It was a tense morning here waiting for the verdict in a case against a police officer who shot a 17 year old 16 times (mostly while he was lying motionless on the ground). Our building went on lockdown when they announced that the verdict was in. Verdict was guilty of Second degree murder (1st degree murder with a mitigating circumstance…that cop held real but unreasonable belief that he was acting in self defense.) Also guiity on 16 counts of aggravated battery. Maximum sentence total over 100 years. There are peaceful demonstrations but not riots which were feared if there was a not guilty verdict. It’s been half a century since a c was found guilty of murder for on duty actions. I like many didn’t think there would be a guilty verdict.
I’m in the suburbs and was worried, too. I’d heard of businesses (in Chicago) closing early to avoid the potential protests if he wasn’t convicted. From what I saw and heard of the circumstances and testimony (I listened to all of Van Dyke’s testimony), I felt he was guilty and an appropriate verdict was reached.
I’m in the suburbs too. Loyola-DeLasalle football game (to be played in the city) postponed due to safety concerns. NU and Evanston stepping up security into the evening.
I’m happy he was found guilty however in most instances this won’t be a lesson. What typically happens when a cop is rightfully punished or even put on trial, is that there is a slow down. It happened in Cincinnati at Timothy Thomas , it happened in Baltimore and it will happen in Chicago a city that can least afford for policing to slow.
This case really broke my heart. That poor kid didn’t have a chance, the first bullet dropped him and the guy just kept shooting.
Plus, he had been a ward of the state with a very young teenage mother who had also been a ward of the state. We have to do better by people.
Yep. I wouldn’t be traveling in the city anytime soon. Every cop knows he could be next. Why take the risk. The whole system needs to be reworked. I think most of the urban cops are under undue stress, ptsd like. You can’t work in these environments and keep you sanity.
Why should any other officer who is not prone to such egregious misconduct believe that s/he is next?
What rework do you think the system needs?
The risk of going to jail for wrongfully killing people should discourage criminal actions by bad cops.
Oh, the system needs to be reworked alright. Start with teaching cops not to shoot to kill, for one. (I don’t buy the argument that it’s “too hard.”) Reward restraint and understanding in the police force. Recruit police from the community, require them to be a part of it, require more education, provide more training. It can be done. It’s BEEN done in some communities.
Because it doesn’t just apply to such egregious misconduct. Every police shooting is suspect theses days. It makes the news and all heck breaks loose. Their lives get turned upside down. Talk to the police. They would rather be late to the scene than arrive at an active situation.
As for reform they probably need to do a bunch of things. I really think they have to address the stress they face in these bad neighborhoods. Also more traning with regard to confrontations.
But most of it is second guessing. If you arrive late and keep you gun holstered, you have no chance of a problem.
And yet we have incidents that clearly didn’t involve a lot of guessing to figure out. Like when you’re talking about a cop shooting a suspect at long range multiple times in the back. That’s murder, plain and simple. And all too often unpunished when the victim is black.
And in other news, the cop who gunned down 12 year old Tamir Rice has been hired by another municipality to be a part time cop. SMDH
Sadly I’m not shocked, typical Ohio bs.
https://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/10/report_officer_who_killed_tami.html
Hope those residents feel safer now from those terrifying unarmed 12 years olds…
About 400 to 1,200 (depending on whose estimates you use) are killed by police every year in the US. If these make the news such that “all heck breaks loose”, there would be on average about 1 to 3 new incidents splattered across the news every day. That there are far fewer suggests that only the ones that appear to be the most egregious misconduct do so.
So an officer intentionally arrives late and does his/her job worse than if s/he arrives on time. Are we supposed to choose between (a) lower quality policing because some officers are prone to misconduct or deadly errors, or (b) lower quality policing because other officers intentionally avoid arriving at crime-in-progress scenes in a timely fashion due to fear of being accused of misconduct, even though they are at very low risk of such accusations?