iirc, it was from an his interview after it happened...
Posted on 02/22/2013 3:37:46 PM PST by neverdem
Police typically say that their top mission is to protect “public safety.” That’s the lingo. But the recently concluded manhunt for former Los Angeles Police Department officer Christopher Dorner, accused of murdering four people after releasing a manifesto decrying his 2008 firing from the force, suggests that concern about the public’s actual safety sometimes is fairly low on the list of police priorities.
Last weekend, police opened fire on a 71-year-old newspaper carrier and her 47-year-old daughter who had the misfortune of driving a pick-up truck police thought might be Dorner’s. The Los Angeles police detectives who opened fire on them, putting two bullets in the older woman’s back, didn’t do much double checking. The carriers' truck was a different make and color from Dorner’s.
As the women’s attorney told the Los Angeles Times: “The problem with the situation is it looked like the police had the goal of administering street justice and in so doing, didn't take the time to notice that these two older, small Latina women don't look like a large black man.” This could be written off as a sad fluke, except that 25 minutes later different officers opened fire on a different truck—once again getting key details wrong. Can’t officers at least check the license plate, and issue a warning, before opening fire?
“Nobody trains police officers to look for one of their own,” said Maria Haberfeld, a police-training professor at John Jay College in New York, according to the Web site News One. “I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes and I don’t think anybody else would.” We all understand the situation. But saying that we wouldn’t want to be “in their shoes” is no excuse for such dangerous behavior. The police wouldn’t excuse a member of the public for misusing a firearm, regardless of how stressed out that person felt.
News One also published the photograph of a gray Ford truck in the Los Angeles area with a hand-made “Don’t Shoot, Not Dorner, Thank You” poster on the back window. T-shirts and bumper stickers have popped up to similar effect. Those are funny in a dark way, but police ought to recognize how poorly this reflects on them and their strategies. It’s sad when people are more worried about the police than they are about a murderer on the loose.
“Simply put, the police culture in our country has changed,” argued former San Jose Police Chief Joe McNamara, a Hoover Institution scholar, in a Wall Street Journal article in 2006. “An emphasis on ‘officer safety’ and paramilitary training pervades today’s policing, in contrast to the older culture, which held that cops didn’t shoot until they were about to be shot or stabbed.”
Murders are sadly routine in the Los Angeles area. The massive police presence was the result of the killer targeting their own, thus leading to the reasonable conclusion that police pulled out the stops not because the public was in danger but because they were in danger. I don’t blame police for their efforts, but I also understand why residents in, say, South Los Angeles, wondered why killings in their community don’t rate the same attention.
With crime rates at 40-year lows, this is an opportune time for a debate about such police-priority issues free from excess emotionalism.
Media reports have focused on the rantings within Dorner’s manifesto. But a lot of it is about bureaucratic indifference—about police officials who, in his mind, didn't care about the communities they are sworn to protect. Nothing justifies such violence and I'm sickened by people who are celebrating Dorner, but even the LAPD is re-opening the case of Dorner’s firing. Perhaps the department will try to glean some broader lessons from this tragedy.
Currently, a case before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is evaluating the lengths to which police are required to go to protect innocent bystanders. The case involves Sacramento police who were trailing a suspect who had run from his car and then hid in a tree in a family’s backyard. A police helicopter spotted him. So an officer released a police dog into the yard even though people were having a gathering in the backyard.
Police dogs are trained to bite and hold suspects, but they can’t distinguish between law-abiding citizens relaxing with friends and police suspects. So Bandit attacked the first person it saw. Instead of instituting reform and settling with the family, Sacramento PD has been arguing that “officer safety” would be endangered by requiring a reasonable warning before releasing a vicious dog on private property.
It’s frightening to think that police can use deadly force without taking even the most modest steps to protect innocent bystanders. It’s even more frightening to hear people defend this approach. Yes, officer safety is important. But so is the public’s safety. It's time to grapple with the proper balance.
Instead, Apologist Wolf is proposing all sorts of "outs" for the mad-dog cop shooters.
From the article: The police wouldn’t excuse a member of the public for misusing a firearm, regardless of how stressed out that person felt.
Interesting circumstances, except for the part that the Cops fired at THE BACK of the Truck, not THE FRONT of the Truck.
If an arm came out of the window throwing a Newspaper and it was mistaken for a threat, why would they shoot at the Truck leaving without being shot at by the “presumed” Firearm? To add insult to injury, they didn’t see the Newspaper flying through the air?
Might be time for some LAPD Detectives to visit an Optometrist.
iirc, it was from an his interview after it happened...
thx...
