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Texas cop fatally shoots 15-year-old boy outside party

tedtropy

$50/hour, but no kissing on the lips and colors must be pre-separated
Sadly this will likely only increase the quantity of huge "Blue Lives Matter" American flags dangerously hanging off the back of pickup trucks in my neighborhood.
 

guek

Banned
So, based on what the lawyer has told the media:

Cops were called by neighbour / complaint of underage drinking.

Cops arrive and gunfire is heard.

The kids hurriedly leave the party after hearing gunfire.

The kids are challenged by a cop while they are on foot and run to the car.

The kids reverse away from the cop that challenged them but there are two more cops at the end of the alleyway.

The cop that challenged them shoots into the car killing the front passenger.

The car does not stop at this point but stops a block later when the other kids realise the passenger is shot.

https://www.google.ca/amp/www.nydai...hoots-15-year-old-boy-party-article-1.3121142

Tragic.

Why wouldn't they cops use a car to block the alleyway? Why would a cop shoot in the direction of other cops?

It's understandable that the kids were scared and ran, even after being challenged while they were on foot. Hopefully the footage sheds some light on the situation.

This sheds a bit more light but is still vague. When they were confronted, was it face to face or did the cop yell at them from a distance? Did they even hear or see the cop? Did the cop see them clearly? What did the cop communicate? If the cops were called because of a house party, where's the racial component?

Like I said, all of this screams of incompetence rather than profiling. What the fuck was the cop thinking when they decided to shoot at a fleeing vehicle full of teenagers.
 

Breads

Banned
And they wonder why we run when the cops are called.

Kids were partying and now one of them is dead. And ofc it's a poc.

Fuck the police.
 

Hazmat

Member
Fifteen. Goddamnit.

"There's reports of underage drinking, Johnson. Make sure you keep one in the chamber, shit could jump off."
 

Beefy

Member
This sheds a bit more light but is still vague. When they were confronted, was it face to face or did the cop yell at them from a distance? Did they even hear or see the cop? Did the cop see them clearly? What did the cop communicate? If the cops were called because of a house party, where's the racial component?

Like I said, all of this screams of incompetence rather than profiling. What the fuck was the cop thinking when they decided to shoot at a fleeing vehicle full of teenagers.

Dude,if the cop saw the kids go to the car it makes it a clearer case of profiling, because he would have seen they are black...
 
seriously what's the point to shoot at a moving car? If they planned to run you over (which i doubt), even if you kill the driver, it doesn't mean the car stops...

and even then, the other in the car are still there and innocent (not that the driver was not innocent) and you still shoot like you're in a goddamn videogame

fucking incompetent bastard
 

jetjevons

Bish loves my games!
Considering I've never in my life heard of part of a windshield referred to as either a passenger or driver side window, I'm going with side window for now.

So he shot the kid to death as the car passed? On the passenger side? So he wasn't (and couldn't) have even been clearly targeting the driver?
 
seriously what's the point to shoot at a moving car? If they planned to run you over (which i doubt), even if you kill the driver, it doesn't mean the car stops...

and even then, the other in the car are still there and innocent (not that the driver was not innocent) and you still shoot like you're in a goddamn videogame

fucking incompetent bastard

Because in the movies shooting the driver magically stops the engine.

Just about every single police force in the world forbids officers shooting at moving vehicles. I think even in the US officers are told not to do it, but I think nobody gives a shit either,
 

proto

Member
because a vast majority of white people are taught from a very early age that:
Cops are to be trusted
Cops are here to help us if we need them
Cops an authority figure and thus you do what they say when they say (Read: if they say jump you say how high)


throw in a little black on the victim(everyone is at least a little racist), it happened at 11pm (nothing good ever happens after X time) and the no angel defense its all very effective for creating sympathy for cops.

Yeah you're right, it's pretty ingrained in American culture that cops can do no wrong. I'm just constantly surprised in someone's ability to willfully blind themselves from the situation and blame the victim.

The no-angel defense is the worst part about this. Whenever someone makes that argument to me I'm always shocked. I mean are you saying he deserved to die because you're so quick to interpret his behavior as 'aggressive'? The kid was doing the reasonable thing here trying to escape a dangerous situation. What else could he have done?
 

