i figure there will be an 'internal investigation' that will conclude that the cops did little if anything wrong and they will be back on the street Rocket River
Whole lotta love in this room for law enforcement. You have to remember folks, it takes a certain personality to pull over strangers on a dark road in the middle of the night by yourself. You can't expect these men (and women) to act like angels when they face more danger today than they ever have before. We live in a society where we can't even talk reasonably to our neighbors anymore about little Joey bouncing a ball against our house. People don't solve their own interpersonal problems anymore, they expect there to be laws that solve everything for them. Yet at the same time, there is less and less respect and trust for the people who have to enforce these laws. Makes no freakin' sense.
Does the Bellaire police department have a pattern of intimidation, inappropriate, questionable, or illegal conduct? Does the department or city benefit from the department's activities? How about Office Cotton's history at the department? Maybe the defense team will want to speak to other citizens who have encountered this officer; or other officers in the department.
My mom just informed me that a cop neighbor of my brother's girlfriend recently shot her dog and killed it. The cop apparently said that the dog was in his yard and he was trying to "scare" it out of the yard. He fired a warning shot that supposedly ricocheted off something and killed the dog. Since when can something weak enough to ricochet off of something still be powerful enough to kill a large dog?(I'm not sure what kind it was, other than, "it was some kind of big dog") Since when are police officers trained to fire a warning shot that can hit or ricochet off something? Yeah, F that cop.
Without bringing this to the D&D, these are my thoughts. The scumbag cop, if this is true, should be tried for attempted murder. He shot at the kid three times. FOR NO REASON. THREE TIMES. If you're trying to keep someone from getting up, you shoot them once in the leg, not thrice. If you shoot at a defenseless person, laying prone(assumed) on the ground, three times, you are, in my opinion, trying to kill them. Scumbag. (This is all pending the story being proved true, which so far, it sounds as if it is)
I have tons of respect for police officers. I work with them all the time. But there are bad apples every now and then. I would expect a reasonable cop to talk politely to a family, especially in Bellaire....not exactly the Fifth Ward, if you know what I mean. I do not expect a cop to throw a woman against a wall because she has a differing opinion than the cops' radio person. If the woman says it's her car, don't freakin' throw her against a wall. Give her a chance to give you her license and registration.
Small town cops like the ones in Bellaire aren't the best and the brightest. They are the rejects from the larger department who offer better pay and benefits.
You sure are giving a lot of credit to one newspaper article that is made up but nothing but quotes from the kid's family, friends, and attorney. The cops and the DA's office can't speak about an ongoing investigation. You're only getting one (very biased) side of the story. Defendants lie to the press routinely to try to evoke public sympathy and a backlash against the police and district attorney. Newspapers print lies routinely because they sell papers. To pass judgment the day after an incident like this is inappropriate and unfair to law enforcement.
I did give the article quite a bit of credit, but I offered the proverbial (If this all pans out to be true). It doesn't look good, though, when police are saying that the officer fired at least three times (one bullet hitting the "suspect" and thwo more hitting the house), and that neither kid was armed.
The point is that these guys usually try to join HPD first, but get rejected so they go to the Bellaire PD. If they don't hack it there, they try to become a campus cop at UH or HCC.
I could understand if victims of police brutality harbored a grudge against cops, but the blanket hate here against law enforcement justifies the thin blue line mentality where unquestionably corrupt cops go unpunished because of an unspoken "us vs. them" code.
At any point, when anyone is reading or posting on this thread, there is some cop out there putting his life on the line, allowing us the chance to stay on our laptops while b****ing and complaining about whatever the hell we want to. The officer in this instance maybe lower than low, I don't know. I haven't read the article or made my judgment. I'm pretty sure it will fall right in line with what everyone has already said on this thread. Some a-hole f'd up, and took someone's life. But saying "F the police" after an instance like this is like saying "F people," and really, that's not even close. For every mindless, stupid, racially-driven police murder, there are hundreds of thousands of the same damn thing that happen yearly, thrown down by civilians. Is it a police officer's job to be above pathetic human failings like racism and prejudice? No doubt. But, in 2009, it should be every human's role to be free of the same failings. And yet we continue to fail. And officers protect and represent us, all at once. You can't separate one or the other.
aside from the whole debate on what type of people cops are (which is stupid, like anything else it depends on the indvidual), this thing starts out pretty badly. The cop claims he thought he was pursuing a stolen car? unlikely. secondly, I guess Bellaire cops don't use tasers? lastly, there was a cop shot and killed by a suspect just a couple of weeks ago on a random routine stop in Houston, so yes, their job is very dangerous.
The article stated that the Bellaire cops ARE issued tasers and they didn't know why the cop in question chose to use his gun rather than taser. Had he tased the kid wrongfully, there would still be an uproar, but nowhere NEAR as loud, I'm thinking.
actually in the even of ANY police shooting the DA's office sends people to come out and investigate. I'm sure I'm just opening the door to attacks on the DA's office, but for the record - there is always more than just an internal investigation.
