Consider this also: Calling in a bomb threat is very serious criminal act. Almost always a felony.
SWATting is… pretty much the same thing. And if it’s a felony then anyone who dies because of it adds a felony murder charge.
So treat it like a bomb threat. The crime is basically the same. If it’s a felony and anyone dies, they slam him with felony murder charges.
I expect books to be thrown all things considered. Not to mention he evidently does it as as side job.
Just about every police shooting starts with some idiot calling them in when they’re not needed or wanted. Either the vague “man with a gun [not doing anything]” or some mental health case. If we can’t charge them with anything, they should at least be slapped really hard by the victim’s family.
Qualified Immunity assures they never are.
He’s literally a pencil neck beanpole. He will be traded for a pack of cigarettes on the regular in prison.
Qualified immunity applies to criminal charges, could they not still be sued civilly? These mistakes should at least be very expensive.
The one flaw I see is that it is probably going to be taxpayers paying the bill…
That’s not a flaw. Police work for the taxpayers. It should be us who’re held liable. If there were enough of an outcry from taxpayers, this constant shooting of unarmed citizens would become quite a bit rarer.
Other way around. Qualified Immunity makes them immune to civil liability when on the job.
They get off on the criminal end because they’re police and juries let them off while DA’s don’t bring charges.
Meh, having a rifle in the trunk is sensible and pretty typical as far as I know. Lots of better things to criticize.
If they don’t want to be outgunned, they shouldn’t stop at AR, maybe SCAR-H.
Highway patrol are state troopers, right?
I don’t mind them having rifles. Troopers are much better trained than local cops.
They’re more likely to need the range as well.
There might be a number of suspects so better go with an automatic grenade launcher to be safe.
It’s not like an AR15 is some kind of crazy machine gun. It’s a semi-automatic rifle.
Just watched a price winning documentary from 1997 about the WACO disaster (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120472/) , and after having seen that I’m not surprised with all the incidents involving cops killing unarmed civilians.
LAPD started putting M-16s (now AR-15s) in trunks of squad cares after the North Hollywood bank robbery/street battle, where the two robbers were armor-plated and the police handguns couldn’t take them down.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) in Colorado says one deputy was shot and killed and four others injured while responding to a domestic disturbance at an apartment complex early Sunday. Two civilians were also injured by the suspect’s gunfire.
I am always saddened when a cop kills someone thru some mistake of his own, whether it be from fear, poor training or just racial profiling. But I find it hard in today’s world to blame all cops for things they don’t all do. Being a cop in today’s gang filled environment can’t be easy. And with a seeming suicide by cop mentality being more common how is a cop to know who is and isn’t a danger.
But cops who make mistakes have to be held accountable, and when cops rally round the guilty they don’t do themselves any favor.
On a side note, the city of Fresno has listening devices spread over the town that can detect gunfire. It is called 'ShotSpotter". Apparently in the hours of 10pm to 2am surrounding New Years they recorded over a shot a minute on average.
At least three people were hit by gunfire and at least two houses.