Michael Brown Shooting

[Frank Newgent]

I think lunatic cops who want to kill a bunch of kids would have just done something else if they couldn't use a gun or a jelly-filled donut.

A police car is really easy for them to get and a lunatic cop could mow down a lot of unarmed young people.

Nah, they have access to full auto weapons. Shirley that is a more satisfying way to demonstrate their power?

I dunno, don't have any experience there.

On principle though, any of these other weapons could be used by a lunatic cop. I just glad the donut places finally quit with the "buy 12, get one free" offers.

There's almost no limit to the damage that might have been inflicted.

 

[Dr. Keith]

Look at the size of that street in the video. It's a narrow residential street that probably has one car a hour on it during rush hour.
There was no reason for the confrontation in the first place. I bet it's going to turn out this cop has a history of abuse incidents.

I may not make the same bet, but I agree with the highlighted.

My neighborhood is full of people walking and running in the streets, cars have to practically ask permission to pass. I've never heard of a cop asking anyone to get out of the street.

snark/Also, if the teens were wearing rifles over their shoulders I bet the police response would have been more polite. (Based on other interactions between police and open carry advocates. (Assuming open carry is legal in this jurisdiction.))/snark

 

[CORed]

Why do we need testimonials from witnesses? There was a police car involved. Where's the dash cam?

And why are cops not required to wear cameras?

Agreed. It can work in the cop's favor, if he acted correctly and a false complaint is made against him.

Eyewittesses can remember incorrectly, or flat out lie. A camera can give an unbiased record of what really happened (assuming no "creative editing" is done).

 

[Unabogie]

Nothing at all.

This remains to be seen. The issue is that whenever an unarmed black person is shot, such as Renisha McBride, or Jordan Davis, or Michael Brown, or Trayvon Martin, the claims of self defense always boil down to the proposition that black people are inherently violent and that white people with guns are justified in pre-emptive shooting. When the inevitable claims arrive that Michael Brown was actually a "thug", then we'll see the same head nodding from the same people and the same willingness to believe anything bad about Brown based on some photos on social media or a prejudice against black people in general. Feel free to discount this, but it's not hard to see the pattern at work here.

 

[LTC8K6]

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-protest-lapd-shooting-death-20140813-story.html

Shot in the back while lying on the ground.

http://ktla.com/2014/08/12/man-hospitalized-after-being-shot-by-police-in-south-l-a/

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

...California police use of body cameras cuts violence and complaints

People tend to act differently when they know their actions are being recorded.

Which says a lot about 'privileged' cops.

2 cops carjacked an SUV in Philly, raped the owner, then ran over and killed 3 kids and their mother?

See what I mean?

I'm pretty sure he doesn't.

I think the poster in question has shown that he plain old does not like cops.

I'm not the poster in question but I like most cops, just not the ones on a power trip.

Well, that's what has been reported.

You notice no one has arrested the other kid that was with him? If it was something else, why don't the cops care about the other kid? Why aren't they charging him for whatever the kids were doing when they were confronted?

 

[Monketi Ghost]

I'd love to this nationwide. I'm all for it.

California police use of body cameras cuts violence and complaints



People tend to act differently when they know their actions are being recorded.

They also tend to disprove BS complaints such that you never hear about them on internet forums.

 

[Meed]

This remains to be seen. The issue is that whenever an unarmed black person is shot, such as Renisha McBride, or Jordan Davis, or Michael Brown, or Trayvon Martin, the claims of self defense always boil down to the proposition that black people are inherently violent and that white people with guns are justified in pre-emptive shooting.

No they don't.. I don't want to derail the thread so I'll leave it there. We can "agree to disagree".

When the inevitable claims arrive that Michael Brown was actually a "thug", then we'll see the same head nodding from the same people and the same willingness to believe anything bad about Brown based on some photos on social media or a prejudice against black people in general. Feel free to discount this, but it's not hard to see the pattern at work here.

There will always be dummies saying dumb things on both "sides" of any major story like this. That doesn't necessarily have anything to do with how it will be handled in a court of law, assuming it ever gets there.

 

[Unabogie]

They also tend to disprove BS complaints such that you never hear about them on internet forums.

I'm in total agreement on this. It's beyond dispute that everyone complains when they get arrested that they were unfairly treated. Sometimes it's true, sometimes not. Putting cameras on the police is just good policy since it removes subjective testimony and replaces it with solid evidence.

The problem here is that the police did not install dash cams, and are acting in a highly dubious way. They won't release the name of the officer involved. They're out in force looking like a militia instead of a police department, they're telling the media to leave, they're sending gas canisters into the yards of people who live there, and they aren't explaining why an unarmed 17 year old was shot almost 10 times when he wasn't even suspected of a crime.

 

[Monketi Ghost]

I'm in total agreement on this. It's beyond dispute that everyone complains when they get arrested that they were unfairly treated. Sometimes it's true, sometimes not. Putting cameras on the police is just good policy since it removes subjective testimony and replaces it with solid evidence.

The problem here is that the police did not install dash cams, and are acting in a highly dubious way. They won't release the name of the officer involved. They're out in force looking like a militia instead of a police department, they're telling the media to leave, they're sending gas canisters into the yards of people who live there, and they aren't explaining why an unarmed 17 year old was shot almost 10 times when he wasn't even suspected of a crime.

I wouldn't want the name released. People would undoubtedly find his residence at the least and pull some numbskullery. We don't know if he deserves to be strung up yet.

 

[pgwenthold]

They also tend to disprove BS complaints such that you never hear about them on internet forums.

Exactly. It's a total win for the police, assuming that they are actually opposed to unnecessary violence.

 

[Unabogie]

I wouldn't want the name released. People would undoubtedly find his residence at the least and pull some numbskullery. We don't know if he deserves to be strung up yet.

