Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/09/14/cop-fired-and-denied-severance.html
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This guys is a true hero, he save a life at the expense of his own career. He needs a Patreon to cover his expenses. I wish there was a fund for people like this that could receive a pension for good acts.
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Then two other cops showed up and shot the man dead. His gun was unloaded.
Another happy ending. Remember, guns don’t kill people, people kill people.
[note sadly the sarcasm]
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Fired for not exhibiting the cowardice of his superior officers. We have truly crossed the Rubicon and are fucked.
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Looks like there is a go fund me. It needs to be vets but here you go.
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I used to think the current state of American police forces was the result of failure to weed out the bad apples. Now I realize they were also sorting through the fruit basket and chucking out any good apples they came across.
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Appears to be “on behalf of” Kacie Mader (wife?)
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one good apple might have unspoiled the barrel, we can’t have that shit.
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After responding to a report of a domestic incident on May 6 in Weirton, W.Va., then-Weirton police officer Stephen Mader found himself confronting an armed man.
Immediately, the training he had undergone as a Marine to look at “the whole person” in deciding if someone was a terrorist, as well as his situational police academy training, kicked in and he did not shoot.
“I saw then he had a gun, but it was not pointed at me,” Mr. Mader recalled, noting the silver handgun was in the man’s right hand, hanging at his side and pointed at the ground.
Mr. Mader, who was standing behind Mr. Williams’ car parked on the street, said he then “began to use my calm voice.”
“I told him, ‘Put down the gun,’ and he’s like, ‘Just shoot me.’ And I told him, ‘I’m not going to shoot you brother.’ Then he starts flicking his wrist to get me to react to it.
“I thought I was going to be able to talk to him and deescalate it. I knew it was a suicide-by-cop” situation.
Mader was responding to a 911 call from Williams’s girlfriend. In that call, she told police that Williams was threatening to kill himself, not anyone else.
What Mader did upon arriving at the scene is a hell of a lot braver course of action than simply opening fire when the suspect doesn’t immediately disarm. What Mader did is in fact exactly what we want cops to do when someone is in crisis. It’s also precisely what law enforcement officers say they do on a daily basis — put themselves at risk in order to save lives. Mader should have been given a medal. Unfortunately, two more cops then showed up, and quickly shot Williams dead.
I wish I could say I was unsurprised by this turn of events.
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Aaaaaand once again, this is every Onion editor right now:
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Yup. Cops only make situations worse. Don’t call them. It’s flipping a coin on whether you’ll get someone who wants to actually help, or someone who wants to kill all the scary things. And even if you get a good one, their buddies can come in and fuck shit up anyway.
It’s not like this cop actually leaned on his police training. He was going off of things he learned outside the department. It even had a chance of working until some murderers came and executed standard police training on the suicidal guy.
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Cue Cypress Hill remix…
“Here is something you can’t understand!”
“How I could NOT kill a man!”
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Oh my god, this needs to happen. Does B Real have a Twitter account?
[three seconds later]
Yes. Yes he does. Someone with a Twitter account, tell him to get on this.
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Okay, so, the official reason Mader was fired, according to the chief of police, was that he put two other cops lives in danger.
Two other cops who PUT THEMSELVES into whatever line of fire there may have been, who continued on to thwart any hope of de-escalation.
And cops wonder why they’re targeted for shootings? The good ones (actually just the ones trying to do a good job) can’t even get a chance at doing good.
Fuck these corrupt systems. The police departments are there to serve and protect. Their sole purpose is to be the risk takers who try to make baf situations come out better. But the pig that runs the joint here places all of his men’s lives far above all the people that they are supposed to be serving.
It’s disgusting. They are such cowards it honestly disgusts me. Fire Head Pig In Charge and make Mader the chief. He actually was there to serve. Not to kill.
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I have nothing useful to say about the tragedy of the situation but cannot leave unsaid my esteem for this police officer. Why he’s not been exalted by and among his peers, used as an example in textbooks baffles me.
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Well it looks like we can all order up a reliable Suicide by Cop at any time, and regulations don’t allow them to fail to deliver. That could be useful in some scenario.
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You know that economics adage “Bad money drives out good”? Same goes for cops.
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Que Lewis Black: “Bllergghhhealll… what?!”
This has got to be some sort of satirical news site, right? Please?
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So: Newb officer is at scene, and has established somewhat of a rapport with a clearly disturbed individual. Tells person he’s not going to do anything drastic. Works to de-escalate the situation. Then two full-timers show up, and murder the disturbed individual, after which Newb is fired.
JFC, LEOs. Get your collective heads out of your collective asses.
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What a shame. I hope things work out for him. On a positive note, he was being paid a measly $34k to put his life in danger on a daily basis and work in the company of (apparent) assholes. Now there’s an opportunity for something better to come along.
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