Imagine killing three people over a $2 subway fare and parading around the city like you’re anything other than a domestic terror force
NYPD brass said the alleged fare-beater had charged at the officers with a knife and made verbal threats against their lives; he was last said to be in critical condition, along with one of the bystanders
Yeah, that may have been how it started.
Body-worn camera footage, which Maddrey said he reviewed before the press conference, allegedly showed the man make a verbal threat to the officers. He told the cops, “I’m going to kill you if you don’t stop following me,” the chief said.
Definitely sounds like the police at fault, and the guy wasn’t a walking time bomb or anything.
I get that the situation with the police in the US is cooked, but saying this was over a $2 fare isn’t really being honest about the situation.
I mean, for discharging your firearm in an enclosed space with tons of people around? Yeah, I definitely would consider the police at fault. Should the guy with the knife have been persued once it was revealed he was armed? Sure, I can accept that. But what I do not accept is that the police seem to, despite the absurd modern toolkit at their disposal, only have two tools they actually use: their taser and their gun.
Why is it that seemingly anywhere else a knife-wielding assailant can be subdued without blood being drawn, but here it results in several people suffering life threatening injuries and one dead?
I think the argument being made here is that what you have described is egregious enough and also a fair take on what is alleged to have happened.
Unlike saying “a guy jumped a turnstile and police opened fire for $2” which now looks like a ragebait equivocation.
It’s much cheaper (and better for psychological conditioning to the Policed States of America) to just hire the cheapest community college dropouts with a pant size bigger than their IQ than it is to attract, train, and maintain a respectable (read: “for the community”) police force. If the US adopted similar requirements for their police as a country like Germany, I’d imagine we’d lose well over half of our force instantly, with most of the rest quitting soon after being asked to not shoot people at the first sign of noncompliance.
seemingly anywhere else a knife-wielding assailant can be subdued without blood being drawn,
Where has this actually happened though? I very much doubt it’s standard practice for any police force.
“OH shit, Bobby shot some bystanders. We better say there was a reason we were shooting other than he was running away.”
“He had a knife! That’s the ticket!”
No knife found. Just typical police bullshit.
There’s body camera footage, and multiple eyewitnesses, do you really think they’re going to make up a knife?
"alleged fare-beater had charged at the officers with a knife and made verbal threats against their lives; "
The fare jumper sociopath escalated to violence and threats with a deadly weapon. That’s the person responsible here.
I’m sure you would use your Jedi mind tricks in this circumstance.
Read up on how knife attacks go down in close quarters. Theres a reason British police frequently wear knife vests.
what was the crime committed by the bystanders who got shot by the police?
The violence wouldn’t have been escalated if
- The cops didn’t chase them down for a measly fare
- The cops weren’t absolute monsters that shoot first and ask questions never
Simple cause and effect, coupled with pre-existing fear of cops because of the multitude of times they’ve shot a person dead over nothing, or kneeled on their neck until they were dead over cigarettes.
Maddrey said the officers followed the man, each firing a Taser which proved ineffective in subduing the man. He then exited the train while it was still at the station and charged the officers with the knife, the chief said.
What, it’s not a good idea to do that now?
Yes, firing a gun in a crowded subway station is absolutely in the wrong, as we can see by the three innocent people shot, one in the head. There are police forces across the world trained to deal with assailants with deadly weapons including knives without shooting them. It’s reasonable to expect the NYPD to have the same level of training and judgement.
They tried to Taser the guy twice.
Just out of interest, what would you have done differently?
No, there aren’t “police forces across the world trained to deal with people with deadly weapons”. They are trained to save themselves first and foremost. Same as firemen aren’t trained to run into a burning building heroically grabbing the puppy / family member and carrying them out. Paramedics too. This is the reality - nobody is required to give their lives up / risk their lives to save someone else’s.
They weren’t necessarily in the right either. They wounded a couple of bystanders in the process.
According to the comments, the solution here is for the police to get in a wrestling match with the man running at them with a knife.
Very reasonable thing to expect.
He is some reading material on why people hate the NYPD so much. We don’t want wrestling matches but shooting someone in the head for $2 is just plan bad. Don’t worry there are a lot more examples if you like.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Amadou_Diallo
https://apnews.com/article/subway-shooting-stray-bullet-nypd-6dceddf47afc27db128ebba98f2076b5
If train stations stocked japanese man-catcher poles (sasumata) they could easily subdue a knife wielding suspect with zero risk to themselves and bystanders. No one is saying go toe to toe with a knife wielding person.
Ya, zero risk to everything once you get 7 or 8 police wielding them at the same time, per one violent person, in a crowded subway with potentially no walls to pin them down to, with the extreme possibility of someone just pulling a gun on you when you have both your hands occupied with a stick. Mancatchers work great on gifs and videos, but suck in the actual world. Especially when you get charged by a dude wielding a knife. You’ll 100% have the time to “break the glass in an emergency” and to deal with said person. Especially when the situation turns from “let’s run after this guy that skipped the fare” into “holy shit that’s a knife and I’m going to die”.
Literally every other police force in the world could handle some untrained bloke with a pocket knife, ditto for a pair. They do it every day.
But no, the solution here is to never have a system in place where the people catching fare jumpers are the same mentally unstable domestic abusers who are given a carte blanche to kill anyone who does anything less than kiss the ground they walk on
Sometimes the police from the USA go to Europe to learn how to handle these situations without murder. And European police sometimes go to the USA to learn how to handle gun situations.
This would not have happened anywhere outside of the USA, not even in dangerous countries. Just my 2c
I’m from New Zealand, our police shoot people with knives occasionally. I’m not convinced this would have ended differently here, or any other country.
A knife is an incredibly dangerous weapon, and the alternative solutions being proposed here just aren’t realistic.
The man catcher poles thing was pretty funny though.
Mhm, I think they must be 100% sure somebody is in actual danger though? They can’t just try and shoot somebody who has an alleged knife right?
Cops are such fucking cowards. ACAB
