Discussion: Everything We Know About The Eric Harris Shooting

TPM Article Topics
1

Discussion for article #235240

2

Although it’s little comfort, this should be one hell of a lawsuit for the family…

9 Likes
3

What the hell is a 73-year-old amateur doing with a police gun and taser in the first place???
It sure seems like any idiot who pays the cops enough in that town can become one.

27 Likes
4

Here are the elements: Dead African-American male. White law enforcement officer caught on video. Oklahoma.

Any questions?

11 Likes
5

You left out “wealthy donor”.

14 Likes
6

…Robert Bates, 73, is an insurance company executive who became a reserve deputy in 2008, the Tulsa World reported. He also served one year as a police officer in the 1960s…

For the love of all that’s holy! THIS is what we’ve been reduced to for law enforcement?!?! Law enforcement training must be a farce, a sick joke in many parts of this land, and the public is paying the price. ~face in palms of hands!~

17 Likes
7

We sure are learning a great deal about local law enforcement in recent months and almost none of it is good. First, they are militarized in a way that completely destroys the “protect and serve” mission of community police and now we find out that a donor can become a gun-wielding enforcer just to get his jollies in retirement. We really need a complete overhaul of police procedures in this country.

24 Likes
8

LOL…You win the Internet today on such a sad and tragic story.

2 Likes
9

Paying a lot of money to play cops and robbers with live ammo. What could possibly go wrong?

20 Likes
10

My thoughts too - who the hell deputizes a man in his 70s? That’s too old to be an unarmed mall cop. Tulsa likes to have the physically and maybe even mentally unqualified “playing policeman”?

4 Likes
11

But he’s a wealthy donor! What could possibly go wrong?

10 Likes
12

Well, they really brought out the big guns when they were piling on reasons why he deserved to be summarily executed, didn’t they? Convicted felon, meth dealer, ran from the cops are all standard, but “we thought he was on PCP?” Really? Let’s bring out the one excuse that only old white Fox viewing people think is still a thing?

And isn’t it fascinating how states that will rush in to demand the death penalty for people who are obviously schizophrenic or psychotic to the point of disassociation are suddenly all about the psychological phenomenon that explain away events when they’re talking about a cop shooting?

And, now it sounds like the guy who never should have been within a mile of this arrest was apologizing to the real cops for shooting the man, not the man he shot, doesn’t it?

36 Likes
13

It is impossible to mistake an automatic pistol for a taser.

10 Likes
14

Huh. Did I miss something that was good?

Cause I’ll be darned if I can remember the last time I learned something good about law enforcement in the United States.

All I can recall is one fvck-up after another. And that is since…Oh, probably Chicago, 1968-ish…

7 Likes
15

Well, that was a real nice clusterfuck.

4 Likes
16

Maybe for someone properly trained and my guess is this guy wasn’t.

2 Likes
17

Many, many small towns have programs like this. It’s a perk for people who donate money to the police department/sheriff’s office. Lets older guys with money play at being police officers, usually not with such horrific results. Almost by definition the wrong people to be in such a position. (Also ironic because at least some of these are the same people who would complain about paying $50 a year in extra taxes to get a real officer in the job but will gladly spend 100 times that in donations and equipping themselves.)

13 Likes
18

It all makes sense! The rich used to “get their jollies” as you say by going on buffalo hunts and pigeon shoots, more recently dove-and-buddy shoots, and SAFARIS to shoot rhinos and heffalumps and the occasional African porter. Now for donating large chunks of cash to the local LE agency they can get in on the hunts, shootings and killings of the World’s Most Dangerous animals, all without having to bother with passports, inoculation, long boring tiring travel, iffy food and water, and the risk of foreign diseases, or indeed foreign incidents of any kind.

And BONUS: not only will local law enforcement types do the actual hunting, pursuing and holding down of the prey so you can get a close-in shot and higher likelihood of a kill, but they’ll provide an inflated or even totally bogus story to ensure speedy institutional exoneration should someone have the shoot on video. This shows that something as little as an “Oops! My bad. Heh heh.” could more than suffice.

I see a boom in both Reality TV and in taxidermy in this. American Urban Safari would be a can’t-miss for a certain demographic!

The outcome here’s pretty obvious: Mr. Bates will be placed on temporary leave until he can show the ability to distinguish a gun from a taser with sufficient probability to justify the risk of re-occurence: something between 50 and 80 percent would probably work. The training would, of course, require some sensitivity to balance the emphasis:

‘Okay, Mr. Bates: what’s this thing?’
A taser gun!
‘Partly right. Let’s try again; I’ll give you a little hint to start you on the right track: it’s a gun alright, but it doesn’t shoot tasers, it shoots … what?’
Flames?
‘No! Well, actually yes, that, too. So that’s another partial correct; we’re making progress! Now, what else besides flames?’
Hot exploding death bullets?
‘Correct! Couple more times, you’ll be ready to go.’

18 Likes
19

…and why does a Reserve Cop need to pack heat…?

8 Likes
20

At the very least, the police department should be sued for negligence in arming an unqualified person and then putting them in a position well outside of their abilities.

18 Likes