Shock Video: Teen Boy Shot and Killed by Cop for Flashing Headlights and Flexing Rights

originally posted by: SSFFlood didn't realize you were the almighty

i didn't say i was but thanks

originally posted by: roaland
a reply to: alienjuggalo



Third thing. In order for this to be decided in court, you still have to comply with the officers demands, such as. If he asks you to get out of the car, you get out of the car. By not getting out of the car and completely disobeying the officers demands you are escalating the situation and making it far worse then it needs to be.

No, if it's an unlawful stop and the commands are unlawful and infringe upon your constitutional rights, or if the commands/demands are coercive, you have ever RIGHT to refuse.

Of course, you might end up dead, but your still have the right. And if you don't get killed, and you do go to court (and have a good enough attorney), that fact that it was an illegal stop and the commands were unlawful commands then you have a very good chance, especially where to SCOTUS is concerned.

ETA: My comments still stand in general, but after watching that video, that kid did indeed dig himself into that mess. That cop gave him so many opportunities in a professional way that the kid refused, it's a shame

a reply to: Bedlam

I love all these ideas, but don't like the idea of giving the federal government more control.

Finding a way to balance it, say by only having procedural oversight/review powers moved under Federal Jurisdiction?

I just get the feeling that it will maybe only improve the function of LEO...but not a whole lot.

a reply to: Answer

He evaluated the situation and decided that it was time to put an end to the stalling/waiting for the kid to make his next move.

No, he evaluated the situation and called for backup, which was the right decision. Why he didn't follow through with his initial correct thinking and wait for backup is beyond me.

This sounds like a fishing expedition gone horribly wrong to me.

The cop clearly knew why the kid flashed his lights at him, but that gave him an excuse to pull him over and look for any other potential infractions.

And that my friends is the real problem with policing in America. Their priorities are no longer in the interests of public safety and instead have turned to generating revenue for their departments in order to justify having a job.

A perfect example is roadblocks (aka DUI checkpoints). My town is notorious for them because we lose about 20 youngsters a year to drinking and driving. Sounds reasonable right? Well the thing is, the vast majority of those accidents happen between 1 - 3AM on a Friday or Saturday night, yet the roadblocks are always set up between 6 - 8PM on either a Thursday or Friday.

I've even seen them set up at 6AM on a Monday morning, but never between 1 - 3AM on a Friday or Saturday night. Its sickening when you think about it... they're basically letting kids die in order to justify setting up these revenue generating roadblocks that aren't even remotely protecting anyone or anything except their own municipality's financial interests.

Now aside from all of that, I have to say that this kid was a special kind of stupid and I believe the officer's story. In the article Answer provided, there is a still shot that clearly shows the kid standing unrestrained after the cop attempted to taze him and cuff him.

Seeing as how the kid was able to break free and get back to his feet tells me that he was a lot tougher than he looked and very much capable of taking the cop to the ground and beating him unconscious. If I were on the grand jury and no other evidence was brought forth, I would have to conclude that it was a clean shoot and that an indictment would be unwarranted.

a reply to: alienjuggalo

Jesus Christ. That is a disturbing video.

The kid was being a bit of a douche, but to be shot just because he was running away?

The kid clearly wasn't socially intelligent enough to deal with the situation in the right manner, but to be shot like a fleeing animal.. in the back.. what is wrong with the US police

Edit: If the officer had a brain he would have let the kid run off or whatever and ran a check on the car and it's registration. This would result in more charges against the assailant and his life could have been saved.

That is how it would have gone down in the UK.. maybe even call in a helicopter. But to go straight for the hip holster.. more cowboys in the wild west it seems.

Ok, upon watching the video, that cop was REALLY calm and professional to begin with when he approached the car. He gave that kid MANY MANY opportunities in a professional, collected manner to just show him the required info that he (the kid) didn't have and refused. That kid was being a punk. Refusal to show ID/insurance; refusal to get out of the car; refusal to get on the ground. he thought he knew his "rights" but he was ignorant by refusing lawful commands.

