News Can the cop who fatally shot a man at Oakland station be tried again by DoJ?

[BobG]

If a cop cannot tell the difference between a taser and a handgun then clearly he has not received enough training, and should not be permitted to carry either!

Being convicted of manslaughter is pretty much going to be a career ender. When deciding between manslaughter or second degree murder, you're deciding on the length of the sentence; not whether to retain him as a police officer.

1. Adrenaline: is it reasonable to think that in a high stress situation, he forgot his training and lost awareness? It happens all the time. I think it is quite possible.

You are invoking an "adrenaline" defense? Should it be that easy to get away with second degree murder. "I was excited and therefore not guilty!"

Don't discount the adrenaline defense so fast. Looking at the video, it's hard to see why the situation would raise the officer's adrenaline to such a high level that he'd forget his training, but I wouldn't want to judge from a news report.

Here's a less serious example of an officer accused of using excessive force against 3 suspects:
http://www.fox8.com/news/akroncanton/wjw-deputy-kicks-suspect-arrest-dash-cam-txt,0,4105057.story

The raw video shows the same actions, but adding the rest of the video and the audio adds a bit of context that the news story is missing. In the raw video, the voice with the heavy breathing is the deputy that did the kicking of the suspects.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLPLi2xBwuA


The deputy in question was responding to a brawl at a party with his lights and flashers on while two cars were fleeing the party with their headlights off. They could see the oncoming police cruiser and could try to avoid him, but he couldn't see them coming until the last few seconds. One collided head on with his cruiser, while the other vehicle ran off the road to avoid a collision and flipped. Amazingly, the most serious injuries sustained in either accident was two broken arms and torn ligaments by the deputy, while the occupants that collided with his cruiser sustained several lacerations. The occupants of the flipped car were able to flee the scene.

The deputy was obviously very stressed and he obviously continued to kick the suspects even after they were laying on the ground. The adrenaline an officer is going to experience in a situation like this is something that's covered in training, but it's going to be almost impossible to actually create the same sensation. You can try to create similar feeling situations, but the training still winds up having to resort to telling officers that they need to be prepared for something they'll only experience once or twice during their careers.

The deputy in the video is my ex-wife's brother, which is why it caught my interest. He'll probably never have full use of his right hand again, which seems odd just looking at the video since he's holding his injured left arm with his right hand. Adrenaline makes a person ignore their pain for awhile, and by the end of the video, the pain is finally beginning to break through the adrenaline rush.