Posted on 12/03/2014 8:46:48 PM PST by Forgotten Amendments
A police officer who shot a 12-year-old dead in a Cleveland park late last month had been judged unfit for police service two years earlier by a small suburban force where he worked for six months, according to records released on Wednesday.
Officer Timothy Loehmann, who killed Tamir Rice on 22 November, was specifically faulted for breaking down emotionally while handling a live gun. During a training episode at a firing range, Loehmann was reported to be distracted and weepy and incommunicative. His handgun performance was dismal, deputy chief Jim Polak of the Independence, Ohio, police department wrote in an internal memo.
The memo concludes with a recommendation that Loehmann be released from the employment of the City of Independence. Less than a week later, on 3 December 2012, Loehmann resigned.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
*Oy*. My head.
Someone ping me back and let me know whether the majority of users here on FR are standing tall behind this idiot cop, or not.
Like cake decorating.
Officer Garmack placed his partner in a bad situation by pulling up within a few feet of a possibly armed suspect, creating a very small time window for a proper reaction. Poor training or ignoring their training is what caused this incident. Garmack should have been fired on the spot. Loehmann was unfortunately put in a near no-win position thanks to his partner. His value as an effective officer is now gone and hopefully will no longer be an LEO. These officers should have been several YARDS from this kid, coming from different directions, barking out commands for the kid to follow. Poor or poorly executed training.......I smell a big, fat righteous civil suit a’comin’.
Always give the officers the benefit of the doubt but this shooting seems very hard to justify.
It’s disturbing that the Cleveland Police Department would not have done enough research to figure out why anyone would leave the Independence PD for Cleveland.
I grew up in Independence. Nice town to grow up in, at least back then!
Well, doesn’t this just chap yer butt!
She will be scheduled for mandatory release in 2017 due to a Texas law to prevent prison overcrowding.[3] Jones is held in Dr Lane Murray Unit.
bedamned!
He’ll get away with it. Either he won’t get indicted or else he’ll get off at trial. All he needs to do is claim he thought his life was in danger.
I used to travel a lot and covered much of the southern and western halves of the country. I rode a motorcycle most of the time and, of course met lots of policemen. I noticed that in the 90s the character of police that I met changed. Before, however swaggering or officious officers were who stopped me for being on a MC in their small towns, they were never scary. I could talk to them and even sass them a bit without things betting physical. Cops tended to have been raised in their areas. In the nineties that changed. Cops that stopped me had accents at variance with the local speech and their attitude was dangerous. I found it advisable, when stopped, to put my hands on top of my head and wait for the cop to tell me what to do. More than once I pulled over and looked back to see the officer with his gun out and pointed at me and the guy would be ordering me to put my face in the dirt. I got no tickets during that 90s but the interactions became scary as hell. I took to carrying my DL etc in a clear flat box attached visibly to the "dash" of my fairing so that I didn't have to put my hands in my pocket. The officers where I live are mostly from elsewhere now. Fortunately the Sheriff, who advertises himself as a Constitutional Sheriff, doesn't countenance bad behaviour.
The big cities recruit the psychos and malcontents that the small towns don’t want. The city governments are farther removed from the citizenry want to be feared. Psychos and bullies fill the ill nicely.
That train left the station in September...
“Unfortunately, I believe there are
way too many cops out there who cant
wait to kill someone or some thing.
Maybe a dog? When will they start
shooting cats?”
Cats are the Devil’s familure. A house devided against itself can not stand.
Yep, heads should roll.
Cops once again degrading the position and trust of police officer to the same standards as burger flipper. Then they wonder why so many don’t respect them. Crap, they don’t respect themselves.
Tip to the LEOs here, if someone leaves a PD in 6 months, that is what we in the professional world call a red flag.
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