Police Execution?

Emotions Erupt; Dozens Arrested In Violent BART Protest - News Story - KTVU San Francisco (http://www.ktvu.com/news/18434205/detail.html)

I guess this was to be expected.

It was an anecdotal claim, one that can't be verified with statistics since those types of statistics aren't kept by the DOJ. Even if they were, you can't qualify "a lot" as "factual" since it's a relative term.

Anyway, the issue is not the incidence of police violence in this country (which I'm guessing falls somewhere between Denmark and Zaire, although I don't know and neither do you) but rather the acquittal rate of police officers accused of excessive violence, often in spite of inculpating evidence. Again, speaking anecdotally, the police have walked with little to no punishment in almost every case I can remember. I found it particularly illustrative that, in this case, in which a video and witness testimony appear to be pretty damning for the officer, you have taken it upon yourself to be this cop’s Jonny Cochran - questioning the credibility of the video and witness and everything but the officer himself. I think in such a case as this it is important that we hold the officer to the same standards we hold other citizens. While we all accept the officer’s right to use lethal force when necessary, this comes with limits, and in this case they appear to have been breached.

"Appear" is the key word here. I agree it appears pretty damning. Does that mean the guy should be denied his day in court? Are we now going to put every crime up to a vote based on appearances? Because we are a nation supposedly subject to the Rule of Law, the cop is entitled to "the same standards we hold other cititzens". If it's a slam dunk case (as it appears), fine. Let him present evidence in his defense and then he can be judged. Right now, any assertion as to the reasons for his actions are highly speculative.

IF he freaked out and meant to grab the taser but grabbed his gun and still followed through with his intent to fire at the victim then he needs to find a different, less stressful job.

Hopefully his new job is banging out license plates in a state prison. After a long day of that, his roommate, bubba, has a long day stamping his license plate.

While I don't agree with what seemed to have transpired in this incident, nobody is talking about what got the police all fired up and called out there in the first place. If these people were not causing trouble of some sort, why were the cops called? 2am on New Years...get your ass home and stay out of trouble, its really not that difficult if you ask me.

It's like the professional athletes that we see get in trouble for DUI, drugs, etc. Keep yourself isolated from potential trouble and the chances of you being arrested, harrassed, or even shot by the police are very minimal.

It's New Years!!!! If there's one day of the year where people have a legit reason to be out at 2 am it's f'ing New Years!!! Especially if they're riding the train rather than getting hammered and driving!

Riots erupt in Oakland after slain father laid to rest - CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/08/BART.shooting/index.html)

At least 105 people arrested and probably going to get worse. I think a little common sense does wonders here as to what really happened. Obviously the police chief, DA and mayor would want to do everything possible to justify what happened and calm people down. The most cogent statement they could make is something to the effect of "the kid had a gun on his person" or "officers saw what they thought was a gun" or something to that effect. All we have is silence, and remember there are at least 3 videos of the incident they have reviewed - two station cameras and the phone video - which tells a reasonable person there is nothing that shows a weapon of any kind. Add the simple fact nobody at the scene, including the cops, have mentioned anything about a weapon.

Seems to me like no on is trying to make any excuses for the officer. I believe in innocent until proven guilty, I champion it, but that's a seriously damning video. Even if the kid verbally assaulted the officer, or had a knife on his person, hell, even if he had a gun on him there's no excuse for the sequence of action that took place as seen in the video. Clearly if he had a gun he could have used the gun on the officers, you know, before they had him on the ground, facing down and with two of them on top of him.

It's New Years!!!! If there's one day of the year where people have a legit reason to be out at 2 am it's f'ing New Years!!! Especially if they're riding the train rather than getting hammered and driving!

Very true...but I just don't understand the circumstances of those people being yanked off the train in the first place. Was it a random? Was it a hit? Were they causing trouble? Even if they were causing trouble I am sure it was nothing to get shot over, but my point is if you weren't causing trouble your ass wouldn't be sitting against a wall being detained by the police in the first place.

what i dont understand is all the vilolence thats happening because of this. the cop will get his. what does burning shit, and stealing stuff have to do with it?

...what does burning shit, and stealing stuff have to do with it?

It's a TRADITION, FFS!