Knife the tires. Throw down the tack strips front and back. Reach in and truncheon stick him in the temple. Mace him and dive through the window.

10 ways that don't take Audie Murphy levels of courage to avoid shooting a guy in the back 7 times when he's pinned in on all sides.

But of course police training protocols are always right. Because a police officer should, you know, never have to risk his life or put up with any guff from a drunk or a mentally ill person.

I don't know you, nor do I care. I don't care whether you were a police officer or not. We've got a real problem with police training in this country and who we allow to be police officers.

Case in point:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/myoregon/2009/09/death_of_james_chasse_dishonor.html

This is all to common in America Jebbie and if you think it's acceptable you aren't the person I thought you were or you're choosing to bury your head in the sand about it.

It isn't bullshit. It was Digby. Read the entire article I linked and hers and her commenters.

The guy was pinned between three cop cars (on each side and behind) and high centered on a cement parking curb nose first into a fence.

The officer had been engaging him at the driver's side door for quite awhile without. He ultimately lost his cool, stepped to the back rear drivers side quarter panel and pumped 7 bullets into his back.

He's currently being charged with manslaughter on the basis of the fellow officers statements (or it looks like that's a real possibility).

Out of curiosity Jebbie. When did being a law enforcement officer become about never subjecting oneself to any risk whatsoever?

Is it better that an subject himself to a calculated risk with backup at the ready or for law enforcement to be judge jury and executioner?

You've always struck me as someone with more courage than that. Maybe I was mistaken.

You think it's bullshit. I say that any man who shoots another in the back is a coward. Policeman or otherwise.

The definition of irony:

CJA’s Litigation Director, Matt Eisenbrandt, stated, “This victory is a landmark for human rights litigation and for El Salvador. The jury’s verdict in 2002 gave confidence to the Salvadoran community, and sent a signal that they do not have to accept the impunity that exists in their country. Without the Romagoza case, we could have never filed other cases – including one involving the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero – that have forced officials to confront the lack of accountability in El Salvador.”

I guess "what's sauce for the goose, isn't really sauce for the gander".

Sauce is for the other guys.

Fair enough. Bottom line is that we are more than happy to hold others accountable for the exact same conduct we engage in. Those others are almost always brown or black. Every once in awhile they are Eastern Europeans. But they are always different from us because they're the bad guys and we the good.

As far as Americans and their "contract" partners go--nada. Rank hypocrisy and double standards.

I can't wait until the "wrong guy" gets thrown in the dock and produces reams of paperwork that he was on America's payroll and acting at the behest of and in the interest of American national security when he engaged in his atrocities like throwing nuns out of helicopters.

Well actually those types of bad guys usually don't make it to court. They end up on the business end of the gunsights of an American extra-judicial assissination squad.

Can't have our contract/foreign aid proxies airing out our dirty laundry for all the world to see.

all too frequently. Speaking of torture and extra-judicial killings--by American police.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/041750.html

As the excerpt points out, they could have reached in and tried to get the keys out of the ignition. But they tasered him twice while he was sitting behind the wheel and his human instinct was to get away. He was, after all drunk. And when he reacted, the officer killed him.

There are still laws against shooting someone dead with a bullet even if shooting them dead with a taser is often considered the victim's own fault. But it's clear that using the taser in that circumstance was a factor that led to the the man's death.

Police officers are routinely resorting to the taser against mentally ill and drunk citizens with catastrophic results. I guess we all have to understand that in America not being in your right mind is a capital crime for which we aren't necessarily allowed due process. Good to know.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/time-to-end-this-by-digby-drunk-man.html

But hey the guy held in isolation and berated with bad language by hooded Iranians got better treatment than you get here in America if you're drunk and stupid. Or mentally ill. The Taser a couple of times and then 7 shots in the back while sitting in your car. I guess malevolence is in the eye of the beholder.

Due Process is for sissies I guess.