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The police in the US really don't seem to want to do themselves any favours.....

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Narapoia

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Shooting unarmed people again

It seems that 'don't shoot unarmed people' is too difficult to understand for some people. Seems also here they are trying to pass it off as incompetence - 'Oops I shot him by mistake because I couldn't tell the difference between a taser and a handgun', and apparently the guys kneeling on his head couldn't tell that he'd been shot either.

Either gross incompetence/negligence or definitely not a symptom of the apparent inability to treat unarmed black people the same as everyone else by US police, whether they run or not. Slager should have just said he mixed up his gun with his taser. Even with the video in this case the guy doesn't seem to be on the receiving end of charges. Sure the 8 shots might be a bit difficult to explain away but Slager could probably claim he was testing to make sure it wasn't his taser, or something.

Fuck this is some weird shit to wrap your head around when you don't live in 'Murica. ETA - even though it appears the guy is a bit of a scumbag - he was caught in a sting for selling illegal weapons. Still, pretty fucked up to get shot while being restrained by 'multiple officers'.
 
disturbing police bodycam footage shows 73-year-old reserve deputy Robert Bates shoot 44-year-old Eric Courtney Harris as he is being restrained on the ground in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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wth?
 
"oops, I shot him, I'm sorry"
 
What we see here is that there is no cycle of proper behavior. We have a case of a black man who followed directions in the car and was shot and killed. When they run away, shot and killed. May just be safer if blacks stayed indoors. About the best we've seen was a black man in Sandusky being lied to by the cops and eventually arrested for resisting an illegal search. Luckily he wasn't shot and killed.
ksen said:
disturbing police bodycam footage shows 73-year-old reserve deputy Robert Bates shoot 44-year-old Eric Courtney Harris as he is being restrained on the ground in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Click to expand...

wth?
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Well, at least the story seems to make sense. I can imagine a 73 year old making that mistake... which is why I wouldn't expect to see 73 year olds serving with the Police on the streets. Heck, if it weren't for the grave mistake made, it would otherwise make for a potentially hilarious COPS sketch.

The more bothersome thing is this guy is dying and the younger cop is trash talking him. 'You ran away and struggled, of course we were going to shoot you by accident.'
 
Well, it seems this guy just had himself a senior moment.

Deputy thought he was holding stun gun, not handgun when he shot black suspect

This is the part of the article which kind of disturbs me, though:

Reserve deputies are generally volunteers, often with other full-time jobs. Bates is an insurance company executive assigned to a violent crimes task force.
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Is the violent crimes task force really the kind of thing you want to put your volunteers on? Wouldn't it be better to assign those guys to the jaywalking and traffic control jobs and have the violent crime divisions be staffed by real police with proper training?

This thing here seems to be a problem that was just waiting to happen.
 
Actually, there is one other issue, he was struggling with other officers at the time. If someone shoots the suspect with a taser while another officer is in contact with him, wouldn't they both get shocked?

Oddly, it is hard to find why they were chasing him. Apparently unconstitutional laws regarding firearms sales was the reason.
 
Tasers are engineered to only work with high melanin content . . . same as cop bullets.
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
Actually, there is one other issue, he was struggling with other officers at the time. If someone shoots the suspect with a taser while another officer is in contact with him, wouldn't they both get shocked?
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Yet another reason why you don't need an untrained civilian volunteer on your team.
 
Tom Sawyer said:
Jimmy Higgins said:
Actually, there is one other issue, he was struggling with other officers at the time. If someone shoots the suspect with a taser while another officer is in contact with him, wouldn't they both get shocked?
Click to expand...

Yet another reason why you don't need an untrained civilian volunteer on your team.
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Dude, he was 73 so he clearly had several decades of experience to help guide him in order to not make a mistake like shoot a man with a gun instead of a Taser.
 
Nope, he was a local rich guy who donated money to the sheriff's department, and was rewarded by being made a deputy and allowed to ride along on chases.

Yes, that is what our democracy has come to. Buy a badge, shoot a guy, have the sheriff's department clear you.

Hopefully, higher authorities will have something to say about this. I'm not holding my breath.
 
Tom Sawyer said:
Well, it seems this guy just had himself a senior moment.

Deputy thought he was holding stun gun, not handgun when he shot black suspect

This is the part of the article which kind of disturbs me, though:

Reserve deputies are generally volunteers, often with other full-time jobs. Bates is an insurance company executive assigned to a violent crimes task force.
Click to expand...

Is the violent crimes task force really the kind of thing you want to put your volunteers on? Wouldn't it be better to assign those guys to the jaywalking and traffic control jobs and have the violent crime divisions be staffed by real police with proper training?

This thing here seems to be a problem that was just waiting to happen.
Click to expand...

The problem is arming people and setting them out on the street to enforce vague and sometimes totally ridiculous laws....like the one forbidding the sale of single cigarettes. That was the cops' excuse for murdering Eric Garner by cops with bare hands, so guns are not the only issue here. In this case, the guy was 73 years old and obviously a doddering old man who won't go to jail for it. I am 71 myself but still think there have to be some limits for cops...some level of competency required. If that level of competency was met in some kind of test by this 73 y.o. gunman with a badge, he should be made to sit in the corner with a dunce cap for 15 minutes then send him back out? He should be tried for at least second degree murder. If he truly was incompetent, then his supervisors need to be charged with manslaughter for sending this unguided missile out on the street.
 
Sarpedon said:
Nope, he was a local rich guy who donated money to the sheriff's department, and was rewarded by being made a deputy and allowed to ride along on chases.

Yes, that is what our democracy has come to. Buy a badge, shoot a guy, have the sheriff's department clear you.

Hopefully, higher authorities will have something to say about this. I'm not holding my breath.
Click to expand...
Could you cite that please? Never mind. Link I don't think it is as clear as you state, but certainly of interest.

Washington Post said:
The Tulsa World said Bates, who worked for a year as a police officer in 1964-65, served as chairman of the Re-elect Sheriff (Stanley) Glanz Committee in 2012 and donated $2,500 to Glanz’s campaign that year. The footage of the shooting was captured on another deputy’s body camera.
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What is under question is what in the hell was a 73 year old reserve cop doing being involved with an undercover operation?!?!
 
Sarpedon said:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...ay-cop-shoots-dead-unarmed-black-suspect.html
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Da fuck?

The Tulsa sheriff’s department has around 100 volunteer reservists, some of whom use their own guns.

A spokesman said: "He (Mr Bates) isn't the only millionaire we've got. You have to remember, this is Oklahoma. It’s their way of giving back. Nobody would criticise if he gave to the Red Cross."
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That takes the cake as the stupid statement anyone has ever made.

Why are they letting volunteer millionaires come along with guns? I get that they want to encourage donations by letting the rich guys ride along with the cops and experience the excitement but ... don't arm them and don't involve them in the actual apprehension of suspects. The fact that this program exists is as stupid as this guy who was taking part in the program.
 
I'm pretty certain that if they donated time to the Red Cross and bled out someone giving blood by trying to tap the carotid artery, people would be asking questions then too.
 
Does this story make anyone else think of this?

MV5BODQxMzY3MTY0MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTg2MDgxMQ@@._V1_SY317_CR5,0,214,317_AL_.jpg
 
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