I know the cop did the deed, but fuck the person who made the call to begin with. You wonder if that person feels justified or remorseful? I assume the former because you’re not going to call the cops unless you think their particular authoritarian solution is one you’d want to see carried out.
Right here, in our online community we have @cepheus42 ‘s story which could have gone just as sideways as it did for Ward. That is insane and I hope those kids had decent parents and got way more than suspended. They should have at least done some community service so they can learn to be decent people instead of assholes.
Anyone who thinks calling the cops on somebody is not inviting a potentially dangerous outcome for all parties is a fucking idiot, insecure about their own power they have to act out with someone else’s authority. Authority that gets people killed.
I have so little faith in humanity I can’t even give the person who made the call any benefit of the doubt.
It always embarrassed Samuel Vimes when civilians tried to speak to him in what they thought was “policeman.” If it came to that, he hated thinking of them as civilians. What was a policeman, if not a civilian with a uniform and a badge? But they tended to use the term these days as a way of describing people who were not policemen. It was a dangerous habit: once policemen stopped being civilians the only other thing they could be was soldiers.
not just illegal but a capital offense subject to summary execution
i mean actually arresting people is a lot of work amirite just shoot the guy let the paramedics and the lawyers figure it out he was reaching for my gun you just can’t see it on the video trust me
These fsckers are trained to say those words in order to justifymurder… as well as to claim they were “in fear for their/others lives” if it ever goes to trial.
End the concept of ‘qualified immunity’. These people aren’t special. Nor are the politicians that use q.i. to insulate themselves from consequences for their own actions.
Do away with all police unions. They can join the same union the rest of the municipal employees use… and that’s all they are: employees.
DISARM them. That will weed out lots of the bozos that have Dirty Harry fantasies…
Instead of defunding them, divert part of their budget for appropriate mental health profeeeionals to be on call 24/7.
No, it’s not 'normal.
It is, and always has been far too common.
Your sentiments about this shit are what is normal.
As far as TPTB are concerned, those ‘bad apples’ are a feature, not a bug.
Just another part of the Prison Industrial Complex in this country.
A friend was horrified that I paid $2 for club soda & lime juice - what he called “civilian prices” - at a performance/art/bar space we frequently frequented. The ‘we’ being myself, him, and his GF (my best friend since 1984). She does promo for and books music/art shows/performance art shows there V often; her BF MC’s a number of the variety act/burlesque nights, and I help set up, play gofer, give superb backrubs to everyone who needs 'em, take over or help at the door when needed, etc - a dogsbody as the Brits would say. He felt that earned me free soda everywhere we did shows
Just consider the masses of other “police” that are just standing around, doing nothing to assist, but watching the “bad apple”.
.
This would be the same as the driver, sitting in the escape vehicle during a robbery. Hey, they’re not doing anything; they’re just there! Perfect parallel, yes? ; so… hey, accomplice charge? Pffff… they’re just there! They didn’t know what was going on in the bank, quickie shop; etc…
.
These darn random bad apples! Gosh darn them all.
The danger was loosing evidence of an illegal drug, which would have allowed asset seizure of the vehicle.
Sheriffs departments are the same now as in (mythic) Medieval England - “tax” collectors for their own enrichment and the intimidation and displacement of “undesirables”. They literally reference those myths in their own literature.
In a world where cops have taken suspects to the hospital for all kinds of invasive procedures in the name of the war on drugs, and one in which there are many tests to determine the presence of drugs, the real danger is people losing their lives because of cops who have lost their common sense. They’ve had empathy and concern for the rights and safety of others trained right out of them (assuming they had any at the beginning). It’s a “shoot first, and sort out the details or cover story later” culture that’s been created. Now that is something we’re now struggling to stamp out among the “civilians,” too.
argue with the black activists who coined that particular phrase, i guess. i think it helped push the question straight into the mainstream, got every single news outlet talking, and a lot of white people asking the question: “wait, what’s wrong with the police?”
from that aspect i think it was a success. discomfort and alarm bells for people who don’t normally give a single thought about police violence? honestly, it’s about time
If the discomfort from watching people being executed for no good reason isn’t enough to promote the need for change, there are also plenty of examples here showing how lawsuits caused by killer cops cost taxpayers a lot of money.
And it’s worse than that, as they also write reports that back up the “bad apple’s” mischaracterizations of what happened, too. At some point the passive support becomes active support. (And if it doesn’t, they get kicked out of the force.)
Cops intent on asset seizure don’t even need that, though. Much street-level asset seizure happens without any charges being filed, or even any justification at all.
I’m not expecting principled consistency here; but if the situation were really so dangerous as to justify this guy’s conduct wouldn’t that be a good reason to wash out, rather than decorate, a cop who can’t even manage to fire a pistol a few times without hurting himself?
As a display of pure tribal wagon-circling it isn’t a huge surprise; but it seems like a terrible look either way: if the shooting is unjustified you obviously don’t reward someone for it; and if the shooting is justified you are dealing with a threat level that makes someone who can’t even use a sidearm without needing someone to kiss it better for them pathetically useless.
common sense. They’ve had empathy and concern for the rights and safety of others trained right out of them (assuming they had any at the beginning). It’s a “shoot first, and sort out the details or cover story later” culture that’s been created. Now that is something we’re now struggling to stamp out among the “civilians,” too.
