Cops sued by bystanders caught in crossfire

[Cotton]

They shouldn't have fired into the crowd it's just like that scene in the movie 'SWAT' where Jeremy Renner's character took a shot at a bad guy with a hostage and accidentally shot the hostage instead. Needless to say Jeremy Renner's character was the good cop gone bad in the film.

[Puma]

There was what seemed like a rash of that kind of thing here years ago. Honestly, though, you lunge at armed police with a weapon, what the fuck do you think is going to happen?

but, but, but...cops should all be trained therapists that can identify and respond to every known psychosis...and intuitively know that the uncooperative guy swinging an ax at them doesn't really mean to hurt anyone.

[Cotton]

Would it have been worse if the cops accidentally shot a child that was in the crowd because they didn't want that criminal to get away?

[7thangel]

He was resisting arrest. The officers had him on the ground but he was fighting them to try and resist being put in handcuffs. You can try to outmuscle the guy but depending on the positions of the arms under the body sometimes this can be very difficult. Try it with your buddy . . . one of you lie face down with your arm curled up under the body and tensed into a fist and see if the other guy can just simply pull it out . . . odds are you won't be able to simply because the guy on the ground has all the leverage. There is also serious risk of injury to both the suspect and cops when you get into a ground fight like this. I know one cop on my department was in this exact type of situation where a guy was on the ground and trying to keep the cops from handcuffing him. The cops tried outmuscle him and ended up breaking the guys arm pretty badly. I also know many cops on my department who themselves have been injured in such scuffles. One broke his leg, several dislocated their shoulders. What Mehserle was trying to do was taser the guy so he would stop resisting. For the reasons I detailed it ended badly but his intent was actually to end the fight with minimum harm to the suspect and officers. There are pressure points you can try to use but all most of them do is cause pain and many people, especially those high or intoxicated, often have high pain tolerances.

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i'm not going to get into the tasers because we've been through this before, but it was Pirone, with his knee on his neck, and Mehersle, who claimed Grant was resisting. not much of a shocker that two cops facing possible charges would claim resistance, or in other cases claim he was reaching for something. and while you're accusing others of putting motives unto them and their actions, here you are telling us what their real motives and intentions were. we've also been through the Mehserle case here before too, including the position, weight, and color of the taser vs his firearm.

[mikekerrIII]

Would it have been worse if the cops accidentally shot a child that was in the crowd because they didn't want that criminal to get away?

If the know shooter had proceed to kill many others it would have been worse. It was a judgement call with only seconds to make the judgement. They guy was out to kill and they stopped him without anyone else dying. there is reason to sue for civil culpability andcompensation but you can't pretend that there were not serious dangers to the public either way.

What y would you be saying id he had taken a few steps out of the line of fire them killed half a dozen? that was a real possibility that the cops had to consider

[Chiasm]

If the know shooter had proceed to kill many others it would have been worse. It was a judgement call with only seconds to make the judgement. They guy was out to kill and they stopped him without anyone else dying. there is reason to sue for civil culpability andcompensation but you can't pretend that there were not serious dangers to the public either way.

What y would you be saying id he had taken a few steps out of the line of fire them killed half a dozen? that was a real possibility that the cops had to consider

That was the problem in that particular situation. You've got a guy who has already killed one person and is now turning with the gun as if he's going to fire and hit more people. It was a no-win situation for the cops and they were going to get crucified by a segment of the public no matter what they did here.

Also I'll point out again that most of the people "hit" with bullets from the cops were actually hit by fragments of concrete and shrapnel from the bullets after they impacted on backdrop. That can still injure someone, one of my co-workers had to go to the hospital to have a fragment removed from his arm that came back at him when he shot a steel target, but its a far different than being directly shot.