On the shooting of Daunte Wright
I had originally theorized that the female police officer who shot Daunte Wright, having mistaken her gun for a laser, was a rookie making a rookie mistake. Wright’s killing has precipitated rioting in the area, a suburb of already-riot-ravaged Minneapolis.
But she was a veteran of 26 years’ duration:
Kim Potter, 48, tendered her resignation Tuesday in a brief letter to Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott and Police Chief Tim Gannon. Gannon followed suit, announcing his own resignation later on Tuesday.
Potter is a veteran and has served as her police union’s president, the Star Tribune reported. At an earlier news conference, where authorities played a nearly one-minute dash-cam recording of the fatal incident, Gannon said it appears that Potter intended to fire her Taser but instead made an “accidental discharge” from her gun…
According to local media, Potter has retained attorney Earl Gray. Gray is also representing former Minneapolis police officer Thomas Lane, who has also been charged in Floyd’s death…
Potter joined the Brooklyn Center Police Department in 1995, according to her LinkedIn page. She was first licensed as a police officer in Minnesota at age 22 that same year, the Star Tribune reported. In 2019, she was elected president of the Brooklyn Center Police Officer’s Association, according to the group’s Facebook page.
That WaPo article doesn’t go into the circumstances that caused Potter to attempt to tase Wright until near the article’s end, and it’s a rather long article. At the outset, Wright is described as “unarmed,” but it’s only much later that we learn anything else about why he might have been considered a threat or problem. This is the way his actions are described at that later point:
When the officers asked Wright for his identification, Gannon said at a Monday news conference, they found Wright had an outstanding warrant for a misdemeanor and attempted to take him into custody.
The video clip shows Wright slipping from an officer’s grip and returning to his car. That’s when Potter pulls out her gun and yells, “I’ll Tase you!” and then “Taser! Taser! Taser!” before firing.
Note the way that’s written – Wright “slips” from an officer’s grip – almost as though the officer’s hands were too greasy to hold him, rather than that he was actively evading arrest.
And what was Wright’s misdemeanor? Jaywalking? Littering? The WaPo doesn’t say, but apparently it was a gun violation:
Court records show Wright was being sought for fleeing from law enforcement officers and for possessing a gun without a permit during an encounter with Minneapolis police in June. In that case, a statement of probable cause said police got a call about a man waving a gun who was later identified as Wright.
If that information is correct – and I’ve read it in several places and never seen any article that says it’s not true – then does anyone think the WaPo’s omission of that part of the story is an accident? And might it not have figured into the reasons the officers were so intent on detaining Wright?
However, it’s clear that there would have been no reason to shoot Wright. It’s also pretty clear, from the videocam, that Potter did not intend to shoot Wright. And yet she did.
But my question is this: how on earth can a veteran cop mistake a gun for a taser? I know that errors happen, but that seems an incredibly basic one and an especially egregious one. In this case it had terrible fatal consequences.
I found a 2015-2016 case that is somewhat similar, in which the shooter (a 73-year-old volunteer reserve sheriff deputy in Tulsa) was found guilty of second degree manslaughter, “culpable negligence,” and sentenced to four years.
I also found the following comment at Powerline, but can’t find the case and I have no idea whether this is correct:
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided a 2002 case of a gun mistaken for a taser & identified five factors that they considered when determining whether the officer (incidentally a woman) should have known that she was holding the wrong weapon.
The factors are: (1) the nature of the training the officer had received to prevent incidents like this from happening; (2) whether the officer acted in accordance with that training; (3) whether following that training would have alerted the officer that [s]he was holding a handgun; (4) whether the defendant’s conduct heightened the officer’s sense of danger; and (5) whether the defendant’s conduct caused the officer to act with undue haste and inconsistently with that training.
It’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to be a police officer these days. It’s always been a job of great danger and tremendous opportunity for error, but now the public and even other public officials seem to be completely unforgiving of any errors and demand 100% perfection. This is, of course, impossible.
The net result will be that there will be a lack of police officers – of course, that’s one of the left’s goals, so they consider that a feature rather than a bug – and the people who do serve as police will be more likely to be of lower quality and far more jittery and risk-averse. One can expect a resultant a decline in public safety, a phenomenon we’re already seeing. Again, though, the left seems to consider that a feature rather than a bug.
