Sunday, August 17, 2014

he spotted the cigars: chief struggley set the stage for darren "barney fife" wilson to walk...,

vox |  In the 1980s, a pair of Supreme Court decisions set up a framework for determining when deadly force by cops is reasonable. Those decisions have governed how state laws are applied. Furthermore, many agencies simply use identical standards to the Supreme Court's for their own use-of-force policies — though some departments don't let officers use deadly force even when the Court decisions say they'd be allowed to.

Constitutionally, "police officers are allowed to shoot under two circumstances," says Klinger. The first circumstance is "to protect their life or the life of another innocent party" — what departments call the "defense-of-life" standard. The second circumstance is to prevent a suspect from escaping, but only if the officer has probable cause to think the suspect's committed a serious violent felony.
cops can't shoot every felon who tries to escape

The logic behind the second circumstance, says Klinger, comes from a Supreme Court decision called Tennessee vs. Garner. That case involved a pair of police officers who shot a 15-year-old boy as he fled from a burglary. (He'd stolen $10 and a purse from a house.) The Court ruled that cops couldn't shoot every felon who tried to escape. But, as Klinger says, "they basically say that the job of a cop is to protect people from violence, and if you've got a violent person who's fleeing, you can shoot them to stop their flight."

Some police departments' policies only allow deadly force in the first circumstance: defense of life. Others have policies that also allow deadly force to prevent escape in certain cases, within the limits of the Supreme Court decision.
Does the convenience store robbery matter?
Shortly after releasing the documents that identified Brown as the primary suspect in a convenience-store robbery, the Ferguson Police Department clarified that Wilson had not known that Brown was a robbery suspect when he made "initial contact" with Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson. (Instead, the department says, Wilson stopped the teenagers because they were walking in the middle of the street.)
That phrasing doesn't make it clear whether or not Wilson believed Brown to be a robbery suspect when he started to shoot at him. If he did, it might then be up to the investigators and county prosecutor McCulloch to decide whether a "strong-arm robbery," as the Ferguson Police Department described the incident, counts as a violent felony. If they decide it does, that will go some way toward a legal justification for Wilson's action. On the other hand, Wilson would only be able to claim that he was justified if Brown was fleeing — which eyewitnesses say he wasn't.
It's most likely, however, that the whole question is moot. From the Ferguson Police Department's statements on the afternoon of August 15th, it doesn't sound like Wilson even knew about the robbery at all. In that case, there's no way for him to claim that he was justified in keeping a violent felon from fleeing, because he didn't even know Brown was a suspect in a crime at all.
Wilson could instead, however, claim "defense of life" — that he feared for his life when Brown (according to his story) assaulted him in his car. In that case, the next question will be whether it was reasonable for him to be afraid of Brown.

15 comments:

BigDonOne said...

"He spotted the cigars..."

In the Eye-Cue-Seven-Five community, those cigars are typically used to make "blunts" by removing the tobacco and replacing with weed....... Lissen to Mike Brown rappin' drugs here ---> https://soundcloud.com/bigmike-jr-brown

Naive Tom said...

BD in the words of the immortal Maddox http://maddox.xmission.com/,

"Don't you retards think before you click "Send" that maybe someone on the other end is actually going to read your stupid, malformed [comments] some day? It's almost like there's a record full of incomprehensible bullshit playing in your mind 24/7, and you put the needle down randomly and whatever it picks up, you just type it up in an email and shoot it off to me, usually mid-sentence."

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maddox

CNu said...

Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom..., I hope you see and appreciate the scope and extent of the obsession that BD proudly and energetically discloses hereabouts? You could go to any of the like-minded watering holes and you'd never in a million years see in such strikingly clear terms the exact nature of the fetish. I couldn't possibly make BD up. BD is a certain very peculiar truth, accept no substitutes....,

Naive Tom said...

Yeah, your "size and vitality" thing was straight from Maddox's record-player, but it isn't just random nonsense. It's a particular favorite Nonsense LP.

Obviously BD has a grain of sense -- I sure don't want my kid physically confronting an officer. But the grain is mixed into a really nasty bread dough

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergot

Vic78 said...

What's with this "The President needs to say something" bullshit? It sounds like they want him to hold their hands. I'm more concerned about the DOD and DHS that were giving Officer Dickweed every weapon known to man. Those departments do fall under the Executive Branch so asking about that would be a bit more sensible than begging the President to talk about racism.

I guess the usual suspects are so used to their circle jerks that they expect the Black President take part. When they could be dealing with him in the context of his constitutional duties. Melissa Harris-Perry's a poli-sci teacher so there's no excuse for her dicking around like she is. I appreciate Doc Dorian asking about Black pols inability to get shit done. That's something to talk about right there.

Ed Dunn said...

President Obama is only authorized to do what George HW Bush done with the LA Riots:

"President George H. W. Bush spoke out against the rioting, stating that "anarchy" would not be tolerated. The California Army National Guard, which had been advised not to expect civil disturbance and had, as a result, loaned its riot equipment out to other law enforcement agencies, responded quickly by calling up about 2,000 soldiers, but could not get them to the city until nearly 24 hours had passed because of a lack of proper equipment, training, and available ammunition which had to be picked up from the JFTB (Joint Forces Training Base), Los Alamitos, California.
...
In an attempt to end hostilities, Bill Cosby spoke on the NBC affiliate television station KNBC and asked people to stop what they were doing and instead watch the final episode ofThe Cosby Show.[37][38]
...
Widespread looting, assault, arson and murder occurred during the riots, and estimates of property damages topped one billion dollars. The rioting ended after soldiers from the California Army National Guard, the 7th Infantry Division, and marines from 1st Marine Division were called in to stop the rioting after the local police could not handle the situation. In total, 53 people were killed during the riots and over 2,000 people were injured."

My point is President Obama should just call Bill Cosby to speak instead of Al Sharpton...

CNu said...

rotflmbao@Double-0-should-just-call-Cos.....,

CNu said...

Bless his little tight kufi wearing heart, he just now startin to try. That was a big effort for the brother to login to blogger and get going. He is to be congratulated for personal initiative. that, or he finally got tired of having his lip poked out at grown mens blogs, and decided he could set up a folding table in the den and get busy....,

CNu said...

The focal point of HBD narrative nowadays, centers on earlier motor and sexual maturation among sub-saharan clines...,

Naive Tom said...

Oh, christ.

ken said...

I suspect they will be back-tracking on the "spotted cigars" claim...

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2014/aug/15/lawyer-store-didnt-call-cops-missouri-teen/?news

CNu said...

much more impressed with you than i am with myself about now....,

ken said...

Mark Steyn had that link embedded in his opinion piece. So he should get the credit...

CNu said...

You get credit for shedding your not-see blinders for a change, though the harsh glare coming off of this situation is enough to make a blind man see...,

ken said...

Autopsy shows 6 shots by the way.

When Zakharova Talks Men Of Culture Listen...,

mid.ru  |   White House spokesman John Kirby’s statement, made in Washington shortly after the attack, raised eyebrows even at home, not ...