The family of a pregnant woman who was shot and killed by police in Colorado have filed a lawsuit against the police officers who were on the scene.
Destinee Thompson was supposed to be on her way to lunch with her stepmother in August 2021 when Colorado police, mistaking her for a robbery suspect, fatally shot the pregnant mother as she fled in her minivan.
And it's so easy to get around that too. Just say "the
Police killed a woman..." That is an absolute fact. Not saying murder which is a crime that they haven't yet been found guilty of.
Snelling added that the agency later discovered Thompson had warrants out for her arrest and the autopsy found illicit drugs in her system.
Man, I hate it when the cops bring up this irrelevant bullshit. All they’re trying to do is make the victim look less sympathetic, and make themselves look less bad in comparison. Even if the officers had known about the warrants and drugs, these facts don’t make it okay to gun a woman down.
Remember when a cop broke into Botham Jean's apartment and shot him in the face while he was sitting on his own couch eating ice cream? Remember when afterward they had a press conference to show off the <1 gram of marijuana they found just in case that made him a bad person who deserved to die.
We heard about that first when it happened, and nothing at all was done when it was just some old lady hurt. (edit: Even with bodycam) THEN the laughing video came out a few days later and THEN the public outcry ramped up enough they had no choice. Only then was there any action against those officers.
Frustrated by the district attorney’s decision last year not to charge the officers, Thompson’s family filed a wrongful death and excessive force lawsuit on Tuesday against five officers from the Denver suburb of Arvada who were present when she was killed.
I don't like "the shoot first, ask questions later" mentality. I always thought a cop should be a white knight. They need to be ready to throw down their lives to save someone. A us vs them mentality, the fact the police are people and some have families and their own wants and needs will mess with anyone's line of thinking. Police have to be ready to risk opening the door to confirm a dangerous suspect before they use force to try and save themselves.
the fact the police are people and some have families and their own wants and needs will mess with anyone’s line of thinking.
Almost like they should be carefully evaluated and trained to make sure they can properly handle tense situations.
Police have to be ready to risk opening the door to confirm a dangerous suspect before they use force to try and save themselves.
Not if they are protected by every level of the system from any possible consequences. So much easier to just assume all citizens are a potential enemy and go in gun's blazing. Just to be safe (for themselves).
fact the police are people and some have families and their own wants and needs will mess with anyone’s line of thinking.
As human beings with families and wants and needs they should have the empathy to realize their escalations are going to end or permanently change the state of someone else's life. They are the trained professionals.
The person they are trying to talk to could be stupid, deaf, high, mentally challenged, terrified, in the midst of a panic attack or breakdown from other causes, or any of a million other things that will cause them to not comply as expected.
Once she was in the car, block her in, call for backup. While you wait for them do one of the tens of other possible choices I'm not taking the time to list right now to immobilize the vehicle without smashing a window and putting a potentially innocent person deeper into their very human, very biological fight or flight response.
Thompson, sitting in her minivan and surrounded by five officers, locked the doors and refused to get out, repeating, “It wasn’t me,” the district attorney wrote in the 2022 letter explaining their decision not to charge the officers.
One officer smashed the passenger window with a baton, and Thompson backed the car up, hitting a police vehicle parked behind her. She then drove forward over the curb and onto the road.
One officer began shooting, according to the district attorney’s letter, because he believed another officer was struck by the car or being dragged under it, and eventually shot and killed Thompson. Her unborn child also died.
When the suspect responds as all humans do to being terrified or attacked:
Ramp up the use of force, and if you don't kill them you at least get to add resisting arrest or assaulting an officer.
No worries if you've destroyed someone's life, permanently decreased their overall health, or killed them. The taxpayers will pay the inevitable settlement, and there's almost no chance of criminal charges.