Mixing up your taser with your handgun

[Fake Messiah]

1. Make it illegal to configure a taser in the shape of a pistol on all new manufacture.

They should also make it illegal for apartments to look like one another, because this way cops confuse them and think that they are in their own apartment and shoot what they think is an intruder.

[arewethereyet]

If pulling out a gun and firing when you meant to grab a taser is your reaction to stress...you aren't cut out for a job where you are carrying both.

Fuck, the US has lost it's fucking mind. My husband hasn't carried his pistol since he started his new job two years and is no longer driving through "bad" areas at 4 am. This afternoon he said he's going to start carrying it again. Shit's been nuts around Dallas lately and not just in the areas where you almost expect it.

[Silver]

The boyfriend's brother, who used to be a cop, says it's an easy mistake to make; especially, since he made the same mistake once.

[Anomalocaris]

Because they want us to believe a 26-year police veteran would confuse a taser for a gun ..... Yeah sure 

There has never been an occassions when you confused two long accustomed objects?

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If pulling out a gun and firing when you meant to grab a taser is your reaction to stress...you aren't cut out for a job where you are carrying both.

Fuck, the US has lost it's fucking mind.  My husband hasn't carried his pistol since he started his new job two years and is no longer driving through "bad" areas at 4 am.   This afternoon he said he's going to start carrying it again.  Shit's been nuts around Dallas lately and not just in the areas where you almost expect it.

I think those who have never made the mistake simply did not get unlucky.   They were probably not cut from material that could be distinguished, a priori, from the material of those who did make such a mistake.

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But confusing a less-than-lethal weapon with a lethal one may be a sign that this person shouldn't have been a cop to being with.

Boru

How do you tell before it happened?

[The Architect Of Fate]

Because they want us to believe a 26-year police veteran would confuse a taser for a gun ..... Yeah sure 

There has never been an occassions when you confused two long accustomed objects?

---

If pulling out a gun and firing when you meant to grab a taser is your reaction to stress...you aren't cut out for a job where you are carrying both.

Fuck, the US has lost it's fucking mind.  My husband hasn't carried his pistol since he started his new job two years and is no longer driving through "bad" areas at 4 am.   This afternoon he said he's going to start carrying it again.  Shit's been nuts around Dallas lately and not just in the areas where you almost expect it.

I think those who have never made the mistake simply did not get unlucky.   They were probably not cut from material that could be distinguished, a priori, from the material of those who did make such a mistake.

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But confusing a less-than-lethal weapon with a lethal one may be a sign that this person shouldn't have been a cop to being with.

Boru

How do you tell before it happened?

No, Let alone a weapon.

[Anomalocaris]

Apparently, she's a trainer, too.  Personally, I think it sticks in the craw not because no one would believe that  cop, a 26 year veteran, would be so stupid.  We do, we all believe that.  It's that calling this an accidental discharge doesn't seem to square with the term.  It smacks of euphemism.

The official version of the story is no better than the obvious, either.  She intended to zap a guy leaving the scene...... with passengers, after pulling him over for air freshners in his rearview?  If shooting the guy was her autopilot, that's an indictment of systemic racism, not a defense.

That extremely highly trained and experienced professional can make lethal mistakes in reflex while carrying out long accustomed and familiar procedures is amply and repeatedly demonstrated in the history of airline crashes.    

I certainly do not think this unfortunate incident necessarily reflects anything nefarious, at least upon close and unemotional inspection, on the either police training, personel selection, or Kim Potter the person.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Boru

[Brian37]

I was listening to MSNBC, and some punditwas asked the question "Is it reasonable to believe that the officer mistook their handgun for a taser", and of course the answer was that no it wasn't reasonable to believe that.

So, despite evidence that they did, in fact, do that, you're going to go with "they murdered the person in cold blood"?  Really?

I hate this trial-by-TV-talking-head (or worse, the twitter-verse).  People make mistakes, especially during stress.  The mind doesn't work the same way as normal.  It becomes hyper-focused on some things, and goes onto auto-pilot for others.

But I get it -- the politically correct thing to say is that police are out to murder black people.

 But it doesn't matter. Her mistake cost someone their lives. If I take my eyes off the road while driving, and pop a curb, and kill someone, I can be charged for that death, even if it was an accident. 

And it isn't the politically correct thing to say, it is a litteral real reality that blacks and other minorities have far more to fear when getting pulled over than whites. I've been pulled over twice for an expired tag. Neither time was I asked to get out of the car, nor did I fear dying.

[Anomalocaris]

I was listening to MSNBC, and some punditwas asked the question "Is it reasonable to believe that the officer mistook their handgun for a taser", and of course the answer was that no it wasn't reasonable to believe that.

So, despite evidence that they did, in fact, do that, you're going to go with "they murdered the person in cold blood"?  Really?

I hate this trial-by-TV-talking-head (or worse, the twitter-verse).  People make mistakes, especially during stress.  The mind doesn't work the same way as normal.  It becomes hyper-focused on some things, and goes onto auto-pilot for others.

But I get it -- the politically correct thing to say is that police are out to murder black people.

 But it doesn't matter. Her mistake cost someone their lives. If I take my eyes off the road while driving, and pop a curb, and kill someone, I can be charged for that death, even if it was an accident. 

And it isn't the politically correct thing to say, it is a litteral real reality that blacks and other minorities have far more to fear when getting pulled over than whites. I've been pulled over twice for an expired tag. Neither time was I asked to get out of the car, nor did I fear dying.

The victim in this case had an outstanding warrant for arrest.  That seems to be ample justification to require him to get out of his car.

The victim in this case had no real reason to fear dying, which makes his resisting arrest and effectively bolting rather less than defensible.   The officer also didn’t seem to have intended to apply force excessive by popular conventional or procedural standards.   Again  there is no indefensible conduct.

The only tragedy is she grabbed a gun instead of taser, and failed realize the mistake until she triggered what she thought was the taser.

I don’t believe an eye must be answered for by another eye.    So I don’t think placating the family or the community should be a concern in how Kim Potter is dealt with.

In so far as she might be charged with any crime, it would be the same crime she would be charged with if, as a licensed driver, one day she nevertheless accidentally shifted her own car into reverse by mistake on her war to shopping and ran over and killed a bystander standing behind her car.

[Fake Messiah]

The only tragedy is she grabbed a gun instead of taser, and failed realize the mistake until she triggered what she thought was the taser.

Maybe it would be more believable if the target wasn't an unarmed black person because those persons get killed by cops a lot with excuses like:

“I thought it was my taser”
“I thought it was my apartment”
“I thought I saw him/her with a gun”
“I thought he was selling loosies”
“I thought she was there alone”
“I thought she was getting smart with me”

Maybe they should just stop panicking around unarmed black people and be calm just like they are around white people armed with AR-15.