• givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Headline is kind of funny, but I wanted to know what he shot at

    In body cam footage shared across social media, the officer was seen jumping to the ground and shouted “shots fired” after the acorn strikes the roof of his car. He then turned and emptied every bullet from his gun, each aimed squarely at his squad car.

    Funny again…

    While Hernandez fired on the car, Marquis Jackson, who was accused of stealing his girlfriend’s car, was in the back of the police cruiser. Officers had searched, handcuffed and loaded the accused into the back of the police car and, despite being cuffed, it was Jackson that the officer thought was shooting at him.

    Nope, he was trying to kill someone handcuffed in the back of his squad car and had already been searched for weapons.

    Cop should at least be facing reckless endangerment, if not attempted murder.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Same as when they think they’re doing on fentanyl…

        After hearing the sound of the acorn, the deputy reported that he also felt a “tingliness” all along the side of his body. He then said his “legs just give out” and he fell to the ground, assuming that he had been seriously injured by something.

        Because of this, the video also showed Hernandez complaining about feeling “weird” and shouting to his colleague that he’s been hit. It’s all very dramatic.

        Cops are constantly terrified because of their training, so they panic and mistake a panic attack for something else.

        Being a cop sucks so much (because of their own leadership and culture) that good qualified people do t want to be a cop. So we end up with these fragile snowflakes that shouldn’t be allowed to carry at all. Let alone be a cop

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          These idiots are so convinced that merely touching fentanyl will make them collapse that it actually happens to them.

          If fentanyl was that strong, people would buy one bag and it would last for like a year.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                True, but fentanyl is generally not. They do make fentanyl patches, but casual exposure, like a cop touching a tiny bit of fentanyl, will not result in fentanyl being absorbed.

              • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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                9 months ago

                That’s just because you don’t know how to make it, and they are selling it to you a few drops at a time. I believe the ingredients are actually pretty cheap. Chemistry students make it.

                • grue@lemmy.world
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                  9 months ago

                  Sell a man some LSD and he trips for a day. Teach a man to make LSD and he trips for a lifetime!

                • ivanafterall@kbin.social
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                  9 months ago

                  Yeah, right. I don’t believe you. HOW would they do that? What steps could they possibly take!? What ingredients would they need and where would they even get them!?

            • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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              9 months ago

              Not quite. Drugs that can be absorbed through the skin, well, they get absorbed.

              It’s not an infinite drugs glitch, just like powdered Fentanyl can’t be absorbed through the skin.

          • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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            9 months ago

            Yeah… I am sure there are some idiots who believe in the horrors of fentanyl.

            The reality is it is a catch all to excuse all the other drugs in their systems. If someone notices a cop is clearly amped up on amphetamines then the reality is that someone in the tri-state area had a single particle of fentanyl on them and THAT is why the cop who just killed four people is alternating between growling and crying while looking even sweatier than alex jones.

              • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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                9 months ago

                Fentanyl does whatever you want it to baby. Just so long as that involves beating your wife and kids when there isn’t a black kid nearby.

                Fentanyl itself is an opiod so it is a downer. But fentanyl, as reported by the media and embraced by cops, is a magic wonderdrug where a single particle in a hundred mile radius will instantly infect every cop through enough PPE that they could survive a zombie infestation and make them do whatever crazy shit they got caught doing.

        • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          good people get fired as cops because they hesitate to shoot unarmed people and won’t lie for officers doing questionable things.

        • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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          9 months ago

          …fragile snowflakes that shouldn’t be allowed to carry at all.

          Yeah but deputy tacticool has holo sights. Not wasted on him at all.

          Poor Durango.

        • theprogressivist @lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          My goodness what a fucking snowflake. Maybe you shouldn’t be in the profession if you’re “scared shitless” 99% of the time. But we all know that’s a cover for them. They love killing people.

      • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        “It hit my vest” and “I feel weird”. Them be signs that his fat ass has coronary artery disease. Fucking Okaloosa County. Good riddance. Don’t miss it.

      • quirzle@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        You don’t mag dump like that if you don’t care. He very much was trying to kill him.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              I am not saying he definitely wasn’t trying to kill Mr. Jackson intentionally. I’m saying that the other possibility is that he’s a stupid coward that empties his clip at his own car because he’s terrified and doesn’t think about and/or care that there’s a person in his car.

              Was he intending to kill Mr. Jackson? Maybe. That’s definitely not an unlikely possibility. But I think stupid cowardice where the motive wasn’t murder is also not unlikely because cops are stupid cowards.

