I'm gonna go with: don't send cops on welfare checks. Send somebody competent to respond to mental health challenges, preferably someone not wearing a police uniform (after all, at this point a lot of folks think "unaccountable killer" when they see that uniform and there's honestly reason for that).
That would have to be negotiated in the Police Union contracts. Same reason they can't fire pedo teachers immediately, they are contractually obligated to keep paying them until they are investigated or found guilty.
Most of these cops "retire" to end the internal investigation and keep their benefits, then decide to "unretire", and get hired in the next town with a clean record.
The police have one of the strongest unions in America, and almost no one bats an eye. But let Starbucks employees try to unionize and you'll hear how greedy and corrupt unions are.
Most of these cops "retire" to end the internal investigation and keep their benefits, then decide to "unretire", and get hired in the next town with a clean record.
This is honestly the only real problem imo. I get sometimes it's a pretty obvious case, but we do still have due process and they deserve their time in court, no matter how shit they are.
If they couldn't investigate themselves and the investigations didn't just end when they quit, we'd be in a much better place.
I’ll say it again and again, before you call the cops for anything, you need to remember what you’re actually doing. You are willingly inviting an armed person, who will not lose a fight or back down, who is shielded from legal consequences, into your situation.
Grandpa isn’t answering his phone or the door and you’re worried? Call a locksmith, not the cops. Cops will just kick the door or call the locksmith anyway, now you have extra problems
That's what defund the police is about. It's about shifting the funding to other sources, social workers and such, that can handle calls like these. It relieves police of having to deal with stuff like this, too.
Defund was a horrible fucking name for the movement though. We'd need the conservatives to be on board and they're not going for that shit cause they'll stop listening as soon as they think you're taking power away from their tastiest boots.
"The Columbus Police Department was conducting a welfare check on a subject following a report of potential self-harm," Nebraska State Patrol said in a press release.
The awfulness of the story aside, I do want to put a small bit of appreciation toward ABC News for not dropping some bullshit like "17-year-old man dead following an officer-involved shooting during a welfare check." The voice is passive still, but at least it cuts to the point, that the kid was killed by a police officer.
My only notes are that it should say "Officer shot and killed 17-year-old while conducting a welfare check." As it is, it's like it's saying the kid was shot and killed, and it just so happened to be by an officer.
I'd honestly rather have them train with the American military if they have to train with one at all. Then we're one step close to putting them under UCMJ and watching them babble about someone walking towards them in a court full of combat veterans.
Burning people alive is what israel is famous for. Most of the insane stories you heard on oct7 are quite literally things israel had done to the Palestinians in the past.
For some reason the police just love to murder suicidal people. I think that the brain of a conservative short circuits at the thought of it, then the monkey rage comes out.
Assuming that your question was genuine (the downvoters probably assume you're a troll), I am just philosophizing. A lot of conservatives have a complete lack of empathy for other people and will often become angry at seeing people who present as "weak". It's the way that bullies work--they look for the vulnerable people and target in on them for harassment. I am convinced that conservatives can't handle the concept of suicide. They have spent their lives not really introspecting and so never have the capacity to feel that way. I feel that they react emotionally and violently to the thought, which is what leads to so many police officers simply shooting and killing people who wanted to commit suicide.
Google it, you'll find 5-10 or so articles about this EVERY SINGLE YEAR.
They need to send qualified people. Cops are so trigger happy and everyone knows it. At this point the easiest way to commit suicide is to call the cops on yourself, wait for them to arrive, take a $15 airsoft pistol out the door with you, turn so they can see it, wait for them to draw their guns, then level the airsoft pistol as quickly as you can at one of the cops and then boom! I imagine it's not super popular because cops aren't the best shot, and you might not die.
FEBRUARY 8, 2024 (Columbus, Nebraska) — The Nebraska State Patrol is able to provide additional details on the Columbus Police Department officer-involved shooting that occurred Tuesday afternoon.
At approximately 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, February 6, Columbus police officers were conducting a welfare check following a report of potential self-harm at a residence in the 3600 block of 39th Avenue in Columbus. Officers contacted the subject, a 17-year-old male, inside the residence. The subject was in possession of a knife.
During the encounter, a Columbus police officer discharged their duty weapon, striking the subject. Another officer deployed a taser during the incident. The subject succumbed to injuries and was pronounced deceased at the scene.
The subject has been identified as Chase Ditter, 17, of Columbus.
The Columbus Police Department has requested the Nebraska State Patrol to investigate the incident. The NSP Special Investigations Team is conducting the in-custody death investigation.
The Columbus Police Department has placed both officers involved in the incident on administrative leave. The NSP investigation remains ongoing.
Yes, for the crime of threatening to cut yourself with a knife in your own home. This is actually one of the favorite hobbies of cops, along with shooting deaf people in the back for not responding.
I know it's just standard boilerplate language for describing what happened in the most neutral tone possible, but
During the encounter, a Columbus police officer discharged their duty weapon, striking the subject. Another officer deployed a taser during the incident.
feels gross to read. I know that "motherfucker shot the kid, and the other motherfucker tased him" isn't exactly neutral, but I think it expresses what happened more honestly.
