In the State I was visiting this was definitively not the case.
That was paraphrased by the reporter.
Presumably.
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The words of the James Smith, the neighbor who said he used a non-emergency number and not 911 for the call because it was only a welfare check and not an emergency:
“There was no reason for her to be dead, because there was nothing violent going on,” Smith said. “There was no distress at this particular property. They had no reason to come here with guns drawn.”
“All they had to do was announce who they were, and if she heard them, she would probably come to the door to see who they were.”
“I’m shaken. I’m mad. I’m upset. And I feel it’s partly my fault. If I had never dialed the police department, she’d still be alive.”
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He should feel exactly like it’s his fault. The american police have never been useful as a social welfare unit. They have always senselessly killed people of color, the mentally ill, and the poor.
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No it was not his fault. He may have made a serious mistake involving police in a situation involving “no distress” (his words) but it is not his fault she’s dead.
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I think @anon87143080 is referring to the jump to the footage of the gun in the house. It’s suspect, because they don’t show the full video of the leadup to the “discovery” of the weapon. Was it planted? Was it even video from that incident?
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And what do they tell you? “Freeze! Put your hands up!” If you do one, you can’t possibly do the other. Instant justification for firing.
Also, I’m somewhat hard of hearing. Which means I’m at considerably elevated risk in any police encounter. Asking them to repeat themselves is noncompliance.
The Nazis believe that people who are somewhat hard of hearing are defectives who deserve euthanasia, so it doesn’t really matter to them.
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You’re right, it’s not directly his fault she’s dead. But it’s important to keep in mind that involving law enforcement with people of color puts the people of color at unreasonable risk.
If I were in his situation, I think I’d feel terribly guilty as well as very angry at the cops.
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I would too, on both counts. And I’d know it was not my fault, too.
And next time I called the non-emergency number I’d ask if they could not send anyone at all if they have no cops of colour to send. Not that it would necessarily make a difference in the individual case, but if lots of people made the same request, the cops might finally get it through their fucking heads that some serious, wholesale re-thinking and re-training is needed across the board. (And not the sort of retraining that involves hunting down and arresting for resisting arrest anyone who requested cops of colour.)
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then they would say she “lunged at him”
surely, if this happened to you, you’d never call the cops again unless you wanted somebody shot
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He quit before the department could fire him, (not that they would have:)
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Yup. He resigned so that he can get his pension. Can’t get that pension if you’re fired for murdering an innocent civillian. I assume.
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The problem is that the cops believe themselves to be above the rule of law, much like Dolt45 and his fans at his Nuremburg-style rallies. Laws are for other people, not for them.
And the problem is that the belief seems to be working out quite nicely for them. They do appear to be above the law.
I mean, look at it logically, from the cop’s perspective: They can either shoot, in which case nothing bad ever happens to them; or they can not shoot and the person might shoot them, which is really bad. Of course the cop is going to shoot - it’s only logical. And this is the rule set that they are currently operating under.
The only way to fix it is to fix the ruleset and to severely punish cops who shoot people without immediate justification.
The optimal way of this happening is within the system, having every cop who fires their weapon at someone have a full trial, and present their justification with their evidence in public trial.
I often wonder how many “Blue Line” people are just abject cowards who tow the police line and suck the bacon because they are afraid of the easily-hurt people with guns and a lack of responsibility?
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~30 miles away, I read.
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If the Fort Worth PD is like the NYPD, resignation means loss of pension.
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Nope, moving too quickly will get you shot too.
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This makes me think we need a new public service of people trained in de-escalation and as medical first responders, NOT armed, who respond to calls like this one and 911 calls involving social issues other than violent crime. I have heard of some small efforts to move the police force in that direction, but I can’t see that working given the culture and history of the police - at least in the US. Need to start fresh.
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The only good cops are whistleblowers. Whistleblowing cops end up as ex-cops, one way or the other.
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https://psmag.com/social-justice/black-cops-are-just-as-likely-as-whites-to-kill-black-suspects
Talk to activists, and they’ll tell you that cops of colour are often amongst the worst. Ditto for latinx Border Patrol officers.
The minority cops are under pressure from their white compatriots to prove their “loyalty”. Cops who resist that pressure do not survive in the job for long.
Diversifying the police force is not the solution, because lack of diversity is not the problem. More kapos will not help here.
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