AtmaWeapon
09-27-2007, 02:39 AM
http://www.officer.com/videonetwork/index.jsp?showid=378811
It starts out as your basic boring high-speed chase and ends up with a rockstar ending: officers ramming the car left and right and Lt. Awesome kneeling on the hood firing shots through the windshield while the car is moving.
The news stories surrounding it are interesting in how much they clash with the video. This one (http://www.officer.com/web/online/Top-News-Stories/Two-Ohio-Officers-Injured-in-Fatal-Chase--Shooting/1$37606), hosted on the same site as the video, sounds as if it was made from reports that came within minutes of the event; the video clearly clashes with the story, which makes it sound as if it was a bunch of bicycle cops mowing down a Monte Carlo (which, based on the way a lot of people actually drive Monte Carlos, isn't really that absurd). This detail is particularly interesting:
the officer ended up on the car's hood and fired twice, hitting Bennett at least once. The video clearly shows six shots fired in that scenario.
This article (http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070828/NEWS01/308280005/1056/COL02) seems much more factual but still has its odd spots. It definitely leaves out all the parts about officers pursuing the car on foot, which is a step in the right direction, but I can't figure out who it wants to be the hero. On the one hand, it continually mentions how the suspect struck the police, but the video clearly shows the officers striking the vehicle.
The articles and several details of the video lead me to believe that someone somewhere feels guilty and thinks that perhaps there was a better way out of the situation. The video is not clear on how that guy ended up on the hood of the car; he could have been struck or he could have done it out of a desire to kill, but it seems to me this is not the issue.
What kind of a person runs from the police? What kind of a person, when faced with the addition of several more cars that he can't shake, continues to run? What kind of a person continues to run after shots have been fired? What kind of a person, having been cornered by police that have already shot at him, doesn't just put the car in park and sit still? Rational people do not put themselves in the situation where we have to decide if the police had just cause for use of deadly force. Rational people are arrested well before they reach this point.
As much as I want to believe there was a peaceful solution to this scenario, I don't believe it is so. The guy displayed a flagrant disregard for the safety of any other motorists. He failed to stand down when faced with several police officers attempting to stop his vehicle. He failed to stand down when shot at. He pissed off the police officers. What I think really happened is somewhere around the point where the first shots were fired, at least one of the officers snapped. They already had cause to use deadly force, but perhaps didn't want to use it. But after you've chased a guy at dangerous speeds for several minutes, fired shots at him, and rammed his car, who can say the adrenaline doesn't get the best of you?
T The problem with cases of possible overreaction like this is when there's lots of video evidence of your pursuit, followed by your continued efforts to escape as your car is rammed, a lot of people lose their sympathy for you. I know I did, and reading the guy's rap sheet didn't really help his case either. Particularly interesting is the last collision; I believe the officer who fires the shots is in the last car that collides with the vehicle and the camera is suddenly tilted at an odd angle. I found that and the ambiguous phrase "I'm gonna take this guy out" while the pursuit was still just a pursuit particularly curious. As I stated though, after the first round of gunfire and the first collision I guess I'm a bad person because I completely lost interest in the rights and well-being of the driver and I was more interested in trying to figure out if he was going to follow through or be the typical wuss and bail on foot before being violently subdued.
Just behavior is not always right behavior. Suppose a man has a starving daughter and is caught stealing food from a store to feed her. No one can argue that stealing is not against the law, but do we feel right sentencing the man and condemning his daughter? It is likely not the case. The picture I believe the news articles paint is a similar story. The officers were just in their actions, but have doubts they took the right actions. Some of the stated facts seem fabricated, and others conveniently happened between edits or off cameras. I have a feeling the officers don't feel right in their actions, no matter how just they may have been.
Now I hope this doesn't really descend into a horrible storm of police brutality "discussion" (I'm sure someone is going to suggest I would be OK with getting shot for speeding or something else that ignores my carefully stated stance.) because I think regardless of the ethical issues few of the pursuit videos I have watched have such an interesting finish. Ideally, we should have no pursuit videos to watch, but I say if you are going to run from 4 or 5 officers even after shots are fired, you know it's going to hurt when they arrest you so you might as well try to make Youtube.
