Good philanthropist, bad cop!
Bad decision by Tulsa PD.
Posted on 04/13/2015 1:31:57 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Prosecutors have charged a white reserve sheriff's deputy in Oklahoma with manslaughter in the shooting of a black suspect.
A second-degree manslaughter charge was filed Monday against 73-year-old Tulsa County reserve deputy Robert Bates.
Police have said Bates thought he was holding a stun gun, not his handgun, when he fired at 44-year-old Eric Harris in the April 2 incident.
A man can be heard apologizing and admitting to shooting a person in a video that documents the killing.
Other posts indicated he was a wealthy man who had paid to be on the force as an auxiliary. He might not have been up to snuff on his weaponry reflexes (”This is your Tazer, this is your gun.”). Bad shoot, from what I’ve read—he was trying to zap a suspect already on the ground. Even if he was struggling, there should have been enough time to look at what was in his hand before pulling the trigger.
My understanding is that it is almost impossible to mix up the two.
Was even a tazing necessary, at that stage of the arrest?
I'd need more to go on, but likely - the man was in the middle of a sting operation, selling a gun to an undercover cop. It would be a safe assumption that such a person is armed. Since he was running from plenty of cops, I'd consider him armed and dangerous until his hands were clearly secured and his person searched.
I wonder, the 73 year old volunteer made his personal call that a tazering was the thing to do, but was it?
Well, the most important thing is that the 73-year old pay-to-play reserve officer got to go home to his mansion at the end of his pretend shift.
I'd need more to go on, but likely - the man was in the middle of a sting operation, selling a gun to an undercover cop. It would be a safe assumption that such a person is armed. Since he was running from plenty of cops, I'd consider him armed and dangerous until his hands were clearly secured and his person searched.
But a taser isn't necessary any time someone is "armed and dangerous." What was the guy doing at the time he was tazed that warranted being tazed?
Tasers really ought to be returned to their rightful place as a less-lethal alternative to deadly force. Too many officers and departments use them as just another tool to gain compliance. Treat it like deadly force, and you won't have "mistakes" like this one.
I guess they are going to have to paint the stun guns green and pink so no one confuses them with guns in the future!
That’s interesting. An earlier article said he’d been cleared of wrong-doing by the police department. I guess the prosecutor saw things differently.
It is.
And why would he have even needed to use a taser on a suspect who had already been subdued by other officers?
Good philanthropist, bad cop!
Bad decision by Tulsa PD.
An earlier article reported that the suspect was on the ground, and had been subdued by other officers. “Subdued” usually means the guy is pretty much under police control.
“My understanding is that it is almost impossible to mix up the two.”
There are two things that are unmistakable when they are in a man’s hand, one is his gun and the other is not his stun gun.
The blacks on Twitter were calling it Safari Hunting.
“And why would he have even needed to use a taser on a suspect who had already been subdued by other officers?”
Maybe the suspect wasn’t respecting his authority
The guy apparently donated vehicles and other equipment to the sheriff's department, and served as chair of the sheriff's re-election campaign in 2012. So, of course they "cleared" him of any wrongdoing.
Given his previous donations and work for the sheriff's election, the fact that the sheriff's department even pretended to investigate the shooting should cost the sheriff, any anyone else involved in the investigation, their jobs.
He had to hurry up and use the Taser before it was too late.
So an influential constituent wanted to get in on the action and carry out his long term dream.
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