Yes, firing the officer is the standard way to avoid actually doing anything meaningful about the violation. The perp normally moves right into another police force, and gets to leave behind their abuses file. The only response that has a chance of an effect is to file murder charges against the officer; so, anything else is nothing more than PR.
When the police have qualified immunity, public apathy, one of the only unions left with teeth, and an authoritarian complex from President on down, this is the “proper outcome”.
For those wondering why this case is so egregious, it’s because the police created a deadly situation where there was absolutely no danger before.
They went to serve a warrant in the most potentially dangerous way possible: creating a confusing standoff and storming an apartment an night.
When a stranger kicks in your door at night the correct response is to incapacitate them to protect yourself and those in the residence. Waiting around to see if it’s the police could be deadly for you if it’s someone attempting to rob you. For better or for worse, it’s perfectly legal for people in the US to own guns and use them to protect themselves in their home, it’s legal in ALL 50 states.
So the police create a situation where the residents inside have no information (at best) or think someone is there to kill them (at worst). The residents inside believe they are being attacked and defend themselves properly and legally. Instead of looking at the new situation (resident is shooting at us) and looking for a way to deescalate they decide that this resident has exercised a right the police don’t like and massacre them instead. This was always the intention, the way they served the warrant was the gaslighting, they were just waiting for a reaction so they could unload their mags.
So in short, the cops arrived at someone’s home, and then they created a situation so deadly that they had to murder someone to get out. If they wanted to do this without a murder there were a thousand ways to do it, they chose the most dangerous way intentionally because they did not value the lives of the people inside as human.
That is their fault, and the fact that these guys are not locked up for what is essentially an assassination is deeply disturbing.
Excellent summary. And to make it worse the police were poorly trained and did a number of dangerous things:
- After the shooting it was over 30 MINUTES until an ambulance came for Breonna Taylor. What the fuck's up with that? It seems terribly wrong.
- 20 neighbors said they never heard the police announce themselves. The police said they did. So it's unclear if the police even said they were police.
- The policeman breaking down the door immediately put himself in the line of fire in the doorway, which he's not supposed to do, putting himself at risk and increasing the danger of the situation for everyone.
- Another policeman who was outside, once the shooting started, blindly shot through the windows of the apartment. He couldn't see what he was shooting at. I believe this was the only officer convicted of anything - for endangerment.
- Several shots from various officers went into neighboring apartments.
- When requesting the warrant, the police lied about their source of information.
- The police didn't have a formal plan for the raid.
14 comments
[ 85.0 ms ] story [ 8205 ms ] threadThat’s rather like expecting collective action by the public; ha!
40%-ish of jobs are at home. Keep your laptop closed today.
It’s not a moral failure on the part of Louisville leadership. Their roles are well defined by law and precedent.
Legislative capture is the problem, fueled entirely by public indifference.
Since when do you need a lot of excuses to stop state officials from indiscriminately murdering anyone without absolutely no consequence?
More recently, since 1967: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualified_immunity
They went to serve a warrant in the most potentially dangerous way possible: creating a confusing standoff and storming an apartment an night.
When a stranger kicks in your door at night the correct response is to incapacitate them to protect yourself and those in the residence. Waiting around to see if it’s the police could be deadly for you if it’s someone attempting to rob you. For better or for worse, it’s perfectly legal for people in the US to own guns and use them to protect themselves in their home, it’s legal in ALL 50 states.
So the police create a situation where the residents inside have no information (at best) or think someone is there to kill them (at worst). The residents inside believe they are being attacked and defend themselves properly and legally. Instead of looking at the new situation (resident is shooting at us) and looking for a way to deescalate they decide that this resident has exercised a right the police don’t like and massacre them instead. This was always the intention, the way they served the warrant was the gaslighting, they were just waiting for a reaction so they could unload their mags.
So in short, the cops arrived at someone’s home, and then they created a situation so deadly that they had to murder someone to get out. If they wanted to do this without a murder there were a thousand ways to do it, they chose the most dangerous way intentionally because they did not value the lives of the people inside as human.
That is their fault, and the fact that these guys are not locked up for what is essentially an assassination is deeply disturbing.
- After the shooting it was over 30 MINUTES until an ambulance came for Breonna Taylor. What the fuck's up with that? It seems terribly wrong.
- 20 neighbors said they never heard the police announce themselves. The police said they did. So it's unclear if the police even said they were police.
- The policeman breaking down the door immediately put himself in the line of fire in the doorway, which he's not supposed to do, putting himself at risk and increasing the danger of the situation for everyone.
- Another policeman who was outside, once the shooting started, blindly shot through the windows of the apartment. He couldn't see what he was shooting at. I believe this was the only officer convicted of anything - for endangerment.
- Several shots from various officers went into neighboring apartments.
- When requesting the warrant, the police lied about their source of information.
- The police didn't have a formal plan for the raid.