Posted on 01/05/2018 10:45:05 AM PST by JP1201
WASHINGTON — The shooting looked bad. But that is when the professor is at his best. A black motorist, pulled to the side of the road for a turn-signal violation, had stuffed his hand into his pocket. The white officer yelled for him to take it out. When the driver started to comply, the officer shot him dead.
The driver was unarmed.
Taking the stand at a public inquest, William J. Lewinski, the psychology professor, explained that the officer had no choice but to act.
“In simple terms,” the district attorney in Portland, Ore., asked, “if I see the gun, I’m dead?”
“In simple terms, that’s it,” Dr. Lewinski replied.
When police officers shoot people under questionable circumstances, Dr. Lewinski is often there to defend their actions. Among the most influential voices on the subject, he has testified in or consulted in nearly 200 cases over the last decade or so and has helped justify countless shootings around the country.
His conclusions are consistent: The officer acted appropriately, even when shooting an unarmed person. Even when shooting someone in the back. Even when witness testimony, forensic evidence or video footage contradicts the officer’s story.
(Excerpt) Read more at mobile.nytimes.com ...
Thank you for your service. The comment stands I doubt all doing the sniping here are combat veterans. I would also guess there is a difference between military service and engagement and police engagement. Not saying one requires more courage or training than another just different
Listening to a cop barking orders with a gun to your head should not be a life or death situation. Its not constitutional. And its a slipper slope to police doing this with everyone not just black people or people who are low lifes. A cop should not pull his gun unless there is some reason to assume danger. If you were white with a suit, the cop would let you put your hands in your pocket, reach into your glove compartment and check under your seat. But if the cop is scared for no fault of your own and you do something normal but in the eyes of a cop who does not have the nerve to be a cop., you could be dead.
But that’s not the truth.
Someone breaking into my house at 2 AM, I will call Mr Smith and Mr Wesson.
Then I will seek to change the perp’s heart and mind. Two in the heart, one in the mind.
Then I will place my weapon on the floor at my feet, grab my cell phone and go outside. I will prepare to lie down, arms out, and my ID near my head.
Only then will I call the police.
“A man* was breaking into my house. I was in fear for my life, and I shot him. I am unarmed, lying on the ground outside my home. I will say no more without an attorney present.”
*usually
I’m only saying that the “cops can kill with impunity” paradigm will inevitably lead to more cop deaths.
When police spokespeople refer to police interaction with the public and they mostly refer to the public as 'civilians' not citizens. Them it is a safe assumption that the police in large part depict the public as the 'enemy'. May go back to the 60's when police started hiring officers straight out of the military without adequate decompression time and transition to alter the mindset that civilians are the enemy. All conflicts since the 60's in large part pitted US forces against an enemy entrenched deeply in the civilian population so forces could not definitely determine the enemy until they got first licks in. From Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan forces have to deal with deaths by seemed civilian. but in fact were enemy combatants. Then they separate from service and enter police departments where without some time to decompress and retrain, the automatic reaction against an enemy that turn out is some schlub in a traffic stop shot for holding a cell phone.
Well good for you. Most of those talking trash about the police are the first to call them when things get crazy.
And if the cops kill you anyway, they'll likely walk away scot free.
No. You don't. And you are STILL not allowed to act like that.
Cops don’t have that benefit.
So cops are allowed to see everyone not currently on duty as a police officer as a threat yet the military in combat is able to distinguish between combatant and noncombatant.
Do you have any idea how insane you sound?
Or perhaps ignorant is the correct word.
Well put.
These anarchists are the first to denigrate and question anything from the NY Times, except when it comes to Law Enforcement. They then swallow the kool-aid and proclaim 99% of LEOs are murderers and thieves.
Having had the privilege of reading much of Dr. Lewiski’s writings, I can verify that the entire article was slanted.
Flame away
If the account is correct, the cop’s command and then his shooting of the subject when he composed is totally unjustifiable.
Hate to say but there are too many cases of people calling the police for burglars or prowlers and when the police show up they kill the person who called them.
But it’s all perfectly justifiable so it’s okay.
Why the heck would I call the police? By the time they got there I would be dead. And if I was not then they would likely correct that error.
They get called AFTER the problem has been dealt with so they can do what they are paid to do. Paper work.
Did you read the article?
The case described in the opening of the story is one in which a police officer told a motorist to remove his hand from his pocket and them shot him when he complied.
The motorist was obeying the officer’s instructions.
Spot on! Thank you.
If the account is correct, the cop’s command and then his shooting of the subject when he composed is totally unjustifiable.
________________________
meant to say “complied” not composed.
Too many FReepers fall for the media scamming to make this seem like a bigger problem than it is. Understanding that fatal shootings aren't the only issue here, rest assured that you are very, very likely to survive your next speeding ticket.
As much as lawyers have a reputation for dishonesty, far and away the biggest liars in the trial courts are the “experts” hired by civil-suit plaintiffs and criminal defendants.
Not saying THIS guy is a liar, of course.
I’d be happy to see this bastard on trial and given a life sentence.
A cop that shoots under those circumstances should be sentence to general population at a nasty prison.
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