National, Regional and Local News

[ti-amie]

I guess the thinking is along the lines of "don't say we didn't warn you". Will Texas join the ranks of "those countries" that inflict random, any time of the day blackouts on their citizens?

[ponchi101]

Serious here. Why are USA cops so quick to SHOOT TO KILL? I remember reading a piece in which it stated that in Norway (I know, basically an advanced Alien Civilization but bear with me) in 2014, the entire police force shot TWO SHOTS in the entire year, and both were for warning (shot in the air).
Why are American Police so trigger happy? Never a warning shot, never a warning shout. It is an immediate escalation to "execution".
I know the racial connotations behind this, but today there is another news of another white officer deadly shooting of a young (white) man that had an air rifle.
It is like police officers in America train at the OK Corral.

Ok, it seems I have to correct this. The officer apparently did call TASER several times, warned the person, and then drew the weapon.
She is being charged with involuntary manslaughter. It is still a tragedy but there are some nuances.

[JazzNU]

Serious here. Why are USA cops so quick to SHOOT TO KILL? I remember reading a piece in which it stated that in Norway (I know, basically an advanced Alien Civilization but bear with me) in 2014, the entire police force shot TWO SHOTS in the entire year, and both were for warning (shot in the air).
Why are American Police so trigger happy? Never a warning shot, never a warning shout. It is an immediate escalation to "execution".
I know the racial connotations behind this, but today there is another news of another white officer deadly shooting of a young (white) man that had an air rifle.
It is like police officers in America train at the OK Corral.

I don't have a good answer for you, but I have an answer nonetheless.

So I had this professor who was the chief of the independent board that reviewed all cases like this in Chicago. Chicago is so corrupt they've had to have a board like this for years.

I asked him basically this question. What's with all the killings? I posited, when the situation isn't dire, for instance, when the suspect is running from you, why are you still killing them? Why not shoot them in the leg, injure them slightly to slow them down. But something other than killing your suspect so often. And his answer was, and it's overwhelmingly the case throughout most of the country, is that if you discharge your weapon, it's shoot to kill. You're not supposed to discharge your weapon in any instance unless it's so dire your life is at stake.

Apparently, they view this as the best way to remove the what they perceive to be a dangerous threat. The idea of shooting someone in the leg or some other less vital area is a Hollywood notion only according to them (it's not, as we all know, other countries don't have this issue and don't shoot to kill as their standard practice).

Now obviously, this does not happen in practice. Their lives are not always in danger when they discharge their weapons, we've seen that time and time again. They shoot at low risk suspects, at fleeing suspects, at suspects who are following orders, etc. But until the training changes and the standard shifts away from shoot to kill, we'll keep seeing this. We'll also keep seeing this unless and until we get convictions on these police officers. They have no incentive to change their ways when what happens every goddamn time is that they walk no matter the circumstances or evidence presented.

I have not heard about ex-military doing training influencing things, but I wouldn't think that's the root of the problem. That seems like it would be more of a recent thing that could be influencing current training, and not saying it's not a factor. But shootings of this kind have been occurring for decades. It's just that there was no video before and a lot of white people were highly skeptical of the stories that black suspects were telling. Readily available video recordings changed the tide on that, and it became, oh yikes, maybe they weren't exaggerating about how they were being treated all these years.

[Suliso]

What's with all the Norse Gods and everything? They didn't do anything to deserve being taken over by white supremacists like that...

[dmforever]

Serious here. Why are USA cops so quick to SHOOT TO KILL? I remember reading a piece in which it stated that in Norway (I know, basically an advanced Alien Civilization but bear with me) in 2014, the entire police force shot TWO SHOTS in the entire year, and both were for warning (shot in the air).
Why are American Police so trigger happy? Never a warning shot, never a warning shout. It is an immediate escalation to "execution".
I know the racial connotations behind this, but today there is another news of another white officer deadly shooting of a young (white) man that had an air rifle.
It is like police officers in America train at the OK Corral.

I don't have a good answer for you, but I have an answer nonetheless.

So I had this professor who was the chief of the independent board that reviewed all cases like this in Chicago. Chicago is so corrupt they've had to have a board like this for years.

