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A black man who was caught on video beating and trying to shoot a female sheriff's deputy in California was just found not guilty of attempted murder and assaulting a peace officer. He was found guilty of "negligent discharge of a firearm". She survived because the gun jammed when he pointed it at her and pulled the trigger.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-man-who-pummeled-shot-at-female-deputy-found-not-guilty-despite-video-of-attack
It reminds me of the thread a few days ago about black defendants being acquitted of murdering white victims. The most common sentiment in the comments was that a list of examples isn't enough to prove a trend. I think that's fair but also I don't see how you could ever collect enough data on this to ever prove bias conclusively (are black defendants acquitted because juries are racist against whites or are innocent black people charged by racist DAs?). It's also possible that he was acquitted because of anti-police sentiment instead of anti-white. I think there's no chance he was factually innocent because it was caught on video, this is jury nullification of some sort.
It's a dangerous trend if this becomes more common. I don't see how we can have both law and order and strong constitutional protections for defendants if juries side with violent criminals over law enforcement.
This another example of why having women (or small men) as police officers is a stupid idea in the first place. We're obviously never going to get perfect results, but when you send women to deal with violent men, they're going to have to resort to deadly weapons almost immediately because there is no plausible path to them defeating a violent man without resorting to maximal force. In this case, the incompetent officer lost control of her weapon and nearly died as a result. I'm glad that outcome was averted through sheer dumb luck - she's a pretty young woman that got beat up and nearly killed because of our idiotic egalitarianism, and I hope she's able to go live a normal life that doesn't entail tangling with deranged lunatics.
Genuine question because I don't know the answer. How effective are tasers at subduing large burly men?
Cop lore holds that tasers are ineffective on men in drug psychosis, like in the following video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=oTQr_lKg_wg (I would bet he simply missed)
At close quarters, the biggest problem with tasers is either missing and then not having enough time to switch to your pistol, or suspects simply knocking it out of your hands: https://youtube.com/watch?v=GPcrIyMFvDo
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Sometimes they work very well, sometimes they work very poorly. There is a great channel on YouTube, PoliceActivity, where you can watch first hand what it is that police has to deal with.
Here are some examples of taser use:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=slgCVJLYP-c Taser temporarily incapacitated the guy, but then he removed the taser probes, recovered and took off.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=xcAorLQAqW4 Here the taser has been very effective.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=pGEp4EArrHA
Here it was somewhat effective: it made the guy compliant, but not incapacitated.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=6w7ARs9qdP4 Here it was only marginally effective: it temporarily incapacitated the guy and caused him to drop his knife, but then it stopped being effective.
Point is, if you watch these videos, you’ll find that the effectiveness rate is more like 50% than 95%.
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Sixty percent of the time, it works every time.
Look I like that movie as much as the next guy, but you can do better than this.
The dude is just making a joke. Making jokes shouldn’t be a problem on this website.
I'm not mad that he's making a joke. I make jokes on this site all the time. I'm mad that his joke is weak.
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Original humor. I don't need the same tired movie quotes I've been hearing for a decade.
Two decades, even. Anchorman is approaching "we are the knights who say ni" status.
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Generally very effective. Tasers can be ineffective in some situations, such as the target wearing thick clothing and an unlucky shot, but high voltage will work well on a large man.
Note that I have not shot someone with a taser; this is what I have heard secondhand. I am a large man who has completed a high-voltage circuit with my body, though, and I assure you the only thing on my mind was making it stop.
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I mean, friendly reminder that criminal cases like this require unanimous juries, as they should. Not a single dissenter. That's always a bit of a high bar. The article rightly points out that this is potentially more of a judge issue than a jury issue, for allowing a certain line of defense with a very tortured fruit of the poison tree type argument. I wish we had a slightly better system for voting in and retaining judges.
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Let's check and see if there is any non-outrageous explanation for this. Skimming some news articles available it looks like the legal argument made was that her initial detention of him was illegal and so their ensuing struggle was self-defense. The Deputy says his own mother called the cops on him and was holding a knife when the Deputy arrived, leading the deputy to assume the schizophrenic man was a violent threat so she put his hands behind his back and a struggle ensued.
The video opens with them already struggling and her gun is in her hand. The gun fires twice while they're struggling with it then he gets it and she runs out of frame, he fires in the direction she ran out of frame. The defense lawyer says they found the bullet hole from that shot in a nearby garage door and it was in a different direction from the bush she says she ran to for cover. It's possible she changed direction once she was off camera and he wasn't aiming at her.
If they show he's not aiming at her with forensics, and we only have her testimony that he fired the gun and it jammed I can see the jury acquitting him of attempted murder. The jury hung on the charges of resisting arrest, battery against an officer, and removing her firearm. I guess the defense lawyer convinced at least one member of the jury that the initial detention was unlawful. I wouldn't have guessed that you can legally resist unlawful detention and I'd be curious if anyone with legal expertise wants to comment on that.
I think the solution is pretty simple here: if you're white and the suspect is black, simply do not go. Announce you see some other crime in progress (e.g. littering, jay walking, etc.) and are unable to respond. There is no upside for the cop and only potential downside. I'd quit before I'd go to confront someone I'm not legally able to arrest.
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