Officer, fearful of reaction to using force, hesitates and ends up pistol whipped

[UKRxman93]

Birmingham Police officer pistol whipped and left semi conscious on a sidewalk. Bystanders take pictures and post mockery on the internet.

http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/09/co...book-and-mock/

[Darrell KSR]

The officer had every right to shoot the perp, who was unarmed. Instead, he didn't, and was beaten and could've been killed.

If the officer would have shot him, then he would have shot an ‘unarmed man.’ Instead, he took the gun from the officer. The officer had every right to shoot him. We’re lucky we’re not talking about him killing the officer.”

The tweets from the #F*ckdapolice folks were abominable. I'd like to charge this with something.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/09/co...#ixzz3iqjqShg8

[jazyd]

It won't be the last

[PedroDaGr8]

I'm sorry but this is an excuse to try to go back the previous established quo.
http://popehat.com/2015/08/14/my-bad...rce-decisions/

A cop made a bad use of force call. Thank God he lived. But a bad use of force call is not a good argument for less scrutiny of use of force. "I have trouble making decisions because of fear of how I will be treated in the media" does not convey "I'm capable of good judgment about the use of force, so you should trust me more."

Consider: the officer and his supporters aren't saying that he hesitated using deadly force on a human being because using deadly force on a human being is something to be done with great care. They're saying he hesitated — and that other officers might hesitate — because of how it might look on the news.

It is hard to say this, because I know some really awesome police officers. Guys like suncat and several close friends. That being said, I also know some police that I wouldn't trust to watch my nieces or nephews. It is not an easy topic to broach but clearly some stuff needs to change. Going back to the status quo is impossible and should not be desired.

[suncat05]

Thank you for the compliment, Pedro. I always try to use good judgement. And most of my decisions on the job are experience based on things that have happened to me over my career. But sometimes, and this happens with every officer on the job, you just have to make an instant decision, and maybe a decision that will be "Monday morning quarterback'd" to death by assholes that don't have a friggin' clue what it's like to have somebody stab you with an icepick or have a gun of some sort pointed at you by some dirtbag that truly intends to kill you, and even worse you have bosses that haven't worked the streets in forever and some of whom don't give two hot squats about YOU as long as whatever it was doesn't make THEM or THE AGENCY look bad.
I get all of that. Been there, done that, already bought that tee shirt.
But I am not dying until I am damn good and ready to. In my bed, in my sleep, next to my wife. Or with my kids there with me. And I'm going to do my very level best to be sure that if presented with deadly force by another person that I am the one who will be surviving the encounter, not them. They start it, I will finish it. And I do not give one damn care in the world about how it looks in the media. F#@K the media! I am going to be alive, and I will tell the story exactly as it happened, and in the end I will be vindicated.
Now, let me tell you something else.........one of the reasons all of these officers are getting hurt is because of what they're taught in the police academies. This is going to rub some of our resident barristers wrong here, but it's the truth: the academies are teaching these officers to hesitate for fear of being sued, and this is because we have so many lawyers out there who think suing the police is the right thing to do.........Obama and all of his thug cronies are perfect examples of what I'm talking about, as well as all of these lawyers out there who advertise on TV 10,000 times a day that they'll be happy to represent you if you want to sue somebody for ANYTHING! These same lawyers teach in the academies and tell these prospective new officers that IF THEY DO ANYTHING THAT THEY ARE GOING TO BE SUED, and therein lies the heart of THIS PROBLEM, somebody who has no earthly idea what goes out on the mean streets is telling these future officers that basically no matter what they do, they're wrong. They're teaching these officers that it's better to get hurt than it is to defend yourself and be legally correct in doing so.
Last time I checked here in Florida, self defense is still a valid legal defense to threat from great bodily harm and/or death. It's not that way out in COMMIEFORNIA anymore after Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown signed that order earlier this week. I really feel for those officers out there, they're all screwed if they lift a finger to protect themselves now.
But ALL of this nonsense is driven by the liberal MSM and politicians and lawyers who are jockeying to make a buck off the backs of honest officers everywhere. Now, are there bad cops? Oh, hell yes there are, and there's this little thing called the law that eventually catches up with them, most of them anyway, and I always hope they get exactly what they deserve for being criminals under color of authority when they get caught. I have no love or sympathy for a dirty cop.

[suncat05]

Again, it is not my intention to rub any of our attorney friends the wrong way here, I merely stated exactly what is going on in the academies. Liability, liability, liability. What they don't tell these new officers is that there are people out there that will help them, and that there are lawyers who work for their agencies that are "supposed" to be there in support of them if they have to go to court over a lawsuit regarding some action they took on the street or in the jail.
They don't tell you that part. But they are adamant about the part that "you have to be careful what you do or you're going to be sued". I hate that. You guys know why I hate that? Because they're planting the seeds of fear in young minds that shouldn't be having to be told that. These people are already telling these future officers that no matter what they do, that they're going to be sued and that they're wrong. Please tell me how that is right?

[KeithKSR]

This is all on the administration and their rush to judgement, which has often been excessively wrong in Ferguson and many other instances.

[bigsky]

First, A lot of what I read is concerning ridiculous laws which shouldn't be on the books but have to be enforced, as laws are.

We've made cops the blue nannies of the nanny state.

