Police Misconduct Catch All Thread

[Derec]

13 year old kid points a realistic replica firearm at police.
Police footage shows 13-year-old pointing gun seconds before he was shot and killed by officer
Do you guys really think the officer did anything wrong or that he should be prosecuted? Why?

 

[Spacetime Inhabitant]

QUOTE FROM ARTICLE

“Gun! Gotta gun!,” the officer shouted to his fellow officers chasing behind before tackling the suspect.

“Drop it! Drop it!” another officer shouted at least twice, the clips show. Then, the sound of a single gunshot.

The kid is partly to blame for his own death, especially since it appears he was given a warning. However, that line about the suspect being tackled doesn't make sense in regard to the following line, because if he was tackled how could he be shot at without endangering the tackling officer, and also making it unnecessary.
However, there is one thing that is still true of this case as with others, cops are too willing to immediately choose without hesitation the lethal option. Do they not have capsicum sprays and tasers?

 

[bilby]

However, there is one thing that is still true of this case as with others, cops are too willing to immediately choose without hesitation the lethal option. Do they not have capsicum sprays and tasers?

My understanding is that they are explicitly trained to kill, as a preference, on the grounds that any disciplinary action against them is far less likely to succeed if their victim is not available to testify.

"My word against theirs" is a riskier proposition than "My word as the only surviving participant".

 

[laughing dog]

13 year old kid points a realistic replica firearm at police.
Police footage shows 13-year-old pointing gun seconds before he was shot and killed by officer
Do you guys really think the officer did anything wrong or that he should be prosecuted? Why?

Pointing a firearm at someone is a clear threat to life.

However, the linked story is confusing to me. As Spacetime Inhabitant noted above, if the suspect was tackled, wouldn't shooting at him endanger the officer who tackled him? And, as Spacetime Inhabitant also noted, how could the suspect point the gun in any meaningful fashion if he was tackled and held by an officer?

So, in order to give a meaningful answer, I would need more information.

 

[Elixir]

It occurs to me that banning guns entirely would probably help in situations like this …
Too bad about Murkin STOOPID.

 

[Toni]

White Sulphur hires Timothy Loehmann, officer involved in fatal shooting of 12-year old

By Stephen Baldwin, RealWV The White Sulphur Springs police department has hired Timothy Loehmann. City Administrator Linda Coleman confirmed the hiring to R

therealwv.com

Jesus Fucking Christ. He should still be doing time.

One can only hope that he has gained some courage in the last 10 years.

I’d say self restraint, maturity, and a huge amount of sound judgement. Not holding my breath tho.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I'm saying "unarmed" includes people trying to grab the officer's stuff. (I won't say gun because we do have a case where the cop shot because the guy got his taser.) I am not saying all unarmed cases are trying to grab the officer's stuff, just that many are.

If someone is grabbing for a weapon they are unarmed at the time. If they are called, then the officer is armed and may have time to take nonlethal measures.
So your argument is pretty flimsy as an excuse.

Officer grabs his taser, perp grabs his gun. Officer is dead.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

For the record, of course the police claim they announced themselves. Wouldn’t you make that claim? It may or may not be true. We will never actually know. But imagine you are awakeNed in the middle of the night by an intruder. You may or may not hear the intruder announce themselves. And you may or may not be awake enough to grasp that it is the police. And you may or may not perceive that they are not a danger to you. Perhaps less if you are not white. BTW, this is one of my arguments against gun ownership: unintentionally shooting an intruder who is actually a family member or someone else who was not a threat. And yes, I’ve encountered someone unexpected in my home in the middle of the night and been very grateful I did not have a gun.

What would I have done had I been the officers? I don’t know. But firing my weapon would not be an automatic response.

Yes, we do have a problem with how searches are conducted.

I would presume it's true--but note that if someone is awakened by "Police! Search Warrant!" that there's a good chance they do not hear the words. You awaken to the noise and only then become aware of words.

But note the situation: felon in possession. And clearly living a life of crime in that he thought it was rivals.