GKnight

Banned
why not shoot the tires? Or is that not allowed for some reason?
I'm actually entering a law enforcement related field shortly and will learn firearms material for the position. Will be interested to see what the training states. That said, not in America so it may be different.
 
why not shoot the tires? Or is that not allowed for some reason?
I'm actually entering a law enforcement related field shortly and will learn firearms material for the position. Will be interested to see what the training states. That said, not in America so it may be different.
I could be wrong, but my guess is that shooting at tires is also a no-no because if you miss and hit the road at an angle, you have a good chance at a richocet. But I dunno.
 

WormBoi

Banned
Fact that none of the kids were charged with anything instantly debunks the bullshit "driving in an aggressive manner" thing.

This is a pretty good if what we're being told is the truth.

Anyway we need to change the our cop hating culture, this tragedy wouldn't have happened if they didn't try to run. They weren't involved in underaged drinking so they didn't even need to run.
 

guek

Banned
Dude,if the cop saw the kids go to the car it makes it a clearer case of profiling, because he would have seen they are black...
How is it clear? For one, seeing kids at night from a distance does not mean he knew whether or not they were black. Even in daytime, it could have been unclear depending on the distance and what the kids are wearing. And even if the cop did know the kids were black, it's far from "clear" that the shooting was racially motivated. I'm not denying there's a systemic issue of racial profiling with our cops but in this specific instance, there's not enough evidence as of yet to point to racism as a cause for the shooting. The officer could be the biggest piece of racist shit on the planet but the events don't point to that being the reason he shot. What it does indicate is that there was no reason to open fire and the officer had an itchy trigger finger. That alone is enough reason to be outraged without assuming this is solely due to racism.
 

andthebeatgoeson

Junior Member
Same bullshit. Firing into a car should be illegal unless the people in the car are shooting at you. Too many times, these 'brave' pussies throw themselves into the path to justify firing their weapons.

If you are brave and courageous, stand before a jury and don't hide behind a blue wall.
 

KDR_11k

Member
Same bullshit. Firing into a car should be illegal unless the people in the car are shooting at you. Too many times, these 'brave' pussies throw themselves into the path to justify firing their weapons.

If you are brave and courageous, stand before a jury and don't hide behind a blue wall.

I believe they're not supposed to shoot at cars anyway because that doesn't stop the car and if anything makes it more dangerous but who cares about procedure when it's black people?
 
This is a pretty good if what we're being told is the truth.

Anyway we need to change the our cop hating culture, this tragedy wouldn't have happened if they didn't try to run. They weren't involved in underaged drinking so they didn't even need to run.

You should be pointing your blame at these so-called highly trained police officers that shot at a group of young kids... who were acting like a group of young kids. You're veering dangerously close into "this 15 year old has no one to blame but himself" territory.
 

mike6467

Member
Should be interesting to see how they handle the body cam footage. Has Texas passed any of laws restricting the release of this stuff? I know NC had removed all their dashcam and body cam footage from public record requests.

Fucking tragic and appalling and just...god damnit. It's disturbing that I've kind of become numb to these. I'm still furious, but reading the article I wasn't surprised. There was no shock, no "how could this happen", just depression. What the fuck is going on anymore?
 

andthebeatgoeson

Junior Member
To expound on my point:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Shooting_at_drivers.html?mobi=true

Philly PD had a policy where the cops should not shoot at cars. This article states that shooting at cars is a dangerous practice and costly. And I would say it's cowardly.

An officer weighs 200 lbs, at most. The average vehicle weighs 2.5 tons. No officer should try to stop a motorized vehicle that weighs 10-15 times their weight. Officers, getting in front of cars or reaching out to stop a car or someone in a car is foolish. They should be trying to get out of the way. No one reasonable, believes, a 200 lb man can stop a 2500 lb car.

What i routinely see on released videos is a cop trying this very maneuver. Now, when it doesn't work, they pull their gun. Trying a maneuver that most likely won't work, then killing the occupants because of your terrible judgement seems like a joke. It's the proverbial cop chase where the cop leaps from one building to the next, falls but shoots the criminal because of the cop's logic. Sure, maybe some people aim for the cop with their car but without charging these teens for a crime, the cop killed a boy because something 'could' have happened. Cowardice.

