BREAKING: Atlanta police chief resigns

[brooklynite]

Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced Saturday that police Chief Erika Shields is stepping aside and the city will launch a search for her replacement.

Bottoms said Shields made the decision to resign her top post, which the mayor accepted.

“Chief Erika Shields has been a solid member of APD for over two decades and has a deep and abiding love for the people of Atlanta. And because of her desire that Atlanta be a model of what meaningful reform should look like across this country, Chief Shields has offered to immediately step aside as police chief so that the city move forward with urgency in rebuilding the trust so desperately needed throughout our community,” Bottoms said.

...snip...

Bottoms also called for the termination of the police officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks on Friday. Brooks took a Taser from an arresting officer. As Brooks ran away, Bottoms said he turned over his shoulder and appeared to fire the Taser at one of the officers. The officer shot Brooks.

Read more: https://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/atlanta-protests-live-updates-from-response-rayshard-brooks-shooting/3a2YSQAMCN1pf62nQa2K2O/

[Laffy Kat]

1. Whatever the communities need to do.

Maybe all chief should consider resigning right now. Let's effing hit reset.

[The Magistrate]

2. Police The Police, Sir

Chiefs who will not need to go.

[Calista241]

3. She was one of the good ones. Just a week ago

Everyone was singing her praises for APD and her reaction to the BLM movement.

[riversedge]

14. yes, this article gives a bit of info about her...........

https://apnews.com/4a297ba576eb60e77e8c302686a877e7
...........Shields, Atlanta’s police chief for less than four years, was initially praised in the days following Floyd’s death last month. She said the Minnesota officers involved should go to prison and walked into crowds of protesters in downtown Atlanta, telling demonstrators she understood their frustrations and fears. She appeared at Bottoms’ side as the mayor made an impassioned plea for protesters to go home when things turned violent with smashed storefronts and police cruisers set ablaze.

Days later, Shields fired two officers and benched three others caught on video May 30 in a hostile confrontation with two college students whose car was stuck in traffic caused by the protests. The officers shouted at the pair, fired Tasers at them and dragged them from the vehicle. When prosecutors charged six officers with crimes in the incident, however, Shields openly questioned the timing and appropriateness of the charges.

[tulipsandroses]

4. The GBI is setting the stage to let this cop walk. I just watched the video they released

Deadly force was not required. Fire and charge these officers.

[Calista241]

5. According to CNN the guy beat up the cop and had taken his taser.

He then ran about 10 feet away and raised the taser, and pointed it at the cop, as of to discharge it. It doesn’t get more justified if those are the facts.

[JackintheGreen]

8. As the mayor said

There is what is allowed and there is what is right. They had the guy’s name and the guy’s car. It seems universally accepted he was drunk, therefore not acting in his right mind. It is doubtful he posed a risk beyond escaping the cops in the moment. Of course, they will argue, “but he was drunk and had a weapon, ergo he posed an immediate threat and had to be killed (sshhh, like a rabid animal...).” Of course, if they had just let the drunk man run away instead of trying salve their wounded pride, they could’ve picked him up later for all kinds of added charges: assault, resisting arrest, evading, theft (of the taser), certainly some kind of weapons charge. They could have still shown how big and mighty their dicks were, still put the scary black man in jail, and there would be one less family grieving the senseless loss of a family member.

[Calista241]

10. He was armed. Suppose he gets away, and car jacks someone.

Last edited Sat Jun 13, 2020, 08:06 PM - Edit history (1)

Then you have a drunk, armed carjacker. Can you imagine the outcry if such a thing happened?

We ask cops to consider the risk of their actions, but cops also have to consider the risk of not acting. There’s not a department in the country that would encourage cops to let armed, combative subjects to just do what they want.

[tulipsandroses]

11. Lets stick to the facts.

None of that was happening. Why is there a jump from intoxicated person to car jacker?
This incident is another reason, police should not be responding to these calls.

[Jedi Guy]

15. So who should be responding to calls involving a drunk and possibly violent person? N/T

[tulipsandroses]

18. People that are trained and experienced with dealing mental health and substance abuse issues

Those of us that work in addiction and mental health, somehow manage to do our jobs without killing people. (I know there are random cases). However, for the most part, we manage to deal with intoxicated people and people in crisis , that even show aggression towards us without killing them.

