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The thing that really bothers me is it wasn’t a corrupt official choosing to not press charges. This was a grand jury. I just don’t get it.
A competent DA can indict a ham sandwich...so the DA screwed up.
The thing that really bothers me is it wasn’t a corrupt official choosing to not press charges. This was a grand jury. I just don’t get it.
The thing that really bothers me is it wasn’t a corrupt official choosing to not press charges. This was a grand jury. I just don’t get it.
The Pineville Police Department says the officer who was allegedly ambushed on Sunday night actually shot himself.
PPD says the officer, identified as John Goulart Jr., shot himself, concealed his weapon, and altered the facts.
Goulart Jr. has been charged with one count of criminal mischief for filing the false police report and one count of malfeasance in office for creating that falsehood while wearing a Pineville police uniform. He has been booked into the Rapides Parish Detention Center and his bond will be set by a Rapides Parish District Judge. He has also been placed on administrative leave.
PPD says Goulart Jr. originally claimed he was shot once in the leg and a second shot hit the rear door of his police unit while he was at a shopping center at the corner of Military Highway and Donahue Ferry Road.
Don Weatherford, Pineville’s Police Chief, said about the investigation, “We had no reason originally to question what he was telling us was accurate. As it progressed, that evidence gives you some pretty clear direction and it led us to re interviewing officer Goulart Jr. and he admitted at that point that he had not been truthful with us during the investigation."
Now, before you click the link I want you to close your eyes and imagine what this fine officer looks like. Okay? Now click.
How'd you do?
I was guessing about 20 years older than that. Otherwise dead to rights.
Because being murdered by the cops only matters when you're white.
The thing that really bothers me is it wasn't a corrupt official choosing to not press charges. This was a grand jury. I just don't get it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/24/correcting-misinformation-about-breonna-taylor/
This sums up my feelings fairly well.
“If Kenneth Walker hadn’t shot at the cops, Breonna Taylor would still be alive.”
If Walker reasonably believed that the men breaking into the apartment were not police, he had every right to defend himself and Taylor. There is every reason to believe Walker did not know the men outside the door were police. Walker is not a criminal. There were no drugs in the house. You don't need a license to have a gun in a private home in Kentucky, but Walker had gone the extra step to obtain a concealed carry license. (Kentucky changed its law in 2019, and no longer requires a license for concealed carry either.) That isn't something hardened criminals hellbent on killing cops tend to do. Neither is calling 911, which Walker also did after the shooting. Moreover, Walker knew about Taylor's past involvement with the drug dealer Glover and that Glover wasn't happy about Taylor seeing Walker. He has said he feared that it was Glover or his associates outside the door. That too seems entirely reasonable.
I think the Taylor case is a classic example of violation of the most fundamental rule involving use of a firearm. You must be able to both see and know precisely what your target is. It is the rule that is stressed first, and foremost, in every gun safety class I've ever taken.
I don't give Walker a pass just because he had a conceal/carry permit (that only means he was licensed to have the weapon, and I don't think that's ever been an issue). I also don't give him a pass because of the "castle doctrine," although candidly I don't know what the castle doctrine says, precisely, in Kentucky. The castle doctrine does not give you license to shoot police just because you are in your home.
Walker was undoubtedly scared and startled by cops busting down his door in the middle of the night. But he doesn't get to just start blindly shooting, and as I understand it the cops were wearing vests that said "police" on them. Before firing, he must be able to both see and recognize his target.
But the same fundamental rule applies to cops. I don't believe they have a right, even when fired upon, to just start blindly shooting their weapons into a home or apartment. They have every right to shoot at the guy who is shooting at them, but not the right to blindly shoot up the house like it's a movie. You must see and recognize your target.
Just my two cents.
But the same fundamental rule applies to cops. I don't believe they have a right, even when fired upon, to just start blindly shooting their weapons into a home or apartment. They have every right to shoot at the guy who is shooting at them, but not the right to blindly shoot up the house like it's a movie. You must see and recognize your target.
Despite this being a responsible approach (depending on the circumstances) in today's United States it is not followed very often. Police have become far too quick to discharge a firearm in cases where it might not have been necessary or even reasonable. Middle-of-the-night, no-knock warrants make this even worse. They are already operating on heightened adrenaline, they have been trained to suspect everyone and are prepared to use violence to begin with, you add in all the uncertainty that comes with busting into a house not knowing who or what they will be confronted with is just asking for shots to be fired. By all sides.
The way these kinds of things will end is to hold law enforcement officers to the exact same standards we'd hold anyone else to when shots are fired. No qualified immunity, no spurious "reasonable fear for my safety" arguments. If you fire a weapon, you better be able to clearly show you are living on the right side of the law, AND had a reasonable belief to think your life was in danger.