I asked him basically this question. What's with all the killings? I posited, when the situation isn't dire, for instance, when the suspect is running from you, why are you still killing them? Why not shoot them in the leg, injure them slightly to slow them down. But something other than killing your suspect so often. And his answer was, and it's overwhelmingly the case throughout most of the country, is that if you discharge your weapon, it's shoot to kill. You're not supposed to discharge your weapon in any instance unless it's so dire your life is at stake.

Apparently, they view this as the best way to remove the what they perceive to be a dangerous threat. The idea of shooting someone in the leg or some other less vital area is a Hollywood notion only according to them (it's not, as we all know, other countries don't have this issue and don't shoot to kill as their standard practice).

Now obviously, this does not happen in practice. Their lives are not always in danger when they discharge their weapons, we've seen that time and time again. They shoot at low risk suspects, at fleeing suspects, at suspects who are following orders, etc. But until the training changes and the standard shifts away from shoot to kill, we'll keep seeing this. We'll also keep seeing this unless and until we get convictions on these police officers. They have no incentive to change their ways when what happens every goddamn time is that they walk no matter the circumstances or evidence presented.

I have not heard about ex-military doing training influencing things, but I wouldn't think that's the root of the problem. That seems like it would be more of a recent thing that could be influencing current training, and not saying it's not a factor. But shootings of this kind have been occurring for decades. It's just that there was no video before and a lot of white people were highly skeptical of the stories that black suspects were telling. Readily available video recordings changed the tide on that, and it became, oh yikes, maybe they weren't exaggerating about how they were being treated all these years.

This, plus they need to hire different people. A lot of law enforcement officers have ties with white supremacist groups (and by have ties with, I mean they belong to). The need to somehow have psych evals that exclude, instead of include, people with really strong racist tendencies.

And if I may, I get why people use the "he's a military officer/medic" thing to strengthen their argument against police violence, but that shouldn't matter. The minute you start ranking the victims on whatever subjective scale is important to you, you start making some victims more or less worthy of police brutality. It all has to stop.

Kevin

[ponchi101]

What's with all the Norse Gods and everything? They didn't do anything to deserve being taken over by white supremacists like that...

Neither did Wagner, and yet he was adopted by Hitler and all Nazis as heroic music.

[dryrunguy]

I said it years ago on the old board, and I'll say it again...

I have A LOT of questions about the TYPE OF PERSON who is actually ATTRACTED to a career in law enforcement.

[the Moz]

I said it years ago on the old board, and I'll say it again...

I have A LOT of questions about the TYPE OF PERSON who is actually ATTRACTED to a career in law enforcement.

Here here

[mmmm8]

Serious here. Why are USA cops so quick to SHOOT TO KILL? I remember reading a piece in which it stated that in Norway (I know, basically an advanced Alien Civilization but bear with me) in 2014, the entire police force shot TWO SHOTS in the entire year, and both were for warning (shot in the air).
Why are American Police so trigger happy? Never a warning shot, never a warning shout. It is an immediate escalation to "execution".
I know the racial connotations behind this, but today there is another news of another white officer deadly shooting of a young (white) man that had an air rifle.
It is like police officers in America train at the OK Corral.

One of America's most popular police trainers is teaching officers how to kill
https://www.insider.com/bulletproof-dav ... ill-2020-6

[mmmm8]

What's with all the Norse Gods and everything? They didn't do anything to deserve being taken over by white supremacists like that...

Norway and Sweden, heavens on earth as they are, have a more than negligible issue with white supremacy, so I wonder if it comes from the skinheads there.

Or it's just an Aryan thing and that's the mythology that's closest?

[mmmm8]

What's with all the Norse Gods and everything? They didn't do anything to deserve being taken over by white supremacists like that...

Neither did Wagner, and yet he was adopted by Hitler and all Nazis as heroic music.

Wagner was an ardent anti-Semite.

[ponchi101]

I stand corrected.

[Suliso]

Someone went postal again (8 dead). This time in Indianapolis.

[ponchi101]

By now, there is very little to say. An almost exclusive American phenomena, the sole variation being the number of victims per event.

[ti-amie]

By now, there is very little to say. An almost exclusive American phenomena, the sole variation being the number of victims per event.

This makes five in five weeks.