Memphis police officer shot, killed during traffic stop
Source: Memphis Commercial Appeal
For the third time in barely more than four years, a Memphis police officer has been shot and killed in the line of duty.
Sean Bolton died from multiple gunshot wounds after he was shot just after 9:15 p.m. while conducting a traffic stop at Cottonwood and Perkins in Parkway Village Saturday night.
Bolton was rushed to the Regional Medical Center, but was pronounced dead there. The suspect, apparently an occupant of the car that was pulled over, was still at large late Saturday.
Read more: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/local-news/crime/memphis-police-officer-shot-during-traffic-stop
Is wrong with people ? Stop this Damn killing already.
7962
(11,841 posts)Says a lot about our membership
FarPoint
(12,179 posts)The acts of Law Enforcement of late have become militant as if the community was a combat zone...Only they can change the outlook . So, there ya go.
So some cops are bad cops so it's OK to just kill any cop .. there ya go
FarPoint
(12,179 posts)As a group, LEO needs to return to serving the public and leave combat to a War Zone....I never said anything about the death of an Officer.....If you wish to ask me that question...please feel free to do so. Your snide comment was ignorant and assuming.
So, there ya go.
brewens
(13,349 posts)I didn't read the story at the link so don't know if the occupants of the car were black or the officer was white.
As a white guy in my area, even with some priors and possibly in posession of something illegal that could be big trouble. At an actual routine traffic stop, I could be fairly confidant that the cop would just take a look at me and that would be all. The traffic stop wouldn't be an opportunity to investigate anything. As long as the driver wasn't wanted or smelled like alcohol, it would just be a ticket and we'd know we were just driving on in a couple of minutes.
I could be in a three strikes position, armed with a pound of weed on me, vowed to die before I went back to prison again, and I'd still know it was best to be cool. In a lot of places, a guy in that position would know, especially if he was black and the officer was white, he was going to be checked out carefully and probably searched. I think it's fair to say that the way the cops opperate in some places pre-escalates such encounters.
DustyJoe
(849 posts)The only answer to that last sentence is the Baltimore option to not stop anybody or investigate anyone and let the criminals sort themselves out.
I guess the no police on the street and go back to the old wild west style of law enforcement is inevitable, things seem to be heading that way.
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)says what about our membership? I think it's that they sleep late on Sunday.
7962
(11,841 posts)I doubt the number of posts will increase by too much. Its 1100am now. What it says about our membership? I think its "selected outrage". Had an OP the other day about an unarmed teenager shot in the back & killed by a cop. 2 days ago. Got THREE responses. Does that sound normal to you? Oh, the kid was white.
irisblue
(32,794 posts)7962
(11,841 posts)secondwind
(16,903 posts)7962
(11,841 posts)Fla Dem
(23,239 posts)Fire fighting is also dangerous, as is construction and many other occupations. Where is the thread for the firefighter who was killed while fighting the fire in northern California this week?
Firefighter dies in wind-fueled Northern California wildfire
http://news.yahoo.com/firefighter-died-being-trapped-wind-fueled-blaze-182729992.html
If your concern is that there is not as much outrage when a police officer is killed, as when a police officer without cause kills an unarmed citizen, then your concern is misplaced. The shooter will be found, and either killed in a shootout or brought to justice with the full weight of the law coming down on him. This cannot always be said for police killings of innocent citizens.
All sudden deaths are tragic. I feel sympathy for the officer's family. friends and co-workers.
And yes, it IS a lot harder to get a bad cop punished. Although it seems as though that may slowly be changing, hopefully.
But I dont think my concern is totally out of place. I see it often here; the selective outrage depends on who gets killed or how they got killed. See my post above; an unarmed white kid gets shot in the back by a cop and gets THREE posts. If that kid were black it would've gotten 200. ALL "crimes by cop" need to get massive exposure otherwise they'll keep getting away with it.
The firefighter wasnt MURDERED either. By the way, that story did get a thread here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141164164
graegoyle
(532 posts)A search and some reading that you can do for yourself:
http://www.google.com/search?q=record+of+cops+killed+by+civilians&oq=record+of+cops+killed+by+civilians&gs_l=mobile-heirloom-serp.3...0.0.1.81497.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1c..34.mobile-heirloom-serp..17.22.2626.ndXzXXtq1Wo
You could read some of that. You might find it enlightening.
