New York police have defended their actions after a bystander was shot in the head as two officers tackled a fare-evader armed with a knife in a busy subway station.

The man was in critical condition after the shooting at Sutter Avenue L station in Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon. Three others, including the suspect, were wounded.

  • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Wait so did they find the knife? I was reading reports they couldn’t even find a knife.

    Edit: yup, no knife

    The police said on Sunday that a knife had been recovered and posted a picture on social media. The next day, however, it posted another message saying the knife had been taken from the crime scene by an unidentified man

    I will point out that the story has a body cam screenshot showing the knife, presumably in the suspect’s hand.

    • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      The reporter actively chose to give the police a pass by using passive voice here. “Bystander shot in the head” sounds like something that just happened or was unavoidable when we’re really dealing with “Police shoot innocent bystander in the head while subduing fare evader.” I mean, fuck, how hard is it to have basic police accountability?

      • kautau@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Hey, it’s their fault for being in the path of that bullet traveling at 1200 feet per second. They had 0.0133 seconds to move out of the way. They made the decision to keep standing in a dangerous spot

        (/s in case that wasn’t clear)

    • LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I think “Police shot innocent bystander in the head by accident” accurately captures the situation. The police were the ones who did it, but they didn’t do it on purpose.

  • doubtingtammy@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    The passive (or exonerative) voice in that article is infuriating. Police tackle the suspect, but the bystander was just “shot in the head”. By whom? Hard to say when you’re licking boots.

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      “executed by state personel without trial or due process” is more accurate. We should just call police “government agents” .

  • BigBenis@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    At this point I feel more threatened by cops than I do by whatever they’re supposed to be “protecting us” from.

  • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    A corrupt-mayor-hiding-body-cam-video-evidence says what?

    Also: “New York authorities have made reducing crime on the subway and buses a top priority following a series of violent attacks, robberies and murders. A crackdown on fare evasion is part of that push.”

    One of these things is not like the others.

  • iAvicenna@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    They also shot each other. Previously I would have been like maybe they should be better at conflict de-escalation and equipped with more efficient non lethal weapons (apparently multiple shots from their tasers did not work). Now I am down to more basic training, like maybe they should get better gun range training accounting for close quarters situations with bystanders?

    • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      Shooting bystanders is particularly an NYPD issue. To stop so many negligent discharges they mandated an 11lb trigger pull weight, this is about double the pull weight of normal pistols. This makes if significantly harder to shoot accurately without intense training that cops also don’t get.

    • LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I watch a lot of high speed police chase videos, kind of a guilty pleasure of mine. It’s fascinating stuff. One thing I’ve noticed is that while the State Troopers seem to have a higher level of training, when approaching a vehicle local PD will often just run up on all sides with guns out. So, you hear a lot of “watch the crossfire!” from the troopers. On the side of the road bystanders are rarely a hazard, but the same lack of positioning would surely be a hazard to bystanders in different circumstances. So yes i definitely I agree that police officers need more situational awareness training before they can use lethal force- especially in somewhere as packed as a subway station.