What the fuck, Oakland cops?

[Guest Czecherbear]

http://www.ktvu.com/video/18406930/index.html

That's a third-world execution. Disgusting. Paradoxical that the citizens are keeping the cops in check with video footage. Little Brother is watching you.

[The Niggardly King 0]

I was wondering when this topic would come up here... the whole damn thing is such a fucked up situation.

[Turbo Lion 0]

This was the first thing we saw when we landed in Atlanta from Paris. I realized, sadly, that we must indeed be back in the States.

 

While I'm not sure that riots were the best answer, nor am I sure that excusing them is a good idea, the training and oversight of cops in general needs to be... fuck... better. I know we're not nearly as bad as some countries, but we're getting to an unnacceptable level of incopetence here.

[Psycho Penguin 0]

I'd love to hear the cop's explanation for this one. This is just as bad as the cop who killed a person's dog after he stopped at her house to ask for directions. With the advancement of technology, we truly can keep an eye on the police now.

[Guest]

It looked to me like he thought he was holding his taser when he shot his gun. I did some reading about this a few days ago and saw that BART officers are trained to have their gun on their left-side if they're right handed, and vice-versa. Taser's supposed to be on the right holster for this guy, and it wasn't. I haven't seen a cop hold a gun the way he was holding it prior to firing.

 

Anyway, jail time. A fair bit of it.

[The Niggardly King 0]

Yeah, but it's not going to do anything. The cop that shot him came back from Iraq not too long ago, which has everyone up in arms saying that we need to have extensive training and bring them back to the real world before they can have any kind of job protecting civilians.

 

All that will happen from this is they'll wait long enough for things to blow over and the cop will get transferred. If the family wins the lawsuit, it just comes out of the taxpayers money. There will be no justice in this case.

[Guest]

The cop already resigned.

[The Niggardly King 0]

My mistake.

[Psycho Penguin 0]

I'm sure it was an accident. I don't want to believe anyone could as cold hearted as that, especially as a police officer who are supposed to PROTECT people. However, I have never held a taser, but if I were to hold one, wouldn't I know I was holding one as opposed to holding a gun? Aren't they shaped differently? Especially with a guy that has had a lot of military training it seems, it seems a bit weird to me.

[Guest Czecherbear]

I don't care if it's an accident, you don't pin someone down and kill them accidentally. If the government entrusts you with a lethal weapon, the least you can do is know that you're holding it and using it. Is that too fuckin' much to ask here?

[The Niggardly King 0]

I have a problem with the cop using any weapon on him considering he was already handcuffed.

[At Home 0]

Note to self: never go on vacation again, your city will degenerate into riots.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

Cops are scum.

[bob_barron 0]

As someone who deals with cops regularly, not all of them are scum, but a lot of them do have that chip on their shoulder that makes them douchebags

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Last weekend I was at a friend's house with a group of people hanging out, one of whom was a cop. Somehow we got to talking about security clearances (great party!), and apparently the cop wanted to smoke weed but wouldn't until I left because he thought I was an undercover FBI agent. Cops are retarded.

 

This is horrible, to get back on topic. A subway cop is honestly not much better than a mall cop.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Paradoxical that the citizens are keeping the cops in check with video footage. Little Brother is watching you.

 

There's actually been an issue with that sort of thing here in Portland, since our downtown is patrolled by a bunch of rent-a-cops that the city hires to issue "citizens' arrests" and who regularly deal, sometimes brutally, with the homeless folks in town. Lately, there's been a few people here who have video documentation of those sorts of things and the PPD isn't too happy about them... Probably because during one of our many, many protests/demonstrations, some people were inside the protest videotaping the police officers to make sure they were doing okay, and they ended up pepper spraying a baby, among other nonsense. Some of those are on Youtube, also.

 

There's even a few independent watchdog groups set up. I know this is the one for Portland. I'm guessing this one is the one for Oakland.

[Turbo Lion 0]

I have a problem with the cop using any weapon on him considering he was already handcuffed.

 

 

Cops are scum.

 

Not all cops are scum. I know some that are good and legitimately have people's best interests at heart.

 

I think KOAB's right. Once a guy is cuffed and on the ground, I'm not sure even a tazer is warranted. We're too quick to start using weapons. Who was in danger there? The cop who was on his feet? Apparently not. The guy cuffed on the ground ended up dead.

 

[SuperJerk 0]

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

Not all police officers are the scum of the earth, true, but a fair percentage are. They do put up with a lot of shit. Though I never ever feel sorry for them under any circumstances, because they are routinely exempt to the same laws and standards that they swear to protect and uphold.

