Police-on-police shootings spark reform

[RamboLiberal]

Last weekend's fatal shooting of a plainclothes Baltimore police officer — by colleagues who mistook him for an assailant — has taught a stunned force the same hard lesson learned by other agencies whose officers made similar deadly mistakes.

In 27 cases across the country since 1980 in which police officers were mistakenly killed by other officers, all but one involved a victim who was not in uniform. Among them was last Sunday's shooting of Officer William H. Torbit Jr., an eight-year veteran of the Baltimore police force who was killed by fellow officers while trying to break up a rowdy crowd outside a club.

In most cases, police in other cities responded to the tragedies by ordering plainclothes officers back into uniform — as Baltimore did as an interim fix while reviews are under way — or to wear color-coded bandanas or jackets. Most launched investigations aimed not only at determining whether the shootings broke any laws, but also at instituting reforms.

And they often bore another similarity to the Torbit killing: Typically, the victim was black.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-police-on-police-shootings-20110115,0,5332184.story

For those of you beating on the CCW holder in Tucson who did not shoot the wrong man and think only police should carry handguns. This is a current story tonight in the Baltimore Sun.

[MichaelHarris]

1. I see your story

and raise you this: "When Pete Husmann heard gunfire in Moscow, he did what police advise against: He grabbed his .45, jumped on his mountain bike and rode toward it, hoping to help"

"Even though a 12-inch, zipperlike scar crawls up Pete Husmann's abdomen, and semihealed bullet wounds mar his shoulder, thigh and neck, the University of Idaho student said he would replay the night of May 19 the same way it happened." Same way? You mean you would ride down there on your Huffy and get your ass shot again?

"Husmann stuffed a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol in the pocket of a loose-fitting jacket. He hid it, knowing police officers would be on edge and on the lookout, the Post Falls High School graduate said."

results? He got his ass shot. http://www.spokesmanreview.com/tools/story_pf.asp?ID=193777

Wanna see pictures? I was there.

[ManiacJoe]

2. Wow.

It is often said that if stupidity hurt, humans would get smarter faster. Not in this case....
x(

[Euromutt]

4. Well, the problem is that the stupidity's hurting YOU, Joe

It's not hurting Michael at all; he's just oblivious to the fact that he has no understanding of statistics or critical thinking ability.

[ManiacJoe]

5. I think you misread my post.

I was refering to the guy on the bike without enough sense to not get shot.

[friendly_iconoclast]

6. Wow, it's now acceptable to insult shooting victims if they were legally carrying guns?

If he'd done exactly the same thing (but left his gun at home), he would have been a noble hero shot while bravely helping others,

amirite?


Well, I suppose it's a step up from accounts of imaginary people carrying guns, but still...

[YllwFvr]

3. Just because they wear a badge

does not mean they arent human.
Near my town a 17 year vet was showing off his gun in a supermarket and shot himself. Luckily no one else was hurt. Any unnecessary handling increases the risk of an accident. Leave it in the holster and it cant go off.
They can make mistakes, have poor judgment, or have a shitty day just like we can.

Its hard. Plain clothes officers have it rough. Its dangerous, but some of the best police work is done out of uniform.

[w4rma]

7. In other words the cops would have shot an innocent if they were doing what the plain clothes cops

were doing. Sounds like some *serious* reforms are needed. And I'm talking about reforms where the cops change their ways of handling people, not putting officers back in uniform where the headlines are less likely.