              • quirzle@kbin.social
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                9 months ago

                I got ya. I’m agreeing that he’s a coward and an idiot, but disagreeing that he might not have been trying to murder a guy. He might not have believed it was murder, because of the idiot part…but the video convinced me he was intentionally trying to kill the unarmed man in the back of his car.

            • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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              9 months ago

              … who’s handcuffed in your backseat.

              The utter stupidity of cops astounds me daily. One would think I’d be used to it now, and yet …

          • quirzle@kbin.social
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            9 months ago

            At an active threat, sure. When the dude’s been searched, handcuffed, and trapped in the back of a car…there’s some personal responsibility, imo.

    • Beldarofremulak@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I deal with PTSD vets every day so I understand the snap buuuuut… No one else gets to get away with a slap on the wrist because of their mental illness so fuckem

      • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        Yeah. The “having PTSD” part isn’t what should be punished, it’s the “and yet still carrying a gun while putting yourself in a position to have your PTSD triggered like this” part that’s egregious.

        • TheFriar@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          Well, Philip Brailsford, the murderer who murdered Daniel Shaver, claimed PTSD for murdering Daniel so he could draw on his pension and retire early. Because he murdered someone and it hurt his fee-fees.

          Fuck that.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I mean. Being in combat and being a cop are two different things.

        Maybe this guy was in a shootout and has PTSD, maybe this is the only time he’s ever fired on duty and he’s just a coward who panicked.

      • daltotron@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        See I’m like, I don’t even think you could qualify most of the things you would do to this guy as being punishment. Preventing this guy from being a cop forever (pretty unlikely, but could happen), isn’t really a punishment. If he’s discharging his firearm into his own car, he’s obviously just unfit to be an officer and that’s a pretty clear safety concern. If you sent him to prison, that might be more of a “punishment”, but that’s also, you know, what cops do basically their whole careers, is send people to prison, and we still have all the same problems with the prison system as we’ve always had, so, you know, I’m like. I dunno. That doesn’t seem like a clear “win”, to me, both in terms of improving society and in terms of helping him out if he’s mentally ill which, you know, seems to clearly be the case, here.

        You could also maybe think, hey, this guy goes to an asylum or something for mental illness, but that kind of has the same problems as sending someone to prison, it’s not usually a helpful system.

    • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Cop should at least be facing reckless endangerment, if not attempted murder.

      The review board found his conduct was not reasonable; so, it’ll be up to the prosecutor (which I’m sure in FL is an office eager to go after cops). The other officer, who began shooting after the officer wearing the bodycam in the OP began shooting, was found to have acted reasonably.

      Essentially, you can’t think an acorn is a bullet and get away with shooting at a detained and secured civilian. But, if another officer on scene thinks, even unreasonably so, that an acorn is a bullet and starts shooting at a detained and secured civilian, you can too. If this doesn’t make a lot of sense to you, take that as reassurance that your critical thinking remains, at least partially, intact.

      • theneverfox
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        9 months ago

        Nah, it kind of makes sense for the second guy.

        Remember, he’s not getting triggered by the acorn, he’s reacting to his coworker yelling that they’ve been shot and actual gunfire. That’s a justified reason to pull out your weapon IMO

        Granted, he should’ve tried to take control of the situation and de-escalate so he could “save” his panicked coworker, but that kind of calmness “under fire” would take actual training

        • Wrench@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          It does mean that the assisting officers aren’t required to actually confirm their target, though.

          What if this was real. If a 3rd party shot at them. 1st officer fires, blindly assuming it’s the perp in cuffs in the car. 2nd cop shoots and kills perp in car because he saw that’s what his partner was shooting at. When, in this hypothetical scenario, it was really a 3rd party that wasn’t identified yet, which would be the only plausible source of a gun shot anyway since the perp was already searched and cuffed.

          That doesn’t make sense to me, but that’s how they’re trained. Ride or die with their comrads. Once the first shot is fired, it’s shoot first and ask questions later for all additional officers.

          That’s not good policy. That’s not good for civilians.

          • daltotron@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            It’s not a great policy, but it’s a decision that, you know, has ups and downs either way. On one hand, if you have a particularly sharp officer who can peep out someone shooting at them, locate where that person is, and then fire back and understand exactly what they’re shooting at. It would be better if that officer was able to also get their partner to follow their instructions, rather than relying on their partner, who, you know, being part of the police, might not be a sharp, and might not really be able to understand what’s going on or what to do without external instruction.