Second, "hiring vets" is, of course, extremely important. But MPs and others whose policing experience is mostly military and in the urban wars of the middle east has led to a militarization of the police force, equipment, tools, attitudes, actions, even uniforms and gloves and shoes.

Shooting kids during marijuana stings and holding down women for anal and vaginal cavity searches on the side of the road and swat team drug raid civilian abuses and...and...and...that has to change.

Third, I get it about the crappy job dealing with drunks and gangs and scammers and a-holes, and hostile public. So we as a public and society have to stop facilitating and excusing that crap.

And midnight shifts suck for everyone.

[kingcat]

A good man does what he has to do, be it a police officer or a citizen. It's upo to the law to reward the good and punish the bad.

When that process is ineffective the whole system is flawed.

Usually law enforcement is correct, but at times a citizen should wrestle them to the ground and demand justice...precedent be damned.

We were in Florida a few weeks back and had an incident which almost caused me and some by standards to yank a city policeman off a four wheeler, disarm him, and demand he be jailed. On the first day we arrived we took the little ones to the beach at Anna Maria Island. There was an closed and off limits construction site a few yards away from where we stood, and in the distance we could see a man in a hard hat perusing the site. The family was ten feet or so from the water and as my eight year old grand daughter entered the gulf waters she quickly stepped out as the waves reached her.
With the whole family standing ten feet from the water a policeman on a four wheeler zoomed past at a good thirty miles an hour leaving her with no alternative but to dive on the sand head first,. He came with an inch or two of severely injuring Abbie.
All the young punk could do was look back at the little one on the ground and quickly turn away making haste towards the construction site.

He never even checked to see if he had injured her, and had no way to know he hadn't ran her over.

I'll say this, had a I had the chance I would have yanked him off that thing and beat him to a pulp, and had the support, if not the help, of everyone that saw it. She was left balling her eyes out thinking she had done wrong and nearly losing her life because of a uniformed maniac with no concern for human life or a small child's welfare.

God forgive him, but he likely roams the Florida streets to this day. And is a criminal punk.

If law enforcement wants to earn the complete respect of the population and support in all instances where there is a gray area, then police yourselves and ignore any unwritten code handed down to you.

I know some great peace officers, but also know how local leadership can be tainted and bleed out into the public. When that happens and a situation presents itself, you can't be sure who is the good guy or the bad guy.
I do have a good idea how I would have been portrayed by Anna Maria Island local law enforcement

A suggestion..in such gray areas ere on the side of public caution and not some oft out of control military style brotherhood. Protect and serve!

[Doc]

Should have tazed the SOB, then once down, tazed him again.

[Doc]

I'm sorry but this is an excuse to try to go back the previous established quo.
http://popehat.com/2015/08/14/my-bad...rce-decisions/





It is hard to say this, because I know some really awesome police officers. Guys like suncat and several close friends. That being said, I also know some police that I wouldn't trust to watch my nieces or nephews. It is not an easy topic to broach but clearly some stuff needs to change. Going back to the status quo is impossible and should not be desired.

Its because people with agendas want to paint EVERY officer as a racist and trigger happy based on the actions of a few. No different than saying every black person is a thug or gang bangers because some blacks are thugs and gang bangers. And the government is fine supporting that image of the police, until somebody comes at one of them. Some, maybe even most LEO have a bit of an attitude but then I guess if I dealt with low lifes and scum who wanted to hurt me on a regular basis I'd likely be a bit cautious too, maybe even have an attitude. Some say I have one anyway (LOL). I'd love to see what #F*ckdapolice would do without the police. Odds are its some dip 15 yr old wannabe hoodlum

[CitizenBBN]

What Doc said.

Sure there are some bad cops, and a bunch of good ones. We don't need to go back to the 1950s where the police were never questioned, nor do we need this current lynch mob mentality where cops are hung out to dry before there's an investigation. What we need is to stop the rush to judgment and when there is an incident presume nothing until there is a proper, objective investigation.

As for the attitude, I had enough of a taste at one time in my life with the dregs that the cops have to deal with every day. How they do the job without taking a blackjack to some of those folks routinely I don't know. It takes a ton of restraint to do that job, more than 90% of the population would ever have, so they get held to a very high standard. No doubt some are bad and dirty and need to be treated as such, but the current leftist movements that are copy and paste from the 1960s radicals are not getting us anywhere, any more than those groups did.

[kingcat]

Like I said. Good people are going to have to stand up to the bad no matter who they are. That goes for every profession and in our private lives.

It's not the population, nor their politics, and it.s not the police or the government. It's people we meet or work with in every walk of life, and human kindness and respect serves them no useful purpose. We must individually confront them and forcefully promote change, as hopeless as that sounds.

Soon we will be outnumbered if not.

My opinion is that when there is a confrontation between two entities in a news media outlet, we spend too much time debating in social media and being played by the advertising geniuses. We as a people should demand full disclosure and hold everyone with something to lose or gain accountable.
All too often we just take the already established "side" of any argument.

At some point it has to stop going like it is or we won't have to concern ourselves with our rights as citizens being taken away...we will have done so willingly in blind support of the hate mongers who have learned to feed on our emotions.

It's individual people that are becoming exceedingly evil, and no race, group, profession, religion, or political view is anymore immune than the other. We must accept that as fact or there will never be any improvement, only decline.