TheAgitator.com
When Cops Shoot
Saturday, July 10th, 2010Via the comments, here’s some interesting data on police shootings in California.
In most of the country, this information is extremely difficult to come by. There’s actually a federal law requiring the Justice Department to collect this information every year. The problem is that there’s no corresponding law requiring police agencies to provide it.
Speaking of which, I’ve received email demands that I post on the verdict in the Oscar Grant shooting. First, it’ll be the topic of my crime column Monday. Second, please stop demanding that I post on things, or drawing inferences about my opinions based on what I do or don’t write about. Most of the time, my failure to post on a story relevant to this site is usually a reflection of my having other things to work on. Or it may be that I’m preparing something longer than a blog post. Or that I need to find time to read more before I’m comfortable writing about it.
I think my favorite email in this vein said I’d be writing much more about this story if Grant had been white. There were two of those, actually.
radley the racist, i LOL’d
Maybe I’m just cynical, but my time as both a newspaper editor and a political consultant have taught me that the public is largely composed of idiots who can’t read or think. :-\
Hey Radley, you must write a post about the Double Rainbow dude. You must! The fact you haven’t shows you hate bears.
I loved the last sentence in the article:
“It’s a scandal in the sense that these are public servants who work for us and are paid to protect us.”
Ah, the naivety of innocence.
Does this mean that strangers are assuming that I only read the stories that I post on? I love the way people think they can read our minds…
I have a job, just as you do, Radley. I read many bloggers, including your website, more than once a day, but I don’t respond half as often as I would like to. If I’m busy, I can’t take the time to compose a comment even on posts that I feel strongly about.
I’ve sent you links before but just as “hey have you heard about this case”, not “you MUST write about this case”. I figure that you read more than I do and have to choose from many more topics than I’m aware of.
Keep doing just what you are now….I’m certainly not one of the complainers !
The Fed Govt has an obligation to collect, but the local cops do not have an obligation to provide? Wow, can I do that with my taxes? I’d make a lot of things really easy.
They don’t know you very well, do they?
The flip of the situation is that, when you hear local enforcement spout off about their restraint and decency, you can ask whether they have been providing all their shooting stats to the Feds. Are we just supposed to take their word for ….oh, never mind.
Radley, I demand more posts on your opinion on how the Obamada administration is dealing with endangered species. There are important things going on and the time to speak is now.
“I think my favorite email in this vein said I’d be writing much more about this story if Grant had been white. There were two of those, actually.”
Racist Radley? WTF? The bone heads who implied you’re racist need to get a GRIP!
You may be lots of things but racist is not among them!!
People should know by now this site isn’t about whether the victims are black or white. It’s about the fact that the shooters are blue.
Seriously Radley how can you have not written anything yet about the Australian music videos I wrote you about? Your priorities are messed.
Clarence Thomas’s nephew got on the wrong end of a taser. Shocking irony:
http://wonkette.com/416584/security-guards-punch-and-tase-and-pull-out-dreadlocks-of-clarence-thomas-nephew
Dear people who think Balko doesn’t care about black people: Google Cory Maye and STFU.
“The problem is that there’s no corresponding law requiring police agencies to provide it.”
And that is what you call a fucking “Cop Out”!
They ask for our income info as well, Try using the same excuse to the IRS!!!
http://sltrib.com/sltrib/home/49901735-76/oakden-allen-police-bountiful.html.csp
Another questionable police shooting……
“If you don’t come out here in 15 minutes,” Oakden said, according to the neighbor, “I’m going to drive it through my heart.”
Minutes later, Oakden died in a volley of police gunfire. Sixteen bullet holes marked the side of the mobile home and steps where he fell.
“Oakden also had his son’s toy gun stuffed inside his waistband, Allen said. When police arrived, Allen and Oakden were in front of Oakden’s home. Allen said Oakden swiped his hand away when he tried to take the toy gun out of Oakden’s waistband. ”
Shoot first, verify later….
You know the way to check out a potentially territorial and protective pet?
I demand additional posts on fun drinking establishments in downtown Nashville. Immediately, or least by October when I visit the city for the book festival.
And if I don’t get them, I’m going to start labeling Mr. Balko as anti-beer.
