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Shot in 1.6 seconds: Video raises questions about how trooper avoided charges in Black man's death (apnews.com)
submitted 4 days ago by girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to c/news@lemmy.world
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Julian Lewis didn’t pull over for the Georgia State Patrol cruiser flashing its blue lights behind him on a rural highway. He still didn’t stop after pointing a hand out the window and turning onto a darkened dirt road as the trooper sounded his siren.

Five minutes into a pursuit that began over a broken taillight, the 60-year-old Black man was dead — shot in the forehead by the white trooper who fired a single bullet mere seconds after forcing Lewis to crash into a ditch. Trooper Jake Thompson insisted he pulled the trigger as Lewis revved the engine of his Nissan Sentra and jerked his steering wheel as if trying to mow him down.

“I had to shoot this man,” Thompson can be heard telling a supervisor on video recorded by his dash-mounted camera at the shooting scene in rural Screven County, midway between Savannah and Augusta. “And I’m just scared.”

But new investigative details obtained by The Associated Press and the never-before-released dashcam video of the August 2020 shooting have raised fresh questions about how the trooper avoided prosecution with nothing more than a signed promise never to work in law enforcement again. Use-of-force experts who reviewed the footage for AP said the shooting appeared to be unjustified.

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[-] Ejh3k@lemmy.world 160 points 4 days ago

I was scared when I was a 19 year old doing a patrol through Sadr City in 2003, while manning the .50 cal and having dozens of kids suddenly show up and throwing rocks at me. Did I waste them even though I would have been justified because it wasn't uncommon that patrols would go through markets and peopled start throwing produce and mix a grenade in?

No. Because I was well trained and realized that life is precious. And I was dealing with those rocks a lot longer than 1.6 seconds.

[-] ikidd@lemmy.world 76 points 4 days ago

If the cops want to be militarized, they should be bound by the UCMJ and face the same consequences.

[-] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 32 points 4 days ago

How dare you advocate for destroying the entire police force!

/s... Cause that's what would happen. I'm pretty sure more than half would quit outright if they thought there was a possibility they'd see consequences for their actions.

Just one example https://voiceofsandiego.org/2022/10/04/police-union-says-sdpd-officers-are-quitting-because-of-oversight-commission-that-doesnt-exist-yet/

[-] lennybird@lemmy.world 33 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Because I was well trained

Well you see, many of these cops joined the force because they would've flunked or did flunk basic.

[-] Rampsquatch@sh.itjust.works 20 points 4 days ago

Yea, but I'm betting you had more training than this clown. Maybe the cops need more than a couple weeks before they are given the power of a firearm, maybe I'm crazy.

[-] treadful@lemmy.zip 9 points 3 days ago

He had plenty of training. He PIT the dude's car, and shot him in the forehead 1.6 seconds after stopping his car. Lots of training went into that.

It's just the wrong training.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 7 points 4 days ago

Your restraint shows a great deal of character. I don't know I'd have the same fortitude in the same situation.

[-] Carlo@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 days ago

Ayy, I was up north in '03, but I ran some Sadr City patrols in '04. Vivid memories of watching Cheaper by the Dozen in full kit while we listened to the mortars walking in. And a complex ambush on the way back to BIAP. I was on a 240 in the second truck. There was some musical car horn that seemed to signal it—not La Cucaracha, but something like that; I think one of these days I'll hear it again somewhere and have a legit ptsd flashback—and a fruit stand or something on the right exploded, and a car behind me somewhere as well, I believe. Then some dudes came out on a balcony behind and to the left and started licking rpgs at us. Good times. Csm got some shrapnel in his ass, which didn't improve his temper, but at least we got a lot of jokes out of it.

[-] Ejh3k@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Oh man. My first IED was very strange. We were driving on what we called route kill zone, and there was some traffic. And then we came to an overpass and seemingly everyone else took the off ramp. Came out the other side and just blammo. I saw the vehicle in front of me get pushed a lane over and then disappear into smoke and dust. I locked up the brakes so I wouldn't smash into them.

Turned out there was a sniper down the road and a can full of guys with RPGs on the bridge behind us. But we had no casualties or significant vehicle damage, so they apparently dipped. We hightailed it to a rally point that was literally 500 meters from where the attack happened. Front vehicle thought we were the ones that got hit.

[-] UnpopularCrow@lemmy.world 109 points 4 days ago

“And I’m just scared”.

Maybe it’s time to increase Georgia’s police basic training up from ten weeks to maybe eleven or even twelve! Source: https://www.trainingreform.org/state-police-training-requirements

[-] Irremarkable@fedia.io 53 points 4 days ago

The fact that there isn't a minimum of 2 years classroom work before they even get a ride along is fucking ridiculous.

[-] hoshikarakitaridia@lemmy.world 40 points 4 days ago

As a German, the contrast in education and training for police is unfathomable. Yes, we still have a problem with some cops being Nazis, but cops don't kill people because "I was scared" here. They usually kill them after an act of terrorism that killed a lot more people, or if they had a standoff for like 2h and the guy has a gun.

Which absolutely is the better way.

But ofc, banning guns is really helpful in the first place, because wouldn't you know, banning a killing device rapidly decreases the amount of killings. Funny how that works. I would even argue it's cause and effect and not just coincidental.

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 19 points 4 days ago

It's worse than that here. There's a famous "police trainer" who spends his time giving seminars to officers all over the country telling them they have to have a "warrior mindset" and not only is it okay to kill, they should do it first before they get killed. It's not proper training, it's a fear cult indoctrination. Given that cops are - apparently required - to not be the brightest, it results in the horrible situation we have.

