Ive heard policemen say that when there is a crime committed and you have witnesses that you get different stories from them. So no surprise here. Hopefully the FBI will have a professional non partisan report.
Mike that shooting in Il. that you pointed out was well covered here in St louis as it is close. And I will tell you that officer was 100% WRONG. I said that almost from the begining but when more facts were released it sealed the case. I will be honest in all police shootings I look for any even little reason why the officer fired his weapon in giving a lawfull reason he did it. In that case you pointed there was NONE and he was convicted and should have been. Cases like that give ALL police a bad name so in a way I take it personal. I have brought this up among my retired police friends and for what ever reason officers now days seems to draw their weapon a lot. I only did in what I believed to be truly dangerous situations. And back in my day we could lawfully shoot any fleeing felon. He did not have to be a danger but the mere fact he committed a felony gave us the lawful right to use deadly force. I will say one thing has drastically changed from my time and now and video is pretty much why. Since the statute of limitations is up I can confess we did some serious a-- kicking. The one thing I guarantee you will end up with a trip to the hospital if there is a car pursuit and when you are finally caught LOOK OUT. I was in a few pursuits and they are scary, especially if your partner is driving, myself as the passenger was trying to find the brake pedal on my side all the while yelling at him to slow down. I was in one pursuit of a stolen auto and we were about a block behind it when it ran a red light and struck another car broadside killing the driver. After the initial crash everyone in the stolen car jumped out and ran. We did catch them but they were all juveniles and further we could never prove who was driving. People really have to walk in our shoes to totally understand.I am 100% well familiar with the catch all phrase..."I was in fear for my life"...
once that is said...the outcome becomes subjective to whoever views the evidence...
but sometimes that is not enough to justify a shooting...
here is an interesting story that made national news last year...
Murder of Sonya Massey - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
I do appreciate your candid and what I believe are honest omissions concerning your experience as a police officer...
"I most probably would not have shot."...
thanks for your time and well written review of as an ex police officer how you would have handled it...
Gary
Guys. Our country is divided and it hurts. Seems taking personal responsibility is something we don't admire anymore. Always somebody else's fault. I guess the only thing we can do is to be moral ourselves and hope our kids can change the world for the better.
Are the suspect was injured when he fell up the stairs! When you are being questioned about something your partner did and your response was " I didn't see anything I was tying my shoes". This one don't fly anymore when questioned as to why the officer shot someone, "The suspect displayed a shiny object". And remember always stick to your story.
Gary...appreciate your candid view as a retired police officer...I value your honest input...I can definitely identify with the last part of your post...
My Dad always used to tell me when I was of drinking/going out to clubs age..............."After you've had your fill of booze and want to stop at some joint on the way home and you walk inside and see police officers in the first booth having coffee; turn around and leave, they are there due to trouble at that place all the time, paid detail to break up fights and so on and so forth"........
Really good point and unfortunately one that is lost here in the USA to the partisanship of the day.
You used "to bounce" at some clubs you have told me...you know exactly what a drunk can be like...belligerent...stubborn...hard to deal with...they're ticked off when you turn on the lights after last call and they are not ready to go home alone...so you gotta wrestle that drink out of their hands and send them packing...now they're in a bad mood and they go to the busiest place open at 2 AM thinking in their drunken, slobbering daze of alcoholic consumption that there is one last chance to get a woman...it's a recipe for disaster...
The difference in attitude I got with people while on the way into the club was 100 times different than when they were leaving.
The "why" is an interesting question. I'll try not to be too political but politics is certainly a major component. There are some people who genuinely believe that America should open its border to all the poor and oppressed to give them an opportunity at a better life. And any effort to enforce immigration laws or deport them is the product of racism. The political motivations are bipartisan. Democrats believe that the illegal immigrants will one day be future voters for their party. Ten million people today is another 40 million people in the next generation and so forth. Republican politicians often turn a blind eye to them because they are a source of cheap labor for big businesses that keep costs down and profits up. The real force multiplier here is Trump. Trump made immigration and border control a cornerstone of his successful 2016 campaign. Because Trump was in favor of closing the border, many feel they have to oppose it for that reason alone. There is no logic or common sense to that other than opposition to anything he proposes. It reminds me of the old Groucho Marx song:
Thank you for the feedback, its greatly appreciated and not an easy topic to explain, especially given the complex combination of factors that are contributing to it.
A problem with AI responses to questions is that, with AI gobbling up text from places such as Wikipedia, and what it takes to be facts, because AI has found them repeated enough, when it is just repeating opinions of people who wrote these texts who included their own bias and tend to be left leaning and pushing their agenda.
