The young man flashed his lights at the police car because he thought their lights were on high beam. The policeman said that his lights weren't on high beam but were a new modern and brighter type of headlamp.

If the policeman is correct, the young victim might have died from the fact that the police car had unusually bright lights leading the driver to warn him about the high beam appearance. The entire argument seemed to have stemmed for the difference of opinion about the police car lights. What a terrible screw up! In the first place, I see cars in my area that have lights so bright that even in the daytime it's painful to be driving in front of them. That should be outlawed.

The policeman was a trained, highly armed professional law enforcement officer. He couldn't have done a worse job of handling that encounter.

to see if they're coming at you. The cop could have done a far better job of handing this. It's horrible what happened.

shield your eyes from the rear view mirror.

It was unfortunate that the young man was so oblivious to the danger he was putting himself in.

At first the officer sounded mature and calm, doing a reasonable job of handling the situation other than realizing that the stop itself wasn't justified. But, at the first sign of non-cooperation by the kid, it became apparent that a terrible "showdown" was coming up and the youth was in real danger. The policeman turned out to be a serious "stalker", looking for prey.

It sounds crazy but I think it's time for motorist to start thinking about bullet proof glass in the windshield and side windows as well
as permanent pro cams running at all times, cameras that are transmitting to clouds storage in real time.
I
If the arresting ask for driver's license, put it through a small port in the upper front part of the window. If the officer ask the driver to get out of the car, the driver should comply but inform the officer that an automatic pro cam is photographing the encounter.

I have some other ideas but, I'll cut it off at this point.

Kid "you had your high beams on"

Cop "no, these are new especially bright headlights"

Who cares idiot officer? You're outright admitting the lights are so bright they could be mistaken for high beams. You just wanted the kid to say "sorry officer, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize! You're totally right! Here's my license, proof of insurance, and registration and I'll buy you lunch next week if you please let me leave the grace of your presence!"

This kind of behavior wont stop unless the cops are made to pay directly, not the tax payers.

There are countless examples of cops who have cost millions to their cities because of their behavior and are still on the job.
They know there is no consequence for them other than a nice paid vacation if they are suspended during the investigation.

I hope they take millions from them.

He punched the cop several times in the face.

The cop was battered and bloody.

Why did the kid do that?

"Did the kid do that? Or are those wounds for show?"

preservation. So even if the kid attacked the cop after he was tased, it's a biological response, not something that can be controlled. The officer was far too impatient and wanted to pick a fight and teach the kid a lesson by inflicting some taser punishment for contempt of cop. The kid was completely nonviolent and relatively compliant (he was on the ground ffs). If the cop really cared about arresting the kid he would have held him at gun or taser point until his backup showed up.

But yes, the blood could be there from a million different sources. Cop fell down fighting with the kid. Cop hit himself in the face with the recoil from his gun. Kid elbowed him when being tased because he lost control of his muscles and flailed his arm.

explanations), it's because the kid was tased. That can evoke a fight or flight response. The kid was non-violent until he was tased.

Last edited Sat Oct 17, 2015, 02:01 PM - Edit history (2)

The cop said the kid attacked him, got on top of him and pinned him, was raining blows down on him but he was able to get his holstered gun out, fire a shot that misfired, manage to eject the misfire then pump seven bullets into the kid, all the while being pummeled by blows.

Yeah, right!

I don't believe for a minute that that skinny kid was able to overcome that armed, grown man outweighing him by 50 lbs and manage to pin him down and keep him down while punching him over and over and inflict that kind of damage. Come on! That bully cop in the video, with that kind of temper would let a kid like that pin him down and punch the sh_t out of him?

Not very likely.

And the cop was taken away from the scene before EMS arrived, by another officer.

Why?

Seems to me they went to get the killer's story together — and maybe rough up his appearance to make it seem the killing was justified.

You may have not seen this link on DU but here's another video on this incident. It might change your perception of what really happened.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017301422

Shit like this shouldn't happen in Uhmercuh!!!!!

parents need to tell their kids not to fuck with the police under any circumstances, to do what they tell them to do, and to remain calm and compliant while doing it. There will be time enough to sort out who was right or wrong later.

Remind your children that the police are armed and that some of them are insane, and they may hurt or kill them if provoked. That's not the way it should be, but that's the way it is.

then later filed a complaint against the officer, the police department (or whoever else they complained to) would have promptly thrown the complaint in the trash. A citizen pulled over and had to produce his registration, license and proof of insurance for a bullshit reason? ER MAH GAWD! They might send the national guard after us! (and they start laughing for 10 minutes)

The kid did push things too far (he should have protested and then just put his hands behind his back when he was ordered onto the ground). Then sued for false imprisonment.

If you have or have had a teenager you know the answer to that already.

The killer cop however, is an adult and a sergeant no less, who should have exercised mature, adult judgment to de-escalate the situation instead of escalating it.

His bully ego wouldn't allow it though so a kid is dead. What pathetic, wrongful handling of an unnecessary, trivial traffic stop.

Fire the killer and try his ass.

had the judgement to do that - nor am I excusing what the cop did (should be on trial for murder 1 imo). Just saying what the best course of action would have been, not saying he could have thought to do the best course of action.

We will change this by raising our voices and our communities response to the uncontrolled police violence. We will not accept it as SOP. Never.

In the meantime be very careful.

Of course not.

Cops know they can get away with everything. Cops can get away with everything because prosecutors need to stay on their good side, because they depend on police testimony.

There need to be prosecutors who can do their job and prosecute cops without worry that tomorrow they will need support from that same police department whose members they are prosecuting. Once that happens, cops who commit felonies on the job will go to jail for doing so, and then cops will worry little more about the rights of those they are supposed to be protecting.

Stop letting these criminal cops skate with a paid vacation.

It's not because prosecutors love them that they get off, or that prosecutors believe cops should be above the law. It's that a cop who commits a crime answers to the system that he or she and his or her buddies are part of. There is too much investment in the police for prosecutors to go hard on them. So it needs to be a separate line of authority.