Or not.
You could also step back and reflect on the black civil rights struggle and how blacks AND WHITES and others were systematically targeted by WHITE police and other agents; attacked to enforce laws intended to segregate whites from the other races through MURDER.
And now people want to point out that whites are being targeted, too. Whites are not being targeted; it's the spillover of a police system that has gotten way out of control.
Dyedinthewoolliberal
(15,463 posts)except that not everyone has checked into DU in the last several hours.
7962
(11,841 posts)Although a lot of it is still bashing the cops. I havent heard of THIS cop having any personnel issues in the past. Not that it would warrant his murder, but a lot of folks are lumping ALL of them into one abusive pile.
I have to admit that I wouldnt lose any sleep if the cop who strangled Eric Garner ended up on the bad side of a beating though.....
Uponthegears
(1,499 posts)let me say that as tragic as the unnatural death of any person may be, there needs to be a discussion about whether police oppression, coupled with justice system acquiesce/facilitation has turned many areas in our nation into war zones where one side is wearing blue and where that side's moral superiority is not at all a settled question. We need to ask whether the lack of justice in case after case of blue on black crime has created a situation where police are in greater danger.
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)7962
(11,841 posts)LoisB
(7,015 posts)about anything.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)What specifically do you think it says? Or are we simply going to cower behind implication?
7962
(11,841 posts)More cop bashing, one even surmising that the occupants of the car were defending themselves. But it WAS a Sunday and I shouldve given it more time because more folks DID post, but like I said, look at what a lot of them had to say.
And then we have the story a few days back of another unarmed kid shot in the back by a cop and killed. Its got THREE posts. Usually those stories get 200. the difference? The kid who was killed was a white kid. The "selective outrage" of many of our members is obvious.
romanic
(2,841 posts)but it's not, another life lost out to some bastard with gun. R.I.P to Officer Bolton.
secondvariety
(1,245 posts)Poor guy was just doing his job...
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)dogknob
(2,431 posts)I will maybe start giving a fuck about what happens to them. Until then, they're just another gang.
philosslayer
(3,076 posts)Did the officer fire first? Was he threatening the occupants of the car? Did they feel their lives were in imminent danger? Lets wait for some facts to come in. Hopefully the interaction was recorded.
Syzygy321
(583 posts)get behind allot of the cop abuse that goes on on this site. Racism is wrong, abuse by cope is terrible, and endemic departmental corruption (places where every cop is racist or every cop breaks the law) must be rooted out somehow.
BUT cops have the job of protecting society from bad guys. That means they face danger. And even something minor like a traffic stop can get the cop killed. Also, a weird-acting or confrontational driver may have a body in his trunk or an outstanding warrant against him/her.
That's why a cop has the right to say, "Put out your cigarette, ma'am, and step out of the car.". And while a citizen has a right to say "why?" he/she shouldn't make any sudden moves that will make the cop fear for his safety. Cops are people too.
7962
(11,841 posts)Hell, #12 too.
KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)you're likely to view the police benevolently. If your life has been shit and you see no future prospect for it to improve, you tend to view those who maintain your status quo with far more disdain. Q.E.D.
Syzygy321
(583 posts)connection between poverty and crime. Also between being nonwhite and being poor. Therefore it follows that nonwhite people stand an above-average chance of living in a high crime neighborhood.
Those are exactly the people who need good cops.
Do you really think neighborhoods would be safer if cops withdrew and stopped, quote, maintaining the status quo?
I imagine cops would be a lot safer if they stopped trying to police neighborhoods where there is a lot of gun crime and drug crime, and just let the local folks accept the status quo. Win-win, right?
KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)'call the cops' because they know full well that the cops will often make a bad situation much, much worse.
This is what happens when you call the cops; You get your rights violated or you might get shot:
https://www.facebook.com/TheAntiMedia/videos/vb.156720204453023/364518957006479/?type=2&theater
I'll believe there are 'good cops' when I see them perp walking the bad cops. Until then, meh, just another gang with guns, this one operating under color of the law.
Syzygy321
(583 posts)would be better off if police stopped entering them.
I am curious how many people on DU share that feeling.
