Police shooting in Atlanta aka "Sir, this is a Wendy's drive-through"

[ruby sparks]

Standard police training is to respond with one level of force above what is being used against them.

Furthermore, given the timing it looks to me like he decided to fire based on "gun being pointed at me"--how can he be certain the guy didn't have a gun?

Rolfe had already frisked him.

And knew he was holding a taser.

 

[blastula]

It turns out that it was two white women that set the Wendy's on fire.

There seems to be a lot of outside supremacist agitators using BLM and protests for cover causing trouble.

Why do you assume white supremacists? Antifa are mostly whites.

 

[blastula]

Standard police training is to respond with one level of force above what is being used against them.

Furthermore, given the timing it looks to me like he decided to fire based on "gun being pointed at me"--how can he be certain the guy didn't have a gun?

Rolfe had already frisked him.

And knew he was holding a taser.

Yes, the big yellow thing in his hand was easily identifiable as a taser.

Resisting arrest was a very stupid move, but this was a totally disproportionate response.

 

[ruby sparks]

And knew he was holding a taser.

Yes, the big yellow thing in his hand was easily identifiable as a taser.

Resisting arrest was a very stupid move, but this was a totally disproportionate response.

Well, earlier I could see a way that the cop’s actions were justifiable.

But I didn’t know about a bullet hitting a car with a family in it at that point. And maybe there’s other things I don’t know yet.

 

[atrib]

The cop was in no imminent danger from a suspect who was now running away after having pointed a non lethal weapon at him. You're almost making it sound as if the cop were out for retaliation - and thereby making a perfectly good case that her should be charged for manslaughter and never be working in the police force again.

Such decisions are made based on what the person knew at the time, not with the perfect vision of hindsight.

The victim was shot in the back as he was trying to flee from the police. He was literally trying to run away from the police, not toward them, and he did not pose an imminent threat to the safety of the officers. In your zeal to defend a trigger-happy cop who chose homicide over doing his job and pursuing the fleeing suspect, you are trying to warp reality into an apologetic narrative that fits your ideology; that police can do no wrong.

 

[ZiprHead]

It turns out that it was two white women that set the Wendy's on fire.

There seems to be a lot of outside supremacist agitators using BLM and protests for cover causing trouble.

Why do you assume white supremacists? Antifa are mostly whites.

Men wearing Hawaiian shirts and carrying guns add a volatile new element to protests

The incident was one of a growing number in which far-right extremists who once organized mainly online have been inserting themselves into the real-world protests roiling much of the nation, sowing confusion about the nature of the protests and seeking attention for their causes.

They’ve appeared, sometimes carrying assault rifles, at protests in Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Atlanta, Philadelphia and dozens of other cities, often wearing Hawaiian shirts — a seemingly goofy uniform that, within the ranks of their movement, signals adherence to a violent, divisive, anti-government ideology.

This increasingly visible spillover from radical online forums has alarmed researchers, who for months have tracked surging support for groups advocating armed rebellion as their conversations have spread from fringe platforms such as 4chan and Gab to mainstream forums on Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, Twitter and YouTube. The largest groups have hundreds of thousands of followers.

These groups have displayed a flexible ideology, espousing gun rights in Richmond in January, opposition to government public health restrictions in several state capitals in March and April and, over the past week, resistance to police brutality against African Americans, though the goal in some cases may be mainly to distract attention from those causes, according to recent research.

WaPo link so click accordingly.

 

[blastula]

Yes, I know they are white supremacists around, but not every white person who commits a crime is a white supremacist.

 

[Jayjay]

Loren's attitude reminds me of this Key & Peele sketch:

 

[ruby sparks]

The cop was in no imminent danger from a suspect who was now running away after having pointed a non lethal weapon at him. You're almost making it sound as if the cop were out for retaliation - and thereby making a perfectly good case that her should be charged for manslaughter and never be working in the police force again.

Such decisions are made based on what the person knew at the time, not with the perfect vision of hindsight.

The victim was shot in the back as he was trying to flee from the police. He was literally trying to run away from the police, not toward them, and he did not pose an imminent threat to the safety of the officers. In your zeal to defend a trigger-happy cop who chose homicide over doing his job and pursuing the fleeing suspect, you are trying to warp reality into an apologetic narrative that fits your ideology; that police can do no wrong.

To be fair they were pretty much shooting at each other, and as pointed out, a taser in the face could potentially cause severe damage.