‘jittery and risk averse’
Or the opposite. Hard to say which is worse.
The most dispiriting aspect (aside from the Pavlovian rush towards looting and rioting) of this tragic accident is that it was immediately racialized, as though race had anything to do with either the stop or the shooting, even aside from the fact that Daunte had a white mother. This is hardly surprising, as the illegitimate Harris/Biden administration has, from its very first day, been intent upon the same goal as the MSM and the Democratic Party of consolidating power and control through fanning the flames of racial grievance, a strategy of “Divide et Impera” which has a very long history indeed.
I have a real feeling the … “I made a mistake” in this case won’t cut it with a jury.
Sad part about all these cases is if the dead person would have just complied …. they would ALL be alive today.
Insufficient training leads to mistakes in the heat of battle, and seems like the only explanation here, especially for a 26 year veteran. It’s vital to drill these things every year, many times over. We need more $$$ for police, not less, to reduce errors in judgment and mistakes like this.
I’m no expert but this is what I’ve heard from several different sources and it all makes complete sense to me. It would almost certainly help reduce the number of such incidents.
Expect the family to collect $30m plus from the City of Brooklyn Center. Baby mama, however, is not an heir and thus not entitled to a dime.
I know the law and the police officer appeared to have been criminally negligent, but the facts are if this drug dealer had not resisted arrest he wouldn’t have been shot. And if the cops would have put him on the ground, no opportunity for him to get back into his car and try to escape.
The cops in MN will do like they did in Baltimore. Just not respond to most calls and refuse to enforce the law. Too risky.
Yeah, and why be a cop? Especially in a big blue city.
If I am interpreting the brief footage, Wright did not escape or slip away from the cop trying to handcuff him. It looked–looks can be deceiving–as if the guy, a big male cop, stopped the process of handcuffing him. Hesitated, delayed, can’t believe just quit, but seemed irregular to me. So perhaps “took the opportunity” provided by what looks odd.
They were both standing facing the car with Wright more or less against it. He’d have had to back off and crouch down to get into the car. Lots and lots of seconds of movement when he could have been blocked.
Either that body cam was ‘way off due to perspective or depth perception, or something irregular happened which surprised the shooter. Is it clear whether she had armed herself before this happened, or did she quick draw when the handcuffing went wrong? If she’d been prepared for a fuss, she’d have been calm enough to draw the Taser in advance. Speculating here, it would seem likely that things were going smoothly enough–context admitted–that she hadn’t drawn either weapon and when things went nuts, reacted in panic.
So we have the requisite annual black criminal getting violent with cops and getting shot for his pains.
Hardly any black guy who hasn’t committed a crime and is not getting violent with police is getting shot these days. You could look it up. Justine Damond, on the other hand……
“One can expect a resultant a decline in public safety, a phenomenon we’re already seeing. Again, though, the left seems to consider that a feature rather than a bug.”
Yep, us little folks who cannot afford our own gated communities or doorman buildings are the ones who will pay a higher price for poorer quality police.
And, it is the working class, the working poor, who will bear the worst of this for they will not only have fewer cops and poorer quality ones; but, they will have dirtier cops as well.
And, I agree, it is a feature – keep the little people down and struggling with their own day to day lives in terror and the uppity ups will stay in power claiming they are only in power to help us. And too many people will be struggling too hard to notice they get no help.
@charles
Not all gated communities are elite. I live in gated community and have always thought it was a sense of false security. There are a few that are very well off but most are retired living on pension/SS/savings.
This past summer the community woke up to 5 fairly new 4by4 lifted trucks stolen. All had key fobs in trucks. Thieves knew exactly what they were after. They got out of the back of property through an adjacent deer lease. Cut the chain crossing dirt road. Those trucks were sold before they were even stole. Only one was found.
But I do get your point.
From Neo’s link:
Court records show Wright was being sought for fleeing from law enforcement officers and for possessing a gun without a permit during an encounter with Minneapolis police in June. In that case, a statement of probable cause said police got a call about a man waving a gun who was later identified as Wright.