[SunSeeker]

20. EXACTLY. These cops escalated the situation. THEY brought weapons into it.

Sleeping in you car in a Wendy's parking lot is not a felony. This situation was made worse when cops were added to the equation. This man was running away when gunned down.

[LeftInTX]

27. So you deal with drunk people in parking lots?

Who are running around with tasers?

[tulipsandroses]

42. So if a mental health crisis team responded, there would be no tasers in the first place

Lets go back to the reason the police were called. Rayshard was asleep in his car, reportedly his car was blocking other cars. If a mental health crisis unit arrives, they can assess the situation, without being threatening or alarming. Thus probably preventing the situation from escalating.

Crisis units responding to 911 calls is not a foreign concept. Its already being done.
in some parts of the country. There are crisis teams that respond entirely on their own, and there are others that ride with the police.

A call about a person sleeping in a car should not have people responding with guns as a solution.

[LeftInTX]

56. From what I understand, he was driving and passed out

This would be a DWI.

Wake me up when a behavior health team is sent out for a DWI.

If he was passed out in the parking lot, I can see behavioral health, but passed out while in the drive through is DWI

[Jedi Guy]

29. So you do your clinical work in Wendy's parking lots in the middle of the night?

An odd practice, but who am I to judge?

[tulipsandroses]

45. I work in an outpatient clinic currently. I previously worked inpatient detox, and inpatient

crisis stabilization unit. I am not a part of a mobile crisis team. However, they exist and I imagine if they got a call to a Wendy's parking lot at night in the area they worked, they would respond.

[Jedi Guy]

53. Yes, they would. After officers were on scene and had determined it was safe for them.

At least, that was how it worked in my department.

[tulipsandroses]

59. Crisis teams responding instead of police is already successful in some cities and countries.

Here is one

You call 911, you generally get the police. It's a one-size-fits-all solution to a broad spectrum of problems from homelessness to mental illness to addiction. Protesters are urging cities to redirect some of their police budget to groups that specialize in treating those kinds of problems. Now we're going to look at one model that's been around for more than 30 years. In Eugene, Ore., a program called CAHOOTS is a collaboration between local police and a community service called the White Bird Clinic. Ben Brubaker is the clinic coordinator, and Ebony Morgan is a crisis worker.

Thank you both for joining us.

BEN BRUBAKER: We're glad to be here.

EBONY MORGAN: Yeah, thank you for having us.

SHAPIRO: So, Ben, if I'm in Eugene and I call 911, when does that call get routed to your team instead of to the police?

BRUBAKER: The calls that come in to the police non-emergency number and/or through the 911 system, if they have a strong behavioral health component, if there are calls that do not seem to require law enforcement because they don't involve a legal issue or some kind of extreme threat of violence or risk to the person, the individual or others, then they will route those to our team - comprised of a medic and a crisis worker - that can go out and respond to the call, assess the situation, assist the individual if possible, and then help get that individual to a higher level of care or necessary service if that's what's really needed.

SHAPIRO: And you get about 20% of the calls to 911, is that right?

BRUBAKER: Yeah, it's probably a little bit higher than that. We respond a lot of days kind of back-to-back calls.

[link:https://www.npr.org/2020/06/10/874339977/cahoots-how-social-workers-and-police-share-responsibilities-in-eugene-oregon|

[JackintheGreen]

19. Drunk. Full stop.

The problem is that police go into every situation assuming “possibly violent.” The fact in this case bear this out, somewhat to my chagrin, but the behavior of the cops escalated the situation. Maybe even appropriately.

But as the commenter below me pointed out: social worker, nurses, doctors, teachers, psychologists, and a number of other professionals work every day with “potentially violent” people and yet, somehow, very few of those incidents result in a gun death.

Under the circumstances shown so far, I have no doubt this officer will keep his job and face no sanction. It will be called, how do they say, a good shooting. But to repeat, what is allowable isn’t always what is good. If nurses, social workers and teachers can do it (and I picked “feminized” jobs on purpose), why can’t police officers?

[MarcA]

21. Good Points All. n/t

[Jedi Guy]

31. Speaking as a former police dispatcher, mental health/crisis units don't go until a scene is secure.

The department I worked for had such units available, sometimes ready to roll, sometimes on call. But they were never first on the scene. Officers were sent to the scene to assess the situation and, once they deemed it safe for the behavioral science folks, they joined the officers on scene. It's done that way for the safety of the behavioral science folks, since an unknown person in a parking lot at night is a different scenario to a person in a clinic or hospital.

