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    CoppersBrendan O'Connor
    12/30/14 3:00am

    Full disclosure. I'm a cop. So I'll get that out of the way. Probably one of the few that read gawker.

    The police say Ford was on top of another officer, and got their gun so that's why he was shot in the back. Would the bullet have shot through the body at such a close range? I have no idea. I'm not a forensic scientist, and I don't know the caliber, gun or bullet. And of course I will believe that. I have to. But it it turns out not to be true, then fuck, charge the cops.

    I read all these comments, where I know most of you hate my fucking guts. I read it to remind what I could be dealing with the public. By that I mean, this person can think "fuck the police," and my conduct has to try to change that. I can't get into yelling matches because they go fucking nowhere. Neither does rudeness. Sometimes I have to be more forceful/authoritve.

    Long ass post, but I'll write an example. A car in front of me ran a red light. So I pulled it over. I did not know the race of the driver. Turned out to be a black male. I go up and take to the driver, and he gives me attitude right away, all I said was "hello sir." He also opened his window maybe two inches. Which infuriates me. But whatever I take his license etc, and I run his info. Criminal history is nothing crazy: to me bullshit kinda charges, stuff that people talk themselves into. So I write the kid a warning and ask to talk to him, and roll the window all the way down. I ask him about his charges, and say "It looks like either you felt disrespected by the officer, or the officer felt the same way about you." His demeanor completly changed with me, like I could see his face and body relax. We chat a little bit about what happened, and he's opening up to me and that's a great thing.

    I wanted to write the guy a ticket and be on my way, but something told me I should talk to him. All I can hope is that, the next time he gets pulled over, he doesn't react with hostility or that's probably a strong word, maybe perceived attitude, get him out of a ticket. Or maybe a cop is someone he can talk to. Or at the very least he has one good interaction with the police.

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      user_21938Coppers
      12/30/14 3:50am

      I can't speak for all the Gawker commentariat, but I don't hate cops. It's an extremely demanding and often dangerous job, and I can understand a certain level of paranoia or fear when they enter any kind of confrontation. Police officers are human, and have the same survival instinct as the rest of us.

      I do think that, on a whole, American police are woefully under-trained on dealing with a civilian populace, especially the mentally ill. I think a large number of them, possibly a majority of them, prefer to wield and project an air of authority rather than one of service. I think this can make them quicker to deem someone a threat based on flawed criteria, such as skin color, or neighborhood, or the like.

      As you experienced, sometimes all it takes to deescalate a situation is talking. Not yelling, or ordering, or pointing a gun/taser/mace, but assessing the situation, and trusting that you're dealing with a human being and not a caricature. Stereotyping in any situation is usually going to end poorly.

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      Coppersuser_21938
      12/30/14 4:01am

      Yes mental illness is an issue. Sometimes I think a pychology degree would be more useful for cops than the standard criminal justice. I sign up for those trainings when I can. And before my fellow cops jump on me for that one, no we aren't meant to be diagnose anything on the street, but might give us better tools to handle things.

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    kiracBrendan O'Connor
    12/30/14 1:21am

    I am an upper-middle class white woman from the South who thought racism was "over" in the mainstream until the Michael Brown shooting. Since then, my eyes have been opened about how the people around me really think about crime and black people. Aka the seemingly tolerant white people in power who I know and interact with daily have told me that they really think someone stealing cigars or selling loose cigarettes is a criminal deserving death because the police are always right. This includes my parents, who have told me my whole life to ignore skin color and look at the person. But now they add that if the police kill someone, I should not ever question it.

    I will be honest in that there were always other white people around me who would wait to talk about "how it really was with the niggers" once it was just white people in the room, but these people always made it clear in everyday life that black people were "others" beneath them and I always avoided them and made fun of them afterwards. The biggest shock of the current media coverage of this issue is that people I love and previously respected are revealing their horrible views to me in more subtle ways.

    What I have taken on as my mission is to to stand up and declaratively say that police shootings of unarmed black men are racially motivated to the other white people I know. Already, a family has left my church because they told my pastor that they wouldn't stay in a "hateful" atmosphere where I was espousing my views.

    The best use of white people in this struggle is to shame other white people into recognizing the true nature of their prejudices. This is how we can best eradicate the secret racism prevalent in our society.

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      dontcallmemimikirac
      12/30/14 1:36am

      I hope you have a current passport because the Nobel committee just called! Congratulations on living in the South and just now realizing that racism is an ongoing issue and for not being a completely terrible person. We sure are in danger of running out of medals to award for plain common decency.

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      Fists-of-the-Porn-Starkirac
      12/30/14 2:03am

      It's actually like this for lots of people, not just sheltered white folks. The average nigga is more likely, in my opinion, to find common ground with others......but that's just anecdotal. What I do disagree with though is shaming people. You can't shame the shameless, but you can educate the ignorant. As a nigga in America that understands the role "good" white folks play in race relations in America, I would urge you to focus on educating the people you can educate. Racism will never be totally eradicated, but it can continue to be mitigated. Good job, keep on keeping on, and Happy Holidays.

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    HypnoCatBrendan O'Connor
    12/30/14 12:08am

    It took some guts for Garcetti to release the report with the incredible tension lately, but he did the right thing. I just wish that once, juse once, the Chief of Police for a major city would respond by saying, "Yes, we have some deep holes in our policies and training and we have helped create a major rift with the community, but we are here to protect and serve, and we will be taking a long hard look at our internal procedures."

