As often is the case, it comes down to money.
The last time I looked, police generally make more than social workers. Most people who are going to face that risk prefer to be compensated for it.
Besides assuming something not in evidence about seizures, I fail to see how this could possibly be seen as some type of mitigating factor. Drinking and driving is always stupid. Drunk driving when you have alcohol induced seizures is worse and doubly reckless.
People can have withdrawl seizures. I imagine that perhaps the question was raised by a poster here because he reportedly seemed confused when they asked him some basic questions and he had trouble finding his license. People can have an altered mental status for a variety of reasons. Haven’t heard that he had any pre-existing health issues, but who knows. And people can have acute vascular incidents if COVID +. There are lots of possibilities for an altered mental status.
Of course he should not have been drinking and driving. Thats unsafe and illegal. And he shouldn’t have resisted arrest, though his attorney commented on the news this morning that maybe he was afraid of being handcuffed given what happened to George Floyd when he was handcuffed recently. OK, that’s a stretch, but that’s what the attorney said.
I have to give you points on creativity. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, it was COVID-19 which made me resist arrest, steal an officer’s taser, and try to flee the scene.
The most critical part of the sad story. And it’s really sad and unnecessary. Is the young man turned and fired the taser at the officer. That’s when the shots were fired.
It’s oddly being left out of so many articles. And by the mayor of Atlanta.
I think it’s a survival reflex to shoot while chasing someone when they turn and fire at you. I wouldn’t even point a finger at that stage of events.
Such a waste.
The officer who fired the shot was farther away than the officer who had the taser pointed at him. And it was night time, the officer who shot Brooks might not have been sure what was being fired. It would have been nice for the city to sort all of that out before throwing both officers to the wolves.
Some departments have training to yell “Taser Taser Taser!” when firing the taser so that other officers around know that the shot they hear is a taser firing not a pistol. Maybe Brooks didn’t get that training.
No, this is incorrect. The officer who fired was very close. See video footage here.
Someone stated upstream here that it should be okay for CC posters to post without facts. Expressing opinion is okay, but facts are — well facts.
No, this is incorrect. Rayshard wasn’t unarmed if he had a taser.
He DID have a taser, but he DID NOT have the deadly force of a gun. Officer Rolfe DID have the deadly force of a gun.
Is one “armed” when they hold a taser? I don’t think of this as being armed because it does not have the deadly force of a gun, but I agree that the word sometimes is used with a taser.
Thanks for helping CC continue to clarify! Facts, bring 'em on.
So is your position, we should legalize drunk driving? Otherwise, if we’re going to have laws against DUIs on the books, the police are obligated to enforce those laws and arrest offenders.
If true, this is horrifying! A person who is not well-trained in firearms has no business having a gun in their job.
Movies are full of fiction. This has nothing to do with lack of training. It is nearly impossible to hit extremities of a quickly moving target. One would need to spray bullets from an automatic rifle… and who would want that?
Twoinanddone’s comment is 100% true. If it’s horrifying, it’s because Hollywood creates this mass delusion the average traffic cop is some ex-Navy Seal sniper. Unless they’re in SWAT or some special unit, most cops don’t spend a lot of time at the range. The more time cops spend at the range, the less time the cop has to handout speeding tickets, arrest drunk drivers, respond to domestic violence calls, process paperwork, testify in court, or whatever else their job entails. This necessitates the need for a larger police force. Range time is expensive. Ammo is expensive. All this adds up to larger police budgets. Good luck getting better trained cops if you defund the police. As BunsenBurner points out above, it’s much more difficult to hit a moving target in a real world scenario than a stationary target at the range with all the time in the world to line up your shot.
Where are you seeing/reading that Rayshard reaching back and firing with the taser was omitted? Its been reported in every report I’ve seen/watched and is the crux of why the officer shot at him. It would be extremely surprising, to say the least, if this was omitted.
Where are you reading that anyone suggested drunk driving be legalized? thats a rather peculiar interpretation of this post.
What officer Bronson (who arrived first) saw was that Brooks was asleep in his stopped car, rather than see him actually driving the car. This is sort of an edge case of DUI in Georgia (GA Code § 40-6-391 (2018) “(a) A person shall not drive or be in actual physical control of any moving vehicle while: (1) Under the influence of alcohol to the extent that it is less safe for the person to drive”). Of course it is likely that Brooks got in that state by driving the car there (while DUI), although it was possible (though unlikely) for him to get there some other way. But redefining DUI to change whether or not that situation falls into the definition of DUI does not necessarily mean legalizing DUI, nor does a police officer interpreting the existing law differently with respect to Brooks’ situation necessarily mean ignoring more clear cut instances of DUI.
In any case, there are many laws that police officers do not aggressively enforce all instances that they see violations of, such as driving faster than the speed limit, not coming to a full stop at a stop sign or right-turn-on-red situation, pedestrians jaywalking*, bicyclists riding on the wrong side of the road, etc… Of course, when they do enforce such things, some suspect that they are targeted for enforcement for other reasons ( https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/watch-now-tulsa-police-release-video-of-officers-handcuffing-black-teens-for-jaywalking-internal-investigation/article_8b0c88e3-bbbf-5b39-9457-51c88fa2d3ad.html ).
*Many people do not actually know what actually is illegal for a pedestrian to do with respect to crossing or walking on a street.
My recap…
A fairly benign scenario of a guy at a drive through window. Drunk and falls asleep.
Employees call cops to remove him because they don’t want to mess with him. and shouldn’t. You never know who you’re dealing with. Pay grade and experience ain’t high enough.
Cops come. Make him go through paces of drunk driving scenario as far as I can tell from reports. Guy complies (from what I read.)
Then situation devolves to chaos. Guy ends up with a taser? Really? . We were at a Wendy’s drivethrough and ended with a taser chase? Definitely missing some inbetween action.
Asleep at the wheel while intoxicated is what Tiger Woods was arrested for a few years ago. This is the part of the common definition of a DUI, being able to operate the vehicle while intoxicated.
I have heard that the right thing to do if you ever find yourself intoxicated while driving is to pull over and take the keys out of the car, as at that point you are unable to operate the vehicle, but this might just be an urban myth.
Knowsstuff said he shouldn’t have been arrested and taken to the police station. If he’s not arrested he can’t be charged with a DUI. The clear implication is Knowsstuff believes we need to stop enforcing DUI laws.
That’s really interesting about the GA law. Because after they woke him up they asked him to move his car to a parking space because he was blocking the drive thru. So at THAT point, under their direction, he was driving while intoxicated.