 

[blastula]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...g-decision-killing-rayshard-brooks-by-police/

The former Atlanta police officer who fatally shot Rayshard Brooks after a DUI stop was charged with felony murder, aggravated assault and other offenses Wednesday, less than a week after the 27-year-old black man’s killing set off a new wave of protests against racism and police brutality.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard announced a total of 11 charges against Garrett Rolfe at an afternoon news conference in downtown Atlanta, calling Brooks’s killing unjustified and finding that Brooks posed no threat to Rolfe’s life during the incident.
Rolfe’s colleague, officer Devin Brosnan, was charged with aggravated assault. Brosnan will become cooperating witness for the state, Howard said, making him one of the first Atlanta police officers to testify in such a case.

More details in the article.

When was Brosnan supposed to have assaulted him, during the arrest attempt?

 

[ruby sparks]

Loren's attitude reminds me of this Key & Peele sketch:

Brilliant.

Has been shared with everyone I know.

 

[ruby sparks]

Personally, and going on the basis of only what I have seen so far, I wouldn’t put Rolfe on a par with for example Chauvin.

I’m no expert, but it feels to me as if, in the past, before the recent protests etc, (post-Arbery and post-Floyd, post-the examples of police brutality at the protests) Rolfe might not have been charged?

Now, there may be an aspect of this in which individual officers, such as Rolfe, are being hard done by, in a way, because they were perhaps still working under the same ‘rules of engagement’ as last year, and perhaps going by their training.

I would guess that some will see that as awful, and some will see it as overall fair enough, in the wider scheme of things, and some may see it as a bit of both. But there does seem to have been a bit of a sea-change.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

...how can he be certain the guy didn't have a gun?

Right, police are so used to imagining black guys have guns that even when one steals a taser right in front of him, he still thinks it's a gun and shoots him in the back while he's running away. That makes sense.

The guy was taking a shot at them. Why do you find it unreasonable to think he might be using a gun to do so?

Because he just took the taser right in front of them!!!

Why do you find it reasonable for someone to think a taser is a pistol after seeing that it was a taser???????????!!!!!!!

??!!

??

!!

?

!

Then, after taking the taser, he shot it and the taser wire observably came out!

Then, he was no longer pointing it.

Then, after all that he was running and got shot in the back.

What in the actual fuck, Loren?!

 

[Trausti]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...g-decision-killing-rayshard-brooks-by-police/

The former Atlanta police officer who fatally shot Rayshard Brooks after a DUI stop was charged with felony murder, aggravated assault and other offenses Wednesday, less than a week after the 27-year-old black man’s killing set off a new wave of protests against racism and police brutality.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard announced a total of 11 charges against Garrett Rolfe at an afternoon news conference in downtown Atlanta, calling Brooks’s killing unjustified and finding that Brooks posed no threat to Rolfe’s life during the incident.
Rolfe’s colleague, officer Devin Brosnan, was charged with aggravated assault. Brosnan will become cooperating witness for the state, Howard said, making him one of the first Atlanta police officers to testify in such a case.

More details in the article.

When was Brosnan supposed to have assaulted him, during the arrest attempt?

Police are just going to stop policing. Like NYC in the 70s. Look up high as the homicide rate spikes. Again.

 

[blastula]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...g-decision-killing-rayshard-brooks-by-police/

The former Atlanta police officer who fatally shot Rayshard Brooks after a DUI stop was charged with felony murder, aggravated assault and other offenses Wednesday, less than a week after the 27-year-old black man’s killing set off a new wave of protests against racism and police brutality.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard announced a total of 11 charges against Garrett Rolfe at an afternoon news conference in downtown Atlanta, calling Brooks’s killing unjustified and finding that Brooks posed no threat to Rolfe’s life during the incident.
Rolfe’s colleague, officer Devin Brosnan, was charged with aggravated assault. Brosnan will become cooperating witness for the state, Howard said, making him one of the first Atlanta police officers to testify in such a case.

More details in the article.

When was Brosnan supposed to have assaulted him, during the arrest attempt?

Maybe it's because Brosnan stood on his shoulders after the shooting. Rolfe had also kicked his body.

On the shooting, Rolfe had already patted him down, and Brooks was shot in the back, after he already fired the last taser, and was running away from Wolfe.

 

[ZiprHead]

When was Brosnan supposed to have assaulted him, during the arrest attempt?

Maybe it's because Brosnan stood on his shoulders after the shooting. Rolfe had also kicked his body.

On the shooting, Rolfe had already patted him down, and Brooks was shot in the back, after he already fired the last taser, and was running away from Wolfe.

This, from listening to the prosecutor listing the charges and reasons behind them.

 

[ruby sparks]

Maybe it's because Brosnan stood on his shoulders after the shooting. Rolfe had also kicked his body.

Where did you read of that? Wtf?

 

[blastula]

Yeah, the prosecutor said it's for standing on him, and that Brosnan has admitted it.

 

[ruby sparks]

And apparently they did not give first aid?

 

[blastula]

They eventually gave aid after a few minutes, but other officers had even arrived before then and were just standing there over the body doing nothing.