Do we having a running thread for citizens killed by police yet?

Wooah.... You are saying that a video came out later and contradicted a police report? That boggles the mind!!

 

"Reserve Deputy Bates did not commit a crime. Reserve Deputy Bates was a victim, a true victim, of 'slips and capture.' "

Basically, a "heat of the moment" defense.

"Slips and capture" might be the new "stand your ground."

 

I've been thinking about this, and I wonder how much of this trend can be blamed on Tasers.
Two reasons.
1) You've obviously had a few incidents like this one where in the heat of the moment the officer pulls the wrong weapon. These incidents seem to be rare, but there's examples of them happening.

2) Ever since the Taser became standard issue police gear within the past few years, I think there's both a sense that it's not that dangerous and that it's a last line of defense. It's not a lethal weapon, so the cops are quicker to use it. Considering the stories of suspects shaking off the effects or the prongs not attaching properly or whatever, there also seems to be an issue with its effectiveness that we don't hear much about.
It's supposed to be a super weapon, a nuclear bomb of non-lethality. You hit somebody with it, and they go down.
Until they don't. And what do you do then?
At that point, for an officer who sees his super weapon fail him, the next logical step -- and the next emotional step in an adrenaline- and fear-fueled mind that suddenly thrusts itself into a life-or-death situation -- is to use the weapon that you know WILL put somebody down. And since he's already tried and failed to use the nonlethal weapon, he can justify it in his own mind and to everyone else who has bought into the hype that the Taser is a 100 percent effective weapon.

In nearly every one of these incidents, there's been some mention of a Taser being used and not working to some degree.
Logically and emotionally -- not to mention as someone who still believes in the American way of life -- I refuse to believe there are armies of racist cops willing to risk torpedoing their career and life just for the thrill of shooting black people. There's dozens of reasons for this wave of shootings beyond "RACISM!" and one of them might be the weapons of choice.

 

What do you mean by this? Darren Wilson didn't carry a Taser. The Staten Island cops didn't use one. This one in Tulsa, the Taser was never used.

So what are the "nearly every one of" incidents you're referring to?

 

Didn't the story I read on Yahoo! News (which I always take with a grain of salt) quote the other deputy of saying "fuck your breath" when the victim said he couldn't breathe? After being shot, no less?

 

Here's four from the Seattle area last year:
Tasers ineffective in four recent officer-involved shootings | Local & Regional | Seattle News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KOMO News

The shooting of the homeless man on Los Angeles' skid row earlier this year:
http://www.newsweek.com/la-homeless-shooting-taser-310572

Another from Colorado in 2013:
Thornton police officer kills man after Taser proves ineffective | FOX31 Denver

Miami in February:
Man Shot Twice With Taser Before Fatal Police-Involved Shooting: Miami Gardens Police Chief | NBC 6 South Florida

New York State in March:
Police: Officer Fatally Shoots Theft Suspect Fleeing in Stolen Car With 2 Kids Inside | Lindenhurst, NY Patch

And that's from just the first two pages of a Google search. If "nearly every one" was too strong a description, then I think we can at least agree it's a "common thread."

 

I like the idea of this being a "running" thread, but "running" is almost always a bad idea around cops.

Maybe it could be a "shouldn't be running" thread?

 

Sure, but I don't know how common Tasers really are. Those came up because you were looking for them. It doesn't seem like it's a central issue in a lot (most?) of the stuff we've heard about.

 

That's because I'm sure most reasonable people would view it a little differently if a suspect is in a state to shrug off a tasing. That's very different and a lot more threatening than a guy face-down on the ground with two cops kneeling on his neck.

 

I looked for them because it's something I noticed, as a casual observer of the news, was a recurring point of these stories.
There's case-by-case elements that can vary, of course, but these incidents typically follow a familiar pattern:
1) Cop stops a guy
2) Something snaps in the suspect, for whatever reason, and he flees
3) Some type of physical struggle ensues
4) Cop or cops try to taze the guy -- or subdue him by other means, but the taser is a common element -- with little effect
5) Guy shakes off their efforts, tries to run or resist again, and gets shot

 

I can't think of one case that garnered national attention and spurred accusations of racism that happened the way you describe.

 

Is Oklahoma trying to get an MLS team?