Colorado cops seek 'qualified immunity' from lawsuit over man who died after being tasered eight times in 90 seconds

3 years ago by Doug Holland to c/thepoliceproblem

Jeffrey Melvin died after two Colorado Springs police officers tased him eight times in 90 seconds while investigating an unrelated complaint.
load all comments
Drusas 27 points 3 years ago

He hadn't even done anything. He just happened to show up when cops were present, and now he's dead.

path: 0 5437312, hotness: undefined, score: 27, children: 45
Coreidan -56 points 3 years ago

Nothing wrong, other then resisting anyway.

I’m not a fan of cops but if they decide to put cuffs on you, don’t resist. Doesn’t matter if you’re in the right or not.

Don’t take this as me saying he deserved any of this because he doesn’t. But things would have gone very different if he just complied.

path: 0 5437312 5438594, hotness: undefined, score: -56, children: 44
Thief_of_Crows 14 points 3 years ago

Cops aren't allowed to go around tasering people for no reason. What you're saying is good advice, but it's an awful thing to say in response to this. Saying that innocent people (or guilty ones, at that) should just comply is total bullshit, it is textbook victim blaming.

path: 0 5437312 5438594 5450788, hotness: undefined, score: 14, children: 7
Coreidan -14 points 3 years ago

You are required BY LAW to comply. Why is this so hard for you all?

path: 0 5437312 5438594 5450788 5450898, hotness: undefined, score: -14, children: 6
Thief_of_Crows 8 points 3 years ago

If I'm just walking around, innocent of all crimes, I'm required to comply when an officer stops me? Am I required to let him taze me too if he claims I resisted? I don't believe that's true, though I wouldn't put it past US cops. It's definitely authoritarian as fuck if true though.

The reason it's so hard for us all is that you're giving a pass to truly horrendous behavior, by blaming the victims of that behavior for not preventing it.

path: 0 5437312 5438594 5450788 5450898 5451963, hotness: undefined, score: 8, children: 0
Natanael 5 points 3 years ago

Compliance haven't stopped them from attacking people anyway, what's so hard to understand about that?

path: 0 5437312 5438594 5450788 5450898 5451243, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 3
DougHolland 2 points 3 years ago

Dude's dead and you're defending that, repeatedly and rudely, since yesterday afternoon.

Rule 2 reminder: If you're here to support the police, you're trolling. Please exercise your right to remain silent.

path: 0 5437312 5438594 5450788 5450898 5452998, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
thepoliceproblem
thepoliceproblem

@lemmy.world

login for more options
5138
3602
2088

    The police problem is that police are policed by the police. Cops are accountable only to other cops, which is no accountability at all.

    99.9999% of police brutality, corruption, and misconduct is never investigated, never punished, never makes the news, so it's not on this page.

    When cops are caught breaking the law, they're investigated by other cops. Details are kept quiet, the officers' names are withheld from public knowledge, and what info is eventually released is only what police choose to release — often nothing at all.

    When police are fired — which is all too rare — they leave with 'law enforcement experience' and can easily find work in another police department nearby. It's called "Wandering Cops."

    When police testify under oath, they lie so frequently that cops themselves have a joking term for it: "testilying." Yet it's almost unheard of for police to be punished or prosecuted for perjury.

    Cops can and do get away with lawlessness, because cops protect other cops. If they don't, they aren't cops for long.

    The legal doctrine of "qualified immunity" renders police officers invulnerable to lawsuits for almost anything they do. In practice, getting past 'qualified immunity' is so unlikely, it makes headlines when it happens.

    All this is a path to a police state.

    In a free society, police must always be under serious and skeptical public oversight, with non-cops and non-cronies in charge, issuing genuine punishment when warranted.

    Police who break the law must be prosecuted like anyone else, promptly fired if guilty, and barred from ever working in law-enforcement again.

    That's the solution.

♦ ♦ ♦

Our definition of ‘cops’ is broad, and includes prison guards, probation officers, shitty DAs and judges, etc — anyone who has the authority to fuck over people’s lives, with minimal or no oversight.

♦ ♦ ♦

RULES

Real-life decorum is expected. Please don't say things only a child or a jackass would say in person.

If you're here to support the police, you're trolling. Please exercise your right to remain silent.

Saying cops ANYONE should be killed lowers the IQ in any conversation. They're about killing people; we're not.

Please don't dox or post calls for harassment, vigilantism, tar & feather attacks, etc.

Please also abide by the instance rules.

It you've been banned but don't know why, check the moderator's log. If you feel you didn't deserve it, hey, I'm new at this and maybe you're right. Send a cordial PM, for a second chance.

♦ ♦ ♦

ALLIES

!abolition@slrpnk.net

!acab@lemmygrad.ml

r/ACAB

r/BadCopNoDonut/

Randy Balko

The Civil Rights Lawyer

The Honest Courtesan

Identity Project

MirandaWarning.org

♦ ♦ ♦

INFO

A demonstrator's guide to understanding riot munitions

Adultification

Cops aren't supposed to be smart

Don't talk to the police.

Killings by law enforcement in Canada

Killings by law enforcement in the United Kingdom

Killings by law enforcement in the United States

Know your rights: Filming the police

Three words. 70 cases. The tragic history of 'I can’t breathe' (as of 2020)

Police aren't primarily about helping you or solving crimes.

Police lie under oath, a lot

Police spin: An object lesson in Copspeak

Police unions and arbitrators keep abusive cops on the street

Shielded from Justice: Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States

So you wanna be a cop?

When the police knock on your door

♦ ♦ ♦

ORGANIZATIONS

Black Lives Matter

Campaign Zero

Innocence Project

The Marshall Project

Movement Law Lab

NAACP

National Police Accountability Project

Say Their Names

Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration

 

go to feed...