This has been much discussed, but not here:
a Dallas police officer will be facing manslaughter charges after shot and killed a 26-year-old man in his own apartment. The officer, who has not been identified, thought she had gone into her own apartment when she had actually gone into her neighbor’s home and apparently thought he was an intruder.
The strange series of events unfolded Thursday night, when the white patrol officer went into her apartment building after working a full shift. The officer, who was still wearing her police uniform, for some reason tried to go into her neighbor’s apartment rather than her own. That’s when she saw her neighbor, 26-year-old Botham Shem Jean, and shot him.
The cop, still unnamed, because the blue line is a thing, called in the shooting, but was not immediately questioned, because, as I may have said recently, the blue line is a thing.
The man she killed, who was black, cannot, of course, speak for himself. This is the inadequate-because-words-are-always-inadequate gloss on who his family lost:
Jean, a native of Saint Lucia, was a graduate of Harding University in Arkansas and was an employee at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dallas. He was known as a worship leader at the university, where officials mourned his death at chapel services Friday. “The entire Harding family grieves today for the loss of Botham Jean, who has meant so very much to us. Please join us in praying for Botham’s friends and family,” the university said in a statement.
At this moment, it’s impossible to say how the unnamed officer made her mistake, or even if it was a mistake. If this cop really did not know where she was, that leads to the next question: what kind of training makes the first response to a surprise a leap to irrevocable deadly violence?
What does the Dallas police department teach its people, and if this wasn’t that — what was this cop doing on the job?
That is: the person directly responsible for what looks like the cold-blooded murder of an unarmed citizen in his own home is the one who pulled the trigger. But behind that catastrophic act lies a whole mental infrastructure built around the holy gun. The impulse to solve a problem with a bullet isn’t innate: it’s learned and cultivated.
By a death cult.
Image: Giusseppe Arcimboldo, Fire, 1566
germy
https://www.theroot.com/family-mourners-remember-the-life-of-botham-shem-jean-1828906973
Lapassionara
Such an incrediblely sad story.
Quinerly
Obama looking mighty handsome in CA. MSNBC covering his speech. Just started.
debit
Unless their apartments were furnished exactly the same, I cannot see how she thought she was in hers. I know the instant I walk into any room in my house if something is out of place or different. I am not buying her story.
Lapassionara
@debit: Not to mention how did she get in?
WereBear
@debit: Agreed.
Also, were the doors unlocked? How did she get in?
Mnemosyne
There are some very weird elements to this story, and more is coming out past the initial reports. Some of the neighbors say that they heard her pounding on his door and shouting, “Police! Open up!” which of course makes no sense if she genuinely thought it was her apartment. My first thought is that she was drunk or high, because how else do you decide that the person answering the door after you pound on it is an intruder?
I think there’s going to be a lot more that comes out about this story. I wouldn’t be surprised if there had been some kind of prior relationship between them.
germy
@Lapassionara: She banged on the door and he opened it, from what I’ve read.
She apparently thought someone had broken into her apartment. At least that’s the story so far.
Steeplejack (tablet)
Call me a mean-spirited conspiracy theorist, but since the get-go the story has sounded like a panicky cover-up attempt. I wonder if, instead, it was a neighbors’ argument gone wrong or possibly an “ex-relationship” dispute.
Waiting for all the facts to come in, etc., etc. But it’s impossible for me not to speculate. A character flaw, I know.
germy
@Mnemosyne: That’s being suggested in The Root comments section. Along with her possible name.
Mnemosyne
@WereBear:
It’s still unclear exactly what happened, but she made some noise at the door and he opened it. Which puts even more doubt on her claim that she thought he was an intruder in her apartment — why would an intruder open the door when someone knocks?
germy
“She was tired after a long shift” they’re saying, which is an insult to the rest of us who work long shifts and have never killed anyone after walking into the wrong apartment.
sharl
@germy: Yeah, what I read in a follow-up report is that her key wasn’t working. I had forgotten about the banging-on-the-door bit, but at some point the lawful resident opened the door to Officer Armed & Confused & Trigger-Happy. Jeebus…
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack (tablet):
Yeah, there are some VERY big holes in her story as reported. Holes that make no sense at all, but are quite logical if there was some prior relationship and she decided to try and murder him under color of authority.