Hate to break it to you but the citizens of the US have no Constitutional/legal right to police protection. NONE. They are there to enforce the law. If in the course of doing that they ‘protect’ you then so be it but they are under no obligation to do such. As for the LAPD firing on the suspected hostiles, what if the occupants of those vehicles had legal weapons on their persons, were better shots and actually took out a few of the officers? Could they have used the excuse it was too dark and they didn’t know who was shooting only that they feared for their lives? After all they would have been firing in self-defense while the officers were acting on the offense. And no I’m not ‘anti-police’ but pro-Constitution. I have a sibling who is an street officer here in SoCal. I have worked with hundreds of peace officers over a 20+ year span. I have learned many things from officers but one of the most important is that if an officer is that afraid on the job that a shoot first, sort out details later mentality exists than they are a danger not only to their fellow officers but most importantly to the public. They need to find another line of work.
You were accusing not complaining, liar.
Mine is not an attack. You don’t even know an attack from a truthful comment? shaking head
I'm assuming that you are too irony impaired to read my post #10 on that thread as me deploring the police being trained/desensitized as to shooting children, but instead read it as encouraging them.
Like your posts seem indicate you would.
I'm not exactly certain of what exact wording you would be capable of understanding as my complaining that the police should not be training to shoot children.
Your interpretation of plain words in the English language does not inspire confidence that you are capable of reading my disgust with training on granny and teenybopper mom targets.
Nor does your unquestioning willingness to defend police blazing away at little Hispanic ladies in the back in the dark, without any target identification provide me with the slightest hint that you have any sense of judgement or respect for non-LEO life.
Have I ever posted to or about you? Yes or no?
You don’t even know an attack from a truthful comment?
Yes. I also know that you don't know of what you post. Why are looking for a fight?
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-torrance-shooting-20130210,0,3955268.story
David Perdue was on his way to sneak in some surfing before work Thursday morning when police flagged him down. They asked who he was and where he was headed, then sent him on his way.
Seconds later, Perdue’s attorney said, a Torrance police cruiser slammed into his pickup and officers opened fire; none of the bullets struck Perdue.
http://laist.com/2013/02/10/police_opened_fire_on_another_perso.php
Perdue was on his way to catch some waves on Thursday morning before he went to work, when police pulled him over to ask him a few questions about who he was and where he was headed. (It’s not clear from the story whether these were LAPD officers or officers from the Torrance Police Department). They let him go, and then “seconds later” a Torrance police cruiser rammed into his truck and opened fired on him.
Perdue left his Redondo Beach home and was driving through Torrance to the beach for some early morning surfing on Thursday when he was stopped. Officers guarding the home of a law enforcement official targeted by Dorner questioned him because his Honda Ridgeline pickup truck resembled the vehicle investigators believed Dorner was driving.
Seconds after he drove away, Perdue’s truck was broadsided by a Torrance police car at the corner of Flagler Land and Beryl Street, said his attorney Robert Sheahen.
http://redondobeach.patch.com/articles/torrance-shooting-unbridled-police-lawlessness-says-attorney
Shaehen told The Times his client was flagged down by officers in a patrol vehicle. After telling the officers he was headed to the beach, the first officer let him drive off.
But a second police car rammed Perdue’s truck, which was a different make and color than Dorner’s gray or blue Nissan, which was later found burning in Big Bear. Perdue is white, Dorner is black, and Perdue is several inches shorter, as well as 100 pounds lighter than the former LAPD cop.
AFTER being visually ID’d as NOT DORNER they rammed him and shot at him.
A major failing on your part.
your posts seem indicate you would.
Possibly to a CT freak or a mental midget.
I'm not exactly certain
You accuse like you are, but never back up the accusations with proof.
you are capable of reading my disgust with training on granny and teenybopper mom targets.
I'm also capable of reading your accusations that I support training on granny and teenybopper mom targets. That is hysterical BS from a deranged poster.
your unquestioning willingness to defend police blazing away at little Hispanic ladies
More mindless accusations from a deranged drama queen. What exactly is your problem, insanity?
Pound Sand Jack Wagon.
Put down yer drink. You seem to have trouble following your own random thoughts.
Which of those are you?
Who gives a flip?
LEO isn’t authorized to assassinate fellow citizens randomly and wantonly.
It’s pretty clear what their mind set was and three people nearly paid with their life for these roid heads who absolutely did not follow procedure.
Daytime, nighttime, whatever.
Further, they should have called in backup.
Further still, they should have ascertained who was in the vehicle.
More Further, the vehicles weren’t even the same color.
They had nothing more than a pickup truck as their target and then they tried to waste whoever was in the trucks.
Hell, the surfer dude’s truck was hit so hard the axle broke and then they emptied their magazines into the car.
WTF?
You’re the one that responded to the truth as if it were an attack.
Ooooooo.....another tough guy attempting to give orders and bully. LOLAY Have I ever posted to you?
Don’t take life so seriously... You’ll never live through it.
Put down yer drink
Don't have one, but in the interest of fairness to get down to your level, I better get started.
I responded to mindless accusations. You really are boring, drama queen.
Of course not. You’re on yer own little island up there.
Population:
YOU.
Everyone else left...
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