I'm so upset. I have kids that look like this boy. They could die because of the 'potential'. No actual crime. The kid died because of a thought. It's the 21st century version of a thought crime. The police think wrong, kill a person and get away with it.

They don't need to see you commit a crime, they don't need to see a gun. They can just 'think' you have one and justify their terrible decisions.

I wish more departments would use common sense in making policy. No more shooting at cars.
 
How is it clear? For one, seeing kids at night from a distance does not mean he knew whether or not they were black. Even in daytime, it could have been unclear depending on the distance and what the kids are wearing. And even if the cop did know the kids were black, it's far from "clear" that the shooting was racially motivated. I'm not denying there's a systemic issue of racial profiling with our cops but in this specific instance, there's not enough evidence as of yet to point to racism as a cause for the shooting. The officer could be the biggest piece of racist shit on the planet but the events don't point to that being the reason he shot. What it does indicate is that there was no reason to open fire and the officer had an itchy trigger finger. That alone is enough reason to be outraged without assuming this is solely due to racism.

Earlier in this thread, you said people were "trying to make this about race." People are refuting your dismissal of the significance of the teens' skin color because at some point, the skin color of the victim affects the course of events invariably. If it doesn't prompt the 911 caller to make the call in the first place, it makes the police assume the worst upon hearing/seeing the soon-to-be victims' skin color. If the police aren't aware of the race of the victims, then the existing perpetuated stereotypes of black and brown people are used to help justify the killings. If the killings can't be justified, then racist police supporters will still harass the family of the victim, directly or indirectly. If the killer cop is actually brought to justice, this becomes an anomaly relative to the norm because of the victims' skin color.

No one has to try to "make it about race" in the country the shooting occurred in. At some point, race becomes a part of it without anyone trying to force it into the discussion.

You can't dismiss the existence of racism and the grossly disproportionate killings of black and brown people in the U.S. by police; you cannot. In turn, you accomplish nothing by going out of your way to assert that this event has nothing to do with race—we have all been born into a world where race has been made to matter and ignoring that change and nothing. You are wasting everyone's time trying to rewrite the context—race always matters in these situations.
 

Toxi

Banned
That fucking picture destroyed me. Nothing shows how horrifying this is like seeing the victim's face.

Rest in peace.
 

Skyzard

Banned
Why the fuck did they open fire at a car full of teens.

Cops need more strict training in US. It's well past time.
 

andthebeatgoeson

Junior Member
Earlier in this thread, you said people were "trying to make this about race." People are refuting your dismissal of the significance of the teens' skin color because at some point, the skin color of the victim affects the course of events invariably. If it doesn't prompt the 911 caller to make the call in the first place, it makes the police assume the worst upon hearing/seeing the soon-to-be victims' skin color. If the police aren't aware of the race of the victims, then the existing perpetuated stereotypes of black and brown people are used to help justify the killings. If the killings can't be justified, then racist police supporters will still harass the family of the victim, directly or indirectly. If the killer cop is actually brought to justice, this becomes an anomaly relative to the norm because of the victims' skin color.

No one has to try to "make it about race" in the country the shooting occurred in. At some point, race becomes a part of it without anyone trying to force it into the discussion.

You can't dismiss the existence of racism and the grossly disproportionate killings of black and brown people in the U.S. by police; you cannot. In turn, you accomplish nothing by going out of your way to assert that this event has nothing to do with race—we have all been born into a world where race has been made to matter and ignoring that change and nothing. You are wasting everyone's time trying to rewrite the context—race always matters in these situations.
This is very true. People taking about 'making it about race' are usually scared to address the true issues. The 60's sure did make people scared. What are they scared of? Open, honest discussion? Lie, what really happens if we make it about race? Does someone die if we make it about race? It's there a kidnapping or assault? Are taxes raised if we make everything about race?

Can someone tell me what the fuck actually happens if we make everything about race? A cat dies or an angel doesn't get their wings?
 

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
So, based on what the lawyer has told the media:

Cops were called by neighbour / complaint of underage drinking.

