Armed, dangerous, and the use of throw down guns

In the early 90's I was a graduate student in criminal justice at Sam Houston State in Huntsville, TX, just North of Houston. One of my classmates was a Houston cop who had gone through the Houston PD Police Academy in the 1970's. They had an afternoon segment, actually in the syllabus, where they were given a formal lecture on the use of a throw down gun. It was treated as a natural normal thing to do -- plant a gun if you've accidently killed someone who was not armed.

To some of y'all the 70's was a long time ago. But many of us can still remember that long ago time. And you can be sure that the Houston PD has senior police officers who took that class on how to use a throw down gun.

History and culture have a lot to do with the way police departments work. Citizens need to remember that -- they need to not forget.

A Houston cop recently killed a suspect who may or may not have been armed. The cop says he was. There's video that shows an unclear picture, he might have been armed. A gun was recovered at the scene. But the history of the Houston Police Department is very real and it's such that you really to think about it when a cop tells you a story.

You especially need to think about it when the story he tells initially turns out to be a little mistaken in some important facts -- things like he initially said he shot the guy while the guy was facing him and pointing a gun at him. Then it turns out that both the autopsy and the video contradict that. He shot the guy in the back while the guy was running away.

But the Mayor of Houston stands by his cop. Strong police unioins deliver a lot of votes. It's pathetic.

But don't forget. This is America. They hate us for our freedom.

Update:

They're going to take it to a grand jury. It's not clear they'll tell the grand jury they just made shit up at the beginning, before they knew the apartment complex had a video camera on.

Producing a gun

This police shooting story out of Kentucky sounds eerily similar to the one I mentioned earlier in Memphis.
Two differences. The cop in Kentucky seems to have a history of "shot first, questions later". And, rather than describing it as "pulling a gun" it's described as "producing a gun".

In neither case did language take that extra little step of actually making a direct claim that the gun was pointed at the cop or that there was an appearance of threatening behavior other than just holding the gun. Maybe they weren't sure if there were independent witnesses or not. I don't know. I just don't trust them.

Threatened with a gun

I have no idea if this police shooting is justified or not. I'm pretty sure that the official position will be that it was justified, but I'm equally sure that nobody is going to put much thought into that official position.

The newspaper article is short, doesn't really say much, but two parts stand out to me.

A Memphis police officer shot and wounded a suspect who pulled a weapon tonight, officials said.
About 7:15 p.m., a person flagged down two police officers in the College Park public housing area not far from Elmwood Cemetery, saying a man in a nearby park had threatened him with a gun, Memphis police spokesman Sgt. Vince Higgins said.

The officers responded and called to the gunman, who took off running. They pursued until the man turned, weapon in hand.

The cops says the guy "pulled a weapon". That implies an aggresive act on the part of the suspect. "Pulled a weapon".

But then he says the guy turned, "weapon in hand". That sounds like he'd been carrying the gun the whole time he'd been running.

There is a difference between pulling a weapon and having a weapon in your hand. It's a small difference, a subtle difference. But it's a difference.

Anyone who pulls a weapon is making a clear aggresive act. You should be concerned when someone pulls a weapon.

But someone having a weapon in his hand isn't making such a clear aggresive act. Maybe he's being aggresive, maybe he isn't. It's really not going to be that clear.

I don't know whether the cop was right to interpret the guy having a gun in his hand as threatening or not. Probably. But when intentional language is used (pull the weapon) that makes the danger of a situation sound more obvious than it actually was then I start to wonder if I should look in this horses mouth or not.

My thinking about this is colored by my tendency to never take anything a cop says at face value. I just don't trust them.