Well, “waving a gun” is vague, but if it was outdoors (even on your own property) and if there was any criminally unprovoked implied threat associated with said gun waving, it would get you serious jail time in California.
______
The gun experts I read always prefer the nomenclature “negligent discharge” as opposed to “accidental discharge.” The possessor of the gun always has agency unless some genuine other accident has taken place.
______
I saw some news program where the Brooklyn Center police chief (I think) claimed that the firearm is always placed on the belt nearest the officer’s dominant hand, and the taser is placed nearest the weak hand. So the officer has to grab with the wrong hand, to get it wrong. Yikes. And they are trained in firearm and taser scenarios.
The taser usually has a largely florescent yellow exterior and the Glock a charcoal grey color, but I think that in fast stressful situations, the focus is on the target only. Apparently, there are many taser styles, but at least some would have about the same feel in the hand as a Glock.
The U.S. Army has always required thumb operated safeties on their side arms. And I know that many or most cops or experts don’t like that idea, but … Maybe it’s time.
In light aircraft cockpits, it’s quite typical for the throttle knob and the fuel mixture know to have very different shapes (e.g. smooth round ball vs. star-shape). the purpose is to ensure that the pilot can be aware by touch only, the feel in the hand, which is being manipulated while eyes are directed outside, principally during landing. Other similar control pairs are often different like this for similar reasons.
And we’re not even talking about the difference between life and death.
Then there’s the various currency / type rating / flight review requirements…
Real question: How often would this officer have practiced, with live rounds at the range, drawing, firing, taser draw/fire, etc, under pressure?
26 years of experience doesn’t necessarily mean on patrol or on the beat. Maybe she worked desk jobs for most of them
This will lead to some fine “fiction”. The officer called “Taser” but then the suspect broke free from another officer and got into a vehicle which hadn’t been searched and secured and which itself was a dangerous weapon. When the suspect began to drive away (escape) she reflexively shot at the escapee. It was not one instant or continuous situation. The Chief, who wasn’t at the scene, and the Media propagandists called it a mistake. Seems more like an alert officer responding to a rapidly evolving situation.
I do have to wonder about the intelligence of an individual with a pending warrant driving around town in a vehicle with expired plates, then resisting arrest and fleeing. Sounds like an example of “stoopit”. Then the mayor demands the officer be fired without an investigation as a continuation of stupid.
Mike SMO
Years ago, liberal blogger Kevin Drum wrote a think piece about lead paint. He said that ingestion of lead prior to age five results in reduced impulse control. It’s irreversible.
No politician, he said, wants to touch the possibility that we have sub-populations a disproportionate number of whom are likely to “go off”, even in circumstances where it’s a very bad idea from the get-go. And since it’s so obviously a bone-headed idea, even if it succeeds, nobody expects it and thus may not be prepared.
Had a friend running a small insurance agency. Two black guys came in, one to get his auto insurance. He was all regular. Had the paper work. Could presume to make the car payments, the license tab fee, the insurance premiums, the maintenance. IOW, he had a regular, standard lifestyle and presumably so did his buddy. All of their identifying paperwork was on the receptionist’s desk.
A guy came in, paid a premium in, iirc, $400 cash. Got his receipt, left. The two guys grabbed the cash and headed for the door where they got mixed up. The receptionist Maced them and called the cops. Everything this guy was up until this point with a regular life ahead of him is screwed because the most important thing in the world was two hundred in cash.
It’s one of those “what was he thinking?” crimes where the only answer is “he wasn’t”.
Editorially, one of the things I like about the seal on the car doors is it protects my head. Point is, getting into a car is, although a learned technique, not something for which evolution has prepared us. But we’ve done it a thousand times. But try to shave with the other hand. Not so easy, is it? Try getting into a car when an adult male is hauling on you. What the hell happened?
