The British police seem like they’re practically the friendliest people ever.
Couldn’t help it, flog me if you must.
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Utah has the death penalty. Use it.
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Simple solution to being scared: stop escalating the situation, walk away, call for backup. Saves lots of paperwork too.
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what an interestingly excellent idea: if “broken windows” can apply to a residents in a neighborhood, why not cops in a precinct?
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Dead men tell no tales.
Of course the cops aren’t inherently bloodthirsty monsters. Most of them are pretty decent folks.
The problem is that there are cops that shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a firearm, who shouldn’t be allowed to make snap decisions in high-stress situations, who will magnify the danger a person faces by the off-whiteness of their skin, etc… and the rest of the system rather than weeding them out does everything it can to keep them in.
The brotherhood of the shield almost completely trumps the actual purpose the police exist to perform. “To serve and protect” is supposed to reference the people, not each other.
Policing is a life-and-death occupation, for both themselves and the general population, and they /need/ to be held to a higher, rather than lower, standard.
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Pepper spray is basically an irritant that doesn’t do anything unless you are trying to run away from the target (or the target is already cornered), and the heavy use of tasers has been so universally panned and equivocated to gun use that many departments went back to guns. Many times when tasers were used they were simply used more often on lesser crimes than a gun, and pepper spray is mostly used by police to subdue already subdued people.
I would love public investment in nonlethal arms to make them more usable and functional to a police officer. I would also love police officers to be better equipped with protective equipment so they are not as likely to shoot first in questionable circumstances like this one. Anything to give the officer more time to make a better decision, and to make that first bullet something that doesn’t penetrate.
I would say the victim was acting overall “suspicious,” as in having done something wrong, but in no way threatening.
So in addition to everything else they have to manage in a tense moment, they also have to remember to turn on their bodycams? How the hell is that going to work? Designed to Fail™,
Did the prosecutor detail the facts justifying the officer’s fear? The video sure doesn’t show them. Perhaps the Federal Prosecutor could open up a file against the cop and perhaps the state prosecutor for conspiracy.
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Ya, there’s an old idiom that covers that: “Dead if you do, dead if you don’t”
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What should he have done? The cop shouts at him, “Get your hands out! Get 'em out!” As soon as he moves his hands from his waistband, the cop shoots him. If he doesn’t move his hands or moves them too slowly, he’s noncompliant. If he moves them too fast, he’s a threat.
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So here’s what I saw on the tape.
Cop pulls up to three men and gets out, we have no audio but two put their hands up while the third starts walking away.
As the third walks away the cop turns on his mike and starts yelling for the guy to put his hands up (earbuds are irrelevant, he obviously knew what was going on).
The guy turns around with his arms almost completely under his shirt, he says “No Fool” then takes his hands out from under his shirt slightly extended towards the cop.
As for what he should have done:
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He shouldn’t have not started walking away when his friends put their hands up (I suspect all three knew they were supposed to stop).
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He should have stopped immediately when the cops were yelling, not walked nonchalantly for a while. Ignoring the shouted instructions of cops with dawn guns suggests that you’re in the mood to do something reckless.
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He shouldn’t have told the cop “No Fool” telling the cop he wasn’t complying with his instructions.
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He shouldn’t have started taking his hands out immediately after yelling “No Fool” because he basically just told the cop the reason he’s taking his hands out isn’t the reason the cop told him too.
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He should have taken his hands out with his palms face down and non-threatening, not with fists clenched like he’s holding something.
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He should have extended his hands to the side where they’re non-threatening, not towards the cop.
I generally think the cops are way too quick to fire, but in this case I think it was justified. The guy was clearly playing some sort of game with the cops and intentionally or unintentionally did a bunch of actions completely consistent with someone deciding to shoot a cop.
Consider for a second that the officer is a human being and is having physical reactions to an intense adrenaline surge/fear followed by the realization he may have just killed someone. The failure to render more effective aid, or at least go through the motions, may be because he is in shock. Ever seen a car crash victim, apparently without serious injury, have difficulty doing basic things like answering questions? Kinda like that.
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Except for the fact that this has repeatedly happened - cops shooting people, and refusing first aid, and refusing to let others provide first aid, keeps happening, over and over. To not think it’s a deliberate strategy is foolish - if it wasn’t deliberate, they all wouldn’t be doing it consistently.
So do all those car crash victims from the serious example do the too-confused-to-answer-simple-questions routine intentionally?
…does that mean that the civilians need training on how to handle cops, instead of cops needing better training on how to handle civilians?
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Cops have sometimes done it for hours, deliberately refused people offering first aid, had cops who just arrived as the scene (and thus in no way went through shock or trauma) refuse to give first aid, and are supposed to be trained otherwise. If cops can’t be trusted to give first aid to people who are wounded, then maybe cops shouldn’t be allowed to use violence at all.
There’s no excuse to leave somebody bleeding to death for as long as cops have. Or do you have some other excuse for leaving somebody completely unaided in the middle of the street for hours?
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No disagreement here at all.
I can understand some poor schmuck getting into shock from a situation. But fresh arrivals on the scene should be able to perform correctly. These should be prosecuted; along the same lines as an EMS or a fireman refusing assistace in the same situation.
Yes, because “acting suspicious” is full justification for being gunned down in cold blood. I’ll remember that next time I catch my kid in the Oreos before dinnertime.
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Your family can
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1 through 6 don’t matter at all.
Not when the problem is cops murdering scads of unarmed people because deadly force is their only response to any sign of non-compliance from brown people.
