Timothy Lemuel is with Sage Ortiz and 2 others.
I found a reddit that had a heated discussion about the stuff that happened at Ruby the other night. An anonymous officer respectfully lent his opinion. I responded to a statement that I walked away slowly from the riot control weapons fired at me and therefore it didn't look like it was a big deal for us. I don't ever get on reddit, but I wanted to get this message out to whomever did fire on us the other night. Hopefully my parking citation comment doesn't screw up the intention here. I'm just really angry. Share if you know somebody who can help here.
"I walked away slowly because I am an air assault artillery vet of 8 years and I had my NBC mask on me. My companions ran for their lives, screaming. They have never been fired upon. Whatever trust they had remaining for local law enforcement was lost during this incident. Not all volunteer medics are ready for that sort of thing, can we agree? Shouldn't really need to be ready for the cops to shoot at you. Might I also add that these were queer folks, a marginalized group that already has to actively avoid being attacked just living their day to day lives.
I own a business. I was there during normal operating hours. I was on my lot and kept my friends contained within the lot. We had been there for 7 hours. The deputy sheriffs could have, at any point, come over to see what we were doing or voiced their concern. This basically sums up the reason folks are mad. No thought what-so-ever what put into the decision to come at us guns blazing. I just don't think they are trained to handle situations that are elevated above a simple parking citation. I also think they had no business using riot control cs, tear gas, firing foam batons, or whatever blanks they fired. I was out the day before and witnessed so many officers shooting grenades at civilian's chests and heads. I witnessed so many officers with poorly sealed masks, so many cs rounds shot against the wind. It was a scary thing to watch so many inexperienced men and women using riot control weapons. Like out of a movie where a lot of people get hurt because training was rushed.
I decided to say something to add some context and explain what I believe was another example of a very publicly known problem. Somebody apologize, admit the system needs work, and start working on it. Why is there seemingly no checks and balances within law enforcement? Thanks for reading. I am up for conversation with the folks involved. I'm certain they have my info."
The link to this reddit is
https://www.reddit.com/r/raleigh/comments/gul9w0/raleigh_police_firing_at_the_owner_of_ruby_deluxe/
Specifically
https://www.reddit.com/r/raleigh/comments/gtylkb/downtown_destruction_from_riot/fsjkex1/
To clear up a thing or two. It appeared to be those big prison riot blanks and we found some exploded pepper bbs. The statement listing”riot control cs, tear gas, firing foam batons” was just a list of what I witnessed being used throughout the weekend. What types of riot control ordinance/agent/munitions used at my bar was not the key point here. They fired on my queer/medic companions without any attempt to communicate after having 7 hours to do so. That is my point.
