tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22657443.post1112303188072349256..comments2023-12-31T03:18:37.403-06:00Comments on "E pur si muove!": The BART Shooting TrialLester Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14746157071827337723noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22657443.post-44421097831998093972010-07-10T15:25:43.124-05:002010-07-10T15:25:43.124-05:00Thanks for your excellent comment. I'm glad t...Thanks for your excellent comment. I'm glad to hear that there is, or recently was, a dept. that did not use tasers at all. It sounds, though, like you have retired from service in that department. I wonder if they have started using them since.Lester Hunthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14746157071827337723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22657443.post-14831844917748305062010-07-07T12:41:42.009-05:002010-07-07T12:41:42.009-05:00I have worked as a police officer in the Bay Area....I have worked as a police officer in the Bay Area. This appears to be the kind of thing the crime of manslaughter was invented for; no different than if he were operating a motor vehicle negligently and killed someone as a result. A sheriff's deputy somewhere in the South Bay was recently convicted for just that, in an on-duty incident.<br /><br />I will say, based on my personal experience, there is no conceivable way he meant to shoot that guy. It was an awful mistake. That would make it manslaughter.<br /><br />My department never used tasers, I cannot address that aspect of it. I am willing to bet, though, that they practiced with their guns many, many times more often than the taser; thus, regardless of holster placement, the gun is more comfortable and familiar in the hand. Perils of muscle memory.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22657443.post-74547527484329697272010-07-05T08:11:27.762-05:002010-07-05T08:11:27.762-05:00They say that in most departments, for safety reas...They say that in most departments, for safety reasons, the taser is kept on the opposite side from the gun, and pointed in the opposite direction. That's one of the arguments that people have been given why this could not have been a mistake.<br /><br />My own view is that, as unlikely as such a mistake is in any given case, in this case the alternative of intentional homicide is even less likely. (The odds are against almost everything that ever actually happens.) <br /><br />I think this is a particularly egregious case of negligent homicide. In all likelihood he should do time for it.<br /><br />But of course the jury by now knows a lot more about it than I do.Lester Hunthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14746157071827337723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22657443.post-87544053718600456042010-07-05T00:46:35.018-05:002010-07-05T00:46:35.018-05:00Incredibly sad. I wondered if the there was a reg...Incredibly sad. I wondered if the there was a regulation of where the taser could be kept on their uniform. Further, if the gun had a holster that required any step before drawing the weapon. The victim appeared to be co-operating and it clearly was manslaughter, if not murder.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com