the latest police shooting snafu

[javero]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 1:08pm

This time in South Florida.  It deserves its on thread.  Thank goodness there was no loss of life.  Details...

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 1:43pm

With the recent spate of cop killings, this is not to surprising. They all on edge.

[Petralicious]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 1:47pm

Why would they shoot Snafu? She seems like a nice person.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 1:49pm

Mr Roxy said: "With the recent spate of cop killings, this is not to surprising. They all on edge."

What? This man was literally lying on the ground with his hands in the air. He couldn't have possibly been a threat to anyone. Why do you feel the need to justify this? No one who is "on edge" enough to shoot someone lying in the street completely defenseless should be trusted with a gun. 

[Petralicious]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 1:59pm

wonderfulwizard11 said:  This man was literally lying on the ground with his hands in the air. He couldn't have possibly been a threat to anyone. Why do you feel the need to justify this? No one who is "on edge" enough to shoot someone lying in the street completely defenseless should be trusted with a gun. 

 

"could be but it is early. Alot of these stories change once the initial shock ends and the details come out

 

Updated On: 7/21/16 at 01:59 PM

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 2:27pm

You know there's video of it right? A video that clearly shows exactly what I described? Again, there is no justification for the fact that this man was shot. 

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 3:14pm

He was a group home counselor. Trying to calm down one of his autistic clients who was sitting on the street with a TOY TRUCK. He was laying down on the ground with his hands up when he got shot. He got shot on the job...as a GROUP HOME COUNSELOR. 

[SNAFU]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 6:31pm

OK, this strikes close to home. During my college days I was a Group Home Counselor. This was back in the mid to late 70's when NYC was at it's lowest point. Most of my charges at the time were kids from Willowbrook. We were on an outing and returning home. Walked by the local precinct when on of the kids started acting out. A couple cops came out from the precinct to see what the fuss was about. One of the kids had a realistic looking cap gun in his pants pocket. The cops drew on us and I had to explain that it was a toy. Toy guns back then didn't have to be bright colored plastic, they looked pretty real. Scary as hell.

 In this case it is reported that the victim asked the cop why he shot him and the answer was, "I don't know." This is unacceptable! We do not need cops with hair triggers on the beat. Yes cops are on edge as of late, but there is no excuse for this behavior!

 

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 6:42pm

 

And then there are these cops--one Polish, one Muslim:

 

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160721/times-square-theater-district/police-rushed-bomb-out-of-times-square-protect-crowds-at-own-expense

 

 

[SNAFU]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 7:34pm

And these are the cops we should expect, that I was taught to look up to. True Heros (and I never use that word lightly).

 

[kdogg36]

Posted: 7/22/16 at 6:01pm

My Facebook (and occasionally in-person) friend posted this, and I couldn't have said it better, so I'll just cut and paste:

War on police my ass! We've basically allowed the police departments across the country to become unaccountable for the majority of their actions while simultaneously holding their victims to a level of responsibility that would make any sane person's head spin. We need an intellectual war on police, one which rips up their legal trump cards, one that burns a hole into their immunity-granting policy documents, one which says "you will be held responsible for the lives you destroy, with or without the badge." We don't have a genuine war of this kind on any of the powers that be, including police, but we sure need one.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 7/22/16 at 7:02pm

Hopefully, one day you will need one and will not find one. I guess those actions were on display on 9/11 when they went into the towers and never came out. I guess those shot in Chicago were shot by magic elves.

[javero]

Posted: 7/22/16 at 7:41pm

MrRoxy, 

In this great nation of ours, no one is above scrutiny, not the POTUS nor a member of the armed forces, nor a brave man or woman in blue.  You tend to be one of the first to call for complete transparency where government is concerned.  I'm of the opinion that the the standard should not be lowered for members of law enforcement at any level.  Otherwise, a few bad actors will start (or continue) operating with impunity and the general public will quickly lose trust in some of our finest.

Updated On: 7/22/16 at 07:41 PM

[SNAFU]

Posted: 7/22/16 at 7:41pm

It is a not a Black or White issue. We can respect our police yet we can expect them to be held to a higher code of Ethics. There are really great cops out there and then there are complete pieces of excrement. Those who cannot live up to the Code of Ethics expected of them should be stripped of their position.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 7/22/16 at 8:13pm

If you claim to respect police officers so much, you should want them to be better. I don't understand why thinking that incidents like these are awful means that I can't recognize officers that do well at their jobs. But bringing up this argument that "most police officers are good" is nothing more than a way to divert attention from the real issue- that these kinds of incidents are far too common in 2016. Why is it so very hard for people to admit that sometimes cops are very simply wrong? 

[kdogg36]

Posted: 7/22/16 at 9:02pm

javero said: "Otherwise, a few bad actors will start (or continue) operating with impunity and the general public will quickly lose trust in some of our finest."

This is exactly the problem as I see it. Of course only a very, very few police officers do terrible things, but they are rarely held personally accountable. But there's a bigger problem, too, and that's the fact that the knee-jerk reaction among their colleagues is to close ranks to protect these bad police officers rather than root them out. All of this erodes public trust, as javero says.