I live in the Atlanta area and I spoke here in defense of these guys. It turns out they were bad cops and they need to be punished. The two convicted will go to jail for 10 and 12 years respectively. The third who is charged with far less serious crimes, false official statments, etc, is awaiting trial after pleading not guilty.
The problem I have with these posts is a blanket insinuation that all cops fighting the war on drugs are bad that that they kill people on a daily basis. I for one am glad there are men and women willing to take the risk of being a LEO and stand between us and these thugs who prowl our streets. If you disagree, just avoid calling a cop next time you are assualted or need help. Just handle it yourself.
Frankly, I’d RATHER handle it myself, WERE I ALLOWED TO.
Having had law enforcement training, I’d rather be able to defend myself instead of waiting on police officers who are busy enough trying to prevent crime.
You make a very good point - it’s really easy to criticize cops when one isn’t right there in the situation itself. But IACP and other police groups really shoot themselves in the feet and ask for criticism when they very arrogantly try to to deny law-biding Americans their constitutional right to defend themselves.
Can it just be that the USSC has let the pendulum swing too far in the direction of giving police too much latitude? I think so.
Those are absolutely disgraceful sentences for the crime they committed -- premeditated, first-degree MURDER. Ten and twelve years for wilfully and maliciously making up a story, shooting an old lady, and then CUFFING HER while she bled to death on her own living room floor?
I hope they general-pop them, but as they're LEO's, they'll get special treatment behind bars, too.
So if I don't call the cops then what? I was still assaulted. I just won't have someone come and take a report. Seems like no big loss, frankly.
I won't make any sweeping statements against cops, but I will say this... I would rather see 100 drug dealers free and on the streets that a single innocent person killed as a result of the WOD. Unfortunately the WOD has made dealing drugs very profitable, for both the dealers AND law enforcement, and worth taking huge risks for those dealers. I am well aware that those profits make drug dealers extremely dangerous, and the cops are taking huge risks. But when you've got innocent people being caught in the crossfire, there's NO excuse for this. Even if there's criminal activity going on (as posted, many of the cases had small amounts of drugs found at the scene), that's no reason to bring in lethal force. It's really no different than the raid on David Koresh's place in Texas. There were an awful lot of innocent people killed because the government wanted to show a strong use of force for forces sake, in order to justify it.
Mark
Bulldawg, you sure are a willing to cut the scumbos a lot of slack. In so doing on this site, I’ll have to salute your willingness to defend your position.
BUT - have you considered that handcuffing a mortally wounded 92 year old woman AND allowing her to die in those handcuffs while your scumbos planted evidence to hide their crime is little different than the German soldier shooting that wounded woman who survived the first shooting?
Might I ask how you can rationalize the fact that this was clearly and unambiguously Murder One and the scumbos were merely sentenced to 10 and 12 years?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Might I suggest that the fact that these “professionals” had shot each other and were taking care of “one of their own” while they watched the victim exsanguinate in handcuffs should have qualified them for perps in a hate crime?
As you live in Atlanta, perhaps you can explain why there was no real effort made to have these members of the “Armed and Dangerous” executed for their callous killing of an innocent victim? I can’t understand any of what occurred, nor the lack of public outrage.
If you disagree, just avoid calling a cop next time you are assualted or need help. Just handle it yourself.
If I need to help the government prosecute a criminal, I call a cop.
A couple of years ago my parents house was burgled while they were away on vacation. They of course called the police. After promising to be there within the hour, no officers showed up that day, or the next, or the next. After calling repeatedly they finally showed up three days later. They were rude and mocking. My father suggested they take fingerprints on the door where they broke in. They laughed in his face. Needless to say, that is one crime that was never solved. I have no faith that they could have solved it even if the perp had been sitting in their jail and all my parents belongings had been sitting in their evidence lockers. Morons.
PS. please explain how calling a police officer is going to help if you are assaulted? Do you think they have super powers and will be able to swoop down like superman and rescue you before your attacker is finished attacking you? All a cop will be able to do is attempt to catch your attacker after the fact, that is, if they feel like it, and if they aren't too stupid. Thats hardly going to do you any good. Better to call for an ambulance.
There's two types of cops in this world --those who've been caught in their lies and those who have yet to be caught lying.
So, you're saying that if a thug is breaking down my door, all I have to do is call 9-11 and a cop will be there in time to save me from the thug?
Or, will the cop show up later to call the coroner and write the report?
You reckon a couple of punks who had murdered a cop in his home and then tried to frame him as a drug dealer would just go to jail for 10 or 12 years?
The third who is charged with far less serious crimes, false official statments, etc, is awaiting trial after pleading not guilty.
If there's any justice to be found in Georgia, all three will be killed in prison. It certainly won't be found in an Atlanta courtroom.
You didn't mention that cops generally support disarming citizens...or that the Supreme Court has held that cops have no affirmative duty to protect anyone.
Ah, the moral equivalent of the "moderate muslim." You just don't get it. It isn't that most cops are bad, just a handful here and there. But when you defend them until the absurdly indefensible end then promote light sentences for horrific betrayals of trust, you do more harm to the cops than those who think they are all bad.
You demonstrate that you don't have any principles in the matter and don't expect the cops to either. Police behaving in this way should get harsher sentences than a criminal because of the trust placed in them.