So if I read this correctly (police shooting)

[HM-PuFFNSTuFF]

The police department’s policy on shooting at moving vehicles states: “Police officers shall not discharge their firearms at or from a moving vehicle unless deadly force is being used against the police officers or another person present, by means other than a moving vehicle.”

what does the word other mean in that statement?

[HM-PuFFNSTuFF]

See I think it's YOUR bias which makes you miss key phrases like the last 7 words in the policy you quoted to me. Also it explains why you use inappropriate phrases like 'exchange of gunfire'.

[HM-PuFFNSTuFF]

maybe you're just attributing your military training to the police but they have different rules. They can't just blast away at a bad guy and not worry if innocents die at the same time a la Iraq etc .

[HM-PuFFNSTuFF]

http://www.hrw.org/reports98/police/uspo99.htm

[Nightshade]

Jesus christ, assumption after assumption after assumption...

What I was getting with my question was, given your answer, how on earth you can damn these guys instantly (and despite your protestations to the contrary that's exactly what you've done) knowing a similar feeling to what they experienced. Would you have been a cool cucumber in the face of a 4000lb car trying to kill you?
And stop being so fucking condescending, no shit life isn't Hollywood, jackass, no one said it was. And if you'd actually read my posts, nowhere did I say that this incident was 'an exchange of gunfire'. I was describing a possible scenario.

And do you actually think I feel that cops can blast away and not worry if innocent people get killed? Are you fucking high? Did you not read where I posted TWICE in this thread that the guy that fired 31 rounds should probably be investigated? Do you not get from that that I think this guy may have been wrong in his degree of reaction?
Meh, this would be so much easier to discuss over a beer. I'll concede the point about the policy quote, I did miss the "by means other than a moving vehicle". Do NOT, however, attribute that to bias, rather to the fact that I skim things sometimes instead of reading them thoroughly. On that particular subject, that's a fucking retarded policy. Can a vehicle not be used as a lethal weapon?
Anyways, the point is that Al Sharpton uses any opportunity he can to get his fatshit face in front of the camera.

[HM-PuFFNSTuFF]

[quote="Nightshade"]
Meh, this would be so much easier to discuss over a beer. /quote]

Agreed. Plus I come off as 1 million times less of a prick in person. :icon25:

[Nightshade]

http://www.hrw.org/reports98/police/uspo99.htm

Yes, plenty of cops are douchebags and shouldn't have badges. But it seems to me that we as a society are far too quick to assume the worst in all cases and end up hamstringing the police. Take a look at this case from your link:

Officer Francis X. Livoti: On December 22, 1994, Anthony Baez, age twenty-nine, was playing football with family members at the Baez home in the Bronx.93 When the ball hit a parked police car more than once, one of the officers in the car, Francis X. Livoti, reportedly became angry and arrested Anthony's brother, David Baez, for disorderly conduct. When Anthony Baez told Livoti to calm down (Livoti later claimed Anthony pushed him), Livoti allegedly used a chokehold, resulting in Baez's death. During his administrative disciplinary hearing, Livoti admitted becoming annoyed with the way David Baez was standing, "daring me to take some action."94 Also in his administrative hearing, Livoti claimed that he attempted to handcuff Anthony Baez and they fell to the ground together. Asked if his arm ever touched Anthony Baez's neck, Livoti replied, "I'm sure that it must have at some brief period of time."95 The city's chief medical examiner, Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, found that Baez died of asphyxiation and suffered large bruises on his neck and burst blood vessels around his eyes and larynx. Hirsch found Baez's asthma a minor contributing factor to his death and noted that his case was a textbook example of a death cause by a chokehold.96 Of the fourteen city police departments examined byHuman Rights Watch, only four (San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Minneapolis) still allow chokeholds.97

Ok, this cop is clearly a scumbag and was completely in the wrong, but what's interesting about that article is that chokeholds are prohibited in so many states. What the fuck? No chokeholds, no tasers, can't shoot at a vehicle, etc., etc. What the fuck are they supposed to do? Give the guy trying to kill them a teddy bear and a cookie? FFS, I can choke someone out without killing them, you mean to tell me that we can't provide the police with adequate training to do the same? Yes, police brutality is a real issue. But, slam the shit out of the cops that commit offenses, and don't assume they're all dickheads.

[Nightshade]

Plus I come off as 1 million times less of a prick in person. :icon25:

lol, me too.

[mjrpes]

Very good op-ed piece:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/opinion/20leuci.html