That's no reason to kill him, and I'd like to know what happened, but yeah, that kid dug himself into that mess, even though flashing his lights at the cop is, IMO, not a valid reason for pulling him over.

What a shame.

a reply to: Liquesence

It makes me wonder what the officer was relaying back to control on the radio.

I have no knowledge of police terminology and code, but later in the video when he says something followed by "Priority, is this the officer requesting permission to use lethal force?

Because as soon as control reply, which seems like an affirmation on the radio, he immediately rips the door open and attempts to pull the driver out.

Not very clever, what if the driver did have a weapon.

Seems the police need drug / steroid testing everyday
... maybe they're clean , but they act like evil meth-heads !
RIP little guy , I know you're at peace mansions now,
.... crazy septics !

If I was driving down the road and every car that encountered flashed their lights at me, I would check to see if my headlights were on high-beam. If they were not, I would suspect that there was something wrong with them and have them checked out by a professional.
My take on it, the cop was fishing, just a previous poster said. Pulling multiple people over for the same thing.... flashing their lights at him. He knew damn well why. In fact, he probably had his high beams on.... just to pull people over for flashing at him.

Then he rode his power trip right to a 17 year old boy's funeral.

I like it how the OP leaves out the bit of the story about the teen getting up and pounding the hell out of the officer. There was a struggle after the tasing that lead to the officer falling in a ditch. The teen fell on top of him and starting beating him. There was a struggle for the officers gun which misfired. The officer ejected the misfired round and shot the teen who was fighting him as he feared to lose his weapon.

How do we know all this? The teens phone was still recording when he threw it on the ground. Read the court transcripts and case papers if you are going to make judgement. The officers camera was not turned off, it just fell in the snow after the struggle. This OP is biased and is just an excuse to bash cops. The shooting was justified in my opinion. Its a shame as its completely avoidable and utterly stupid that got to that point, but if you go to town on a cop, expect that cop to defend himself....with his gun.

Even if you dont agree with my viewpoint, at least get all the facts before posting trash like this, its deliberately misleading. For a website that claims to deny ignorance, there is an awful lot of it about....

originally posted by: Bedlam
IA functions should be performed by a disinterested federal group that is above local politics, can't be easily bribed, and doesn't care about whether the cops support them or not. As opposed to, say, the local prosecutors and judges, who have a natural conflict of interest in the matter.

And have all criminal charges against LEOs be prosecuted in federal court.

That would about do it. Get the conflicts of interest out, and apply some punitive feedback that's permanent, i.e., you lose certification and can't get it back by going to the next town.

That's the way of logic, there are steps here underway to stop rogue policemen moving from one division or another, while it was not a massive problem in the first instance, and not a culture by any means, but things did happen. It won't be perfect, nothing is, but it is a step in the right direction.

Apart from that, we now have a picture of the policeman's injuries, first released as I understand it the day after the prosecutor said no charges would be made on the policeman. I have no other information.



I am presuming the one picture given was taken at the time of the incident, as the policeman is in uniform, with some kind of medical shawl around him. Something to discuss, but rationally I think. A better view here and advisible,

files.abovetopsecret.com...

Update on that it seems there were two pictures released,


files.abovetopsecret.com...

They were released by the prosecutor on social media, although he previously said it was not something he was going to do, but he did anyway, while the feedback he says was seemingly not so good. There is also the remark that nothing else would be released unless under the FOI banner.
IMO, this can only make things worse for the family if they want to pursue a civil case, they themselves need to investigate everything, including the toxicology report unless they already know better. The pictures of the officer, we were not going to see? now we do?

originally posted by: L.A.B

The kid was being a bit of a douche, but to be shot just because he was running away?

The kid clearly wasn't socially intelligent enough to deal with the situation in the right manner, but to be shot like a fleeing animal.. in the back..

Wait... what? Where did you get all of that?

There was a time when disinformation was severely frowned upon around here.

Wow. Being a smart ass kid now carries a death sentence - as decided and carried out by Judge Dredd personified. It seems obvious to me that, regardless of the kids stupid and entitled behavior, it all began to go downhill when the police officer made the decision to breech the vehicle and physically extricate the driver. That was an action and not a reaction. The police officer made the decision to escalate things, without backup present, seemingly arbitrarily or in an emotional state of frustration.

