-Actually, I was thinking we're all Andy Lopez and Jonathan Ferrell, now.
Posted on 11/05/2013 7:29:58 AM PST by Uncle Chip
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The parents of a 13-year-old California boy killed last month while carrying a plastic replica of an assault rifle filed a civil rights lawsuit on Monday against the sheriff's deputy who shot him ...
Deputy Erick Gelhaus, 48, shot Andy Lopez Cruz as the eighth grader was walking near his home in the wine-country town of Santa Rosa carrying an imitation gun he planned to return to a friend, relatives and officials have said.....
On Monday, attorney Arnoldo Casillas filed the federal lawsuit against Gelhaus and Sonoma County in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on behalf of the boy's parents. The suit seeks unspecified damages and alleges the deputy violated the teen's civil rights.
"The shooting of Andy Lopez was absolutely and unequivocally unjustified," Casillas told a news conference, saying he hoped the lawsuit would spur a more thorough investigation.
He said he plans to depose Gelhaus and ask him, "What the hell were you thinking? He is 5-foot-4, 140 pounds."....
The boy's parents, Sujay Cruz and Rodrigo Lopez, told reporters on Monday they wanted "an honest investigation."
Their son was wearing a hoodie sweatshirt [and shorts] and walking about a block away from his home when Gelhaus and an unidentified officer he was training spotted the boy carrying what appeared to be an assault rifle, police said.
Gelhaus, a 24-year veteran of the force who served 10 years in the military with a stint in Iraq, ordered the boy to drop the gun.
When the teen turned toward Gelhaus, who was crouched behind the door of the patrol car, said he saw the barrel of the gun rise.
Gelhaus said he fired eight shots, killing the boy in a situation that authorities said developed in seconds....
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“I don’t know all the facts but this looks bad for the cop. What I do know is if a civilian shot a kid who turned out to only have a bb gun he would be sitting in jail or out on a massive bond (10% of which he would never get back) while the DA goes over the case. A cop on the other hand gets paid administrative leave.”
This is the age of the government employee, uber alles.
Secure, overpaid, over benefitted, over pensioned.
A disproportionate portion of all government deliberations are spent preserving and expanding the above. School district boards, city councils, county, state and federal.
First and foremost, they take care of their own, and take care of them well.
In California government employees retire at 90% pay, with 30 years service. Including platinum health care for the retiree and his/her spouse’s lifetime.
Obamacare will expand the numbers of government employees.
When a bill was presented to the legislature in California to require all toy guns, bb guns, and plastic pellet guns be painted a pastel color it was opposed by many in LE and the bill failed.
Why would they oppose it???
Their reason for opposing the bill was that plastic pellets and bbs can still hurt. So it is best that they still look like the real thing.
Translation: LE wants to be able to shoot anyone and claim that they thought that what they were carrying was a real gun and couldn’t tell the difference, even a cell phone.
Some of it yes, but leave most to the victim’s family!!! ;)
I would like to see how he made this determination.
I’m sure the fact that the gun was in his left hand [his weaker hand] and pointing down at the time and that he was only 140 pounds and 5 foot 3 and he was in the process of turning around all had something to do with it.
“Career? Right there I think we have identified the problem. The entire legal “system” is a broken collection of corrupt lawyers, politicians, and chiefs of police.”
Best post of the lot! But you have listed Chiefs of Police as a separate element, when, in reality, they are just another group of $h!tball politicians.
Yet another facet of the problem. Ask a cop if he is a civilian and see what kind of answers you get. They may not consider themselves military (yet) but they certainly consider themselves separate from the rest of us. That is reflected in the “do whatever it takes to get home” attitude that is taught to police forces throughout the nation.
It would seem that you didn’t get the memo. Just FYI, it is no longer permitted to have an adult conversation on Free Republic regarding any domestic US law enforcement matter.
The rules, at least as I currently understand them are as follows:
1. We must assume either incompetence or bad intentions on the part of any local LE officer, preferably both.
2. We must take the word of the family’s lawyers and lawyer-hired experts at face value. To question their press releases or media spin is both bad form and evidence of poor reasoning abilities.
3. Any prior military experience on the part of the cop is not exculpatory, or indicative of his or her patriotism, courage and character as would be the case in most other contexts here, but rather, is evidence that he’s a “Rambo”
“looking for action in a sleepy town”.
4. Even if there is photographic evidence to the contrary, we have to assume that as in this case, a replica rifle is “obviously” a toy, and that only someone utterly unfamiliar with firearms could ever have mistaken it for a real weapon.
5. Everything the cop in question says is an obvious lie.
6. If you disagree with the hard-line Libertarian take, you are a vile “statist”, worthy only of mockery and contempt. Therefore, you will not be engaged in honest debate.
We are all Radly Balko now.
Trigger happy is an interesting way to describe a guy that had’t fired his weapon in 24 years of law enforcement work.
It is intersting isnt it?
It only takes once doesnt it?
I agree. His intention was to kill a person who was bearing arms, despite the prohibition against infringing the right. It was I he thought he was killing, in the act of exercising my rights.
Had I been the one shot, many would agree that the shooting was justified since there is no way to know the intentions of a person bearing arms. You just get to assume that they mean harm and kill them.
Not at all. All the cop has to do is say the cop magic phrase "He made a threatening gesture" and he's home free. It then becomes a "good shoot" and the official police whitewash truck will come and cover everything up. Dead men (or teens) tell no conflicting stories.
I guess I didn't get the memo that carrying a gun (real or otherwise) was an instant death sentence offense.
I didn’t mean I thought the cop would fry, I just meant it looked like he is guilty as hell of murder. Sadly there is a distinction between the two in this day and age.
I agree. Likewise I agree that he'll probably get away with it.
http://globalgrind.com/2013/02/06/real-guns-look-like-toys-photos/
Anyone can make the guns they own look however they want.
In your case, I don’t think his intention was to kill a law abiding citizen. ;)
Alaska boy, 6, fatally shoots girl with pellet gun | Fox News
www.foxnews.com/us/.../alaska-boy-6-fatally-shoots-girl-with-pellet-gun...
Oct 29, 2013 - Alaska boy, 6, fatally shoots girl with pellet gun ... The girl died at the hospital.
-Actually, I was thinking we're all Andy Lopez and Jonathan Ferrell, now.
Broken link, last post:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/11/01/4432224/autopsy-released-in-fatal-shooting.html#
“The autopsy of an unarmed man killed by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer in September shows he had 10 bullet wounds, including five that were fatal.
The report released Friday also revealed no illegal drugs in Jonathon Ferrell’s system. The 24-year-old had a blood-alcohol content of 0.06, which is within the legal limit of 0.08 for driving.”
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/11/01/4432224/autopsy-released-in-fatal-shooting.html##storylink=cpy
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