Galt's Gulch
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Police Officer Fired For Not Using Violence

Posted by khalling 9 years, 4 months ago to News
23 comments | Share | Flag

If the argument is not-"what about the children?" It is often:" the situation was complicated"
SOURCE URL: http://benswann.com/a-california-police-officer-has-been-fired-for-not-using-violence/

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  • Posted by LetsShrug 9 years, 4 months ago
    God forbid someone make a rational decision on their own. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. I can't imagine why so many areas are having trouble finding acceptable police applicants. duh. (Which translates into...soon we will only have irrational cops running around because rational people won't want to be one.) THIS cop made the right call. It's the police force that's the real loser here (and the citizens they are supposed to be protecting too), not the cop.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 4 months ago
    It seems the truth is if you scream at someone and fire potentially lethal (i.e. "less lethal") weapons at him, it decreases the chance of his committing suicide when you're there to take the blame. Who cares, the burecratic reasoning goes, if it makes him more likely to commit suicide later, as long as no gov't employees take the fall for it.

    I think about the young man thinking about suicide who meets Roark, and it changes his life. That can really happen. Some weirdo with funny-looking architecture or some other off-the-wall thing that doesn't mean anything to you or me could save someone's life.
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  • Posted by NealS 9 years, 4 months ago
    It sounds like a fictional story just made up after the aftermath of Ferguson. Probably done again to just change the story, give everyone something to talk about (What really happened in Benghazi? IRS? NSA?) But then again, most of the news today seems like some fictional story just made up to express some negative viewpoint on everything.

    I feel like I've been sleeping and just having nightmares for the last 6 or 7 years, nothing I'm hearing could possibly be real. I sure hope I can wake up and get back to reality at least by January 2017. Maybe we're all in the Twilight Zone and just don't know it.
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    • Posted by XenokRoy 9 years, 4 months ago
      You sound a lot like Cheryl Brooks

      Please do not go running down any docks when you are fully awake and face the reality that the impossible is here, and not going anywhere soon.

      I say this intending humor, and yet with a serious edge. I hope it is taken that way.
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      • Posted by NealS 9 years, 4 months ago
        It is taken with humor, the same as it was intended to be written. I still feel like we're all in the Twilight Zone however. It can' t be real, but it is.
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        • Posted by XenokRoy 9 years, 4 months ago
          Neal,

          Completely agree with you. Its like reason has gone out the window.

          This officer used his brain rather than following some predefined set action based on case study and scenario reactions. Yes the person could have injured themselves. Being talked down helps a person heal and decide not to kill themselves. Being forced down does not achieve this but simply delays it.

          Makes sense to me to see if you can really resolve the situation rather than simply force the desired behavior. Obviously his department does not agree with me.
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          • Posted by NealS 9 years, 4 months ago
            I'm so sick of people not taking personal responsibility for their own actions today. I was once there (after Nam), thinking suicide, but my plan was to go someplace where no one would see me do it. It should have been no one else's fault but my own. This may be a peculiar statement for me because my brother at age 39 committed suicide and we blame no one except him. I've made it to 72 now so I try not to think about it anymore.

            I guess what perturbs me most is those that want to control our individual destiny, and those that blame others for our actions or inactions. Perhaps cops need to be exempt from prosecution when acting in the line of duty. Or should we give them check sheets to ponder against any situation they might come up against? Why not just hire robots and program them to do what the current whims of the public happen to be today?

            I'm sure glad I missed (by one day) joining the Los Angeles County Sherriff's Department.in 1969. Today, if I was still working that job, I'd consider a strike in protest to the demonstrations going on. Or perhaps every time I got a call I'd have to change a flat tire before responding. I could not/would not do that job today.
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  • Posted by $ Susanne 9 years, 4 months ago
    There is something weird about this - that being, the initial contact (CSU cop) left the student to get him some water, instead of staying with the suicidal patient until he was removed by mental health people (or transported to a MH facility for a 72 hour watch). Once you have someone who is determined to be a danger to themselves or others, they are (in California) required to be placed in a 72 hour observational hold.

    I wonder - of course, they didn't say - if the patient didn't start to go back into his former mental state on the arrival of the other officers. There's just not enough info in the article to go by.

    Still - to cut a cop loose after 20 years - there is something missing in the story that would explain what *really* happened and why. I doubt they will be forthcoming with an explanation - especially since, being a MH situation, all info is then sealed under the HIPAA laws.
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  • Posted by wiggys 9 years, 4 months ago
    damned if you do and damned if you don't.
    pretty soon all of the men who have desires to be police officers that use common sense will not join and only those who are of a sadistic nature will. shades of the SS!
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    • Posted by NealS 9 years, 4 months ago
      This story could have been done by police, to keep down the number of new recruits. Think about it, dwindling numbers might cause their wages to increase to the level of a doctors pay. I wonder if the Army will ever need to raise the pay to get new recruits, or will they just reinstitute the draft.

      It's hard to imagine a job that requires you to protect someone with your life and then you are sued and or incarcerated for doing your job, or for not doing it....
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  • Posted by PURB 9 years, 4 months ago
    Solomon then said, “The other officers started yelling and screaming to get down, Tased him multiple times, and from what we understand (told the university officer) to Tase him again.”

    I'd imagine that only in fiction would such a wise man be named Solomon.
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