Police Misconduct Catch All Thread

[ZiprHead]

WATCH: Arkansas deputy shoots at Pomeranian but hits woman standing on porch instead

A lawsuit has been filed against a Columbia County deputy and the sheriff's office after the deputy shoots at a dog, but strikes a woman standing on her porch.

katv.com

A Fucking Pomeranian...

 

[Shadowy Man]

Well, I am only part way through and though you are completely wrong about the content I admit that you’re probably right because guessing is probably more accurate than learning.

I definitely do not have time to watch an hour long video that was described as "meh" by the person who posted it.

Understood. Then be intellectually honest and don’t dismiss it with an inaccurate guess as to its content.

 

[Derec]

There are; But they are incredibly rare.

I disagree.

Why an officer? Officers are there to put themselves in danger, so the general public doesn't have to. That the target is an officer should make it less imperative to stop the offender, not more so.

Police officers are still human beings and have the right to self defense when attacked by a perp.

An offender who is randomly assaulting people is a far more dangerous threat than an offender who is only assaulting people who are clearly intent on stopping him.

Those are not mutually exclusive. An armed perp may take a hostage or carjack somebody in order to effect his escape.

Sure. If there's a compelling reason to believe that they have an intent to kill innocent bystanders.

Fleeing with a gun and refusing to drop it is sufficient reason. At least in the US. Probably Down Under too, but perhaps you can clarify.

Such situations are so rare as to occur maybe once a decade. They're not a daily occurrence, and not something individual police officers should expect to ever encounter.

It's not a "once in a decade" thing even under your restrictive rules. Take Thurman Blevins. Shot in the air, which brought police. Took off running, refused to drop the gun. Then he tried to shoot police officers.
Minneapolis Police Officers Won’t Be Charged in Fatal Shooting
Even though it was clear cut, there still were protests and family insisting he didn't do nothing. And I guess you think the officers should not have defended themselves, right?

Merely departing the scene in possession of a firearm (which in the USA is a constitutional right) shouldn't be sufficient grounds to deploy lethal force.

There is no constitutional right to flee the scene with a firearm or another weapon.

 

[Derec]

A Fucking Pomeranian...

 

[Derec]

The success of these lawsuits stems directly from the police's inability to perform their duties correctly.

Not necessarily. As I said, there have been cases where police did nothing wrong and still the family got millions.
Example: Alton Sterling. He was armed (illegally, as he was a convicted felon) and threatened a homeless guy with the gun. Then he scuffled with police officers who responded. Both state and federal investigation cleared the officers. And yet his greedy family still walked away with $4.5M.

Furthermore, you're generalizing based on high-profile incidents rather than the broader landscape.

Do you have any data about this "broader landscape"? And in any case, it is the high profile incidents that cost the taxpayers big bucks.

And if you're concerned about taxpayer dollars, reconsidering qualified immunity might be a prudent step.

Better approach would be to dismiss lawsuits when a shooting was deemed justified.
The judge in the local (to me) case of Vicent Truitt did the right thing.
$150M lawsuit in teen's police shooting death against Cobb County dismissed on qualified immunity grounds
Too bad judges in places like California or Minnesota don't do this.

 

[ZiprHead]

Those are not mutually exclusive. An armed perp may take a hostage or carjack somebody in order to effect his escape.

There's that Minority Report mentality again.

 

[thebeave]

WATCH: Arkansas deputy shoots at Pomeranian but hits woman standing on porch instead

A lawsuit has been filed against a Columbia County deputy and the sheriff's office after the deputy shoots at a dog, but strikes a woman standing on her porch.

katv.com

A Fucking Pomeranian...

Well, given my negative experiences with those yappy little fuckers, I'm sorta sad he missed...

 

[Shadowy Man]

Police officers are still human beings and have the right to self defense when attacked by a perp.

Do they have the right to self defense prior to being attacked by a “perp”?

 

[laughing dog]

?

Yes. A lot of these lawsuits are only successful because of race of the plaintiffs.

I realize this is a long shot to suggest but have you seriously entertained the possibility that your standard for police misconduct is out of step with reality?

 

[Gospel]

Do you have any data about this "broader landscape"? And in any case, it is the high profile incidents that cost the taxpayers big bucks.

Why discuss this further? It seems you've already concluded that lawyers are to blame, rather than law enforcement, for the financial burden on taxpayers. My time is valuable.

Better approach would be to dismiss lawsuits when a shooting was deemed justified.
The judge in the local (to me) case of Vicent Truitt did the right thing.
$150M lawsuit in teen's police shooting death against Cobb County dismissed on qualified immunity grounds
Too bad judges in places like California or Minnesota don't do this.

While judges certainly possess the authority to dismiss lawsuits, I doubt that financial savings was the primary rationale for granting them that power.

 

[Gospel]

WATCH: Arkansas deputy shoots at Pomeranian but hits woman standing on porch instead

A lawsuit has been filed against a Columbia County deputy and the sheriff's office after the deputy shoots at a dog, but strikes a woman standing on her porch.

katv.com

A Fucking Pomeranian...

Well, given my negative experiences with those yappy little fuckers, I'm sorta sad he missed...

I understand your point, but a kick would be both safer & more gratifying.

