I would say cops in my area are held accountable, every little use of force incident goes under investigation. I don't know how many times liability and vicarious liability was stressed to me in the academy. I don't think there is any "they can do no wrong mantra" just check out Officer.com or PoliceOne any day of the week and see how many times officers are in trouble for actions on or off duty.

Weren't you trying out to be an officer at one time Franko? Your posts seem to go way beyond someone who is simply critical of the police.

 

the apple doesn't fall far from the tree

 

How is that? I didn't raise him. His mother took him away many states away. If I raised him, he wouldn't be like he is and done the things he has done. She was to busy with the serta tattoo on her back to care much about my boys. And like I said. I will NEVER be in a position to have the cops look at me any other way than clean. I just don't get myself into those kind of situations.

 

This incident was a very costly mistake. I don't believe the Officer meant to pull the trigger, but it happened, and that is something the Officer and the victim's family will have to live with for the rest of their lives. I truly hope I never come close to being in such an incident, but yes, Officers are humans too and bad things will happen to even the best of us. Prayers to everyone who is involved in this tragedy.

As an aside, there are lot of immature posts in this thread. It is quite frustrating and a little disappointing reading some of the comments from some of the "regulars" who are not Officers, but seem to think they know more than anyone else about the profession and laws. If you are not in the profession, I guess you can never know the pressures of always trying to stay one step ahead of the citizens you contact.

 

Not a good judgement call for the cop, hes toast and should be. Unless they can prove he was strapped with explosives or had a grenade, seriously. I wonder if the cop pulled his weapon for the sole purpose of showing force rather than using it and had a accidental release? I bet you money they will use that angle and he will walk might not ever be a cop again but he will walk.
I agree with you neuspeed, we see things different from those who are not withing the LE umbrella, I for one agree with the fact that we dont need to over use force. They always hate us untill they need us they they complain because we dont do our jobs so tough there situation gets solved.

 

Well said neuspeed, I was also disappointed in the responses here therefore I've tried to stay away, I get enough of this bias crap every day especially when I'm trying to do the right thing and help people.....the police just aren't looked at the same as they were 50 years ago. The public thinks we can never do right but we are the first to be called when they are in need, it has become a very thankless job. Since there is a lot of assumptions in this thread, I doubt I would be too far off by saying many of the immature, cop bashing post are coming from people who have been in trouble with the law before, and have already established a negative view towards the police.
Like I said in my previous post, I'm not saying what happened is right, and the officer could very well be at fault, but I will not jump to conclusions and "hang" this man like the media and the public have already done.

 

Some views are justified

 

The video looks bad...I would have to side with the victim...


But yet I hope that there was some reason to justify what the cop did.

If there is not, I hope the cop burns in hell...

I have to reserve judgment, but it does pretty bad.

 

I don't understand what you are trying to point out here?

 

I agree with immature cop bashing. However, I see it like this:

If it was intentional with no grounds, the cop is meat.

If it was accidental, the cop is meat.

I have a SDA license. If my weapon accidentally discharges and kills someone, I am looking at negligent homicide, at least. And I gladly accept under the understanding that carrying a firearm is a great responsibility. If I am careless with the way I handle my firearm, I should not have been granted a SDAL.

If we are trying to make this about stress levels,... there is not a profession out there where stress levels excuse inappropriate decisions or accidents. Doctors have malpractice suits, people get fired. The only difference here is peoples' security is in the hands of our boys in blue.

As far as it being a thankless job,... if a peace officer needs thanks for his job, he is in the wrong line of business. I save my company millions a year. I help the guys who use our products by making them easy to install and configure. I make the lives of our consumers easier everyday by taking part in providing a reliable, efficient, money saving product. Do I ever get thanks? And you know what, I dont need it. Its my job to do those things.

 

The talks of a missfire reminded me of this video. Thankfully, this officer had horrible aim.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ez34Kg86AU

 

You might be right on the example, but i was just trying to say its a tool we use. Yes his first mistake was drawing his firearm, the second was accidently discharging it into to the kid.

As cajunjosh said the days of getting over with excessive use of force are over. You would be amazed of how much chit i have in a patrol car to track every freaking move i make, gps computer, cameras, mike on uniform records every freaking word i say. And talk about incident reports, there's a form for everything we might do. Boy I miss the good old days, just a few more years and I'm out of here.

 

Did it ever occur to you that the reason he was getting beat was because he was bearly coherent to begin with and resisting arrest for DUI because he was speeding and weaving in traffic drunk off his *** and high as a damn kite?

I know what we should do, even though these men put their lives on the line and have to walk the streets while we sleep all cosy in our homes, the second that they make a mistake they should be hanged.

I understand that it sucks for this guys family, but he obviously is not doing his part to make society better. He's out late some night getting in fights on the public transit system. Does that mean he should have been killed, NO. But I come back to my original statement: If you don't want to get shot by the cops, don't put the cops in a position where they would feel like they need their weapon.

 

I like the police video where the cop jumps up on the hood of the monte carlo, kneeling down and blasts shots into the driver. . . thank god for video

 

Ok I'm going to post this up to make a point, take a look at this video...
http://s66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...ceshooting.flv

Tell me if you think it's a good shoot or not. DO NOT POST WHY you think it is good or bad. After a while I'll post the reason why I say this. I'm only doing this to show how different people will react to seeing the same thing.