Also "drunk" can also mean "possibly violent" given that alcohol lowers inhibition and can cause aggression. Being on guard when approaching a drunk person is not unreasonable. And it only takes one encounter along the lines of this one to reinforce the lesson for an officer. It also really doesn't help matters that damn near anyone in this country can get a gun. That fact is also floating around in officers' minds.

As a fun fact, would you care to guess which situation makes police most nervous?

[JackintheGreen]

41. You're missing the point

Nurses, social workers and teachers regularly encounter potentially violent people long before the police are called, sometimes the reason police are called. I’ve worked in schools and have had to subdue violent students the police may have shot. My aunt works as a nurse and has subdued violent patients the police may have shot. My best friend from university works as a social worker and has had to subdue violent clients the police may have shot. Not by ourselves, none of us, but with teams of coworkers trained to respond to such situations.

I get that the police have a very tense job, often don’t know what they may be getting into. I get that they often meet people on their worst days, or sometimes their best and they’re just really good at being violent assholes. But I’ve watched police in India and in Pakistan subdue violent people without drawing their weapons (to be fair, in Pakistan they might legitimately not have had bullets). I’ve read that police in the UK don’t carry guns generally, yet somehow they manage not to slide into chaos and anarchy.

Social workers, nurses, police in the UK are not trained to reach for their weapons, because they don’t have them. Are you suggesting there aren’t potentially violent drunks in the UK?

[LeftInTX]

57. That is because everyone isn't armed in the UK

Every cop has to assume that everyone in the US is carrying a firearm

My husband was a high school principal. They had on campus police. If a student would have been intoxicated and aggressive police were summoned. Heck my own kid was arrested at school. My son was not intoxicated but was carrying a Chinese star.

[JackintheGreen]

58. Lots of unregulated guns in Pakistan

A real libertarian paradise.

[LeftInTX]

86. Unfortunately the US is a lot like Pakistan

There are way more guns than people.
It's more like Mozambique 🇲🇿
With AK 47's on the flag

[Jedi Guy]

89. When I was a dispatcher, my department conducted a study.

Now to be fair, I don't know the methodology of this study. I assume it was just a statistic gained from vehicle stops that resulted in a search of said vehicle or the people in it. The study concluded that 70% of cars stopped and searched by officers had a gun in them, or on one of the people in the car. Let that sink in for a moment: 70%.

Traffic stops are when cops are most nervous. They don't know who's in that car. They don't know if someone in the car has warrants. They don't know if that person is armed. It's odds on that there's a gun in the car. The uncertainty plus the odds of a gun being present vastly changes the calculus for an officer approaching a vehicle they've pulled over.

And things can go south extremely quickly. I had a baker unit (two cops in one car, which was rare for my department) pull over a car for some traffic violation or other. The moment they got out of their cruiser, the driver of the car they stopped immediately got out, pulled a gun, and started shooting. They ended up killing him when they returned fire.

As another example, when I was on my way to Canada, I had to export my car from the States before I could import it to Canada. I couldn't find the office I needed to go to, and GPS wasn't helping. I saw a Detroit PD cruiser and flipped my high beams at it, then pulled over, hoping to get some directions. The officer pulled in behind me and got out. When she (a female African-American cop) approached my car, she had her hand on her gun. She asked me what was up, I explained my situation, and she said she'd guide me where I needed to go... but she also wanted to see my license, registration, and insurance. As I was getting those items for her, she stepped back a bit and put her back to the side of my car, so that if I wanted to take a shot at her, I'd have to use my right hand and shoot behind myself and over my own shoulder. I'm as white as the driven snow, by the by.

The easy availability of guns in the US essentially demands that cops have to be in defense mode constantly. They refer to it as "hyper-vigilance," and I don't blame them a bit for it. When any jackwagon on the street may have a gun on him, it's not unreasonable for cops to be cautious until they determine otherwise. They also have a saying, which is "it's better to be judged by twelve than carried by six."

[JonLP24]

93. People are trying to change that

Police aren't needed or qualified to handle issues of substance abuse or mental health emergencies.

