Is This Type Of Killing Justified In A First World Country?

seamonster · Oct 6, 2012

Respectable Members

Definitely stealing is not right and taking illicit drug is wrong. However just for stealing a packet of peanuts, a life is lost. This is terribly insane and unjustified for it to happen in a first world country.

Is the police use of their Tasers justified, since none in the pack whose life was in danger, while going after a solitary Brazilian boy who was running away from the pack?

While CCTV footage is good, perhaps it can also be edited to show whatever one wants to show. However in this case, since the deceased is legal represented and the news has managed to get world-wide coverage, there is no chance of the footage being edited. (When talking about footage being edited, it comes from my first-hand experience and not hear-say. I was shown an edited footage over another matter some while ago, initially. However, during the next visit, accompanied by a solicitor, the full footage was screened. Only then I realized, our guardians are human beings and not saints.)

In my personal opinion, going out after dark in Sydney is never safe, relative to where I come from. In Sydney, one's life can be prematurely terminated by the good, the bad and the ugly.

Any comment regarding this rather uncalled for incident:
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/did-police-fire-tasers-17-times-before-this-man-died-20121006-275xz.html

Thank-you.

ulackfocus · Oct 6, 2012

If he was on drugs AND alcohol and acting erratically, the police would need to use extra force to control him. While he didn't deserve to die he should have never taken LSD and drank too then went out and shoplifted. If you put yourself in a position to be harmed don't be surprised when you get harmed. Did the police use excessive force? If he wasn't under control with one taser shot and one blast of pepper spray (which any clean & sober human would be) how can anyone say when enough is enough?

X350 XJR · Oct 6, 2012

Sadly there are plenty of incidents like this here in the US.

This is a terrible case which happened here in a Los Angeles suburb in 2011. Several of the officers involved have been charged with murder in his death.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...n-police-brutally-beat-homeless-man-to-death/

LouS · Oct 7, 2012

It is easy to second-guess decision-making in the calm of the next day. It is also easy to present the facts in a sensationalized, slanted way in the press - in fact, the press is incentivized to do it - it sells papers. My opinion is colored by personal experience, and although the death is certainly a tragedy, my sympathies are firmly with the officers here.

seamonster · Oct 10, 2012

U ulackfocus
If he was on drugs AND alcohol and acting erratically, the police would need to use extra force to control him. While he didn't deserve to die he should have never taken LSD and drank too then went out and shoplifted. If you put yourself in a position to be harmed don't be surprised when you get harmed. Did the police use excessive force? If he wasn't under control with one taser shot and one blast of pepper spray (which any clean & sober human would be) how can anyone say when enough is enough?

Respectable Member ulackfocus

Thanks for the response and it is appreciated.

This case is indeed going to be interesting, since usually an issue of this nature would be swept under the carpet. However, in this instance the victim's family can afford to engage a competent lawyer who will cross-examine the gentlemen in blue. Perhaps, we shall soon discover a majority of the officers involved in the killing tend to suffer a 'memory loss', each time a CCTV footage is produced.

Thank-you.