You can read the report. The dashcam video from the police car is on the link as well.
If I had watched the video with no commentary or knowledge about what was going, I think I would have come to the conclusion that the police were after the victim, Reid, and fully intended to kill him no matter what he did. I'm not saying that was the case, but one could get that impression.
Reid was convicted felon. He had shot at some NJ state troopers when he was a teenager and subsequently served thirteen years in prison. Reid had not cleaned up his life. The officer who confronted Reid, Braheme Days, knew who Reid was:
Days was among the arresting officers last year when Reid was charged with several crimes, including drug possession and obstruction.One obvious question is how Days knew immediately that there was a gun in the glove compartment. Knowing that evidence can be planted, and is sometimes planted, it is conceivable that Reid was set up.
I was joking about New Jersey yesterday, but it is known to be a corrupt state. The governor before KrispyKreme was Jon Corzine. Corzine became CEO of MF Global, a brokerage for derivatives and commodities, which collapsed in 2011. MF Global violated its fiduciary trust by mixing company and client funds. Clients lost at least $700 million, as I recall, but Corzine suffered no consequences and is still a wealthy man.
We would not be surprised that the police in Mexico knocked someone off at the behest of a drug cartel. Frankly, I would not be surprised if it happened in New Jersey. The whole thing looks rotten to me.
Could a "bad" police shooting be a good cover for a hit?
I wonder why Reid decided to get out of the car when he was told, repeatedly not to move.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying that justifies shooting him but considering how jittery the cops were about finding the gun (assuming it wasn't planted), that's an extremely bad time not to follow their instructions.
If these cops were corrupt I hope they get the book thrown at them. If they simply made abad judgement call based on knowing about the felon's gun (and possibly more guns thry didn't know about) and him not doing as they told, I don't know.
As for knowing about the gun in the glove compartment, either it was planted or perhaps it was open or perhaps they were told by a source there was a gun there. If there's an honest investigation it shouldn't be too difficult to find the answers.
In any event I hope justice is served.
Everybody says the same thing, "My local cops are all right." It's like my Congressman isn't too bad. I would give my local officers the benefit of the doubt, and I'm with you: investigate and get to the truth.
ReplyDeleteThese guys go out and do a tough job in some of these neighborhoods. I still wish they were more like "Adam-12", a little more restrained.
I agree. I think the training in a lot of places needs to be revised to concentrate more on community policing. I also think it's a mistake to train officers to be paranoid. mark Steyn has written about this on the past and I concur with him.
ReplyDeleteOf course, there are some really bad neighborhoods where it's extremely dangerous to do any effective community policing, but in those cases they need a tough DA and good Sherriff's and Chiefs to crack down hard on the gangs and bad areas, much like Rudy did in NY, or what Sherriff's Apaio has done.
Then, when they cleAn up an area they need to hold it and have beat cops saturate the area, constantly communicating with the folks that live there and establishing trust.
One thing I wish they would fix, irt sending SWAT to wrong addresses is to have those addresses triple checked (or more) with surveillance evidence to ensure they don't end up breaking into the wrong house.
That SWATing thing is really scary. There has to be a balance between having No-Go Zones the cops avoid and considering the citizens to be enemy combatants.
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