USA today article on police pursuits.

[nhbbear]

Continuing with their all out daily media attack on law enforcement, USA today releases multi-page news story on police pursuits "killing thousands" since 1979. The entire article focuses mostly on negative aspects of police engaging in pursuits and only once mentions a suspect and his 55 year sentence after he killed another person in the act. The only mention of someone not blaming police, but instead holding the suspect accountable, was a grandmother who lost her two grandchildren.

Let me first say that I have been involved in several pursuits, and have called off every single one of them, save two-one of those, I called off, then reacquired suspect and caught him as he tried to flee on foot. As a supervisor, I have called off three pursuits, one of which I was involved in.

I believe they are inherently dangerous, but unlike usa today that is advocating outlawing pursuits except for known felons, I would like to see harsher legislation in terms of serious punishments, say at the minimum, five year penalties, as well as enhanceable penalties for each additional fleeing conviction, and associated with other crimes. For example, I would like to see fleeing in a vehicle become a felony, not able to be dropped to say, a reckless operation and speeding. I would like to see fleeing while intoxicated, or in conjunction with another felony be enhanceable as well. If you flee after say, a bank robbery, you should never sniff free air again.

I did a thread on this several years ago after being thoroughly frustrated with a weak penalty associated with the conviction of the suspect of my first ever pursuit. He got six months for my conviction, but it was also the second time in a month that he had fled in a vehicle, and it was his fourth time he had been convicted of it. I equate the crime of fleeing in a vehicle to something akin to shooting a gun down a street.

Police departments are, as is necessary, reevaluating the circumstances under which they engage in pursuits. This trend has been heading in this direction for several years. I don't necessarily disagree with this trend, as I am more conservative in my approach to pursuits. I don't ever want to be involved, or see one of my officers involved in a pursuit that costs someone their lives. It devastates the officers and the department, and it most certainly destroys the family of the innocent person killed. But the article, which lists almost 10k killed since 1979, only briefly mentions that over half of those killed are the fleeing suspect. Few crimes are worth killing someone over, but few crimes are worth dying over as well. A brief mention of tracking technology as a means to track suspects, but overall, the article was advocating the justice department to get involved to end pursuits.

Maybe I would read this article, and give it some more serious thought if usa today did not have an article every single day, often rehashing older stories, that shed negative light on the police profession as a whole. Yesterday's article was a look at fergusson today, after almost a year since Mike Brown was killed after attacking an officer. Today's(8/4) another look, state by state of police chase deaths.

http://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/high-speed-chases/

http://www.usatoday.com/longform/news/2015/07/30/police-pursuits-fatal-injuries/30187827/

 

[nhbbear]

Just for comparison, I did a search on the usa today website for "violent weekend" and "gang violence".

There were several stories on the Waco biker brawl. Even a story about Baltimore gangs quelling violence during the riots. Then nothing. An article in 2014 and one in 2013, which found by comparison, that from 2000-2010 there were 111,000 deaths ruled homicides.

Typical garbage, ignoring or conveniently overlooking the more serious problem to take a chance to criticize police. 111,000 in ten years is much greater than less than 10,000 in almost 30 years.

 

[Aegon Spengler]

Poor people killing poor people and society doing nothing about it vs police killing people via street chases...



Only voting republican could ever put a stop to these problems, harsher sentences and more tanks for the police, that's the answer here. There is no room for nuance in America, the poor must be obliterated and if police misbehavior is reported on its all a lie and should be ignored, because the problem is of course poor people and their evil ways.

Land of the free, home of the brave

 

[nostradumbass]

There are asshole cops and nearly all perps are assholes. Any decent person just puts up with the cops that are asshole and argues it in court, but smart people aren't as common as you'd think. Especially when something happens and adrenaline starts pumping, cops are people too and can make shitty decisions. It's nice to have a target to blame and maybe some cops do get overzealous(and they certainly do), but there have been few to no cases where the perp was compliant and just got beat up or shot for no reason, yet the media always leaves out the "victim's" role in the whole thing. Just comply and give the cops no adrenaline rush and I promise you won't get attacked or tasered.

 

[7437]

There are asshole cops and nearly all perps are assholes. Any decent person just puts up with the cops that are asshole and argues it in court, but smart people aren't as common as you'd think. Especially when something happens and adrenaline starts pumping, cops are people too and can make shitty decisions. It's nice to have a target to blame and maybe some cops do get overzealous(and they certainly do), but there have been few to no cases where the perp was compliant and just got beat up or shot for no reason, yet the media always leaves out the "victim's" role in the whole thing. Just comply and give the cops no adrenaline rush and I promise you won't get attacked or tasered.