30
votes
"Incident" - How US police officers react when a killing is caught on tape
Link information
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- Title
- How Police Officers React When a Killing Is Caught on Tape | "Incident" | The New Yorker Documentary
- Authors
- The New Yorker
- Duration
- 30:03
- Published
- Aug 28 2024
Wow, fuck that.
My cousin became a police officer in San Jose in 2018. I attended his wedding just after he had finished boot camp that summer. He had joined the army at 19, dropping out of college to do so, and had intended to join the navy seals. The army learned he had a heart defect during intake and he spent his 4 years as a grunt in Hawaii (honestly sounded like a very cush gig). We hadn't spoken in about 5 years, as we don't really see eye to eye, but I wanted to hear how things were going and congratulate him. I asked how the job was, and unprompted the first thing he says is "you know what you do if someone grabs for your gun? ... You shoot them. You know what you do if someone attacks you from behind? ... You shoot them. You know what you do if it's 2 on 1? ... You shoot them." So I just flippantly said, "sounds like the answer to everything is to shoot them". To which he smiled and said "Not everything, but it's protocol for a lot of engagement." I was pretty fucking floored. I left after that, cause fuck supporting that. It felt like he just wanted to kill people. Like he was getting to live out his violent dreams of being a navy seal on the streets of suburbia.
A year later he had shot and killed 3 people. In a fucking year! The first incident involved a chase following a drive by shooting. A call had gone in that a 2000s Honda Civic (the most generic fucking car imaginable) had been involved in a drive by shooting. He and his partners came across a Honda Civic on the freeway and when they went to pull them over, the car took off. They chased the car, eventually ending up in a cul-de-sac and when the driver pulled the car around to get back out they unloaded into the car and killed everyone inside. The 3 people in the car had fled because they were here illegally, and had absolutely nothing to do with the drive by. Surprise surprise. None of the offers involved saw any reprimand or punishment.
The second incident was similar to the "Incident" video. He was conducting a stop, one of the guys ran causing the other guys to run, and he unloaded into one of them. He said they were attacking him and again no charges or punishment.
It's wild to me that someone with violent tendencies can have their worst traits and dreams turbo charged and then be unleashed on a population like this.
That is really crazy!
I used to know a veteran cop. He was my school bus driver, but he had decades of previous experience as a narcotics officer. He told me that he shot exactly two people over the course of his entire career. They were non-fatal (in both cases, it was a single bullet to the lower leg), and he wasn't even on the job one of those times (a couple of guys broke into his home carrying weapons).
He himself was shot once, in the mouth. It fortunately just missed his brain stem, but it did knock out most of his teeth and damaged his neck and lower jaw (he had false teeth and a lot of visible scarring).
Based on these shootings, he considered himself to have had an abnormally violent and dangerous career on the force. I doubt he is still alive now, but if he is, I think he would be absolutely floored by some of the stories about police violence coming out these days.
Someone sent me this documentary last week and I haven't been able to get it out of my mind.
A warning - the video is upsetting. It is a collection of body cam and CCTV footage recorded during a police shooting and the immediate aftermath.
Having said that, I think this is worth sharing and deserves more than the paltry 19k views it has now. It captures everything.
Body cameras should be controlled, administered, and monitored completely by an independent 3rd party. There is no reason for them not to be 100% reliable at this point. Not that it would have stopped this tragedy, but it would have at least removed one excuse.
"All officers on the scene turn off your cameras". This phrase being uttered should result in firings at minimum. If it's uttered in the aftermath of a death, it should result in prosecutions. This is absolutely horrifying.
Fuckin', wow. Both entirely unbelievable, and horrifying expected series of "incidents".
Could anyone with the appropriate permissions edit the link to remove the tracking/“share ID” part (and mark this comment as off-topic)?
It’s a shame Google, Spotify and others do this at all, but at least it’s – currently – still preventable with just a tiny bit of manual effort, or even setting up an extension to do it. (:
@mycketforvirrad
Performed the deed 33 minutes ago. 😊