I still can’t believe this guy got shot down by a cop playing whack-a-mole with his service weapon. The D.A. said: The evidence in this case shows the shooting to be accidental, and possibly negligent, but not criminally so. “This shooting is not justified, but also not criminal.” I don’t know if I buy the stutter-step no-double-tap explanation. But at…
Tag: police shootings
Officer Down
NYPD Housing Cop Randolph Holder was shot and killed a few hours ago around 120th and FDR Drive. This is about a mile from my house (but a world away in East Harlem). Rest in Peace. Update: Apparently the killer was also a “non-violent drug offender.” From the Times: Last fall, the man suspected in the shooting, Tyrone Howard, was…
It’s more dangerous to be black than to be a cop
I heard this somewhere recently and it made me go, really? So I thought I would double check. Indeed, one is more at risk to be murdered as a black person in America than as a police officer. For 2013 and 2014 I get an average of about 80 officers killed on duty per year (this excludes correctional officers, traffic…
Headline you won’t see:
Police officer line-of-duty deaths are down 15 percent this year. Gunfire deaths are down 38 percent. Odd, because a lot of reporters were calling me last year when the number were up. “Is it Ferguson?!” “Is it Obama?!” “Are criminals less brazen?!” “Has training gotten better?!” “Are criminals worse shots?!” [Silence of me staring at non-ringing phone] That said, I…
Dan Aykroyd continues to “embrace the police”
Dan Aykroyd is making a donation to the children of slain Philadelphia Police Officer Robert Wilson III. Wilson was killed by two robbers last Thursday. Seems Wilson just happened to be in a store, in uniform, when armed robbers decided hold the place up: Officer Wilson stopped by the GameStop store to purchase a video game for his son as…
RIP Officer Rafael Ramos
NYPD Officer Ramos was just buried. Here is Commissioner Bratton’s eulogy. In honor of Officer Ramos, I’m reprinting some of what I’ve written about police funerals in Baltimore. I went to too many of them: Twenty months in Baltimore wasn’t very long, but it was long enough to see five police officers killed in the line of duty. And there…
Thinking beyond “the Thin Blue Line”
Read my whole piece at CNN: Most citizens can be forgiven for going through their day without thinking of anarchy or barbarians storming the gates. But many police, especially in New York City, see themselves as a thin blue line besieged by both a liberal and criminal world, neither of which they particularly like or understand. Large protests, especially when…
Two Officers Down
Shot and killed. Ambushed in their car in Brooklyn. Earlier the killer shot his ex-girlfriend in Baltimore.
Baltimore Officer Down
From the Baltimore Sun: Groman and another officer approached the car from the driver’s side and another officer approached from the passenger’s side, police say in charging documents. Officers directed the driver, Tavon Sullivan, to get out of the car, police say, and he sat on the sidewalk. Police say Jones, sitting in the back seat, refused Groman’s orders to…
Police killing whites and blacks
A lot of people really believe that cops are out there gunning for blacks. People who know more about police officers find this absurd. Of course black lives do indeed matter. But other things being equal (like committing a violent crime), are cops more likely to shoot and kill blacks because they are black? That’s an empirical question worth trying…