Tom Levenson
@germy: I mean, d’uh.
Especially back in my film days, when a 12 hour shoot meant a 14+ hour day, somehow both the production staff and the crew managed to avoid killing each other, much less someone who had nothing to do with the job.
hueyplong
That’s quite the “courtesy,” shooting someone to death and having your name kept secret.
That alone tells you the victim isn’t white.
germy
@Tom Levenson: Interesting we don’t know her identity. No photos.
I remember when someone filmed the black cop beating the crap out of someone, all the network news showed it, again and again, over several days. They really wanted to make sure we didn’t miss it. And of course, followed by a story on a shooting in (gasp!) Chicago.
John Revolta
This is an extreme WTF situation. I read that she was on the wrong floor, which could almost explain how she got to the wrong apartment, but I still don’t know how she got INTO the apartment, let alone how she wouldn’t have KNOWN she was in the wrong apartment…………….??
Sadly, I’m sceptical about ever getting the real explanation out of the cops.
Mr Stagger Lee
Until the cash of the police unions are messed with, the shooting of African Americans first asking questions later will continue. The Republicans kiss their backsides and the Democrats are scared to do anything that angers them. But F@ck with their cash as in lawsuits against their pensions will give them pause, I know I am going get whitesplaining from some of you but f@ck it, as a POC I am sick of this sh*t.
EBT
The police in America are so badly trained, so badly racist, every last one must be fired; and we have to start over again from scratch.
Mart
Clearly if those kneeling black athletes who get paid millions to play a game would stop disrespecting the flag and our soldiers, this would not have happened.
Don’t know why it matters to me, but hoping for a lovers spat gone horribly wrong. But then why would the PD “shield” the officer?
EBT
@Mart: They shield dirty fucking cops because every last one of them is a sub human racist sack of shit, wasting my fucking oxygen.
Mike in NC
Remember, in one of his early addresses to a bunch of cops, Trump urged them not to be afraid to ‘rough up’ suspects. He might as well have told them to shoot first and ask questions afterwards. It will only get worse until he is removed. He’s the “Central Park Five” asshole, of course.
Emma
I mourn the young man’s death but in all honesty I am incandescent with rage at the police. HOW STUPID DO THEY THINK WE ARE? Tired but sober, the gets to what she thinks is her apartment, can’t get in, assumes it’s an intruder, bangs on the door, and when someone opens it she JUST OPENS FIRE? Honest to God, they’re always trying to treat us like mushrooms.
NotMax
Total speculation.
At first blush it sounds as if she was, to put it politely, self-medicating (to keep awake?). In no way excuses her heinous actions, in fact if the case it compounds them.
One certainly hopes it is not department policy and procedure to dispense such drugs.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Mnemosyne:
I don’t know about cold-blooded murder. I see something more like a relationship going through a bad ending and her coming home tired (and possibly drunk) and wanting to talk and him not wanting to. A “domestic” situation, as the cops would call it, that escalated.
If we’re going to doubt her story, there is no reason to believe the statement that he was shot as soon as he opened the door.
My view is prejudiced by having seen, both as a newspaper reporter and a patron at one particular bar in Atlanta, that a lot of cops like to drink after they get off work, especially the evening shift.
West of the Rockies
@Lapassionara:
Damn good question! I would bet big dollars that a cop in a metropolitan city would not go to work and leave her apartment unlocked. Did she try to enter with a key? How long had she lived there? How did she not observe that the apartment–even if it had the same floor plan–had entirely different furnishings?
Lots of questions to be asked. Suppose, also, that the roles were reversed: a black guy walks into a white woman’s apartment and kills her… Would he be facing manslaughter?
germy
@Steeplejack (tablet): Are they ever tested randomly for steroids?
Mart
@West of the Rockies:
The monkeys would be howling for his head on a pike.
Evil_Paul
Did the cop have anything to drink after her shift? Was she high?
Was she given a breathalyzer or blood test immediately after reporting the shooting?
That’s my first question. This person was coming off of a long, tiring shift. Did she have a couple of beers to unwind before heading home? Before we get into anything else (and there’s a LOT to cover), was she impaired at the time of the shooting.
And if they didn’t test for it, WHY NOT?
