The comments in the article reference the officer is a veteran of Afghanistan and might have PTSD. While that would make me more sympathetic to him in terms of should he be charged with a crime, this sort of thing clearly shows he should not be allowed to possess a firearm, let alone serve as a police officer ever again.
De-escalation wouldn't have helped when you get down to the root of the problem.
Sorry.
But I mean... they also don't get trained to shoot guns, evidently?
I mean, OK, hitting the acorn would be a tall order ;-)
But these two gun nut lunatic nutbar "police officers" emptied their guns into the back of a police car thinking the suspect was firing at them, and not one bullet hit.
Compounding the surreal, unbelievable madness of the whole affair. It's like a blend of John C. Reilly in Magnolia and Jules and Vincent in Pulp Fiction.
The whole picture here isn't just "this officer shouldn't have guns". It is "this entire police department shouldn't have badges."
They will fire at the slightest provocation and not hit it.
Given the number of shots fired it actually seems like one might more readily have accidentally killed the other with a stray/ricochet.
The only reason this guy was shot at is that these people are incompetent and unqualified for the job they hold. It's also the only reason they didn't kill him.
This time like pretty much every time a police officer uses their firearms or force would have played out completely differently and likely more sensibly if we didn’t give law enforcement officers qualified immunity.
Unfortunately many times when this sort of thing happens the officer is able to find another job at a different police department. Especially since he quit and was not fired.
According to this article: https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5yneb/man-shot-at-by-cops-w... Jackson was not injured but has been suffering mental effects. We also see there that the Sheriff is defending Herandez saying that while his actions weren't justified "we do believe he felt his life was in immediate peril and his response was based off the totality of circumstances surrounding this fear."
The number of (incorrect) assumptions the officer made is pretty astounding. No attempt to identify the source of gunfire -- it must be coming from the handcuffed suspect.
I also find it fascinating how he felt tingling on one side and fell as if he had been shot. It makes me think of the several instances of police who have experienced, to the point of hospitalization, symptoms from fentanyl "exposure," which is not actually a thing.
Jackson wrote in a lengthy Facebook post that the incident left him “damaged for life,” despite him miraculously not being struck by the officers’ gunfire.
He said he was “scared to death,” and that he leaned over and played dead “to prevent getting shot in the head.”
“Mentally, I’m not OK,” he said. “I haven’t been the same since and I don’t think this feeling I have will ever change.”
Once the officers stopped firing, Jackson said they forced him to show his hands, but he couldn’t raise them as ordered because he was still in handcuffs on allegations he’d stolen his girlfriend’s car. While doing this, he said he was staring down the barrel of an officer’s gun, so he closed his eyes and prayed he’d survive the ordeal.
“I eventually found a way to rest my cuffed hands on the shattered window area to show that I wasn’t armed. A few minutes later they swarmed the car and slammed me on the ground to search me,” he said. “The image I can’t get out of my head is seeing how bad my mom was hurt/crying right before I got into the ambulance.”
The first officer, who resigned, was determined to have used excessive force and the other who started firing because the other officer was “under assault” was determined to have responded reasonably. Crazy.
An extremely detailed 44-page report describing the incident and the people involved. After reading it, I would agree with the final assessment: Deputy Jesse Hernandez's use of deadly force against Mr. Jackson was not objectively reasonable (Excessive Use of Control to Resistance is SUSTAINED), and Sergeant Beth Roberts' use of deadly force against Mr. Jackson was objectively reasonable (Excessive Use of Control to Resistance is EXONERATED).
Note that he didn't just get scared of an acorn - there was a suspect in the backseat of his car, who had been searched and handcuffed, and the cop in question thought the man had somehow opened fire on him.
22 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 49.7 ms ] threadThere was absolutely no attempt to de-escalate things with the oak tree.
I mean it wasn't even a gun nut. It was just a nut.
Sorry.
But I mean... they also don't get trained to shoot guns, evidently?
I mean, OK, hitting the acorn would be a tall order ;-)
But these two gun nut lunatic nutbar "police officers" emptied their guns into the back of a police car thinking the suspect was firing at them, and not one bullet hit.
Compounding the surreal, unbelievable madness of the whole affair. It's like a blend of John C. Reilly in Magnolia and Jules and Vincent in Pulp Fiction.
The whole picture here isn't just "this officer shouldn't have guns". It is "this entire police department shouldn't have badges."
They will fire at the slightest provocation and not hit it.
Given the number of shots fired it actually seems like one might more readily have accidentally killed the other with a stray/ricochet.
The only reason this guy was shot at is that these people are incompetent and unqualified for the job they hold. It's also the only reason they didn't kill him.
> During the course of the investigation into the shooting, deputy Herandez resigned from the force.
But it's still quite concerning that he ever had a gun and a badge to begin with.
Also, they never mention whether Mr. Jackson - handcuffed in the back of the car - was hit or not. Here's hoping he's alright.
According to this article: https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5yneb/man-shot-at-by-cops-w... Jackson was not injured but has been suffering mental effects. We also see there that the Sheriff is defending Herandez saying that while his actions weren't justified "we do believe he felt his life was in immediate peril and his response was based off the totality of circumstances surrounding this fear."
I also find it fascinating how he felt tingling on one side and fell as if he had been shot. It makes me think of the several instances of police who have experienced, to the point of hospitalization, symptoms from fentanyl "exposure," which is not actually a thing.
He said he was “scared to death,” and that he leaned over and played dead “to prevent getting shot in the head.”
“Mentally, I’m not OK,” he said. “I haven’t been the same since and I don’t think this feeling I have will ever change.”
Once the officers stopped firing, Jackson said they forced him to show his hands, but he couldn’t raise them as ordered because he was still in handcuffs on allegations he’d stolen his girlfriend’s car. While doing this, he said he was staring down the barrel of an officer’s gun, so he closed his eyes and prayed he’d survive the ordeal.
“I eventually found a way to rest my cuffed hands on the shattered window area to show that I wasn’t armed. A few minutes later they swarmed the car and slammed me on the ground to search me,” he said. “The image I can’t get out of my head is seeing how bad my mom was hurt/crying right before I got into the ambulance.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/bizarre-footage-shows-florida-...
Imagine one popping off because a kid popped the plastic bag his lunch was in.
> Deputy Hernandez said he had two combat rotations to Afghanistan, but noted as an officer, he was not in direct combat.
Though maybe something else happened to him in the service.
She hit nothing and neither did he. Shooting without having a target violates gun safety and training 101.
"training failure" is what the report will say; but really it deserves a lot more words than that.