Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

US Maniac cops at it again, this time in LA.

24

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 560 ✭✭✭BurgerFace


    How often do you hear of Swiss Police blasting away when someone twitches and then saying they feared for their lives because his lawnmower or frying pan looked like an AR-15? Oh, and for the record the Swiss have a load of guns too. It seems that only in America you can excuse someone for shooting someone for any reason.

    A mentally disturbed person could walk into a shop and start throwing eggs at people. A cop or security guard or even a customer in any normal country would shout at him "what the F are you doing ya bollix?" and push him out of the place and if he started having an episode they would cop on and say "ok, this person is not well."

    In America they would riddle him with bullets and make up some pathetic excuse like they thought the eggs were grenades or that the eggs might have killed someone. Terrorist eggs.



  • Registered Users Posts: 5,261 ✭✭✭source


    Figures from 2020:

    Number of sworn officers in the US: 696,644

    Total US population: 331,449,281

    Number of people killed by police: 1,126

    Number of homicides: 21,570

    Number of police contacts with members of the public: over 61,000,000

    As a member of the public in the US you have a 0.0018459016393443% chance of being killed by a police officer. (number of deaths vs contacts, will be smaller if population is used instead of contacts)

    You have a 0.0065077830113018% chance of dying by homicide in general in the US.

    While this situation in LA is a tragedy, the facts don't hold up the assertion that police in the US are trigger happy fools willing to shoot anything that even looks at them funny. Their training practices definitely need to be improved 21 weeks (average) is way too short for the responsibility they hold, but even given that they are poorly trained compared to other international police services the figures still don't hold up the idea that the media are portraying of them as being gun weilding maniacs.



  • Registered Users Posts: 5,261 ✭✭✭source


    Not a fair comparison, yes Switzerland is awash with guns however every person in Switzerland is required to undergo military service and is trained to a very high standards when it comes up weapons handling and safety, it is also highly regulated. In the US this is most definitely not the case. You're comparing apples and oranges.



  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    I was surprised Potter was found guilty. The defence argued effectively that she was well within her rights in that moment to use lethal force as another officer had his legs hanging out of the car and could have been in real danger. I thought this would be enough to exonerate her from drawing the wrong weapon. Wright’s criminal history was also known to the officers.

    What lesson does this teach future officers? If you make a mistake in good faith we are going to put you in prison. Don’t go for your taser when someone is resisting arrest, go straight for the gun.



  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,165 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    It's a mentality thing as well. In the US, in certain circles, it's considered acceptable (even cool and approved of) to take shots at police. Swiss folk, in general, don't have such a groupthink.



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 16,514 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    I have wondered whether, rather than admitting to a mistake when firing, she had just lied and said that he was a serious threat and that she meant to shoot him with the gun, would she have been in real trouble?

    The fact that she admitted she had messed up must have limited the kinds of defence she could mount.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,037 ✭✭✭Harryd225


    There were more than likely cameras and a bunch of witnesses in the store so that option was probably out the window but I'd say that's generally what would happen.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,742 ✭✭✭10000maniacs


    Your definition and mine of the word maniac are different then. She performed well in court, did what she could to try and mitigate and excuse her actions. She had very little defence and wiggle room because the cameras picked up what she did, so she went down the "accidental killing" route. But she was clearly out of control and the footage shows that. Thank god the footage wasn't buried for this incident like it has been so many times in the past.



  • Registered Users Posts: 80,798 ✭✭✭✭Atlantic Dawn


    Bodycam footage to be released in the coming hours.



  • Registered Users Posts: 16,514 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    Why would she deliberately shoot him, then go for an 'accidental killing' defence, when it was this very admission of making a mistake that made her defence so weak?

    If she was making up a story, why would she make up one in which she admits that she selected the wrong weapon and used a weapon with lethal force when the person she was dealing with did not present a threat that justified using lethal force? This is all stuff she said in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, and it's pretty much the worst thing somebody trying to fabricate a justification for a shooting could say.

    As I said earlier in the thread, if she had never admitted making a mistake and said she meant to shoot him (and witnesses/footage did not contradict that) the shooting could likely have been ruled justified.



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 3,468 ✭✭✭Montage of Feck




  • Registered Users Posts: 11,340 ✭✭✭✭rossie1977


    Shoot first ask questions later...



  • Registered Users Posts: 11,340 ✭✭✭✭rossie1977


    Because police are meant to protect the public not go around shooting on sight.

    The whole police organisation from top to bottom needs to be rebooted completely and start again from scratch.

    Gang violence is another thing completely and really shouldn't be brought up. The easy availability of high powered military style weaponary, the continued 'war' on drugs among other things are the cause but US government after government have done nothing to address these issues.

