’s like,” she wrote alongside the clip, and told the Huffington Post, “When I have a meltdown, I often have self-injurious behavior and I often self-harm.”
The video has been made private, though up until three days before her death she posted videos of the canine comforting her during outbreaks of anxiety.
So from what I’m gathering from the information given is: in this day and age, with all the resources afforded our law enforcement, they still choose to shoot rather than using a less lethal way to disarm a mentally distraught woman with a knife.
It’s like they were just reinforcing her suicide. She went at them with a knife knowing how they would respond because, she wanted to die. So that’s what happened. She brought a knife to a gun fight. There were other ways to take her down and get her help rather than shooting to kill.
NOTE: His name was Kayden Clarke. Kayden was a trans man, not a woman as the mainstream media is reporting. Kayden faced severe transphobia and had his access to testosterone blocked by his transphobic psychiatrist, who refused to prescribe it. Kayden Clarke was suicidal and depressed, weighed on by his gender dysphoria. He is a casualty of transphobia and ableism and police militarism, and the least we can do is respect who he was.
I reblogged this earlier, please reblog this version instead.
This is the first post I’ve seen about him on here and I’m honestly surprised (maybe even a little disappointed) that they’re aren’t more posts about him.
This was from around February 4th and I didn’t hear about it? I remember seeing the video with him and his dog and thinking, “God bless this person, God bless their dog, I hope they have all the help they need.” I’m totally heartbroken about this. That video went viral. Why didn’t I hear more about this until February 12th? Why?
NEW LAW MAKES POLICE CAM FOOTAGE OFF LIMITS TO PUBLIC
Motivated by the controversial police officer-involved shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota, and the terror in Texas that unfolded after a Black Lives Matter march, Gov. Pat McCrory signed the Body Cam bill into law.
Related story: North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper says body camera law needs fixing
McCrory signed House Bill 972 on Monday afternoon.
The new law details who can view and obtain footage from body and dashboard camera. The footage is no longer public record.
If you are in the video, either your image or your audio, you can request the file. The request could be denied, however, and then you’ll have to take the fight to Superior Court.
McCrory says technology can mislead and misinform.
“My goal is to protect those who protect us,” he said.
The Governor believes the legislation is fair for everyone.
“It’s better to have rules and guidelines with all this technology than no rules and guidelines whatsoever,” said McCrory.
The ACLU of North Carolina calls the legislation “shameful.”
“Body cameras should be a tool to make law enforcement more transparent and accountable to the communities they serve, but this shameful law will make it nearly impossible to achieve those goals,” said Susanna Birdsong, Policy Counsel for the ACLU of North Carolina. “People who are filmed by police body cameras should not have to spend time and money to go to court in order to see that footage. These barriers are significant and we expect them to drastically reduce any potential this technology had to make law enforcement more accountable to community members.”
The Governor’s Office would not comment on the criticism.
The law goes into effect Oct. 1.
Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison is backing McCrory’s move. He says what law enforcement encounters in the field is not for everyone’s eyes.
“A lot of groups think we should show everything from start to finish and we just can’t do it,” said Harrison. “They think we’re trying to hide something and that’s not what it is. But if we go into a house for a domestic (assault) and if the wife has been assaulted has been unclothed, we don’t want that on YouTube. We don’t want that out there.”
McCrory took another step Monday to protect officers. He established the Blue Alert System, which is to help catch anyone who intends on attacking or harming a public safety officials.