I disagree with this. Part of giving police this incredible privilege of doling out lethal violence, we are entitled to all of the facts when they invoke this privilege. Most police have unlisted addresses and phone numbers, since their names are on their badges.

 

[IXP]

Exactly. It's a total win for the police, assuming that they are actually opposed to unnecessary violence.

Considering how often it happens, and how they cover for each other, that assumption is dubious.

IXP

 

[Mumbles]

This remains to be seen. The issue is that whenever an unarmed black person is shot, such as Renisha McBride, or Jordan Davis, or Michael Brown, or Trayvon Martin, the claims of self defense always boil down to the proposition that black people are inherently violent and that white people with guns are justified in pre-emptive shooting. When the inevitable claims arrive that Michael Brown was actually a "thug", then we'll see the same head nodding from the same people and the same willingness to believe anything bad about Brown based on some photos on social media or a prejudice against black people in general. Feel free to discount this, but it's not hard to see the pattern at work here.

You're way too late - certain sites were calling him a"hug" once they found a picture of him throwing up a peace sign. Although, to be real, most thugs aren't going to voluntarily leap into a cop car in order to try to shoot him with his own gun, anyway. People who do that are basically trying to get themselves killed - although it's at least possible.

THing is, though, the police chief claims that the other kid ran away, which he'd get from the guy that shot Brown. Only the other kid claims he saw it, and his claim is rather similar to that of at least one other witness.

Weird...

I will say, though, that I do think the Chief gives me a better feeling than that Bill Lee idiot did, as far as general PR goes. He seems to be telling his officer's side of the story, which I find understandable, but it sounds like the department handed off the investigation to the County police immediately.

And yet this smaller police force has full riot gear, helicopters, HUMVEES, etc., so they can walk around like this:

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/art...litary_Gear_Aim_Assault_Rifles_at_Unarmed_Man

But they can't afford a dash cam.

That's definitely not just the Ferguson police - no chance a force that small could pull off all these antics.It's certainly including police from the surrounding area. Still, they need to change whoever's in charge, now. Bodyslamming pregnant women, blasting people with tear-gas when they're on their own lawns, and pointing an array of rifles at a single unarmed guy, are horrible, PR-wise.

 

[CORed]

I'm well aware of that side of the story. I purposefully talked about the events leading up to that point.

Do you think a cop tells some young men to get out of the street and one of the men attacks the cop?

Or is it more likely the cop tried to arrest the men and what is the crime? Failure to respect the cop's authority, which immediately leads police to arrest people even when all they were doing wrong in the first place was jaywalking.

My point is police react this way all the time, they need better skills and/or anger management. If you think you have a right to arrest and/or shoot anyone who dares defy you, you shouldn't be a cop because it isn't often necessary to treat people that way.

I've had cops treat me that way when all I was was a bystander who had stopped to help. I stopped for an accident on the freeway. I was not a witness. I had done my duty helping. The cop wanted my driver's license and ordered me to drive off the freeway so he could keep asking me questions after I clearly said I had not seen a thing. I did not deserve to be treated that way.

I drove off with my lights off and got pulled over. I thanked the police and they ignored that and snipped back, "it's against the law". The attitude was completely unnecessary.

My son was attacked when he was about 5 by some irate father in a park. I called the police and when they arrived they acted like I was the criminal until other witnesses came up and confirmed what had happened.

This happens over and over, police are rude and belligerent to everyone as if anyone who speaks to them must be a criminal. They often don't bother with at least a semblance of courtesy.

Now that is not every cop. It's a subset, probably a small subset. If all the rest of them can be nice and courteous, why does that subset have to act like jerks with a gun? They should weed power-tripping cops out, they are a menace to society.

I have only had one encounter with a police officer (mostly traffic stops) where the officer was less than courteous. It was a strange one, though. I passed a line of cars in the right lane at night on a four lane highway. The second or third car from the back of that line was a police car, but I had not noticed that when I started passing. The officer yelled at me, "Why did you pass a police car". TBH, the line of cars was moving at close to the speed limit, and I was speeding a bit passing them. Strangely enough, I did not get a citation, most likely because he didn't have a radar reading to prove that I was speeding. I'm a bit ashamed to say that I yelled back at him, though I don't recall exactly what I said. I think that he was more upset that I dared to defy his authority by speeding in plain sight (even though I didn't actually realize it at the time) than that I was speeding.

 

[ravdin]

I wouldn't want the name released. People would undoubtedly find his residence at the least and pull some numbskullery. We don't know if he deserves to be strung up yet.

Like what happened to George Zimmerman, or Johannes Mehserle?

Oh, wait.

Meanwhile, the police don't have a problem at all with quickly releasing the names of those suspected of shooting their own.

 

[ravdin]

I think the poster in question has shown that he plain old does not like cops.

I don't like it when cops shoot unarmed citizens whom they are sworn to serve and protect. I also don't like it when they are unaccountable for bad policing, and resist public scrutiny.

 

[casebro]

Which minority is the officer in question?

 

[casebro]

From a USA Today story today, Brown buddy says "The second time he says, 'I'll shoot,' a second later the gun went off and he let go," Johnson said. "

Sounds like Brown and the cop were grappling before the cop shot, or nobody could have "let go".

 

[ravdin]

Via Radley Balko, have a look at this public relations video for the Doraville, GA police department. Balko says the video was posted on the front page of the Doraville PD's website as of yesterday, but it doesn't seem to be there anymore.



Doraville has a population of 8,500 residents and last saw a murder in 2009. The images at the beginning and end are the Punisher (a fictional vigilante). The audio is Dope's "Die ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊* Die".

Instead of claiming that some people "just don't like the police", maybe instead you should examine why the police in America show such unmasked hostility towards the rest of us.