this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 40 points 8 months ago (2 children)

empties one full magazine on the car, not a single hit Would you like to enlist in the imperial army?

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 8 months ago (2 children)

If you’re that scared you have no business being a cop. What a fucking idiot thinks he got shot too.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 8 months ago (3 children)

This is what happens when you spend your life fantasizing about how you're a hero under constant attack.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Those were sweet rolls, though.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 8 months ago (7 children)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Cops are trained to say that before shooting as a psychological trick to manipulate witnesses. Your brain doesn't perfectly record the order of events in a situation like that, so to make sense of things you're likely to misremember one or more of the gunshots being before the "I'm hit" rather than correctly remember that the cop shot first.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Officer and ACORN are a dangerous aural combination to some folks

[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago

Because he's a hysterical fucking moron who believes himself to be some for of hero warrior.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (2 children)

He probably got it from South Park with the "its coming this way" defense for hunting out of season

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

This is Chewbacca, Chewbacca is a wookie...

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

THE ACORNS ARE COMIN' RIGHT FER US!

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 months ago

The next evolution of "Florida man" is "Florida cop". A wild acorn appears. Florida cop uses "9mm Glock". Is is not very effective.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)

So where exactly did he fire at? The site itself is crap and the way it's written it sounds almost made up. Not saying that it is, Florida police officer shooting at acorns sounds about right, but do we have a better source?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

...............the video is right in the article.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

He shot at his own squad car. I guess he assumed the suspect inside that they had already performed a search on earlier was firing from within.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

He shot at the unarmed, and handcuffed suspect he had locked in his car.

In the video it also looks like there is an officer or bystander down range. Like if you pause the video and forget the context it would not be obvious if he was sitting at the car or pedestrian.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 8 months ago (6 children)

If US police is this incompetent, the only real solution is to take their guns away. It works in the UK.

And yes, there are more guns in general in the US, but that means that the police needs to be BETTER at deescalation than in the UK, not worse.

(Also: Obviously there are exceptions for specialized units in the UK, and the same would have to happen in the US, but your standard run-of-the-mill cop really doesn’t need more than pepper-spray and a stick.)

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago

Take their guns away and give them acorns.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 8 months ago (3 children)

How about we also give them actual training? You know, basic 4 year training like in Europe, to become basic police officer, additional training to become more, and not the "6 months and here is your gun" as they do in the US?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Imo this is a key problem with police in the US. You're meant to take something like this video, analyse it, grow from it and provide a better procedure/training in what to do in that sort of situation so that it is more safe for both police and the public in the future.

Instead you get "police tried to stop a robber by shooting into a crowded street, two civilians were killed and the robber only has slight injuries". And the police response is "oh we have qualified immunity, this is actually whats meant to happen, we stopped the robber didn't we etc etc etc" and nothing is learnt.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

If you look into this story a little further, it turns out that there are a few things to consider.

One, this is actually the result of training. The man served two tours overseas, this is quite literally what he's trained to do. Do you have any idea what a gunshot sounds like from far away? Because it's not exactly a clear sound, and there are a shitload of different bullets (and gun barrels, compensators, silencers, sub sonic ammunition as an even further layer) to make different noise. When you're used to being shot at from far away, yeah a sound like this actually does sound like you're being shot at. I could also easily see someone mistaking it for a bullet landing near them.

He also describes experiencing a tingly sensation and thinking something was wrong with his left(? going from memory, lazy) side. It very much sounds like he had a PTSD attack.

Lastly, he resigned during the course of the investigation into the shooting. Not to mention, the investigation into him concluded that no he should not have unloaded his firearm after hearing an acorn hit the car.

Should he be a cop? Fuck no! He likely has undiagnosed PTSD and should be getting help, not putting himself into circumstances where he is much more likely to be shot at.

However this is not the result of incompetence. This man is a military veteran. He will likely be more proficient with firearms than you or I ever will be. You need to stop thinking of cops as pigs in tight bullet proof vests. This guy, and there are absolutely others like him, is not at all untrained.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago

He may have PTSD and he may have had 1,000 hours of firearms training, but if you empty your magazine the way he did, under the circumstances he did, you're incompetent to be a police officer. Period.

And even he apparently recognizes that since he resigned (though whether he'll just go get hired the next town over is probably a decent bet).

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago

I'll preface this saying that I own firearms and I spent 11 years in the military, I've had people shoot in my general direction, but I've bever been in a firefight.

Police and military operate in different environments that require different skillsets and different training. People expect, incorrectly, that police are there to protect citizens (this isn't a rant about them protecting only the owner class...the judicial branch has upheld that police had no duty to protect). IF they had a duty to protect, they wouldn't be allowed to open fire without a target in site and awareness of what was beyond that target and endangered when they miss that target.

Hearing a gunshot is not a valid excuse for randomly discharging your weapon.

I'm glad nobody was hurt, and I really hope the VA or some other organization is able to help this guy recover from his combat trauma. The department that hired him should have done better, and I hope they revisit their candidate screening policy...

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago
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