 

[ZiprHead]

Deputies accused of shoving guns in mouths of 2 Black men

BRANDON, Miss. (AP) — Several deputies from a Mississippi sheriff’s department being investigated by the Justice Department for possible civil rights violations have been involved in at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries, an Associated Press investigation found.

Two of the men allege that Rankin County sheriff’s deputies shoved guns into their mouths during separate encounters. In one case, the deputy pulled the trigger, leaving the man with wounds that required parts of his tongue to be sewn back together. In one of the two fatal confrontations, the man’s mother said a deputy kneeled on her son’s neck while he told them he couldn’t breathe.

Police and court records obtained by the AP show that several deputies who were accepted to the sheriff’s office’s Special Response Team — a tactical unit whose members receive advanced training — were involved in each of the four encounters. In three of them, the heavily redacted documents don’t indicate if they were serving in their normal capacity as deputies or as members of the unit.

In Mississippi, the police shooting of Michael Corey Jenkins led the Justice Department to open a civil rights investigation into the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department. Jenkins said six white deputies burst into a home where he was visiting a friend, and one put a gun in his mouth and fired. Jenkins’ hospital records, parts of which he shared with AP, show he had a lacerated tongue and broken jaw.


Deputies said Jenkins was shot after he pointed a gun at them; department officials have not answered multiple inquiries from the AP asking whether a weapon was found at the scene. Jenkins’ attorney, Malik Shabazz, said his client didn’t have a gun.

“They had complete control of him the entire time. Six officers had full and complete control of Michael the entire time,” Shabazz said. “So that’s just a fabrication.”

In a notice of an upcoming lawsuit, attorneys for Jenkins and his friend Eddie Terrell Parker said on the night of Jan. 24 the deputies suddenly came into the home and proceeded to handcuff and beat them. They said the deputies stunned them with Tasers repeatedly over roughly 90 minutes and, at one point, forced them to lie on their backs as the deputies poured milk over their faces. The men restated the allegations in separate interviews with the AP.

When a Taser is used, it’s automatically logged into the device’s memory. The AP obtained the automated Taser records from the evening of Jan. 24. They show that deputies first fired one of the stun guns at 10:04 p.m. and fired one at least three more times over the next 65 minutes. However, those unredacted records might not paint a complete picture, as redacted records show that Tasers were turned on, turned off or used dozens more times during that period.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Deputies accused of shoving guns in mouths of 2 Black men

I've been saying all along that it's not the shootings, it's the lesser violence that's the real issue.

 

[Gospel]

Deputies accused of shoving guns in mouths of 2 Black men

I'll get this out of the way since it's all I ever really hear from opposition. "Had they (the two black men) done X, this situation could have been avoided."

 

[Shadowy Man]

Deputies accused of shoving guns in mouths of 2 Black men

I've been saying all along that it's not the shootings, it's the lesser violence that's the real issue.

Because the shootings are the tip of the iceberg, neh?

 

[Gospel]

Deputies accused of shoving guns in mouths of 2 Black men

I've been saying all along that it's not the shootings, it's the lesser violence that's the real issue.

I have this gut feeling I'm going to regret asking but... What exactly do you mean by 'lesser violence' within the context of this case?

 

[Derec]

Those are not mutually exclusive. An armed perp may take a hostage or carjack somebody in order to effect his escape.

There's that Minority Report mentality again.

Not at all "Minority Report" like which presupposes psychic powers.

It's more about making educated guesses about what a fleeing, armed suspect (esp. a felony suspect) is likely to do in order to evade the police. Fleeing suspects hijacking or attempting to hijack a vehicle is pretty common (example).
Letting him go when there was opportunity for police to stop him would be negligent.

 

[Derec]

Do they have the right to self defense prior to being attacked by a “perp”?

What exactly do you mean by that? Rights exist before the situation arises where you actually make use of them.

 

[Derec]

I realize this is a long shot to suggest but have you seriously entertained the possibility that your standard for police misconduct is out of step with reality?

Even in the very unlikely case that this was true, it does not explain the fact that it is only families of non-white perps who get millions of dollars in shooting deemed justified by the prosecutors. In many of these cases the perps were armed too.
I am talking about cases like Michael Brown, Korryn Gaines, Alton Sterling, Quanice Hayes and others.

Even if you believe my standards are off, and that these families deserve the millions they got, how do you explain the fact that it is families of black perps who are getting these payouts, never white ones. Or can you point to some examples?

 

[Derec]

Why discuss this further? It seems you've already concluded that lawyers are to blame, rather than law enforcement, for the financial burden on taxpayers. My time is valuable.s

It's the lawyers, judges, juries and all too often the spineless city councils that often settle for millions even when there is no wrongdoing.
When police do wrong, and that certainly happens, victims should be compensated. But when cities pay out even when police did nothing wrong, that is injustice. And it does nothing to help improve policing if payouts have so little to do with actual police conduct.

While judges certainly possess the authority to dismiss lawsuits, I doubt that financial savings was the primary rationale for granting them that power.

No, but a shooting being deemed justified should certainly lead judges to exercise that power and not leave it to juries that are easily emotionally manipulated, esp. in cases where a young person dies (even if they brought it to themselves by robbing people at gunpoint for example).