            That’s if you have it as a kind of top down encompassing training thing, but that’s really kind of the stupidest way to handle it. It’s why the military has rank, and specialists, and roles, you can have a more clear chain of command where the more capable can, at least theoretically, rise to the top and be able to give those instructions. But then, none of this really prevents the person above you snapping randomly, and deciding to shoot a detained and searched person because of an acorn. Of all of what I’ve said, cops have a very mild amount of ranks and shit, too, but they’re obviously subject to much less training, have more uniform ranks, and, like the military, they’re very insular and have very little faith in anything but themselves. So more often than not they’re just going to all collectively default to kind of whatever will keep them the “safest”, which is going to be killing everyone around them that twitches kind of weird. Internal to the police, the life of every cop is worth infinitely more than the life of a criminal, and even the life of your average civilian, or, better put in their terms, potential criminal. When realistically it should be the opposite, but yeah.

            I dunno, I kind of think sometimes that, I dunno if it’s just a lack of news reaching over here from other countries, but I never hear about police brutality from other countries nearly as much. Maybe in britain, and france, and places where I can kind of think, oh, yeah, the power structure above them is kind of fucked up, america style, but maybe a little less so. But, so, I kind of wonder if police corruption is really it’s own internal thing, and we should just abolish the police, like everyone says, or if it’s really just every overarching power structure that’s actually fucked up, and if we were like, finland, everything would be fine, cause I’ve not really heard a lot about the police of finland being super corrupt. Basically, I wonder if we target the symptom, and not the problem, because the police are obviously the slammer, you know, they’re the pog which gets thrown by the long arm of history to flip everything over, they’re the direct force that anyone who’s doing any political action, or anyone who’s a victim of the government, they’re who they interface with. But is that because they’re intrinsically a problematic institution, or is that because they’re just the face, just the tool? I dunno. I find myself wondering that, in the face of, you know, so much evidence that the police is full of like, fucking morons.

      • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        Essentially, you can’t think an acorn is a bullet and get away with shooting at a detained and secured civilian. But, if another officer on scene thinks, even unreasonably so, that an acorn is a bullet and starts shooting at a detained and secured civilian, you can too. If this doesn’t make a lot of sense to you, take that as reassurance that your critical thinking remains, at least partially, intact.

        IIRC Sympathetic Fire seems to be insta-forgiveness (by other police and the courts) whenever it comes up.

        As one example, I think it played a role in the Daniel Shaver case, but it’s been a long time since I read all those details and I really don’t want to dive into that pool of anger and sadness again to verify.

  • ultranaut@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    If a random loud bang from an acorn falling nearby is enough to get someone to behave like this, they really should not be walking around with a gun. This is completely insane and unhinged behavior.

    • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
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      9 months ago

      theres no reason for most officers to be lethally armed their entire shift.

      they are trained the exact opposite; be afraid of everything and empty the clip. ask questions later.

      this cop behaved as he was trained

    • Match!!
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      9 months ago

      From the body cam footage it was quite a soft bang

      • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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        9 months ago

        I want to stress that I am in no-way attempting to excuse this cop, nor am I suggesting that there is any reasonable way to confuse the sound of an acorn with the sound of a gunshot. Even if there were, there is no justification for blindly “returning fire” in the general direction of the noise. That is so batshit crazy a scenario that it is completely irredeemable. This cop needs to be in prison.

        That being said, I do want to comment on the capabilities of recording and playback. They completely lack the dynamic range necessary to make any sort of reasonable judgment on the intensity of the “bang”. What we hear in the video and what the officer heard in real life are two completely different things.

        I have heard black walnuts (golf ball to tennis ball sized outer shell) hitting vehicles at close range. While they certainly can’t be reasonably confused with a gunshot, they are startlingly loud.

        Again, I want to stress: completely unreasonable that an acorn hitting the cruiser could be confused for a gunshot, and criminally stupid to fire in the general direction of the noise.

    • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      Fun fact: ‘police officer’ isn’t even in the top 10 most dangerous professions in the US. It’s solidly beat by things like garbage collector, delivery driver, maintenance worker, and pilot. None of those professions typically carry weapons on the job.

      Lots of police officers were former bullies with an inferiority complex. Some are wusses who only feel powerful because they’re carrying a deadly weapon.

      Another fun fact: police in several other western countries don’t carry deadly weapons and yet are able to do their jobs just fine.

