It’s not hard to fire more than once in a moment of stress. If anything only firing once might actually be harder.
Which is why they are supposed to be trained professionals. If they can’t stop themselves from firing a dozen bullets in a civilian area, maybe they shouldn’t be carrying a gun.
Going back to the Missouri protests http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/14369127/missouri-legislator-proposes-bill-revoke-student-athlete-scholarships-strike Missouri state legislature is now saying any future strikes are automatic revocation of scholarships. Say what you will about what you think of it, and I’m crticial of BLM plenty of times, but that football player strike was the one thing that worked. As such, it scared the establishment.
I don’t think it’s going to work out like they intend- as that would pretty much be a free transfer for anyone who strikes. (Do you have to wait out the year if your scholly is revoked?)
At the very least- this will send a message to black athletes that they are just expected to shut up and play at Missouri. At least Vanderbilt should get an easy win every other year.
Having never fired a gun “under stress” (aside from competitive urges), I can’t draw on any personal experience. However, for someone who allegedly didn’t mean to fire it the first time and instead fires it twice, that strikes me as a rather odd statement.
On a side note, is it normal to draw your gun to arrest someone for a DWI? This is not rhetorical - I (thankfully) have no clue.
Is it normal to draw your sidearm when approaching a vehicle crashsite? Like, wtf?
That’s also a great question. I was cutting the officer a bit of slack because the driver was driving drunk (I think they were trying to pull him over), and therefore he was likely viewed differently than a normal accident victim.
“Proportionate response” was once police policy but I guess it has been discarded. Now police see some kid with a cell phone and draw their guns, it seems. And pity someone with a knife at 30 meters range, that’s an emptied magazine right there.
Thankfully, I haven’t either, but I’ve read many accounts of police officers who were involved in gun fights and it’s very common that they can’t tell you how many times they fired or when. Adrenaline and muscle memory are funny things. I don’t have the details of the incident, but it’s also possible the other officer fired a round when he heard the first one go off.
As far as the DUI, yeah, not normally, though if it was a pursuit situation it could easily happen if he’s being erratic and dangerous. Dude crashes and starts crawling out, I could see the officer having his weapon ready for anything. He crashed his vehicle and had to crawl out, which means a high speed pursuit and those often end in violence, so having a weapon drawn isn’t out of the norm.
I guess on the DUI guy, I really don’t have any sympathy even though I know I probably should. Seriously, fuck drunk drivers, especially ones that run from the cops increasing the chance of killing innocents with their stupidity.
Yep, pretty sure the victim would rather have been actually fucked by the cop than paralyzed for the rest of his life.
Sure, I have little sympathy for drunk drivers in general as well, but plenty for one that gets shot by a trigger happy fuck-wit cop can’t even be bothered telling paramedics he put two rounds into the poor guy.
Yeah, that part is especially beyond the pale, I’ll agree.
Mistrial for William Porter, the first of six cops on trial for the death of Freddie Gray, in Baltimore.
So the uniformed sociopath who murdered a 12yo black kid (Tamir Rice) will not be charged. You’ll be shocked to learn that the prosecutor was once again arguing for the defense in the indictment hearings.
Disgusting.
I’m not willing to convict the cop based on a video, or declare him a sociopath. But I find it difficult to defend the notion that nothing at all happened, and that there shouldn’t even be a trial.
Same here. I’m happy to let a jury determine if he’s guilty or not, but not even getting a chance to do so doesn’t sit well with me. We need to rethink how we police the police.
I tried to take the emotional stuff out of the picture. What if it was a grown man with a real gun? The shooting still seemed wrong. I don’t pretend to know the laws involved, but it certainly struck me as something that I don’t want or expect a police officer to do. When the cops arrived, nobody else was there to be threatened, the gun was not being pointed at anyone, and the officer that shot him fired within a couple of seconds after exiting his vehicle. No matter whether it was a kid or not, a real gun or not, that just seems messed up.
There’s too much focus on the “split second” decision that the cop had to make. Even buying that part of it, the potentially criminal behavior here is the reckless indifference of pulling up to within feet of the suspect, thereby forcing the need for a decision in the first place.
Considering the fact that the state is Open Carry, if it was a grown man with a real gun, the police would have been fine with it.
(assuming the dude was white, of course)
Furthermore, the police were caught lying about the case as the video we do have contradicted their own story in multiple ways.
But sure, yeah, no reason for charges. Uh huh.
Well, actually, the newly released version of the video that had an enhanced resolution shows that when the cops pull up the kid pulled the gun out, which would certainly be considered threatening. But the lead up to that moment seemed weird.
I just can’t get past the idea that so many people are expecting a 12 year old to behave perfectly, like an adult. Even the statement said the kid could have been intending to hand it to police officer or show him but the officer couldn’t be sure. We’ll never know because he killed this child. I wish it had gone to trial. I know it would be expensive, but I think our country needed that trial.
It could, but as noted it’s an open carry state. I mean, I might feel threatened by one of the gun rights nincompoops who decide to walk into Walmart or wherever with their guns at the ready. That doesn’t mean I should be able to shoot them unless they actually do threaten me with them. I think the timing I mentioned still matters, because according to the statements by the police, they spoke to him multiple times in an effort to get him to show his hands. The chief (who wasn’t there, but I would imagine saw the video and heard the statements of his officers) stated “The child did not threaten the officer verbally or physically.”