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California Cop Who Shot 18-Year-Old Had His Bodycam Off, But Surveillance Footage Captured Him Shooting Suspect in the Back as He Fled (wiredposts.com)

submitted 5 months ago by MonsiuerPatEBrown@reddthat.com to c/thepoliceproblem@lemmy.world

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[-] madcaesar@lemmy.world 70 points 5 months ago

I don't know man, I'm all for police oversight, but this isn't a great example. This dude is running around a neighbourhood with a gun. Who says he doesn't go into one of those houses and some innocent person gets hurt.

The cop yelled at him to drop the gun and stop running, he didn't.

The part of them trying to cover it up after is shitty, but the action itself I can't really take the criminal's side. Again, image that's my neighbour with my kids playing in the area, I don't want some lunatic running around with a gun.

I realise what sub I'm in, and this isn't a popular opinion and that's fine. We need police reform, but this isn't a good example.

When people jump on everything with the same fervor it weakens your case because people start tuning you out.

[-] Madison420@lemmy.world 19 points 5 months ago

Doesn' matter, unless you have a reasonable belief that they will use that weapon unlawfully simply possessing it is nothing but an extra charge and you cannot shoot a fleeing suspect unless you have ras to believe that they are dangerous and that suspicion cannot be generalized and inarticulate.

[-] ZMonster@lemmy.world 13 points 5 months ago

So much this. If we aren't going to restrict possession of firearms in any way then we can't use that as a basis for intent. Just replace, "had a gun", with literally any other constitutionally protected right and this argument falls flat on its face.

"He was using words, we will never know if he was about to run into a theater and yell 'fire'..."

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this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2024

1046 points (99.0% liked)

THE POLICE PROBLEM

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The police problem is that police are policed by the police. Cops are accountable only to other cops, which is no accountability at all.

99.9999% of police brutality, corruption, and misconduct is never investigated, never punished, never makes the news, so it's not on this page.

When cops are caught breaking the law, they're investigated by other cops. Details are kept quiet, the officers' names are withheld from public knowledge, and what info is eventually released is only what police choose to release — often nothing at all.

When police are fired — which is all too rare — they leave with 'law enforcement experience' and can easily find work in another police department nearby. It's called "Wandering Cops."

When police testify under oath, they lie so frequently that cops themselves have a joking term for it: "testilying." Yet it's almost unheard of for police to be punished or prosecuted for perjury.

Cops can and do get away with lawlessness, because cops protect other cops. If they don't, they aren't cops for long.

The legal doctrine of "qualified immunity" renders police officers invulnerable to lawsuits for almost anything they do. In practice, getting past 'qualified immunity' is so unlikely, it makes headlines when it happens.

All this is a path to a police state.

In a free society, police must always be under serious and skeptical public oversight, with non-cops and non-cronies in charge, issuing genuine punishment when warranted.

Police who break the law must be prosecuted like anyone else, promptly fired if guilty, and barred from ever working in law-enforcement again.

That's the solution.

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