 

But fuck the officer responsible for this mess. This piece of shit can go to jail and get stabbed in the balls repeatedly, and I would get the same shitty night's sleep I always get. I would be bothered none.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Kid was 22.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Has there been any explanation offered by the police so far about this?

[Turbo Lion 0]

Has there been any explanation offered by the police so far about this?

 

The only thing I've seen is that he thought he was grabbing his tazer and not his gun. Which, if true, means manslaughter, not murder. I believe he is an ex-soldier, fresh out of Iraq - I suppose its possible that his military training overrode his police training. If so, its tragic. If he just shot the kid, it's fucked up.

 

[Guest Czecherbear]

Why'd he need a taser? Guy wasn't going anywhere.

[Chazz 0]

I don't buy the guy mistook his taser for his handgun. I personally think he drew his sidearm for support,(as I've seen other police officers do hundreds of times on "Cops" in these types of situations), and in his overzelous excitement, accidentally fired the gun. If not, and this guy did in fact purposely shoot a handcuffed suspect while he was face down, I think he should go to prison for the rest of his life just for being that fucking stupid if nothing else.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

A subway cop is honestly not much better than a mall cop.

 

Apparently these glorified mall cops carry assault rifles sometimes

 

 

This seems both totally unnecessary and impractical. Way to go, cops!

[The Niggardly King 0]

We can't have it where these wannabe cowboy gung-ho douches are the only ones carrying guns. Protect your 2nd amendment rights!

[Hogan Made Wrestling 0]

Paradoxical that the citizens are keeping the cops in check with video footage. Little Brother is watching you.

 

There's actually been an issue with that sort of thing here in Portland, since our downtown is patrolled by a bunch of rent-a-cops that the city hires to issue "citizens' arrests" and who regularly deal, sometimes brutally, with the homeless folks in town. Lately, there's been a few people here who have video documentation of those sorts of things and the PPD isn't too happy about them... Probably because during one of our many, many protests/demonstrations, some people were inside the protest videotaping the police officers to make sure they were doing okay, and they ended up pepper spraying a baby, among other nonsense. Some of those are on Youtube, also.

 

There's even a few independent watchdog groups set up. I know this is the one for Portland. I'm guessing this one is the one for Oakland.

 

The cops down here in Eugene are the absolute worst, they get their jollies off busting out tazers to zap dumb college protest kids who don't really know their rights. What's especially pathetic is that the police force here, when they aren't busy giving out parking tickets (their primary raison d'etre), is basically just a glorified party patrol. My neighbors have had their car window smashed in and their apartment broken into (while they were inside) by some homeless drunk, and both times they called the cops and no one showed up (even though they claimed to be sending someone). But if the cops get wind of a situation where they can make some coin through MIP citations, they descend on it like the four horsemen of the apocalypse. A few weeks ago they broke up a party (which was guilty of an absolutely heinous crime - having kegs at a location where they weren't registered!), and started cuffing people and busting down doors. Their rationale was that the household acting in a "hostile manner" towards them - because they forced them to get a warrant to enter the premises. It's good to know that the police regard exercising ones constitutional rights as being "hostile" towards them.

[Turbo Lion 0]

From the video, I see no reason to need a tazer, and certainly no reason for a gun.

 

The police in my town are pretty worthless. I don't even hear much about them harassing college kids. But at least they're honest about it - when my truck was broken into and my stereo stolen, the cop basically said thanks for filling out a report but this thing is probably gone.

 

He just kind of looked at the broken glass and the busted window frame, never considered trying to look for any evidence and had me fill out a piece of paper.

[NoCalMike 0]

It's kind of messed up how things are getting worse with cops.

 

Cops are tazering and shooting people when they are already cuffed and restrained. I dont't understand the rationale of even tazering someone once they are already restrained and not even acting hostile. Why was the cop even reaching for his tazer?

 

All the talk of rent-a-cops in this thread makes me think of Blackwater the private contractor company that "trains" people(mostly former military) to get them prepared for government contracts that send them on various assignments. They have a large force in Iraq now, and they had a big group disbursed in New Orleans during the Katrina aftermath, they weren't there to help of course, just to stop people from looting. This group also doesn't answer to any type of rules of engagement right now, which is a bit of a scary thing. If this is any indication of how military and law enforcement are going to operate in the future, it's not looking good.

[Guest Czecherbear]

Mike, what's the status, so to speak, of these BART cops? Are they real policemen from San Francisco and Oakland's forces, are they cops for BART as if it were any other jurisdiction, or are they just heavily armed security guards?