Wednesday, January 26, 2005

This is ridiculous!

I never take the side of a criminal over the cops, I will not make an exception in this case, but you have to wonder.
KGUN Channel 9 Gabriel Gandara displays the welts on his body from police pepper- and paint-ball rounds after he refused orders to get on the ground. The guy in the photo was being arrested after a bar fight... so you would think you would operate on the premise that he's drunk at the time of the arrest. The police are ordering him to get on the ground and to get him to comply they are shooting him with pepper and paint balls. Keep in mind the officers think he is armed. They shot and hit him around 60 times... In the video that I've seen it looks like they just kept shooting rather than allowing him time to comply between shots... That is where I have a problem. If the guy is plastered shoot and then wait for him to comply, if he doesn't repeat the instructions and repeat the shots and then wait again... don't just pelt him repeatedly with shot after shot. Definitely, do not continue shooting once he's on the ground... that is not what happened. The shot him when he was down and that just seems wrong. This guy has a history of resisting arrest and assault, for that reason I would never take his side over the cops, but I have to question the actions of the officers shooting him once he was on the ground.

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