He walks, using a defense that he thought what he was reaching for was his taser when it turned out to be his gun. Couple thoughts:
Avoid downtown Oakland if at all possible.
According to someone I work with, tasers are engineered such that their triggers are modeled after the guns that police officers use. This sounds like a horrifically stupid idea, can anyone confirm or disconfirm this?
I still think he got off too easy. Even using a taser was uncalled for in this situation. Not sure what he should have gotten, though. Its a tough case.
If I understand correctly, a large part of his defense was that he was poorly trained and was not prepared to make the right choice under stress. Which is understandable, actually, but still unconvincing to me.
And yeah, I’d avoid Oakland except in my Iron Man armor.
“walk” is hyperbole, but I thought for sure he was something far worse. The victim was prone in handcuffs and the officer shot him in the back of the head. I wouldn’t have been shocked if he got convicted of murder.
In viewing the video, it appears to me that he was lying face down with his hands fastened behind him in some manner and the cop said, “I’m going to tase him”, and shot him in the back.
Would I be correct in assuming that this sentence will make him ineligible for any kind of peace officer job in the United States? Or can he go work as a police officer elsewhere when his sentence runs out?
I’m confused. Do you think the police officer said “I’m going to tase him” as a cover for shooting the guy with the gun, or do you just not care? Do you think he meant to kill the victim, or doesn’t intent matter to you?
It doesn’t matter. Policemen have guns to protect us, not to shoot us in the back while we are restrained. There is a responsibility that comes with carrying a gun and the ability to shoot someone with it. Whether he was too tired, to ill trained to know the difference between his pistol and his taser (right), or any other reason, Voltaire said of Admiral Byng’s execution, “The British occasionally shoot a few Admirals to encourage the others.”
If we executed him, policemen would be more careful. Now they won’t.
“I would still oppose the death penalty under those circumstances.”
“I became opposed to the death penalty upon reading a post that innocent people are convicted and executed.”
“True, but I’m sure the juries that wrongly convicted folks thought they were correct.
Therefore, I oppose the death penalty under any circumstances.”
Tune in for next week’s episode of carnivorousplant vs. carnivorousplant.
Putting aside what I assume is a bit of hyperbole on your part rather than rampant hypocrisy, I think (and luckily the majority of criminal laws agree with me), that intent matters quite a bit in determining the just outcome in a case. From most of what I’ve heard (I had not heard that the video had him saying that he was going to tase the guy, thanks for that) there was insufficent evidence to prove BRD that the police officer meant to pull his gun and kill the victim. With that in mind, I think the death penalty or even a murder in the first degree conviction, would be unjust.
Not only that, but witnesses had said that the victim was actually not one of the people fighting, but instead had been trying to defuse the situation. (Per MSNBC coverage tonight.) I saw the video and Grant was not struggling.
He was uncooperative. Enough policemen there to pick him up and take him to jail, but the policeman wanted to play with his taser. Note that I am giving him the benefit of the doubt.
Hamlet, how did you do that search of my posts? It was most excellent.
Look up Oscar Grant on wikipedia. They do a better job than I would.
They had him pinned down and the officer shot him. The officer claims he thought he was tasing him, but he actually shot him. The cops say he was resisting, other witnesses say he was cooperating. There’s some (not very good quality) cell phone video, but I haven’t seen it. I think they were trying to cuff him, and the discrepancy is whether he was resiting being cuffed, or couldn’t move his other arm because it was pinned down.
There will be nothing on the news around here except for this for the next few days.