Which. Is not helpful.

There's a lot of them and, extremely unsurprisingly, they are right-wing lunatics themselves.

[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 10 points 4 days ago

A good example of the brainwashing that comes out of these seminars was the cop who heard an acorn drop on his car and then immediately fell to the ground claiming he was shot before unloading his entire pistol into the back of his squad car where a suspect was sitting handcuffed.

[-] Aux@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago

I don't think that 2 years is a must. Here in the UK police officers have 5 months of classroom and 3 months of field training. That works pretty well. What also helps is that British police officers are trained to diffuse the situation and don't have guns.

[-] Organichedgehog@lemmy.world 13 points 4 days ago

don't have guns.

bingo

[-] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 3 points 3 days ago

They have guns, just like police where I live have guns.

Locked in the car, not on their person.

If a situation requires a gun, they can go and get it.

Afterwards, they have to account for every round fired.

But then, it's harder to kill "n****rs" extra-judicously then.

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[-] commandar@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Already happening. Required training hours were roughly doubled a couple of weeks ago effective Jan 1:

https://www.11alive.com/article/news/investigations/georgia-mandatory-law-enforcement-training-hours-for-new-recruits/85-c835bdef-3984-452b-acf0-88b22629f414

That said, this was a state trooper. GSP have long been known for a culture of cowboy recklessness and special treatment codified into law. They report up directly to the Governor and are explicitly excluded from many of the restrictions put on local police (the moniker God's Special People has been around for decades for a reason). They are one of the few major agencies in the state that still refuses to use body cameras, for example.

Institutionally, it's a group set up to be and that views itself as special enforcers that are above the restraints put on others. GSP is routinely involved in high speed pursuits that end in either a fatal accident or a shooting.

More training is always a good thing, but I'll just say I was unsurprised a trooper was involved here.

[-] jpreston2005@lemmy.world 78 points 4 days ago

For Bacon, Lewis’ son, the lack of charges is an open wound. He worries no one will remember what happened given the passage of almost four years — and the number of others killed by police under questionable circumstances.

At this point, the damage is done. A child has to grow up without his father. They had the trooper in jail for 100 days, paid the Bacon family 4.5 million, and only agreed not to prosecute the trooper because he signed a pledge to never work in law enforcement again. So they know he F-ed up, but what's with the slap on the wrist for the trooper? He shot this black man in the forehead, 1.6 seconds after stopping his patrol car. I don't even understand why he got out of his car so quick after successfully pitting the guys car. The guys car is perpendicular to the road, in a ditch, with your squad car behind it. Why are you jumping out with your gun drawn? God, you'd think he'd be jumping out to make sure the driver was OK, but nope.

Someone driving intoxicated should be punished, not murdered.

[-] Halosheep@lemm.ee 12 points 3 days ago

He was jumping to make sure the driver wasn't okay.

[-] TheAuthor_13@lemm.ee 4 points 2 days ago

Welp, if Butch Cassidy over there can’t be a police person anymore, maybe karma will catch up to him & he’ll catch a hot cop slug in the forehead for no good reason too.

[-] rez_doggie@lemmy.world 26 points 4 days ago

I'm all about an eye for an eye at this point. Let his family hunt him down like the feral pig he is.

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[-] Iapar@feddit.de 35 points 4 days ago

I really don't get why people don't start shooting police. As I understand it guns are allowed to "defend yourself against the government". Police is the government and they clearly are out of control shooting people.

So either use your weapons against the government or make guns illegal if you don't use them anyway.

So in the end there are less cops which in return means less people shot dead by cops or cops are less scared because people don't have guns and so they also don't get shot by cops.

What I am saying is: either use your guns or make them illegal if you don't use them anyway.

[-] emax_gomax@lemmy.world 52 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Most people don't wanna kill each other. And shooting back is probably going to raise the likelihood of getting murdered (i don't have any source for this). That said it is still absurd how the police flagrantly disregard peoples liberties, extra judicially execute them and get away with it with impunity. The societal contract is dead.

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[-] Burstar@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 4 days ago

The problem is escalation. You fire your shots in self defence, they back off an extra 50' and call in a "shots fired, officer needs assistance" call and suddenly 4 APCs, 20 cruisers and 2 helicopters are surrounding you. Cue sounds of 50 cal freedom suppressors being fired. And because you shot at them even though by the time its all over your body looks like a pile of spaghetti the shooting will be justified with barely a hearing involved.

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[-] borf@lemmynsfw.com 20 points 4 days ago

But if they do that then they'll go up to three stars and it's even harder to get away then! When you get up to four stars they shut down the bridges and send helicopters and at five stars they start sending tanks--

I jest, but the rapid military escalation of conflict in the GTA games is reflective of the "send enough dudes until the bad guy is dead" modus operandi of American law enforcement.

What I am saying is: either use your guns or make them illegal if you don’t use them anyway.

The people clutching the guns are the same ones with the "blue line flag punisher skull" tattoos and decals. Maybe if the Black Panther party made a comeback though.

[-] PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 4 days ago

Even if you get away with shooting the one cop, now the rest of the gang wants blood.

[-] crazyminner@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 days ago

People saying why it doesn't happen. Tbh it might start getting this way, if there is no democratic answer to this constant injustice people are going to start shooting back. It's only going to get worse with the constant militarization of cops.

At that point the people who shoot back will be labeled terrorist and the cops will just get worse and more people will become "terrorists"

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this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2024
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