People with Untreated Mental Illness 16 Times More Likely to Be Killed By Law Enforcement

https://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/key-issues/criminalization-of-mental-illness/2976-people-with-untreated-mental-illness-16-times-more-likely-to-be-killed-by-law-enforcement-

Even police don't want to be tasked to handle every problem.

[LeftInTX]

52. As a nurse, we didn't let intoxicated visitors in the hospital

And if an intoxicated or belligerent parent made their way up to unit, we called security. I worked with drug babies, so we had parents with issues.

We also treated prisoners. They were shackled to beds and came equipped with their own armed guard. Most were non-violent offenders, who were usually in jail for passing bad checks. We didn't have to worry too much about them getting aggressive.

It wasn't all kumbaya.

[Nevilledog]

12. He allegedly was armed with a taser.

You know, one of those weapons that the police are always touting as "less-than lethal". So you have a cop saying he feared for his life when the guy had a weapon that couldn't kill him.

Little bit of a disconnect there.

[usaf-vet]

95. And had already been fired based on the cops statement that he turn and fired the tasers.

[Nevilledog]

96. Yup.

Only reason he was shot was because he made the cop look incompetent. Two cops couldn't subdue one supposedly drunk guy and they let him take their taser. Shooting him was retaliation for being made to look like chumps. Picking up their casings after the shooting was consciousness of guilt.

[usaf-vet]

97. Wow Hammer, Nail perfect hit. One blow. Sunk Flush. You called it.

[Jedi Guy]

13. Therein lies the rub for cops. Damned if they do, damned if they don't. N/T

[SunSeeker]

22. They would not have been "damned" if they didn't shoot him.

It was a drunk/sick guy sleeping in his car in a Wendy's parking lot. He was not threatening anyone. He was committing no crime. Why did the cops not talk to him and offer to call a friend/relative to get the man home?

If TWO cops can't handle ONE unarmed person sleeping in his car without killing him, they should not be doing that job.

The cops escalated the situation. These two cops are incompetent and/or improperly trained.

[Jedi Guy]

28. Do you know for a fact that they didn't talk to him and offer an alternative solution?

You seem to be operating on the assumption that they just rolled up on the guy and immediately went hands-on with him. Why automatically assume that the fault in this situation lies entirely with the officers?

[SunSeeker]

33. Why automatically assume he's a criminal? He was committing no crime when they came.

He was asleep in his car in a Wendy's parking lot. He was not on a piblic street. We know they gave him a field sobriety test, which he allegedy failed, so he was obviously complying up to that point. Then they tried to arrest him for DUI, even tbough he was not driving. I can certainly understand why a black man might reasonably fear for his life at that point and try to run away. Why KILL him? They have his car. And probably his ID. They could track him down. There was no justification for this killing.

[Jedi Guy]

37. I'd be curious to know who called the police and why in this instance.

Presumably the cops had reasonable suspicion to put him under arrest for DUI. If not, then the charges would be dismissed by the DA. He most definitely became a criminal once he resisted arrest, assaulted a cop, took a Taser, and attempted to flee. Going hands-on with a cop is never going to end well.

[SunSeeker]

44. The caller apparently claimed his car was blocking the drive-thru lane.

If you're black, any hands on interaction with cops never ends well. Too often, ANY interaction between cops and black people results in cops killing the black person. The cop was trying to taze him in the scuffle, the guy panicked, grabbed the tazer in self defense and ran.

HE WAS RUNNING AWAY. The officer's life was not in danger. There was no justification for killing him. None.

And now peaceful protestors are gathering around the Wendy's. And in response, fucking military assault vehicles arrived to the location, again criminalizing and escalating a peaceful, legal act. Will you justify any subsequent police shootings as the protestors are attacked by police?

[Jedi Guy]

54. I'm not justifying anything. I'm simply not willing to automatically condemn the cops.

If you choose to do so, have at it. It's a free country.

[SunSeeker]

73. It may be a free country for you, but black men don't seem to enjoy the same freedom.

Your refusal see this as an unjustified killing despite the known facts and video demonstrates why that is.

[Jedi Guy]

75. I'll wait for the full investigation to be completed. But hey, you do you!

[JonLP24]

94. They were fired and you're defending them

Not surprised I didn't see you around during the George Floyd protests.

