No indictment for officer who shot Tamir Rice; reasonable to assume officer was threatened

Honestly . . . As a Prosecutor
to be KNOWN as the guy that went after cops
could destroy your career
because. . . prosecutors NEED cops to make their cases
People . . .even cops . . .can be vindictive

You put one away for life. .. his friends might forget a percedural error
or some such to sink your case . .. etc. . . .
We like to think it doesnt and would not happen . . but . . . .

Which is why cops should be prosecuted outside their area

Rocket River

 

Unfit is Unfit

Rocket River

 

Hey texx this may shed a little light on your question

http://www.latimes.com/nation/natio...mir-rice-timothy-loehmann-20141203-story.html

 

I'm not arguing that at all. If a cop is threatened by a gun which the video suggests then the cop has every right to use lethal force. The issue, atleast to me, is police practices. It's not a question of homicide to me. It's a question of negligence and manslaughter to me. If they're covered by protocol, then its case closed. It's sad but there should be an overhaul of these procedures. If you know someone has a gun, why would you roll up on them 3 feet away lol its idiotic. These cops are idiots. Cops don't do themselves any favors doing stupid things like this. I don't think they should be charged with homicide but i do think they should be charged with manslaughter, if anything for being terrible at their job. I don't set the parameters in these matters though so it's not up to me. I'm not for rioting and offering up sacrifices to please the mobs, I just think these particular cops are stupid and should face some sort of punishment. Thats just my opinion though.

 

......

 

It can destroy your career or make your career depending on what your political/professional aspirations are. There is more bad blood between prosecutors and the police force than you would expect. Often times prosecutors are upset that cops do not execute warrants/arrests according to the book and cops are mad that they arrest someone and the prosecutor declines to press charges.

Having said that, I agree with you that the matter should be investigated by an outside, insulated agency. I suspect we are going to see the federal government getting more involved.

There have been cases of the DA office doing exactly what they should do (South Carolina) and other cases where there is wide spread corruption (Chicago).

 

If they feel threatened, that makes the shooting justifiable which means that there is no criminal responsibility whatsoever. As to a protocol error, I would agree that they pulled up too closely, but you can't have criminal negligence in a justifiable use of force, it's just not how it works.

Now you'll probably have some kind of civil lawsuit, but with the shooting already deemed to be justifiable use of force, it'll be pretty hard to get anything going there.

As to the cops losing their jobs, it depends on if there is specific protocol that wasn't followed, if there wasn't, this incident will be chalked up as a tragic accident and that protocol will be written to avoid future incidents.

 

IF THEY FEEL THREATENED

How Vague and Ambiguous


Rocket River

 

Well, it's actually if they feel threatened and it is deemed that they had reason to feel that way or that a reasonable person would feel threatened. When someone with what looks like a pistol goes for that pistol when you say hands up, that's reason to feel threatened thus the shooting is justifiable.

 

Basically per the first PD that he worked for he was unfit to be a officer.

According to Loehmann’s personnel records, released by the city of Independence, police officials were in the process of firing him when he resigned in December 2012. Supervisors described an emotionally unstable recruit with a “lack of maturity” and “inability to perform basic functions as instructed” during a weapons training exercise.

Per Cleveland PD's Current policy does not require the department to review previous employers’ personnel files, the department said, but police officials say they are now amending those policies to request such files.

 

So a cop can kill any child with a toy gun - is that what you are saying?

I don't like this. Cops shouldn't shoot first think later when it comes to a child. I'd rather have cops who are about protecting the people they serve. Call me an idealist.

 

So long as a reasonable person would think that it posed a threat to the officer, sure. In this instance, it was a super realistic looking "toy gun" and the kid made a move for it after the cop rolled up. That posed what a reasonable person would consider to be a threat.

It's always funny when people like you talk a big game, but if you were in the same situation and thought that you were about to be shot, you guys are always the quickest to pull the trigger. So long as it's not your life potentially at risk you feel free to talk about all sorts of idealistic BS, guaranteed that goes out the window in a hurry if it were your life on the line.

 

How do you know the kid made a move for it? The video doesn't show that at all. To most reasonable people it looks like the cop decided to take out the kid first and ask questions later. The law works to protect cops and is not very good at dealing at situations like this - which is why this cop gets off. A better law would have resulted in an indictment. It wasn't that the cop was in the right, it's that there needs to be a better system of holding cops accountable and they do need to be trained to deal with apparent gunmen differently.

It's always funny when people have a big head and add "thegreat" to the end of their name and act like they can judge people they haven't even me. You don't know anything about me. I've never said how I would act in that situation - and why that even matters here is perplexing. Clearly you have a need to put me down because you disagree with me, which reflects poorly on your character.

 

According to what has been released about the case, that was the story, and the grand jury saw an enhanced version of the grainy video you saw on youtube and supposedly it shows the kid going for the gun, likely to show it was fake or hand it to the officer. Either way, it was deemed to be an act that a reasonable person would consider threatening given the available information.

Say what you want kiddo, but somewhere deep down, you know I'm right.

 

Too many untrained trigger happy r****ds. If we wanted spazzing psychos shooting at everything they perceive to be a threat, we don't need police academies.

 

The facts contradict what you write here. He was shot before the patrol car even came to a complete stop, and the chief said that Tamir did not threaten the officer. There was no move or whatever - the car pulled up, the cop jumped out and shot him within 2 seconds.

What is even more disturbing is after the shooting the cops didn't even administer first aid, and they in fact put the other daughter in handcuffs and threatened the mother with arrest. The cop had also been deemed emotionally unfit to be a cop by a different city as a recruit.

Spinning this to support the police is unnecessary. Whether he gets off or not, what happened here was not an unfortunate accident, it was at best deliberate callousness and cowboyness.