      American police are trained to think everything and everyone is against them, through programs like David Grossman’s Killology course. Weird how a program designed to teach recruits to kill without empathy would result in people killing without empathy.

      Elsewhere, police are learning de-escalation tactics, but police in the US are learning escalation.

      It’s absurd, and leads to scared, trigger-happy morons shooting at acorns.

      e: missed a word

    • IamSparticles@lemmy.zip
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      9 months ago

      And the leading cause of injury/fatality for police officers by far: vehicle accidents. Not being shot at.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        9 months ago

        That’s why they form a gang, because the only way they can feel strong is if they outnumber you.

        That’s why it takes fifteen fucking cops to “deal with” a single homeless person in a public park who isn’t bothering anybody.

        If they do that during the day, with enough people around, people will whip out their phones to record the cops and the cops will give up and leave and stop harassing.

        If they do it during the evening, and there’s not very many people around, and only one person whips out their phone… The cops will arrest the person who whipped out their phone, too, because they outnumber them.

    • Ersatz86@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Looking forward to my next traffic stop so I can mention that crossing guards have a more dangerous job than cops 🫡

    • QuinceDaPence@kbin.social
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      9 months ago
      1. Small engine mechanics
        Fatal injury rate: 15 per 100,000 workers
        Total deaths (2018): 8
        Salary: $37,840
        Most common fatal accidents: Transportation incidents, violence and other injuries by persons or animals

      What the absolute fuck?

    • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Yep, and this is just tracking mortality. You would think, oh hey maybe they look better if you included things like workplace violence…nope. Pretty much 80% of work place violence happens to healthcare workers and social workers.

      So pretty much every healthcare worker has experienced more violence in their work than police officers. I’ve had patients take swings at me in my hospital, it’s a fairly natural response to being in pain, on drugs, or disoriented. But just because your occupation has the potential to introduce you to a violent environment, that doesn’t justify your own participation in it.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Cops will taser or shoot you before you can take a swing at them. Healthcare workers and delivery drivers don’t get tasers and guns.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Yes. A lot of them also involve being killed by the machines they use too. Safety measures can only go so far.

    • Herbal Gamer@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      Top comment really nails it:

      This is unironically the most embarrassing video I have seen in my entire life. I am not exaggerating at all. I would kill myself if there were footage of me acting like this. Dude gets scared by an acorn, does a Max-Payne-backwards-dive, unloads 20 roads into his own car (luckily not murdering the unarmed guy in the back of it), does some horrid Arnold-Schwarzenegger impression while crawling over the floor bawling his eyes out, and then forces an armed stand-off with literally no one. Actually absolutely insane, the most unhinged behaviour I have ever had the pleasure to witness.

      • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        He quit afterward. Probably because he was teased mercilessly by other police officers. If only we could harness peer pressure to reduce police shootings.

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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        9 months ago

        “SHOTS FIRED!”

        (combat roll)

        “SHOTS FIRED! SHOTS FIRED! SHOTS FIRED!” (still rolling around)

        (gets up, unleashes hail of bullets at the car with his partner pretty much directly downrange)

        (slight pause, beat of silence)

        (falls backwards into the road)

        “Eaaahhh!”

        (fires several more times, now lying on his side in the road)

        "I’m hit! I’m hit!

        (fires until his gun is empty)

        (his partner asks something)

        “What?”

        “Ablbla! Abinica!” (crawling across the road now) “In the car! Ow!”

        (catches his breath, taking cover behind a different car)

        (after a while, his partner comes nearby, frantically asking if he’s okay)

        “I’m good! I feel weird! But I’m good!”

          • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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            9 months ago

            As funny as it sounds, my understanding is that it’s often not immediately obvious in the adrenaline of a life-threatening situation whether or not you got shot. You have to kind of check yourself over and make sure because you literally don’t feel pain.

            I’m going to be honest, there is a part of me that’s hesitant to be so so harsh on the guy, because it’s hard to say how you would react in (what you perceive to be) a life-or-death situation. It’s not unusual for people not to react well. There was one shooting video like that where the cop did something embarrassing and I had full sympathy and support for him (A woman pulled a gun on him during a traffic stop and shot at him, and he stumbled back and shot her, and he thought for a second that he might also have hit someone in a jeep full of people that was randomly stopped behind her. He was on bodycam just overall losing his shit from having shot her, not even understanding why she tried to shoot him in the first place, and thinking for a second that he might also have also hit someone in the jeep by accident. That I can have a lot of sympathy for honestly.)

