Drunkard shoots cop car, isn't even arrested

Taarkin

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Taarkin
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wdIoEwfBfE&feature=related
(she was arrested later in the day, but not on the spot)

What are the odds of a *disdainful snort* civilian doing this and leaving the scene with less than five bullet holes in them? I'm glad these officers had the wherewithal to keep their heads fairly cool and realize that immediate perforation is not always necessary and I hope they apply this lesson to the citizens they protect.
 
theprestige said:
For those of us not interested in youtube videos, can you provide some details about the event?
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Off-duty Dallas police officer gets drunk in bar. Other off-duty police try to convince her to go home. She refuses. Two on-duty police officers escort her to a patrol car (DPD has released videotape of this part - she is really drunk). [The cited YouTube video of news report doesn't explain that one of the on-duty officers is the drunken officer's boyfriend] The officers put her in the back of a patrol car to drive her home. The drunk officer pulls her weapon from an ankle holster and fires a round through the floorboards. If charged and convicted of firing a weapon inside city limits (a Class A misdemeanor), she will lose her badge.

After the incident, the investigating officer decided that the suspect was too drunk to be interviewed and they sent her home.
 
Thanks, Ladewig!

I certainly hope there is an investigation, and that justice is served.

However, I would suggest to Taarkin that if one is to be drunk, armed, and violent in the presence of others, one should probably ensure that one is the presence of others who know one well and are extremely confident that they are in control of the situation.

I also am entirely in favor of the police gunning down any drunk, armed and violent person who gives them the least concern that they might not otherwise be able to control the situation.

That said, a civilian locked in the back of a police car, discharging a firearm into the floorboards, is probably much less likely to get gunned down than a civilian at large, discharging a firearm at cops or other civilians.
 
Hard to say what was going through the functioning (if any) portion of the officer's cerebrum...She may have just been taking the weapon out to give it to one of the other officers and had an accidental discharge.
 
Bikewer said:
Hard to say what was going through the functioning (if any) portion of the officer's cerebrum...She may have just been taking the weapon out to give it to one of the other officers and had an accidental discharge.
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Some of the stories assert that while the officers repeatedly told her that she was going home, in her drunkenness, she thought she was being arrested and taken to the police station. So the discharge could have been as you hypothesize, it could have been an attempt to escape, it could even have been a matter that she was so drunk that she didn't know she was handling a gun.
 
In seriously doubt that a citizen discharging a weapon in the police car floorboard would have been taken home to sleep off his drunkeness. He would have been disarmed (with or without violence) then thrown in a cell, and presented to a judge the next day.

An off duty cop should not have more right than a citizen.
 
Don't police forces have rules about getting ****-faced in public while carrying a gun? And wouldn't disarming her be the absolute first priority when they're dragging her out of a bar and tossing her into the back of a squad car?

It seems to me that all three of them should be tossed off the force. Their stupidity is bound to be a significant danger to the community.
 
Short on details but sounds rather like another accidental-discharge situation. Officers increasingly are issued "patrol rifles" to carry in the car, but don't handle or fire them with any great frequency. We do it once a year...
It may well be that the officer was trying to clear the weapon... No way to tell.
 
Aepervius said:
In seriously doubt that a citizen discharging a weapon in the police car floorboard would have been taken home to sleep off his drunkeness. He would have been disarmed (with or without violence) then thrown in a cell, and presented to a judge the next day.

An off duty cop should not have more right than a citizen.
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I imagine the outcome would have a lot to do with how well the cops on the scene knew the citizen.

Cops are people, not robots. And they are, in fact, expected to use their judgement to evaluate situations and determine appropriate courses of action.

It doesn't at all surprise me that people who are very well known to cops get different/better/more lenient treatment from those cops, than people who are perfect strangers to cops. All else being equal, that's exactly what I would expect. I don't think it's indicative of special rights for cops.
 
Didn't we already do this one, like ... sometime last year ... when it happened?

I'm not going to search for a thread. Here's the Dallas Observer article from when it happened, last June, 2010.

... and an excerpt.

DPD's spent the day conferring with the Dallas County District Attorney's Office, and they've decided how to charge her: with Discharge of Firearm in Certain Municipalities, a Class A misdemeanor that could get her a year in jall and/or a fine of up to $4,000.

She's on administrative leave pending an investigation; Jamaica and Helm are on restricted duty, because the chief isn't happy with how they behaved either. Internal Affairs is now involved, and "should any additional allegations of misconduct be exposed," says the DPD's release, "they will be thoroughly investigated as well."

To which Brown adds, in full:

"I am extremely disappointed by Officer Beemer's conduct and the actions she took during this incident. The recklessness she displayed is unacceptable conduct for a Dallas Police Officer and will be dealt with in a manner consistent with the Police Department's disciplinary process. I believe some of the involved officers were making what they believed to be a good faith effort to assist a fellow officer. However, they could have clearly determined that officer Beemer was intoxicated to the point she was a danger to herself and the public and made an arrest during their initial contact with her. The officers were trying to do the right thing but did it in the wrong way."
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And here's a follow-up from the Dallas Morning News in Sept. of last year.