Anotherlurker
@Tom Levenson: Sadly, I have lost 2 friends to 12+ hour production days. They both fell asleep at the wheel, after multiple long days.
Mnemosyne
@Evil_Paul:
Reports I’ve seen are that she was tested for drugs and alcohol. The Dallas PD seems to be unusually close-lipped about this, and the actual investigation has been turned over to the Texas Rangers. I wonder if her supervisors are also suspicious of her story.
Frankensteinbeck
I have been told that the standard training in all police departments is that no matter what, make sure the person who gets shot isn’t you. They are trained to kill at the slightest suspicion of danger.
germy
The Associated Press:
Another Scott
Horrible. As everyone says, the story makes no sense.
In other news:
Follow the money!!
58 days to go!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Sab
@Evil_Paul: I know some cops. Their jobs are tough. They unwind with major amounts of booze. Civilians can’t get away with that if they kill people when they get home.
Origuy
CNN reports that they’ve released the woman’s name and that there was a blood sample taken.
germy
Meanwhile, the lady cop who shot the unarmed black man in the back (while the helicopter cop said he looked like a “bad dude”) is now teaching a class to other cops on how to deal with the aftermath of a civilian shooting.
Tom Levenson
@Anotherlurker: Yikes. Sorry. Didn’t mean to belittle the stress of such days. As I emphasize to anti-union folks, a lot of labor priorities (and certainly in the TV and movie unions) lie in creating safe working conditions, and not simply cash.
O/T rules in Hollywood are all about making sure that megalomaniac directors have a very real financial hammer holding down their urge for one more take.
Origuy
Sorry, I misread. Her name has not been released.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
That officer is lucky her victim wasn’t armed and killed her first, since, y’know, it’s Texas and she was apparently breaking and entering someone’s apartment. How did she even get in again if it wasn’t her apartment? Either the victim knew her since they were neighbors and/or she used her authority to murder him. If so, she should be charged with more than manslaughter
germy
@Origuy: Apparently, it will be released when she is charged. Which will be soon.
Robert Sneddon
@Tom Levenson: The time I worked on a film pulling 14-hour shifts to get stuff ready for the the start of principal shooting the film company provided limo service between where I was staying and the studio. It was in the union contract.
The Dangerman
@Another Scott:
Any chance you added, ya know, several orders of magnitude?
If not, slammer time. Can’t touch this.
Steve in the ATL
@West of the Rockies:
Lynch mob
Mandalay
@hueyplong:
It also tells you the color of the killer.
Chyron HR
All Lives Matter*.
*Not yours.
germy
@The Dangerman: Isn’t this an old story? Back in November 2017 they were reporting that he owned billions in back taxes.
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
All my thoughts are the same as your first thought.
rikyrah
This don’t make no goddamned sense!
SHE MURDERED HIM.
PERIOD.
No phucking manslaughter.
Evil_Paul
@Mnemosyne: good to know (if true).
So my next question is: What were the results and, if she was intoxicated, what does this say about her department?
Was she an officer with a problem that other people were ignoring? Is it normal for Dallas police to end their shifts with drinking?
And if she was sober…what the ever loving fuck?!!!
Steve in the ATL
@Tom Levenson:
Great point. Unions have been working this issue for a hundred years, and let’s hope they never stop.
rikyrah
Tony Romm
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@TonyRomm
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SCOOP: We asked all 50 states’ attorneys general if they’d attend the DOJ’s gathering on tech, online filtering and free speech. We found out many top Dem AGs — including those in tech hubs like Calif. — so far haven’t been invited. People are pissed.
rikyrah
StanceGrounded
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Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Maurice Haynes is a Hero. Colin Kaepernick sacrificed everything for equality so this man decided to support his cause and bought people in need and strangers Nike.
RETWEET THIS!
https://twitter.com/_SJPeace_/status/1038461173086208000
PJ
@Steeplejack (tablet): After they work? I have seen on-duty cops come in and get a drink or two and then go back out on the street (admittedly, this was in New Orleans.) And just Google “cop and drunk driving”.
Aleta
“what kind of training makes the first response to a surprise a leap to irrevocable deadly violence?”
The kind of training that assumes reflexive action is much more important to drill than additional exercises in pausing your first impulse? It’s simple enough to train in both kinds of exercises. In my (non-police) experience, it doesn’t reduce one’s reflex speed, just gives practice in having a range of available responses.
