A Colorado police officer who fatally shot a Black man holding what turned out to be a cellphone as police tried to arrest him will not be prosecuted.
  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    68·
    2 months ago

    And here I was totally thinking that there would be justice for a black man murdered by the cops this time for sure. For sure.

  • DominusOfMegadeus@sh.itjust.works
    39·
    2 months ago

    Even the text description in the article doesn’t sound close to the officers’ testimony. I can confidently say that I have never seen anyone take a cell phone out of their pocket, and thought they were pulling a gun.

      • QuarterSwede@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 months ago

        The other issue is that they were primed to think he had a gun since they were pursuing him in connection with a shooting. The other problem is he failed to do what most who get killed by cops don’t do, follow their instructions. If they tell you to get on the ground just fucking do it immediately. Doesn’t matter why or what else you think. Follow their instructions to a T and you’re a lot less likely to get injured.

        • Miles O'Brien@startrek.websiteEnglish
          29·
          2 months ago

          follow their instructions

          I’m white.

          I have been stopped, at gunpoint, by cops who were both screaming different things ranging from “get off the bike” to “get on the ground”, “turn around”, “face us and walk forward with your hands out”, and “drop your bag” which for the record was strapped to my back with a waist belt on.

          Luckily another car rolled up seconds later and when one of the cops inside ran over to them they exchanged a few sentences and then the ones that were pointing guns at me seconds before, one says “you’re good to go.” and the first two leave like nothing happened. The ones that came up a minute behind came over and told me someone was purse-snatched at a specific shoe store across town and fled on a green bicycle 10 minutes beforehand. I was about 6 miles away, and riding a red bike

          I fully believe that if the first cops had stopped someone who wasn’t white, or if I had tried reaching for my waist buckle on my bag, they would have opened fire.

          LMAO “just follow their orders” what a fucking joke.

    • mindaika@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      21·
      2 months ago

      Sure, but have you seen a black guy do it while you’re strapped and desperately waiting for an excuse to start shooting?

      • DominusOfMegadeus@sh.itjust.works
        4·
        2 months ago

        Of course! Except that I don’t own a gun, and the excuses for shooting people I’m looking for are neither the same excuses nor the same people as these characters.

          • leftzero@lemmynsfw.com
            4·
            2 months ago

            Albion voted to go fuck itself, so speaking as an European it should go and do that, until it votes to come crawling back and passes a looong vetting process (and this time no weird money, and we get to set the colour of the passports, even though every other member can choose theirs freely).

          • NiHaDuncan@lemmy.world
            4·
            2 months ago

            I mean… just about everything that’s old-world, north of Africa, west of the Urals, and north/west of Istanbul is considered Europe.

            The extent of Europe is very broad, with even Iceland being considered a part of it; and it isn’t bound politically. For example, Denmark is considered to be in Europe but Greenland (a territory of Denmark) isn’t, but then again, the Faroe Islands (another territory of Denmark) is.

            You might be thinking more along the lines of the EU (European Union) which is the third iteration of the dominant political/economic entity in much of Europe, born in 1993 when it legally became a person. Where the EU actually reaches across the entire globe due to overseas regions, collectives, and municipalities.

  • The2bEnglish
    32·
    2 months ago

    Me: Claims to be fearing for my life

    Also me: Fires only a single shot

    You don’t fire once in a self defense scenario. He knew what he was doing.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      2 months ago

      Yep.

      When you fear for your life you keep firing. at least a few shots, if not emptying the entire mag.

      This was an assassination.

  • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
    29·
    2 months ago

    Aurora officer. Gotta clarify. There are bad cops and then there are the worst ever, Aurora are in top running for worst and can’t seem (or don’t want) to clean up their shit. They also killed Elijah McClain by commanding medical responders to drug him to death in a scenario that shouldn’t be possible.

    Don’t understand why we keep letting these shitstains off.

  • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
    7·
    2 months ago

    Cops are always hiding behind the same lame shield, “the officer fired in self defence”, “the suspect appeared to have a weapon”, “the officer fired when there was a credible threat to his life”…

    It’s all fucking bullshit. The officer fired because he was a big fucking removed who was too afraid of black people to do his job, and instead killed an innocent he was supposed to protect.

    In war you have rules of engagement, generally it tends to include something like “don’t fire unless you’re fired upon”, as you don’t want to accidentally start a war. That seems like a sensible code to me, and I think it’s pretty crazy that we would say that to soldiers, but not police. A fighter pilot can track another aircraft, knowing full will that it is armed, and if they are not cleared to engage, they still manage to stand down every time. Perhaps police just need clearer rules. Don’t fire unless fired upon, or else it’s murder. That would be clear. Since apparently you can’t take the racist out of the cop, then we can at least take the decision making out of his hands.

    Firing because you see someone who might be armed… That’s just deportable, it’s criminally incompetent. I don’t care if you’re afraid for your life, if you were afraid for your life because you thought you saw a gun, quit the force. Today.