The 9th Circuit’s multifactorial approach actually helps law enforcement by giving them multiple excuses for screw ups (various factors about training and the defendant’s conduct.) Courts loove multifactorial approaches but they don’t necessarily translate to different scenarios that arise. The law on excessive force needs a major rethink and the qualified immunity laws and departmental training do NOT provide law enforcement with a clear roadmap of what is and is not constitutional. The cops should not be guessing. We had a brief window of opportunity for true reform after the Floyd shooting but, of course, the droogs on the left stomped all over that. Cops should not be mistaking a gun for a taser. Sorry, that just should not happen even in the heat and stress of the moment. This same problem has arisen in other scenarios, like in the Oscar Grant shooting in Oakland. By now, the policing industry really should be on notice of the taser v. gun distinction issue.
There is always a silver lining in these things. Once the weak enablers are fried in conflagrations of their own spawning, one can only say that justice will have been served.
Similarly, the community caretaker doctrine which once was used to allow reasonable searches without a warrant, will if it dies, probably have the healthful, or at least righteous effect, of encouraging law enforcement officers to back off and allow the behaviorally incontinent to self-destruct on the pavement.
Yeah, tender hearts will undoubtedly be rended, but then tender hearts can always lay their own lives on the altar of pointless and unappreciated sacrifice.
Give the church ladies with the bug glasses and pixie haircuts something dramatic to do.
Daunte not Duante. just sayin’.
Two data points. The Second City cop blog was shut down because the blogger was doxxed. Cops are seeing more and more distance between them and “civilians” that is not healthy.
I wondered if YouTube had deleted this video?
Chris Rock on how not to get your ass kicked by police.
Mike K – how did you hear that about SCC getting doxxed? I liked and miss that blog, and it very valuable to someone like me who lives in the western suburbs, as a preview of what could be happening out here someday. We plan to be gone well before that, however …
There was this case in which that was a suggestion https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Oscar_Grant
As an aside, one can go to the wapo site on police shootings, and look up minnesota. Almost all white victims, some ‘unarmed’. Oddly enough you don’t hear about them
Jeff B,
https://heyjackass.com/enlightening-commentary/statement-from-second-city-cop/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/
The police were obligated to use force when he resisted arrest. The can be no law enforcement without the ability to make arrests. The police or soldiers frequently put in the position of having to use force will not always be able to use exactly the correct amount to arrest the suspect but not hurt him (or her). This is assuming there such a “correct” level. Police who grossly exceed these limits need to be held accountable, but no one should be so arrogant to presume there will ever be a time when mistakes will never be made.
All these cases of perps getting injured or killed by police have one common feature. The perp was not following instructions or physically resisting arrest. If stopped by a police officer, follow instructions carefully, don’t talk back, and don’t resist arrest. Things can be straightened out later. We give police guns, tazers, mace, etc. to use when perps try to assault or kill them. Be aware that the officer is authorized to use force, if necessary, to make arrests When a cop stops someone, they have no idea what the person is like. They are spring loaded to be ready for the worst, because they don’t want to be injured or killed.
When a perp is killed while resisting arrest, it’s a tragedy, but it happens about forty or fifty times a year. More white perps are killed than blacks. Every such incident is investigated and due process takes place. The mayors and governors of these municipalities can and should brook no violence after a such an incident. That is how a society stays peaceful and maintains law and order.
Of course, all I have said does not matter to the progs. Their intent is to destabilize society. One retired officer opines that the intent is to establish a federal police force hat can be politicized. That may well be true. They’ve politicized the DOJ, FBI, CIA, and are working on the military.
The world is a better place without Duante Wright in it. In a sane world, she’d get a medal for however unintentionally taking out the trash. Instead, she’ll be crucified and Wright beatified.
Our society has just begun to pay a fearsome price for acquiescing to this insanity.
The world is. Sane isn’t often part of it.
Marisa:
Thanks, fixed!
The mistake is very common and is quite easily fixed beyond more training and has been known fr a long time. In fact, this type of “slip and capture” error stems from training. I dealt with several cases during my career in Quality Control and Assurance.
Slip and capture errors often are “associated with switching to a new tool or process after significant training and/or experience with an ergonomically similar but functionally different tool or process.