Baseball players, motorcyclists, dancers, good martial artists and parents train to have that full range. (My theory is that for parents, it’s the toddlers themselves who are the trainers in both types of response.) : )
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
It’s interesting that the city is only saying nice things about the victim. Like they know there’s more going on with the case but they can’t say so until she actually gets charged.
rikyrah
Shaun King
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@shaunking
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I have some truly awful news.
The @DallasPD issued an arrest warrant for manslaughter for the officer who murdered #BothamJean.
But the Texas Rangers just removed the warrant & sent the officer home “because she was cooperative.”
They are protecting her like she was on duty.
Another Scott
@germy: You’re right – good catch.
The McClatchy DC story is from May 2017. The Kyle tweet is from November 2017. LOLGOP was just reminding us of it.
AFAIK, nothing has changed about the story.
Sorry.
But still, it’s a good reminder that so much of this political stuff comes down to rich people wanting more and more money…
Cheers,
Scott.
Aleta
@Aleta: 56
If it is true that departments spend most of their resources practicing and being graded on shoot exercises, it’s a big disservice to the mental health of police officers and their families. The harm to every survivor and their communities is immeasurable. Mostly ignored is the harm throughout the country to the communities that say it hasn’t happened there.
It’s something to ask one’s police department–how much time or resources are spent on what kinds of exercises.
Mnemosyne
@Tom Levenson:
The camera assistant who was killed by a train during a film shoot a few years ago was shooting in Georgia, which is a “right to work” state. The director and producer on that film were convicted of manslaughter and went to jail.
Barbara
If she really thought she was at her apartment then I all but guarantee that was preceded by after work consumption of alcohol. Do drunk police get the same presumption of self-defense that sober ones do? Because that would be outrageous. And if anything else happened, this is just a set of big fat lies in an effort to cover up a murder. At a bare minimum can they at least make sure she never wears a badge again?
Mart
Most large ag factories operating 24/7/365 I go to have gone to 12 hour alternating shifts. Three to four 12 hour days, then time off, then three to four 12 hour nights, and a break before going back to days. So not only do they get ridiculously long shifts, but they constantly have to deal with flipping from working days to working nights. Many of these places are hot as hell in the summer, and freezing in the winter. The work is often labor intensive. In the summer they hand out Gatorade and ice pops everywhere; and hang pee color charts over urinals to make sure the employees are self checking their piss color to assure they are properly hydrated. Theses employees seem to be able to unwind after work with some drinks, find their homes, and enter without shooting anybody.
Mandalay
Meanwhile, in Florida, Miami police officer caught on camera kicking teenage girl in head.
The headline is being kind to the cop. He actually stomped twice on the head of a girl lying on the ground.
DC
The “how did this come to a shooting” part is completemy unjustifiable, but the “how did she try the door on the wrong apartment” thing is actually unsurprising. The floors in some apartment buildings look exactly alike. If you accidentally get off the elevator on 5 with your neighbor who lives on that floor instead of staying on until the next stop at 7, which is your floor, you can easily wind up trying the key on 5F instead of 7F. Can’t you imagine yourself doing that at a hotel? Now the renter at 5F comes to the door and opens it to ask what the fuck you’re doing trying to jimmy his lock… and that’s where they lose me. You don’t shoot him.
But the information about whether his apartment was directly below hers will come out, so that should help answer how plausible this is.
Litlebritdifrnt
I am about to nestle down on my couch with a glass of wine to watch the Last Night of the Proms, the greatest musical event in the world, bar none. I will no doubt be snotty blubbering, tears, and another glass of wine. Ooh look it has begun. Oh btw me and DH are making plans to go to the Mountbatten Festival of Music with the Massed Band of the Royal Marines in March next year. Bliss. Oh, for those in the US the show should be available on YouTube about an hour after the live Broadcast in case you can’t get it streaming somewhere.
Anotherlurker
@Tom Levenson: Good point about the producers, Tom. They are getting push back from Unions, regarding safety measures, in new contract negotiations. Some newly proposed contracts may be rejected.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@rikyrah:
Well, so much for Abbot’s promise that
Not that his word was worth much to begin with.
