Comments on: More Police Shooting Justice

By: Eric

Eric — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 05:54:58 +0000

Yeah, small consolation when he should have been fired and charged with wrongful death. The very idea that police officers should have immunity from prosecution and lawsuits while performing their job is ludicrous. If they do their job, they will beat the lawsuit or criminal charges brought against them. If they are negligent, they deserve what they get.

And yes, I do hold them to a higher standard.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 05:36:06 +0000

It could be worse, at least he’s not getting a medal and hailed a hero, yet.

By: Eric

Eric — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 03:45:34 +0000

When I was in the military, we had a young soldier accidentally shoot himself. He was handling his pistol in an unsafe manner while on guard duty and discharged the weapon into his leg. He received non-judicial punishment under Article 15 of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice. It included losing a pay grade, 1/3 month’s pay for 2 months and 45 days extra duty and restriction to barracks. The extra duty consisted of reporting to the Staff Duty Officer and NCO (the people in charge of the unit after duty hours) at 6:00 PM every evening and performing work assigned until 11:00 PM every night. On saturdays, sundays and holidays he had to work from 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM every day, with 30 minutes allowed for each meal break, which he was escorted to.

The punishment was for gross dereliction of duty, mishandling his weapon and causing it to discharge in a way that injured someone. That the person injured was him was less important than the negligence, it could have been another soldier or a civilian that he shot. Does anyone else find it sad that we hold young soldiers to a higher standard than police officers? The soldier deserved his punishment, his weapon should not have been loaded in the first place according to the Special Orders of his guard post. The police officer in question deserves no less than a significant suspension without pay. Honestly, any police officer that accidentally discharges his weapon and shoots someone no longer should be entrusted with law enforcement.

Of course, with unions involved, we have the confluence of government police power and abuse of power and union practices aimed at increasing their power.

By: mike

mike — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 03:15:53 +0000

But there’s no double standarard for police, none at all.

Or if they admit to one, it’s because of the stressful nature of the work. Work like busting illegal gamblers using a SWAT team.

I want to know why his gun was pointed at Mr. Culosi in the first place. Why his finger was on the trigger. Why his weapon was even drawn.

I’m sure the people of Fairfax feel safe knowing that their police force’s response to an accidental deadly shooting is to say “oops” and give the offending officer a slap on the wrist.