# Controversial encounters between law-enforcement and civilians - the omnibus thread #2 **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 23, 2020, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531 "2020-06-23T20:29:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 24
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2020, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/462 "2020-09-24T19:59:08Z")
Because that would have been a civil suit, and the legal and procedural requirements and standards are quite different for a civil lawsuit and a criminal prosecution ---
**Author:** ![mjmartin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3d9bf3/32.png) [@mjmartin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmartin)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2020, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/463 "2020-09-24T20:19:53Z")
Correct. However, even though it is not currently the case, I would hope someday that there is at least some overlap between doing something so egregiously wrong as a police officer that you cost the city $12,000,000 and some level of criminal culpability. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/464 "2020-09-24T21:59:05Z")
> Nothing. But I don’t think the video clearly shows it wasn’t either. Too dark and blurry to see. Note that I’m not saying anything about the totality of circumstances. I’m reacting only to the claim “the video shows it’s clearly murder”. I simply don’t think the video provides much information either way unless you can see something in it I don’t see. He was shot because he didn’t follow commands. He kept walking away. That’s it. That’s all. They _knew_ he was a 13 year old kid with autism and they are treating him like he’s on the 10 Most Wanted list. Then the cop fires a dozen shots in him and then yell "show me your hands’!!! If you get shot, your hands go the wound. Because it is incredibly painful and that is just how we react to intense pain. How about this? Let’s shoot this officer in the leg and see how long it takes him to respond to a 'show me your hands!!! command. His mother had this to say. “He’s a small child. Why don’t you just tackle him?” Barton said. “You are big police officers with massive amounts of resources. Come on, give me a break.” At the end of the video, you can clearly hear the kid say ‘tell my mom I love her’ ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2020, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/465 "2020-09-24T22:03:36Z")
[Our courageous men in Blue!](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/louisiana-cop-charged-for-falsely-claiming-he-was-ambushed-after-he-accidentally-shot-himself/ar-BB19okFc?li=BBnbfcL) > # Louisiana cop charged for falsely claiming he was ambushed after he accidentally shot himself That’s right. Idiot shot himself accidentally and instead of owning up to it, he blames the evil, faceless THEM of an ambush. ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/466 "2020-09-25T00:34:18Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Walk me through it, tell me when exactly they committed a felony and how they should have avoided it. When they barged into someone’s home unannounced (cite: Kenneth Walker’s 911 call) and after a single shot, instead of announcing themselves THEN, opened fire on a target they couldn’t see, missing with every single shot and killing an innocent person. Negligent manslaughter, at the very least. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/467 "2020-09-25T01:00:11Z")
> [@Chisquirrel](#): > > When they barged into someone’s home unannounced (cite: Kenneth Walker’s 911 call) and after a single shot, instead of announcing themselves THEN, opened fire on a target they couldn’t see, missing with every single shot and killing an innocent person. That is almost exactly analogous to the “crowd control” they have been using on the protests. They gas and shoot at all of the protesters but somehow never seem to catch the arsonists and vandals. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/468 "2020-09-25T01:19:03Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > If nobody is criminally responsible for Breonna Taylor’s death, why did the city settle with the family for $12 million? Because there is abundant reason to believe this warrant should not have been sought or granted. That’s on the detective who sought it and the judge who signed it. The cops who executed it (two of whom killed Breonna Taylor but were not charged) had no way to know how valid or not valid the warrant was. That’s not their job. So it makes perfect sense for the city to pay out a settlement but not to send these cops to jail. It’s similar to if some kind of bureaucratic snafu leads to someone being ordered to route subway cars back through a tunnel that had been closed for repairs, when in fact there was still a worker finishing up. She gets run down by the train, the family sues, the city pays them for their loss. But you don’t arrest, try, and imprison the person who rerouted the train through there. They were told to do so and had no information that there was a reason not to. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/469 "2020-09-25T03:21:15Z")
Or maybe the cops shouldn’t have blindly fired through a door, because they could (and did) kill someone entirely innocent and posing no threat to them. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/470 "2020-09-25T03:33:23Z")
Actually, sir, it appears that they burst through the door before they started shooting. I think one or more officers closed their eyes and started squeezing off rounds in whatever direction the kickback took their hand. This is how we want the police to behave. They tremble cowardishly so that we do not have to. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/471 "2020-09-25T04:10:18Z")