“Clarence Thomas’s nephew got on the wrong end of a taser. Shocking irony”
Im sure Clarence will back the security guards 100%. Its how he rolls. LOL, karma has a funny way of…
“I think my favorite email in this vein said I’d be writing much more about this story if Grant had been white. There were two of those, actually.”
Those 2 must be new around here.
Not knowing the personal views of his nephew, I have to feel bad for the guy that got tased. Even though watching Clarence Thomas be mad about it and make himself look like a total hypocrite in the process would be hilarious, it’d only be truly ironic if CT himself was the one who had gotten tasered. *Holds out hope he gets unruly with the police and has to be tasered “for the officers’ protection”*
I don’t see the irony in Thomas incident. I’m sure wonkette and the left are angry at him because of the McDonald ruling, but tasers aren’t guns. And I don’t recall reading or hearing much from Thomas that is as deferential to the state as the rest of SCOTUS. While he’s no libertarian, he seems to be the best and most consistent judge overall at protecting individual rights.
21- Except when the individual is a high-schooler strip-searched by school staff because one girl said she got ibuprofen from her. I liked him a lot until that case.
Along those lines, $500 fine for obstructing a police bullet
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/61297.html
Apparently cops are allows to break into your home without a warrant and if you resist, you’re the one going to prison.
croaker “Apparently cops are allows to break into your home without a warrant and if you resist, you’re the one going to prison.”
But remember…they hate us for our freedom!
Funny, I was going to demand more stories about rich teen fame-whores and the sex tapes they make.
Oh, and congratulations Radley, you know you’ve made it when people start thinking of you as an established authority figure with a set of public duties that can be called upon by random netizens. Cool!
Or that I need to find time to read more before I’m comfortable writing about it.
With that attitude, you’ll never graduate from Police Academy.
At this rate, expect to see homemade shaped charges built into doors very soon.
Regarding the federal law, important note: Congress LOVES to pass laws but never assign any funds or way to actually ENFORCE such decrees. It looks good come election time, although they don’t do a damn thing.
Perhaps if you are going to write about the Grant situation, you could include a comparison to this story – http://www.maderatribune.com/news/newsview.asp?c=56821 – of another officer that shot and killed someone that was in the back seat of her squad car. She also claimed to mistake her gun for her taser. In this case, no charges were brought against her.
So where here in the Bay Area we have to deal with racial tension and national scrutiny, this received attention.
“Funny, I was going to demand more stories about rich teen fame-whores and the sex tapes they make.”
You can forget it. Ive been emailing him about that everyday (sometimes more than once a day) and asking for that for the last couple years now.
There was a 15yr old in a stolen car shot and killed in california tonight. I dont know anything more about the circumstances as of yet tho.
Well, a lot of conservative pundits are convinced we are only talking about it BECAUSE the victim was black. And that if he was white, this would be a non-issue. Obviously, they simply ignored the Colombia, Missouri case.
Also, if cops can’t figure out the difference between a tazer and a gun, maybe they shouldn’t get to hold either?
I also eagerly await the next time an officer is charged with some form of sexual misconduct and insists he couldn’t tell the difference between his penis and his flashlight.
@TC, suicide by cop happens. I’m willing to cut police a lot of slack when they’re dealing with someone who’s clearly mentally unstable and an obvious potential threat. I tend to be a lot harsher in my criticism when police create the dangerous situation in the first place.
I’ve been reading you for a year +. Not a hint of racism or bias.
When tasers first came out a few decades ago they were shaped completely different than a pistol–like one of those Dirt Devil hand held vacuum cleaners. Then, a few years back, they changed to a pistol gripped configuration. The first time I saw one on a cop’s belt, in a holster opposite his pistol, at first I thought it was a backup gun. I remember thinking how easy it would be to mistakenly draw one when you intended to draw the other, especially given how people’s skills and perceptions are affected when the adrenaline starts pumping.
Given the *broadly* similar data for both police and civilian shooters, wouldn’t it be interesting to know what percentage of each category were criminally charged?
I apologize for the comment in the earlier thread, Radley. I was just hoping you might have a link to some other analysis of the decision beyond the MSM’s stories, not necessarily your own reaction yet.
A previous incident in which an officer faced no charges for mistaking their gun for a tazer:
http://www.maderatribune.com/news/newsview.asp?c=56821
kinda curious about why cops shoot when criminals are not following them?