A Chicago Police officer responding to a ShotSpotter alert fired shots at a child who was playing with fireworks—that’s the conclusion from the Civilian Office of Police Accountability in a statement released today.
“COPA can confirm that a firearm was not used against the officers,” said COPA First Deputy Chief Administrator, Ephraim Eaddy.
CPD initially identified the child as a man, claiming he had opened fire first.
They also reported seeing “flashes of light.”
“When officers arrived in the area, they observed an individual, who has now been identified as a juvenile, standing near a residence. As one officer exited the vehicle, they heard a loud bang, which was later determined to be fireworks. The officer who exited the vehicle discharged their firearm in the direction of the juvenile, who was not struck by gunfire,” investigators state in the press release about the incident.
Body-worn camera footage from the three officers responding to the ShotSpotter alert appears to show one officer immediately fire his gun after hearing a loud bang.
He then yells, “Shots fired! Shots fired!” as another officer radios in a “10-1,” indicating officers are in need of urgent assistance.
Yeah, cops really should be held to similar expectations as civilians. The main thing holding us back from getting rid of bad cops is qualified immunity.
They really should be putting cops through some realistic scenarios in the academy, like fireworks, nuts falling on cars, and backfiring cars. A good cop should be able to tell when there's an actual emergency vs a loud noise. It's absolutely ridiculous.
Good on you for being a responsible gun owner. We need more like that in our police force, and we need to prevent the trigger-happy nutjobs from getting anywhere near police work.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/15/us/politics/qualified-immunity-supreme-court.html
Qualified Immunity is illegal according to section 1983 of US Federal Code, as was passed by Congress, and written into The Congressional Record
Awesome!
Well, kudos to Trump for picking a good (at least in this case) judge, and Judge Willett for caring enough to dig into the law.
I'll need to look more into this, but hopefully this gets set in precedent so those who have wrongly been harmed can seek redress.
I'm surprised this has taken so long, I wonder what other omissions could exist...
~~That has nothing to do with Trump's cases, it's a separate case~~
The main thing holding us back from getting rid of bad cops is refusing to recognize that the institutions of law enforcement in the US are rotten to their core and we’re designed explicitly in the wake of civil rights and labor movements to enforce socio-economic and racial disparities through violence.
Which isn’t to say that you aren’t making a great point about how qualified immunity is a really important part of the problem though.
Yeah, eliminating qualified immunity won't fix the problem on its own, but it at least gives victims a better shot at holding police responsible and thus weeding out a lot of the bad actors.
I would also like to see a significant portion of police be unarmed, with an increase in salary (and expectations) for those who are armed. That might get that mentality shift needed.