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    DonmiguelbeBrendan O'Connor
    2/08/16 7:31pm

    And again, we focus on how the murdering cop felt. It’s always about the cop’s feelings. Did he feel scared before? Did he feel bad after? Meanwhile, a citizen lies bleeding to death at the hand of a public employee’s poor choice to use deadly force. Without a systemic overhaul of what it means, today, to be a police person, this kind of stupid and senseless murder will continue.

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      burnerburneradinfiburnerDonmiguelbe
      2/08/16 7:39pm

      Choice to use deadly force? I thought this was an accidental discharge and the guy was killed by a ricochet? Hence the manslaughter charge and the focus on the officer’s failure to render aid after the fact.

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      NoButWait Hates Your GoT Fan Theoriesburnerburneradinfiburner
      2/09/16 9:31am

      It was an accidental discharge, according to him, however if twitchy cops feel the need to “take their gun out” in dark alleys and squeeze the trigger at even the slightest noise, surely that says something about our police force to some degree.

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    MBCockBrendan O'Connor
    2/08/16 7:20pm

    This just in: Guns don’t “accidentally” fire.

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      HarlotOScaraMBCock
      2/08/16 7:27pm

      That’s not what was said.

      Gurley was fatally struck by a ricocheting bullet that Liang accidentally fired. “I heard something on my left side; it was a quick sound and it just startled me, and the gun just went off after I tensed up,” he said.

      He should not have had his finger on the trigger, and it was reckless conduct, but no one is saying the gun “accidentally fired”.

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      MBCockHarlotOScara
      2/08/16 7:34pm

      “... Gurley was fatally struck by a ricocheting bullet that Liang accidentally fired....”

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    BCDFGBrendan O'Connor
    2/08/16 8:01pm

    For Liang to go and testify is a Hail Mary, looking either for one juror to break ranks or for a judge to be sympathetic and restrict sentence to time served.

    For anyone who might be looking for a legal precedent, the easiest one is the 19th Century case of Alexander Holmes, of the doomed ship William Brown. Long story short, it’s the case in which a crew of cowardly sailors usurped the “women and children first” rules of the sea out of self-preservation. Holmes was tried for murder, convicted of manslaughter and given a fairly light sentence.

    None of the other crew members were charged because they couldn’t be found and the state couldn’t muster up the effort to go through such a wrenching trial. Nevertheless, the precedent is there: cowardice can be considered depraved indifference.

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      burps25BCDFG
      2/09/16 11:07am

      Except in this case he may not have intended to fire; nor known of the presence of the victim at all. This has a lot more in common with a stray bullet than self-preservation as far as precedent goes. It was only a quirk or physics and screwed up fate that anyone was even hurt. Legal debate about this case could go on for a long time, I think it’d be a great case to study in law school.

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      BCDFGburps25
      2/09/16 3:23pm

      What I was referencing was Liang’s long delay in calling for help, and that courts have ruled that cowardice (e.g. dereliction of duty) in an inappropriate context can be taken as malice.

      That’s beside the point that Liang going into a dark hallway, gun out of holster and finger on the trigger, is also against every bit of training cops are supposed to get in the academy.

      My personal view: this is a total shit show. Liang should be found guilty, serve a sentence that befits a reckless homicide.

      I know this is anecdotal, but quite serious: my local NYPD precinct just started trashing furniture. On a bunch of lockers —with official insignia— is an obnoxiously bright sticker, warning to never walk around with a finger on the trigger of a service weapon.

      Now I’m pretty sure that’s because there was a generation in the 1990's that was used to handling revolvers —which required a fairly hard pull, so it was slightly “safer” to fondle the trigger. The Glock is more sensitive and requires much more care in handling. This kind of folk wisdom gets around, I’m sure.

      Nevertheless, if Liang was ever awake in the academy, he should have been trained from the start not to play around with his service weapon. “Forgetting” that is a form of recklessness.

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    Set Fire to the Room--do it now (fiends NOT friends)Brendan O'Connor
    2/08/16 7:27pm

    If you haven’t read the long, excellent, heartbreaking Buzzfeed piece on the life and death of Akai Gurley, it’s worth your time. I don’t know how you see his death as anything other than an indictment of policing in America. What a fucking travesty.

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      SiemprePalante77Set Fire to the Room--do it now (fiends NOT friends)
      2/08/16 9:38pm

      Thanks, for the link. That really was a great article. I’m tired of hoping cases like this get justice.

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    theboogiecatBrendan O'Connor
    2/08/16 7:31pm

    I can’t imagine why the police academy would fudge teaching CPR. It isn’t hard or time consuming. Any idiot can learn it, and everyone should.

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      crouching tigertheboogiecat
      2/08/16 10:47pm

      Especially now that it’s just chest compressions. Pretty hard to fuck up.

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    Aw shucksBrendan O'Connor
    2/08/16 7:26pm

    He does come off as sincere, but also unprepared for the job here.

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      Vanguard KnightBrendan O'Connor
      2/08/16 7:46pm

      This trial will be very demonstrative of where the [Blank] gets filled in on Black Lives Matter.

      Is it: Black Lives [DON’T] Matter or, Black Lives Matter [TOO] in America.

      History tells us its the first.

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        GeorgeGeoffersonLivesBrendan O'Connor
        2/09/16 3:52am

        I’m tired about hearing about their feelings. I’m tired of them being “sorry.” Stop fucking killing people and then you don’t have to worry about feigning regret and sorrow. Fuck your “sorrow.”

        Poor baby? Peter, please. The poor baby here is this man’s baby daughter and his family.

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          burnerburneradinfiburnerBrendan O'Connor
          2/08/16 7:22pm

          I bet acquittal.

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