Back to the topic:
[Amid tight budgets, use of police reserve officers is common](http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article18475280.html)
We get what we pay for.
And the old guy turned himself in:
@jazzymom I still cant believe that case didnt garner more attention. The sad thing is with John Crawford, no one paid him any attention, until the psycho, wingnut decided he was “armed” and call 911. Even with that, Ohio is an open carry state, so if he did have a gun, he was breaking no laws.
And don’t forget to wear your white skin!
Nobody in this thread thinks it’s a good idea to violate laws. But all of us are fallible, and it’s intolerable (at least to me) that people who are black and who either fall afoul of the law or just get unlucky and get stopped by the cops for no good reason get worse treatment than similarly situated whites. It’s intolerable to me that when police encounter black people in slightly suspicious circumstances-- either as low-level criminals, or doing something innocent like playing with a toy gun in a park or buying an airgun at Walmart-- the police officers’ response is to shoot first and ask questions later. It’s intolerable that some officers are so obsessed with their strutting, bullying authority that the tiniest challenge, or a normal hesitation in being able to responded to unexpected screamed commands, results in a hail of bullets. It’s intolerable that people who are already restrained and not resisting are subject to beatings and Tasings. It’s intolerable that the police are so poorly trained that they apply brutal, sometimes lethal force to mentally ill people who are not threat and who are unable to comprehend the situation.
I have never been subject to police brutality or police mistreatmet. Others have, and I find it unacceptable, and I find it equally unacceptable to hear advice on how to avoid police brutality: Don’t be mentally ill. Don’t make a mistake. Don’t get nervous when stopped by police. Don’t be black. Don’t panic. Don’t be different. Don’t get angry if you are unfairly singled out because you’re different.
Nobody can follow all those rules perfectly.
Ohio is open carry unless you are a scary black man, in which case, you must be put down.
Don’t know why I read AOL news ever. Headline says “Walter Scott’s passenger finally breaks his silence. His comments on why Scott ran.” You open it, and later in the article, it says “I’ll never know why he ran, but I know he didn’t deserve to die,” Fulton said in his statement.
So you open the article to see his friend’s comments on why Scott ran, but his friend doesn’t know.
Yet another example of totally crappy journalism. Very annoying. Just get us to open the non article so that we can get bombarded with ads, I guess.
Well said, Fang.
Dredge up the incidence rate of Walmarts&BB guns and we can make a call as to whether it’s an epidemic.
FBI quality stats as to what incremental safety that white skin affords would be really, really useful. Does anyone have something non-anecdotal and unimpeachable? (Not saying everything linked to by MediaMutters is suspect, but I’d vet it pretty thoroughly, myself.)
I am also shocked the Crawford case gained so little media attention, relatively. Guess it had a lot of competition.
Grand jury refused to indict the officer involved, which means it is considered a "justified" shooting. Even if one agrees that legally, it would be hard to indict ---- how do you counter the claim that the officer felt "threatened" --- why isn't there tremendous societal pressure on that police department, on all police departments, to institute new training procedures that stress lethal force should be the absolute last resort....not the first action taken with moments of coming on the scene.
Is it racism that creates the hair trigger? Yes, I think it is in so many cases. You will never convince me that if John Crawford were a white guy holding a BB gun in a store that sells BB guns, he would be shot down as he stood in a store aisle speaking on a cell phone. No one would have dialed 911 if he were white and walking through the store with the gun.
It’s interesting that national statistics on people being shot by cops are not available. There ought to be a complete list of every incident where someone was shot to death by cops, but there is not.
That was a stirring post, Fang, but If you’ll read what I wrote, again, you’ll notice my advice was mostly predicated on avoiding being stopped in the first place, Fang. The rest was about following the laws we all live by, or the fact that having not followed them in the past was not a good thing.
Not at all about mental health or advice on how not to sweat.
Which leaves it argument by anecdote and outrage.
Carry on.
Don’t be black! Don’t be mentally ill! These are excellent ways to avoid being stopped. Can you give me some advice on how my son can follow the second of these prescriptions? Can you tell me how other posters can follow the first prescription? Also, can you swear to me that you never speed in your car?
When I see that a person has initiated precisely 6 CC threads, 5 of which were on the defunct political forum and the 6th of which was also political, and locked, and I scan through their posts going back a full year and find that not a single one of them was on an education-related thread, but instead all on the Affordable Care Act, Ferguson, and so forth, it seems pretty clear that they are here only to pursue a political agenda.
That enables me to put their “suggestions” in context.
Catahoula, why do you insist on setting up strawmen to knock down? No one said there was an epidemic in Walmart BB gun take downs. This is the second time you’ve argued there’s no evidence to suggest there’s an “epidemic” of police shootings of black men, when in fact, no one ever said there was. Rather, the argument has been that video evidence has been bringing credibility to a phenomenon black people have complained about for decades.
Hmmmm, interesting, Consolation.
Thanks for that.
@Consolation
@partyof5 The very headline of the thread is purposefully inflammatory and politically loaded. I said outright that Slager was in the wrong, but countered the incessant demonizing of ALL police. The thread drifted “off-topic” at its inception. If you don’t want to hear an opposing viewpoint then don’t post on a public forum.
@judasGOAT No one has incessantly demonized ALL police, and there is a big problem that goes beyond Slager. I couldnt care less about your opposing view, however, the regulars here are courteous when espousing our opposing views. We also dont make it a point to only post the “hot topics”.
@judasgoat, it is a question of the TOS and the likelihood of getting the thread locked down. I would be happy to debate your political views–that is, conservatism vs liberalism-- in another context. It isn’t allowed here.
@catahoula - The answer is No.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/09/us/us-has-limited-data-on-shootings-involving-police.html?_r=0
I think some of the problems with having a conversation about racism and the police is that many people have a limited view of what racism actually is. Case in point is the city clerk in Ferguson who was fired for sending racist emails. She seemed surprised and genuinely befuddled that anyone could call her racist. One of the emails she shared with others was labeled “Reagan babysitting Obama”, and was a picture of Reagan holding a chimpanzee. Another was a picture of African women in native dress and was captioned “Michelle Obama’s high school prom”. The clerk said these weren’t racist, they were just “funny”.
I suspect the SC officer who shot the black man at the gas station was similarly puzzled why people called him racist. This is the policeman who pulled over a black man and told him to get his driver’s license. When he reached into his car to comply, the officer just shot him. What all of us saw on video was a well-dressed black man casually reaching into the car, while the policeman somehow saw a scary thug “lungeing” (his word) into his car for a gun.
It tells you how difficult the discussion is when these people can’t see the underlying racism of their own attitudes.
You don’t need to speed in order to come to the lethal attention of the police, if you’re of a certain profile. Any misdemeanor will do. Michael Brown was killed for jaywalking. Eric Garner was killed for selling loose cigarettes. Walter Scott was killed for a malfunctioning tail light. Needless to say, none of these are death-penalty offenses. Heck, last summer I drove around for a week knowing my tail light was out. It never once occurred to me that I might pay for that crime with my life. But then, I’m a middle-aged white woman.
(And before someone says, yeah, but you wouldn’t have run away or mouthed off or resisted or disobeyed – let me also note that THOSE are not death-penalty offenses either. See Tennessee v. Garner.)