Deputy Bates will do no prison time... reduced charge, community service, retired from duty, but will not be convicted of 2nd degree manslaughter. Unlike you and me, police get a pass on fatal mistakes.
Proof positive that the "Mehserle Defense"
works.
This is an excerpt of a story about the Oscar Grant killing by Johannes Mehserle on 1/1/09, but it applies equally as well to Bates getting away with, at best, 2nd degree manslaughter:
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Taser X26, police issue
Glock 36
Why is the Taser excuse absurd?
1. The manual states that the Taser X26 weighs 7 ounces. Depending on model and bullets loaded, a Glock pistol can weigh from 25-38 ounces. You don’t have to be a weapons expert to feel the difference between holding about two pounds and holding less than half a pound – try it.
2. Police pistols are all black, sometimes with a very dark brown grip. The X26 has bright yellow markings on it. It also has a 2-digit LED display.
3. The X26 has a safety on the grip that must be released. The Glock safety is on the trigger.
So let’s review the minimum steps of a Taser deployment:
1. You pull out the lightweight, brightly colored weapon. You load the cartridge onto the tip of the barrel. The cartridge is fat and rectangular, looking nothing like a pistol barrel.
2. You reach on the grip and flip the safety up. The LED display lights up like half of your digital alarm clock, then shows the percentage charge.
3. Police are taught NEVER to use Tasers in life-threatening situations (ensuring that the “Tasers save lives” mantra remains a fairy tale). So, since that eliminates the “split-second judgment” defense, every Taser policy I’ve seen requires a warning before firing, to give the victim the opportunity to comply. Police like to report that merely pointing the Taser and issuing the warning is often sufficient.
To accept that the killer went through these steps without realizing he actually had in his hands a heavy, dark pistol – with no LED display and no cartridge loaded or to be loaded – requires the kind of suspension of belief we’ve not been asked to make since “Plan 9 from Outer Space” hit the screens.
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At least Mehserle was convicted of something, though he was only sentenced to the minimum (2 years), and only served less than one.
I think Bates got some sympathy-points from the local authorities for being a geezer, which is ridiculous, because it was the local authorities who allowed a geezer to pretend to be a cop in the first place.
Oh well. It was just another hood-rat resisting arrest who died at the hands of the state. What's all the hubbub about anyway? [/sarcasm]
Blues
