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Training Officers to Shoot First, and He Will Answer Questions Later
NY Times ^

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 ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: donutwatch; leo; shooting
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To: Mom MD
So when someone is breaking into your house at 2 am who are you going to call?

I will call my lawyer, and then I will call the cops - AFTER I have stopped the person from breaking in to my house.

The police are nothing but a clean-up crew. 99.9999% of the time they are not in a position to prevent someone from breaking in to your house, and they are not even legally obligated to stop such a break in if they see it happening.

41 posted on 01/05/2018 11:30:26 AM PST by WayneS (An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. - Winston Churchill)
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To: JP1201
I have friends and family in law enforcement, but LEOs that shoot people in the back, or unarmed persons in non-threatening situations should be eligible for sentence up to, and including the death penalty if convicted in a court of law.

It should also be possible to charge their commanding officers and sue their municipalities out of existence.
42 posted on 01/05/2018 11:30:40 AM PST by indthkr
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To: sagar
When they tell you do not do something, don’t do it. Nobody ever died when being polite to a cop.

In the first paragraph of the article it relates the story of a cop who ordered a man to take his hands out of his pockets and then shot him as he did so. So what happened there? Not polite enough?

All to often the police can shoot anyone for any reason, or suspicion, and walk away from it. And this guy is helping him. I would love to see his defense of that police officer in Minneapolis who shot that unarmed woman. No doubt he would have half a dozen explanations justifying it.

43 posted on 01/05/2018 11:31:31 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: Mom MD

A lot of us are real vets who have done far worse things in a far worse environment. I wouldn’t paint folks with that keyboard warrior brush.


44 posted on 01/05/2018 11:31:37 AM PST by Bulwyf
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

Thanks for calling me insane.

Please take your hand out of your pocket, lol.


45 posted on 01/05/2018 11:33:01 AM PST by donna ( Mayday (No More PC Lectures) www.balintvazsonyi.org/other/mayday.html)
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To: donna
In war time, you know who the enemy is. Cops don’t have that benefit.

Please point out these cuties if they were walking in downtown Bien Hoa the evening before TET '68.


46 posted on 01/05/2018 11:33:02 AM PST by redcatcherb412 (Emerged intact.)
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To: Mom MD

If someone is breaking into my house or a house near me, the cops wouldn’t be needed.

There’s very few situations that can be improved by calling the police.


47 posted on 01/05/2018 11:33:19 AM PST by Bulwyf
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To: Mom MD

Just because we wouldn’t do the job doesn’t mean these cops aren’t doing the job poorly. Cops have had an us vs them mentality for a long time, many get trained that they are the Thin Blue Line, the only thing holding society together. This causes them to live in a world where there’s cops and there’s scum. And since they go out that door seeing all of us as the enemy they act accordingly, and we get killed.

Just look at the story, guy did WHAT THE COP TOLD HIM TO DO, and got shot. That is quite simply not right at all ever. Whether or not I would ever take the job has no impact on the simple fact that that cop is a murderer.


48 posted on 01/05/2018 11:33:44 AM PST by discostu (let's do another bad one, cause I like it when the blood drains from Dave's face.)
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To: Mom MD
Police are not perfect but I doubt any of the keyboard warriors here would do their job no matter what the pay.

Nobody denies that police have a hard job. Nor would any rational person deny that the overwhelming majority of police officers do that hard and dangerous job very well. It is a small minority of police officers who panic, and when they panic then people die needlessly. And people like this Lewinski help them get off.

49 posted on 01/05/2018 11:34:55 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: Mom MD
So when someone is breaking into your house at 2 am who are you going to call? Not the police I hope if that’s the way you feel.

There was a lady in Minneapolis who heard a noise and called the police...and now she's dead. What now?

50 posted on 01/05/2018 11:36:42 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: donna
Cops don’t have that benefit.

So then they should view everyone as their enemy?

51 posted on 01/05/2018 11:37:41 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: sagar
It only makes sense that cops are apprehensive of their lives. When they tell you do not do something, don’t do it.

While I agree with the sentiment, what are you supposed to do when you are told to take your hand out of your pocket, and don't know if it will be perceived as a threat? You can say "taking hand out, slowly," which would be good, but shouldn't be shot for forgetting. (Assuming the facts of the case are as stated in the article).

52 posted on 01/05/2018 11:42:17 AM PST by Pearls Before Swine
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To: DoodleDawg

If your son or daughter is a cop, what would you advise them to do?


53 posted on 01/05/2018 11:44:03 AM PST by donna ( Mayday (No More PC Lectures) www.balintvazsonyi.org/other/mayday.html)
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To: DoodleDawg
Cops don’t have that benefit. So then they should view everyone as their enemy?

If they are hired straight out of the military without enough transition and training then they probably do view the public as the enemy. Police is a very confrontational job that pits them against the public and need very extensive detailed training in threat recognition. Not enough training then yes, everyone is your enemy. Problem is that with every police/innocent citizen shooting, the police will be viewed as the publics enemy instead of peacekeeper.

54 posted on 01/05/2018 11:44:40 AM PST by redcatcherb412 (Emerged intact.)
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To: JP1201
“if I see the gun, I’m dead?”

Anyone with that cowardly mindset has no business in law enforcement. They are a danger to themselves and all of us.

55 posted on 01/05/2018 11:46:23 AM PST by usurper ( version)
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To: donna

Bingo, Donna, cops do what a bunch of average, armed women would do because the job has been feminized. There’s a reason it was a man’s job and it was more than because of size and strength: Standards, merit. Men instinctively hew to these things.


56 posted on 01/05/2018 11:47:40 AM PST by TalBlack (It's hard to shoot people when they are shooting back at you...)
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To: sagar

And on this case the not cop was shot BECAUSE he complied. Every time a cop stops someone he/she MAY face a gun. Every time you;re stopped by a cop you WILL face someone with a gun. What this bullshit says is that your life is worth less than a cop’s.


57 posted on 01/05/2018 11:49:09 AM PST by pacific_waters
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To: MeganC
Seriously, the cops need to start acting like Americans instead of the armed force that’s occupying America.

Absolutely agreed. It's way past time for that.

58 posted on 01/05/2018 11:49:23 AM PST by zeugma (I always wear my lucky red shirt on away missions!)
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To: donna
If your son or daughter is a cop, what would you advise them to do?

What should I be advising them to do? Shoot everyone on sight?

59 posted on 01/05/2018 11:50:06 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: TalBlack
Men instinctively hew to these things.

I would point out that in the overwhelming majority of these unarmed suspect shootings, it's a man pulling the trigger and not a woman. Has the hewing of their instincts deteriorated over the years?

60 posted on 01/05/2018 11:52:31 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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