[skinster]

The cop got away with this murder.

[maz]

There is radio silence from the Blue Lives Matter types.

[Diligent]

That was a bad one. Really bad.

They were responding to a situation where someone was potentially armed (other guests had seen him through his balcony window with an air-soft rifle), but nevertheless, the pointman exercised incredibly poor judgement. The situation certainly called for speed and aggression, but the officer seemed excessively jacked and unwilling to adapt.

Feel horrible for the kid and his family.

[Heisenberg]

If they were so concerned about him showing his hands at all times, why in the name of God did they demand that he crawl towards them? He's there, on his knees, with his hands up in the air, begging them not to shoot him. They could have just walked over and handcuffed him.

The only reasonable conclusion is they wanted an excuse to shoot someone. It doesn't make sense otherwise.

Vile.

Edit: even the National Review - a publication that once defended waterboarding - thinks this was murder.

[skinster]

There is radio silence from the Blue Lives Matter types.

Yup. I guess they don't even care for their own. At least they're consistent.

[maz]

Edit: even the National Review - Police responded to a 911 call claiming that a man was pointing a rifle out a window.

What I want to hear what was said on the 9/11 phone call.

Also, this proves that having body cams will help nothing but just giving entertainment to those who like to watch snuff films.

[skinster]

I don't get the body-cams idea either since cops who've wore them and murdered have got away with the same.

This country is so fucked up.

[skinster]

[mikema63]

I want very badly to believe things can change for the better but it's very hard sometimes.

[quetzalcoatl]

80's cop (reading from card): "You have the right to remain silent..."

2017 cop (reading from card): "Drop to your knees, and crawl to me, sobbing, and begging for your life. Recite all the prime numbers in succession between 3747 and 4351. If you so much as stutter, you will be dead before you can say oops."

[Godstud]

First degree murder, right there. Abominable. Fuck the police!

[Zag Edit: Rule 1]

[skinster]

The cop was acquitted.

[Godstud]

What the fuck is wrong with the American justice system? It's like it simply doesn't function.

[Decky]

What the fuck is wrong with the American justice system? It's like it simply doesn't function.

It functions very well for the people it is designed to help. The police are the servants of the capitalist class and exist to kill any workers who try to stand up for themselves, why would the justice system punish the police for doing their jobs (murdering poor people almost at random to instil fear into them)?

[Godstud]

Wow. The US Justice system is far more corrupt than any other I have ever seen. They don't even operate for the people. When people talk about foreign corrupt cops, they really shouldn't bother, as the USA has the worst of the bunch. They might as well be running death squads.

Heck, the guy shot wasn't even black!! They're not even trying to conceal it, anymore. You can have 1000 witnesses and they still get off.

I am supremely happy that I am not American and that I don't live in Police State USA.

[Zagadka]

Heck, the guy shot wasn't even black!!

This is the problem with the whole BLM movement. The problem isn't so much ingrained systemic racism (though this does exist on many levels and locations, these tend to be more localized), it is the entire system itself. It'll chew up any race if it finds the need/opportunity. By changing the protest of the treatment to a purely racial issue, the entire problem is obfuscated.

[Bulaba Khan Jones]

It's clear from the bodycam that this wasn't a case of the police making a mistake or being jumpy. This was murder. It's pretty objectively so based on the cop's clear intentions of wanting to kill someone. Aside from the obvious, he practically states his desire to kill someone on the recording.

[mikema63]

It's clear that the current prosecutor system is failing in these cases. They have far too close a relationship with the police and there's a lot of organizational and cultural overlap.

The idea has occurred to me that we need a special separate system for prosecuting crimes by police, or more realistically a massive overhaul of the state prosecutor system. Throw on that some major cultural and training overhauls in the police departments and a million other things we need to do. Another idea is to have rigorous psychological profiling to identity risk factors in a potential cop for this sort of thing and recruit more rigorously and pay more for people who are not the type who seem drawn to the police today.

The whole thing is a cluster fuck and I strongly disagree with zag that systemic racism isn't important here. It's given the police a lot of time and freedom to let these sorts of attitudes fester against a population no one gives enough of a fuck about to nip these problems in the bud. Now we all get to deal with them and african americans get is 10x worse.

[Zagadka]

Blacks are over represented in policing, and that is a problem in its own right. It is, however, different than police abuse in general.

[Hong Wu]

It's sad when authorities abuse their power but it's also hard to see what can be done about it besides having things like body cams, which were apparently of use in this case, or at least the footage came from somewhere.