...can blow through a stop sign at 65MPH, crash into a car, killing two teenaged girls and not go to prison."
Let's review, shall we? The cop in question ran a stop sign, at high speed, with his emergency lights and siren off. He rammed a minivan and killed the two young girls in the minivan, who were sisters.
No siren. No lights.
Now if you were to blow through a stop sign at 65MPH and kill two kids, you can be pretty damn certain that it would be at least sometime in the twenties before you saw the outside of the state pen, maybe longer. Saying that you didn't see the stop sign would get you absolutely nowhere. (For a test, if you get pulled over because the speed limit dropped, try telling the judge you didn't see the sign. See whether the judge laughs at you.)
Even being a congressman doesn't permit you to run a stop sign and kill people. Ask Bill Janklow about that.
But if you have a badge, go ahead, run that stop sign. Ram that carload of kids. It won't cost you anything at all.
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8 comments:
I've said it before - the end result of illegal war, torture, war on terror , war on drugs is that those in charge will began to believe that nothing they do will be wrong, no matter what the cost. The police (or any other government agency) may not like restrictions on how they act and what they do to us but that's because they forgot they work for all of us. We are not at their beck and call or under their thumbs. Or at least we're not supposed to be.
You got that right Ruckus. This shit is getting so old and no way should passes be given for actions that result in deaths of innocents from the badges.
The people who have the power to change this love death at all levels I guess as not a legislator says boo ever.
We had a case last month where a cop was doing over 100 mph, 2 AM, no lights/sirens. Guy legitimately didn't see the cop (duh, no lights), and pulled out into the intersection. The cop died. It took quite a lot for guy to prove he wasn't drunk and wasn't at fault. He may still think it's a good idea to go someplace where people don't know him.
Worst part? It turns out that the call the cop was in such a rush to get to was a vindictive teenage girl who was putting in a false report that her dad was beating her.
While I agree that this situation is tragic, I think it is important to remember some salient points here. First this was not a civilian out on a joyride blazing through a stopsign just for fun, it was a police officer in pursuit. Second I think maybe you should put yourself in the officers shoes for a moment, it is very easy to condemn an act with the benefit of hindsight. Have you ever been in a situation where you place your own personal safety at risk for the sake of the public? These chases are extremely dangerous for all involved and the police know that, yet they still step up every day and try to keep us safe. So, was it a criminal offense, not in my opinion, it was a horrible, tragic accident.
Bullshit ATC!!
This guy had nothing on to warn innocents in his way and these girls never had a chance.
Long overdue cops stop getting a pass for being dumbfuckers at times.
ATCBB:
No hindsight is necessary, in this case. No lights. No siren. No warning whatsoever for those two girls.
If the cop in question had his lights and siren on, to warn the public, that would be a different story.
But it is not. Those kids had no warning. The cop chose to put the public in danger, not just himself.
But he, he's got a badge, he gets to put other people's lives at risk if he feels like it.
I think we can agree to disagree on this. I agree that you have a valid point in that (in hindsight) a horrible mistake was made in waiting to activate the lights and siren on the police vehicle. However, I disagree with the opinion that this was anything other than a tragic accident.
One Fly, there is nothing I can say to you that will change your mind, and that is OK, that is what makes this country as great as it is. I can say though with some experience, (yes I know people in law enforcement) that none of them love death at any level, and do everything in their power every single day to prevent it.
Comrade I understand your point of view as well and at times I think you are right. Lets face it there are bad apples in every profession, and any profession that has power over others makes that even worse. Again however, I think this is a case of very bad judgement that lead to a tragic "accidental" outcome.
As an Air Traffic Controller I make split second choices every day, the kind of choices that if wrong can lead to people getting killed. I have learned over the course os 21+ years that when things go wrong it is very easy to go back and say, "well, if you just would have done this one thing right, none of this would have happened." After an event it is far too easy to point an accusitory finger and call a person a "dumb fucker" as One Fly put it. I believe that if this officer had it to do over again he would have activated the lights and siren from the get go, but he was probably taught to wait until he closed the gap with a speeding vehicle first.
I guess my point is even cops are human and they make mistakes and when cops make mistakes the results are usually tragic, but they are most often mistakes, not criminal acts.
ATCBB
Lots of people make hard decisions that can cost a life every day. In this case the cop made a very bad choice and he should not get to shirk his responsibility. In your job you have breaks so that you can do your job better. Just one example of the fact that some jobs are hard and have hard decisions and accommodations for that reason. And most of the time in all of those jobs it is not split second timing (OK O'Hare might be an exception) because there is space built into the system. Also each of the parties is highly trained, ATC, and Pilots.
Here there was no space, no time and no warning to the citizens, who are not trained that someone may come through an intersection at almost twice the posted speed. That's not right. And when you or one of those pilots screw up you have to pay at least some price.
Cops have lights, sirens, and they are not supposed to break the law, which is what high speed pursuit without lights and siren is. At least in my state. And even then they are supposed to be responsible. Something this cop absolutely was not.
And now two people are dead. Let me repeat - DEAD.
And he is not responsible - I call BULLSHIT.
This is one of the things wrong in this country right now. People make stupid, unlawful, ignorant decisions and accept and believe they have no responsibility for them. Once again I call bullshit.
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