Fred Drinkwater writes of such a problem in aviation cockpit controls above. Back in WW2, 1943, “psychologist Alphonse Chapanis identified a similar type of error when he investigated a series of plane crashes involving B-17 bombers. In these crashes, pilots returning from missions would safely touch down and then inexplicably retract the landing gear. The massive planes would crash onto their bellies and often burst into flames. Initially, the Air Force treated these incidents as negligence and court martialed the involved pilots.
However, it happened with enough frequency that the Air Force brought in an expert to take a closer look. Dr. Chapanis interviewed the involved pilots, but also carefully studied the cockpit layout. He found that the levers that controlled landing gear and the flaps, which act as airbrakes during the landing process, were identical and placed very close to each other.
Dr. Chapanis’s solution was to attach a small rubber wheel to the landing gear control and a flap-shaped wedge to the flap control. With these overt tactile changes, the problem was immediately solved.”
Many of the stun guns and tasers used by Police today are economically similar to their service weapon. Simply changing the color and placing the non-lethal weapon on the non-dominant side has not fixed the problem. When the situation funnels an officer’s attention and non-conscious training action into automatic action, the most often used tool will ofttimes be grabbed. The tactile differences obvious in training are not communicated to a non-discerning brain under stress.
Stun guns and tasers were intentionally designed to look and feel like 9mm pistols because of the tactile and training familiarity. The two tools should be different, very different. Search for stun gun photos on the Internet, they look alike. Some police advocate a thumb operated design along the lines of a Star Trek: The Next Generation phaser. Or, just something that looks, feels, and operates differently than a lethal 9mm pistol.
https://tinyurl.com/35r45w3j
Have you ever accidentally done something bizarre and non-sensical? Like…try to unlock your front door with your car key? Pour a bottle of milk for your infant, but hand it to your 7 year old instead? Put the milk in the pantry and the cookies in the refrigerator?
Obviously, those are just innocuous…I don’t know….”brain farts,” for a lack of a better term. We all have them from time to time.
But can something like that really be extrapolated into a situation like this? Can your brain truly (but figuratively) misfire in such a high stakes situation? I’d imagine so, but I’d also imagine it’s incredibly rare. I’d imagine it’s something similar to a parent accidentally leaving their infant in the car seat on a hot day. Yes, I know some of those aren’t accidental. But most of them are. Most are just that rare, but awful, case of someone’s brain misfiring.
Her attorney is Earl Gray? Is he going to make tea for the court?
Sorry, I just had to.
Neo writes, “how on earth can a veteran cop mistake a gun for a taser? I know that errors happen, but that seems an incredibly basic one and an especially egregious one.”
She is right-handed. Wright lunged back into his car, and for all she knew was grabbing a pistol from under the driver’s seat. She yelled “Tazer” several times, to no Wright effect. At some point, under fear especially, one reaches for one’s weapon quickly with the dominance of handedness as a reflex. Reflexes are not reasoning cognitive functions.
I’m sick and tired of seeing slack cut, hearts bleeding, for black dudes who refuse to obey simple police orders. Especially one with a previous weapons-related charge.
Minneapolis gets what it wanted in its city governance. Black riots are the result. Rubber bullets? No, use real ones. But that city will be seriously cop-deficient, and then the good times for thugs will really role.
You’re being arrested by a cop and you make a move back toward your car where you could conceivably have a weapon stowed –> You’re a Darwin Award Finalist and your death is a net positive for the human gene pool. It’s that simple. I mean how %@#$ing retarded can a person be and expect to live outside an institution?
I’m no fan of current police recruiting standards, police training standards, and putting females anywhere near the front line… but these are all second order issues in this case.
Have you ever accidentally done something bizarre and non-sensical?
https://www.cnn.com/2016/04/19/politics/us-air-force-plane-crash-afghanistan/index.html
Neo
Avi I think has probably hit the nail on the head. Having worked for 2 departments (one larger one smaller) than the Minneapolis police department over the last 25 years. There are two types of people who are beat officers in their 26th year on the job
1) First is the person who simply just wants to be. That is what they signed up for and they do so happily and willingly to retirement. If I had to guess that is about 25-35 percent of the long term veterans you find on the street at this point of their careers.
2) There is a group who have had jobs as officers, often in bureaus or some area of the department that simply does not require them to act like police officers. Desk jobs, public relations, some plain clothes units. Where they may go a decade or more without using the basic skills required to arrest a resisting subject.
