This is short, but helpful--from CNN.

A very interesting clip. Thanks for posting.

dag hammarsjkold wrote:A very interesting clip. Thanks for posting.

Just finished reading this by a long-time attorney. Minus the inflammatory language, he asks the right question.

I know space is limited, but he tells 1/3 of the story in most of these situations. I do think that experienced cops who have a low-propensity for violence could and should do pre-employment interviews.

The job is hard. However, some guys are not smart enough to take the easy way out. I've said it before and I say it again with 98% confidence: in the Eric Garner case, if someone had been present with decent training and intelligence, Garner would be alive.

Laquan was killed by someone who should have been fired before it happened. I would (again) note that the mayor of Chicago (Rahmbo) seems to have been part of the cover-up. He just axed the police super today. Also interesting: Chicago has had a Democratic mayor since 1927. That's a long time. In fact, this is marginally instructive:

What a terrible tragedy. So unnecessary. And the kind of incident that simply fuels the Black Lives Matters Movement.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/17/us/philando-castile-shooting-minnesota.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Something has to be done to improve police training. This cop was a nervous wreck and lost his cool. There must be training out there that would help cops address their instinctive reaction to shoot first and ask questions later.

This article really gets into why these types of incidents occur. First, training itself drills officer safety as being paramount. You combine that with the endemic fear of young black males in our culture...and you get unjustified shootings when a minority of officers make poor fear-driven decisions. It looks like the officer got it in head that the driver of a possible robbery suspect (he wasn't), then when he was informed by the driver that he had a gun he just completely panicked and shot the driver when he was reaching for his ID. Those are the prosecutor's allegations--we'll see how it plays out at trial.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.theatlan ... ent=safari

freeman3 wrote:This article really gets into why these types of incidents occur. First, training itself drills officer safety as being paramount. You combine that with the systemic fear of young black males in our culture...and you get unjustified shootings when a minority of officers make poor fear-driven decisions. It looks like the officer got it in head that the driver of a possible robbery suspect (he wasn't), then when he was informed by the driver that he had a gun he just completely panicked and shot the driver when he was reaching for his ID. Those are the prosecutor's allegations--we'll see how it plays out at trial.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.theatlan ... ent=safari

There is no such thing as too much emphasis on officer safety. It is when officers get sloppy that they get killed.

Now, "officer safety" does not mean "shoot if you even think you might get hurt." It does mean officers must take control of situations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8-hgt8Z_qI&app=desktop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIJPss4Fr6w

This one is incredible. The officer thinks he's got thing under control, but he doesn't. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cTsJWPTecg

Certainly an officer needs to be vigilant in every encounter for his own safety. But there is always going to be a line drawn between officer safety and citizen safety. And some officers are drawing that line too far in the direction of their own safety, an example is apparently the one in Minnesota that Dags posted.

Long Beach seems to get its share:

http://www.presstelegram.com/general-ne ... narmed-man

https://www.google.com/amp/www.latimes. ... ent=safari

freeman3 wrote:Certainly an officer needs to be vigilant in every encounter for his own safety. But there is always going to be a line drawn between officer safety and citizen safety. And some officers are drawing that line too far in the direction of their own safety, an example is apparently the one in Minnesota that Dags posted.

Long Beach seems to get its share:

http://www.presstelegram.com/general-ne ... narmed-man

https://www.google.com/amp/www.latimes. ... ent=safari

My main point has to do with how they must control a situation, not shoot/don't shoot situations. The latter are the most difficult. And, thanks to the foolish people of California, you are likely to see more officer-involved shootings. What can you expect when you release thousands upon thousands of career criminals? Oh, and run a virtual "sanctuary State" for MS-13 and other gangs?