Off-duty cop drags kid into his yard, draws and fires gun

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/02/23/off-duty-cop-drags-kid-into-hi.html

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Thankfully, he missed.

Oh brother, when we are thankful for that, well we’re in trouble.

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Seriously. WTF?

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Mr. Officer, you are not Dirty Harry:

and btw - he was a fictional character.

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Maybe he was just helping them with their homework for civics class?

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I wish more cops would learn how to fire warning shots into the ground, or use non-lethal measures and weapons.

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…to STOP attacking school children.

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I wish off-duty cops would learn to act like human beings and not freak the fuck out when kids walk on their grass. Also, maybe bringing a gun to every fucken interaction you have is not the greatest idea?

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Indeed. Dirty Harry saved kids.

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While I agree with the sentiment that there should be more nonlethal options for police (and probably fewer lethal options) I don’t think this was a warning shot - looked more like an accidental discharge to me, which shows not only bad judgment but poor gun handling.

The whole incident shows poor judgment on the part of the police officer. He apparently failed to identify himself as an officer, he fails to take the “suspect” in to custody which suggests he had no authority to do so, he doesn’t call for backup himself, again suggesting that he had no authority, and he escalated the entire situation when he could have just let go of the kid and been done with it.

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“I’m not going to shoot you, I’m going to sue you, with my gun.”

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Cop privilege.

Ever notice that you never see TV cop shows that depict stuff like this and all the other abusive uses of power by law enforcement? Reality when contrasted with TV cops makes all those shows look like propaganda. Go watch some episodes of Dragnet if you doubt it.

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i’m as anti-gun as it probably gets, and have never held one in my hand (except for toy guns as a kid), and even i know the dictum “never draw your gun unless you are prepared to shoot it.” – i mean, what the actual fuck.

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I’ll tell you what probably happened here. I can’t remember what it is called, but there is a reflexive response that what you do with one hand you will do with the other. So if with your one hand you are grabbing on to something and squeezing hard, your other hand will do the same thing. That is why your finger is off the actual trigger at all times until ready to fire.

So I am not a lawyer, but this seems like a whole mess of crimes and grounds for dismissal. All the pulling and pushing around aside, ZERO reason to draw the gun, and once drawn bad handling and negligent discharge.

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People who commit crimes like that should be permanently disqualified from owning or possessing a firearm.

There’s no excuse for hotheads, especially those who have already proven they would murder a teenager if they had better control of their firearm, to even handle said deadly weapon in the future.

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Well, you do, but by the end of the episode it’s all good because the person really was a bad criminal after all. So it’s OK, you see.

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Holy hell. Watch the tape. It’s only sheer luck he didn’t kill somebody. He wasn’t aiming that gun at all. And why was he manhandling a kid again?

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Your country and your police force is completely out of control at this point. What the flying fuck.

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Which doesn’t necessarily account for anything. Some people might require actual evidence before giving armed belligerent strangers any benefit of doubt, nevermind deference.

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