179 Comments

From what I've read there is no dash cam or body cam recording of the event so I have serious doubts that the cop is telling the whole story. And even if he was, is a speeding ticket worth killing a man over?

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There is no cure for legal incompetence (or perhaps malevolence?) such as this.

No cure at all.

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The DOJ needs to assume control of the GBI, State Troopers, and APD—to begin with. Those three departments are murdering unarmed civilians with impunity on a fairly regular basis.

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Yeah, I try not to be ACAB, but this sounds like a planned hit-job. The cops wanted this man dead for humiliating them.

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This is just ghastly and horrific.

My gut told me that these cops were just exacting brutal vengeance, shooting him for "contempt of cop."

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Read this yesterday- horrifying and oh-so-predictable. Made me wonder if the PD down there put a "hit" out on him.

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I’m furious about this. Even if he did resist arrest, I expect he had PTSD from being in prison for sixteen years. I can easily see him being triggered into a panic attack at the thought of going to prison again. It’s just so nauseatingly unfair. He wanted to go into music production! Breaks my heart.

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Oct 18, 2023Liked by Stephen Robinson

I know I have to read this, because it's important to mark this man's life and our justice system, but I am just...crushed.

My God.

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Oct 18, 2023Liked by Stephen Robinson

I read about this yesterday. Again, how about we disarm police whose job it is to hand out speeding tickets and illegal left turns? These offenses do not call for the death penalty. Mail the offender a fucking ticket for Christs sake. If you have to pull somebody over for public safety reasons (a rule that has to be narrowly defined and require proof) then all you should need is a taser that could be utilized under very specific conditions. This isn't hard.

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Oct 18, 2023·edited Oct 18, 2023

Those can be issued by mail after the fact without anyone being stopped. That’s how it should be done. And they should be unarmed. And if they’re too scared to do that without being heavily armed then it’s not an appropriate career for them.

And for the millionth time to the general universe shoving crazy pills down our throats on a daily basis: A military background and service, where one is trained to kill without thinking twice is the worst background for a career in serving and protecting your fellow citizens. FFS—the ex-marine with a Trans Am filled with uzis in Highlander was not a cop for a reason.

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Oct 18, 2023Liked by Stephen Robinson

The argument has to be framed correctly. We're not defunding the police. We're proposing an increase in funding to be spent on increasing public safety through new methods and tactics. Retraining police officers, adding a mental health team, utilizing video and cameras to police small offenses like traffic tickets using the mail. The problem is that the police are used to having all the power and they bristle at any changes. We need to reduce their influence if we want to tackle this.

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Funds for transitioning current cops to something where they don’t murder citizens on a daily basis? I’m for funding that.

And more well-trained social workers on local beats. No gun necessary.

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The problem is that "defunding" just sounds like what it is -- defunding. Liberals too often prefer *in your face* slogans compared to persuasive ones or (as Republicans do) greatly misleading ones such as "pro-life."

It's an unfortunate dead end at a time when there is a seeming uptick in low level property crimes -- it freaks out the voters Democrats need. Granted, cops don't effectively stop those crimes, of course.

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Oct 18, 2023Liked by Stephen Robinson

Tasing someone and beating them with a rod triggers adrenaline and that runs counter to the demand for them to successfully stop resisting. Same thing with police dogs latching onto a suspect. They are instinctually going to resist being mauled, regardless of voice commands from any authority.

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It is sort of cyclic.

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Oct 18, 2023Liked by Stephen Robinson

A bit OT, but some of O. Henry's stories are dark. Like the one about a country girl who comes to New York to be an actress and later commits suicide in a dingy hotel; and then her boyfriend, who comes searching for her a year later, commits suicide in the same room. Or the one about one homeless man treating another to a Thanksgiving dinner every year.

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I question the speeding as well. It doesn’t take long to realize how Georgia cops target “speeders” and how motivated they are. Just as the man would be unlikely to get combative with a cop over being pulled over, I would think he’d be disinclined to give them any (additional) excuse to do so in the first place.

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Cops carry guns so they can shoot people. Maybe they should not carry the guns, but only have them available in the squad car in case of real shootouts. When your only tool is a hammer....

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This is enraging and heartbreaking. I have no snark.

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This shit just makes me cry and hate the broken simulation we live in that perpetuates this shit....

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