    How refreshing woukd that be?

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      kaysey17HypnoCat
      12/30/14 12:21am

      They said that in Seattle & got Kathleen O'Toole as a new Police Chief to clean up the dept. Seeing as how the police union here bully & bend the cops & politicians to their will, I'm not holding my breath.

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      kiracHypnoCat
      12/30/14 12:30am

      This was not guts by the Police Chief. This was a direct mandate by the mayor, aka his boss, who said the autopsy had to be submitted to the public before the end of the year.

      *On further study of your post, I am now realizing you were coming from the viewpoint of the mayor: Garcetti. However, both officers should care about protecting their community, which includes mentally ill black men.

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    Bitch PuddingBrendan O'Connor
    12/30/14 12:03am

    TAKEAWAYS FROM 2014:

    - Interstellar's script could not live up to its visuals.

    - Everyone's over Cronuts, thank god.

    - Killing black people was downgraded from "illegal" to "mostly frowned upon, sometimes."

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      VectoriousBitch Pudding
      12/30/14 12:31am

      I wish they sold Bitch Pudding in stores.

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      RobNYCVectorious
      12/30/14 9:45am

      Where did that name come from again?

      EDIT: Never mind, Robot Chicken.

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    Paradise-Law-stBrendan O'Connor
    12/29/14 11:58pm

    Yeah, no. Fuck the police. How much of a coward do you have to be shoot a mentally ill man in the back?

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      OhMyFurykParadise-Law-st
      12/30/14 12:11am

      I can't believe the responding officers did not have immediate access to the victim's psychological diagnoses.

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      Paradise-Law-stOhMyFuryk
      12/30/14 1:01am

      I Still can't believe that a Caucasian woman who was armed and pointing her gun at police was taken into custody unharmed earlier today. It almost makes my head explode.

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    lesasbestBrendan O'Connor
    12/30/14 12:20am

    it's time to change the process of investigating and prosecuting police shootings...special prosecutors and independent investigators (perhaps from the state or fed level) need to be brought in...internal investigations and local DAs cannot be impartial..I also believe that body cameras are a MUST, but only if those wearing them cannot turn them off and on.

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      Josh1999lesasbest
      12/30/14 12:42am

      Maybe the body cameras should auto on at the sound of a gunshut?

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      VectoriousJosh1999
      12/30/14 12:47am

      They need to be on long before the sound of gunshots.

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    ╰(　´◔　ω　◔ `)╯< Woke and BokeBrendan O'Connor
    12/30/14 12:18am

    Well, I guess we were due for another riot.

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      user_21938╰(　´◔　ω　◔ `)╯< Woke and Boke
      12/30/14 12:30am

      I feel like we've been due for riots for years, and not just because of this.

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      ╰(　´◔　ω　◔ `)╯< Woke and Bokeuser_21938
      12/30/14 1:01am

      It has been almost five years since the last Laker riot.

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    CorbettoBrendan O'Connor
    12/30/14 8:08am

    "... shot while trying to take [the officer's gun]..."

    Do they just have a stamp with this comment on it... or maybe a shortcut key... It's the most absurd go-to response for law enforcement.

    If someone turns to scratch a serious itch "HE WAS REACHING FOR MY GUN... so I shot him where he was going to scratch."

    If someone complains about the cuffs being too tight "HE WAS REACHING FOR MY GUN... so I shot him to loosen the cuffs."

    If someone looks at them in a cross manner "HE WAS REACHING FOR MY GUN... so I took his face off."

    You know, "he was reaching for my gun" should not be a defense. It's simply bad police work to ever allow such a thing to actually happen.

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      TRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)Brendan O'Connor
      12/30/14 12:23am

      The police make their statements after the fact, using evidence that they see before anyone else. It's more surprising that they wouldn't manage to make their own accounts fit with the facts available.

      Until police departments decide that accountability and the public's trust is worth more than closing ranks and protecting the force, the vast majority of police killings will go unpunished. That decision will have to be forced by the public, which means voting for candidates who will face the same kind of PR barrage Bill de Blasio has withstood since he entered office. That means overcoming voter disenfranchisement laws targeted directly against the very people most likely to face police abuse. In the words of Paul Weyrich, one of the founders of modern conservatism:

      I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.

      In America, the odds are being actively stacked against accountability, against equality, against justice. Sweet land of liberty my ass.

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        Emily_8361Brendan O'Connor
        12/30/14 12:20am

        It feels like we are regressing in so many ways as a society. I am trying to remain optimistic we can find a way to make progress again.

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          user_21938Emily_8361
          12/30/14 12:43am

          Stuff like this has been going on for a long time. The fact that we're all starting to pay attention *is* a good thing.

          I find that it helps to take a geological view of humanity. You can't focus on years and decades; there's too much fluctuation, too much ebb and flow as we transition from an instinct-based species to a reason-based one. For some periods, fear and instinct will win. For others, reason and compassion will win.

          Overall, however, when I look at the whole of human existence, you start to notice the positive trends. You start to notice that the idealists are the winners in the long run.

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          JohnBrownSecondCominguser_21938
          12/30/14 12:49am

          I mean, I guess that's true, and all. But it also seems like a bit convenient view to focus on for someone that has less to worry about than others. Someone with my skin color isn't exactly comforted by this long view when we're literally just trying to stay alive for the day in a supposedly developed society in the alleged "Greatest Nation in the World."

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