Cops arrive and gunfire is heard.

The kids hurriedly leave the party after hearing gunfire.


The kids are challenged by a cop while they are on foot and run to the car.

The kids reverse away from the cop that challenged them but there are two more cops at the end of the alleyway.

The cop that challenged them shoots into the car killing the front passenger.

The car does not stop at this point but stops a block later when the other kids realise the passenger is shot.

https://www.google.ca/amp/www.nydai...hoots-15-year-old-boy-party-article-1.3121142

Tragic.

Why wouldn't they cops use a car to block the alleyway? Why would a cop shoot in the direction of other cops?

It's understandable that the kids were scared and ran, even after being challenged while they were on foot. Hopefully the footage sheds some light on the situation.
So not only did they kill an innocent person by firing recklessly into a vehicle, they never found out who was shooting at the party. Really shitty policework here.
 

guek

Banned
Earlier in this thread, you said people were "trying to make this about race." People are refuting your dismissal of the significance of the teens' skin color because at some point, the skin color of the victim affects the course of events invariably. If it doesn't prompt the 911 caller to make the call in the first place, it makes the police assume the worst upon hearing/seeing the soon-to-be victims' skin color. If the police aren't aware of the race of the victims, then the existing perpetuated stereotypes of black and brown people are used to help justify the killings. If the killings can't be justified, then racist police supporters will still harass the family of the victim, directly or indirectly. If the killer cop is actually brought to justice, this becomes an anomaly relative to the norm because of the victims' skin color.

No one has to try to "make it about race" in the country the shooting occurred in. At some point, race becomes a part of it without anyone trying to force it into the discussion.

You can't dismiss the existence of racism and the grossly disproportionate killings of black and brown people in the U.S. by police; you cannot. In turn, you accomplish nothing by going out of your way to assert that this event has nothing to do with race—we have all been born into a world where race has been made to matter and ignoring that change and nothing. You are wasting everyone's time trying to rewrite the context—race always matters in these situations.
Show me where I did the bolded. If we want to shift the discussion to racial inequality in the criminal justice system, we certainly can, but that's a completely different discussion. Of course race will play a role from the very beginning but that does not mean the actual shooting was motivated primarily by race as many are asserting without evidence. People are already condemning this as such when we have no solid evidence pointing us in that direction. We don't even know if the dispatcher was told what race the these kids were. The police get called about house parties all the time! Maybe new evidence will surface but you can't try to prosecute based on discrimination for all cases of police misconduct simply because the victim is a minority. That's a great way to let cops walk away without penalty for gross misconduct.
 

guek

Banned
Can someone tell me what the fuck actually happens if we make everything about race? A cat dies or an angel doesn't get their wings?
Guilty people get off free if you charge them and can't prove guilt. The public also becomes disillusioned if every case involving a minority is suddenly a case of discrimination when there's no evidence to support such an accusation. As much as it pains you, making every case about race actually does have tangible harmful effects.
 

Takuan

Member
Wasn't the car driving in reverse at night?
Yeah, I'm not sure how the cops could've known the ethnicity of the van's passengers given the time and the van driving in reverse (presumably toward the police vehicle).

Edit: Lawyer's story clarifies. Absolutely disgusting. It's comply or die.
 

Deepwater

Member
Guilty people get off free if you charge them and can't prove guilt. The public also becomes disillusioned if every case involving a minority is suddenly a case of discrimination when there's no evidence to support such an accusation. As much as it pains you, making every case about race actually does have tangible harmful effects.

I wasn't aware GAF was a court of law or the prosecutors office. you learn something new every day
 
Just another day in the good ol US of A.

Seriously, fuck your police force down there. Bunch of incompetent fucks.

RIP little guy.
 
Guilty people get off free if you charge them and can't prove guilt. The public also becomes disillusioned if every case involving a minority is suddenly a case of discrimination when there's no evidence to support such an accusation. As much as it pains you, making every case about race actually does have tangible harmful effects.

I'm not sure if you have any evidence to support anything you said here.
 

Raiden

Banned
First thing i thought was white cop and black kid.

Saw the photo of the kid. Did not see a picture of the cop but i guess im right?


