Discussion for article #239227
curious burglary method. ram car through front window. loot the joint. back vehicle out of debris. make clean getaway. hmm.
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Way too few pertinent details. I hope there is some video footage that actually did capture this incident. Unless Christian Taylor has a history of past robberies, not just possession of a handful of vicoden, I’m not inclined to think he crashed into the place of business on purpose – without any weapons to protect himself should something not go as planned! Again, too few details and background.
My thoughts go out to Taylor’s family and friends.
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So many of these stories involve young policemen - making me more convinced that poor training is a critical part of the problem. When you combine the tendency to over-react rather than de-escalate with instilled biases, the result is needless deaths.
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Speaking of training, and assuming for the sake of argument that shots were justifiably fired – why aren’t policemen trained to shoot merely to wound and not kill, by (for example) aiming at people’s legs?
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Actually it’s a very common method of burglary. Quick in, quick out, and you put the merch in the vehicle, don’t have to tote it out to the street. Dozens of incidents like this. Here are a couple, and the articles refer to others. A google search turns up lots.
http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/story/27492875/burglars-drive-car-into-northbrook-louis-vuitton-store
Not saying at all that’s what happened here, but to say it’s not common is not true.
Need far more details here. One big one is if his car was the same make as the dealer (car parts are big bucks). If the dealership is a Buick and he is driving a Buick, that could be important. He also could have been buzzed (it was 1 AM) and just wiped out into the storefront. Might have not been buzzed and just dozed off and went off the road too. We can’t tell if his path to the crash site is direct, of if he had to pull into the lot first make a turn or two, and then accelerate. There are way too many details missing.
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What stood out to me is the officer is 49 years old and had no previous experience as a police officer. 49 years old starting a new career in enforcement. I guess Texas has low standards for hiring.
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I am not trying to be argumentative, but a few cases don’t make it very common, does it? I tried googling how common it is and only came up with several instances over the past few years
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How long before Rush Limbaugh gets around to demonizing this kid for the hydrocodone tablets?
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What merch? A car? He drove into a car dealership, not a sporting goods store. What’s he possibly going to steal quickly from a car dealership? Parts? They’re heavy, and not usually in the showroom.
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Not referring to the article or assuming a crime was intended. But there was a crime wave here in Chicago with that exact MO. There were/are instances using a similar MO that did not even make the news. A contractor friend here did some construction/repair after such crimes and those were not in the news at all. In some cases the back doors or front doors are rammed with a vehicle.
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Perhaps he was a career military guy. I don’t really see his age as a factor in his qualifications. 49 isn’t that old if he’s healthy and in shape, which yeah, who knows. There seems to be a lot of police who probably couldn’t run 2 blocks without keeling over.
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Parts Department obviously can be accessed from showroom, the Parts Department does not have a glass storefront, the showroom does. That’s your easiest and quickest entry point. Yes, parts are expensive. Yes, some are heavy, that’s why you want the car in the store so you can make less trips. Again, I’m not saying that’s what happened at all, but to rule that out as not possible makes no sense until more info is available.
It’s because the assumption is that if a policeman is actually going to shoot at someone, it’s because his own life, or the life of others, is in immediate danger. If the bad guy is aiming an AR-15 at you, shooting to wound is not the smart move. The police are trained to shoot to kill for good reason.
The problem, of course, is that the police these days are shooting at people who “fail to comply,” at people who aren’t any real danger to anyone but are trying to run away, or at people who just piss them off. So, it’s not that they’re shooting to kill when they shouldn’t, it’s that they’re shooting when they shouldn’t.
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It’s a version of “smash and grab”, a very common term. Plus you can just google “car drives through storefront robbery”. There are literally dozens of cases, and most of them in the last couple of years. It seems to be the “trendy” thing. Quite practical too, you load up easier and make your getaway. Plus there have been several through gas stations to get the ATM. Actually, if you ever saw the movie Barbershop, such a scene occurs almost in the beginning, and it becomes a pretty humorous part of the movie.
More examples here. All recent:
http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/burglar-drives-vehicle-through-burien-business/njKBy/
http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/26157308/police-look-for-alleged-car-thieves-who-drive-through-store-windows-steal-merchandise
Again, I am NOT saying that is what happened, I am just saying to rule it out based on it not being common is simply not fact based. Yes, he could have dozed off, been buzzed, all these things are possible.
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Right, it’s a quick and efficient method of robbery, and it has become quite trendy. But as you say, at this point we can’t conclude that is what happened, there are lots of possibilities. But “smash and grab” certainly can’t be ruled out at this point.
Depends. If someone is coming at you, you aim for torso or YOU may end up dead. If they are fleeing but dangerous, you can try a leg shot, but that’s mostly movie fiction. Very hard to hit moving legs. At that point you need to be certain the perp truly poses a danger.
Correct, and in this case we have no idea at this point what happened. We do know that this is a pretty athletic kid, and if he wanted to kick the cops ass and take his gun, quite feasible. Of course it’s also possible the kid reached for his wallet and got shot. Not enough info yet. One key is how close the shot came from, and the angle. Only the autopsy will yield that complete info.
Unarmed! Ridiculous! Did you see that kid! He was big! And black! Look at the size of those arms! He was armed with his big blackness. Also, I understand he had access to a sidewalk!
/snark
I think I read the roookie cop was 49. Which seems kind of old to be starting out as an officer unless you were a retired MP or something.