Cleveland Police Fire Guns Wildly, Endangering Innocent People
BY Herschel Smith
10 years ago
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland police pull their guns too fast, fire at fleeing cars and people who pose no immediate threat and ignore potential danger to bystanders, the U. S. Department of Justice found.
A biting 58-page report released Thursday concluded that police violated the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, including by shooting an underwear-clad hostage victim and an unarmed driver who made an illegal turn.
The report blames several reasons for the “unreasonable” shootings. Police often lack the training and confidence necessary to control a situation without resorting to force. They are not required to tell their supervisors when they pull their weapons. And the prevailing police culture promotes an “us-against-them” mentality.
“They too often fire their weapons in a manner and in circumstances that place innocent bystanders in danger; and accidentally fire them, sometimes fortuitously hitting nothing and other times shooting people and seriously injuring them,” the report says.
The Justice Department examined nearly 600 use-of-force incidents from 2010-13 and did hundreds of interviews for the report, released less than two weeks after Cleveland police shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was waving an airsoft pellet gun outside Cudell Recreation Center.
Training shortfalls are a consistent issue in the report. Officers also push situations to an unnecessarily dangerous level, “either because they do not know how, or because they do not have an adequate understanding of the importance of de-escalating encounters before resorting to force whenever possible.”
Let that wash over you again. Think about that. They see themselves as Judge Dredd. Cleveland police fired weapons at drivers who committed misdemeanor traffic infractions by making illegal turns.
Of course, this violates the Supreme Court ruling in Tennessee versus Garner, clearly and without equivocation or qualification. And while training may play some role in this, thuggish behavior by social deviants who have been licensed to act out their criminal sociopathy upon the public by the corrupt court system unfortunately wasn’t listed in the DoJ report.
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On December 8, 2014 at 10:46 am, UNCLEELMO said:
And the gun grabbers worry about law abiding citizens returning America to the Wild West. Sheesh.
Remind me to stay the heck out of Cleveland.
On December 8, 2014 at 1:05 pm, Doug Rink said:
I dare DOJ to apply this kind of critique to the U.S. Capitol Police and other officers in DC who opened fire on mom in a car last year, then shot her in the back five times after she abandoned her car near the U.S. Capitol and tried to flee on foot. Immediately after the shooting, Congress rose to give the cops a standing ovation. Yeah, yeah. Cops were afraid the confused mom might be a terrorist. And Congress, not waiting for the facts, was plenty eager to cheer use of deadly force when they thought their own butts might be in some kind of danger.
On December 8, 2014 at 3:19 pm, pjb1 said:
Guess what folks? The cops are not there for our benefit. They never have been, if you look into their history. In most countries ordinary people consider the cops to be enemies. Americans are finally figuring it out, one youtube at a time.
On December 9, 2014 at 8:49 pm, Fred Domini said:
The police exist to protect the interests of the wealthy and to generate revenue for the State.
On December 8, 2014 at 8:36 pm, m rapp said:
…simple …cut and dried !! DISARM THE COPS !!
On December 9, 2014 at 1:36 am, Anonymous said:
Cleveland was known to be a Detroit-level cesspit forty years ago, so nothing that takes place within its city limits is surprising, just disappointing.
I’m personally mildly surprised that the cops there still care enough about appearances even to draw their weapons and shoot at fleeing felons–legal and appropriate under Ohio statute since statehood, incidentally, under the “if you don’t want the cops to shoot you in the back don’t run from them” precedents established under the common law–instead of just sitting around taking naps in their patrol cars, if not smoking and dealing dope “borrowed” from the evidence room like they do in so many other “vibrant,” “diverse,” “multicultural,” “cosmopolitan” cities.