Mobile phone footage shows three police officers opening fire and fatally shooting Paul Gaston in Cincinnati this week. Gaston got serious car accident and appeared intoxicated. Officers requested him to kneel on the ground, but then he allegedly made a sudden movement and they reacted. The Cincinnati Police Department released a statement saying that Gaston was carrying a pellet gun in his waist, and said officers reacted on instinct in the incident which they claim was justified by self-defense.
And we’re suppose to feel sorry for him ? I just can’t . I guess have negro fatigue syndrome again.
Ever notice that police unions are “fraternal”? This should tell you something. The “thin-blue-line” is a gang, little different than street gangs–at least when it comes to “covering-up” questionable behavior by police.
In today’s day and age, “officer safety” trumps de-escalation of force. This, in part, is due to the militarization of the police along with training in Israeli police tactics. This becomes a problem, with the “us vs. them” attitude that is fosters, along with the fact that Israel is a very different place, being on a constant “war footing”, and by necessity, its police tactics are very different.
There are too many instances of police being “given a pass”, even when incontrovertible video and audio evidence is presented. Grand juries, guided by police-friendly prosecutors, quite often refuse to charge those police officers who abuse their authority.
Police officers, who want to do the right thing, are quite often marginalized and put into harms way, by their own brethren…When a police officer is beating on someone that is already restrained while yelling, “stop resisting” THAT is but one reason police have a “bad name” in many instances…
Here are changes that can help reduce the police-induced violence:
1. Eliminate both “absolute” and “qualified” immunity for all public officials. The threat of being sued personally would encourage them to behave themselves.
2. Any public funds disbursed to citizens as a result of police misconduct should come out of their pension funds–NOT from the taxpayers.
3. Regular drug-testing of police officers as well as incident-based drug testing should take place whenever an officer is involved in a violent situation with a citizen–no exceptions.
4. Testing for steroid use should be a part of the drug testing program. You know damn well, many police officers “bulk up” with the “help” of steroids. Steroids also affect users mentally as well, making them more aggressive. The potential for abuse of citizens increases greatly with steroid use.
5. Internal affairs should only be used for disagreements between individual officers–NOT for investigations involving citizen abuse. State-level investigations should be mandatory for all suspected abuses involving citizens.
6. Prosecutors should be charged with malfeasance IF any evidence implicating police officer misconduct is not presented to the grand jury.
7. A national or state-by-state database of abusive individuals who should NEVER be allowed to perform police work should be established–a “blacklist” of abusive (former) police officers.
8. Get rid of police unions. Police unions (fraternities) protect the guilty, and are responsible for the massive whitewashing of questionable police behavior that is presently being committed.
9. Most people are unaware that police have special “rules” that prohibit them from being questioned for 48 hours. This allows them to “get their stories straight” and makes it easier to “cover up” bad police behavior. Police must be subject to the same laws as civilians.
10. All police should be required to wear bodycams and utilize dashcams that cannot be turned off. Any police officers who causes a dash or body cam to be turned off should be summarily fired–no excuses. Today’s body and dash cams are reliable enough to withstand harsh treatment. Body and dashcam footage should be uploaded to a public channel “on the cloud” for public perusal.
11. All interrogations must be video and audio recorded. Police should be prohibited from lying or fabricating stories in order to get suspects to confess. False confessions ARE a problem in many departments. Unknown to most people, police can lie with impunity while civilians can be charged with lying to police…fair? I think not…
12. Any legislation passed that restricts the rights of ordinary citizens, such as firearms magazine capacity limits, types of weapons allowed, or restrictive concealed-carry laws should apply equally to police. No special exemptions to be given to police. Laws must be equally applied.
Police work is not inherently dangerous…there are many other professions that are much more dangerous.
A little “Andy Taylor” could go a long way in allaying fears that citizens have of police.
That being said, I have no problem with police officers who do their job in a fair, conscientious manner…however, it is time to call to task those police officers who only “protect and serve” themselves
No. Not justified.
