The Police Brutality Thread

[smokymountainrain]

Yeah that dog was totally out of control sniffing the grass all haphazardly.

I must have misread the story. I thought I read that the dog pooped on the neighbor's lawn and the owner refused to clean it up. I hate when I do that. My apologies.

[Commando]

I must have misread the story. I thought I read that the dog pooped on the neighbor's lawn and the owner refused to clean it up. I hate when I do that. My apologies.

Yeah I couldn't find a reason why they shot the dog, either. That's why I posted this here. Those retarded assholes need to be working at a profession where they can actually contribute to society.

[Eddie]

Case law? With due respect to all the lawyers on the board, who gives a crap about case law? This is about whether this guy should be dead. Just because Utah law allows lethal force against fleeing felons, doesn't mean a fleeing felon needs to die. If the guy possessed an imminent threat to bystanders, I have no problem with the shooting. But from what I've read I'm not sure that was the case.

I don't disagree with you completely. It would be nice if the guy wasn't dead.

As for whether or not the police were justified and whether or not he was an imminent threat to bystanders - would you rather read a story about how a guy was shot after swinging a sword at cops and then running towards a group of people? Or a story about how cops let a guy who had taken a swing at them with his sword run into a group of people and start swinging at them - potentially harming or even killing some?

The guy had shown he wasn't afraid to swing the sword at people (in this instance the cops) and was then running to where there were more people. Who's to say if he was trying to get away or trying to hurt as many people as he could until the police stopped him? Tough to interpret his motivations from his behavior when all you've got is a guy pulling out his sword and taking a swing with it when he was asked to set it down.

I do wonder if this would've escalated the way it did if the police had asked him whatever questions they wanted to ask him while allowing him to have the sword in its scabbard on his back. I know having it put away doesn't mean he can't get it out quick and use it. But I wonder how much of his reaction was based on a belief that when they told him to put his sword on the car they were planning to take it from him.

[dabrockster]

12-year old boy in Cleveland shot by Police. Had a fake gun at a playground. So sad...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/m...tol/?tid=hp_mm

[smokymountainrain]

12-year old boy in Cleveland shot by Police. Had a fake gun at a playground. So sad...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/m...tol/?tid=hp_mm

Very, very tragic, but what should the cops have done differently?

[dabrockster]

Very, very tragic, but what should the cops have done differently?

Nothing.. That fake gun looks very real. The only change should have been what the dispatcher had relayed to the officers.. They were not informed it was a child, nor did they inform the officer that the caller believed it was a fake gun.

I think it was an opportunity to stir the masses based on what is happening in St. Louis but the parents, nor their lawyer are looking to make this a race thing, but more about training.

[wuapinmon]

Very, very tragic, but what should the cops have done differently?

I don't see how anyone could know that that wasn't a real gun without close inspection. The kid pulled it from his waistband. It sounds like the cops were justified, though the final inquiry is still pending.

[old_gregg]

[old_gregg]

no indictment in ferguson. shocking given the revelation that several eyewitnesses who said they saw brown get shot in the back were not in fact witnesses at all and were repeating the version of events popular among their community.

[wuapinmon]

http://www.sltrib.com/news/1842489-1...outpacing-gang

Only one ruled unjustifiable, but this, to me, shows how high the moral makeup of Utah is, that the cops kill more people than anyone besides domestic partners. That's not the case anywhere else I've ever lived.

[CardiacCoug]

http://www.sltrib.com/news/1842489-1...outpacing-gang

Only one ruled unjustifiable, but this, to me, shows how high the moral makeup of Utah is, that the cops kill more people than anyone besides domestic partners. That's not the case anywhere else I've ever lived.

Cops commit 15% of homicides in Utah. Pretty crazy.

[old_gregg]

seems like a testament to utah's low rate of homicides per capita.

[falafel]

Cops commit 15% of homicides in Utah. Pretty crazy.

I don't know what the percentage is, but I'll bet that Nevada cops kill more total people per year than Utah. When I first moved here I was shocked by how often cops killed people here. Seemed like a new one every week on the news.

[byu71]

Law enforcement just can't get it right in Ferguson. Last time they showed too much force. All I heard for days was they look like the military. They actually incited the crowd with their tactics.

This time I am hearing they didn't show enough force and let the looters and trouble makers burn and loot.

It is disheartening to me how so few can wreak so much havoc on so many. Probably a thousand or maybe a lot more were there to peacefully protest and voice their opposition. Probably less than a hundred caused the mayhem.

I do think the media gives too much attention to the few. They kept showing a street in L.A. that was blocked. Had to be less than 100 protestors. How many people live in the L.A. area?

[PaloAltoCougar]

Has the decision not to indict in the Garner case been discussed on the board? If you don't know what I'm talking about, Google "Garner Choke Hold video" and you can watch, pretty much from start to finish, what the cops did to this 400 lb. asthmatic. The guy was upset, but there was no indication that he was going to be aggressive or put the cops in danger. But he's dead. I understand, and even support, the Ferguson/Brown decision not to indict, but I don't get the no-indict decision for Garner, and I have considerable sympathy for those who are outraged by it, including Jon Stewart.

Since choke holds are a violation of the department's policy, and since violation of that policy resulted in the death (per the coroner) of a person who posed no apparent threat to police, I'm mystified that an indictment wasn't handed down.

But some people are saying this proves body cameras aren't going to do any good and would be a waste of money. This is an odd argument, since if this incident hadn't been caught on camera, literally tens of millions of people wouldn't know about this incident. Because of the video, I think (or at least hope) some needed changes will be made (at the micro and macro levels).