When a local cop is killed, the whole force is at risk. I just wish that when that (awful!) situation comes up, the whole force has their guns taken away and the feds take over until its resolved.
For that matter, this whole idea of “internal affairs”, trusting the force to police its own? Bankrupt. Call in a larger outside group to investigate. There is no incentive for local police to improve any other way.
Thirty years ago, a sheriff’;s deputy followed me home to my apartment’s parking lot and informed me that my license plate sticker had expired. I had moved into that apartment from my old address less than a month earlier, and the change-of-address machinery at the post office was even worse then than it is now. I showed the cop my notice-to-renew letter that I had filled out and sent in for my new tags, the remainder of which I carried in my van and told him as much, in a completely calm and reasonable manner - His response was to arrest me, handcuff me and throw in the back of the squad car, and threaten to kill me if I didn’t shut up. He then “explained” that, ever since a sheriff’s deputy had been killed during a traffic stop three years earlier,even with the killer having been caught and imprisoned, that the deputies were expected to take “all necessary precautions in all situations”.
Rather than get my head blown off by pointing out that they’d CAUGHT the guy who’d committed the murder, and that the odds of it happening again were nearly nil, or that handcuffs and a night in jail for an expired license plate might actually be an example of a cure being worse than the illness, I kept quiet.
Cops seeing themselves as scared little innocent victims of monstrous bullies, and therefore entitled to murder anybody who so much as draws their attention, did not abruptly start after 9/11. It’s only gotten much, much worse since then, and will continue to do so as long as they are trained to see themselves as the Imperial Guard, before whom we must all kneel - Instead of as public servants, who willingly and knowingly volunteered for a high-risk, stressful job.
Collateral damage against civilians (and even non-fatal collateral damage against other police) is acceptable and even encouraged - just add it to the charge sheet against the perpetrators condemned suspects
“They were resisting arrest, your honor, and they made me shoot up the neighbours house, striking a 5 year old in the throat and puncturing the lung of his babysitter”
“Yee har! Add two counts of manslaughter to the charge sheet!”
Bless you. I’ve been reading Boing Boing’s feed on a device that doesn’t support Disqus. On my main system, I’ve had to choose between the articles and the comments.
While the goober militia at the Bundy ranch rants about the dangers of the federal gubmint, we see stories almost every day about local cops wantonly blowing away unarmed citizens.
What? Bundy follows the idea that local cops are the ultimate constitutional authority? Well all righty then.
Suing and settlements have no deterrent effect. There are often lawsuits. There are often settlements. Nothing changes. Things will only start to change when the people responsible start going to jail. Immunity is the problem.
“…two Miami Dade police officers were hit as well – caught in the crossfire.”
Well at least there’s one bright spot.
And to think I used to be pro-police.
I know an ex-cop who laughs about the time he lightly beat up a protester only to find out later it was an undercover cop. I can’t figure out if that’s a loss - beating up a protester, or a win - beating up a cop.
this is a sociology experiment set to be tested for the ages.
as an experiment on morality, i would say it failed.
More “woe to the conquered” than “to serve and protect.”
What should happen is that all 23 do life, like any other gang-bangers would, and their department gets a federal investigation. What will happen is that the death of their definitely innocent victim will be added to the offenses ascribed to the victim who was suspected of criminal acts, and they’ll probably get commendations.
“As the smoke cleared, there was silence as we stared at the bullet ridden car. Suddenly in the back we heard Lt. Johnson shout, ‘The Aristocrats!’”
Huh - in my limited experience with da law, the Sheriff’s Dept was the most easy going. One time I pulled off the road to climb a large bank to look for fossils, and a Sheriff pulled over to see if I was OK/what I was doing. When it was all squared away he said something like “Good thing I didn’t notice your expired tags,” as he left.
ETA:
Actually cops are under no legal obligation to protect you.
Two can play at this whole skimming game thing. Also still doesn’t reallty justify that amount of firing. Next paragraph
And in fact, as CBS4 News was the first to report, both men inside the Volvo were unarmed at the time police caught up with them. All of the gunfire came from police.
[edit] Too quick to supply a link, didn’t notice the reply directly below you had the link. Doh.
Once again life imitates Idiocracy…
It is. Unfortunately, when this came out, a lot of American responses (admittedly, there were even more sensible ones) were some proud chest thumping how more badass American criminals were.
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how many bullets the standard issue gun given to these police officers holds? I’d like to get an idea of how many of them emptied their weapon then decided it was time to reload and keep shooting.
Even without knowing the standard issue side-arm (and many different departments were involved, so “standard issue” gets fuzzy) we can do a little speculative math.
377 rounds fired by 23 shooters is an average of just over 16 rounds each.
The standard issue side-arm for the US Army has a magazine capacity of 15. Even if every one of the shooters was armed with one these, and carried it with a round already chambered, somebody reloaded.
If just four of the shooters were armed with revolvers (6 shots), the average number or rounds fired by the rest jumps to over 18.
A powers distribution rule may likely apply here, something like the 80-20 rule. I would go so far as to speculate that a few “over-achievers” likely ripped through three clips (the one in the weapon at the outset, plus two spares) before all the shooting was over.
At nearly 50 rounds each, it wouldn’t take very many of the most trigger-happy to get the bullet count up to the obscene number recorded.
For the original question: “How many of them emptied their weapon then decided it was time to reload and keep shooting?”
At least a few, possibly many.
