Maybe this is my lack of expert law-ology training speaking; but is there really a band of âacting lawfullyâ that is 4.7 million dollars in damages wide? Either that puts the âtortâ in âtortured argumentâ, or itâs just a polite way of saying âwe can shoot you without personal consequences and at public expense, suckersâ.
I like the way the plod carefully moves in front of the dashboard camera before they open fire. Remembered his training. Shame there was another one.
It is about time someone put their foot down and took care of the public menace that is suspected bicycle thieves.
murderous pieces of shit. How long will you let this keep happening?
As long as violence is seen by the US society as the first solution to any problem.
In a war people die. See: War on crime. War on drugs. War on terrorism. War on (insert problem).
Dignity. This is a War on Dignity. Dignity is a very very dangerous weapon.
Indeed.
Article 1
(1) Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority.
http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_gg/englisch_gg.html#p0015
Getting shot by a camera carries a small; but not entirely negligible, risk of serious injury to your impunity. You have to watch what is watching your back out there.
By lawful they are really saying that if a cop says âI was scaredâ then he is lawfully allowed to kill you.
How about we make some laws and change that to a more reasonable standard that insists there must exist a clear and immediate threat to life before deadly force can be used.
If they arenât utter, utter cowards then they are utterly utterly inhuman (I donât like to use the word âevilâ due to its religious contations and comparing these people with animals or animal nature is not fitting, even though technically accurate).
4.7 million dollars is a lot of librarians.
Let me know when the murderers are arrested, ok?
Reminds me of yesterdayâs $5.9 million settlement with the family of Eric Garner, in which the city of New York âdoes not admit liabilityâ. In what way is paying out $5.9 million not admitting liability?
A sergeant responding to the call saw two men riding bicycles near the store. The men were friends of the man whose bike had been stolen and were helping him search for his bike.
Get your bike stolen, call the cops, get shot. Should I file this under irony?
Yawn
Yeah, we know you think Americans are nasty brutes. I know you think youâre offering a helpful observation, but Iâve seen you be superiorist in too many other threads to think you can see beyond your own prejudices.
For those playing police shooting bingo at home, remember that the âpolice acted lawfully/procedure was followed/shooting was justifiedâ square in the center of the bingo card is a free space every time you play because it is just about always uttered, even if a jury decides otherwise later.
$4.7 million settlement amounts to about $40,000 from each and every officer on the Gardena CA police force. Because the settlements are paid from a general fund itâs not the cops who are on the hook for this payment. But police training and increased supervision does come out of the police budget, so while there is little financial incentive to prevent these kinds of tragedies, there is a financial incentive to cut corners, which leads to these tragedies.
Requiring police officers pay a financial penalty when these incidents occur (i.e. the entire police budget being reduced by $4.7 million, or each officer assuming $40,000 worth of the settlement damages) is unrealistic. But I do think that financial incentives to increase training and reduce misconduct might actually work; set aside a pool of money worth 10% of the total payroll of the police force in a given town. Pay settlements out of that fund first and if it isnât spent in a given year, award the remainder as a bonus to the officers and supervisors. When police realize their $5000 x-mas bonus went to pay for Officer Krupkeâs abuse or killing of a civilian instead of in their pocket, you can bet there will be pressure in the department to avoid those kinds of incidents in the future, and there will be money asked for and spent on training and supervision.
I may be wrong but I get the impression that police training in the US is intrinsically militaristic. And that seems to be the problem right there. Somebunall police officers get a kick out of killing a âbad guyâ. They should perhaps be instructed to get a kick out of helping resolve a heated situation and going home at night (or in the am) knowing that theyâve contributed to keeping the peace. The thing is, I done this myself as a UK citizen, stopping fights between kids and downplaying the respective âslightsâ from different groups of lads. I acted on a whim and the result was: noone died that night. And Iâll be honest, I felt good about myself despite that not being my motivation to act. May I suggest that this would be an appropriate motivation to instill in US cops; ie to keep the peace and gain some joy and self-respect for doing so.
I wonder if most people who hate paying taxes/complain incessantly about wasted tax dollars feel this shooting was justified⌠those were some really expensive bullets. I joke, but those guyâs families have been changed forever for the worst. I hate that this country thinks that a pile of green paper rectangles can replace a human being.
