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Yep. Texas doesn’t lock up police officers. They’re already bringing up the weed found in his apartment.
They’re gonna say that he was high and acted in a way that threatened the officer.
Maybe the old "the suspect appeared to be reaching into his waistband and the officer, in fear for her life, fired her service weapon..." And who's going to dispute that? There was only one witness and he's dead.
The answer once again is obviously more guns based on one incident involving a monumental screw up. We need to develop legislation based on cases like this, sure that makes sense in an alternate universe. Maybe legislation is in order to require everyone to sleep with their guns so they can get a drop on the invader.
One thing this tragedy suggests, is that in today's world, it's a good idea to keep your door locked. Leave it unlatched or worse, ajar and there's no telling who might walk right in. It might be a cop, who mistook the open door, as an invitation to look inside. Never allow a cop to come in your house or even look through the doorway, unless you're forced by a warrant.
One thing this tragedy suggests, is that in today's world, it's a good idea to keep your door locked. Leave it unlatched or worse, ajar and there's no telling who might walk right in. It might be a cop, who mistook the open door, as an invitation to look inside. Never allow a cop to come in your house or even look through the doorway, unless you're forced by a warrant.
1) Guyger should be tried for felony trespass and murder, and if her lawyers are good, maybe knock the murder down to manslaughter. Nothing she did had anything to do with being a cop and everything to do with trespassing. Mistake or not, she broke into someone else's house and killed them for them being in their house. If she doesn't get tried and convicted, a lot of lawyers defending folks on felony trespass and B&E will be using the "thought it was my apartment, my bad" defense.
2) The article points out what rebeldor, No_Recess and I (and others) have been saying since forever, and that is the citizen should always be on equal footing both legally and practically as the agents of tyranny. Changing that variable a week ago might not have saved Botham Jean's life, but were it that way always, and the agents of tyranny were held to the same legal standards as the public, and the public was armed to the same degree as the police/military, maybe the culture is such that story has a different ending.
3) I did law enforcement. I am not down on the profession, and I understand why there is legal favoritism in their direction, but the internal code of conduct in too many of these cases is either absent or absurd. Law enforcement officers, on duty or off, should have a higher awareness of escalation of force, better training to avoid immediately going to the firearm, and be held to a much higher standard when things go badly. That's their freaking job. To do nothing but ponder the rules of escalation of force in every possible situation such that they serve and protect, not subjugate and terrorize.
Does this make law enforcement hard? Yes, and it should be. That job gives terrible, awesome legal power to individuals to walk among us as both an implied and applied threat of force and violence on behalf of the almighty state.
4) Martial combat training in most law enforcement departments is pitiful, and cops have two rungs on their escalation of force ladder. Rung 1 = everything is fine, Rung 2 = bang, you're dead. Nothing in between. No baton, no take down, no backing away with non firing hand out and palm up with other hand hovering over weapon in holster, nothing. It is "give command, wait one second, shoot." Police need to be trained far better than they are in how to resolve situations without always going to the freaking pistol.
Again, this might make it harder to do that job, and that's OK. It should be harder, it should be far more selective as to who can be a cop (not everyone can be a Marine, Green Beret or SEAL either), and they should be well versed in non-lethal martial skills. Maybe if Guyger were a proper martial combat badass, Botham Jean is still alive, just with some bruises and a smile on his face since his lawsuit will most likely pay his mortgage off and have some coin left over.
There's simply too much laziness on this subject. Cops and their departments are too lazy to train them properly. Cities/states are too lazy to enact proper standards. Citizens are too lazy to demand change and defeat the current status quo. Etc. And in the end, it's people like Botham Jean getting sacrificed on the altar of all this laziness.
I agree with you, for the most part. I do not, however, agree with those who claim that the solution is to do away with the police altogether, privatize all law enforcement (oh, wait, what law, law is tyranny), or insist that LEOs have no right to be armed, ever. I am not sure why you ally yourself with the AnCaps on this issue: you are asking for reasonable standards for public policing, and they are saying that as a function of the state it is entirely unnecessary, and even evil.
It's funny how some people jump on any excuse to rationalize gun ownership.
What we really need is more stable cops - proven by the horrifying number of cops now caught in the act of unwarrantedly shooting black people.
And by the way, why isn't someone in a big-city apartment building locking his door?
What does this have to do with race? She walked into a random apartment and shot someone. It could have been a 70 year old white lady and the same thing would likely have happened. Her mug shot makes her look like she is on something. She certainly does not look like a police officer.
Unless you are referring to a lynching of that cop, I am pretty sure the man who was shot was caught off guard without an opportunity to retrieve any weapon to defend himself.
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