Posted on 09/25/2014 10:42:36 AM PDT by redreno
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — An unarmed man shot by a South Carolina trooper during a traffic stop repeated one question through his anguished cries as he lay wounded, waiting for an ambulance: "Why did you shoot me?"
Levar Jones' painful groans and then-Trooper Sean Groubert's reply — "Well you dove head first back into your car" — were captured by a dashboard camera in the trooper's car.
Groubert had stopped Jones on a seatbelt violation at a Columbia gas station and fired the shots moments after asking Jones for his license
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
SO state of mind only applies to civilians?? interesting.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending his actions, he F’ed up royally. I’m attempting to put the emotion aside and think about both parties, otherwise I’m no better than the citizens of Ferguson.
Sure, I agree. Let the investigation begin and let the chips fall where they may. But the prevailing attitude here is to condemn the cops for whatever. It’s a commonality that shared with the left.
I get your point now and it’s an interesting one.
If the cop wants to “exercise” that “right”, then maybe policing isn’t the job for them.
They may have an expectation of making it home alive, but even I don’t have a “right” to make it home safe after a day at work.
There are inherent risks associated with certain types of employment...cops accept those risks when they put on that badge...if the only thing they’re thinking about while wearing that badge is returning home safe, then they aren’t thinking about policing and are prone to acting stupidly.
Everybody seems to think that with massive amounts of training, human nature can be put in a little box and shoved into a corner.
Why do we seem to have more of these types of incidents? Sign of the times. Cops are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
He screwed the pooch for sure, but I’m not jumping on the band wagon to condemn every cop that makes a mistake. I’m willing to give him/her the benefit of the doubt.
I’m not jumping on the knee-jerk we hate cops bandwagon most of you pinheads here on DU, I mean FR....you want me to call this a “settled science” like global warming and join the “majority”?
Nope.
This cop screwed up, but I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt. When it’s investigated and he is found to be in error, then I’ll be satisfied. Until then, no.
Your attempt of shaming is a bit pathetic and I find you attacking my position with the addition of name calling a bit leftist and immature.
take your pills and that “Hahaha” will eventually go away
and the cop did act stupidly.
What I object to is the majority automatically condemning the cops.
State of mind must be reasonable, as in the Zimmerman case. There has to be a REASON to be afraid. Cowardice isn’t sufficient reason to kill someone.
May I never stop laughing in life, no matter what.
No, any commonality is coincidental. The Left wants to wreck the country. The rest of us just want cops who value us more than their own skins/lose the “kiddie commando” ethos.
My Marines have learned how to control their fire and keep from hitting the wrong people and they’re paid a whole lot less.
“Everybody seems to think that with massive amounts of training, human nature can be put in a little box and shoved into a corner.”
Tough. Their human nature is still under the same requirements for accountability as anyone else’s. It is the same when a cop looses his cool because he is having a bad day. So what? He is still supposed to be responsible for his actions, just as I would be.
“Why do we seem to have more of these types of incidents? Sign of the times. Cops are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.”
We are having more of these incidents because cops have learned they have a get out of jail free card. When a group is taught that their mistakes are always excused, it makes making mistakes easier.
Examples? The Dorner hunt. Those cops should have been fired at a bare minimum, and they should have been charged. They had not one legal reason to open fire on three innocent people. Yet LE excused it. SWAT mistakes left and right.
The cop who killed a man while the officer was working his computer while driving. Excused by LE.
Incident after incident that would never be accepted among the public.
If these officers had been treated as they deserved, other officers would learn mistakes and bad choices have consequences. But since they don’t, cops no long care about screwing up. It is too easy for cops to make mistakes.
“He screwed the pooch for sure, but I’m not jumping on the band wagon to condemn every cop that makes a mistake. I’m willing to give him/her the benefit of the doubt.”
Benefit of the doubt has to have limits. That can’t be a catch all for making mistakes. They are professionals. And professionals are expected to get it right. And bluntly, that very same cop is fully ready to call me to account for MY mistakes. That is the very nature of his job. Why should he feel he deserves less?
Wow, that was stupid. I don’t really care about you sppositions that cop “ran the guy’s plate”. That officer rabbited off several shots in a crowded area. No regard for the citizen in front of him, no regard for all the bystanders around him.
Cowardice, plain and simple. I have faced fire and so have a whole bunch more of us on this thread. Never shot the wrong people. Anyone who is entrusted to protect and serve had better have a lot more guts than that cop.
I can’t even believe my own eyes. Was that a parody?
Just came across this thread for the first time. Stunned. An officer actually pulled someone over for a seatbelt violation at a gas station, asked for his license, and when the driver went into the car to get it, shot him. WTH?
I hope this man sues and becomes very rich.
Of course I can. People do it all the time, from mechanicing on a car to cleaning a septic system.
Moreover, none of these others have the power of life and death, and wield the state-granted power of force.
It's entirely appropriate that boundaries and limits be set.
If they have a problem with those rules, they are free to seek employment elsewhere.
That's the justification behind every abuse of force incident, every shoot first, ask questions later debacle..."well, the cop has the right to go home alive at the end of the day, doesn't he"?
I thought it might have occurred to police state apologists that someone else has families to go home to at the end of the day...the guy on the other side of the door bashed in as a result of "dynamic entry" at the wrong address...or, in this case, a guy following the poorly-considered direction of Barney Fife.
you didn’t answer my question.
And, when we look up hypocrisy in Webster...there is a picture of gegeo.
He didn't kill anyone and it wasn't cowardice.
Any time you shoot someone, you accept responsibility for what happens, up to death. He sure as heck did not DELIBERATELY just wound him, since he missed with multiple shots!
And yes, I’d call it cowardice. Panic shooting. I’ve held my fire while looking around when things go bump in the night, thus not shooting a drunk neighbor, so I expect a cop to show some restraint.
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