Hamilton Police shooting video

Billings Gazette ^ | April 14, 2010 | Will Moss

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Agreed. What I found kind of interesting was the “escalation”.

First there was the argument wrt whether the driver was in LT only lane. Hmmm. OK, honest mistake, maybe.

Then, when the driver answered “plenty” to the officer’s question as to how much he’d been drinking...that was unquestionably a signal that the driver felt, in some way, that he had little to lose. Anybody who would say something like that was at least a little confrontational, certainly not apologetic in any way. Quite the hint, eh?

[LibWhacker]

As part of standard operating procedure, Officer Jessop has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation; said Chief Oster

BTTT! Fantastic video.

I hope Officer Jessop was exonerated of any wrongdoing. The man is a hero and deserves a medal and promotion as far as I'm concerned. He almost lost his life; the scumbag took point blank aim at the officer's head.

However, there is one thing that makes me wonder about this shooting; namely, would an ordinary citizen be exonerated in similar circumstances? It's not clear to me that he would be exonerated as he fired 16 shots at a fleeing criminal. The first shot was fired at the moment the truck began to move, but all subsequent shots were fired at a fleeing felon. Which is all copacetic as far as I'm concerned. But what's good for Officer Jessop is good for every one of us ordinary sad sacks.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

“However, there is one thing that makes me wonder about this shooting; namely, would an ordinary citizen be exonerated in similar circumstances? It’s not clear to me that he would be exonerated as he fired 16 shots at a fleeing criminal. The first shot was fired at the moment the truck began to move, but all subsequent shots were fired at a fleeing felon. Which is all copacetic as far as I’m concerned. But what’s good for Officer Jessop is good for every one of us ordinary sad sacks.”

Hmmm. Probably all of those shots would be verboten for a civilian in most states. Once the driver took off, it was abundantly clear that the officer (and we are putting ourselves or some unnamed civilian in his boots for purposes of this thought exercise) was out of mortal danger. We cannot really complete this exercise, though, because it’s hard to imagine a situation where a civilian would be physically in the same circumstance that the officer was while making the stop.

But this is a circumstance where the laws governing police behavior and response prevail. And I don’t know what those are. In most circumstances that I’ve heard of (which means very little) once a bad guy fires upon a peace officer = attempted murder of a police officer, the presumption is that the officer draws and fires and whatever happens, happens.