Where’s the “controversial” and the “between law enforcement and civilians” here? Especially the “controversial”?
In the film ‘Mississippi Burning’ (1988), Gene Hackman’s character explains that the three fingers down means KKK.
It does show some serious disregard for regulations and major incompetence.
Exactly, and it’s currently being discussed in the Serious Disregard For Regulations & Major Incompetence - The Omnibus Thread.
Updating post 14109:
They watched Speed too many times.
Two New Orleans cops charged with battery after taking exception to a man in a bar wearing camouflage, claiming he was claiming to be military just because he wore camouflage, then calling him a “fake American”.
So, it sounds like that is good news, at least. And reduces the controversy level by quite a bit.
OK, somebody needs to help me with this.
Could death of Trader Joe’s manager have been avoided? It’s too soon to know
To me, it seems fairly simple. Either you have a shot or you don’t. If there is a person between you and the target, you don’t have a shot.
So, either the police did not have a clear shot and fired anyway OR they are very poor marksman. These are the best possibilities. A far worse possibility if that someone fired blindly in a panic.
Those two assholes …
Asked by a WVUE Fox 8 reporter Thursday morning if NOPD is investigating the beating “as a possible hate crime,” Harrison responded, “Well, we are.”
The chief continued: “We wanted to sure that that citizens know that the behavior that you saw is not and never will be tolerated. We took very decisive and strong action against them with the evidence that was brought to us.”
…Council Member Jason Williams weighed in on the arrest of the NOPD officers Thursday morning, as well, during a City Council meeting. Williams apologized to Gomez and his family, noting the former officers’ behavior did not represent the NOPD or the City of New Orleans. He also said he intended to look into the NOPD’s background check process, which was criticized in a January 2017 report …
Minor nit pic. They weren’t acting or invoking their positions as officers when they attacked the victim. They are just two assholes who happen to be police officers. Fortunately they won’t have that title much longer.
The disturbing bit is that they had both recently graduated from the police academy.
Happen to be? Maybe so. Or maybe these are the kind of aggressive, authoritarian, narrow-minded people attracted to the police force. Pure speculation on my part, but I’ve seen enough cops with chips on their shoulders and little or no empathy toward most people.
So, not yet established behind the blue line, aka protected by the union and fully indoctrinated into the tribe. I suspect the outcome wouldn’t have been nearly so swift and decisive had it been two seasoned officers.
What’s interesting is that the FOP isn’t representing them. Can’t remember a case where that happened.
You don’t have to be a poor marksman to miss a shot. Even trained shooters are generally quite inaccurate with pistols, and that applies even more so when talking about moving targets.
Meridian, Mississippi cop caught on dashcam using a stun gun on a handcuffed suspect and then threatening him with it again after he’s down on the ground.
The cop has been fired for using excessive force.
These things are never simple. The officers had a decision to make and not much time to do it. Take the risk of shooting and possibly hit an innocent person or take the risk of not shooting and have the suspect shoot an innocent person(s), take hostages etc. Its not clear to me that the manager was in between the cops and the suspect or that the cops ever saw her. I don’t know the ranges involved here but hitting a target under those circumstances with a handgun is not easy. A missed shot (or shots) in a gunfight does not equal “very poor marksmanship”.
As a hypothetical, the police get a report of a guy firing shots near a school. On arrival they see him, gun in hand, preparing to enter the front plate glass doors. They can’t see what’s on the other side of the doors. They are twenty yards away. Shoot or not?
If the manager was not between the cops and the subject, how could the manager have been hit when they were firing at the subject? She was either directly between them, OR she was not in the line of sight and the shot was way off target.
The answer would have to be no, based only on the info provided. I do not know if there are innocents on the other side of the doors. You cant always see through them. At twenty yards, its difficult to be accurate.
Also, you say ‘him’, but in this scenario, how would I know this him is a school shooter and not a teacher who went to his car for a gun, or a father who was close by and is a ‘good guy with a gun’?
Or behind and they missed, or just a bit to the side, and they missed.
Not really defending the shooting, but this is a completely different case than “I thought he might have been going for a gun because he made a movement.” They should have had better awareness of what was around the target, and held off for a better shot, but it is not as if there was no call for a violent response.
Or a plainclothes officer.
This would defiantly be a case of not having enough information to proceed with pulling the trigger, IMHO.