Posted on 09/25/2014 2:56:33 PM PDT by Dallas59
(CNN) — One moment, a man reaches into his vehicle after a South Carolina trooper asked for his driver’s license.
Seconds later, the trooper shoots him, and the man asks why. Days later, prosecutors aren’t satisfied with the answer.
Authorities released dash-camera video Wednesday showing what they say is Sean Groubert, then a South Carolina Highway Patrol trooper, shooting Levar Jones, who was unarmed, in the parking lot of a gas station just outside Columbia on September 4.
Jones, 35, survived the shooting. But Groubert, who was fired because of the incident last week, has been charged with aggravated assault and battery, a felony that could get him up to 20 years in prison if convicted, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said Wednesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at fox6now.com ...
this is why...as your next president....I am making it a law that when an officer goes rouge like this, All moneys awarded are paid out of the pension plans of the FOP and not the taxpayers...that includes lawyers fees,hosp fees etc
Absolutely no reason for the cop to shoot, though I see why he would’ve been edgy when the guy turned around to get his license. The cop should’ve been more careful about giving the guy instructions. The average citizen like me - and the fellow that was shot - aren’t thinking like a cop, we’re just going to try and quickly comply with his request. I would’ve gone for my license in much the same way.
They showed the whole video this morning on the news. The victim was so polite and composed throughout the whole thing it’s amazing. Even though he was shot and in pain he still handled himself very well - way better than I think 99% of people would have under the same circumstances.
But we need to stop this craziness where cops pull people over for seatbelt violations and other petty stuff that are no threat to anyone else’s safety. Cops have turned into the fundraising arm of the government. “Protect and serve”? Ha!
It started with moving their designation from Peace Officers, to Law Enforcement Officers. It was allegedly a move to professionalism, but everybody knows what peace looks like. Laws can just go on and on.
Well, they didn't say who they are protecting and serving.
This is a typical disgusting tactic by cops to issue (sometimes conflicting) orders (e.g., "Don't move! Raise your hands!") that result in the person moving in a way that could be interpreted by the cop (and the courts) as resisting, suspicious, or threatening to the cop.
This is not just about a bad cop, but also about how some cops are trained.
The correct approach from a safe position would be to engage in conversation with the driver which doesn't call for him to move. Answering questions about if he has a license and where it is located would allow the cop to determine whether the driver's movement to get it would be threatening. Asking the driver to slowly get his license would also indicate that sudden movements by the driver will be considered as something other than getting a license. Until cops and their superiors are penalized for using such tactics, they will continue and more innocent people will be shot or killed.
The ones who had faith in the system and worked their best aren’t the ones we worry about, it is the ones who continue to work in the police systems who have lost their faith in what they are doing or never had it to begin with and are milking it(and in some cases committing violence or stealing cash, property , and drugs under color of law) are the ones we need to weed out.
Relax. He only wrote him a warning.
If you are on private property, do you even have to have your seatbelt on?
You do for some FR discussions.
The article says this officer shot someone in 2012. I wonder if he is suffering from PTSD and this situation caused him to flashback to the first shooting.
so Judge Dredd pulls off FOUR ROUNDS from ~ten feet away and hit's the poor guy once... not only is he a useless POS he's a worse shot! please let it goto jail for at LEAST 20 years.
Seat belt violation per article.
Me too. I had much the same experience when a state trooper pulled me over while I was driving a friend’s car across the California desert. The trooper wanted to see license and registration and my passenger friend nodded toward the back of the Toyota hatchback. Without thinking I reached down with my left hand for the floor lever to unlatch the trunk so he could get his briefcase, and when I turned my head I was staring into the barrel of a very big revolver. Fortunately for me the trooper didn’t have an itchy trigger-finger.
I agree about the seatbelt and stupid stuff. The cops all have computers in their cars. They can run the license and write an automated ticket, attach the video, let a judge decide. A seatbelt ticket is going to go to a judge anyway so cut the middle man and expedite it. Done deal.
A few years later, while I was still a child, they became mandatory equipment, thus reducing the freedom of the buyer to decide whether or not he wanted seatbelts.
By my teen years, and around the time I started driving, the states, beholden to fedzilla, started passing mandatory seat bet laws for drivers (passengers were still exempt), but we were assured, it would be a secondary offense, and you would only be charged with a seatbelt offense if you had been pulled over for something else, i.e. reckless driving, speeding, etc.
Soon, laws were passed requiring passengers to buckle up, and eventually it became a primary offense, reducing freedoms incrementally along the way.
Then, a few years ago, I started hearing the NHTSA sponsored radio ads for the, "Summer of Heat," and "Click it or Ticket," campaigns, where some wannabe hardass was on the radio trying to sound like a tough guy warning about how he was going to go all zero tolerance on seat belt offenders. In short, my tax dollars were funding some guy to threaten me over exercising a freedom that had once been assumed when I was a child.
I thought that was about as ridiculous as things could get, but of course, I should have known that government never stops, and sooner or later, not wearing your seat belt would result in a meeting with Judge Dredd.
Then there is always the "Stand down now!" order to add further confusion to a person who may not have a clue of what is occurring.
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