I think when more information comes out. That we will find out that the female officer involved was in group two. Due to Covid and the Chauvin trial the Minneapolis PD and surrounding departments have had well documented problems retaining and recruiting new officers. So her leaving a bureau may have been for manpower purposes (forced by the department). For overtime purposes to increase her pension’s final average compensation. Or a combination of both.
In that case while she may have had the proper training to do the job. She simply did not have much practical experience in doing so. Looking at her statement of “taser” then regret for having used her firearm. Indicates to me that she simply has not been in the field much the last few years.
I realize my opinion is simply educated speculation upon my part. But looking at the situation in total. I would guess that some version of this story will leak out over time.
“Hardly any black guy who hasn’t committed a crime and is not getting violent with police is getting shot these days.”
There have been a few. But they’re pretty rare, and the reason for the shooting wouldn’t play well in the press. For instance, I remember hearing a while back about a black man who got pulled over by a cop (who happened to be a minority). The black driver told the cop that there was a gun in the car that he was legally entitled to have (iirc, the driver had a concealed carry permit)… and the cop freaked out and fatally shot the driver.
Can’t imagine why the press didn’t flood us with reports about that one…
“The net result will be that there will be a lack of police officers – of course, that’s one of the left’s goals, so they consider that a feature rather than a bug”
It’s a goal… right up until a certain tipping point is reached. And then the pendulum will swing back hard the other way, with the full support of the Left. But if and when that happens, the Left will be in full control. And the police will have more in common with the Stasi than they do with the LAPD.
“Years ago, liberal blogger Kevin Drum wrote a think piece about lead paint.”
That was like a perfect distillation of misanthropic techno nerd liberal thinking. It’s a “clever” theory that hand waves away all the awkward, difficult, and Human elements of life in favor of a value-free mechanistic understanding of existence. Drum used to use the removal of lead paint from buildings and homes as an explanation for the drop in crime rates that started in the 90s and continued until…well, right now.
Of course, that decline in crime also followed the U.S. starting to lock up a significant percentage of its criminal population in response to the feckless attitude toward law and order of the 1960s and 1970s.
I haven’t read Drum in a while. How does he explain the rise in crime in 2020? Did someone secretly give the country a fresh coat of lead paint?
Mike
“But if and when that happens, the Left will be in full control.“
I think Glenn Greenwald and some other’s would dispute that. The Left is more a tool being used by white upper middle class and rich elites to maintain their power and status.
Mike
junior. The case you’re referring to sounds like that of Philando Castile and it happened in a Minneapolis suburb. The reason that didn’t get a lot of ink is likely because the cop who shot him was hispanic. No money to be made there.
Mike. Missed the point. Drum wasn’t talking about crime in general but of the kind of stuff where a guy does a really stupid, obviously counterproductive thing…like try to fight off the cops in an arrest situation. Like Wright. What might happen two seconds later, not to mention half an hour later if he escapes, is not a concern and, as far as it looks, not even a factor in the “decision”.
Drum’s not saying lead paint causes something like cooking the books while clerking at a small firm.
Cicero:
For now, I am assuming she meant to tase him, because after she shot him she said, “Holy s***, I just shot him,” and the police have issued a statement that the shooting was accidental.
This study says that 250,000 people die each year in the U.S. due to medical errors…
https://journalsblog.gastro.org/study-estimates-medical-errors-may-cause-more-than-250000-deaths-each-year-in-the-us/#:~:text=AGA%20Journals%20Blog-,Study%20Estimates%20Medical%20Errors%20May%20Cause%20More%20Than,Each%20Year%20in%20the%20US&text=Medical%20error%20is%20the%20third,and%20cancer%2C%20a%20study%20concluded.
Now, I am not sure I believe that number, but medical malpractice and mistakes do happen, and the professionals involved do not get charged with murder or manslaughter. These are considered civil suits.
Why are we treating professional law enforcement errors differently?
MBunge:
I think it’s the other way around. The upper class elites are under the thumb of the left – and in fact, many of them are on the left these days.
