RE: Police fatally wound man at Oakland BART station on NYE by janelane at 2:10 pm EST, Jan 7, 2009
Hijexx wrote: WARNING - Someone being shot.
It looks like the cop forgot he was holding his gun and meant to taze the guy instead. Still, dude's lying on the ground...he's not presenting any perceivable threat.
RE: Police fatally wound man at Oakland BART station on NYE by Decius at 3:54 pm EST, Jan 7, 2009
Doing some digging, there seems to be a problem with officer involved shootings in Oakland. One officer has killed two unarmed men in 2008, one of whom was shot in the back while running away. That officer is on leave but no charges have been filed. The Oakland police held a public forum on the issue in December, at which they insisted that "It's not because the officers are doing anything wrong." Regardless of whether or not that is true in this case, this latest incident is a match on a tinderbox.
Ironically, this occurs when a movie is being released about Harvey Milk, which may evoke sore memories in that metro area.
Throw in some economic hard times to boot, and you have a real possibility for a riot.
For me, the real source of frustration in incidents like this is that police seem to be given the benefit of the doubt... placed on paid leave during long investigations... whereas some "street thug" (read black teenager) under similarly questionable circumstances would have been arrested and charged with murder before the ink was even dry on the police report. It would be easier to trust the justice system to reach the right conclusion in incidents like this if that system at least gave the appearance of being blind. It does not.
RE: Police fatally wound man at Oakland BART station on NYE by CypherGhost at 4:42 pm EST, Jan 7, 2009
Decius wrote: For me, the real source of frustration in incidents like this is that police seem to be given the benefit of the doubt... placed on paid leave during long investigations... whereas some "street thug" (read black teenager) under similarly questionable circumstances would have been arrested and charged with murder before the ink was even dry on the police report. It would be easier to trust the justice system to reach the right conclusion in incidents like this if that system at least gave the appearance of being blind. It does not.
Even the headline gives the officer the benefit of the doubt. The civilian was merely "fatally wounded" as opposed to "shot" or "killed".
RE: Police fatally wound man at Oakland BART station on NYE by Hijexx at 9:33 pm EST, Jan 7, 2009
CypherGhost wrote:
Decius wrote: For me, the real source of frustration in incidents like this is that police seem to be given the benefit of the doubt... placed on paid leave during long investigations... whereas some "street thug" (read black teenager) under similarly questionable circumstances would have been arrested and charged with murder before the ink was even dry on the police report. It would be easier to trust the justice system to reach the right conclusion in incidents like this if that system at least gave the appearance of being blind. It does not.
Even the headline gives the officer the benefit of the doubt. The civilian was merely "fatally wounded" as opposed to "shot" or "killed".
Hopefully you are not attributing that virtue to me?
RE: Police fatally wound man at Oakland BART station on NYE by skullaria at 2:25 pm EST, Jan 8, 2009
Hijexx wrote: WARNING - Someone being shot.
I'm not sure what provoked this, but did this guy deserve to die? He appeared restrained in a submissive posture by two officers, one near his neck.
I have white, middle class homemaker friends that go "Oh, it looks like the cop meant to taser him."
Which only infuriated me more. If you are on your belly face down, you don't need to be tasered EITHER.
Sigh. It IS funny to me how this gets covered, but the riots in Augusta did not. The GBI has said it will NOT release the tapes of the shooting of J. Elmore in Augusta. I've heard now they are saying they 'lost' them. yadda yadda yadda.
The police could turn all this around right now. If they don't - I think - if they continue down this us against them path - you will see this a lot more often.
