I wasn't making excuses for him, just trying to figure out what happened.
The article said the person was shot by a rifle, there were 3 shots and the person was struck once.
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News Article: Cop shoots caretaker of autistic man playing in the street with toy truck
- Thread starter Catfish
- Start date
As I was reading that, I thought to myself, "Oh, okay then. Fire away."
Then I thought, "Ok, so you have a negligent discharge, that's bad. But you had a negligent discharge into an innocent person. That's really bad. And you shot an innocent man three times?"
Not to pile on, but if it was the police office with the AR-15, kneeling behind the trunk of his car, I'm at a loss to understand how a guy sitting 30 feet away, even if he did have a pistol, was a threat to the police officer. The therapist had just shouted that the guy was autistic and had a toy truck in his hand.
This just does not pass the smell test. I have a feeling this is going to be expensive for the municipality and means a career change (at best) for the officer.
Maybe a whole separate discussion.....but this would have never happened had someone not called 9-1-1 and made a false report.
From the linked article:
The person who made that false report should be held accountable to some degree in this.
From the linked article:
The person who made that false report should be held accountable to some degree in this.
It causes the cops to pull their guns when they normally might not. Once the guns come out then the chance of a bad mistake being made increases.
In a perfect world, I'd agree with you. But, if you start prosecuting people for being wrong (wrong, not lying) in a 911 call, people stop reporting crimes. That's not good for anybody. This dumpster fire is on the cop who shot the guy.
If dude can only hit a man lying still on the ground one out of three times with a rifle, he's really in the wrong line of work... :biggrin:
Well technically I said "held accountable"...not prosecuting.
Let's not keep them out of the home opener but make them run the stadium steps and do community service.
I believe in behaviour modification more than punishment.
I thought that as well, but in this day and age, when you have people running over crowds in trucks and the authorities say, "If you see something, say something," it is probably best to let the cops know and hope they don't have a happy trigger figure.
This situation is the flip side of the "hands up, don't shoot" narrative. If we are going to suggest that people comply with police instructions and not threaten the cop (and I do strongly suggest this), then it is incumbent on the police not to shoot people that are complying with police instructions and not threatening the police. The police, it would appear, let us and themselves, down in this case.
I've run stadium steps before. I think I'd prefer being prosecuted.Well technically I said "held accountable"...not prosecuting.
Let's not keep them out of the home opener but make them run the stadium steps and do community service.
I believe in behaviour modification more than punishment.
To be clear......in no way am I giving the cop a pass.
I was merely pointing out that the cops were told a gun was involved.
I realize that there are people who are not great at knowing what a gun looks like......so if that's the case......do not say "there's a man with a gun".
Why not just say two man are in the street? Leave out the gun part.
Probably asking for too much from the public......
No, I hear you. Did not interpret your post as giving the cops a pass.
The whole thing is just unfortunate, all the way around. The only good thing is that the therapist was not killed and I hope he makes a full recovery.
It certainly doesn't get better if he hits the other guy.
"Cop shoots disabled minority in the street for playing with a toy truck."
I still feel strongly that LEOs, at some point in their careers, should have to put in some significant time in "social work" or something equivalent. I'm not sure exactly how this would work - one week out of the year spent doing social work or an hours requirement prior to starting. I know there are some departments that do training in some of this, but I don't know that it's enough.
I just feel like with social work you get a real understanding of other people's problems, particularly those at the bottom of the socioeconomic. You come to understand all the obstacles in the system for a lot of people (e.g., rarely, if ever, is it because somebody is just lazy) and learn all the other options there might be for somebody other than locking them up for the night, etc. You get a real feel for being to talk things out with people from diverse backgrounds, because a lot of the time there isn't much you can do for them other than being a good listener. I spent a summer doing this type of work and I still think back on some of those lessons learned almost daily.
In sum, it just seems like a lot of these LEOs suffer from the "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" problem - they are trained extensively on aggressively controlling suspects, so this is what many of them go to in a situation where they sense any risk whatsoever, which is a different complex issue altogether (some risk used to be expected for LEOs - had to see a gun, not just somebody reach in their pockets). I don't know, but I've been thinking about these situations a lot in recent months.
I just feel like with social work you get a real understanding of other people's problems, particularly those at the bottom of the socioeconomic. You come to understand all the obstacles in the system for a lot of people (e.g., rarely, if ever, is it because somebody is just lazy) and learn all the other options there might be for somebody other than locking them up for the night, etc. You get a real feel for being to talk things out with people from diverse backgrounds, because a lot of the time there isn't much you can do for them other than being a good listener. I spent a summer doing this type of work and I still think back on some of those lessons learned almost daily.
In sum, it just seems like a lot of these LEOs suffer from the "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" problem - they are trained extensively on aggressively controlling suspects, so this is what many of them go to in a situation where they sense any risk whatsoever, which is a different complex issue altogether (some risk used to be expected for LEOs - had to see a gun, not just somebody reach in their pockets). I don't know, but I've been thinking about these situations a lot in recent months.
The false report was false because they claimed the guy was walking around with a gun threatening to kill himself. If they were close enough to hear a threat they were close enough to see a toy truck, not a gun. Lock 'em up.
Inexcusable from the police firing in this situation.
Inexcusable from the police firing in this situation.
I also think more people should do ride-alongs with LEO to give perspective....and watching "COPS" does not count!
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