    Its hilarious people here trying to give the US police a pass for constant 'mistakes'. I bet if web existed back in day we would have folks saying 'well you can't blame the British army for that killing so many violent terrorists in the North'.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,084 ✭✭✭mikethecop


    talk about trying to drag the thread off topic 🙄🙄🙄



  • Registered Users Posts: 172 ✭✭Glock17


    The thing is though, I bet american police are a hundred times better than police in africa and asia.

    A couple of american cops make mistakes and people throughout the world think the American police force need "rebooted"?

    It's textbook racism that a majority white police force is held to different standards than a majority black police force...



  • Registered Users Posts: 5,261 ✭✭✭source


    Again the numbers don't support the assertion that police in the US are shooting people on sight. That's an emotive gross over-exaggeration of what has happened and neatly fits into the anti police narrative being spun in the US.

    A very dangerous narrative as the people of Chicago have found out in recent times, they actually went ahead and defunded their police and violent crime figures are way up all across the city, but that's way off topic.



  • Registered Users Posts: 13,707 ✭✭✭✭Hello 2D Person Below


    It's testament to how bad American cops are that you have to compare them to the police forces in third world countries to shine a positive light on them.



  • Registered Users Posts: 172 ✭✭Glock17


    Yeah, nice one. That statement isnt racist at all.



  • Posts: 1,010 ✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    Footage is released. Police man with rifle takes point from less well armed officers at scene and enters mall. Reference made to badly injured victim on floor then video cuts off. Seems like chaos. Non gun found on perp but the info phoned in,some suggested a gun. Some commentators say a richocet from the floor entered the changing room.

    One may say a rifle was too much but recall the footage from Vienna last year, with the pistol armed police being forced back and wounded by the rifle armed terrorist



  • Posts: 1,010 ✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    Here is a usa news report with the video. A split second call on the officer's part, in a maze of high shelves with an injured person at his feet.. i feel sorry for the poor little girl and the officer here

    Edit https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HyIGtuRIers

    Post edited by [Deleted User] on


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 18,822 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH




  • Registered Users Posts: 13,096 ✭✭✭✭Danzy


    Police in America is largely a working class profession.

    There is a class snobbery and disdain for them from the modern left in America because of that.

    They could care less than a 1000 Black Americans out of a population of 650k African Americans in Chicago are murdered each year.

    That's not trendy, not something that they want to get involved with.


    It's telling that the highest support for Defund the Police is among young College educated whites. While just over 80% of African Americans want funding maintained or increased.


    The amount of unarmed people shot by police in America is tiny, given the population,the crime levels, etc etc.


    It's quite an achievement.



  • Registered Users Posts: 24,696 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    i holidayed a few times in the US as a kid and was besotted with the place. To the point of thinking about if I’d like to move there…lots of family there too… Don’t think I’d be bothered with it now… dangerous.

    i find it hard to believe you’d mistake pulling a gun for a taser or visa versa. I’m reading a taser weighs half of what your average handgun weighs and the taser is bright yellow..



  • Registered Users Posts: 161 ✭✭ChickenDish


    Just watched the video, assault rifle versus bike lock, total over kill. Makes you wonder why so many officers couldn't take on one guy with a bike lock, would have thought superior numbers, tazers, batons and CS spray would have been a wiser choice.

    All the police achieved was the killing of a mentally deranged individual and innocent bystander because of the the default option - overkill.



  • Posts: 1,010 ✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    They arrived at a scene of a potential mass shooting. He was armed with a heavy duty chain and bike lock. Multiple reports of him having a gun. It was a split second decision. Deploying a tazer or closing to baton range could be very dangerous. Also letting the guy loose another few seconds could have resulted in someone getting brained, or into thr changing area. The officer with the shotgun appeared to have green cartridges, beanbags.

    If this happened in ireland and a detective unit was first on the scene they would have gone in pistols drawn



  • Registered Users Posts: 172 ✭✭Glock17


    I made the point that we should also publicise deaths of blacks in africa by african policemen.

    Why should we judge white policemen to a higher standard than black policemen?



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,742 ✭✭✭10000maniacs


    Why would she deliberately shoot him, then go for an 'accidental killing' defence, when it was this very admission of making a mistake that made her defence so weak?

    Simple. She would have been charged with second degree murder if she did not go with the 'accidental killing' defence. It was her only option to go for the 'accidental killing' defence.



  • Registered Users Posts: 16,514 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    The argument I am making is that if she had just shot him and claimed it was justified, she likely wouldn’t have been charged with anything at all.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,742 ✭✭✭10000maniacs


    But the cameras were there and caught everything, so she couldn't do that. Maybe 5 or 10 years ago they could have buried it, but that is not an option now.



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 18,822 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH




Advertisement