Mnemosyne
@Aleta:
I had a friend/sort of boyfriend in college who cut back on his martial arts training because I touched him flirtatiously when he didn’t expect it (I think it was the classic “guess who?” kind of thing) and he was startled enough to start to go into a defensive move. It shook him up a bit that he could have hit or thrown me out of instinct because he’d been training so much.
Gelfling 545
@germy: How long does it take to teach “Lie like hell?”
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@DC:
She saw a pissed off black man and freaked out; and that’s assuming your scenario is correct and she made an honest mistake.
Gin & Tonic
This, from the Chief of police, is interesting, to say the least:
Elizabelle
@Quinerly: C-Span has a link to Obama’s speech today in Orange County, CA.
It’s going to air a few more times on cable, too. Thanks for the head’s up. I am still happy to have heard all of yesterday’s speech. Good for the soul.
trnc
Official training may not be the issue here. The unofficial training of late appears to be that sometimes cops can get away with anything.
debbie
@Gin & Tonic:
Yep, and a desk job and pay raise are in her future.
MagdaInBlack
@Mart:
Thank you.
trnc
ETA: The fact that the cop is facing at least manslaughter charges is a positive thing.
Sure wish it was still possible to edit comments.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@trnc:
Nope. See my comment at 68.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
@Gin & Tonic:
There are so many contradictory stories swirling around that I may need to uncharacteristically step back and wait for more solid information. Something still feels very hinky here, but it’s not clear if the Rangers are giving her a free pass or giving her enough rope to hang (incriminate) herself with.
Gin & Tonic
@debbie: As the Chief in Dallas is a black woman, I read her remarks quoted above very differently.
Mandalay
And the cover up is already underway:
Having someone else investigating allows the Dallas Police to claim the moral high ground, and say “We cannot comment because we are no longer involved. I would refer you to the Texas Rangers…”, who of course will say “We cannot comment…”.
If the Dallas Police Department was serious about a real investigation they would have invited the FBI rather than their Texan buddies.
MagdaInBlack
@Mnemosyne:
This thing is hinky all the way through.
JaneE
How do you go into another apartment and think it is yours? Do you leave your doors unlocked? I have mistaken other cars for mine in parking lots, but when the key doesn’t work, I realize that maybe I need to check it more closely. Yep, not mine. Then again, the story is so unbelievable that it might be true.
Aleta
If one is considering ‘possibility of a relationship,’ I think it’s important to think beyond personal (friendly) relationship. The thought needs to include her harassing him at the complex or trying to control his behavior as a resident. ‘Her’ parking spot, locking up a bicycle, a complaint he could have made about her making noise or her treatment of someone, etc.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Gin & Tonic:
I get what you’re saying, but that’s not always the case, otherwise there wouldn’t be POC in the GOP.
Also, see Thomas, Clarence; slave catcher.
EBT
@Sab: Police are civilians, and being a police officer isn’t even the 10th most deadly job in the country.
opiejeanne
@Mnemosyne: I read recently that in England, when it’s 5pm all work stops on films. There are no more takes after 5pm.
debbie
@Gin & Tonic:
Just wait till the FOP shows up.
JaneE
@DC: There is a lot of this that really sounds fishy. Doesn’t she lock her doors? I remember way back when, in Las Vegas in the middle of the night, snockered to the gills, and when we went to the room, the key didn’t work. Drunk as skunks, we still managed to check the room number on the key and make sure we were in the right place. Eventually the person on the inside heard us and opened the door. He didn’t realize that he had pushed the button to lock out the maid’s keys. If she were impaired, it might explain some things.
Gelfling 545
@PJ: i was married to a cop and yes they drink after shift. And bitch about how nobody really understands but other cops. It’s a thing.
Gin & Tonic
@debbie: I’ll keep an open and hopeful mind for now.
trollhattan
@Another Scott:
Seven-billion with a “B”? That’s a lot of moolah.
Mnemosyne
I dipped a toe into the cesspool over at Blue Lives Matter and even their “cops are always right!” commenters are very suspicious of this cop’s story. Any defenses of her action are uncharacteristically tepid, and several of them are openly saying they don’t believe the cop’s story. Very intriguing.