If so, that’s just as bad, if not even worse. They were clearly firing without regard to who was in the line of fire. ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/472 "2020-09-25T11:03:21Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > He was shot because he didn’t follow commands. Perhaps. But again, that’s not clear from the video alone.The only reaction I had to the video was, “wow, I couldn’t tell AT ALL what happened” which is not very helpful in forming any sort of conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/473 "2020-09-25T12:14:51Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > He was shot because he didn’t follow commands. I ordered the jaywalker to jump on one foot while reciting the preamble to the Constitution. When he failed to comply, I had no choice but to discharge my service weapon in his general direction. I feel bad about the 4 year old who was hit by one of the shots. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/474 "2020-09-25T12:27:32Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > The latter. They have a warrant signed by a judge. The judge should face questions, as should the detective who sought the warrant. But the cops who shot Taylor are just grunts who are sent to enforce the judge’s decree. They don’t have the option to refuse unless they quit their job. And in fact they don’t have enough information to even know whether the reasons behind the warrant might be dubious. Any moral person would quit their job when it ordered them to break into someone’s house and shoot an innocent woman sleeping in her own bed. The fact that they chose to murder a woman rather than quit their precious job says a lot about them. Also ‘just following orders’ wasn’t a valid excuse for the Nazis, and isn’t a valid excuse for our homegrown jackbooted thugs. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/475 "2020-09-25T12:30:38Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Because there is abundant reason to believe this warrant should not have been sought or granted. That’s on the detective who sought it and the judge who signed it. The cops who executed it (two of whom killed Breonna Taylor but were not charged) had no way to know how valid or not valid the warrant was. That’s not their job. If they don’t know whether the warrant was valid, then they shouldn’t try use it as justification for murdering an innocent person. They broke into a woman’s house and shot her in her sleep, they are murderers who in any kind of just system would be tried and convicted for breaking into a woman’s house and shooting her in her sleep. All of the bootlicking excuses doesn’t change that they murdered an innocent woman. > [@](#): > > It’s similar to if some kind of bureaucratic snafu leads to someone being ordered to route subway cars back through a tunnel that had been closed for repairs, when in fact there was still a worker finishing up. If someone routed a subway car into a person’s house and killed them while they were sleeping in bed, I would definitely say that they should be treated like the murderer they are. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/476 "2020-09-25T12:33:42Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Because there is abundant reason to believe this warrant should not have been sought or granted. That’s on the detective who sought it and the judge who signed it. The cops who executed it (two of whom killed Breonna Taylor but were not charged) had no way to know how valid or not valid the warrant was. That’s not their job. Do you think that the detective who sought it (and from what I understand, lied on the application), should be held accountable? > [@SlackerInc](#): > > So it makes perfect sense for the city to pay out a settlement but not to send these cops to jail. It’s similar to if some kind of bureaucratic snafu leads to someone being ordered to route subway cars back through a tunnel that had been closed for repairs, when in fact there was still a worker finishing up. She gets run down by the train, the family sues, the city pays them for their loss. But you don’t arrest, try, and imprison the person who rerouted the train through there. They were told to do so and had no information that there was a reason not to. And if the person who turned the line back on was assured by someone in authority that the way was clear, when that authority knew that they did not bother to check, should that person in authority be held accountable? ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/477 "2020-09-25T12:47:41Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > It’s similar to if some kind of bureaucratic snafu leads to someone being ordered to route subway cars back through a tunnel that had been closed for repairs, This wasn’t a bureaucratic snafu, and it wasn’t a subway accident, it was a planned, midnight, armed invasion of a person’s home. Armed invasions are activities that should involve more than a rubber stamp, more than a weeks old claim of a package delivery, and deserve to be handled by actual human beings rather than weapons platforms. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/478 "2020-09-25T20:34:39Z")
A Seattle cop was caught on video running his bicycle over the head of a protester lying on the ground. He was put on “administrative leave.” > **[Seattle police officer captured on video riding his bicycle over a...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/24/us/seattle-protester-bike-police-trnd/index.html)** > > A Seattle police officer captured on video rolling his bicycle over the head of a protester who was laying in the street is now on administrative leave. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2020, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/479 "2020-09-26T00:37:58Z")
Odd that the story says “… the officer, who was on foot, rolled his bicycle over …”. When I [look at the twitter video](https://twitter.com/itsjosephryan/status/1309046593031733248), it does not look to me like the officer was “on foot”. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2020, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/480 "2020-09-26T01:46:32Z")
I just watched it frame by frame, and he’s on foot. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2020, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/481 "2020-09-26T01:50:10Z")
Looks like he followed up by swinging his bike into the fellow walking past in the backpack. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531.md?page=23) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531.md?page=25)