You need to install Greasemonkey (FF) or Tampermonkey (Chrome) and restart your browser first. There are more instructions at the thread for the script that Calelari linked.
I need to fix it on Firefox right now too, if that’s the browser you’re using.
And I believe it starts with the mentality behind this last video. 7 cops against one guy leaning against a wall with a phone. That guy it literally not a threat. He has no weapon. They might have asked him to sit down or something mundane, and when he doesn’t they literally start beating on him, like that’s an acceptable response to. And the stuff we see, is only what is recorded, not everything that happens.
Everyone of the cops that thought what happened was okay, they shouldn’t be trusted to protect to public. That’s such bad judgment you have to wonder what else they’ve been doing.
This is the salient point. Most cops are good folks trying to do a difficult job. The problem is that police officers have a terrifying amount of authority and virtually no accountability. They need to be held accountable. We need cases involving cops to be handled by an independent citizen’s commission, and not the DA’s office, which has an incentive to walk softly. There need to be more stringent and consistent rules for the use of force. A cop who fires her weapon should know that she’ll face a hearing in front of a citizen’s commission, and prosecution if negligence or malice contributed to a citizen’s death or injury. More cops need to speak up about their “bad apple” colleagues. The omerta culture in police departments and “thin blue line” is corrosive to public trust.
I really don’t understand how a cop gets away with killing an unarmed person who they are not in a physical altercation with.
That should just be automatic. No “I thought he had a gun” or “He looked like he was reaching for a gun” bullshit. You shoot someone who turns out to not have a gun, you’re fired, 100% of the time.
I don’t believe this anymore. There are too many instances where one cop does a bad thing , but the other 4 cops around them don’t say anything - see the video up thread where a cop comes in & kicks a guy who is already on the ground handcuffed. That makes the ones standing around & not reporting this as bad as the person who kicked them in the head.
There are so many examples of this, that I’m no longer in the camp saying most cops are good cops. I think I might accept the statement “approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of the police are trying to be good” but not “most”.
This is a great post @CraigM. I would only add that there could be unintended consequences if we ignore the objectively reasonable beliefs of officers in assessing their guilt. The real problem to me is the prosecutors who don’t pursue the cases against cops, not the legal standard for their guilt.
Edit: the other big problem as people have mentioned is cops look out for each other. Very hard for prosecutors to build a case with little cooperation from the cops involved in the incident, and others further up the chain.
Well there is certainly that. The relationship between prosecutors and cops certainly is a major factor in low rates of correctional action.
And while, yes, there should be allowances for making difficult decisions in stressful situations, that has been stretched beyond the point of parody, such that we are almost left with a choice between complete immunity, and zero tolerance. It’s no wonder some have flipped to the later.
Increased accountability won’t solve the problem. The deeper issue is training and culture. When officers murder unarmed people, it’s not because they did some cost-benefits calculation in their head, quickly assessing the true degree of threat against the unlikelihood of punishment. They’re simply following their training.
At some point, police training turned into “shoot anything that presents a potential threat.” Moreover, they seem to believe that blacks are always a potential threat. This is the part of the equation that needs to change. Training must focus on de-escalation and safety for all involved, not just the cop who (reasonably) wants to go home intact every night.
Punishment is a shitty training tool when it comes to changing split-second decisionmaking. You need to start way before that.
Not sufficient, but necessary. You need accountability for those with power. (In all arenas, not just this one.)
I’d say that this also is necessary but not sufficient. You need both.
I’ve heard the police refer to these scenarios as us and the civilians. They’re freaking civilians. That is a civilian force, and when they start speaking in terms that the military uses they are most definitely segregating themselves from the communities they are often a part of. They should drop that lingo entirely.
I’m going to put this here because it seems like as good as place as any, and it’s not just black lives that have to experience things like this.
The thing is, these kind of people, they always existed, will always exist… but they are emboldened by this current political situation. I also mentioned before, silence is confirmation to a bigot, racist, and sexist individual.
Fortunately the community tried to counter the ugly with support which is great!
This is a graphic video released out of San Francisco today of a police shooting – no fatality. The suspect did have a gun – with an extended magazine and a laser sight – and was shot while running away when he took his coat off, apparently revealing the gun in his hand (but it’s hard to say if he was pointing it at someone, or behaving in a threatening manner).
Immediately after an inept cop reveals his radio is broken, the video shows a crowd of people gathering around with cellphones, including some shoving the police officer and taunting him. I have a lot of respect for the people who want to record the footage, but looking at the demeanor of the mob towards the cop, it’s telling that they’ve already convinced themselves the shooting was unjustified – even without having seen the actual incident. For some, police shooting = automatically murder.
Yeah, that shooting was totally unjustified.
The cop is not allowed to shoot you when you are fleeing. That guy posed no immediate threat to anyone.
Further, shooting while running, with one hand, on a crowded street? That’s insanely dangerous to other people on the street.
Well, without having seen exactly what the guy is doing with the gun, it’s hard to say. For instance, you are assuming he did not angle it backwards, which is unclear. Unless I am missing it in the video.
Edit: Here’s a picture of the gun they recovered. The officer clearly saw it at the time, because immediately after shooting he refers to it as a “Tec-9” (which it resembles): https://i1.wp.com/missionlocal.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Screen-Shot-2018-06-15-at-8.00.25-AM.png?w=596&ssl=1
Regardless, it’s not technically right that cops cannot shoot people who are fleeing. Here’s the Supreme Court law on the topic:
There’s nothing in that video that shows the guy drew the gun at all, much less pointed it at the cop or anyone else. Hell, in that video there’s no evidence of there even being a gun, other than the cop saying there was one.
And yes, I’m familiar with that case, which is why I said he can’t shoot a fleeing suspect since he posed no threat to anyone.
Where’s the supposed gun? And firing one handed while running on a pedestrian filled street? That is insane reckless endangerment. Moreover, it seemed like after the suspect was down and immobile he decided to fire a couple more shots?
I guess someone always has to defend the indefensible.
Well, the crowd that gathers around concluded the shooting was indefensible, too – and they presumably didn’t even see it, which is why I think the video is interesting in demonstrating bias. Without seeing how the gun was being held, it’s hard to say. As for the gun with a laser sight and extended magazine the person pulled out while running, it is pictured in the link I provided – here is some more detail:
It’s fine for them to say this.
The body camera footage does not show it.
Sometimes, cops lie.
Where’s the gun?
Couldn’t find the gun the guy was supposedly holding an instant before he was shot.
Is the implication that the police planted the gun they photographed at the scene and released to the media, taking care to select one from their inventory that would resemble a Tec-9 at a distance (ie, illegally modified with a laser sight and an extended magazine)? It’s an interesting theory that would involve pretty widespread corruption at the SFPD if so. But assuming that kind of conspiracy would mean you are not only giving the benefit of the doubt to a known gang member who has fired at the police before, but you would also be making a fairly unsupported guess. Isn’t it possible the gun slid a decent distance, as something you are holding might when you are shot?
