US police shooting - 6 year old boy slain

Those marshals must be colourblind.

Nodin wrote: »

What the hell were the cops doing?

Shooting first and asking questions later, the usual modus operandi of the US police. And as usual, there'll be a whole bunch of feigned outrage from US politicians, and ultimately no action whatsoever will be taken.

The US needs a federal organisation akin to GSOC to massively clamp down on the cops' perception that they answer to nobody and are subject to no laws. It's not an issue of a few bad apples nor is it an issue of the US police force being stuffed full of assholes - it's a cultural issue which needs to be tackled from the top down.

Sand wrote: »

2 black officers shooting an unarmed white man and killing his son. Hard to see how the US media will play this one.

Something is up though. The police moved to arrest them quickly. They must have next to no reasonable explanation for their actions even with the leeway US cops tend to have.

One of the cleverest moves the establishment in the US ever pulled was to frame the whole police brutality thing as a race issue from the beginning. By doing that, they ensured that the national conversation was about racism, prejudice, and privilege - and not about the wider, deadlier issue wherein the cops as an organisation believe themselves to be above the law.

That narrative is beginning to fall apart, which is the one tiny glimmer of a silver lining in all these horrific incidents. Soon enough, I believe, the conversation will switch from "are cops racist" to "do cops believe that they are all powerful and subject to nobody" - when this happens, we may see proper reform of the US policing system.

bee06 wrote: »

The report on RTE News is saying the dad was backing the car up towards the marshals so assuming like this is accurate it wasn't like they opened fire on a stopped car.

So backing a car into a police car is now an excuse for execution of anyone in the car including children? Police cars are backed into all the time by joyriders. Do you think they should be executed?

Cop the fuck on.

bee06 wrote: »

The report on RTE News is saying the dad was backing the car up towards the marshals so assuming like this is accurate it wasn't like they opened fire on a stopped car.

I think there is a lot to discover before any final interpretation of events is made. It is not clear why the police were pursuing this car. It is not clear why the father was fleeing. It is not clear why the police opened fire on the car.

All we know for now is that the local PD seem certain the officers have very serious charges to answer to. The officers were wearing body cams, and the footage from those cameras seems to be a large part of the reason for the officers being charged with murder.

Horrible. These were 2 U.S. Marshals. What does a U.S. Marshal actually do? Are they just another branch of the police or have they greater powers?

This is America 2015 different rules now it's a military police force, have the inhabitants not copped onto this?

rip kid you were surrounded by fools on all sides

Well based on the films, absolutely every killing by a U.S soldier, police officer or what have you, is justifiable.

These are the bigger terrorists if you ask me.

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

How would shooting stop it.

If the car was that close the drivers weight would still be on the accelerator/the car would probably still have some momentum and thus the car would not slow down for a while , and so shooting wouldn't have had any real benefit to it, if it's a case that shooting would have been deemed to have enough benefit to stop them being run over then there would probably have been enough time for the marshals to take evasive action rather than shooting first.

Seems like a case of shoot first ask questions later.

Killing the driver tends to stop most vehicles. Certainly its more effective than standing there with a stupid look on your face.

You've absolutely no idea how things played out or why the driver was (apparently) trying to ram the police car or the officers themselves. I don't either. All we know is that the police investigating the shooting think there is cause to charge the officers with murder.

Deleted User wrote: »

We don't know his criminal record, how dangerous he was, whether it was known if he was armed, if the cops actually knew that a child was there.

The child was hit multiple times in the passenger seat. What else could multiple bullets slamming into the passenger side of the car be but trigger happy? What if the child had been abducted by his Father?

The killers are being charged with murder.

Deleted User wrote: »

Again.. no details are known at present.

We don't know his criminal record, how dangerous he was, whether it was known if he was armed, if the cops actually knew that a child was there.

Considering they reviewed the footage and then went for a murder charge rather then a lesser charge and the actual words used by the colonel in the video regarding what he saw on the body camera footage I think we can leave the benefit of the doubt at the door for a change can we?

It doesn't matter what they wanted the guy for, it doesn't matter what his criminal record is, it is not an excuse to have such disregard for human life.

Edit: Also, looking at some of the other posts above mine most of your questions while playing devil's advocate in this have been answered.

Look they would not be hung out to dry by the department if there was any doubt here, they would not be awaiting trial for murder.