It sometimes seems as if cops are trigger happy fools. God knows we run lots of stories about police bullets gone wild. If anything, the opposite is true. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard cops with twenty years on the job boast about the fact they never once drew their gun in anger—and not just because my memory’s starting to go. But there’s anger aplenty when cops unholster their weapon, let loose the dogs of war and send someone to the morgue. The folks want answers. Something must be done! After a recent spate of fatal shootings by police in Miami, there’ve been calls for the Mayor to bring the peeps the head of Alfredo Garcia. I mean Police Chief Miguel Exposito. So Miami pols called the FBI. officer.com provides the 411 on the 10-71s . . .
The City of Miami Community Relations Board tried to answer residents’ questions Tuesday night about several recent police-involved shootings, but not all of the answers were well received.
Former FBI agent Paul Phillip was appointed by Miami’s city manager to investigate what many have called a recent surge of police-involved shootings under the watch of Police Chief Miguel Exposito.
“If you are saying firing the chief is going to stop the killings I’m saying you are wrong,” said Paul Phillip.
It was one of several bold statements Phillip made at Tuesday’s meeting at Culver Community Center.
“You can look at this chart and say, ‘They were all black males who got killed.’ That’s not really so,” Phillip said. “‘They were all unarmed.’ That’s not really so.”
According to Phillip, the numbers aren’t that different. In 2009, there were seven shootings in which an officer fired at a suspect, and in 2010, the year under fire, there were eight. These numbers do not include accidental shootings or shootings in which an animal was killed.
Keep in mind that a large number of this small number of “residents” were relatives of men who were shot and killed by the police.
So what do you do when the truth doesn’t back up the supposition that fuels your sense of outrage, injustice and a natural human desire for vengeance? You put your fingers in your ears, say nanananana and continue to beat the scapegoat. Via wsvn.com:
Some who attended the meeting echoed what Commissioner Richard Dunn has said. “I’m saying [the police] have a different attitude. If it’s not racist, it’s very close,” Dunn said.
“They can’t stereotype every vehicle that comes along their way,” said David Jenkins who also attended the meeting and is alarmed by the growing number of police-involved shootings. “Being stereotypical is what’s causing these shootings.”
The board’s vice chair said intelligence from the inner city shows a growing number of people wanting to “take it to the streets,” a concern echoed over and over along with another cry to oust police chief Exposito.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the Mayor’s freshly-minted Special Adviser on Public Safety earned his money last night. Maybe not all $70k of it, but some.
Same-old, same-old. Look into the 2001 race riots in Cincinnati — the supposed cause was the police “murdering young black men”. But when you look at the actual cases, the vast majority had the police shooting in clear cases of defense of themselves or others, and the exceptions were prosecuted. One of the “victims” was a thug who had climbed into a police car and shot the officer!
But the facts don’t matter. There’s a certain type of “community organizer” that carefully elides the facts of these cases, that plays on the grief of the families, that, in the end, runs a protection racket with the local government.
IMHO, The outrage at cop shootings is only an outlet for the unceasing quiet rage that is fueled daily by the growth of the totalitarian paramilitary bureaucracy. People get stepped on and stomped on every day by the police – is it any wonder after seeing their families and friends and coworkers and neighbors being constantly harassed, robbed, stalked, beaten, extorted etc that they don’t believe the police are ever justified in any of their actions?
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard cops with twenty years on the job boast about the fact they never once drew their gun in anger…
As opposed to the current crop of paramilitary-trained RickyRangers, who draw at the drop of the proverbial hat and who routinely Taser unarmed 9, 10, and 11 year children. Many of them girls.
(What’s truly frightening is the 5+ tour damaged vets that are already hitting the streets. Everywhere is a combat zone.)
In the pre “100K extra cops we really don’t need on the streets” days they didn’t always have 3 cars for backup on every single traffic stop, so they learned to be a bit more diplomatic, a bit more careful, and a bit more respectful – as they should be, the job is to serve and protect.
Finesse, not obscene levels of brute force, was the former order of the day. Yes, there were plenty of ‘tune ups’ , but it wasn’t your 84 year old grandpa getting one for mouthing off.
Sadly, it’s seems as though these might be those few and far between “good shoots”, where what happened pretty much had to happen – driven by the suspect being an actual threat. Unfortunately for PR, since the 70s Miami Dade has a history of being thoroughly corrupt from top to bottom. In the 80s over 10% of the force was simply running coke. In cop cars. On duty. They’ve fired (and jailed) hundreds of officers over the years, and it may be better now, but they have at least 40 years of very bad behaviour on record. They have to earn the public trust and that will take a bit of effort.
It’s good to see that the Miami cops are consistent in their marksmanship. And by shooting unarmed civilians, just think of the savings in range time and the cost of targets.
It looks like only fat people were concerned.
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