Anti Federalist
10-24-2011, 02:28 PM
As the case of the pharmacist in Oklahoma who went to jail under similar circumstances, you cannot summarily execute a downed man, once any threat, real or perceived, ceases to exist.
Unless, of course, if you're a cop.
Chicago cop under scrutiny for 3 shootings, 2 of them fatal
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-police-involved-shootings-1023-20111022,0,2860489,full.story
By Jeremy Gorner, Steve Mills and Stacy St. Clair, Tribune reporters
6:29 p.m. CDT, October 22, 2011
In the video, Flint Farmer was lying on the grass between the curb and the sidewalk. It was shortly before 2 a.m. on a June morning in the West Englewood neighborhood, and Farmer had been shot by a Chicago police officer. Then, according to the video, the veteran officer, Gildardo Sierra, stepped onto the parkway and walked a semicircle about the prone Farmer as three bright flashes went off.
The flashes, captured by a police car video camera, were fatal shots fired into Farmer's back, officials say.
That shooting was the third by the officer since January — and the second fatality in those six months, records show.
Sierra fired 16 shots at Farmer, hitting him seven times, autopsy reports show. A Cook County deputy medical examiner, after performing an autopsy and later reviewing the video, said the three shots in the back were the fatal wounds.
Sierra told investigators he feared for his life because he believed Farmer had a gun.
In fact, Farmer was only holding a cellphone.
Despite the video, the Police Department ruled Farmer's June 7 death justified, just as it had Sierra's other two shootings this year. But police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said he considers the Farmer case "a big problem" and told the Tribune that the officer involved should not have been on the street given his history of shootings.
The shooting is under investigation by the FBI, the Tribune has learned.
Together, the three shootings raise questions about the department's efforts to detect and track officers involved in multiple shootings, even over a short period of time. The shootings also renew long-standing concerns about the department's ability to investigate itself and reinforce the need for independent inquiries.
Indeed, the shootings are under investigation by the Independent Police Review Authority, the city agency that independently investigates shootings by police
A 2007 Tribune investigation of a decade's worth of shootings by Chicago police found that the department often cleared officers of wrongdoing after only cursory investigations, even when the officers shot people in the back or from behind. The newspaper's investigation found that officials repeatedly failed to interview key witnesses and consider important forensic evidence in a rush to exonerate officers.
McCarthy told the Tribune the previous administration failed to recognize a pattern in police shootings and had no mechanism to track if officers were repeatedly involved in shootings. He also said the department did not have a system in place to monitor the emotional and psychological state of officers involved in shootings, suggesting they could be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and should be kept off the streets until they are better.
Rest of story at link...
Unless, of course, if you're a cop.
Chicago cop under scrutiny for 3 shootings, 2 of them fatal
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-police-involved-shootings-1023-20111022,0,2860489,full.story
By Jeremy Gorner, Steve Mills and Stacy St. Clair, Tribune reporters
6:29 p.m. CDT, October 22, 2011
In the video, Flint Farmer was lying on the grass between the curb and the sidewalk. It was shortly before 2 a.m. on a June morning in the West Englewood neighborhood, and Farmer had been shot by a Chicago police officer. Then, according to the video, the veteran officer, Gildardo Sierra, stepped onto the parkway and walked a semicircle about the prone Farmer as three bright flashes went off.
The flashes, captured by a police car video camera, were fatal shots fired into Farmer's back, officials say.
That shooting was the third by the officer since January — and the second fatality in those six months, records show.
Sierra fired 16 shots at Farmer, hitting him seven times, autopsy reports show. A Cook County deputy medical examiner, after performing an autopsy and later reviewing the video, said the three shots in the back were the fatal wounds.
Sierra told investigators he feared for his life because he believed Farmer had a gun.
In fact, Farmer was only holding a cellphone.
Despite the video, the Police Department ruled Farmer's June 7 death justified, just as it had Sierra's other two shootings this year. But police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said he considers the Farmer case "a big problem" and told the Tribune that the officer involved should not have been on the street given his history of shootings.
The shooting is under investigation by the FBI, the Tribune has learned.
Together, the three shootings raise questions about the department's efforts to detect and track officers involved in multiple shootings, even over a short period of time. The shootings also renew long-standing concerns about the department's ability to investigate itself and reinforce the need for independent inquiries.
Indeed, the shootings are under investigation by the Independent Police Review Authority, the city agency that independently investigates shootings by police
A 2007 Tribune investigation of a decade's worth of shootings by Chicago police found that the department often cleared officers of wrongdoing after only cursory investigations, even when the officers shot people in the back or from behind. The newspaper's investigation found that officials repeatedly failed to interview key witnesses and consider important forensic evidence in a rush to exonerate officers.
McCarthy told the Tribune the previous administration failed to recognize a pattern in police shootings and had no mechanism to track if officers were repeatedly involved in shootings. He also said the department did not have a system in place to monitor the emotional and psychological state of officers involved in shootings, suggesting they could be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and should be kept off the streets until they are better.
Rest of story at link...