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A plastic fork, a phone, a car part: why does the LAPD keep shooting people holding harmless objects? (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 2 years ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

35 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Police killed Jason Maccani as he held a fork, one of many cases of confused Los Angeles officers rushing to use lethal force

The first report from the Los Angeles police department about the killing of Jason Maccani on 3 February immediately drew scrutiny: an officer had fatally shot a man who had been “armed with a stick” and threatening people in a building on Skid Row, the department said.

LAPD’s update a day later raised new concerns: the 36-year-old Maccani hadn’t been holding any weapon, but rather a “white plastic fork”.

Body-camera footage released two weeks later raised even further questions about LAPD’s shifting narrative. The footage showed Maccani alone walking out of a unit into the building hallway, not threatening anyone, when seven officers approached with weapons drawn. The officer who fired the fatal shot opened fire within roughly 15 seconds of seeing him.

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[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 34 points 2 years ago

They're terrified
They know they won't face consequences

They're terrified because their training is all about surviving an encounter with the most evil bastard ever to walk the earth. Even though the majority of cops go their entire careers without using a gun on the job, they're all taught to have the mindset that at any second they're about to be killed. Imagine trying to do a job that's mostly about taking reports, writing tickets and marriage counseling with the mindset that every person you meet might be planning to kill you. They're super jumpy, and often in contact with strangers. So, of course they're going to shoot people.

Just as big an issue is that nobody polices the police. Their unions make sure they're unaccountable. If ever a cop is investigated it's by another "brother" cop. They have massive latitude for the use of force based on their own personal judgement. If they ever do something that could be considered a crime, they get to postpone the interview for a few days and consult with a union rep / lawyer before the interview. This means if you want to kill people, you can get away with it. If you don't want to kill people, but you end up doing it because you were terrified of a black man during a standard traffic stop, you can also get away with it.