I'm posting this entire thread from Twitter by Tom Sweeny because I think it deserves it's own page. Here's the original Tweet:
And here's the entire thread:
I had a case that I lost that still eats at me. Client beat up his girlfriend. Cops come and guy drives his car off into the bushes. He gets out of the car and stands in the bushes. He wasn’t hurting anyone then. Stands silently for minutes. Girlfriend tells cops he’s unarmed.
Cops surround him. He’s not talking (Miranda). He’s not moving. They yell at him repeatedly. They taze him. He jumps a little then moves abruptly. The cops shot him in the back thinking he had a gun.
Cops immediately begin a search for the gun they were told he didn’t have. They did not try to perform first aid. They all just kept looking for the gun. Client died. Again there was no gun and they heard he didn’t have a gun.
There were no “exigent circumstances” like at Robb Elementary. He was standing still by himself in a bush, in the dark, not threatening anyone. The police escalated the situation. They shot him in the back. They all claimed they feared for their safety.
Those are the magic words. They justify any action the police take—even shooting an unarmed black man in the back. Of course, in the police report or there is no mention of the girlfriend telling them he was unarmed or in her witness interview.
In the first paragraphs of the Section 1983 Civil Rights Complaint I alleged the officers would claim “fear for their safety” as a defense—because they were trained to do that. The federal judge struck those paragraphs from the Complaint. Cops raised “fear for their safety” as a basis for qualified immunity later in the case. The court granted it and threw the whole case out. Though they killed an unarmed citizen by shooting him in the back, the City gave them awards.
I say all this because cops are trained this way. Kill an unarmed guy in the back—that’s worthy of an award and qualified immunity. In Uvalde, the officers conduct in not doing anything because it’s completely consistent with what they are taught.
But we are going to eventually hear those 911 calls. They will come out. They will be soul crushing. In the end, cops are taught early on that any actions will be justified if they claim “fear for safety”. Uvalde may just bring an end to this nonsense.
And here's the entire thread:
I had a case that I lost that still eats at me. Client beat up his girlfriend. Cops come and guy drives his car off into the bushes. He gets out of the car and stands in the bushes. He wasn’t hurting anyone then. Stands silently for minutes. Girlfriend tells cops he’s unarmed.
Cops surround him. He’s not talking (Miranda). He’s not moving. They yell at him repeatedly. They taze him. He jumps a little then moves abruptly. The cops shot him in the back thinking he had a gun.
Cops immediately begin a search for the gun they were told he didn’t have. They did not try to perform first aid. They all just kept looking for the gun. Client died. Again there was no gun and they heard he didn’t have a gun.
There were no “exigent circumstances” like at Robb Elementary. He was standing still by himself in a bush, in the dark, not threatening anyone. The police escalated the situation. They shot him in the back. They all claimed they feared for their safety.
Those are the magic words. They justify any action the police take—even shooting an unarmed black man in the back. Of course, in the police report or there is no mention of the girlfriend telling them he was unarmed or in her witness interview.
In the first paragraphs of the Section 1983 Civil Rights Complaint I alleged the officers would claim “fear for their safety” as a defense—because they were trained to do that. The federal judge struck those paragraphs from the Complaint. Cops raised “fear for their safety” as a basis for qualified immunity later in the case. The court granted it and threw the whole case out. Though they killed an unarmed citizen by shooting him in the back, the City gave them awards.
I say all this because cops are trained this way. Kill an unarmed guy in the back—that’s worthy of an award and qualified immunity. In Uvalde, the officers conduct in not doing anything because it’s completely consistent with what they are taught.
But we are going to eventually hear those 911 calls. They will come out. They will be soul crushing. In the end, cops are taught early on that any actions will be justified if they claim “fear for safety”. Uvalde may just bring an end to this nonsense.