And that justifues Ms Taylor’s death by police because….?

The point is she put herself in harm's way by living with an armed felon. Take stupid risks, sometimes something bad happens.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Philando Castille would like a word.
Oh, wait. He was shot for just saying he had a permitted gun.
Never mind. It *is* just possession.

One big reason why you remember his name eight years later is that this kind of situation is highly unlikely. And in a country as big as ours, with 333M people, even very unlikely things will happen occasionally. That does not mean that police shoot people for "just possession" with any regularity.

Exactly. We hear about these things and know names because they are rare. Common stuff is not news! This causes a major bias in people's perceptions of how likely things are to happen, there's a tendency to think the rare is common (because we hear about it) but the common is rare (because we don't hear about it.)

Simple test: Consider how many people are included in a circle centered on you and extending to the event. And consider how many people are actually relevant to the event. The ratio gives a reasonable perception of the rarity of the event in question. Cop shoots truly innocent makes nationwide news.

What you and Derec both seem to understand is that police do make mistakes. I get that you dislike it when people exaggerate the frequency of those mistakes, and I agree with you. However, I wouldn't tell someone who just lost a family member that the police get it right most of the time, so they should cut them some slack. I wager neither of you would do the same so.....

I do understand they make mistakes. I just don't assume that everything that isn't absolutely obviously correct is a mistake. And I certainly do not trust BLM to identify mistakes.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

No, YOU note the actual situation: Police were looking for a felon who did not live at that address and had not lived there for some time. The felon was in custody. The police fucked up. Someone who was not a police officer died. Note: this happens MUCH more frequently than police being shot by their suspect or some other person.

The police lied to get their warrant. Which technically makes the warrant illegal, which means they were committing a crime even by entering. Hence Walker had every right to shoot at them (his charges were dismissed with prejudice). Since Ms. Taylor's death occurred while the police were engaged in criminal behavior, they should have been charged with felony murder. Hmmm.

Got some evidence as to those numbers?

And while they lied to get their warrant that's not a felony. You need a felony for felony murder, not merely a crime.

 

[bilby]

Officer grabs his taser, perp grabs his gun. Officer is dead.

True. Because American guns are magical artefacts, that even a person in the process of being electrocuted can reliably aim and fire.

If Hollywood has taught us anything, it is that these particular magical devices are hugely potent. They not only allow the wielder to kill any adversary at any range, even while incapacitated by electrical shocks; They also render good guys invulnerable, are sufficiently terrifying as to paralyse any evil opponent, and only run out of ammunition if doing so is essential to the plot.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

QUOTE FROM ARTICLE

“Gun! Gotta gun!,” the officer shouted to his fellow officers chasing behind before tackling the suspect.

“Drop it! Drop it!” another officer shouted at least twice, the clips show. Then, the sound of a single gunshot.

The kid is partly to blame for his own death, especially since it appears he was given a warning. However, that line about the suspect being tackled doesn't make sense in regard to the following line, because if he was tackled how could he be shot at without endangering the tackling officer, and also making it unnecessary.
However, there is one thing that is still true of this case as with others, cops are too willing to immediately choose without hesitation the lethal option. Do they not have capsicum sprays and tasers?

You meet deadly force with deadly force. Tasers and OC spray are for enforcing compliance and generally are not used in lethal situations. They're a replacement for the nightstick, not for the gun.

 

[Toni]

For the record, of course the police claim they announced themselves. Wouldn’t you make that claim? It may or may not be true. We will never actually know. But imagine you are awakeNed in the middle of the night by an intruder. You may or may not hear the intruder announce themselves. And you may or may not be awake enough to grasp that it is the police. And you may or may not perceive that they are not a danger to you. Perhaps less if you are not white. BTW, this is one of my arguments against gun ownership: unintentionally shooting an intruder who is actually a family member or someone else who was not a threat. And yes, I’ve encountered someone unexpected in my home in the middle of the night and been very grateful I did not have a gun.

