It needs to be "killology" fucks like Dave Grossman never holding another Police training seminar. Along with higher standards for hiring. Start requiring a college degree, make them really want the job.
That chief was a fucking asshole who couldn’t even answer easy and simple questions. He’s was obviously incensed that people were upset over his cops killing somebody. Ever since that BART cop in Oakland got caught executing that kid on camera on the subway platform, that is the excuse they use when all others are exhausted. It has a better ring to say “I mistook one entirely different thing for another” rather than “I am an untrained, dum-witted chickenshit”. .....and that was a 24 year veteran and police union boss. Just.... wow.
Meet Daunte Wright. His dad said he was a good kid who never got in any serious trouble. They're going to burn down the city (Again) for this hero.
You understand that his criminal background does not give a police officer the right to shoot him on the street, right? Like, that's what trials, and judges and juries and due process and Constitutional rights are for? ....right? This is the equivalent of asking a rape victim why she wasn't wearing any panties when she got raped. It is a great way of making people believe the police are justified for shooting civilians during routine traffic stops though. Maybe it's just me, but I'm not a fan of anyone feeling like they can just y'know, shoot me when they're having a bad day and get away with it, scot free, no consequences. In short, fuck those articles. Part of the issue is they continue to label victims of unjust violence as criminals, as if shooting civilians with a criminal record is somehow an accepted part of our society.
The problem with most criminals is they aren’t already famous, so we lack the mental gymnastics to idolize them while knowing they do bad things. If things were even in society when it came to being a criminal, would people have bought all those Eagles albums knowing Don Henley actually raped and killed a underaged teenage girl (See: “Dirty Laundry”)? I wonder how cops would feel if suddenly you could shoot them for the same reasons they can kill you: if you act erratically, reach for your waistband, “blade your body while clenching a fist”, become argumentative, run away while unarmed, begging for your life with your hands in the air while on your knees crying for your family, etc.
I saw this in the news at the gym this morning, where some wheezing cunt was listed as "Former Head of (Insert Org)" or "Retired (What the fuck ever). Fuck this. They shouldn't be paraded as an expert for a job they used to do, especially not when it's not stated why they aren't doing it anymore. Or is it cool if we have Harvey Weinstein as a "former film production expert" on next? Also, I was killing time in Barnes and Nobles yesterday, and peeked at the "social science" section. The whole thing was a joke, with titles like "The Problem With White Men" by some lady. "How to raise Feminist sons", etc. Again, I hear Dave Chappelle's voice in my head: "You cannot achieve lasting peace this way", if for no other reason than a white dude can't get a book on the shelf entitled "The problem with (literally anyone)" or 'How to avoid raising feminist kids". I read about the uphill battle the Democrats have to climb with rural voters, and I think it might have something to do with embracing a mentality that puts this kind of shit at the forefront of movements involving justice, economics and communities, instead of y'know....justice, economics and communities. I fucking hate this place sometimes.
Real solutions are expensive, complicated and require a ton of trust and patience. No one wants to deal with that. Cheap solutions are stupid and dangerous. For instance, defunding police departments was a moronic response to the problem of cops shooting/murdering black people which, statistically, really isn't a major problem in the first place. Now you have rising violent crime in the cities that went through with it.
It's this weird thing where an act can happen to someone, and it can be both things where that act is bad and that person is bad, but it still doesn't make the act better or the person more deserving of it. For me, when I see something horrible like that, I want to make that feeling less horrible and uncomfortable by thinking that the victim deserve it in some way or had it coming. Removes the cognitive friction I guess. And it feels weird being upset that this really bad thing happened, to this really bad person, and here I am still saying that this really bad thing still shouldn't happen. I get the mindset, it's just a mental gymnastics that awards no points. As far as burning shit down, any kind of protest that turns into violence or destruction of property is not okay. I don't buy the argument that people are very upset and therefore should be allowed to take out their anger on other people's things. Sure, some of them might be there to peacefully protest, but those who are there for a good reason provide cover for those who just want to loot the shoe locker. So either remove the bad element, or shut the whole thing down because it encourages the bad element.
Defunding the police is dumb, however it was a threat based on the inevitable settlement the city would have to pay the victims of thier bullshit. So, it's not "defunding" it's more like, "you pay for the civil suits out of the police budget" and idiots ran with it thinking that the intent was "we don't need cops no more". I disagree that cops shooting/murdering black people isn't a major problem/. I agree it's not likely to show up in mortality stats on par with say AIDS or heart disease or whatever. I think it's a more insidious problem that erodes civil trust and certainly encourages communities to "police their own" which causes...more fucking crime.
