Posted on 05/16/2010 10:47:23 AM PDT by Dallas59
Can you explain why you believe a cop who was attempting to apprehend a murder suspect would deliberately shoot, just for poops and giggles, a girl who was asleep in bed?
Who said anything about deliberation? The little girl may have been condemned to death by accident, but she was condemned.
Why do you think he did it deliberately? (turnabout of that rhetorical trick is fair play)
There is way too much information missing from this story to attribute malice or motive. It may be a tragic mistake that this little girl is dead. But she is, nonetheless, dead.
The mechanics of this raid speak at least somewhat to a problem in its design. The fact that so many “isolated incidents” occur across this land make it appear to be a systemic issue.
I cannot assess blame here, but I do note that the violence of the raid appears to have been, at the least, a significant contributing factor in the death.
Finally, if the person with the weapon that discharged had been a citizen defending their home, would that person find themselves up on charges? If yes - should those same charges be considered for the officer?
The latest information on this case is that a “reality TV” crew was along for the raid, which unfortunately makes the grenade use and door busting in the middle of the night all too understandable.
Want to get a big hero on TV? Have to do something dramatic or the editors will file your footage in the round one.
I may be jumping to conclusions on this, but I doubt it.
On the up side, there may very well be some pro quality footage of exactly what happened.
Well, you might think it would make more sense when trying to apprehend a suspected double murderer to knock politely on the door and say, "land shark", but I have a feeling these cops were not at all in a joking mood.
You would hope saner law enforcement agencies learned their lesson about this silly crap from the Waco debacle.
It’s not just silly, it’s criminally negligent. IMHO.
A cardinal rule of weapon safety is that you must always know what is between you and your target, as well as what is behind your target.
The cops executed a flash-bang raid on a duplex or up-down apartment divided house, entered the wrong apartment(if my understanding is correct), and a little girl is dead.
Yet you feel the next lower level of violence is a “land shark” joke.
I’m sure the child’s family is in a less than jovial mood, as well.
But they got their man - that’s all that apparently matters to you! To hell with the innocent child who is dead because their information was incomplete or incorrect, or because the cameras they had with them needed to be shown “how to do it”.
If it was a case of camera-born bravado, the commanding officer needs to be brought up on negligent homicide, and the shooting officer should be very closely examined for the same charges.
The officer who gave the go-command, if the film crew was the motivator, belongs in jail in my opinion. (After an appropriate trial - but with a jury of citizens, not cops.)
The OJ trial turned into a fiasco very largely because the judge, attorneys and witnesses were all playing to the cameras.
We’ve successfully packaged “reality” as entertainment. Reality is quite often dull and needs a little punching up to keep the ratings good. And now a little girl is dead.
Quite possibly I’m not reading this right, but I suspect I am, and those responsible should be flogged. And those who watch this kind of crap entertainment and thus encourage such behavior should take a look at their own values.
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