What would I have done had I been the officers? I don’t know. But firing my weapon would not be an automatic response.

Yes, we do have a problem with how searches are conducted.

I would presume it's true--but note that if someone is awakened by "Police! Search Warrant!" that there's a good chance they do not hear the words. You awaken to the noise and only then become aware of words.

But note the situation: felon in possession. And clearly living a life of crime in that he thought it was rivals.

And that justifues Ms Taylor’s death by police because….?

The point is she put herself in harm's way by living with an armed felon. Take stupid risks, sometimes something bad happens.

Oh ffs: she broke up with the felon. Booted him out long before she was murdered in her own bed. Neither of us have a timeline for their relationship so as far as either of us know, he appeared to be a stand up guy when they got together and she dumped him as soon as she smelled a rat.

Besides which, you are ignoring the FACT that the police lied to get their warrant had the suspect in custody at the time. Or the fact that incompetent and dishonest police

practices would have put into danger the lives of any subsequent tenant in that apartment and any neighbor of that apartment—as they put into danger the lives of neighbors that night.

All of whuch I’ve typed out before. You just cannot get over your hard on for defeusing police and for killing unarmed black people—double points if they are women and black.

 

[Derec]

Pointing a firearm at someone is a clear threat to life.

It was a realistic looking replica. A pellet gun designed to closely resemble the Glock 17 handgun.

Some on here (and elsewhere) maintain that people armed with such weapons should be considered "unarmed".

However, the linked story is confusing to me. As Spacetime Inhabitant noted above, if the suspect was tackled, wouldn't shooting at him endanger the officer who tackled him? And, as Spacetime Inhabitant also noted, how could the suspect point the gun in any meaningful fashion if he was tackled and held by an officer?

The kid had the gun out before he was on the ground.

There is no indication that the police had control of his shooting arm, so he could have still aimed and fired.

 

[Derec]

It occurs to me that banning guns entirely would probably help in situations like this …

And banning cars entirely would help with traffic fatalities. That's a brilliant plan, ese.

Too bad about Murkin STOOPID.

Antiamericanism, the socially acceptable form of bigotry.

 

[Derec]

True. Because American guns are magical artefacts, that even a person in the process of being electrocuted can reliably aim and fire.

First of all, being tased does not electrocute.
Second, tasers do not reliably connect. The danger of the barbs not making contact is too great to rely of tasers against a firearm.
Third, firing wildly still sands lethal projectiles out of the barrel, even if they are not aimed.

If Hollywood has taught us anything, it is that these particular magical devices are hugely potent. They not only allow the wielder to kill any adversary at any range, even while incapacitated by electrical shocks; They also render good guys invulnerable, are sufficiently terrifying as to paralyse any evil opponent, and only run out of ammunition if doing so is essential to the plot.

And the good guys can always shoot the gun out of the bad guy's hands, so why don't police do that? /s

 

[Derec]

The police lied to get their warrant. Which technically makes the warrant illegal, which means they were committing a crime even by entering. Hence Walker had every right to shoot at them (his charges were dismissed with prejudice). Since Ms. Taylor's death occurred while the police were engaged in criminal behavior, they should have been charged with felony murder. Hmmm.

You are treating "police" as if it was one entity, instead of different people who did different things.

Those detectives who lied on the warrant were prosecuted for that. But that does not mean the officers who executed the warrant, entered the residence and returned fire did anything wrong, much less criminal. They had a warrant signed by a judge.
Btw, the charges against Walker were dropped. Partly because he claimed he was asleep and did not hear police announce themselves, but mostly because of the public insanity during the 2020 race riots.

 

[Derec]

No, YOU note the actual situation: Police were looking for a felon who did not live at that address and had not lived there for some time. The felon was in custody. The police fucked up. Someone who was not a police officer died. Note: this happens MUCH more frequently than police being shot by their suspect or some other person.

[citation needed] that police shoot bystanders more often than police are shot by offenders.

