Let. Us. Get. A. Little. Look. At. It. Before. Committing. To. Your. “Proof”.
How do you prove that negative? How do you prove that someone didn’t say something?
No, but civilians do things at the direction of others all the time. If those things turn out to be illegal or dangerous, they don’t get to fall back on “I was following orders.” to justify it. The only way that would be an option is if it was part of a plea deal to levy charges on the higher ups.
But with a case like this, all the actors are part of the Criminal Justice In Crowd. They all screwed the pooch, and they get to decide “this is how the world works, so sorry” while protecting them and their own from consequences.
There seems to be a culture of lying and cover-up that exists in law enforcement that is almost normalized. I think this is one reason why people want to do away with qualified immunity.
I saw a tweet from a nurse or healthcare worker basically pointing out that if she goes to the wrong patient’s room and administers high doses of the wrong medication, she would potentially face criminal charges - so what’s the difference between her and a cop who fires at the wrong ‘suspect’ and kills him or her? A good analogy, I think.
And who will be presenting the case against them?
While it does matter if the police were actually knocking or just trying to break down the door, and it matters if the police attempted to identify themselves, even if they did all that, based on Kenneth Walkers testimony the police didn’t wait for them to be able to come to the door and find a way to resolve the situation without the risk of violence. The fact that the police just knocked down the door without giving Taylor or Walker a chance to let them in was completely reckless and they were pretty clearly responsible for the ensuing violence.
He also said they never responded when asked “Who is it?” before breaking down the door.
Your irrelevant sidetrack is thus ignored. In the moment, it’s clear that he didn’t know who it was.
That sworn testimony is not nearly as strong as you think it is.
From Telemark’s link:
But, according to documents and audio obtained by VICE News on Saturday, that sole witness initially told investigators days after the March 13 raid that he didn’t actually hear officers Brett Hankison, Jonathan Mattingly, and Myles Cosgrove announce themselves.
The witness—identified by VICE as Aarin Sarpee but by other outlets and public records as Aaron Julue Sarpee—was picking up his daughter from a unit above Taylor’s when the raid took place.
It wasn’t until he was interviewed a second time, about two months after the raid by a sergeant in LMPD’s Public Integrity Unit, that Sarpee said he heard police say, “This is the cops.”
<snip>
Sarpee’s flip-flop, the latest twist in a case that has made Taylor an icon in the Black Lives Matter movement, calls into question the strength of Cameron’s case and the grand jury report, which state officials are demanding be made public.
<snip>
When Sgt. Jason Vance asked Sarpee if he heard anyone identify themselves as law enforcement, he answered: “No, nobody identified themselves.”
(Bolding mine)
That’s not what the witness said AT THE TIME OF THE KILLING.
“I didn’t know what was happening or understand the situation at the time, but I thought it was best to just start shooting and sort it out later” isn’t a convincing argument to me.
Maybe the boyfriend didn’t shoot that cop? Interesting developments in the Breonna Taylor case:
Considering the cops were shooting pretty much in a panicked out of control random fashion, it is certainly possible that he was shot by one of his own fellow officers. It’s happened before.
“In response, the officers fired more than 20 rounds, hitting objects in the living room, dining room, kitchen, hallway, bathroom, and both bedrooms.” Killing of Breonna Taylor - Wikipedia
Yeah, these three “highly trained” police officers were shooting every which way at some unknown, unseen threat. They did seem to focus on Breonna though. But, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn they were also shooting at each other and experienced a little friendly fire.
BTW, I’m not sure of the discrepancy in that wiki article…32 or 20 shots fired by the murders?
Austin, Texas:
The problem is that even tho they can’t match the slug to Walker, he was the only one at the OK Corral with a 9mm.
Eta: apparently one of the cops did have a 9mm, but it’s unknown (so far) if he had it with him and if it was fired
Committing felonies to cover themselves?
Murder charges for everyone, I don’t give a damn anymore.
Heavily armed in mental distress barricades himself in house.
And the police, remarkably, resist the urge to shoot. Odd.
But the guy is white.
Luckily for him he wasn’t playing with a toy truck. That’s a death sentence.
The court denied Brett Hankinson the right to carry a gun for “self defense”.