I suppose time will tell which of us is more correct.
The New York Post said Daunte Wright had an open warrant related to an armed-robbery case against him when he was shot dead.
Neo 7:41am – I agree with you that it’s the Progressives in control of the elites, and they’re doing it with coercion — threat of boycott, twitter outrage, media pressure, political pressure, all of which are cooked up as if by magic all at once, on demand, perfectly coordinated.
It’s exactly like the mob threatening to burn down some guy’s business if he doesn’t pay protection $$ — “take this specific action or we will hurt you” — updated for 2021 with new tools and done for political reasons by political actors.
Of course a substantial number of these elites are completely in sync with the Progressives, but it’s important to separate that group from those who could *in theory* be persuaded to show some leadership to stop the ugliness and reclaim a little piece of what freedom looks like.
NS wrote, “I don’t know….’brain farts,’ for a lack of a better term. We all have them from time to time.”
.
.
My love life, explained.
Brain farts and beer googles explain a lot of life?
[Potter back on the beat] For overtime purposes to increase her pension’s final average compensation. — Mythx
I doubt we will ever hear the truth about that one if true. But it could explain a lot.
I had no idea. I assumed they looked like a bulky TV remote control. Or possibly, resembling a modest rectangle with a plastic handle attached.
[Potter back on the beat] For overtime purposes to increase her pension’s final average compensation. — Mythx
I doubt we will ever hear the truth about that one if true. But it could explain a lot.
It also identifies quite clearly a very serious public safety risk enabled by that policy. Taxpayers take note.
Nearly all of the actual known problems with police forces seem to point to “too much union power at the expense of public safety” as the true cause.
Should all people be required to have malpractice insurance? After all we all make mistakes. It works so well for the medicos. Forget the cost. Work for more attorneys
“Drum’s not saying lead paint causes something like cooking the books while clerking at a small firm.”
No, but he has explicitly linked the decline in crime rates that started around the early 1990s with the removal of lead paint from homes. As in “We got rid of lead paint and kids who thereby weren’t exposed to it grew up to commit fewer crimes because they weren’t brain damaged.”
Which isn’t to say the effects of lead on brain development are bunk, only that there are a bunch of other factors and possible explanations for the declining crime rates of the last 20+ years that Drum just glosses over.
Mike
Neo:
Please consider the shooter’s action re Daunte as reflexive right-handedness. Lots of us, whether criminal or model citizen, keep pistols under our car’s front seat, and his lunge into his car could have been going for his weapon.
Reflexes are not well mediated by one’s frontal lobes! I make the case that for this cop it was see-> alarm->draw (snatch) weapon with dominant hand; crossover reach to to taser probably requires a second of conscious deliberation unless routinely often practiced.
That this was a reflexive act is indicated by the fact she yelled “Taser” but being right-handed drew her right-side holstered pistol instead. Happened so fast! Reflexes are fast and self-preserving. You don’t yank your hand off a hot stove because your brain tells you it’s too hot.
I am not aware that pistol-shooting courses for police training are taught for crossover draws, like reaching for her left-sided taser. Instead a popup target at a shooting range symbolizing a shooter teaches one to draw fast and shoot fast. With one’s dominant hand. As I am given to understand.
Cops have a lot of stuff on their belts.
Probably left-handed cops ( 10%) holster their pistols on the left.
Mike. I’m not interested in Drum’s explanation or lack for overall crime rates. However, if all other components remain the same, reducing one will result in a reduced gross number.
My point is a disproportionate number of really stupid things done by black people which get them or others killed. Nobody would think–“think” being the key word here–that it’s a good idea to steal a couple of hundred bucks off an insurance agent’s desk while leaving your registration and license behind. Nobody would “think” fighting armed cops is a good idea. In Flint, near which I used to live, a couple of black guys saw a woman driving a red convertible. They wanted it, so they killed her and drove it around the neighborhood. Surprisingly, they were spotted and arrested.
That said, better police work might help. In the Jacob Blake case, he wrestled with seven cops and defeated them. Got up and headed for his car, followed by the cops as if in a parade. At the end, they were controlling him by having a hand on his tee shirt.
