Cameras are already on the list. Many photographers have run-in-with-cops stories. Fortunately, usually non-fatal ones, but arrests and general harassment are pretty common.
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I know that victim blaming is frowned upon here (as it rightly should be everywhere) but I don’t think that what I’m about to say is victim blaming.
Fuck that boot-licking, authoritarian-loving idiot.
I don’t care if the cop was his brother, his personal forgiveness of the attempt to murder him should not be projected and/or forced upon the community.
That cop needs to lose his badge at the very least. Every day he remains as an armed-thug-with-a-badge is another chance for him to randomly shoot someone who is doing something that he doesn’t understand and can’t be arsed to figure out before he starts shooting.
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I wonder what time it was? Was it so dark the cop couldn’t tell he was white?
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What you did there, see it I do 
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Therein lies the problem. Taxpayers are on the hook for stupidity, so there’s little need to reform or give a shit. If insurance had to be paid by the officers or better yet–through the union–they’d see some real changes. Might even see themselves as peace officers!
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Again, I think it is going to take a lot more than just that. IIRC cops are free from personal liability for a lot of things, except criminal acts. If they aren’t charged and convicted of a crime, there isn’t much recourse. One can try to sue the city.
These laws are sort of prudent in some cases, but clearly they are being abused in too many cases.
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With the question of insurability, their rates would be through the roof and therefore force them out of the profession.
Hm. This may work out.
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Attempted murder. That’s what this is. He intended to end that person’s life with his gun but failed due to his incompetence with it. In the end, nothing will come of this other than increasing the public’s fully justified fear and distrust of anyone with a badge and a gun.
You know how police can shoot people and their defense is simply “I was scared”? Pretty soon we are going to see a case of a citizen shooting a cop for doing something like making a furtive movement and the citizen will use that same defense.
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Bingo! Or maybe he doesn’t want his SO/kids/car/house/pets/etc… getting mysteriously “damaged” later on as payback.
Frankly, if Johnny Loose-Rounds can’t tell the difference between a gun and a fucking camera on a tripod (what, did he think it was a gat?), then maybe, just maybe, he shouldn’t be a cop with a gun, in any town of any size. Who’s he gonna shoot next??? “I swear, I thought those apples she was carrying were grenades and I had to shoot, I just had to, in order to save my own life.”
Jiminy Fucking Cricket…
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When carrying a tripod with one leg extended further than the others the profile can be remarkably similar to a weapon.
ETA
(Cops who feel that’s adequate justification for opening fire without further ado can burn in hell. Second Amendment FTW!)
It’s legal to hold a weapon. Most cops will talk your ear off about how important the second amendment is. So why should they get all up in arms and shoot people for bearing arms? It’s a legal thing to do.
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like the guy that Dick Cheney shot.
Are there any quality programs that help police officers struggling with PTSD? I know police officers can see and experience horrific things. What is being done to identify and help these people? I’m not excusing away when police officers act on horrible judgement calls. I would like there to be a way to screen and help officers before they make and act on a horrible decision.
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I think that is a valid concern, however according to @transmothra the town is only like 5000 people. I’ve lived in small towns half my life, and they don’t get a lot of heavy crime. I spent many years and my parents live in a town of 10,000, and there has been like one murder/suicide in the last 50 years.
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So that shooting innocent people just becomes a cost of doing business? Sure, sounds great. I can’t imagine how that could go wrong.
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Pretty soon we are going to see a case of a citizen shooting a cop for doing something like making a furtive movement and the citizen will attempt but fail at using that same defense.
In the unlikely event that they survive until trial.
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Bob Marley should write a song about that…
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Didn’t mean to imply it wasn’t, will edit to clarify, thanks!
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To an American police department it already is the cost of doing business. The worst that happens to a cop who murders a non cop is getting to retire early and get a job the next county over.
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which is standard procedure in officer-involved shootings
I wish we could get rid of this common piece of newspeak. The way normal humans would say this is “which is standard procedure when an officer shoots someone.”
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