Videos show Chicago police fired nearly 100 shots over 41 seconds during fatal traffic stop

girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to News@lemmy.world – 515 points – Videos show Chicago police fired nearly 100 shots over 41 seconds during fatal traffic stop
apnews.com

Plainclothes Chicago police officers fired nearly 100 gunshots over 41 seconds during a traffic stop that left one man dead and one officer injured, according to graphic video footage a police oversight agency released Tuesday.

Five officers from a tactical unit who were in an unmarked police vehicle surrounded an SUV last month driven by Dexter Reed, allegedly for failing to wear a seatbelt. Video shows the 26-year-old Black man briefly lowering a window and then raising it and refusing to exit the vehicle as more officers arrived, yelled commands and drew weapons.

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Cops are trained, that when they start shooting they don’t stop shooting until either the target hits the pavement or makes it very obvious they’re no longer a threat. (Which, is why you see cops dump full mags into kids.) there is no “wing ‘em and they’ll give up.”

You're saying that like it's the way they should be trained.

The very fact that they are shooting children over and over again doesn't suggest to you that maybe this is the wrong sort of training?

I ain't defending it.

I completely agree with your assessment that they absolutely need better training- one of the things is spending increased focused on deescalation and soft skills- time-wise,

one unfortunate reality is there are people who would fire out of that car at cops. looking into it it's at least plausible that the guy shot first. Not ... that I trust the narrative. Dirty cops get protection from the others. who knows who shot first.

all I was trying to point out is that, a hundred rounds fired by five cops, isn't actually all that much.

You can see glass blow out from the right hand side of the vehicle before the body cam officer starts shooting, it definitely looks like the vehicle occupant fired first.

Yeah.

nsfw warning, but here’s the COPA release.

They have every body camera involved in it;starting from before they get out of the car (but no audio until they do.)

It’s pretty clear that Reed shot first.

Their pretext for pulling him over doesn’t make sense, though. One, all the windows were tinted, and it’s special tactics cops- there’s a lot of maybes here but you don’t send these guys for routine traffic stops.

Going by the way they approached the vehicle, they knew something was likely to happen.

That does make some sense, once the decision to use lethal force has been made, you use it until it has worked. Police do carry nonlethal weapons as well.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/nnqk4b/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-non-lethal-weapon-1021

What would you prefer, they asked politely, and gave up when people declined?

You're right. There's no middle ground between asking someone politely and giving up when they decline and emptying an entire clip into their chest.

No middle ground at all.

Maybe some type of weapon that, if used correctly, can immobilise or incapacitate someone without doing any lasting harm?

Ah yes, this imaginary weapon that will always be used correctly and never on anyone with a heart condition or anything like that.

I don't know how cops even survived before "non-lethal" weapons were invented. I guess they just shot every criminal every time. Either that, or it was just cop murder constantly. I don't even know how there were any cops.

They hit people with sticks, that's how.

You mean they had to get close to a criminal? They had to actually be brave and take risks?

Police still do carry batons, by the way. It's much easier to do that when the other guy doesn't have a weapon, of course.

I'm honestly not sure what your point is here, police can and do use pepper spray and tasers quite often, but not when the person they're approaching is likely to have a firearm.