Last thing I’ll see if this keeps up.
Yesterday, in Brooklyn, police gunned down Saheed Vassell. According to reports, five officers (two uniformed, and three plainclothes) responded to reports about a man “threatening people with a silver gun.” Police arrived, and 30 seconds later they opened fire on Vassell.
It should go without saying that Vassell did NOT have a gun. He had a pipe. Police have plastered pictures of the pipe all over the media. They have not released surveillance footage of the encounter, nor were the officers involved wearing body cameras. But you can see the pipe that allegedly caused all the trouble. I think police think that the pipe will justify their actions. I think that the pipe kind of proves that Vassell DID NOT HAVE A GUN.
Keeping Law School Accessible When Federal Loans Fall Short
As federal borrowing caps tighten financing options for law students, one organization is stepping in to negotiate the terms they can't secure alone.
And yet he lies dead anyway.
I have argued that the standard for police use of deadly force needs to be changed. Right now, police are allowed to murder you if they have a “reasonable fear” for their lives. But the “reasonable” part has been read out of the standard. Any fear, reasonable or otherwise, can be used to justify the death of an unarmed black civilian.
I want to change the use of force such that cops have to be factually accurate in their assessment. To justify a police shooting, cops have to be RIGHT. It’s not enough to “think” the suspect has a gun. He better ACTUALLY HAVE A GUN. If he doesn’t, cop goes to directly to jail; do not pass Go, do not collect 10 thousand alt-right followers on Twitter.
I want a goddamn STRICT LIABILITY REGIME for people killed at the hands of the police. I’m sick of their stories and their lies and their justifications all supported by white prosecutors and majority white juries conspiring to let the killings continue. If there is a gun, THEN we can talk about the totality of the circumstances and “reasonable fear” and all that. My standard wouldn’t necessarily help the lawfully armed black men gunned down by the cops.
What Even Is AI ‘Competence’? It Depends.
Takeaways from a Legalweek panel on evolving malpractice risks.
But if you shoot a person armed only with a cell phone or a pipe when he’s no where close to being able to hit you with a pipe, you go to jail. No more talking and lying your way out of it.
Now… most of the law and order crowd has a problem with this standard and, honestly, f**k them. When YOUR children are getting shot to death in the street by the very state officials sworn to protect and serve them, I’ll consider your fascist arguments.
But there are others who are pretty sure cops gunning down civilians is wrong, but doesn’t know how to stop it because “police have a hard job.” These people say to me “these situations happen quickly,” “you can’t expect the officer to be right all the time,” “you wouldn’t want the officer to hesitate if your life was on the line.”
No, that’s EXACTLY what I want. My life IS on the line and the BEST I can hope for is that the goddamn cop hunting me hesitates before opening fire.
If he hesitates, if he waits to see if I really have a gun, he might realize that I do not. He might see that it’s just a pick in my hair and not a Vibranium weapon. He might see that MY BOY IS FIVE and is running for a toy. I don’t need the cops to be the quickest on the draw. I’m not worried about Billy the Kid gunning me down on the subway. I’m worried about these freaking cops plugging me 29 times because in a moment of panic I unconsciously reached for my vape pen. Hesitation could save my life.
Just look at how quickly the cops took Vassell’s life. From the New York Daily News:
Jaccbot Hinds, 40, who witnessed the shooting said officers jumped out of their unmarked police car and fired without warning.
“They just hopped out of the car. It’s almost like they did a hit. They didn’t say please. They didn’t say put your hands up, nothing,” Hinds said.
The NYPD refused to say if the responding officers warned Vassell before firing
Vassell allegedly suffered from mental illness, and his condition was well-known by other cops in the community. Hesitation might have allowed time for other officers who knew Vassell to arrive on the scene and diffuse the situation. Hesitation might have allowed the officers to IDENTIFY themselves, or given them the opportunity to talk Vassell into putting the “gun” down… and at some point somebody might have noticed that it wasn’t a gun at all.
They shot this man in 30 seconds. If they had given him 60 seconds, he might have been allowed to live.
I don’t think that’s asking too much.
NYPD cops fatally shoot bipolar black man holding metal pipe police mistake for gun on Brooklyn street [New York Daily News]
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.