And I am curious how many actual people in actual poor neighborhoods feel as you do.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)I wonder what you know about the segregated community's known as "inner cities", "urban neighborhoods" or any of the code word descriptions of the american "black townships" created by a racist system of government, from local to national. No sympathy really for .......
Syzygy321
(583 posts)then?
I have never lived in the "inner city", just mixed urban areas (college/working class/immigrant mix) and low-crime suburbs. So all I know is what I see on the news.
If you live in a poor urban area, I am very interested in your views and those of your neighbors. Is that the general opinion among poor urban non-criminals - that they wish the police department would just leave them alone?
If that's what residents want, I would think the police departments would be willing to oblige.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)Last edited Sun Aug 2, 2015, 06:21 PM - Edit history (1)
Decent hardworking individuals deserve police protection, no matter their status or race. It's just that when inner city people call the police, IF they show up at all, there is the real danger they will kill an unarmed innocent person for "eyeballing" a white cop. Black cops will show up and take care of business, usually.
I see how you're twisting and turning in your privileged discomfiture at your inability to understand the systemic and institutional racism perpetrated by a political system that created a culture that truly only benefits the 1% and their privileged tools who the 1% use as the buffer between they, the1% and the victimized of this society. I have observed these tools consistently working on here and in society at large to maintain a status quo that will continue to benefit the tool(s) and no one else. If the police departments don't show up, I'm sure that would make YOUR day. It is pretty obvious in your response. And I seriously doubt my views or my neighbors views would count with you or any of the other privileged citizens that visit this board enough to really want to change things.
I have come to the FIRM conclusion that the reason(s) "inner cities" and "black townships" are in existence means nothing to the privileged. Never have, never will unless white privilege is threatened and then those very same 'privileged' will be whining and clamoring to send in the occupation army to quell the "disturbance".
Just like systemic and institutionalized racism, which could have been ended a long time ago and has not, is because not enough 'concerned citizens' have stood up and said let's change this. And if it's just peaceful POC demanding change, they get derided as being too vocal or angry and the privileged try to marginalize them like #BlackLivesMatter. I know the game(s) of the privileged, they haven't changed much since I was immersed in the battle to get my voting and civil rights. Since that small victory, many rights are actively being rescinded. I just observe and the game(s) of the privileged have not changed at all in their struggle to minimize, diminish, distract from the cause of and consequence(s) of racism in order to maintain their privilege.
Here's your corner, I'm be dropping you off, conversation is getting old and boring...have a good one
Syzygy321
(583 posts)At least, if they are black cops.
Okay. That's something.
7962
(11,841 posts)Look at whats happening in Baltimore.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)you're not worth any more comment..except...... do you mean???????????? To POC, cops, white usually, act the farthest from human they can...more like rabid animals.
Syzygy321
(583 posts)I don't see how your comment follows from mine.
niyad
(112,065 posts)I like your kickass feminism. It's nice to hear from you.
But please explain your comment. Pizza?
Ms. Yertle
(466 posts)Niyad's way of saying you are going to be banned before long.
Syzygy321
(583 posts)Well niyad, that's surprisong. And uncivil.
And rereading my post, I don't see anything controversial in it.
We do agree that cops are people, right? All people are people, and may Lord Frith help any Dem who has gotten so lost that she insists otherwise.
Amishman
(5,535 posts)see DeShaney v. Winnebago County, Castle Rock v. Gonzales, and others
Their job is to catch and detain those who break laws, nothing more.
Syzygy321
(583 posts)But isn't that the same thing?
Every time I see a drunk guy leaving a bar in a cab and not his car, every night my ex-boyfriend doesn't show up outside my home anymore shouting threats and pounding on my door, every time my kids get to school and back without anyone trying to sell them drugs, that's due to the existence of police.
But in my city they also appear at the scene of road accidents and public gatherings etc.
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)BadGimp
(4,008 posts)prsyers for the family
Lil Missy
(17,865 posts)We just lost an officer in Omaha a few months ago. She was serving a warrant to a known gang member. He shot and killed her on the spot. She had a premie baby that was due to come home the next day. #KerrieOn
7962
(11,841 posts)secondwind
(16,903 posts)Skittles
(152,918 posts)NoodleyAppendage
(4,619 posts)moondust
(19,896 posts)Evergreen Emerald
(13,069 posts)respond as if they are going to be killed. Because many times, they are.