Just as the question asks. Should police shootings be investigated by an independent body? In many cases, shootings are investigated by the very same Police Force that the shooting officer works for. I personally see this as a conflict of interest. I would like to see all police shooting investigations carried out by an independent body that has no connection to the police force or union.
It would help if certain laws were changed as well. For example, cops are routinely forgiven by the law if they imagine they are under attack and shoot and kill innocents. We saw that in Brooklyn, NY where an innocent black guy about age 25 opens the door to a stairwell to go visit his daughter and drop off a child support payment. A cop panics and thinks the guy is attacking him so the idiot shoots and kills an innocent guy who had no criminal record and was in the building for a good purpose. The cop got off scot free though the city had to pay a fortune in civil damages. Let's stop making the cities pay - force the cops to pay, prosecute and arrest them, just as would happen to anyone else. Society needs to end this permissiveness that creates this holocaust of cops killing innocents. Change the law and society will be a lot safer. Then create that independent body as you suggest.
Police shootings should be investigated like any other shootings. To treat police differently than anyone else is to presume guilt.
Every time they have one of these so called investigations its always by some bunch of hostile, liberals who hate the police in the first place. No, we do not need some bunch of bureaucrats investigating everything the police do in the line of their duty. If we can't trust our police forces then who can we trust? Some bunch of liberals who always side with criminals? No way.
Yes but lets have a body that is truly independent and not swayed by misinformed public opinion. Also lets have them do things quickly, it's unfair to have officers suspended for sometimes years at a time for incidents that last seconds.
No, we do not expect normal members of the public to confront armed and dangerous suspects, we expect that of law enforcement. Therefore the police must be given the benefit of the doubt and allowed special dispensation in deadly force incidents.
Which case was this exactly? If it's the one I'm thinking off it is vastly different to how you are describing it? What 'holocaust' of police killing innocents'? The US police kill fewer people than ever before, their departments must protect them and they must be given special consideration and immunity for their actions because we expect more of them than other people. .
Cop = Peter Liang innocent black guy = Akai Gurley Liang was convicted but the murder conviction was overturned by the judge and he was given 5 years of probation and community service. Had that been you, you would spent the rest of your life in jail.
From what I have seen such an investigation is always turned over to another law enforcement agency, and the FBI is often called in for special expertise. And when a law enforcement officer is shot and killed, the investigation likewise is turned over to another law enforcement agency.
Cops should not be trained to fire as a reflexive response to perceived danger. DHS has been promoting a 'Shoot First' curriculum for over a decade, empahsizing the officer's safety above the safety of the public. The reasoning given is that the officer needs to remain alive to serve the public. To be clear, many or perhaps most jurisdictions have not adopted this curriculum. But larger cities, where the bureaucracy is heaviest, have adopted it, and so long as LE are thusly trained, to in effect 'shoot and ask questions later', cops will continue to be protected from liability. After all, you can hardly fault someone for following their training. Independent investigation makes sense, but objective investigators will still conclude that officers are following their training until we alter the training.
Had that been me my force would have backed me too. You misrepresent the incident, the officer was clearing a stairwell infamous for drug dealers, he was surprised by the door opening and has a negligent discharge. In a MILLION TO ONE SHOT it ricochets and strikes the poor guy 2 flights down. It was a complete and total accident and tragedy and NO ONE is to blame. Appalling that he was ever put on trial, officers should have automatic immunity from crazed mob led witch hunts like this.
Too many unarmed people killed by cops and too many cops getting away with murder because they cover up for each other.
How do you feel about the Muslim Somali cop who was convicted for killing that White woman in Minnesota? Do you agree with the verdict in this case? I believe the verdict was fair---he shouldn't have been so trigger happy. But---I've heard a few people say there was a double standard in this case.
No, very, very few people are killed by police in a nation of 300 million and the police get away with it because it is recognised that they have to do things and make split second decisions other people don't
I have to say that particular case was baffling, I think the guy was guilty of manslaughter (and I wouldn't care what race either officer or victim was).
