Spoken like someone with a guilty conscience who needs to tell themselves “everybody does it!”
I’m not a criminal. What have you done to make you fear the police?
Dissent. Dress weird. Be weird. Doesn’t take as much as you might think.
Guess you get to cast the first stone, then.
OK, I may regret getting involved in this discussion, but here’s a link to a dash cam video of a police shooting from a few years back.
Now, IMHO, this was unjustified and, in fact, criminal. True, you cannot see what happens immediately prior to the officer pulling his gun (it happens to the right of the view), but it obviously wasn’t anything that caused serious harm. While the officer does seem to have a little trouble running after the “perp”, I suspect his physique has more to do to it than anything else.
Now, the officer fired 7 shots in the middle of downtown Bryan, Tx, at 10AM on a Friday morning at a fleeing homeless person (well, he is referred to as homeless, his grandmother witnessed the shooting, so is isn’t like he was totally without support). He hits Mr. Harris as well as a construction worker who was on the job. Both were injured critically but survived, although not without permanent damage.
While the police department did conduct an internal investigation, the officer resigned his position the day prior to the report being issued. According to local laws, if the object of the investigation is no longer with the department, such investigations are not released, so the internal investigation is sealed. The officer was no-billed by a grand jury; not a surprise, since you cannot really tell if Mr. Harris “went for the officers gun” as was claimed and the results of the internal investigation could not be presented. Although assaulting an officer and attempting to take his weapon is a Felony in Texas, these charges weren’t even presented to a grand jury (due to lack of evidence).
Now, I doubt the Ferguson shooting was anything like this. I just doesn’t match anything I read in any of the news reports. There seems to be just too much reported that supports the officer and not the eye witness versions. But, I am waiting for a final report, since often the news gets it wrong. However, my point is that if a shooting that appears on web cam that clearly shows the officer was pissed-off and was clearly just wanting to shoot the guy gets no-billed by the GJ and is allowed to resign to keep the internal investigation sealed, well, I don’t know what could come out in the final report that would have any effect on what happens to the officer in this case.
Downtown Bryan, Texas? In the very center of greater metropolitan Bryan? Not some suburb of Bryan, but right in the inner city?
Well, if you read the article, it says it was near the intersection of Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard and Texas Avenue. Can’t get much more inner-city that that.
For what it is worth, the population of Bryan is 78,000 vs the population of Ferguson (maybe21,000). And, Bryan is the county seat of a county that has a population of nearly 250,000. Sure, not even a quarter of St. Louis county, but if Houston keeps growing, Bryan will be part of it.
I don’t think anyone would suggest the downtown area of such a municipality would be a safe place to discharge a firearm, particularly while running. Sure, 10 miles away on Bubba’s farm, but not downtown.
Watch the video.
And to heck with any innocent bystanders that get hit by all the misses.
Truly excellent post. This is why I read SDMB threads.
All you gun-haters are overlooking that Cops can kill innocent blacks without using guns.
To slime-scum like Steophan: Were these cops at risk of life?
If he didn’t want to die, he shouldn’t have been breaking the law and he shouldn’t have picked a fight with the cops who came to deal with his law-breaking.
It’s that simple, and it works just fine for the 98% of Americans who aren’t incarcerated.
Do you actually read what you write? You’re either a serious fascist law-and-order bootlicker or you’re trolling as one.
I am not a troll.
Surrender is always an option, if you don’t mind your family being injured or killed. Read the scenario again, and ask yourself if you hope the police retreat and call for help in that situation. If you do, then I guess the answer to the pop quiz is Yes.
Regards,
Shodan
Cracked:
The Bizarre Story of How American Cops Became Stormtroopers
http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-bizarre-story-how-american-cops-became-stormtroopers/
And the flaw in this statement is what, exactly?
It implies that cops never make mistakes, never do bad things, should never be challenged, and if they are, that the challenger deserves whatever he gets, including death.
Don’t they?
When, from a practical standpoint, is it ever a good idea to challenge someone who has the lawful authority to summarily kill you?
No, cops do sometimes make mistakes, and they sometimes do bad things.
Cops don’t/shouldn’t have the “lawful authority to summarily kill you”.
“The safety of a criminal caught in the act must be prioritized over the safety of the police” is not a principle that keeps our country free.
We aren’t talking about punishment. We are talking about maintaining public order. They are not the same, and are not governed by the same principle.
Most people recognize that someone breaking into your house is up to no good a large majority of the time and that, if he isn’t, he doesn’t run away from the police when they confront him.
Actually the reasons are simple - I have never attacked anyone with a knife, or broken into a house.
At which point you simply take leave of your senses.
The notion that the primary reason I have not been arrested for a felony is my race, rather than the fact that I haven’t committed any fucking felonies, is the kind of paranoid thinking that makes it impossible to take this kind of foolishness seriously.
Maybe they’re you; I wouldn’t know.
Regards,
Shodan
And if its and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas.
When is it ever a good idea to challenge someone with that authority?