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Ignorantsloth t1_j8fawst wrote

Reply to comment by Yousoggyyojimbo in Police in Shreveport accused of fatally shooting unarmed Black man who was running away by WE-NEED-MORE-CATS

The problem with this is that they can just say they think that person was going to be a harm to others. Now they are justified in being an executioner.

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Yousoggyyojimbo t1_j8fcap0 wrote

When I say they need cause, they need provable cause.

You need a solid justifiable reason and a solid explanation for why you thought it was possible. You can't just say well, he was running and maybe he was gonna do something bad. Unless that guy was shouting that he was going to go kill somebody, specifically charging another person, something like that, they've got no actual cause.

If a cop can't figure out that a guy just running away to get away isn't probable cause to murder him, they shouldn't be a cop.

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Ignorantsloth t1_j8fesf3 wrote

This is the system we have now though. The problem is cops aren't actually held accountable for their actions.

Who is going to investigate the cops killing someone. Other cops? "We have investigated ourselves and found that we have done nothing wrong."

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Yousoggyyojimbo t1_j8fft0e wrote

If they get to do this all the time without repercussions, it's not actually the system we have now.

Very clearly there needs to be another judicial/investigative body that investigates the police. I don't think anybody has doubted that for the last 50 years

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Ignorantsloth t1_j8fh18b wrote

What would guarantee those that the other body could not be corrupted or for any other reason be swayed to be in favor of the state? I think that this would just be the same situation we have now but with more steps and even less responsibility for the police.

Reforming the system to remove any opportunity for police to behave this way is what I think makes most sense.

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Yousoggyyojimbo t1_j8fhbtr wrote

If we assume nothing will ever possibly work then we may as well just never talk about any problems. The way you are leading this means that literally no solution is good if human beings are involved in any capacity. You can apply it to literally any situation.

This is making the mistakes of letting perfect be the enemy of good.

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mybreakfastiscold t1_j8g7k6h wrote

Thinking. Ha, thats a good one.

This cop was amped up on adrenaline and probably steroids. Heightened heart rate from running. Big ego. Not a single valid thought flowed through that brain of his

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Ignorantsloth t1_j8gmzpd wrote

I think underestimating cops intelligence is dangerous. I think it is an easy scapegoat and helps remove responsibility for these people.

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[deleted] t1_j8gsjnt wrote

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Ignorantsloth t1_j8hping wrote

Let's not give them too much credit here. I mean you can't think that they aren't actively making these choices to kill people. Putting the blame just on poor training and heightened alerted states is helping to remove the responsibility they should have for these murders.

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Kharnsjockstrap t1_j8g4jfl wrote

To be fair it can be quite vague in a lot of cases. For example if someone is accused of a violent assault and then flees toward a group of people when police approach them is it reasonable or unreasonable to think he could harm someone if he’s able to reach the group. Or if someone is wanted for murder and flees police should police be held accountable for another murder they commit after escaping when they could have shot the person while they were fleeing?

This all hinges on reasonable belief and of course this calculus changes if it’s drug related and no weapon is involved or something but personally when it comes to fleeing felon type rules there’s reasonable arguments in both directions.

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