He was shooting into the sky.
Arm all airline pilots!
I’m going to go with “cops not identifying themselves and scaring a person so badly that the cops get shot” as similar to what you suggest.
Besides, isn’t your stance that “Cops doing their job aren’t a threat”? The cops in those two stories were doing their jobs. And they got shot. One guy was found not-guilty, so I guess you are wrong yet again.
Holy flurking schnitt!
We should have a ‘Prosecutors behaving Badly’ thread.
It isn’t, though. Here’s the scenario again -
Got anything like that?
Regards,
Shodan
No I don’t. However, I believe for the purposes of discussion, a home invasion by a swat team could be considered similar when discussing whether or not someone could legitimately shoot police and not get indicted.
If you don’t feel that way, then fine.
Video shows police punching a Harvard student after he was found naked in the street
Or does it? I’m just not seeing it. I see the guy(who they say was nekkid) get tackled. They try to subdue him and he looks like he is putting up a struggle. But I don’t anything other than that.
I don’t see it in the video. But the article mentions that the police report says the guy was punched 5 times.
Are you taking the cops’ word for it?
Regards,
Shodan
I’m taking nobody’s word for it. I’m simply stating what the article said.
Edited to add: If that is a video of the incident, and the police report said that, then yes, that would be a video of cops punching a guy 5 times, even though a person can’t see it directly in the video. Assuming the police report is accurate.
Sometimes, the police legitimately have to use force and sometimes that includes punching. Its not pretty but there you have it. We generally train not to punch (due to the chances of injury to yourself) but there are exceptions. BTW, “naked man/woman” calls may seem humorous or harmless at first but are decidedly not. Mental illness or acute drug intoxication are often at the root of it and trying to control an irrational naked person is no joke. Been there, done that. The training is to wait for the medics arrive before trying to control such a person. Ketamine is very effective at bringing them down without injury. However, that’s not always an option.
How is punching more effective than simply tazing the person?
When 911 is called for any other kind of medical emergency an ambulance is dispatched with EMTs who are properly trained and equipped to deal with the emergency. When 911 is called for a mental health emergency the police, who have little training in how to deal with it are dispatched, equipped with fists and tasers and guns.
Seems like a problem waiting to happen to me.
mc
Actually, tasers are recommended for instances like this one. However, not every department issues them and those that do may not issue one to every officer. Also, different agencies have different restrictions on when they may be used. Had this guy been tased I’m sure someone would say “Why did they have to tase him? He wasn’t armed! Couldn’t they have just tackled him?”
Perhaps. But I doubt anyone would say “Why did they tase him, when they could have repeatedly punched him instead?”
A police officer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was caught on her own body camera ridiculing the need for probable cause in the search of a vehicle, and saying that she could just write in her report that any incriminating evidence she found was in plain sight.
About the only surprising thing about this, to me, is that she was willing to express this thought out loud, while wearing an active body camera.
I’d be willing to bet that similar scenarios occur, at a conservative estimate, hundreds of times a month across the United States.
I guess it’s better than the old way, where they put you in a choke hold until you voluntarily consent to the search.
Shit, I expected her to be a crusty, disillusioned old vet.
Right. I think this shows that (what we think of as) old-fashioned ideas towards policing are actually still a central part of police culture.
There’s a sense among some people that, once the reactionary old guard retires, police forces will be better, but that ignores the fact that the reactionary old guard pass their ideas about policing on to the next generation. It also ignores the fact that a significant number of people join the police force because they have personalities that are predisposed towards authoritarianism, and are more interested in control than in any real notion of justice, or of service.
In a different light, a different form of controversial encounter.
Man ambushes and kills two cops while they eat lunch, then takes his own life. No reason given.
However, the Sheriff wants to blame the media.
This sounds like he feels that it is the media’s fault for reporting on police conduct.
Personally, if it had anything to do with the portrayal of cops in the media, I blame that on the cops who make other cops look bad.
When the media has a story about cops planting evidence, sure, that “demonizes” the cops who are framing civilians, as well as the cops who look the other way, but that’s not the media’s fault.
This has been a tension that I’ve felt has been building. These are not the first cops to be ambushed like this, and probably not the last. People who actually have a desire to kill a cop are not going to wait until the cop has an interaction with them, they are going to take their opportunity when it suits them. This is not something that they are able to protect themselves by shooting because they are afraid. They will not be given the opportunity to even know that they are being targeted.
When you are a cop, and you abuse your position, or if you kill someone who was presenting no actual threat to you or the public, you are the one who is “demonizing” the police. If you are a cop, and you have gotten away with abusive behavior, or if you have assisted in cover abusive behavior on the part of others, then you are the one who is increasing the danger for your fellow officers.
If this sherriff is correct, and the killer’s motivations were based on “demonization” of police, then the blood is on the hands of cops who kill unarmed people, frame or lie about suspects, beat up people sitting on their porch, as well as the cops who help them to cover for their actions, and the people who defend them.
That’s not to say that he may not have had a more personal reason for his actions. He may have had an unpleasant encounter, or may have friends or family who have suffered at the hands of law enforcement.