KOMO-TV – Seattle, Washington – National & World News – Man fatally shot by police on day of his wedding — Cripes. Talk about a bad day!
But minutes after walking out of the club and getting into their car, something went wrong. A block away, their Nissan Altima rammed into an undercover police officer and an unmarked NYPD minivan, authorities said.
Police fired 50 rounds at vehicle, killing the 23-year-old Bell, a father of two young children. His two friends, Trent Benefield, 23, and Joseph Guzman, 31, were badly wounded. The men were not carrying guns…The rounds fired at the car hit the vehicle 21 times, and also sprayed nearby homes and a train station, though no residents were injured. One officer fired his weapon 31 times, emptying two full magazines, Kelly said. Police thought one of the men in the car might have had a gun. But armed with a search warrant, police found no weapons.
found by Aric Mackey
There’s no excuse for this…
Within the last several days a little old lady was shot in a wrong door raid down in Atlanta, though the police tried to excuse themselves by saying she had a gun. So, look around your house, and realize that if you have a gun in your home, or if you accidentally run into an undercover officer’s car, most of the police departments in the nation would consider your murder to be fully justified, no matter how egregious their mistakes. It is vital as a nation that we dispel this cloud of unaccountability before our police get so used to shooting the innocent that it becomes a sport, or worse, a tool of oppression.
Its a little late to be upset about this sort of thing. This is now a country where you get beaten by the policy for showing up to a protest and expressing your opinion loudly, and peace activist groups who get together to bake cookies get spied on by police. Where the police can, and do, listen to every phone call and email. The police can enter your house and search it, and don’t even have to tell you. Where the poice can arrest you, and dont have to give you a reason, or tell anyone they arrested you, least of all a judge. Where they can torture you and murder you, and are granted immunity for their actions.
Could be oppressive one day? How about, is oppressive now. This guy was just an innocent bystandard.
The policemen need to be brought up on charges of murder and found guilty. I understand how dangerous their job is (I’ve got two MPs in the Army right now, one of them in Iraq), but this is beyond stupidity.
I can’t get over the fact that only 21 rounds hit the car out of 50. What kind of panic would make an officer miss that much?
#2 – And what happens when the person involved in such a situation also turns out to be a cop him/herself?
It’s an extremely sad situation.
News is always reporting police shootings, beatings, bogus evidence … but it never seems to result in a successful prosecution of a police person. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/11/23/state/n101420S55.DTL
Then on top of that you have these police shows showing people being arrested after being wrestled, kicked to the ground with a foot on the suspect head. We live in a brutal police state, that you must fear and obey. Government for the people by the people is bullshit.
There is just too, too much evidence Americans are just too ignorant to understand appropriate justice, they only care about themselves and have this dumb blind obedience to authority. They rule by their feelings (we are making you safe) and not their head (not educated enough to know better).
Police don’t just enforce the law, they make and interpret the law that best suits their career.
http://www.hr95.org/tulia.htm
The more aggressive our police are becoming the more crime their seems to be (I am beginning to doubt it’s the other way around, think IRAQ). It’s the same mentality that got us into IRAQ, might make right. Every police interaction seem to result in a perishable live being negatively and permanently altered. Who care, what one less citizen on the tax roles anyway. Go have a donut America.
I don’t see America becoming a better place.
The more aggressive our police are becoming the more crime their seems to be
And you base this on? Maybe the breakdown of family values has something to do with this. The glorification of violence through movies, music and video games.
The policemen need to be brought up on charges of murder and found guilty
Based on what? A quick news story without all the facts. The ranting and ravings of that fat, blow hard Al Sharpton (Twana Brawly anyone)
Would you want to judged and convicted in the media without all the facts being brought to light.
I can’t get over the fact that only 21 rounds hit the car out of 50. What kind of panic would make an officer miss that much?
Have you ever been in a panic situation? The vehicle just hit one of your officers, it hit another unmarked car and the involved were overheard talking about a gun. In this tense situation, the best training men work on adrenaline. If you think you can do better, then congratulations, you get the gold star and are obviously better then most humans.
gquaglia – on what? On the fact they shouldn’t have had guns or badges if they behaved like that. No excuse. None. You cannot justify that.