Barbara
@JaneE: My brother in law once got into the wrong car. The key opened the door but when it didn’t start the engine he looked around and instantly realized he was in the wrong vehicle, parked right next to his (same make and model an color). He said he couldn’t get out fast enough. No way did this go down the way she says it did.
opiejeanne
@Mnemosyne: well, she doesn’t have a penis.
Kathleen
@West of the Rockies: No because he would have been shot.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Mnemosyne:
Well, she’s a woman, so she probably shouldn’t be a cop anyway. ?
Mary G
There are all kinds of theories out there, but whatever the circumstance, it’s outrageous that they sent her home. I am not optimistic that a jury will convict her, no matter what happened, because she’ll do the “white woman faced with a scary black man” and in Texas it’s likely to be believed. I hope I am proved wrong. I also wonder how long they waited until they did the draw for the drug and alcohol screens.
Shaun King has been a great activist on this. I don’t think the guys that beat up DeAndre Harris in Charlottesville would have faced justice, except that he put out their pictures and had the internet ID them. The police still even charged him with assault, and he was acquitted. King is also getting behind candidates for District Attorney in many cities, so that the ones who protect cops will lose their jobs.
Tom Levenson
@opiejeanne: I’d be very surprised if that were true. Certainly wasn’t when I was shooting documentaries commissioned by the BBC.
But it doesn’t make sense. For any exterior shooting you need to be able to adjust to lighting requirements; a sunset shot can’t be done at 5 in the summer, etc.
This is all said with no current knowledge, so take it with the necessary kilo of salt.
opiejeanne
@Mnemosyne:
They think her story is suspicious because she doesn’t have a pe.nis.
My previous snotty comment is being held up because I forgot about the forbidden words.
jimmiraybob
@JaneE:
Someone else said hinky.
Could be he was calling off an affair and wanted the key to his apartment back.
The neighbor interviews should be interesting. There’s one or more people that know everything going on in their building – a not too down-scale apartment building at that.
But, given that it’s Texas, is there a “Really, I Thought It Was My Castle Doctrine.”
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
It was a ridiculously dangerous and unnecessary situation, where they chose a location on ACTIVE railroad tracks unbeknownst to the, you know, railroad and were shooting where there was no easy escape. Sad, pathetic, negligent, criminal.
opiejeanne
@Barbara: I did that with two kids in tow. Unlocked the white Jeep Cherokee, same exterior trim package (each year they changed how much chrome, pinstripe colors, etc.). The kids sat down and buckled in but I couldn’t get the key to turn in the ignition. It went in but wouldn’t turn.
While I was puzzling over this a little voice came from the back seat, “Mom, I don’t think this is our car. It’s too clean.”
opiejeanne
@Tom Levenson: There must be an exception for outdoor evening shots. It was an interview with an actor who was laughing about the work stopping right at 5pm.
Mnemosyne
@opiejeanne:
That’s part of it, but it’s also because her story makes no fucking sense. It’s so nonsensical that even the Blue Lives Matter propagandists are having a hard time buying it.
Barbara
The only fact that might make me reconsider is if her key unlocked his apartment, as happened with my BIL’s car. If you read Tana French, that was one of the twists in Broken Harbor, with a builder so cheap they didn’t bother getting distinctive keys. Still incredibly suspicious, though.
Kathleen
@DC: I live in a high rise and have done what you described. In my case I leave my door unlocked. I’ve gotten off on the wrong floor (geezer elevatoring) and when I went to open the door of “my” unit I discovered it was locked and figured out what I did. That’s happened 3 times. Each time I consider myself lucky that someone didn’t come charging out of the door with a weapon.
Regarding this case, I may have missed it but was it established that the cop did indeed live in that building? What the fuck!
Mnemosyne
@Barbara:
Since we’re all feeling cynical anyway, remember the case I was upset with the Chicago prosecutors about because it felt like they were jerking my friend around after she had a guy arrested for exposing himself to her on the el train?
After eight (8) separate hearings, one of which the defendant didn’t show up at because he was in jail for exposing himself to a different woman on a different el train, the charges were dismissed because the arresting officer didn’t verify that a portly middle-aged guy was not under 18 by checking the defendant’s ID, so the court couldn’t be sure that he wasn’t a juvenile defendant. Case dismissed, he’s free to go show his dick to more women trying to ride public transit in Chicago.