Cops have permission to murder on the streets.
You may be next.
Definitely NOT.
We are so fucked…
Hard to tell exactly since the video points the wrong direction at the critical moment.
If there are other video’s available it would be easier to decide.
I will say that if someone tries to draw a pellet gun on me without me knowing it is only a pellet gun I would fire first before waiting to get shot to find out.
Not at all justified. That could have been any one of us. A few weeks ago it was LaVoy Finicum.
If you have a weapon on your person, the police call your murder justified. Whether you drew on them, threatened them, or not.
Killing is so much fun; just ask a cop.
To ‘Protect and Serve’ – equal footing with “Public Servant’ for politicians.
[img]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxD-5z_xHBU[/img]
Did they KNOW at the time it was a BB gun? And even BB guns can cause horrible injuries: http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/wesley-chapel-boy-shot-by-bb-gun-has-pellet-in-brain/1181312
I couldn’t give a shit about the cops and the niggers anymore. If a cop blast a nigger? Then he DSAF. Cop gets blasted? His widow becomes rich, and he get a nice send off with bag pipes, thousands of fellow cops showing up and maybe an USAF flyover.
Because he’s a hero, you see. A bigtime fucking hero. The nigger’s family gets a few million bucks and their 15 minutes of fame with Sharpton. Because the dead nigger’s a victim. A poor innocent victim.
Everything is monetized, everything has a price tag.
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flash, you reminded me of this:
There has GOT to be a better way to deal with these situations.
Thinker says:
Not at all justified. That could have been any one of us. A few weeks ago it was LaVoy Finicum.
If you have a weapon on your person, the police call your murder justified. Whether you drew on them, threatened them, or not.
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That is exactly why deciding to conceal carry is becoming more and more of a difficult decision.
You want the self-protection but not any remote reason to get gunned down by police (as if they need a reason anymore…).
It looks Justified.
Based on the video and the blurb, the cops were justified in using deadly force.
It looks shitty to have 5 armed dudes draw down on 1 guy whom we KNOW only has a BB gun, but we don’t see what happened before that moment and we got 20/20 hindsight. I wasn’t there, but I know cops don’t usually point guns at car accident victims.
I’m all for holding cops accountable for misdeeds, but would you really hold your fire if you had a guy who suddenly reached for a gun in his waistband? That kind of hesitation could get you killed.
Do you really expect cops to stop and ask questions when someone tries to whip a gun out? “‘Scuse us, Citizen, but is that a toy gun you’re aiming at us?” I would shoot all day long at anyone who appeared to be trying to pull a gun on me. Why would you presume innocence on the part of the person stupid or crazy enough to pull a gun on a cop?
I’m all for holding bad cops accountable and too few get caught, but you can’t blame the cops every time they use deadly force. If a black guy is a dumbass and thinks he can whip out a BB gun that looks like a real gun on the cops, he’s going to get shot and he’s going to deserve it.
It’s not illegal to act retarded, but it sure can get you killed.
Face it-a lot of black guys act like dumbshits with the cops. I don’t know why, or what they hope to gain, but they act like dumbshits and it’s like a total surprise to them when the cops react. I don’t know, maybe the black community has this collective delusion from decades of government coddling that causes them to think, “Well, they give me free food and free housing, free school and college, force people to hire and promote me, and they fight white racism for me; how could they ever seriously try to hurt me for expressing myself?” Maybe they just figure the cops will wing em’ and they can win a nice, fat lawsuit against the city?
Just look at Michael Brown-dude could have gotten away with his quickstop robbery if he had just walked on the sidewalk, but for some dumb reason, he had to be in the middle of the road, then mouthed off to the cop who told him to get on the sidewalk, then decided to assault the cop in his car, tried to grab the cops gun, and then charged the cop when he got out of his car. None of this stuff is rational and the cop shooting him should not be a surprise.
