I did not mean to come off as a person who thinks all law enforcement officers are bad. Yet, I do not feel I can trust any person I do not know personally (I do have a few friends in law enforcement, and they are great humans and take their responsibilities seriously). I have heard a few too many stories, sometimes in braggardly situations, of abuse. And a few too many cases stories break where officers are proven to have abused citizens. Just last October a handyman who did some work at my parents' place in the LA area was gunned down by the LAPD when he got out of his car when commanded to do so after he had a traffic accident.
His offense? Besides being African American, he struck a tree near the North Hollywood area and did not come out of his car immediately, likely because he had been stunned by the frontal impact in hitting the tree. Several other officers were called in for backup by then, and within 10 minutes this poor bastard was surrounded by no less than 5 police cars. When he exited his vehicle he (this is caught on video, by the way) staggered a little bit, and had a cell phone in his hand. One officer, assuming the cell phone must have been a weapon, opened fire. The poor bastard had a shocked look of disbelief on his face, and ran like hell to get out of the line of fire. The police officers chased him down, caught him in a parking lot, and executed him in a hail of bullets. The video shows a group of officers who took chase, and then the scene gets blurred as the camera operator ran toward the scene, then the video shows the victim on the ground in a parking lot, next to a car near the street, writing in pain. The cell phone is clearly visible near him on the ground. And clearly nobody had called for an ambulance for several minutes as the cops looked him over. He died before getting to a hospital. What happened to Maurice was dead wrong. I knew this guy. I supervised his work at my parents' place when I was out there last year on two separate trips. He was a good, intelligent and hard working person, and did not deserve to die like that. The police version? He was in the area to do a drug deal, he threatened to fire on us when ordered to leave his car, then he exited is car in a hostile manner with what looked like a weapon in his hand, preparing to fire on us. We had to stop him from injuring officers and civilians in the area. That was the statement until the video came out, where it is clear no threat was made (audio has no such voice from Maurice, and his mouth was not moving. He staggered out like a person who was wounded, like from an accident, not in a hostile manner with his arm extended as though preparing to fire on anyone. The video clarifies everything. Now there is a $12m lawsuit by his wife against LAPD, and in my humble opinion she is letting them off too easy. The cops involved? Still on the streets, not relieved of duty, not doing desk duty. Yeah, it is disgusting. Hence more reason for my inherent distrust. For the record, my friends in law enforcement found that situation to be more than merely disgusting, as they know these kinds of stories give them all a black eye. Thank goodness for video cameras, with sound no less (hence proof Maurice did not threaten to shoot anyone), and folks with the courage to use them to capture such abuses - and share them with the media. But it did not help Maurice's widow and young children who survived him. Gil > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of John > Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 9:55 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: [NF] Hacker Indicted > > > The "good old days" also were the bad old days. A lot of the cops were > brutal and uneducated. Their actions caused a lot of problems for law > enforcement, because they actually tortured people. I like the way we > operate today, much better, but there are still instances of abuse. We go > through a lot to try to weed out the undesirables, but still they seem to > get in. Then, we have to try to weed them out afterwards. Having > said that, > I think cops are different in metropolitan settings than in > rural, and it is > reflective of the leadership of each department. If a sheriff or chief > allows a culture of abuse to exist, it will. Otherwise, as in our > department, the director is a zero tolerance kind of guy, both in > enforcement and in his officer's conduct. > > JH > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf > Of Gil Hale > Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 8:42 AM > To: profox@leafe.com > Subject: RE: [NF] Hacker Indicted > > > Back in the bad old issued .357 days I had a friend on a suburban force. > > He used to say that he would draw on a perp, cock it and tell him to run > > with a devilish grin on his face. The guy would just about pee on > > himself and sir him to death while raising his hands. Then he would > > holster the gun and say "Damn!" > > > > > > I have a friend from my days in New Freedom, PA (1988-1995) who was on the > Baltimore, MD, force. They adopted an "unspoken rule" when they > had to pull > their pistol. Two to the body, one to the head. The body shots > would slow > the perp enough to allow better aim to the brain to take the perp out. > These officers had families to go home to, and did not want to take any > chances their lives were in danger. > > When contrasted to the "run..." for the entertainment of a person who is > entrusted with the authority to enforce our laws, I find the person who > would intentionally scare a perp to represent part of the reason > there is so > little trust in our law enforcement personnel. I have become > less trusting > of law officers over time. They care only about closing cases, > not seeking > justice. That is for the court system I guess, and then only for those of > us who can afford decent private legal counsel. Although on the > surface the > story (run...) may sound amusing, it belies the real problem > underlying our > legal and law enforcement systems - abuse of power. Pull that crap on me > and one will find their department, and themselves personally, > the target of > a lawsuit, even if I have no shot at winning. The idiot would > have to spend > their own money to defend, and their department would not be at all happy > with the cost of their defense coming out of their budget - > especially now. > No mercy were one of these folks screw with me, or a family member. > > My 2 cents. > > > Gil > > > [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. 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