If you give a cop a gun, stupid things will happen

For the South Carolina state troopers, all their cars have cameras on them to record what the officers do. But, there was one state trooper who clearly forgot that when he did something stupid. He shot an unarmed man who was cooperating with the cop's request to see his license during a random seatbelt check. I saw this on the CBS Evening News that I typically watch while eating dinner. The only thing that really bothered me was that, typically, when they are about to show a graphic video on TV, they give you a heads up. This time they didn't and I wish they did. I couldn't eat after

ETA, the cop is now arrested facing felony charges and stated that he was shooting in self defense. Clearly if you're aware that you're being taped, then that is a defense that I don't think will fly.
South Carolina trooper shoots unarmed man

Updated On: 9/25/14 at 09:00 PM

No, we have been seeing more and more incidents of this type of behavior with cops as of late. Do all cops do it? No. However any, and I MEAN ANY incident is unacceptable!

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He was jailed after the incident, while awaiting arraignment. He was behind a cage during that arraignment. He was able to bond out on 75k but he was jailed.

I say this is a non event because the correct things happened here (unlike the horrible Ferguson case). He broke the law, was fired, and arrested. I wish it worked like this everywhere.

Not at all. He, in fact, when to jail after he was arrested. These are facts. I'm not implying anything.

Based on what he is being charged with, and the fact that he is police, he will probably do some prison time.

Updated On: 9/25/14 at 11:04 PM

Islander_fan, a few days ago when that guy jumped the fence at the White House, the secret service would have been totally within their rights to shoot him but because he appeared to be unarmed, they exercised restraint and captured him even though he got a lot further than everyone felt he should have. A sniper on the roof could have taken him out with no problem and no one would have said anything about it but they dealt with it non-violently and have taken a lot of heat for the guy making the White House entrance because they chose to do so.

Because I have always found you to be completely objective on this issue and without an agenda of any sort and because it was national news for several days, I thought for sure you would have started a thread here complimenting them for their restraint. But surprisingly you were nowhere to be found. Any reason you missed this perfect opportunity to celebrate the lack of deadly force being used by a law enforcement agency?

Updated On: 9/26/14 at 12:37 AM

Updated On: 9/26/14 at 09:29 AM

Updated On: 9/26/14 at 09:35 AM

Updated On: 9/26/14 at 09:38 AM

Updated On: 9/26/14 at 09:50 AM

Touche, I-f

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"First of all, I'm going to pretend that you saying that I'm objective and without an agenda is a complement."

Well, I think we know you are very good at pretending, like pretending a New York Times article said something you wanted it to say when in reality it said no such thing. And I'm sure someone like you who scans the media everyday looking for stories to feed his hatred for cops, completely missed the White House story which was front page news everywhere for 2 days.

Across this country, cops have interactions with civilians hundreds of thousands of times a day, draw their weapons thousands of times a day. You can sit there and go on and on about the few instances when those interactions go bad and make it sound as you try so hard to do, like every cop is violent and can't be trusted with a weapon. If it makes you feel better about yourself, I guess we all have to do what we have to do. As I said in the previous thread, if a cop oversteps the line, he or she should be dealt with by the criminal justice system. They should not at any time, have a free pass just because he or she is a cop. And it seems like this trooper in S.C. will be dealt with and tried which is exactly what should happen. From the videotape, he started shooting when he should have exercised more restraint but even so, when told to stand still, the guy literally dove back into his truck and in 9 out of 10 cases, that means one thing. This was the 1 in 10 case when he was just getting his license.

We understand you hate cops and do your best any chance you get to portray them as wild savages out of control, terrorizing civilians just for kicks. That's pretty evident just in how you chose to title this thread. My deepest hope for you is that the one time your safety is threatened by someone who is not a cop, the one time you need a cop to come to your defense, the response you get is "sorry, we're a little busy right now".

Fisherman Bob,

Ever since the school year started here in NYC, and I've gone back to teaching, I haven't been as on top of current events as I'd like to be. Yes, I enjoy reading the newspaper and keeping in touch with the world around me. Lots of people do. It's not a hobby/pastime unique to me. But, to be honest, once my job started back up again I haven't been able to. That, for me is an "eh, it's whatever" kind of thought process I have on the issue.

And, as much as you'd like to think that I scour the newspapers to find something wrong with the cops. I really don't. I have more important things to do such as lesson planning and the like. In my life, for every cop that I have had an issue with or who did something wrong regarding me, I have found one that is the total opposite. The reason why I am upset is because I do think that in these situations of a cop shooting innocent people is starting to become an epidemic of sorts. Sure, if this happened once it would be once to many. But, it's been happening a lot when it shouldn't be happening at all.

For every comment I've made you've thrown back at me stats that show that the cops always do good (or at least it feels that way to me.) I do think that cops can and should do good. But,the way they go about doing it isn't, at least to me, the right way to go about doing things. Listen to that segment of This American LIfe that I sent you awhile back. Not saying that you have to agree with it, but it is something that would make you stp and think.

Answer me this, since the last time we spoke, it was before all the SH*T went down in Missouri and before all this happened. Do you honestly think that there's not a problem with this sort of thing happening and things needing to be changed as a result of these actions? This is more than the cops "throwing their weight around" if I may quote myself. This is a situation of hurting innocent people in situations where cops should have been smart enough to know otherwise.

And, Sutton, as SNAFU said, it IS a story until there's a trial and a verdict. You're acting as if the trial happened, the verdict was a guilty one and now he's serving time as a result of all this. That's not the case at all and you know it.

"You're acting as if the trial happened, the verdict was a guilty one and now he's serving time as a result of all this. That's not the case at all and you know it."

Thank you for telling me how I'm acting. Cute. I simply presented what has happened. You seem to have a serious problem with the police, but you need to understand the majority of police are good, moral people. I was personally saved by a cop when I was in a very, very bad situation a few years ago. Police save children from abusive households every single day around this country, and they do protect people. As an educator, it's shocking you don't realize that. This person got what he deserved, and no other police has come to his defense. Not one.

Also, this isn't a huge story to me since white cops shoot people of color daily. For us non white people, it's just another day. Yeah, yeah, I know it "shouldn't be like that!!!". Welcome to real life.