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I think you have to weigh the evidence in each individual case, individually. To do otherwise is a kind of magical thinking. Suppose we have a video of one black man shooting someone in cold blood as they try to run away. Does that mean we have to now open up to question every other case where a black man shot someone and claimed self-defense? No, not really (to say the least).
My question to the 'fear for life' comments is this. When you sign up to be an officer, you're essentially signing up to be on the "front lines" and danger is your middle name. Part of the job is to risk your own life, to put yourself in harms way in order to make sure the person you are apprehending doesn't get injured or killed unnecessarily. Spraying bullets because you have "Fear" isn't acceptable, you signed up for "Fear" when you took the job.
Baloney. No one signs up to be a target or risk their life. The job of a police officer is to enforce the laws. They don't get paid to risk their life, wrestle with suspects, or run into a dangerous situation. This is real life, not a TV show or movie. The public is supposed to RESPECT the police and OBEY their lawful orders. To challenge a police officer is an invitation to end up in a morgue or hospital and that is the way it should be.
It is so rare that a cop gets caught in the act like this. There must be hundreds of murders committed that they just lie about, plant evidence, and get away with.
How can you ask someone to not fear for ones life? Being in harms way is part of the job, that doesn't mean cops should be super human and not experience emotion.
You have a very simplistic and naieve view in my opinion.
Let me explain it differently.
Every situation a cop gets into has some element of risk, some there's virtually no risk and some there's extreme risk but most situations fall somewhere in between. Now the current state of cops seems to be "i'm going to act as if every situation is high risk life in danger and just spray bullets and ask questions later" but that's not what these guys signed up for. Most situations are not life and death, yet, these guys seem to be acting as if they are.
Baloney. No one signs up to be a target or risk their life. The job of a police officer is to enforce the laws. They don't get paid to risk their life, wrestle with suspects, or run into a dangerous situation. This is real life, not a TV show or movie. The public is supposed to RESPECT the police and OBEY their lawful orders. To challenge a police officer is an invitation to end up in a morgue or hospital and that is the way it should be.
But you are signing up while knowing your life will be at risk. They absolutely get paid to wrestle with suspects and run into dangerous situations, that's part of the job description, like you said, its not TV, its real life and in real life, stuff happens. As far as the public respecting the law, absolutely, everyone should be honest and law abiding, but we know that isn't reality and when a cop signs up, he or she knows its not reality either.
Reality is that you're going to get treated badly by some crooks, you're going to be shot at by some crooks, but that's the exception not the rule, most incidents cops get involved in are not life threatening, most people are going to pull over and do what they're told, but there seem to be too many cops these days "going to 10" in situations that are not the least bit life threatening.
Can we agree that if there wasn't that video, that cop would have gotten off without so much as a talking-to?
But the video aside, that cop's story was damn near identical to every cop's story about shooting unarmed people. It's almost like there's a protocol for explaining these shootings in a way that protects the cop and rallies like-minded citizens to their defense...
So seeing how this cop's story imploded once the video was released, and seeing how similar his story was to other cops' stories about shooting unarmed people, does that make you question any of the past stories you've heard cops spin in similar scenarios?
Of course. I actually believed institutionalized racism was a vestige of our past but now I'm not so sure. Just the way the cop new exactly how to cover up his crime so nonchalantly shows there exists a protocol for this barbaric behavior. This shoot first and ask questions later mentality is truly disgraceful to out system of governance. "To serve and protect" whom?
There undoubtedly would have been an investigation with his being shot in the back at a distance and the police officer firing multiple times. Would the cop have been charged is still up for debate but it would be less likely without the video.
What I'm waiting for is to find out what the officer dropped. Was it the tazer, was it the dead man's cell phone, or was it possibly a drop weapon. The dead man was an idiot, not to speak ill of the dead, but that's the truth. He was a deadbeat father, possibly had traffic citations he didn't pay, and had a warrant out for his arrest. Not wanting to be arrested is not justification to run away like a moron. It wasn't grounds to be shot down in the back by an officer with a callous disregard for human life.
I'd like to see random unannounced searches of police officers for any unregistered firearms or undocumented knives. If they have an unregistered firearm on them, its a mandatory felony and prison sentence.
In Pa, there's a female police officer being charged in a case almost identical to this one. It never made the national news, any guesses why?
There undoubtedly would have been an investigation with his being shot in the back at a distance and the police officer firing multiple times. Would the cop have been charged is still up for debate but it would be less likely without the video.
What I'm waiting for is to find out what the officer dropped. Was it the tazer, was it the dead man's cell phone, or was it possibly a drop weapon. The dead man was an idiot, not to speak ill of the dead, but that's the truth. He was a deadbeat father, possibly had traffic citations he didn't pay, and had a warrant out for his arrest. Not wanting to be arrested is not justification to run away like a moron. It wasn't grounds to be shot down in the back by an officer with a callous disregard for human life.
I'd like to see random unannounced searches of police officers for any unregistered firearms or undocumented knives. If they have an unregistered firearm on them, its a mandatory felony and prison sentence.
In Pa, there's a female police officer being charged in a case almost identical to this one. It never made the national news, any guesses why?
There wasn't a video of it?
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