If you pull a gun, or even something that looks like a gun, on a cop, expect him to react. I’ve been pulled over several times in the last 20 years. Not once did a cop point a gun at me, even when I was doing 20mph over the limit. I’m respectful, keep my hands on the wheel, dome lights on, engine and radio off, telegraph my movements, and I don’t screw around. Maybe it’s just cuz’ I’m white, but I think my attitude had at least something to do with it.
As far as I can tell from the video and the blurb, that dude died because he was a dumbshit and the cops were justified in shooting him with the info they had at the time.
Rise Up- it’s not like it just happens to you. You don’t just step out of the door in the morning and the cops are waiting there to ambush you. Getting shot in this instance is more like the logical result of a series of bad choices. Like packing a BB gun to a police standoff. Like trying to beat a cop into submission in his car, then trying to shoot him with his own gun, then charging the cop when he gets out of the car. Like joining an ill-advised standoff with the feds packing heat.
Finicum probably didn’t need to get shot, but he also probably didn’t need to go take a pointless stand at an out of the way government office nobody ever heard of. That standoff with the feds was stupid. Taking guns to a standoff with the feds is even stupider. The actually successful protest movements in recent history eschewed violence.
I carry concealed and I have no fear of being ambushed. I generally try not to do anything wrong when I’m carrying, so I generally have no fear of being stopped.
gilberts
I agree almost 100% with everything you wrote. For sure, if the black guy SIMPLY COMPLIED ….. which is what most normal people would do … he would still be alive.
BUT, I disagree that killing him was justified. Why do copfuks ALWAYS shoot to kill? Are you saying there was NO OTHER WAY to disable the perp? None? What about shooting him in the legs, or arms. What about non-lethal weapons …. from what I hear, those beanbags pack quite a punch.
I’m sick and tired of copfuks murdering people.
I am not a cop and I have never shot anyone, but one thing I’ve learned over and over through the years in various capacities, including military, armed security, NRA-licensed instructor, concealed carry classes etc is that you never, ever shoot to wound. Various and sundry instructors over the years all emphasized to me you “always shoot to eliminate the threat.” That seems to be the closest legalese they can get to “always shoot to kill.” (my dad’s advice was always more pragmatic “Dead men tell no tales.” While you can’t shoot em’ in the back, you can still shoot them when they’re down if they’re still a threat to you. i.e, if they are still holding a gun, trying to reach a gun, arming a grenade, reaching for the laser deathbeam controls.
I’m all for using non-violence up to the point the guy whipped out a gun for no clear reason. Up to that point, sure, taser, ASP, bean bag, sticky goo, and taunt him into submission, but that guy DID whip out what looked like a gun, so it’s his fault he’s dead, not theirs.
Now, contrast that with the NYPD shooting years ago of a man who had his wallet in his hand. I forget how many hundreds of rounds they fired towards him (mostly misses), but all he had in his hand was a wallet. THAT was a good example of overkill. Or the time the Atlanta cops tossed a flashbang grenade into a (wrong) house and blew up a baby. THAT is overkill. Or the times the cops SWAT raided folks with delinquent college loans. THAT is overkill.
But this was not overkill in my opinion.
gilberts
Thanks for the detailed response. I understand your point and agree, again.
I should have been more clear. I actually did mean the cops should have shot him with bean bag, tazers, or whatever BEFORE it escalated to the black guy reaching for whatever. But, the copfuks had no interest in that. They were just itching to kill him. That’s criminal, imho, because copfuks SHOULD have a responsibility to minimize deadly force to the greatest extent possible.
Thanks, Stucky. I also agree with you-they should try to minimize loss of life. It should be job one. I just wish the blacks would act like black lives matter.
Hollywood needs to redo the Westerns. The Marshal gets to hold his gun on the bad guy and tells him to get on all fours. Then he tells him to stand up and when he does “bam bam bam!”; self defense because the bad guy obviously was going to go for his gun.