It starts out as your basic boring high-speed chase and ends up with a rockstar ending: officers ramming the car left and right and Lt. Awesome kneeling on the hood firing shots through the windshield while the car is moving.
The news stories surrounding it are interesting in how much they clash with the video. This one (http://www.officer.com/web/online/Top-News-Stories/Two-Ohio-Officers-Injured-in-Fatal-Chase--Shooting/1$37606), hosted on the same site as the video, sounds as if it was made from reports that came within minutes of the event; the video clearly clashes with the story, which makes it sound as if it was a bunch of bicycle cops mowing down a Monte Carlo (which, based on the way a lot of people actually drive Monte Carlos, isn't really that absurd). This detail is particularly interesting:
the officer ended up on the car's hood and fired twice, hitting Bennett at least once. The video clearly shows six shots fired in that scenario.
This article (http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070828/NEWS01/308280005/1056/COL02) seems much more factual but still has its odd spots. It definitely leaves out all the parts about officers pursuing the car on foot, which is a step in the right direction, but I can't figure out who it wants to be the hero. On the one hand, it continually mentions how the suspect struck the police, but the video clearly shows the officers striking the vehicle.
The articles and several details of the video lead me to believe that someone somewhere feels guilty and thinks that perhaps there was a better way out of the situation. The video is not clear on how that guy ended up on the hood of the car; he could have been struck or he could have done it out of a desire to kill, but it seems to me this is not the issue.
What kind of a person runs from the police? What kind of a person, when faced with the addition of several more cars that he can't shake, continues to run? What kind of a person continues to run after shots have been fired? What kind of a person, having been cornered by police that have already shot at him, doesn't just put the car in park and sit still? Rational people do not put themselves in the situation where we have to decide if the police had just cause for use of deadly force. Rational people are arrested well before they reach this point.
As much as I want to believe there was a peaceful solution to this scenario, I don't believe it is so. The guy displayed a flagrant disregard for the safety of any other motorists. He failed to stand down when faced with several police officers attempting to stop his vehicle. He failed to stand down when shot at. He pissed off the police officers. What I think really happened is somewhere around the point where the first shots were fired, at least one of the officers snapped. They already had cause to use deadly force, but perhaps didn't want to use it. But after you've chased a guy at dangerous speeds for several minutes, fired shots at him, and rammed his car, who can say the adrenaline doesn't get the best of you?
T The problem with cases of possible overreaction like this is when there's lots of video evidence of your pursuit, followed by your continued efforts to escape as your car is rammed, a lot of people lose their sympathy for you. I know I did, and reading the guy's rap sheet didn't really help his case either. Particularly interesting is the last collision; I believe the officer who fires the shots is in the last car that collides with the vehicle and the camera is suddenly tilted at an odd angle. I found that and the ambiguous phrase "I'm gonna take this guy out" while the pursuit was still just a pursuit particularly curious. As I stated though, after the first round of gunfire and the first collision I guess I'm a bad person because I completely lost interest in the rights and well-being of the driver and I was more interested in trying to figure out if he was going to follow through or be the typical wuss and bail on foot before being violently subdued.
Just behavior is not always right behavior. Suppose a man has a starving daughter and is caught stealing food from a store to feed her. No one can argue that stealing is not against the law, but do we feel right sentencing the man and condemning his daughter? It is likely not the case. The picture I believe the news articles paint is a similar story. The officers were just in their actions, but have doubts they took the right actions. Some of the stated facts seem fabricated, and others conveniently happened between edits or off cameras. I have a feeling the officers don't feel right in their actions, no matter how just they may have been.
Now I hope this doesn't really descend into a horrible storm of police brutality "discussion" (I'm sure someone is going to suggest I would be OK with getting shot for speeding or something else that ignores my carefully stated stance.) because I think regardless of the ethical issues few of the pursuit videos I have watched have such an interesting finish. Ideally, we should have no pursuit videos to watch, but I say if you are going to run from 4 or 5 officers even after shots are fired, you know it's going to hurt when they arrest you so you might as well try to make Youtube.