Dave Smith
All responsible police departments have a stated policy of not engaging in hot pursuit when so doing so might put the public in danger; clearly, this situation did just that. Can't you understand that? It was between 3 and 4 in the afternoon, about two blocks from a school that was just letting out, and the speed zone in the entire section was only 35. Yet he chose to engage in a chase of a petty criminal at high speeds.
The first law of those entrusted with a badge and a gun is to *protect*. That does not mean protect a car when doing so might result in the rest of an innocent child. I'll give you a hypothetical in order to help you overcome your pro-cop bias. Are the cops justified in firing their weapons into a crowd in order to apprehend a criminal? Yes, if the fleeing felon also has a weapon and they fear he might use it against unarmed civilians or a cop that gets in his way. No, if the thief is armed with nothing more deadly than his fists and a scowl. A rest caused by a high speed chase is the same situation. A drunk driver obviously is a threat to everyone else on the road. But the wise cop doesn't press a fleeing drunk so closely and loudly that a relatively harmless drunk transmogrifies into a manperson; instead, the wise cops hang back, bringing in more cars until they isolate the drunk's vehicle.
The kid decided to hightail it out of there because he was frightened.
Don't be so dense. Put a garden hose in your mouth and the other end in your ear and blow the fog out of your head. The excessive use of force charge applies because as it was established in the kid's trial the cops did not have to nab him right then at that moment. Cops become cops for several reasons. The job pays well in some areas, and it offers some security for the future. Cops get to swagger around and carry a gun, and they can on occasion use force against a suspect. They enjoy the excitement of a chase-- who wouldn't! Adrenaline kicks life into hyperspace for those few seconds-minutes. It is human nature to enjoy the hunt--and what hunt is more exciting than a manhunt! For *wanting* to gouge on the pedal and chase a fleeing "dangerous felon" I don't blame him. But he allowed his hormones to lead him on to the next level. With little regard for the public good, this particular cop went rushing on into the game without waiting for either backup or instructions from more level-headed supervisors.
Jesus H Christ, Dave. I was not stating that the kid was scared of a cop beating from that particular cop! That the kid was stupid as a turnip is not in doubt; that he was wild and out of control and needed at the very least a good beating ten years before from a father he never met is a given. The point I was making in the above paragraph is that this particular cop was gungho as the good ones usually are, but on this one occasion he allowed his testosterone levels to lead him into endangering the public. If there had been a gunman running through the halls of that school, then he would have been justified in running all out 900 mph. Since the worst danger to the kids walking-riding through that neighborhood at that time of day was the cop himself, he should have been more circumspect; he should have kept it in his britches and allowed one of the detectives to pick the kid up later when he went home.
Hell, wouldn't we all. I don't however believe that the ends always justifies the means.
Pretty good job! That "pretty good job" end my granddaughter. As I have stated several times, this was at least the third time that this kid had stolen a car and gone joyriding. I am not defending the actions of the kid. He was a punk, and he deserves to spend a very long time in prison. When he gets out in about twenty more years he will probably then be a very dangerous man, but when the accident happened he was just a stupid stupid very scared punk.
I don't blame the cop exclusively. I blame the cop, the thief, the uncle, the girl herself--hell, I guess I blame the gods of the universe who allow such things to happen. Everyone of the above is partially to blame.
The chase was on. The car had been stolen about fifteen minutes before. The kid had been driving in a safe manner, because he didn't want to attract attention to himself. But keystone copper got on his tail, and quite loudly. Gunning his engine, running nearly a hundred miles per hour through a school zone, lights flashing, sirens blaring (?--I don't know, I wasn't there, some say yes others no). The kid heard him coming and gbutted on it just as he was approaching the stop sign, and even an old Cadillac will accelerate from 30 to 70 within a couple hundred feet. If the cop had come up on the kid slowly, would the kid still have run? Who knows. If any one of a hundred things leading up to that event had gone differently, then I would have enjoyed the smiles of my granddaughter for all these years. Or maybe the kid would have gotten hold of an Uzi in a briefcase the next day and took it to school with him.
Of course that is what it was. I haven't denied that. The kid instigated the chain of events. Legally he was blamed, and he should have been. The cop definitely did not deserve a commendation, however-- because even he admits that his reaction that day to a nothing theft of a nothing car by a nothing punk resulted in the rest of a child who showed every indication of growing up to be a very good human being.
He did not just come across a stolen car-- haven't you figured that out yet? He got the call from Dispatch, who told him the car (a neighbor of the cop I'm sure, since in that small town everyone is a neighbor) and its direction of travel. Whether at that time he was given the thief's name, I don't know. But this much has been confirmed: the cop was cautioned by dispatch re: the school traffic since school had just let out.
Already answered a few times.