Wright got loose in a really odd manner. He not only got loose but he got into his car in a position to drive it away. Honest, nobody can do that while someone is hassling him physically. WTH happened?
Is it possible that police reforms have restricted mid-level use-of-force techniques?
Saw some footage of a black guy cornered in a yard–might have been the Stephon Clark (?) case. No shirt, some kind of running pants. Hands up, cops yelling at him to stand still and keep his hands up. Then he shot his right hand down toward his waist. Cops shot him WTF?
Near Beaufort, SC, three lanes north, three south, grassy median, slow residential traffic, kind of heavy. Black kid on a bike goes shooting across southbound lanes at a high speed, peddles like hell across the median and then across the northbound. He survived due to frantic braking and avoiding. I don’t think there were any rear-enders but he came within feet of being hit hard. He could not have counted on it. WTF? Now, suppose he’d been hit and Benjamin Crump had heard about it?
She had an additional thing on her mind, that she was training her colleague. This might have contributed to her confusion.
Dunning-Kreuger in action, but why? Do the D-K’ites learn (socialized indoctrinated) that nothing serious will happen to them individually? Or is it a case of courting suicide/death for the thrill? Black Lives Mansions has the answers.
It’s systematic racism and oppression
Most people I know assume police are highly trained. After all, they carry a gun, so they MUST be trained to us it. But police and deputies I know must qualify once a year at a range. Not good guy bad guy targets popping out range. Just a range, shoot 15 or 20 yards with your pistol, hit the “body” on the target. The best police train on their own. The worst probably never clean their weapons. Taser training. What’s that? If the officer involved WAS on the street for 26 years and DID get proper training, most of her training was pulling her pistol. The taser came much later. So, if her adrenaline started pumping, even though her mind said “taser”, her reflexes went for her gun.
steven dzik:
“no one should be so arrogant to presume there will ever be a time when mistakes will never be made.”
This. There are thousands of police jurisdictions and hundreds of thousands of police officers in the US. No matter how much you improve training, screening, safety etc. outlier incidents will occur. All it takes is one for BLM to gin up the racial outrage/grift machine.
Going back to the Tamir Rice case. He had an AirSoft gun of the series designed to look as much like the real thing–in this case a 1911 Colt semi-auto. The iconic pistol the US used for more than half a century. Experts can’t tell the diff from six feet, which is the point.
It’s supposed to have, as all toy guns are, a big orange attachment to make the case it’s a toy. Federal law, as I gather.
Somebody took the orange off and sent the kid out to play. Somebody saw him waving the gun around in public and called the cops.
My first thought was…did somebody set the kid up as a martyr? Who can be that stupid?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Why is the gunshot not heard in video? So the officer’s voice can be heard but the gunshot is not? That seems a bit odd.
No blood splatter? At such a close range I would think both would be prevalent on the bodycam footage.?
TommyJay
“[Potter back on the beat] For overtime purposes to increase her pension’s final average compensation. — Mythx
I doubt we will ever hear the truth about that one if true. But it could explain a lot.”
I tend to think its probably a combination of both. They needed people on the street. They offered her overtime to train. Looks like a win win for everyone until something like this happens
Yeah, but. “Taser!” makes sense until the suspect gets free. The chances of a Taser being effective even assuming a good body hit with the wires trailing to a moving vehicle are next to nothing. The situation changed and so should the tactics. Reflex pull and shoot with the firearm. No trailing wires with a delay until shock. Draw, aim, fire. Immediate threat and immediate response. And well done, also. Tasers are “toys” for set piece engagements. Tasers and sprays are typically backed by firearms, for a reason. As soon as the suspect got free of the other officer, it was a new situation. The Officer reacted to the new threat and fired. The Taser option before was as irrelevant as the eggs she had for breakfast. She may have been startled by her own response to the threat (been there). She didn’t just stand there like a dummy while the suspect escaped (or a partner died). Threat >Draw, Aim, Fire. Daunte made the move and forced the issue. Maybe a pre-retirement tour of duty, but she was alert to the change in situation and responded to the threat. Good shoot! Daunte was dumb and impulsive. Poor baby. I don’t really care how he came to be defective.