[pazzyanne]

36. I worked with violent people with developmental disabilities where police were called.

The police responded but were reluctant to get engaged with our clients because they "were not trained to take on these clients". They were there until I or my staff could arrive, and then it was up to us to deescalate the situation and, when necessary, transport the client back to their home. People who work with certain populations are trained to work with that population and use the personal safety plan developed by behavior analysts that have been developed for that client. I handled many of these violent situations without having to use weapons of any kind. (The state of Minnesota frowns on killing people with developmental disabilities.) No one got hurt, and transportation went well after the de-escalation. Once at their home/ in their bedrooms all went well.

This is an example of having people trained in intervention techniques rather than trying to solve the problem with guns. Ergo: example of "defunding the police" to add other agencies who have people who are trained to work with these issues.

[Jedi Guy]

39. That situation works fine when you know who you're dealing with and what their issue is.

Not so much when you have no idea who the person is, what their behavioral issue or mental illness may be, what their history is, whether or not they're armed, etc. When all you have is, "a guy is acting erratically enough in public to alarm passersby" the waters are muddy enough that it may not be advisable to send in behavioral science folks.

I can only speak to the way my police department managed it. During my time there, it never resulted in serious injury or death, at least not that I ever heard of. I can't say what's happened in the intervening years, and whether or not the policy has changed.

[SunSeeker]

48. HE WAS ASLEEP IN HIS CAR. He was not "acting erratically" nor "alarming" anyone.

Please don't make shit up. The cops escalated this into a shooting.

[Jedi Guy]

50. I was speaking generally rather than about this specific instance.

Reading for comprehension. Try it sometime!

[SunSeeker]

70. No you were not.

Honesty. Try it sometime.

[Jedi Guy]

76. I really was, but if you get your giggles assuming otherwise, have a blast.

As an aside, you're extremely unpleasant to have a discussion with. You make a lot of assumptions and baseless accusations, and you're generally just not much fun to talk to. You must be tons of fun at parties. I think you'll have a great time at the party known as my ignore list. I'll enjoy not seeing your posts anymore. Bye now!

[SunSeeker]

77. Project much?

[pazzyanne]

49. The behavior training gives you lots of tools to use to deescalate.

When we were called, de escalation was our objective. Police training is not geared toward verbal de escalation. It is geared toward physical de escalation. Having other social service agencies with proper training would be a better use of resources. In fact the police that were called had the phone numbers for 6 people who could do de escalation. Seems to me it would be a good idea to add these people to intervention calls. We did not handle situations that required guns (active shooting) situations. Definitely something worth looking at IMHO.

[SunSeeker]

25. Nice catch. nt

[oldsoftie]

38. Until the drunk guy gets into another car and kills someone. Then the city gets sued.

[JackintheGreen]

46. What car is he going to get in to?

He left his car at Wendy’s. So now he’s a violent carjacker, too?

And the city is going to get sued anyway. Last number I saw said that NYPD paid out 302 million is police misconduct lawsuits. That’s $302,000,000. Chicago PD paid $20million in just the first two months of 2018.

[oasis]

9. Cop was not in fear of his life, he was pissed because he had to chase

the guy. Shooting to kill was not justified.

[Baclava]

16. Would have been a good time for a chokehold so he never got up off the ground, oh wait...

[BrightKnight]

60. The suspect was active trying to shoot the cop when he was shot.

He already took the taser. Should he really let himself get tased and let the suspect take his gun too?

[oasis]

61. How about doing what cops usually do and call for additional units and K-9?

Cop was out of control from the embarrassment from being overpowered 2 on 1. Hothead couldn't stand to be the butt of jokes when he met up with the "fellas" at the local hangout.

Situations can cause cops to lose it and go out of control.

[BrightKnight]

63. IDK, the suspect was aiming carefully and trying to shoot a cop.

I am guessing the cop felt threatened. Don’t try to shoot a cop with a gun.

I really doubt he was focusing on what he was going to say at the local cop bar.

[oasis]

66. You wrote "don't try to shoot a cop with a gun".

[BrightKnight]

69. LOL - It's not a good plan if the cop has a gun.

There is not anything funny about it but. The suspect was making the worst possible decisions. It was almost like suicide by cop. It is tragic and alarming but unlike many I am not seeing this as an obvious murder by cop.

[oasis]

74. If you honestly believe the cop thought the victim could tase

him from 20 feet with back turned then we have no more to discuss on the subject.