I didn't say any of those things. The cop should be charged with manslaughter. However, the narrative we're being force fed is once again full of lies: "He was pulled over for air fresheners" "He was never in serious trouble." "He was executed for being black." "The warrant was for something trivial." "All cops are bastards." The whole chain of events leading to his being shot was set in motion by actions he, and he alone, set into motion: He chose to rob someone at gun point (Someone who had let him stay at her house because he had nowhere to go. Real nice values his parents instilled in him.) He chose to once again carry a gun causing his bail to be revoked. He chose the decision to try to flee when he was being arrested. Those actions did not give the cop the right to shoot him, however, if you play with fire to many times you're likely to get burned. Or, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Now a whole city, and possibly, the entire country is going to pay the price for him being an idiot over and over again.
Fair point, you didn't say any of those things. I think the rape analogy is very important here: the behavior, history and character of the victim are immaterial. Ie, it doesn't matter if she was a stripper, what she was wearing or her history of getting fisted by soccer hooligans behind a middle school. The behavior of the assailant is the issue. Bringing up everything beyond the scope of "did he do anything that makes shooting him seem justified" is a distraction at best, misleading and victim-blaming at worst. The issue is not this dude's candidacy for sainthood, the issue is he should have a reasonable expectation of surviving a traffic stop. We all should.
He had an excellent chance of surviving the traffic stop. Had he complied he would've been cuffed, taken to jail, released, and given a court date. He dove into his vehicle (Where he could've had a weapon given his history), a cop panicked, fucked up, and he died. And the cop should pay for fucking up.
Henley did not kill anyone, and nobody died during the incident you referenced. He very likely committed rape though because both girls were under age and intoxicated. Even though he denied having sex, they were sent to his house by a madam. Of course he was only charged with a minor crime since it was 1980 and he was famous.
A bunch of major cities immediately reduced the funding of their police departments during the public outcry, it wasn’t just stupid people misinterpreting the message.
He had a pound of cocaine on him when the cops showed up and he told them ”That’s THEIRS.” So the cops arrested the unconscious teenagers with the foam coming out of their mouths. He paid $2500, they went to jail. The point is: you’ll find a clock in a casino before you can find a celebrity or a cop that received actual justice for a crime they committed. Other people get shot for reaching for their wallet when being commanded to reach for their wallet.
So would one possible answer be, traffic stops without background checks? Like, make sure it’s a valid license and tied to that plate, but no further info given to the cop? That way nobody would feel like killing anybody over it, except the true psychos?
I can’t wait for fully automated driving. Then there’s no excuse to pull somebody over, ever. At least around here they can’t use the “I smell weed” lie anymore, because you can tell them you have a huge bag of it in the car. Along with plants to grow more.
I mean this as a thoughtful question, not a dig or bitchy. At what point do the actions of any particular victim cross over a line and become an extenuating circumstance that legitimately contributes to a crime done against them? It's illegal to steal. If I take $100 bills, stuff them half hanging out of my jeans and walk by myself down a dark alley in a crime-ridden area during the night I would almost surely be robbed. That is illegal, and if they actually caught the person doing it "she had visible money and was alone," wouldn't be an appropriate defense. However, society would rightfully deem me careless and have less sympathy for me as a victim. I think it gets even murkier when it comes to resisting arrest. In the case we've been talking about, at first blush it seems completely reasonable to charge the officer with some degree of murder, even if it's reckless homicide. You - and you alone - are responsible for the bullets that come out of your gun. Historically, though, resisting arrest can get really violent. Is the guy twisting away and running off? Is he lurching for a gun hidden in his car? The officer has to decide all of this in a split second. They have to go from a headspace of "Hey, your brake light is out," to maybe shooting someone who is a threat in the blink of an eye. This particular case warrants a charge of murder against the officer, in my uneducated opinion. The idea that the behaviour of a suspect SHOULDN'T affect how they are treated by police is a much greyer area. In an alternate universe, if this guy got away from the cops, dove into the car, grabbed a gun and blew her head off, would we be this upset about a dead police officer? These situations are really complex and involve a degree of nuance that I'm not sure how to handle on a federal level.
I think a ridiculous amount of crime is solved in this capacity though. Say he wasn’t shot but ended up just arrested. He would have closer to being brought to justice for choking out and holding someone at gun point. In your scenario he’d have just skated until he would have been picked up in a non traffic stop situation. Police departments, and the justice system in general, don’t have the resources to dragnet all criminals for all crimes proactively. I don’t agree with pure fishing stops, pulling over something small but smelling for weed. If someone has a warrant for robbery I don’t care if a taillight being out was the impetus of the stop.
This isn't so much directed at you, moreso the "the perp acted a certain way and caused the police to act a certain way........*shrugs shoulders* American police.........escalate situations. They do. When someone (regardless of if they are law enforcement or not) acts belligerent and aggressive towards you, it is going to trigger a fight or flight response. American police shove guns in peoples' faces, scream contradictory orders at them, and shoot first ask questions later and then clutch their pearls and act aghast that people flee.......or fight back. Also, the lady cop who shot the guy discharged her weapon before one of the cops was even clear and could have easily shot and killed him...........And that's the level of training for someone who has 20+ years of experience? Well, I feel safe. .