Originally published at: Tucson police officer fired after fatally shooting a man in a wheelchair nine times in the back | Boing Boing
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Probably need to stop saying “fatally shot” instead of “extra-judicially executed”, or you know, “murdered”.
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The Tuscon PD’s “surely this” moment.
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Seriously? He shares a surname with a firearms manufacturer?
I guess if they wanted less-lethal force they should have sent Officer Axon Enterprises (formerly Officer TASER International).
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The Pima County Attorney’s Office is reviewing the fatal shooting for possible criminal charges against Remington.
Possible?
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What strikes me about these stories is how absolutely risk-averse and terrified modern cops are. For all of the bravado these guys are all about shooting first at even the merest hint of possible danger. You hear stories about cops in the ‘50s grabbing knives out of peoples’ hands and talking down deranged people with guns, stuff like that, and sure those old cops were violent bigots but at least they could hack the job. They weren’t scared of walking around a rough neighborhood and interacting with people. They didn’t have to hide in their patrol cars and get big daddy government to gift them tanks and grenade launchers.
The guy in the story might have been a belligerent scumbag, but he was a 61 year old in a wheelchair feebly waving a knife around and surrounded by able-bodied cops. What kind of an absolute coward do you have to be to shoot a wheelchair-bound old man nine times in the back?
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Guns don’t kill people, etc.
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Some day, someone is gonna present some evidence that cops aren’t all insecure dudes with gun fetishes looking for any reason to act like the hero in the action movie that’s constantly playing in their heads. Nine bullets for a guy in a motorized wheelchair. Absolutely insane.
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And now starts the countdown to when Officer Not-so-friendly finds a job with another department who doesn’t care about his prior history.
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1950’s?
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Come on, officer. Not the right tool for the job.
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Found the full footage. It was a little confusing because the video one sees of the cop running up on the scene before the frame freezes and shots fired - that isn’t the POV of the officer who was shooting, that is the officer who came as back up. The officer who was shooting is to her left and had been following the guy through the parking lot (I add this to help anyone else confused by the video in the linked AZ article.)
Anyway - wow is that an egregious display of everything wrong with modern policing. 
Lock him up.
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From the article: “The Pima County Attorney’s Office is reviewing the fatal shooting for possible criminal charges against Remington.”
Emphasis mine. In any other job shooting someone would be cause for immediate dismissal and criminal charges would be automatic. The fact that the officer’s firing is extraordinary and that he may not be charged with any crime just shows how broken the system is.
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That’s UK cops though. They still walk beats and interact with the community, like public servants or something. And they don’t arm them with guns and body armor and tactical gear most of the time.
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With his back to the cops, no less.
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Fired, not charged with any crime.
Able to get another cop job.
Still not seeing any consequences.
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Shoot first, ask questions later.
If it’s good enough for spaghetti westerns, it must be good enough for the real world.
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Yet. The DA is looking at it, according to a press conference by the Chief of Police. I expect charges.
Fired? Not prosecuted and sent to prison? Really? LEOs wonder why people hate them.
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