Dallas Police Chief David Brown fired six officers Thursday, including two facing criminal charges after a motorcyclist was beaten earlier this month and a third accused of drunkenly firing a gun in a squad car.
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Seems like everything was handled as well as could be expected.
 
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Bikewer said:
Short on details but sounds rather like another accidental-discharge situation. Officers increasingly are issued "patrol rifles" to carry in the car, but don't handle or fire them with any great frequency. We do it once a year...
It may well be that the officer was trying to clear the weapon... No way to tell.
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clear a weapon BY POINT IT AT A PERSON ????????????

MINIMUM THE CLOWN SHOULD BE SPOT FIRED
AND NEVER EVER BY ANY KIND OF COP ANY WHERE EVER AGAIN
as should any fool cop who shoots a citizen

if joe citizen did the same act
he would be charged with attempted MURDER esp if a cop got graised
look at all the false BS charges they stuck on the guy for getting shot

we need to make those who enforce the laws subject to the same laws
not super to any law as the cops are now

I still want to know how many citizens are shot by cops each and every year

that data for cops the very few cops shot and the even far fewer cops killed is plastered every where
but no data on the other side how many the cop wound or kill
vs how many unarmed citizens are killed by cops in '' accidental-discharge''
''he moved'' BS situations where the cops murdered or attempted to
 
Sounds like you're seriously down on the profession. We fired an officer a few years back who shot her police car.
She didn't get fired because of the accidental discharge (which is what happened) but because she lied about it.
In the story listed, we are given no details. It may well have been that the fellow was not pointing his weapon at the suspect, but rather at the ground or whatever, and that the shot resulted in a ricochet which struck the individual.
Obviously grounds for disciplinary action, and likely a review of training policies as well, at least. Again, we are not told if the officer was eventually fired.

As to the incidence of individuals shot by police... I looked at several websites that all said the same thing... There is no centralized reporting structure for such statistics.
You have numerous different jurisdictions, and a very wide variety of circumstances that would include:
Justified police killings of suspects in "deadly force" scenarios.
Justified shootings which do not result in the death of the individual
Unintended killings/woundings of innocent bystanders.
Accidental shootings of other police officers and/or bystanders. (I personally know of at least half-a-dozen police-involved accidental shootings.
Unjustified shootings of suspects. (to include situations where the individual was being held at gunpoint, and an officer unintentionally fired. As in the guy who mistook his Glock for his Taser)
And finally, intentional homicides of individuals, whether suspects or no.
(note that police officers have, sadly, been involved in armed robberies, domestic homicides, and of course suicide.)

As there is no centralized requirement for reporting all these things, may of which do not rise to the level of "crimes" and as such do not fall under federally-mandated Uniform Crime Reporting statistics.... It's really hard to say.
Just in my capacity as a police officer who stays pretty much informed about local goings-on.... I would guess that the total number of police "homicides" compared to the incidence of homicide generally would be very low.
Here in St. Louis, I believe we had somewhat over 200 homicides in the Greater St. Louis area last year. Most of these drug/gang related shootings in a very small geographic area.
In the same period, I'm familiar with perhaps a dozen police shootings only a few of which resulted in the death of the suspect. All, to my knowledge, found to have been justified.
 
Bikewer said:
In the story listed, we are given no details. It may well have been that the fellow was not pointing his weapon at the suspect, but rather at the ground or whatever, and that the shot resulted in a ricochet which struck the individual.
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Did you even read the story? First of all "he" is a "she" and there was no suspect at all and nobody was shot.
 
funny sad how cops want and get a very stacked deck

they can lie to your face
claim facts known to be untrue
fake evidence
all to try to extort a confession
but if joe citizen lies or even miss speaks they can be charged with a crime

but worse is the non-reporting of cops shooting people
every cop shot is logged in a national data base FBI ect
but most shootings of citizens by cops are NOT
eazy to hide numbers when nobody is even keeping track of them

I want a simple rule
if a cop kill a citizen unnecessarily
the cop not only is fired
but never ever works in law enforcement ever anywhere


unnecessarily inc the usual BS like he thought the guy made a move
or the cop acts on the guy holding a wallet walkman or other non-dangerous object

yes we want cops to be safe
BUT NOT AT THE COST OF CITIZENS LIVES like it is now
and as one citizen killed is tooo many
cops who kill citizens out of fear or wrong reading a situation
should only get to kill ONCE and never again
and as time and again it has been proven jurys donot convict cops EVER
even in the most unjustified situations
we need a national rule
kill a citizen stop being a cop
no more going to the next city or county or state and be rehired
 
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