After BART Shooting: "We'll Reform Procedures"

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You gotta love it. Remember when the Abu Ghraib horror pics came out, and the military said the guards should have undergone better training? ("OK guys, it's a common misconception that civilians have, to think that it's a good idea to put detainees in sexually compromising positions and then taking pictures. But believe it or not, that's not how we do things in the US military.")

Well a similar spectacle unfolded today, when the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) board listened to complaints about the fatal shooting of a passenger on New Year's Eve: "The public asked the BART directors, and they agreed, to set up a committee to review procedures. They also discussed the possibility of creating a civilian review board."

I have to ask: Is there an actual procedure on the books right now, that says when you and other officers have an unarmed guy face down on the floor, that it's acceptable to stand up, draw your weapon, and kill him?

Now I'm a pacifist, so of course I don't condone the riots. Two wrongs don't make a right, and you're not going to convince Whitey to rein in the police by rioting. But if you haven't seen the video of what happened, you should check it out. The policeman is not your friend.

Comments

  1. TokyoTom1:16 AM

    Man, that's terrible.

    Another casualty of the war on drugs and the excessive force that is given to police as a result.

    It doesn't seem from the video that any use of a weapon is justified, but it also looks that the officer who did the shooting was shocked that he had actually fired his gun. Did he think he had a taser in his hand instead?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bob Murphy2:53 PM

    I don't know Tom. I couldn't really make out his expression, but the newscaster agrees with you that the officers were surprised by what happened.

    ReplyDelete

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