A Chicago Police officer responding to a ShotSpotter alert fired shots at a child who was playing with fireworks—that’s the conclusion from the Civilian Office of Police Accountability in a statement released today.
“COPA can confirm that a firearm was not used against the officers,” said COPA First Deputy Chief Administrator, Ephraim Eaddy.
CPD initially identified the child as a man, claiming he had opened fire first.
They also reported seeing “flashes of light.”
“When officers arrived in the area, they observed an individual, who has now been identified as a juvenile, standing near a residence. As one officer exited the vehicle, they heard a loud bang, which was later determined to be fireworks. The officer who exited the vehicle discharged their firearm in the direction of the juvenile, who was not struck by gunfire,” investigators state in the press release about the incident.
Body-worn camera footage from the three officers responding to the ShotSpotter alert appears to show one officer immediately fire his gun after hearing a loud bang.
He then yells, “Shots fired! Shots fired!” as another officer radios in a “10-1,” indicating officers are in need of urgent assistance.
Why are cops allowed to discharge firearms without at least a target? Dude fired 3 rounds wildly after the firework sound. Then they went around shouting "hands up" at some bushes.
These people are a fucking menace.
Doesn't help that being a cop unironically requires less training then the vast majority of other jobs. You would think giving someone a gun to point at people, who they're largely supposed to "protect" would require at least a few years of training.
Notably, a cosmetologist requires 2-3 times more training than police officers in the US. The only two countries with lower training requirements are Iraq and Afghanistan. Stories like this post, the acorn incident, and shooting into that ladies house, start to make a lot more sense with that context, eh?
I have a take on the cosmetologist thing! Sounds silly for a hair cutting job, doesn't it?
Dated a woman who trained cosmetologists at the local college. Gods she was educated.
Thinking out loud one night I said, "Ugh. What's it called when a chemical reaction... uh... opposite of exothermic?"
"Endothermic."
"How the hell you know that?!"
Turns out when you fuck with people's bodies, you have to know some shit. Forgot the topic, but I had asked her how she knew another odd thing.
"Because old people may have nails (whatever, I forgot), and you have to recognize that as a sign of (whatever, I forgot). You cannot use $chemical on them."
Anyway, off topic, but there are reasons cosmetologists are trained and certified. They're certainly more educated than most cops.
Tamir Rice
You won't find me defending cops in my comment history, but the acorn thing was a wild outlier. Which is why it made news and we're laughing at memes about it. Holy shit. Never saw anything like that in life.
It's only an outlier of you only consider cases of cops being spooked by acorns specifically. I mean this is literally a thread about a cop being spooked into opening up because of fireworks. Cops getting scared who then just start blasting is a pretty common occurrence it would seem, at least compared to how often it should be happening, which is very rarely to never.
A cop pointed a gun at Aaron Bushnell as he collapsed while burning to death. The cops have a trigger happiness problem. They don’t know how to handle themselves around guns. The acorn thing wasn’t an outlier at all. It was just the most fucking absurd example of an ongoing problem. First sign of trouble means they’re ready to shoot someone—and because they’re told they need to avoid lawsuits for injuring people, that means they’re ready to fucking kill at the first sign of trouble.