They have stingrays. They can just triangulate your cell and call it directly for free.
If they don’t use this 4th amendment violating equipment regularly, then the DoD might ask for them back instead of letting a bunch of armed thugs run around with them.
I suppose it’d be a better use for this kind of device than using it to spy on hundreds of people’s live location data, text messages and phone calls all the time.
SHOULD HAVE CHARGED YOUR PHONE, BUDDY
I SENT YOU A TEXT THAT SAID SHOW ME YOUR HANDS
I’m just saying, the over-equipped cops don’t have any trouble contacting people in houses. They all have bullhorns on their cars too. They could have easily yelled at her. It would have been quieter than a gunshot.
It’s just depressing seeing all the simple, easy, brain-dead low-effort solutions they could have gone to that don’t involve putting themselves in danger and wouldn’t have ended in anyone getting shot.
The cops want to murder people. That’s the point. They go to crazy effort in order to put themselves into situations where they think they can get away with it.
It didn’t for Amber Guyger, but yes, that could have been a one-off.
And under Texan law, as I understand it, it can’t be manslaughter, unless he argues he didn’t mean to shoot. It’s murder or nothing.
Thread on police accountability and the “but they risk their lives” line of propaganda:
Possession of weapons is legal in the US and the Castle doctrine applies in Texas
Since the policeman did not identified himself she had the legal right to shoot and kill him in any of the following
(1) knew or had reason to believe that the person against whom the deadly force was used: (A) unlawfully and with force entered, or was attempting to enter unlawfully and with force, the actor’s occupied habitation, vehicle, or place of business or employment; (B) unlawfully and with force removed, or was attempting to remove unlawfully and with force, the actor from the actor’s habitation, vehicle, or place of business or employment; or © was committing or attempting to commit an offense described by Subsection (a)(2)(B);
One could speculate that is why he didn’t enter the house.
One lesson from this is that you should not hire cast-offs from other departments. Saving a little money by hiring officer fuckup can cost you big in the long term.
And why didn’t his (presumably more experienced) partner try to influence their handling of the situation? “Let’s post up by the front door and announce who we are and ask the homeowner to announce back.”
The delta between how badass cops think they look in those SpecForcesOperatorOakleyDoakley glasses and how they actually look in those glasses is substantial.
I realize that’s a minor point compared to the subject matter, but holy shit is that a noticeable and unfortunate affectation for police to adopt.
This needs to be drilled into public consciousness: you NEVER call the police unless you’re willing to have random innocent people murdered for sport around you. This is a systemic problem, and they aren’t willing to address it or correct it, so you avoid invoking that system at all costs. We the people do not have leverage to adjust the “us vs them” problem. Owners of the system do. If they want to fix it, they can.
For an extra “bulletproof” defense, they can yell “gun gun gun.”
The way I see it (and I am not a lawyer) according to the Texas Law one only has to have a reason to believe that someone is attempting to enter unlawfully and with force before shooting and the actual break in does not have to happen…
Of course, this is what the law says, I would not want to be in the skin of a black woman that killed a cop in these circumstances.
My comment was in response to the police initial attempt to divert the public attention by saying she had a gun in the house.
It seems that in this case the police offices has had it, probably the fact that he was only in the force for 18 months has something to do with it, but in any case this was totally indefensible
“Not all cops…” LOL. But they run a system that allows in plenty who do wish to murder for sport, and a system that protects them and allows and encourages this. Shit system design makes this an “all cops” problem.
All of these white people calling the cops on black people while they are living while black are knowingly weaponizing the police. It’s basically swatting and should be prosecuted as such.
edit - just to add that this was not a case of a “concerned” white person calling the cops on a black person, but a genuine call from the neighbor for a welfare check because the door to the house was left open.
So TX has capital punishment, right? Why isn’t someone who murders an individual in their own home for no reason placed on that list?
Oh, right. White LEO.
BTW, I’m opposed to capital punishment even for the most repugnant crimes, but if your state is going to execute people, do it equally and fairly.
I gotta agree. If your state absolutely insists on killing murderers, then cops who are murderers shouldn’t be exempted.
Wow, that was quick. Have we finally turned a corner?
Sunglasses are an individual choice. I wear glasses like that. They help a lot reducing glare because of the way they wrap around; much better than the type that are just flat planes in front of the eyes. Those let in too much light around the edges. And in Texas in the summer there is way too much light.
And in some situations, there are sound tactical reasons for wanting to make it impossible for others to tell which way your eyes are pointed. Same reason why Secret Service agents wear them.
Dude, cops wear those sunglasses because they want to look TactiCool, and it’s part of the cosplay of the militarization of our police forces. Like the adoption of the Punisher skull, it’s a silly affectation that betrays something more sinister.
They think they look like this:
When they actually look like this: 
They should show that top pic to cops. Ask them if they think it looks cool, and if they want to look cool like that.
If they do, fire them.
