Man shot by police in his own home

[dipmicro]

Man went about his own business in his own home when police emptied their guns into him:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/31/us/florida-police-shooting/index.html

The state attorney will determine whether or not any laws were broken.

Orwell would never fantasize about this outcome. Mind blowing.

Is this the society we want to live in ? Stasi took people from their homes at night, because they did not want to risk public outrage and getting lynched by neighbours. American fascist police shoots citizens publicly and nobody cares. Try to yell at a cop and you get arrested, beaten, tortured and jailed, they call it "processing". All we need is a job, house, car and authorities can do anything to us and everyone just looks away, because nobody wants to step out of their comfort zone. If this is just swept under the carpet, then people of North America are no different from field vegetables, cozy and comfortable on the sun, waiting to be picked by farmer.

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

And eye witness report from a man on the streetcar (the last one to leave) stated that Yatim never attacked anyone and even told the passangers and the driver to get off the bus. That man standing in front of Yatim said Yatim at no time thrust his knife or made any attempt to harm him.

Other people commented:

“They shot him nine times, he was just a kid. I mean what’s more powerful, a knife or a gun?” said Paul Girllo, 42, who lives at Bloor Street and Lansdowne Avenue. “Why wouldn’t they use a taser gun? I just find it appalling and disgusting. There was nobody with the kid anyway. He was on the streetcar by himself. I don’t see how much more de-escalation there needed to be.”

Keely Buckley, 23, also called the incident “disgusting,” as she looked at the memorial with a friend. “The kid wasn’t doing anything, he had a knife, and they had 12 people with guns. Who does that?”

[puckstopshere]

None of the people he threatened to murder in cold blood will be attended.  Neither did all the  others who feared for the safety of their friends on the streetcar.

There is no indication that he harmed anyone.

The point here is simple.  There were a half-a-dozen different ways of resolving this apparent standoff.

Any one of those options could have changed the outcome - namely Sammy would be alive today

to face trial by judge - rather than trial by police officer. 

The options:

- I am sure there are a number of high paid negotiators on the police force - negotiators who deal with armed (and I use the term lightly) standoffs on a regular basis.  

- Family members could have been located and brought to the scene to talk to the young man 

- Wait him out.  At some point, the young man would get tired and probably fall asleep. 

- Use a tranquilizer dart (if such things exist in the police arsenal, and if they don't, they should)

- Tazer him BEFORE shooting him, not after. 

- The officer who shot him could have waited for senior officers to offer him some guidance. 

   He appears to have been in no immediate danger.

It seems apparent that Officer Forcillo acted out of fear or from a severe addrenaline rush.  To empty your gun into a young man when one bullet might easily have disabled him shows that Forcillo clearly was not thinking rationally at the time of the shooting.

No one disputes that the young man was armed (although barely).  No one disputes that he represented some kind of threat. 

They dispute the fact that one police officer over-reacted and a young man or a young criminal died needlessly. 

[dipmicro]

Btw. what kind of penalty is suspension with pay ?

It's high time to show the cops it's not ok to hurt people, we keep them to protect us, otherwise we have no use for them. This guy will still receive the pension from me and from you.

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

Generally speaking I'm not big on a lot of this new technology, but, the abilities that people have to video tape things, including police brutality and murder, has finally balanced the scales somewhat. Now we just need politicians and a judicial system that finds some intestinal fortitude to make changes and eliminate, or punish, those who should not be police with uncontrollable power.

[puckstopshere]

Btw. what kind of penalty is suspension with pay ?

It is giving th officer the benefit of the doubt - assuming he is innocent until proven guilty.

Too bad the officer didn't give that same benefit of the doubt to Sammy.

Instead, he assumed he was guilty and meted out a harsh punishment.

It also has a lot to do with unions, lawyers, termination without cause suits, etc.

We live in a new world where many union employees are protected even when they don't deserve to be.

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

We live in a new world where many union employees are protected even when they don't deserve to be.

I stand up a lot for unions but the one instance that I abide by is when some employees should be fired but because they are union they can't be let go. I've seen it too many times including a guy who terrorized women employees at work. All the union did was transfer him to another location, with new women.