Police officers like to justify their trigger happy nature but uttering the magical words “officer safety”. When an officer beats and unarmed man to death? Officer safety! When 10 officers unload 1,000 rounds into a truck that wasn’t even being driven by a suspect? Officer safety! What happens when officer safety puts officers at risk though? That’s what happened when a group of Miami police officers when all officer safety on a couple unarmed individuals:
As the car was wedged helplessly between a light pole and a tree, nearly a minute passed before officers opened up – firing approximately 50 bullets at the car and the two unarmed men inside the vehicle.
The two men inside the car survived that initial volley of gunfire, according to witnesses, who said they could see the men moving inside the Volvo. Everything went quiet for nearly two minutes before the officers opened up a second time – unleashing an unrelenting torrent of bullets that lasted almost 25 seconds. By the time it was over, the two men inside the car were dead.
CBS4 News has learned a total of 23 officers fired a total of at least 377 rounds.
Nothing unusual about this story, right? But wait, there’s more:
Montesano and Valdes were killed by the dozens of rounds that tore through their bodies.
But Montesano and Valdes weren’t the only ones struck – two Miami Dade police officers were hit as well – caught in the crossfire. One officer was shot in the arm and the second was hit in the arm and grazed in the head. If the bullet had struck just a half an inch to the side the officer would have been killed.
The officers were going officer safety so hard on the unarmed suspects that they ended up hitting two of their own in the crossfire. Considering this was the unloading of 377 rounds into two unarmed suspects really defensible under the magical words “officer safety”?
You know I might be less pissed at officer actions like this if they were at least competent while doing it, but seriously 180+ rounds per individual plus multiple counts of Blue on Blue hits. I mean come on if you are going to be Jack booted thugs shooting unarmed men in an unmoving vehicle at least take pride in your work and do a good job of it.
When people argue against laws allowing individuals to carry firearms I often point out that they seem to be fine with police officers carrying firearms and they tend to be far more dangerous than non-police who carry firearms. Police officers receive, in my opinion, subpar firearm and stress management training. They also tend to be shielded from liability. This recipe makes for a dangerous individual with a firearm. Non-police individuals who carry firearms tend to train more with their gun and are held more accountable for their actions so they tend to be less willing to resort to deadly force.
As you said, it wouldn’t be so bad if officers were actually good at their job. But most of them aren’t and they have no motivation to be since they suffer few consequences for sucking at their job.