Note the IF, because if the article is wrong, fine. If it’s not, then will you agree that their actions were wrong?
Quiggy, it seems to me that the facts speak for themselves. There wasn’t no WMDs and there wasn’t no gun – I’m pleasantly surprised that the cops forgot to bring one for themselves, just in case.
The cops think it’s fine to shoot and taser people to their hearts’ content. In Iraq, they think it’s fine to shoot civilians just for being in the wrong place, ask questions later. The fundamental problem is lack of moral clarity in our leaders, of course, but it doesn’t excuse the cops from doing this sort of thing. Perhaps they will be a bit surprised when they meet their maker and he asks, did you love your neighbor?
If this happened to my family I would make sure there was citizen justice after the fact, but only after the officers were let off. By no means am I a violent man, but a lethal response to innocent officers and their various precincts crosses some minds. There is no excuse for this! Absolutely none.
For some reason now I actually think those militias in Montana and Wyoming make sense.
BTW: I am a full blooded Libertarian. There’s a reason for the 2nd amendment in the Constitution
“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
#6, Based on what? A quick news story without all the facts. The ranting and ravings of that fat, blow hard Al Sharpton (Twana Brawly anyone)
Don’t you think the Mayor also might have jumped the gun here?
“Although it is too early to draw conclusions about this mornings shootings … we know that the NYPD officers on the scene had reason to believe that an altercation involving a firearm was about to happen and were trying to stop it,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement.
Did they have reason to believe? Or did they panic? They were correct, an altercation with firearms was about to happen and it did, by several murderous police officers.
Al Sharpton went to the hospital where the two wounded men were handcuffed to the bed. They have not been charged with any crime, so why are they handcuffed?
gq, your comment about Al Sharpton is bigoted and uncalled for. Your police comrades killed an innocent man and in panic mode YOU are blaming the victims.
Mr Fusion, my comments about Al Sharpton are based on a history of this man, playing the race card, stirring up racial emotions and otherwise reckless behavior. Sharpton is one of the biggest racists around, while he had mellowed somewhat in later life, he still stirs the pot whenever it suits him.
If a court of law finds these officers guilty, then I will accept their actions as wrong, but until then, I will give them the benefit of the doubt. They deserve the same rights they you all here profess to hold so dear.
#11 “If a court of law finds these officers guilty, then I will accept their actions as wrong, but until then, I will give them the benefit of the doubt. They deserve the same rights they you all here profess to hold so dear.”
Is pure bull. A most Blaring Case in point:
Q1 Did you give OJ that same “benefit of the doubt”??? (Y/N)
Q2 Do you feel the Verdict is correct??? (Y/N)
Q3 Do you feel the police planted evidence as the defense claimed??? (Y/N)
I suspect you will recoil in indignation with the comparison, but; for you statement to be an honest statement (I doubt it) of your claimed blind obedience to the system, all your answers have to be YES. Otherwise you are just another typical right wing BUSHIE hypocrite.
Why do people continually get upset over this sort of thing?
The people who make the laws have always a lenient hand with the police.
Those same people have invested so much time and effort into this sort of thing that they’ll defend length & breadth of the law – even when the law is wrong.
What better alternative do you have?
#11 How about less laws? A nation with as many laws as ours is essentially lawless, as the application of the law can only be selective. A constitutional amendment dictating that a law must be struck away for every one signed, or something along those lines would be useful, but more than anything we have to start with some sort of demand for accountability. Letting people get away with abuse of power is to let go of the grass and just slide right down the slope into Hell.
I meant #13, my bad. 😛
Brief note to No.4. Most cops won’t practice and as a result, they tend to miss more than civilians do. If you want some fun, visit a pistol range on the day before their requalification shoot. What you’ll see will be sobering.
As an example, I recall one requalification shoot that I went to, where the guy in the next lane was pulling the trigger as soon as he’d cleared his holster. He put most of his rounds into my target, and that before I could even start shooting,. Then again, I tend to line up my sights on the target first.
If you’ll check the writings of such people like the late Jeff Cooper, you’ll find that police tend to fire a lot and hit little, no matter where you go. The one place where I don’t want to be, is anywhere where the cops are shooting at anything.