Just for fun.
Here’s police body camera footage of an officer involved shooting with a multiple felon who overdosed on a bus and was given narcan. After he came to, he decided he was not going to get in the ambulance and take a ride to the hospital (which he needed to do in order to save his life—after the narcan wore off he would be back to overdosing). He had other ideas and it didn’t end well for him or one of the EMTs.
Articles and videos about Prosecutors: Officer-involved shooting at Appleton transit center ruled justified on FOX6 News Milwaukee | Wisconsin & Local Milwaukee News WITI.
fox6now.com
I can only imagine it is instances like this, why an officer does not take chances with believing what a multiple felon, who is in process of committing another felony and resisting arrest, might be claiming, and the officer uses force, sometimes deadly force, before the situation escalates.
Articles and videos about Prosecutors: Officer-involved shooting at Appleton transit center ruled justified on FOX6 News Milwaukee | Wisconsin & Local Milwaukee News WITI.
fox6now.com
Full body cams footage here:
I would like to point out how long after Houston was fatally wounded, that he still posed a threat to the hostage and the people near by, which is why officers are trained to keep firing until the hostile is incapacitated. In Houston’s case, much like the case of Rayshard Brooks, where officers’ and bystanders’ lives were endangered, officers attempted life-saving measures to keep the offenders alive, even after being fired upon with, what appears on the police body cam videos, murderous intent.
I think murderous intent towards police, and then facilitating that murderous intent through one’s environment and actions is a bad idea. Police are better armed and better trained than most civilians. They know how to hurt people. Why fuck with them?
In answer to your question: I suppose police body cameras are a good place to start in keeping police accountable for their actions.
well I appreciate the suggestion about the body cams. That would be beneficial.
however, there are several things that you don’t mention from your example that are important things to notice. I watched 17 minutes of the body cam video so far. Quite frankly, the police officer was an entirely unnecessary presence.
the emt and fireman could have handled the whole thing, because he wasn’t actually refusing to go to the hospital at first. He was polite and agreeable with the emt when he became responsive. When they had him getting off the bus, he was willing to go with the emt to get treatment.
he didn’t start out wanting to refuse until having the police officer pat him down became a condition to going to the hospital. The emt did not request this or seem too concerned with whether this was done because the guy who overdosed was not being disagreeable or threatening to them.
even when the man became unwilling to go because he was trying to avoid being patted down, he was not being disagreeable or threatening towards anyone. An emt can encourage him to go to the hospital at this point, but technically. It was his right to refuse. A patient can refuse treatment against medical advice. At this point, an emt cannot intervene or force someone to go to the hospital unless he were to become unconscious and unable to make the decision himself.
that is reality. When this man refused to go to the hospital. He should have been left alone if the police officer did not expect to have to arrest him after he received treatment in the hospital, which the police officer didn’t.
on the bus, he checked with someone while he was standing there otherwise useless about whether the drug use needed to be pursued. Someone told him to just document it.
when he was trying to persuade the man to let him pat him down real quick, he said specifically that this action would not be done because he was in any kind of trouble.
therefore if at that point, the man decided that he did not want to go to the hospital because of this condition, it was his conscious right to refuse and everyone involved at the scene should have let him go at this point because they can’t intervene if he is not being arrested for something or unless he goes unconscious again.
so this is 17 minutes of the body cam video and there is more than enough reason to believe this situation would not have escalated if the police officer wasn’t present.
it is reasonable that the man would have gone to the hospital, and the weapon would have been confiscated during the process of changing the man into a hospital gown and collecting his belongings.
in a hospital, if he was unwilling to do this for the same reason that he was unwilling to be patted down by the officer. He would have had to sign a release saying he was leaving against medical advice and he would have been free to go.
having a weapon didn’t make him a threat. Pulling out his weapon was more than likely an effort to protect himself rather than an open willingness to commit an act of violence for the sheer enjoyment of it.
his prior felonies do not necessarily make him a threat to commit more violence And there was no mention of this during the time leading up to him pulling out a weapon.
in the end, I wouldn’t say this was an example of a police officer abusing his power. I would not say that the way you are suggesting this ended should have even been handled differently by a court.
but this example still demonstrates that there is a lot more that we need to do besides equipping police with body cams. and this example does clearly support defunding the police so that they don’t participate in a call where there has not been a crime committed and there is no reason to believe that there is a threat of violence present because this type of situation does not necessitate the presence of the police.
the police officer was legitimately a third wheel and did more to help escalate the situation than anything else. Obviously, this was an innocent escalation but it was the police officer who escalated the situation regardless.