Have a nice evening

[BrightKnight]

82. Hard to see but if the suspect was no longer trying

to shoot him when he was shot then I WOULD have a problem with that. I would want to see the body camera footage to confirm that before convicting the cop.

[Politicub]

55. Yet he was shot in the back.

I don’t buy the thing about him pointing the taser because of how he was shot.

Imagine... a death sentence that started because he fell asleep in the drive through.

[BrightKnight]

67. watch the video- nt

[Corgigal]

6. I'm gonna tell ya a secret,

that won’t surprise anyone. Years back, an LEO agency found a drunk NFL player driving recklessly in Tampa Florida. They pulled him over, one drove him home, another person drove his car into his driveway.

You can uber people home, cops. You really can.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

87. Hand a combative drunk over to an Uber driver? I don't think that will work. nt

[Baclava]

7. and here's the end of the chase video, 28:30 mark, guy turns and fires taser then is shot

Might have hit the one cop the way he stumbles into red car at the top

&feature=youtu.be

[SunSeeker]

68. The cops know how far their taser darts go (usually about 25").

All they had to do was keep their distance and follow him. He would have tired out. Backup was there in 2 minutes. They could have caught him, knowing once he fired those darts he couldn't fire them again.

There was no justification for shooting him. None.

[rockfordfile]

90. I think the policeman could have choosen a different action

The cop didn't have to use a gun.

[Gymbo]

17. I think the cop was out of line

I say that because the taser is non-lethal and he was shot in the back while looking forward. The lives of the officers were never in danger, so the use of lethal force seems inappropriate to me.

[soothsayer]

24. Any cop who takes their weapon out of their holster today

...unless they are really truly fearing for their life is a damned fool.

It’s as though they’re unaware the public is not really in the mood anymore. Why, in this highly charged atmosphere, are they not being 10x more careful?

This is why Barney Fife had only one bullet and had to keep it in his pocket.

[Hoyt]

30. Don't think shooting was necessary, but it was nothing like George Floyd.

This man was fighting, grabbed the taser, etc. Again, shooting him probably wasn’t necessary, but the police sure didn’t look/act like Chauvin.

Honestly, the struggle I watched probably could have been ended quickly with a headlock (yeah, I know), cuffing, and arrest without further incident. Instead we ended up with man getting a taser, thus becoming somewhat of a risk to others (not as much as a gun).

Dismissal might be proper, but I doubt a criminal case will be prosecuted after video is reviewed. I actually think the GBI investigator was forthcoming, promising release of video within a few hours.

[soothsayer]

32. STOP calling the cops over people asleep/drunk in their cars

Let’s agree to assume that police involvement will lead to death, and call appropriate authorities less likely to kill a citizen.

Can a cop come? Sure, but let medics lead.

Approach a person as though you’re helping, not antagonizing.

[Hoyt]

34. +1000.

Although, I think a policeman needs to be close by for the safety of EMTs.

[Baclava]

35. Medics dont go in until the scene is safe, you want social workers to get their asses beat first?

These cops let the perp overpower them, thats when things got out of hand

Maybe he was passed out from a Fentanyl crack binge, not alcohol, better wait for a toxicology report

[oldsoftie]

40. And thats likely what would have happened in this case..

If you'll fight a cop, you'd probably also fight an unarmed EMT

[soothsayer]

47. Sometimes you fight people who you fear will kill you

You can’t forget what cops represent at the moment — exactly what they proved themselves to be here.

The community trust is broken, ESPECIALLY between African American males and cops. Stop throwing cops at them. Find another way.

[soothsayer]

43. They can go together but don't let the cop

... act like a jerk and an antagonist.

[TristanIsolde]

85. +1000000. American cops are instruments of death

If you don't want to kill someone DON'T call the cops on them. Call an uber instead and get them home.

[BrightKnight]

51. Took cops taser and pointed at cop. Self defense

He was shot while he was trying to shoot the officer. I would not allow the suspect to tase me and possibly take my gun.

IDK, If he got get drunk and run into a freeway I would not blame the driver.

I

[JackintheGreen]

71. Wrong

Police in Georgia can only use deadly force if the suspect possesses a deadly weapon (not a taser) or poses an immediate threat of serious injury (again, not a taser)

Or

The suspect is believed to have committed a crime involving inflicting or threatenting serious injury (not being asleep drunk in a car blocking traffic)

Use of force was not justified by GA’s own regs.

