Posted on 04/08/2015 6:11:22 AM PDT by TangledUpInBlue
It is definitely a question. But I am sure its also one of the first questions that even a mildly competent rookie prosecutor would ask.
My mistake. I meant my post at #55 (in which I was responding to don-o’s post at #47)
If the fingerprints are on the taser, the dead guy was no angel.
That is a really scary aspect of this whole thing. Even with murder and evidence tampering on video I have seen Freepers defend this cop. Had there been no video it is likely that the cop would have been cleared after an “internal investigation.”
Many murder victims are not angels. Doesn't mean it's not murder.
I understand your point, but I can’t say I agree with it. I believe that all those bullet wounds in the back just wouldn’t fly. Even if the guy had the officer’s taser, there was no guarantee he would harm someone, especially in a deadly manner.
And I’m not one to make excuses for thugs, believe me.
Given that the video shows the cop doing something (alleged to be planting) with the taser next to the motorists body, which qualifies as crime scene tampering, fingerprints found on the taser are probably going to be inadmissable. Or at least easily called into question.
Yep, the cop definitely introduced something into the crime scene, next to the body of a man that he had just killed, and as another cop watched him do it.
The situation with the taser makes all the difference here.
If the motorist resisted arrest, scuffled with the cop, took his taser and ran away with it use of lethal force is still going to be permitted. Even if it means shooting the guy in the back as he runs away. With the taser in hand he’d be considered armed and dangerous to the general public.
The cop *might* have been able to argue that, had he not moved/planted the taser. He could have said that he “thought” the guy still had it, didn’t realize or see that it had fallen to the ground.
But picking it up and moving/planting it changes the whole equation here.
That’s true!
Sometimes there’s bad cops... a small percentage - but they exist. There’s also those who act stupid in a moments of stress - are poorly trained - or not emotionally up to the job being police officers. He’ll get a fair trial... that’s all we ask for... let a jury decide this one.
“CNN is trying to ramp this into a race war as usual!”
Exactly. There is an agenda here. See what the police have to say, there are a number of reasons this might very well have been a good shoot.
http://forums.officer.com/t199100/
The video only shows what they want you to see, and we dont´even know it wasn´t messed with to show what they want us to see.
People are very quick to believe what the MSM want them to. A bit of scepticism is healthy, given the cop is innocent legally, until they prove otherwise, and this video proves nothing.
Excellent points all.
career criminal with arrest warrant fights with cop, runs, makes a bad situation worse, end up dead.
This guy could have paid his child support. Or maintained his car. Or not assaulted a police officer. Or not run. If he had done ANY one of those, he would be alive right now. This is on him as far as I can tell.
“Many murder victims are not angels. Doesn’t mean it’s not murder.”
No. But it does mean that the so-called “murder” isn’t terribly important.
Snitches get stitches, but thugs get shrugs. This guy had a rap sheet, had warrants for his arrest, tried to take the Taser, and ran from the law. He died tired. I for one will shed no tears after so many similar thugs have done their level best to destroy this country.
“I understand your point, but I can’t say I agree with it. I believe that all those bullet wounds in the back just wouldn’t fly. Even if the guy had the officer’s taser, there was no guarantee he would harm someone, especially in a deadly manner.
And I’m not one to make excuses for thugs, believe me.”
Oh, I agree 100% that, video or not, the officer should not have gotten away with it. I just happen to think that, in light of the police department’s statement before the video came out (which was made with the knowledge that the shots were in the victim’s back), he likely would have.
If I am not mistaken, the video was given to a Charleston newspaper. Who is this "they" you refer to?
Oh, and welcome to Free Republic as of yesterday.
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