So, yeah, I remain angry and cynical about the city of Chicago’s legal system’s willingness to protect women from sexual assault.
Tom Levenson
@opiejeanne: Nope: here’s a reference card for British film working hours:
Weekly engagements are for a minimum of 40 hours per week,
Daily engagements for a minimum of 8 hours per day, both exclusive of meal breaks.
Work should be scheduled for no less than 4 hours or more than 12 hours per day.
Schedules should be between 7am and 9pm unless exceptional circumstances dictate otherwise.
A break of at least 11 hours must be allowed between working periods to ensure adequate rest periods for crew – this is for Health and Safety reasons.
Continuous working days (CWD) are days were a running lunch / buffet lunch is provided but no1 hour break. CWDs are 2 hours shorter than normally scheduled shoot days (-1 hour lunch break and -1 hour work time to compensate for the lost break).
A meal break should be scheduled no later than five hours after work starts and a second hour’s unpaid meal break if scheduled or unscheduled work continues beyond five hours after the end of the first meal break, and that second break must be taken no later than five hours from the end of the first meal break.
At least one day of every seven should be a rest day.
Source
Tom Levenson
@opiejeanne: Should add: if the production was keeping to a no-overtime budget, and eight hours ended at 5, damn right everyone drops tools. But that’s a production decision, not a legal requirement.
The moral of the story: never trust an actor.
Ladyraxterinok
@germy: Tulsa? If so, her husband was in helicopter. Dead man’s dad a big name in jazz. IIRC family earlier lost another male to cop violence. And there was something odd about her trial or hearing. It was a classic ‘white woman in fear for her life/honor in presence of scary black man’. IMO this stereotype will quite possibly underly treatment of this Dallas cop’s case. Unless it’s the other stereotype of white woman slut ‘hanging out’ with black man. Remember how some RWers talked about Obama’s mother because she had a baby with a black man. And not just any black man–a really, really black man from Africa. (Or the horrible black communist in Hawaii.)
I
lumpkin
@Barbara:
My exact same thought – drunk.
They didn’t question her right away because it takes a while for the alcohol to be metabolized.
Sloane Ranger
@Litlebritdifrnt: Good atmosphere this year. I think I spotted a couple of Malaysian flags among the many national flags on display and loads of EU flags being proudly waved.
And to cap it all, the Benjamin Britton setting of the National Anthem, my favourite!
Gex
Honestly, the second I read that it was a gated community my thought was that she may resent his presence there and decided to get him and this is all cover story for that. We have seen plenty of white people taking exception to the mere presence of black people in spaces they belong but the white people resent their presence.
Mnemosyne
@Gex:
As someone else pointed out above, saying that they may have known each other doesn’t necessarily mean it was in a romantic way. It could have been a neighbor vs neighbor dispute that she decided to get revenge for since he was being all uppity and shit.
opiejeanne
@Tom Levenson: LOL! Yes, I realize it must have been a production decision. I think it was for a tv series, can’t remember which Brit murder mystery/police procedural it was.
JaneE
@Barbara: Back in the early 90’s one of my co-workers locked himself out. Most of the department drove Toyotas, which his was, and we decided to see if any of our keys would fit his truck. Mine did. Several model years apart, and actually didn’t look at all alike when we compared the keys themselves, but it worked. Fortunately for me, his truck key did not unlock my MR2.
J R in WV
@Mr Stagger Lee:
As a white-bearded old white guy, i agree with you 100% — we need to fuck with everyone’s pensions to put pressure on everyone to stop this shit. I’ve been helped out by and pulled over by police officers, not all white at all, and have always had a good experience.
But I know that this isn’t true for many of my fellow Americans, for which I am truly sorry, although other than supporting Colin Kapernick and Black Lives Matter there isn’t much I can directly do. This cop was stupid high on something to go there and do that, though.
I guess manslaughter may be appropriate from a legalistic point, but FUCK that shit, really. Shooting someone down in his own house, that’s murder in my book!
Sloane Ranger
@opiejeanne: I remember reading in a book about the production of Doctor Who that ending the working day at 5pm was standard practice at the BBC during the 70’s. Otherwise they had to pay overtime.
The author claimed that rushing to finish on time was the reason for some of the crappy production values of the time.
