rbwhatever1 wrote:Stupid avoidable tragedy. Police Officers are paid to put their lives on the line. Not the lives of Citizens. It's a higher calling of Duty. Sacrifice. Honor. Courage. I see the opposite here. An American Citizen gunned down because a Police Officer refused to put his life on the line and protect the very citizens he is entrusted to protect and serve.
The fact of the matter is, that this is a case of mistaken identity, HOWEVER, if the tables were turned and the old man shot the cop, I seriously doubt that the old man would be out on "administrative PAID leave." He'd probably be sitting in jail pending payment of bail, if he can afford it. This is NOT liberty. Liberty is when the law applies equally to all citizens, cops or not. Being in the government doesn't give you special powers over others because it is a government BY THE PEOPLE and FOR THE PEOPLE, so if anything, the power of government should be less than that of the people.
Sadly, too many cops think that everyone else should "Obey my authority!" (or else suffer a violent end).
P.S. the take away message is this: ALWAYS treat every interaction with LEO with kid gloves, record video, audio, and post online immediately so that it couldn't be deleted off your phone later. Remember, cops are people too, some are good and some are bad. Be careful out there....
P.P.S. Here's some fun footage of a cop who shoots an unarmed woman dead for rolling up her windows and driving away because she wouldn't obey his verbal orders to stop her car. He lies and claims that she dragged him with her car. However, an eyewitness saw the officer shooting the woman once after she drove away. Then, to cover up his crime, he chases after the car on foot as it slows down (woman was shot) and then fires 5 more times to make sure the woman is dead (so she can't tell her side of the story).
http://youtu.be/BSPhC916GQM
The husband of the slain woman then "dies of natural causes" after he files a $5.3 million lawsuit against the police. Guess who ruled that it was "natural causes"? Police investigators! At the very least, another police department or the FBI should investigate it or internal affairs should investigate it. Instead, the wolves are telling the sheep, "it wasn't me."
http://youtu.be/V7zYqCvLbWQ
Police officers should all be elected officials. We should all push for that. That's the only way to weed out rogue cops that I can see.
Here are some cops who beat a man LYING ON THE GROUND to death. Witnesses had it all on video. Cops confiscated the video.
http://youtu.be/7taxYcpEfX4