Baseball Musings: Shooting Mistakes

January 08, 2009

Shooting Mistakes

Bobby Tolan's son Robbie was shot by police at the end of 2008, for no good reason:

Tolan happens to be the son of a former major league baseball player, and is in the early stages of his own pro baseball career. The police department initially denied racial profiling played a role, but has now stopped talking about the case publicly, saying only that "they're investigating how the officers on the scene mistakenly determined that the SUV Tolan and his cousin were driving had been stolen."
Even if there had been an SUV reported stolen that night that looked like the one Tolan's cousin was driving, you first have to wonder why the cops wouldn't run the plates before ordering everyone out of the truck at gunpoint. And that's before you start looking at the shooting, and the confrontation with Tolan's mother.

If there wasn't an SUV reported stolen that resembled the one Tolan was in, this is going to get really, really ugly.

That goes along with this shooting of a handcuffed suspect in Oakland the same night. What is going on?

Posted by David Pinto at 08:48 PM | Players | TrackBack (0)

Comments

same old, same old.

Posted by: dave at January 8, 2009 09:57 PM

My sympathies go out to the Tolan family, whose son's only crime was upward mobility to a white neighborhood - and a police force composed of direct descendents of Bull Connor.

Posted by: Bob Tufts at January 8, 2009 10:31 PM

You act surprised that police officers would a) racially profile, and that b) that they would quickly resort to unnecessary violence, and that c) police would harass people color in white neighborhoods.

This crap happens every day, all around the country.

Posted by: dave at January 8, 2009 11:56 PM

Guilty of Driving While Black? I am shocked, SHOCKED, that this might happen in the Southern US.

Posted by: Aaron at January 9, 2009 12:17 AM

F*ck the pigs

Posted by: John at January 9, 2009 12:46 AM

They were wrong, obviously, but let's not throw race into the mix until it is known for sure that race played a factor... this is something serious enough that they might lose their jobs over... nevermind a racial issue.

Posted by: Jesse R at January 9, 2009 12:59 AM

Just for an idea of the level of thinking that goes on in one website's target demographic, read the comments at this officer.com page that repurposes a San Francisco Chronicle account of the incident. Here are some comments from that story:

I thought it was illegal to videotape a police officer during the conduct of his duties; illegal wire tapping, or something. No video, no crime...

I ask you all to watch the video closely. It is my belief that this young officer who was saif to have been carrying a Taser by BART PD brass, accidentally drew his service weapon and discharged it thinking it washis Taser. Panic and adrenaline can cause dramatic loss in judgement and if an officer is not trained or has had LACK of training, he or she is prone to having catastrophic lapses in judgement such as this situation.

I am a hundred percent behind this officer who had to contend with not only these combative multiple subjects (a check of their records will probably show that most are violent ex-felons) and these liberal, hippie throwbacks manning the video phones at their backs.

The man was face down and under control of multiple officers at the time he was shot. (In fairness, there is some counterpunching, but it's not in nearly the volume as the "he was asking for it", "innocent mistake by the cop", etc. posts.) Such is the thinking of the cops.

Posted by: Rob McMillin at January 9, 2009 01:24 AM

You act surprised that police officers would a) racially profile, and that b) that they would quickly resort to unnecessary violence, and that c) police would harass people color in white neighborhoods.

I'm not surprised by any of that. I'm surprised at the use of deadly force, especially in situations that seemed to be under control. Posted by: David Pinto at January 9, 2009 08:05 AM

Your not surprised at any of that, but are surprised at the use of deadly force, wow.

The fact that it takes someone noteworthy or caught on tape to get you to merely question what's going on is always astounding yet not surprising.

It happens all the time, but we're playing the race card when we speak on it. Please...

Obviously I'm not trying to attack you personally, but people being surprised at the contiuned prevalence of racism is so tired, and in no small part a reason why it continues...

Posted by: Andre at January 9, 2009 12:47 PM

Cite where it happens all the time. Before you start lying you should be prepared to present some backup.

Posted by: bandit at January 9, 2009 01:49 PM

Read theagitator.com everyday and you'll see this stuff does indeed happen every single day. Police forces are basically run as paramilitary organizations now, it's ridiculous. Small towns are getting federal funds to buy troop carriers, tanks, etc.

Posted by: JeremyM at January 9, 2009 10:39 PM

The courts have ruled time and time again that the police can shoot people 'if they feel endangered'.

Not if they actually are in any danger, just if they 'feel' they are.

Until a judge actually sentences a cop for shooting someone, they will have no reason to stop. Why should they?

And don't think being white's gonna save you, cops will shoot anyone.

Posted by: shthar at January 10, 2009 03:11 AM

Go to the DOJ website and you can look at the statistics. There are less than 600 deaths a year involving police of any kind in the US and approx 100 of those deaths are police officers. Both the overall number and the rate are trending down. More white felons are killed every year than blacks and the rate for blacks is declining. In the overwhelming number of cases there is no question of the use of force. Remember that anecdotal evidence of your bullshit claims doesn't mean anything.

Posted by: bandit at January 10, 2009 11:27 AM

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