Video Footage Shows Dallas Police Fatally Shooting Mentally Ill Man

Ladies and gentlemen, a member of our police force.

 

Unlikely HPD. Maybe a constable. HPD officers are cool dudes for the most part.

 

If you recall, I believe I've posted my thoughts about that "us v them" mentality so many talk about. Cops are paid to pay full attention to what's incumbent upon every citizen. Police officers count on citizens to get their job done and often rely on the citizenry. I hate to think of it as a "war" (because that implies us v them) on the American streets, but in reality officers get killed for the uniform they wear, and that's the definition of war. I've never thought of my job as being against the citizens. Only %4 of the population are criminals. I'm from the school of thought that when you are near a police officer you should feel safe. Not scared. Sadly, a lot of people feel that way. Thankfully I work in a nice town, they plenty of that %4 preys on due to the proximity to Houston, and get to work close with the citizens.

Would never work for either.

 

How is a screwdriver not considered a deadly weapon? I'm pretty sure I could stab you and kill you with a screwdriver if I applied enough force.

 

Let me rephrase that.

 

With no context at all the shooting is understandable.

However, we have the 911 call for help from the mother in transporting her son to a mental hospital because he was having an episode during the day at hers/his home. There are like 7-10 key pieces of info in that one sentence that provide enough context to handle the situation much, much better than they did. If not charged, at the very least they should be fired for how ****ty cops they are. But my money is on a paid vacation.

In the US, standards of policing are at an all time low, while arming of police is at an all time high.

 

Bahaha. Just admit that any item in someone's hands is a deadly force encounter in your eyes.

Screwdriver, beer bottle, remote control, squeegee. All deadly force encounters.

 

Ah, no point.

 

Dooplicate.

 

I am a pro Police person. That said...

If those Officers arrived on the scene knowing the man had a mental condition and were so unprepared that a gun was their first option then they need to be charged. If they weren't warned by the mother when she called in, then this is a tragedy that might have been avoided.

I have been pulled over 3 times with my Autistic son in the car and the first thing I do is make sure the officers know to expect unpredictable behavior from him as I don't want him to get shot because they think he is reaching for something. Had one cop keep shining his flashlight in my son's eyes which pissed me off to the point that I said something to him about it.

I do have to say the aggressive tone of one of the officers wasn't good in dealing with someone with a mental impairment. It was akin to throwing gas on a fire.

Edit.... I hadn't read past the first post when I made this post. I agree with the brother and the lawyer 100%. You don't yell at mentally impaired people. The man didn't see to be highly agitated when he walked up to the door. I didn't listen to the 911 tape but if the Mom told them about his condition, this is on the cops.

 

One problem may be that the police department likes to hire people who are not so bright. If you're two smart they will rule you out.
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/court-police-departments-refuse-hire-smart/
http://politicalblindspot.com/police-officially-refuse-to-hire-applicants-with-high-iq-scores/

So be careful out there citizens... And if you have to deal with a police officer... Just remember you may be dealing with a freakin idiot and or just a simple minded mfker.

 

The problem is . . more and more. . .the Gun is the First or Second Option all them

Option 1: I get out the car an command you to obey your 'superior' and respect my Authoritah!
If Option 1 does not work
Option 2: Shoot you

Rocket River

 

Can a mentally person hurt you? Does someone's mental state or capacity mean that you don't take their unlawful use of force against you seriously? Please help me out here. An officer doesn't have to sacrifice his or her safety just because they're dealing with a mental health incident.

Departments all across the land are training officers in Crisis Intervention. It's now a required TCOLE course.

 

Where did I state that they couldn't hurt you? Argue what I said and not what you think I said.

I said they were unprepared to deal with him in this case. If they relied on their training, then they got ****ty training.

I have multiple relatives that are in law enforcement. I respect what they have to do but like any business, the PD hires screw-ups too. Not every person at any business is always competent.

 

That's certainly a distortion of the actual truth as I think too many people want to disobey authority is the root cause here. Like it or not, police have to take command of situations. Disobeying a lawful command of a police officer, much less getting physically or verbally aggressive, is just plain dumb. Condoning the behavior of idiots who want to resist arrest, threaten, harass or assault police officers is contributing to the likelihood of more tragic events.

I didn't like what the cop did after asking him politely not to shine the light in my son's eyes. I just got his name and supervisors name and called to complain the next day. After a few minutes of back and forth, his supervisor came to understand that such an action could agitate someone like my son and cause aggressive behavior. Hopefully the cop knows better the next time he pulls someone over and ignores a common sense request.

 

Here's the thing if you are within 10 ft. of someone a screwdriver.

1. That screwdriver can in fact be deadly.

2. The more likely the wielder of the screwdriver views another person as a threat the more likely that screwdriver will be used in a deadly fashion.

So with that general understanding the first thing the officer should do is make sure the person with the screwdriver understands is that there need not be a deadly consequence if everyone can settle down and listen to reason.

The second thing the officer needs to do is to try and make sure the situation deescalates as much as possible while still ensuring the safety of himself and others. Shooting the person simply to eliminate risk should not be an early option.

3. If the person attacks with the screwdriver, the officer will have less than one second to act. In that one second an officer can do numerous things to ensure he isn't killed that don't involve killing the wielder of the screwdriver.

a. The officer can throw up his hands.

b. The officer can jump backwards or to one side.

c. The officer can duck

d. The officer can lunge forward and attack the person wielding the screwdriver with non-lethal force.

4. Since there are other officers present any of those options provide time for the other officers to intervene with non-lethal force and subdue the person and end the danger.

5. Those options may enable the officer to pull out his baton, or taser and use it in subduing the person with the screwdriver.

Granted some of these options may end up in an injury to the person with the screwdriver or the officer. Both of those would be preferable to the officer killing the mentally ill person with a screwdriver.

Either way lethal violence was far from the last option in this scenario.

 

Take away everyone's screwdrivers!!! It's the only solution!!! Smart cops are dead cops according to Anas and his blue friends.

 

So when someone is coming at you with a weapon in their hand capable of causing serious bodily injury, and you shoot them, you're incompetent? If that's wrong then I don't wanna be right.

It's unfortunate that you don't live in reality. NOBODY has time to evaluate a deadly encounter in less than a second. Playing guessing games will get you killed. AGAIN, the dead guy here CREATED the situation. A situation that as an officer, I have no obligation to meet that force with something less, such as a baton. DEADLY FORCE IS MET WITH DEADLY FORCE. That's the way it is, and that's the only thing that makes sense, in reality of course.

 

A screwdriver can be deadly, but not if an officer is alert. All the officer would have to do to really keep the screwdriver from being deadly would be to hold up his hands or any of the other things I mentioned. All of those could be done in less than one second. With other officers on the scene doing any one of those prevent the screwdriver from being a real threat of death.

I get it if you want to stick up for other cops. I believe in giving them a lot of leeway. But sometimes they are wrong. Always sticking up for a guy just because he's a police officer only hurts your credibility on the issue.

The officer can do things that prevent the situation from even escalating. It's why most forces have trained negotiators for many situations. They actually want to deescalate them rather than just kill anyone with a home repair tool to make sure they are in no danger.

 

the "dead guy" (as you put it since you're a POS) being mentally ill probably didn't even understand the situation let alone realize he created anything. that's the problem with you **** cops, you dehumanize everyone else but yourselves. Only your lives matter, everyone else is 2nd. To protect and serve yourselves first, then maybe others 2nd. Cowards...