next »

[Andreas]

Unless there have been new developments, what I've heard of what the news media did is actually hardly surprising.
I have never heard a radio or TV interview that wasn't "clipped down" for brevity, and since this whole thing was bound to be a shitstorm of spin from the get-go, anyone making a big deal out of the editing is going to be in my spin-detector sights, themselves.
Other discrepancies in the matter, since when do people get away with hiding from the police when they've killed someone? Except in these cases where the shooter is non-black and the shot person is black.
I've even seen people making a big deal out of the guy shot weighing 180lbs at age 16, which really isn't in any way extreme.

[dough560]

It's one thing to present facts formatted to fit a time slot.  Deliberately presenting false data to advance a political agenda is fraud at the least.

Every roll back of firearms prohibitions have been met with the cry "There will be blood in the streets!"  As if criminals should and must be protected from their intended victims.  Intended victims who were previously forced at gun point to surrender their civil rights.

At this point we don't have enough facts available.  What actually happened will be determined by forensic evidence.  I just hope the cops did a professional job preserving it.  That evidence and how it's presented will determine the outcome.

We can play could-a,should-a, would-a until the heat death of the universe.  The facts are what they are.

What the news agencies presented are not facts.  Distortion, fraud, innuendo, and out right lies.  Yes.

Stand Your Ground Law is intended to protect individuals from abusive government denying their civil right of self defense.  This body of law is spreading, just as Shall Issue Concealed Carry Law spread, followed by Castle Doctrine Law.  In each case, news agencies presented fraudulent stories, apparently attempting to discredit the law, the authors and those who voted for and signed the law into being.

I know of too many incidents of government abuse.  Aided and abetted by deliberate ignorance of the issues involved by government and public alike.  This willful ignorance can cost an intended victim hundreds of thousands of dollars, along with their family, freedom and health.

Ignorance can be corrected by anyone willing to read.  I have a list of books and magazine articles, if you're interested.

This reminds me of a Florida Case about twenty years ago.  A Hispanic Police Officer shot and killed a criminal during an arrest.  The criminal was black.  Janet Reno was the prosecutor and tried the officer in the press, long before the case got to court.  Three trials later the officer was acquitted and a large chunk of Miami burned, due to rioting stoked by the media..  At this point I can't prove it but the possibility of more of the same is there.

[ShireSilver]

At this point we don't have enough facts available.  What actually happened will be determined by forensic evidence.  I just hope the cops did a professional job preserving it.  That evidence and how it's presented will determine the outcome.

This is one more reason why we need to get government out of policing. They have no real incentive to do a good job collecting and preserving evidence.

My landlord is awaiting sentencing for allegedly firing a handgun in his house (out the door into the well lit backyard) in order to stop a fight where there had already been attempts to use a knife to stab people. Several of the participants were known gang members, and the defense got a 200 page stack of criminal records of the participants. Unfortunately, the defense didn't get that until the day the trial started, and it wasn't allowed as evidence.

Anyway, the police took a couple dozen pictures using a not very good camera, which had a timestamp that was from several hours before the incident occurred. They didn't collect any of the bloody towels nor any blood samples from the floor. The one shell casing they found was not the one fired that night. They didn't even come back to look for more evidence in the daylight. It was a worse investigation than most civilians would do.

[macsnafu]

Anyway, the police took a couple dozen pictures using a not very good camera, which had a timestamp that was from several hours before the incident occurred. They didn't collect any of the bloody towels nor any blood samples from the floor. The one shell casing they found was not the one fired that night. They didn't even come back to look for more evidence in the daylight. It was a worse investigation than most civilians would do.

Yep.  Real-life police investigations are nothing like CSI.

[dough560]

Believe me when I say I have a great  deal of contempt for many police departments.  For many officers, its a lack of professional development or resources.  Others don't care, or have forgotten a major part of their job is to protect the innocent.

When I was going from investigations to operations, I came across two of my former customers, in-processing a newbie.  We exchanged a few pleasantries when one customer turned to the newbie and told him. " You ever get in trouble and you're innocent talk to him.  He'll do his best to help you.  You're dirty, he's the last person you want to see.  And you definitely don't want him hunting you."

I watched my brother be convicted for a crime he didn't do.  Thanks to a lazy cop and political necessity.  When I have the resources.....  They'll find out what being on the receiving end of a real investigation is like.