SubscribeBut I still can't see that happening. A taser must feel completely different in your hand than a gun. And it must certainly look different. Not to mention standard practice puts the taser in the holster opposite the gun. The cop would have to be seriously confused to make so many mistakes. Maybe someone without any training might do something like that? But a cop with training and two years under his belt? It's really stretching to explain it away as he went for the wrong weapon.Remember Amadou Diallo? He was shot 41 times by four NY police officers as he reached for identification. One detail that isn't commonly known is that 32 of the shots came from one officer, who emptied the magazine in his pistol, reloaded, and emptied it again. I remember reading an article about this aspect of it, that some police officers involved in shootings will go on trained autopilot. Afterwards, they'll report that they weren't even conscious of what they were doing until they stopped shooting. It's something that can't be detected in training, but is widely acknowledged among police as something that happens to a non-trivial percentage of them. When they're actually involved in a shooting is when they find out whether they actually keep their wits about them.
Why the hell did he struggle when they made to cuff him?It may have been struggling, or it may have been Grant simply moving and being moved as three officers pulled and directed him in various directions while controlling him.
He was struggling; resisting attempts to handcuff him.Interesting. You're sure he's struggling, and not simply being pushed and pulled in various directions by three cops trying to get him down and cuffed. I don't know about you, I can easily imagine that my body's attempts to deal with what's going on, combined with my head's attempts to move my body in a compliant way, could look like I'd whipped out a hot piece and needed some lead-induced calm.
BART officials declined to say whether the officer was carrying a Taser - a device that sends out two electrical probes and can incapacitate its target - when he shot Grant. The agency uses Tasers but does not have enough of the expensive devices to give one to every officer.Shooting (fatally) first and asking questions later is just more cost effective.
"The officer leaned (in), was straddling over him and pointed his gun directly into the backside and shot (Grant)," said Burris, adding that Grant was handcuffed after he was shot[emphasis added]. "This was not a deadly force situation."Is it normal police procedure to handcuff someone after you shoot him?
"Many Bay Area police departments that use Tasers - including BART - force officers to take precautions, such as wearing them on the opposite side of their strong hand and facing backward. This requires officers to reach across their body to retrieve them."
“Hahaha. Yes, I'm sure the cops' motivation for demanding the girl's camera was their concern that this evidence might not otherwise be preserved.” - posted by applemeatI can only assume that you've been successfully brainwashed by your cop training. Given recent history the only rational assumption a person can make when they have evidence of police crimes and a pig wants to take that evidence away is that the pig wants to destroy the evidence. I say this because it is what happens, over and over. Because every cop out there, even the "good cops", cover up for the bad ones. They're all pigs, not one of them can be trusted with evidence of crimes committed by their fellow pigs.
Hmmm. What would be a cogent response to such a counter to my position. Fuck you, jagoff?
Yeah. That works: Fuck you, jagoof.
"[BART spokesman Linton] Johnson said BART has two video feeds at the Fruitvale station.Reminds me of the 2005 London Tube fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes [previously - 1, 2] with the CCTV footage that "went missing."
He said the video feed that goes to BART's police department didn't record footage of the incident, as it normally doesn't record incidents.
But he said a video feed that goes to the transit agency's operations center did record the incident but an initial review of that video didn't show 'anything of significance.'"
"More graphic videotapes of the shooting are surfacing."
CNN: Video of California police shooting spurs investigation.
MSNBC: New Questions Surface Following BART Shooting.
"With high base salaries, opportunities to work lucrative construction details, and one of the nation's most generous overtime programs, Boston's rank-and-file police officers brought home $78,906 on average in 2002, and those who earned higher-education degrees made considerably more....Many detectives now receive salaries in excess of $90,000 a year.""Average pay for Boston police patrolman, including overtime and other benefits...: $81,725 [in October 2004]"
"A police officer shot a former professional baseball player's son outside of a Bellaire home early Wednesday, KPRC Local 2 reported.
Anthony Cooper said a Bellaire police officer approached him and his brother, Robert Tolan, in their driveway on Woodstock Street near Evergreen Street in Bellaire at about 2 a.m., after they returned home from a fast-food restaurant.
'We didn't know it was a police officer at all until he turned on his light, his flashlight, and had a gun,' Cooper said. 'They didn't even ask us any questions.'
Cooper, 20, said the officer told them to get down on the ground.
'We were going into the house and our parents came outside,' Cooper said. 'Our parents said, "What's going on?" They didn't say anything to us but, "Get down on the ground." They said, "Well, it's a stolen vehicle, ma'am." She's (the mother) like, "What stolen vehicle? That's his vehicle."'
'The vehicle was later determined not to be stolen,' Assistant Police Chief Byron Holloway said. 'The license plate was run, but exactly why they believe it was stolen … just don't have the information to make a comment on it.'
Cooper said the officer harassed Tolan's mother. Cooper said that when Tolan yelled at the officer, the officer shot him in the chest.
'Shot him on the ground,' said Cooper. 'Not even in the arm or anything. They shot him in his chest.'
Police said Tolan wasn't on the ground when Sgt. Jeff Cotton fired.
'Some type of altercation ensued, in which the sergeant fired two shots, possibly three shots, striking one of the persons who exited the vehicle at least once,' Holloway said 'From what I know, he got up off the ground.'
Tolan was rushed to Ben Taub Hospital with injuries to his liver and his lung. He is in fair condition...."
"Mayor Ron Dellums pleaded for calm as anger continued to build in the city’s black community...'Ya think?
'We’ve got to have a real investigation that people can have confidence in,' said Mr. Dellums on Wednesday night. 'And my sense of it is that part of this reaction is that people have lost confidence.'"
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posted by ORthey at 11:31 AM on January 5