THIS is why I do not stop until I reach a well lit and populated area before I stop.

As a private citizen, if I were to shoot and kill somebody who was assaulting me with their fists ( at least in GA ) I would be subject to murder charges. I know this because my 24 year old nephew assaulted me about two months ago - at my own home - and I nearly went to jail because I had a pocket knife in my possession. He was not charged with anything because of the fact that I carry a pocket knife. The police were crystal clear that if I'd have so much as touched my pocket while he was striking me, they would have charged me with attempted murder.

This kid, wise ass or not, should not be dead.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction therefore the more that cops display acts of militarized brutality and a "do as I say, not as I do" attitude towards the collective population, the more they are going to be collectively despised, hated and disrespected.

Mark my words, unless there is a fundamental shift (for the better) in the way police operate and act towards the general public, there will be blood..............the government and police know this, that's why they are gearing-up with tactical military equipment and a propaganda mouthpiece to erode the 2nd and get everyones guns

originally posted by: hefficide

As a private citizen, if I were to shoot and kill somebody who was assaulting me with their fists ( at least in GA ) I would be subject to murder charges. I know this because my 24 year old nephew assaulted me about two months ago - at my own home - and I nearly went to jail because I had a pocket knife in my possession. He was not charged with anything because of the fact that I carry a pocket knife. The police were crystal clear that if I'd have so much as touched my pocket while he was striking me, they would have charged me with attempted murder.

Wait, what? Where in GA do you live. That's sounds very strange, that you were assaulted and almost went to jail because you had a pocket knife and the adult didn't go to jail to jail charged w/ assault after he assaulted. Something's not right and doesn't make sense (and I'm calling NOT you a liar or anything it just doesn't make sense). Maybe the cop was dumb as hell, or didn't know the law, or was being an ass. *scratching my head*

That's baffling. Assault is assault, period.

But no, that kid didn't deserve to die, even if he was being an ignorant punk-douche.

ETA: You don't stop until you reach a well lit area. Very smart. And this is why states that allow unmarked cars to pull people over concern me: so many people impersonating police it's completely unsafe. They should be WELL MARKED. I'm not stopping for some random car with a blue light.

a reply to: Bone75

There was a time when disinformation was severely frowned upon around here.

Disinformation? When life gives you lemons, don't F### with the po po

Seriously though, I'm from the UK. So I wouldn't expect an officer to pull a gun on me for turning and running.

In the same respect I wouldn't question a police officers requests, unless it was unreasonable like take of your clothes, even if I thought the officer was being an authoritarian asshole.

But all the kid had to do was give the officer evidence of his license and registration.. take note in the video he says he doesn't have it on him and that he is going home to get it.. immediately after stating this after the officer asks him again he says he does have his license but not going to turn it over to the officer.

By no means am I condoning the officers actions, but I think what I've stated is enough evidence to suggest like you quoted me..

The kid clearly wasn't socially intelligent enough to deal with the situation in the right manner

Please, if you know more than what can be derived from the video elaborate.

a reply to: [post=19461573]Bone75. Kid was given a lot of chances to turn off the [snipped]. Should have taken one of them.

a reply to: Liquesence

Henry County - and the event played out exactly as I described. In fact the kid ran when the police ( that I called ) showed up. I refrained from fighting him specifically because I did not want to end up in jail and told the police exactly that. When they caught the nephew ( who ran as they pulled up ) he mentioned that I carry a pocket knife. I said "Absolutely. I was a Boy Scout and have carried a pocket knife since my first day as a cub scout." and the rest is as above.

a reply to: smurfy

Remarkable how many people jump to conclusions about an incident, when they don't even have all the facts. I would lay partial blame on the media. Ever see the movie 'Nightcrawler'? There was a part in there (spoiler), the news lady talked about how most people watch local news, and while violent crime was way down, that's what most of their stories were about. Giving people the perception there is a widespread problem, like police brutality, when it is in reality an extremely rare occurrence.

I can see why no charges were filed.