It's so heartwarming that the people whose paychecks are paid by the taxpayers, get to go around and murder random taxpayers for no reason. It was a welfare check, so clearly the only logical outcome is the cop murdering the kid. Makes perfect sense. Remember when George Floyd was killed by a police officer?
but i think laws should have some "binding" effect on how police acts on suspects of murder like separating the suspects from their comrades to disenabling them from making up cover stories until beeing presented to a court or such?
also disenabling them from:
walking free and killing a next victim (maybe accidental witnesses they want to get rid of for undenyable cover stories)
destroying evidences as they seem fit
vanishing forever as they like
creating false evidences
All this is not regulated to at least some degree in laws to be followed strictly by police officers?
i am not talking about laws preventing actions of one person or two, but laws binding police in general on how to handle these suspects depending on the crime suspected and that there seems to be no doubt who was on-scene when that happened.
Hey, what if a terminally I'll crazy patient visit the police department of every city? I mean many terminally I'll patients. They could be 12 years old if that helps.
Wouldn't they all just start shooting themselves in a crazy shark feeding stupid way? Like when you see Koi ponds getting fed and all the Koi make the pond go crazy.
Wow. There are literally zero details in this article and everyone has labeled the cop a murderer. What a thankless, shit job, police. Could it not have been that the officer arrived on scene to an armed individual who then attempted to murder him? He's conducting a welfare check, the person he's checking on may not be all there.... Both the checker and the checkee are humans and matter here!
Which is where I and the rest of the ACAB folks will probably start to agree - cops shouldn't be the ones responding to these calls. The hard part is that sending unarmed social workers into dangerous scenarios is not the answer either. Tough problem to solve. World's not perfect. Give your fellow human the benefit of the doubt, though. Not every cop is a murderous bastard, and thinking that way isn't helping anyone except tickling your own smug feelings. It's also a sweeping generalization, something that's both foolish and frowned upon these days. This an appeal to the humanity in all of you - quit writing off humans with a single acronym. You are removing their humanity and labelling them a monster. We can look to history to learn from the same mistake.
Regardless of how people feel about the above posters opinion, it's a valid opinion, and people should engage in an open minded discussion instead of knee-jerk downvoting.
It is his job and duty not to. If he arrived to the welfare check and immediately turned around and left...?
Even though this is a cherry picked argument - a melee weapon - I'm not sure it will help your point. Cops get stabbed, man. It happens even with their shoot first training.
Oh boy, this post ain't gonna be popular. Humor me and read it all.
First off, there's no meat on the bone here. Police called on a young man threatening self-harm, young man killed. Nothing to see here ATM.
Did the kid have a gun? Did he threaten the cops? WTF happened?! Nothing in this story addresses the simplest questions. Hell, it didn't ask questions, let alone get answers. FFS, this is Journalism 101. (I literally took that class, and more.)
Here's the question we should all be asking: Why are police the default mental health responders in America? We can all give a dozen reasons why that's bullshit, but that's not interesting. How do we actually make change? Read on.
"Defund the police" is the dumbest political slogan I've ever heard. Jesus. I know what's meant. You know what's meant. Worst. Marketing. Ever.
Had an opinion changing YouTube binge last night. Watched a dozen sov cits getting their asses handed to them in court. That evolved into watching cops bust idiots running around impersonating police officers.
In both cases I was stunned at the calm and measured responses from the judges and cops involved. Over and over and over again. The patience on display was stunning. Me? LOL, I'd throw these asses in jail or beat them down with a billy club. Been on the receiving end of bad judges and cops. As bad as you think it is now, didn't used to be like that!
And why is it so much better today? We got public CAMERAS. I can usually argue both sides of an argument, if you can't, you don't understand the argument. I got nothing arguing cops shouldn't be wearing body cams.
Of course you don't release the footage immediately to the public! Of course you don't live stream that shit! And yes, there's a technical\budgetary cost well above buying a fat HDD.
Still, recording is plenty doable. And we can work out sane ways for those recordings to go public.
Go to your local sheriff's FB page and ask why they're not using body cams. Demand answers. LOL, I got no answers from mine. But press them anyway and do not stop!
First of all, it's an active investigation involving a minor. It's likely that information won't be provided even if you ask.
Secondly, for someone who took journalism, you don't seem to understand something called research. If you did any sort of research, you would understand that defund the police was a reallocation of funds away from the police to things like mental health professionals instead of decommissioned M16s.
You should stop watching YouTube for your propaganda content. There are other countries in this world that do use police for wellness checks but the USA is the number one for killings during those checks.
They were saying they understood and agreed with the tenets of "defund the police" but thought that phrase was terrible marketing. It's an easy target for the opposition to sway anyone in the middle, because it sounds like getting rid of police entirely.
If you did any sort of research, you would understand that defund the police was a reallocation of funds away from the police to things like mental health professionals instead of decommissioned M16s.
Ah, just like KAM is not all men, "Dead men can't rape" is a fair and kind slogan, and "Believe all women" is a great campaign because women are naturally, immune to greed and would never use rape accusations as leverage or a punishing tool.
There are bad cops, and sadly they are far too many, that is a fact I won't even try to deny, but reactionary comments like this are similar to a person killing another on self defense, but the deceased was gay, so the self defense argument is ignored, and the killer is charged with murder, aggravated with a hate crime.
While I generally agree with the need to ask those questions, you’re starting with the presumption that everything was handled appropriately and the onus is on the observers to question it. Maybe that’s even true in the majority of cases.
However that is NOT the expected outcome for that type of call. A lot of us will start with the assumption that a welfare check should not end in someone dead. The onus is on the responders to explain why this is different, and the onus is on all of us to improve the system if the responder had inappropriate skills and actions