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It is illegal to be under the influence of an intoxicant while carrying a firearm. The police officer smelled marijuana when he approached the vehicle, and the girlfriend confirmed in her testimony that they had smoked marijuana shortly before they were pulled over. There was also marijuana in the vehicle and, you guessed it, it is illegal to be in possession of an illegal controlled substance while carrying a firearm.
Last I checked it wasn't illegal to be black, no matter how much you would like to turn this into a racial issue.
The officer shot Castile, and from all reports he shouldn't have. However, that will be up to a jury to decide. If he shot Castile because he was black, then he needs to serve whatever sentence is handed down. If it comes out that the information available to us is wrong and the officer did have reason to fear for his own safety, then he did nothing wrong.
Jim, you just outed yourself as not being up on the case, which was long ago determined.
Also Wednesday, a toxicologist undercut the officer’s defense by testifying that there’s no way to tell when the man last smoked marijuana or whether he was still intoxicated during the deadly encounter.
The autopsy results included blood levels of THC, the compound in marijuana that produces its high. Defense attorneys have argued that Castile was to blame for the shooting because he had been smoking marijuana, was stoned that night and failed to obey the officer’s instructions.
Kristin Engebretsen, a toxicologist at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, said the effects of marijuana and how long it stays in a user’s system vary, and it can stay in the body for weeks and even months. In addition, THC is stored in body fat, and released into the blood when a person dies, throwing blood levels off.
Personally, I don't care if he was smoking pot and blowing the smoke in the cops face - that has nothing to do with anything other than it would lead to his arrest. People who point to what he was allegedly doing wrong when he was stopped are making excuses for bad policing. Cops don't get to be judge and jury.
I posted the exchange earlier in the thread that the cop and Castile had and Castile was complying. The cop overreacted. He got off anyway because the laws on the books favor police. All they have to do is say they feared for their life. The law is written that way.
I don't know why your focus is on Castile instead of where it should be - on bad, untrained officers. They do, after all, impact us all.
I'd say it really depends on each individual case as to whether "the NRA, alt-right or mainstream cons" defend someone. With Castille, there were many on the right who thought this was a travesty. There are black gun owners that the NRA has championed.
The group helped Otis McDonald, a black Chicago resident, successfully challenge that city’s handgun ban in the Supreme Court. It submitted amicus briefs on behalf of black Delaware residents challenging that state’s ban on guns in public housing.
Shaneen Allen, a black single mother from Philadelphia, got a raw deal from police and prosecutors. But her biggest champions came not from the political left, but the right.
It seems to me that the NRA, specifically, tend to shy away from taking a stand when police officers are involved, but don't extend that to all gun owners on the right.
Like you said, it's the courts that need to decide punishment, not the lynch mobs who want to see the cop punished no matter what the circumstances are. I truly am not familiar enough with the Castile case to make an intelligent judgment, so I will defer any opinion. That often can lead to very different judgments.
Why not quote the numbers so we citizens can determine what the situation is? We are all human...and, c'mon, what are the chances that virtually ALL police shooting are justified?
Here are the quickies I can find. Over a 12+ year period about 12,000 Police Shootings....
80 were brought up on charges. Less than 35% of those, or 25+- were convicted.
So, you are really going to claim that only 25 out of 12,000 Police shootings involve
Putting it another way, in a year and 1,000 Americans shot by cops, 2 Cops are convicted.
So, either Cops are the Lord God and attain a level of perfection unknown on the face of the earth...or, they are protected by "the system". I vote for the later.
Why, was Nicole Simpson killed by a cop because he thought she was reaching for a gun?
Do you think OJ is innocent of that murder?
I think OJ is guilty for decapitating his wife with a knife in a jealous rage, but I also did not get worked up when he was let off of the hook. That's the honest truth of the matter.
It's one case among most that are well prosecuted. And he kept up with being a criminal jackass in the aftermath, as violent criminals are want to do, and he then spent nine years in prison. Probably not enough considering who he is and what he is capable of, but the system isn't perfect. What's important is that the process is just. That's literally all that we have.
Personally, I don't care if he was smoking pot and blowing the smoke in the cops face - that has nothing to do with anything other than it would lead to his arrest. People who point to what he was allegedly doing wrong when he was stopped are making excuses for bad policing. Cops don't get to be judge and jury.
I posted the exchange earlier in the thread that the cop and Castile had and Castile was complying. The cop overreacted. He got off anyway because the laws on the books favor police. All they have to do is say they feared for their life. The law is written that way.
I don't know why your focus is on Castile instead of where it should be - on bad, untrained officers. They do, after all, impact us all.
I freely admit to not following the case. I was the reports when it happened, followed it in passing until the media decided it wasn't priority number one, and went on with life.
My own opinion on marijuana is that it shouldn't even be on the list of controlled substances, but my opinion isn't the law. The law states that you can't carry a firearm while being intoxicated or possessing a controlled substance.
The only reason I posted about it is because DD keeps trying to use the Castile case as proof that the NRA is racist because they didn't throw a fit over a "law-abiding" black gun owner being shot by the police - but Castile wasn't law-abiding.
Why, was Nicole Simpson killed by a cop because he thought she was reaching for a gun?
Do you think OJ is innocent of that murder?
I think OJ is guilty for decapitating his wife with a knife in a jealous rage, but I also did not get worked up when he was let off of the hook. That's the honest truth of the matter.
It's one case among most that are well prosecuted. And he kept up with being a criminal jackass in the aftermath, as violent criminals are want to do, and he then spent nine years in prison. Probably not enough considering who he is and what he is capable of, but the system isn't perfect. What's important is that the process is just. That's literally all that we have.
Were you completely satisfied by the OJ verdict?
As to you not getting all worked up about it, please. LMAO...you’re not talking to a fool. Let’s not even start saying ridiculous things.
Personally, I don't care if he was smoking pot and blowing the smoke in the cops face - that has nothing to do with anything other than it would lead to his arrest. People who point to what he was allegedly doing wrong when he was stopped are making excuses for bad policing. Cops don't get to be judge and jury.
I posted the exchange earlier in the thread that the cop and Castile had and Castile was complying. The cop overreacted. He got off anyway because the laws on the books favor police. All they have to do is say they feared for their life. The law is written that way.
I don't know why your focus is on Castile instead of where it should be - on bad, untrained officers. They do, after all, impact us all.
That's a good point, and I've mostly been bringing this up in response to those who object that the guy who shot up the Waffle House is still alive, but the underlying reason for the encounter with police has NOTHING to do with whether or not a police officer is justified in using deadly force. I don't know enough about this case to comment intelligently, but it doesn't really matter WHY the policeman stopped Castile; all that matters is whether or not Castile was a threat to the officer. If not, no shooting is justified, even if Castile had just finished murdering 20 people and raping 20 children - no threat, no shooting.
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