The actual person who died was asleep in her own bed. The boyfriend got arrested and charged for firing at an intruder, —who, unbeknownst to him were the police— who had NO legitimate reason fir showing up in the middle of the night— costing him time and money and perhaps his job and reputation. AND THE WOMAN HE LOVED.

The case was tragic. But you can't fault the police officers for doing their job and executing a warrant. You also cannot fault the police for returning fire once fired upon.
And the charges against Walker were dropped btw.

Please note that the person they sought, who was already in custody, was not wanted for violent offenses but for drug charges.

That's bullshit. Jamarcus Glover was also sought on weapons charges, and previously, a dead body turned up in a car BT was renting and which JG had access to.
Warrants issued for arrest of Breonna Taylor’s ex-boyfriend amid leaked new documents
The article also suggests that BT was involved in JG's drug operation and was even holding eight large of his drug money for him.
The Breonna Taylor case was definitely tainted by the collective insanity our country was experiencing in 2020 and 2021 due to George Floyd riots.

Please note that the police who invaded Taylor’s home were not in uniform.

Plainclothes officers are a thing.

They claimed they identified themselves as police but we do not know that is true. The officer whose shots killed Taylor claimed he ‘thought he saw’ someone with an AK style weapon through the covered window and door, causing him to fire the deadly shots into Taylor’s bedroom, killing her. That claim seems unlikely to be true but instead was a false justification for the officer’s actions.

At least one witness heard police identify themselves.
Officers did knock before Breonna Taylor shooting, investigation finds
And the fact that Walker had opened fire is surely sufficient justification for returning fire. Rifles are not required.

And please note as well that other police officers knowingly falsely filed documents in order to obtain no knock warrants.

This is the only wrongdoing by police here. Executing a warrant is not. Returning fire when fired upon (and one of you is hit in the leg) is not.

So-called ‘swatting’ is a crime or at least it is when carried out against a political opponent. I’s certain you find seating to be unjustifiable but here you are, defending police for swatting Taylor’s apartment.

That's not quite swatting, as we know that BT was involved with JG's drug operation. Swatting generally means making up completely false claims for revenge, not exaggerating in order to get a judge to sign off on a warrant. It's more like that old woman who was killed by police executing a drug warrant in Vine City in Atlanta some years ago.

 

[Derec]

Oh ffs: she broke up with the felon. Booted him out long before she was murdered in her own bed. Neither of us have a timeline for their relationship so as far as either of us know, he appeared to be a stand up guy when they got together and she dumped him as soon as she smelled a rat.

That is not what the evidence shows. It seems she was involved in Jamarcus Glover's operation.
Warrants issued for arrest of Breonna Taylor’s ex-boyfriend amid leaked new documents
She rented a car where a dead body (likely iced by JG) was found, and she allegedly held $8k of JG's drug money.

Besides which, you are ignoring the FACT that the police lied to get their warrant had the suspect in custody at the time.

Those are different police than the ones who executed the warrant and returned fire.

All of whuch I’ve typed out before. You just cannot get over your hard on for defeusing police and for killing unarmed black people—double points if they are women and black.

Bullshit. And the way this case was handled was bullshit too and highly tainted by the collective insanity secondary to the 2020 race riots.
Any other year, BT's likely involvement in JG's drug operation would not have been ignored.

 

[ZiprHead]

Florida deputy was logged into sheriff's office Wi-Fi while watching child porn videos: PCSO

A Pinellas County deputy resigned after being arrested for watching and sharing child porn videos while working at the jail, according to the sheriff's office.

www.fox13news.com

CLEARWATER, Fla. - A Pinellas County deputy resigned after being arrested for watching and sharing child porn videos while working at the jail, according to the sheriff's office.

Detectives assigned to the Crimes Against Children Unit (CAC) arrested 33-year-old Trevor Scott Willis, a Pinellas County Sheriff's Office Detention Deputy, after receiving information that child porn was being accessed and shared online.

Tack on a year just for being an idiot.