Apparantly there’s a small difference between police procedures in LA and those in Sand Lake, MI. For example, when a minor takes a car for a joyride in Sand Lake, the police will follow him to make sure nothing goes wrong. In LA, however, the police will simply gun him down.
Can you believe tha LAPD has such a bad rep?
About the only thing I can imagine that could possibly try to justify this is, he struck a police cruiser with the stolen car. I think at that point police procedure changes a bit (although I definitely doesn’t become “shoot to kill.”)
Of course that all hinges on them not identifying the kid as a 13 year old, which is something that, really, they should be able to do. I imagine if it were an adult in that situation, it would be see as an act of hostility against the police. As a 13 year old, probably not so much. I guess a lot of it’ll come down to whether or not they knew his age at the time… which, like I said, is something they should have been informed of, or been able to ascertain themselves.
… and yea, what I said above doesn’t take into account the string of other incidents plaguing the LAPD’s reputation.
More on this…
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/10/teen.shot.ap/index.html
My favorite part? Half of the 10 rounds fired by Garcia struck his own patrol car, according to Bratton. Way to go, Sparky.
And, on a previous thought…
Bratton said a revised policy strictly limiting when officers may fire at moving vehicles would be presented to the civilian oversight panel Friday and taken up Tuesday.
This better be good.