CNN
3 HN mentions · mentioned in 3 months, 2020–2023
4:47 · 5.6M views · Dec 10, 2017
CNN report on bodycam footage of former Mesa police officer Philip Brailsford shooting unarmed Daniel Shaver in an Arizona hotel. Brailsford was later acquitted of murder charges.
HN cites it as a stark example in discussions of police use of force and accountability.
3 comments from Hacker News
You seem to have a very simplistic view of police, I almost envy you for it. None of what you're saying needs to be a reality. None of it is necessary. > Police are people and they can get scared, angry, and make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes - that doesn't excuse anyone from paying for those mistakes. Some of these mistakes cost lives. Regular folks go to jail. The police in the US, in general, doesn't. Those who do are the exception. Usually - suspension, investigation, acquitted. > When a police officer instructs you to do something just do it. What do you think happens when 'the police' shouts conflicting instructions? The answer is: you get shot [0] What if the police instructs you to do something illegal? What if the police sexually assaults you? [1] > If you disagree with the order there is a mechanism to voice that disagreement called the court. So what you're saying is that if you disagree with a decision the police officer makes in a split second, you should spend the next several years of your life in the court system? When (not if) the police illegally seizes your property, it's OK for you to spend the next few years in the court system to get that property back to be able to return to normal life, right? [2] > they will use rapidly escalating force to make you comply that can endanger your life Why? Is that necessary? The police in other developed countries, for example the UK, is overall orders of magnitude more civilized and respectful than the US police. >
Depends on context, obviously. The police officer has the responsibility to constantly assess the situation in order to determine if violence is warranted, as well as if that violence needs to be potentially lethal, regardless of whether or not a person is complying. As an office, one doesn't have the right to commit bodily harm, nevermind kill someone, without good cause. Hence why people talk about it so much, and also why people like to talk about police brutality even when it's regarding people that don't comply with officers (eg. protesters, bystanders, people filming, etc.) Example: this classic this video . Shit like this happens in the States all the time, it's just not usually as bad, nor televised. But situations with power mad cops crop up all the time. Cops that forget that they are an arm of the law, rather than the law itself. I don't know how the case mentioned in the article holds up though as I'm not aware of details.
I'm talking about this case, the officer wasn't punished instead now has a huge pension for his traumatic experience this video