            That said, you need to not have this kind of reaction if you’re a cop. In a personal capacity I have sympathy for him; he learned he doesn’t have the right stuff for what he wanted to do; this humiliating display is etched in permanently as his legacy, and he has to find a new job and he’s just lucky that no one got killed because of him. In a professional capacity, fuck him and let’s all laugh at him rolling around in the road and wailing.

            (Edit: Personally, for me the absolute peak of the comedy is when he half-empties his gun, and there’s a little beat of stillness, and then out of nowhere he just falls down and wails before starting shooting again. Again I shouldn’t laugh because someone could have been killed. But it’s fucking hilarious and I can’t see it as not so.)

            • Abnorc@lemm.ee
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              9 months ago

              My dad was in the military, and he got shot in the leg. He said it was the most painful thing that he’s went through so far, so I don’t know if I believe that. I bet this cop has never been shot in his life.

              • Fiona@feddit.de
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                9 months ago

                By most accounts it is definitely common enough that you should REALLY check everything, because adrenaline can be a hell of a drug. Like: people noticing a fairly small entrance-wound but being completely unaware of a gigantic exit-wound is apparently so common that I’ve heard that it is the very first thing you should check for in case of a shooting.

  • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldM
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    9 months ago

    And yet the most surprising thing about the story is that the bodycam footage was released, smh

    • Crowfiend@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Likely to protect the cop/department too, since he shot at his own car that already had a disarmed, detained suspect inside. He very nearly killed someone that was already a non-threat. If the body cam footage got out it might make people think their cops are negligent or improperly trained! /ghasp

      • just_change_it@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        It’s like a business. If the liability rests with their officer and they are afraid of a lawsuit causing significant political blowback they are going to take action against the officer to minimize their liability. Hearing about an officer doing something like this and then leaving the force means there is nothing left for them to take action for.

        If he didn’t resign, perhaps it would be slightly harder for the chief a town over to hire the guy, but since he resigned he may have minimal marks on his record.

        I’d bet a thousand bucks this guy gets another job as a cop within 1yr though.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Of all the stupid that exists in Florida, they actually have pretty powerful open records laws.

      It’s actually one of the reasons Florida has the “Florida Man” reputation. We know more about what’s happening there.

  • AbidanYre@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    This story pairs nicely with the other one that’s currently trending.

    Florida Legislator Files Bill That Would Keep Killer Cops From Being Named And Shamed

    This dipshit is what they want to protect so he can just go work in another district and kill someone else.

  • Cornpop@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    If you’re that scared you have no business being a cop. What a fucking idiot thinks he got shot too.

    • stoly@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      This is what happens when you spend your life fantasizing about how you’re a hero under constant attack.

      • rekabis@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        To any who might doubt this: this us-vs-them hostile attitude against the public at large is exactly how they train members.

        It even exists within Canada’s RCMP, FFS.

        • Omega@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          It’s literally what the “thin blue line” represents which all the police has swapped in place of “protect & serve”. And that’s ignoring the racist undertones.

  • iAvicenna@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    empties one full magazine on the car, not a single hit Would you like to enlist in the imperial army?

    • rekabis@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      Dude should have applied to be a Stormtrooper. Would have fit right in, got to wear a snazzy set of white armor, black little pew-pew laser rifle, the works.

      • iAvicenna@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        and he can create all the drama he wants and no one will say a thing “The rebel scums were shooting at me!”

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    9 months ago

    If US police is this incompetent, the only real solution is to take their guns away. It works in the UK.

    And yes, there are more guns in general in the US, but that means that the police needs to be BETTER at deescalation than in the UK, not worse.

    (Also: Obviously there are exceptions for specialized units in the UK, and the same would have to happen in the US, but your standard run-of-the-mill cop really doesn’t need more than pepper-spray and a stick.)

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      How about we also give them actual training? You know, basic 4 year training like in Europe, to become basic police officer, additional training to become more, and not the “6 months and here is your gun” as they do in the US?

      • trustnoone@lemmy.sdf.org
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        9 months ago

        Imo this is a key problem with police in the US. You’re meant to take something like this video, analyse it, grow from it and provide a better procedure/training in what to do in that sort of situation so that it is more safe for both police and the public in the future.

        Instead you get “police tried to stop a robber by shooting into a crowded street, two civilians were killed and the robber only has slight injuries”. And the police response is “oh we have qualified immunity, this is actually whats meant to happen, we stopped the robber didn’t we etc etc etc” and nothing is learnt.

      • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        If you look into this story a little further, it turns out that there are a few things to consider.

        One, this is actually the result of training. The man served two tours overseas, this is quite literally what he’s trained to do. Do you have any idea what a gunshot sounds like from far away? Because it’s not exactly a clear sound, and there are a shitload of different bullets (and gun barrels, compensators, silencers, sub sonic ammunition as an even further layer) to make different noise. When you’re used to being shot at from far away, yeah a sound like this actually does sound like you’re being shot at. I could also easily see someone mistaking it for a bullet landing near them.

        He also describes experiencing a tingly sensation and thinking something was wrong with his left(? going from memory, lazy) side. It very much sounds like he had a PTSD attack.

        Lastly, he resigned during the course of the investigation into the shooting. Not to mention, the investigation into him concluded that no he should not have unloaded his firearm after hearing an acorn hit the car.

        Should he be a cop? Fuck no! He likely has undiagnosed PTSD and should be getting help, not putting himself into circumstances where he is much more likely to be shot at.

        However this is not the result of incompetence. This man is a military veteran. He will likely be more proficient with firearms than you or I ever will be. You need to stop thinking of cops as pigs in tight bullet proof vests. This guy, and there are absolutely others like him, is not at all untrained.

        • Jimmyeatsausage@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I’ll preface this saying that I own firearms and I spent 11 years in the military, I’ve had people shoot in my general direction, but I’ve bever been in a firefight.

          Police and military operate in different environments that require different skillsets and different training. People expect, incorrectly, that police are there to protect citizens (this isn’t a rant about them protecting only the owner class…the judicial branch has upheld that police had no duty to protect). IF they had a duty to protect, they wouldn’t be allowed to open fire without a target in site and awareness of what was beyond that target and endangered when they miss that target.

          Hearing a gunshot is not a valid excuse for randomly discharging your weapon.

          I’m glad nobody was hurt, and I really hope the VA or some other organization is able to help this guy recover from his combat trauma. The department that hired him should have done better, and I hope they revisit their candidate screening policy…

        • foofy@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          He may have PTSD and he may have had 1,000 hours of firearms training, but if you empty your magazine the way he did, under the circumstances he did, you’re incompetent to be a police officer. Period.

          And even he apparently recognizes that since he resigned (though whether he’ll just go get hired the next town over is probably a decent bet).

        • Shard@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          This is the result of having minimal training and not having enough training to be competent.

          His description of legs feeling weak and tingly are that of an adrenaline dump.

          i.e officer has been trained in handling firearms but not “stress innoculated” he’s not been trained to respond properly in a stressful situation.

          His firearm handling is also below an acceptable standard. He emptied his mag without so much as landing a single hit on the car and when he goes to reload fumbles numerous times, isn’t sure if he wants to reload or find cover and does both badly.

    • BobGnarley@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      I mean fuck cops for sure but UKs gun laws are extremely strict for civilians I think you can only have antiques, even. In america there is guns everywhere. That kid you’re frisking and giving a hard time could have daddy’s pistol in his backpack. Its just a different environment in us

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        9 months ago

        Perhaps you shouldn’t be giving him a hard time then? Perhaps you should politely ask to check him.

        Every single time I’ve ever watched US cops deal with the situation they always seem to escalate it they get their guns out and start yelling immediately. I’ve seen situations where the suspect is being entirely cooperative and they’re still yelling. What are they trying to prove at that point?

        Shut the hell up, calm down, and actually evaluate the situation.

        • BobGnarley@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          Dude I hate cops with a burning passion but yeah for sure you should just go into North St Louis or Southside Chicago and just be real nice to everyone. That’s gonna work.

        • Malfeasant@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          What you’re asking for requires intelligence, which is actively selected against by most police departments in the US.

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Headlines like this are often a stretch, if not outright BS. Read the story. The headline does not begin to do justice as to how fucked up this was.

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      9 months ago

      I mean it’s a website that hosts videos as part of the services it offers. And the video loads fine on mobile and desktop. I would check your network or browser settings. Unless it’s hosted by the actual article writer, hosting it somewhere is basically another social media.

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Florida Man has nothing on Florida Squirrel. This brave officer barely escaped a brazen assassination attempt by the infamous terrorists, Squirrels Anonymous!

    • dumpsterlid@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Damn, if squirrels started going after fascists in uniforms we really could start getting some serious positive momentum couldn’t we.