Killing by Police in New Mexico

[Silvanus]

New Mexico Community Protests After SWAT Standoff Ends In Black Teen's Death

A fire broke out in the home during the standoff in Albuquerque.

www.huffpost.com

Police were tracking a man suspected of armed theft of a vehicle and parole violation. He holed himself up in a house (not his own residence), along with a 15 year old boy, Brett Rosenau. Police were unable to establish communication, but have since indicated that they knew someone else was in the house at the time.

They fired off a number of tear gas cannisters and chemical powder cannisters into the house, sparking a fire. The suspect left with burns and was arrested. Rosenau was found dead of smoke inhalation.

The house also homed several other people who were not present at the time, and have now lost their home. It's currently uninhabitable.

So, I suppose the topic of conversation would be... what the absolute fucking hell were they thinking? Is the institution beyond repair, and is the standard of behaviour significantly worse or better in some states than others? And at what point does it become actually morally dubious to report crime to the police, since that risks leading to the perpetuation of a worse crime at the hands of the police themselves?

 

[Xprimentyl]

New Mexico Community Protests After SWAT Standoff Ends In Black Teen's Death

A fire broke out in the home during the standoff in Albuquerque.

www.huffpost.com

Police were tracking a man suspected of armed theft of a vehicle and parole violation. He holed himself up in a house (not his own residence), along with a 15 year old boy, Brett Rosenau. Police were unable to establish communication, but have since indicated that they knew someone else was in the house at the time.

They fired off a number of tear gas cannisters and chemical powder cannisters into the house, sparking a fire. The suspect left with burns and was arrested. Rosenau was found dead of smoke inhalation.

The house also homed several other people who were not present at the time, and have now lost their home. It's currently uninhabitable.

So, I suppose the topic of conversation would be... what the absolute fucking hell were they thinking? Is the institution beyond repair, and is the standard of behaviour significantly worse or better in some states than others? And at what point does it become actually morally dubious to report crime to the police, since that risks leading to the perpetuation of a worse crime at the hands of the police themselves?

I'm curious at what point, when they had the suspect cornered and ostensibly surrounded, was it necessary to escalate the situation with tear gas and chemical powders, especially given they knew innocents were in the house. I wasn't there, obviously, but that seems a bit extreme given it was a car robber and parole violator in New Mexico, and not a the head of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

 

[Piscian]

The weirdest part is the justification. Supposedly the kid was likely an accomplice so the kids life wasn't in danger. I'm not understanding what the need was for the scorched earth. Worse they didn't even go in. So assuming the guy had a mask or something, throwing that crap in wouldn't have chased him out. According to the resident they also removed doors and windows which is like "what?".

All that said, now that I've learned SWAT in the US is basically just a sort of unregulated paramilitary service, it kind of makes sense.

Growing up movies all taught me that Swat was like an elite police force held to some special standards and rules. I'm only recently finding out, depending on where you live it's all arbitrary and they can just be regular cops with bigger guns. I looked it up and everywhere I've looked it basically just says it's up to the police leadership if you have "proper training" and "good moral character". This is the application site - https://www.joinnmsp.com/nmsp-how-to-apply/

It looks like you gotta basically just be 21, no felonies and do a police training course. Not trying to puff up my chest but oddly I make more than twice as much a swat officer. I think thats part of the problem, you have to be a really good Samaritan to put your life on the line for what they make. Then again "Stipe Miocic" is a full time volunteer fire fighter where I live, so maybe they don't have that much of an excuse.

 

[meiam]

I think what happen is that there's 2 type of people who want to become cop: 1) people who want to serve and protect their community, 2) People who want a gun and do "cool" stuff like they see on TV/movie.

With all the recent news about just bad some cop behave, people who would fit in category 1 are less and less inclined to join the police. So to keep hiring enough new office, department are forced to hire more and more of #2. The problem is most of a cop job is boring stuff like ticket and domestic situation that they're untrained for and probably don't want to do. So whenever a situation even remotely "interesting" happen all the cop will rush in and escalate the situation because they just want their chance to play action hero man and use their training.

 

[Piscian]

I think what happen is that there's 2 type of people who want to become cop: 1) people who want to serve and protect their community, 2) People who want a gun and do "cool" stuff like they see on TV/movie.

With all the recent news about just bad some cop behave, people who would fit in category 1 are less and less inclined to join the police. So to keep hiring enough new office, department are forced to hire more and more of #2. The problem is most of a cop job is boring stuff like ticket and domestic situation that they're untrained for and probably don't want to do. So whenever a situation even remotely "interesting" happen all the cop will rush in and escalate the situation because they just want their chance to play action hero man and use their training.

In my home town of Louisville Ky, there's a running joke that whenever you get pulled over theres a 99% chance the cop is a bully you knew from highschool who washed out of the army/marines.

On a side note, in Louisville, from the 1st-21st you can go exactly 14mph over the limit no matter where you are. From the 22nd to the 31st it switches to 4mph over because the cops have to meet their traffic violation quotas for the month.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

In my home town of Louisville Ky, there's a running joke that whenever you get pulled over theres a 99% chance the cop is a bully you knew from highschool who washed out of the army/marines.

This is part of the problem- the police force has become a great place for the gung-ho type who wants to be the hero in a Hollywood action movie but can't quite handle when his adversaries get to shoot back. Add in military-grade weapons, an "us vs. them" attitude and far looser rules of engagement than the actual military operates with, and you get things like this, or the Wichita swatting shooting.