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Post by robeiae on Mar 30, 2018 14:39:38 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2018 15:50:38 GMT -5
This case is beyond fucked up, and I can't think of any way, given these circumstances, these officers could legitimately have been in fear for their safety.
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Post by michaelw on Mar 30, 2018 18:18:34 GMT -5
Agreed. I've said previously on this board that "I was afraid" has become a sort of get-out-of-jail-free-card for cops. I suspect that could very well be the case in this particular shooting, as well.
(BTW, Rob, the victim's name was Clark, not Smith.)
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Post by robeiae on Mar 30, 2018 18:40:00 GMT -5
Oops. Damn autocorrect...
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2018 18:43:59 GMT -5
There will be huge protests if these cops get off scot free here, and rightly so. The more I read about it, the less I understand how it could happen.
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Post by Amadan on Mar 31, 2018 8:26:46 GMT -5
Yeah, I used to be very pro-law enforcement. Now... not so much. Not to say I am anti-law enforcement (we need law enforcement, and I do still believe that most cops are conscientious about their duties), but the way they will unhesitatingly cover up for each other, and the way "Whatever gets me home safe" has become their operating principle... now, I basically trust them about as much as I'd trust any other random person on the street with a gun. Make no threatening moves and hope they're not having a bad day.
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Post by Optimus on Mar 31, 2018 16:40:08 GMT -5
I love how not just teachers, but cops, often tell kids "if you see something, say something," yet cops immediately revert to "snitches get stitches" as soon as one (or more) of their own do something wrong.
I hope they get tried for murder, but I'm not gonna hold my breath.
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Post by nighttimer on Mar 31, 2018 18:04:41 GMT -5
How about that? A key component of this story is missing from the discussion.
Interesting.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2018 18:36:24 GMT -5
How about that? A key component of this story is missing from the discussion. Interesting. If you mean the fact that Clark was black, that's what I took Rob's last sentence in the OP to mean. What were the cops really in fear of, here? I think we are all aware (certainly I am) that Clark's "crime" was being in his grandma's backyard while Black.
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Post by robeiae on Mar 31, 2018 19:02:05 GMT -5
The fact that he was black is in the snippet I quoted, as well.
And yeah, this "in fear for their safety" mantra seems to most often occur when cops have shot a black man, even when other specifics vary.
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Post by nighttimer on Apr 1, 2018 7:05:43 GMT -5
How about that? A key component of this story is missing from the discussion. Interesting. If you mean the fact that Clark was black, that's what I took Rob's last sentence in the OP to mean. What were the cops really in fear of, here? I think we are all aware (certainly I am) that Clark's "crime" was being in his grandma's backyard while Black. The fact that he was black is in the snippet I quoted, as well. And yeah, this "in fear for their safety" mantra seems to most often occur when cops have shot a black man, even when other specifics vary. Shucks. Was I that obvious? Because "in fear for their safety" has become an all-encompassing phrase for cops to fallback on. But the way I hear it is not that they were in fear for their safety, but "I feared for my life."
It's simple. It's easy to remember and it works. It's just like Clorox. Good for whites, bad for coloreds. Because race matters. Stephon Clark is just the latest reminder of how much it does.
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Post by Don on Apr 1, 2018 14:26:40 GMT -5
We obviously need more cop control laws.
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Post by nighttimer on Apr 1, 2018 21:52:09 GMT -5
We obviously need more cop control laws. No. All we need are cops being held accountable now when they recklessly discharge their weapons which is not something occurring with any degree of frequency.
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Post by Vince524 on Apr 2, 2018 12:11:58 GMT -5
The problem isn't with them saying they were in fear for their lives. I would expect a cop who had a legitimate reason to discharge their weapon to be in fear for their lives and to use that verbiage.
The question is, was the fear legitimate?
If the answer is they were afraid, but a reasonable person would not have been except for bias, then it's not a good shooting and they had no business being a cop and charges apply.
If the answer is they weren't afraid at all, then clearly it's a bad shooting, and now we're talking murder.
It may be somewhere in between. The private autopsy that says he was shot from behind says that this was a bullshit shooting.
I do believe that there's no faith in police departments ability to police themselves and maybe federal government needs to have a task force to investigate some shootings.
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Post by Don on Apr 2, 2018 16:44:46 GMT -5
We obviously need more cop control laws. No. All we need are cops being held accountable now when they recklessly discharge their weapons which is not something occurring with any degree of frequency. Gee, that sounds familiar. Maybe all we need are people being held accountable now when they break existing gun laws, which is not something occurring with any degree of frequency.
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