And jezus if this happened here this would be front page news for over a week. And the cop would be fired and sued.
 

dan2026

Member
Damn it must be Monday in America.

So many innocent lives lost due to guns, the fear of guns, and bad police training.
One day America will wake up and do something about their gun problem.

But who cares its only kids getting shot and killed right?
 

Shredderi

Member
Just another day in the good ol US of A.

Seriously, fuck your police force down there. Bunch of incompetent fucks.

RIP little guy.

This. What kind of chickenshit idiots does the US have in their police ranks? First sign of stress/trouble involving a black kid and you go for the kill? This kind of incompetent fuck would save more lives by not becoming a police officer in the first place. I've read about the US's training for their cops and it is abysmally small period of training compared to some other countries. Also doesn't help when the cops know they can do this with basically no consequences. What the fuck does shooting the passenger even help if you want to stop the fucking car?
 

guek

Banned
I'm not sure if you have any evidence to support anything you said here.
The actual conviction rate for hate crime cases since 2010 is about 10%. More than half of cases are turned down due to lack of evidence. Pursuing hate crime charges without strong evidence is a waste of time and resources.
 

J-Rzez

Member
SHOOT THE TIRES OUT

Lol no. If something is legitimately driving at you, you won't reliably be able to do this. Too many movies, too many vidyagamez. Comments like this and "shoot the knife out of their hand" makes me wonder if people ever shot a firearm before, and I'd guess the majority of the time outside of LE or military, they didn't in a tense situation.

I blame movies and videogames for giving these ideas to uneducated/unseasoned. It's been done in chases with shotguns and such, but this is not a reliable method in this scenario.
 

TheStruggler

Report me for trolling ND/TLoU2 threads
Policemen are the only group in America that can legally get away with murder.

Let that sink in a bit.

I was having this convo with a friend of mine and it is drastically different in canada, in my city there was a lady doing some type of stunt/staement downtown she wore one of those glass doll masks and held a gun up and pointed it to herself and people, in the end it was a real gun no loaded but a cop went out of his way and tackled her to the ground instead of shooting or even tazing her
 

dan2026

Member
I was having this convo with a friend of mine and it is drastically different in canada, in my city there was a lady doing some type of stunt/staement downtown she wore one of those glass doll masks and held a gun up and pointed it to herself and people, in the end it was a real gun no loaded but a cop went out of his way and tackled her to the ground instead of shooting or even tazing her

I stand by my thought that it isn't even bad police training that is the major problem in America. Its guns, its always been guns.

In the case of the police, the fear of guns.
In most of these situations they are afraid of being shot (I can understand that) so they shoot first. Every one of these confrontations become life or death when guns are involved. And in America guns are always involved.

Not to say that bad police training doesn't play a part. Or discrimination. Or profiling. Or lack of accountability. I am sure they all play a part.

But it always comes back to guns. Always.
 

Aske

Member
See title.
Think: Bet it was a black child.
Check thread.
Yup.

Cop is a coward and hopefully justice will be served upon him. I'm not confident in that however.

Same here. This is fucking horrific. Not sure why, but this one really hit me in the gut. Maybe I'm in a bad headspace, or maybe it's just the police-murder-story that broke the camel's back. The impotence really hurts. I can't believe this keeps happening and no action is being taken.
 

G-Bus

Banned
I really think they need to review the recruiting process for police officers. Some people just shouldn't be in this line of work.

RIP.
 
Show me where I did the bolded.

I'm saying that no one can dismiss the existence of racism because it's literally impossible to do, therefore you won't accomplish anything by trying to convince yourself/others that this incident had nothing to do with race.

Of course race will play a role from the very beginning but that does not mean the actual shooting was motivated primarily by race as many are asserting without evidence.
So? This thread isn't a court of law, people acknowledging that race plays a part in these killings aren't sentencing the officer to death.

If you're just trying to prove how insidious racism is by asserting that it can never be 100% proven in an individual instance, then sure. Well done. Otherwise, it doesn't matter if there's a .01 chance of this having nothing to do with race.

No one thinks police killing unarmed people only happens with minorities, so your concern over people bringing it up isn't warranted at all.
 
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