Sloane Ranger
@JaneE: Many years ago my father was flagged down by two police officers. Despite having a clear conscience he was worried but it turned out they had locked themselves out of their police car and, seeing that Dad was driving a car of the same model, thought they’d see if his car key would fit their car rather than face the embarrassment of having to call it in to the police station.
This was in the UK of course.
J R in WV
@opiejeanne:
My wife unlocked a white Toyota with her key, got in, the ignition wouldn’t turn. Then she noticed that all our fast food trash was missing. Got out instanter, locked the car, found ours a couple of spaces farther away, left immediately.
40 years ago, still embarrassing, a little.
I understand this newish apartment building used electronic keys, hers didn’t work. If she then pounded / knocked on the door, lots of people would have opened the door to see what the FK outside late at night.
Very strange all the way around…sorry the “Texas Rangers” appear to be dropping the ball so obviously — would have expected them to be more capable of subtle misdirection and that! //
Steve in the ATL
@Tom Levenson: @Robert Sneddon: unions are great!
@Mr Stagger Lee: @debbie: unions are horrible!
Aleta
@Mnemosyne: Traditional teachers would say his training was lopsided or just poor, and say he had a bad teacher. I think that happens a lot in the US because of the different mindset of teachers. Traditionally, teaching restraint was equally important as teaching the actions. It was obvious in the thinking of old school teachers, exactly because the techniques were considered dangerous and b/c the teacher was considered responsible for the student’s actions. So advancement was much slower than in the US. Sometimes in the videos of bad police you see them rushing into a martial arts move–you can see the reflexes happen but their vision and awareness are shut down.
Aleta
@Mart:
I was in a hospital a few years ago that had recently gone from independent to being bought by a large corp. The nurses, at least the lower ones, looked tired and I mentioned it to one. She said their work shifts had been changed to that same scheduling. She was at the end of four 12 hour nights and then would have 4 days off. She said it was hard.
Starfish
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Some people on Facebook are passing around a picture and saying it is a picture where the officer and the victim are taking a photo together as friends so this whole thing is strange.
jl
this current version of the story is unbelievable. Gotta be something more.
Racial aspect has to be examined closely. Black guy in an unexpectedl place (from the shooter’s perspective), so shoot him immediately?
But even so, still weird. Story said the shooter ‘tried’ to get into her own apartment, but it was the wrong apartment. That has happened to me a couple of times when I’ve come home extremely tired and preoccupied or stressed. And, maybe it’s just me, but my almost instantaneous realization is that I’m at the wrong door. And she didn’t recognized a neighbor who lived very close by?
So, was the office on pills to her through the shift and totally zoned and out-of-it? Did they know each other, and it there was something personal with a motive? That makes it more sinister, premeditated and the shooter is lying. But the current version is just completely unbelievable to me.
Quaker in a Basement
@germy: My guess is “the end of a long shift” was marked with a dozen drinks or more.
jl
@Quaker in a Basement: That’s my current best guess too. Too tried, and drunk or stoned or both to WTF she was doing.
Bill Arnold
@Mnemosyne:
He (i.e. his teacher(s)) should have been focusing more on situational awareness[0], then.
More information available for high-speed[1] decision heuristics, roughly. (Aleta is saying similar things.)
Adam S hasn’t weighed in; i’d like to understand the Aikido perspective.
I do not believe the initial story.
[0] A quick google search says (or at least suggests) that that this is already part of good first responder training. This might interest some others (I’m liking it): Attention and Situational Awareness in First Responder Operations (2016, 52 pages.)
[1] faster than opponent(s)
germy
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/dallas-police/2018/09/08/dallas-officer-shot-man-apartment-involved-2017-shooting-suspect
germy
LABiker
I just saw on FB a photo of the shooter and victim together at a party. They knew each other.
cleosmom
You could rework that sentence as “The man she killed, who was of course black, cannot speak for himself.” Dollars to donuts she’ll get away with it.
Bostonian
@Emma: I am wondering how long this has to go on before someone shoots a cop and a jury acquits him because he had a reasonable fear for his life as soon as the cop started acting nervous.
workworkwork
@Mr Stagger Lee: This. Stop making taxpayers pay for cops messing up. Take it out of their pension fund.