Of course, they will argue that a taser does pose an immediate threat of serious injury against a cop, even though it is only a non-lethal weapon of subdual when used against a civilian.

[SunSeeker]

72. Tazing is nonlethal force. He was running away. And obviously shot the tazer to keep them back.

He was trying to get away, he was not trying to get the cop's gun. If he wanted the cop's gun he would have gone for it when they were scuffling on the ground.

There were two officers. If he had hit one, the other one was still fine, and now knew he couldn't shoot those tazer darts again. At that point he just needed to follow him until the guy tired out. Or he could have used mace on the guy.

There was no justification to shoot him. None.

[BrightKnight]

78. So the cop should let himself be tased and not try

to apprehend the suspect. The suspect already took the taser from a cop. Is it reasonable for the cop to assume that he might take his gun? In the video I saw the suspect was clearly tying to shoot the cop.

[SunSeeker]

79. No, he should have just stayed 25' back and followed the guy.

That's what a police expert on MSNBC just said. He said that cop had to know how far the tazer darts go, and all he had to do was just maintain that distance and follow the guy until he tired out. The cop had back up too. They could have taken over the pursuit.

In the same video, did you not see that the blavk man was running away while shooting the tazer behind him? He was obviously doing it to keep them back. He just wanted to get away.

[BrightKnight]

81. The cop appeared to be in range

when the suspect aimed the weapon. The suspect appeared to be serious about shooting him. I guess the cop could have stopped and hoped the suspect changed his mind.

I would want to see the body camera footage and know the rest of the context but I have not convinced the cop in my mind yet.

If the suspect was no longer pointing the weapon at the cop when he was shot then I would have a problem with it.

[SunSeeker]

83. Brooks was RUNNING AWAY as he shot the tazer, he didn't stop to aim..

The end of this video shows it in slow motion:

[BrightKnight]

84. Shooting him was not necessary.

It looks like he did not call an ambulance for a long time.

Waiting for the body cam to be posted.

[scipan]

98. 18 minutes from shot to ambulance leaving.

I thought the same thing.

[Baclava]

62. Protesters now blocking/shutting down I-75 in Atlanta, teargas and flashbangs at Wendys

[FakeNoose]

64. So ... the white supremacists win another round?

[Baclava]

65. CNN crew attacked, camera smashed, Wendy's about to burn, its on

[SunSeeker]

80. The CNN crewmembers themselves were not attacked, just some protestors broke their camera.

The CNN journalist who was there said some protestors wanted them to stop filming the people who were smashing the Wendy's windows. When they kept filming, some protestors grabbed the camera and broke it. The CNN journalist said other protestors were there objecting to those protestors grabbing the camera and were asking them why they were doing that.

[TristanIsolde]

88. Having seen and studied all the videos and reports that have been coming over the last couple of

hours, It seems this is not a black and white case of police brutality.

The only thing the police could have done better is to just let him run, they have his car and info so they can arrest him later once he sobers up. I did not feel however that the cops were malicious, things just unfortunately went south quickly due to him being in an extremely drunk (apparently) state of mind.

Perhaps this was suicide by cop incident ? The guys mom dies a year ago and he was visiting her grave, also alcohol aggravates depression and suicidal thoughts in some people, perhaps he wanted to escalate the situation.

This is very sad, but after cooling down a bit, I am also emphasizing with those cops. In one of the extended body cam recordings one of them seemed genuinely worried about the well being of victim.
Tragic.

[StarfishSaver]

91. Or maybe he was an impaired black man absolutely terrified of being put into handcuffs

by police so he ran away.

Absolutely no reason to shoot him in the back.

[LeftInTX]

92. I saw the body cam and it is very sad

Mr Brooks was cooperative. but obviously drunk.
It's obvious he shouldn't drive home.

It all goes wrong when they attempt to cuff him.
I don't have an answer, but it appears the handcuffs sets Mr Brooks off.

[scipan]

99. I imagine the cops felt somewhat embarrassed or humiliated.

The guy just really didn't want those cuffs. The mistakes really start happening before, when the cops lost control of the situation. Then maybe there was a desire to make things turn out ok by shooting the guy. Which really just made everything much worse. Another young black life lost

I wonder if he was on something more than alcohol, cause he's pretty good at getting away.