Cop Shoots and Kills Unarmed Deaf Man as He Tries to Communicate Using Sign Language

[Burnsy2023]

What warranted the murder then?

Firstly, at least by UK standards, it's very unlikely to be a murder, so put that emotive term away. Secondly, nobody is saying that mistakes haven't been made, just giving a bit of context to understand why they were made.

 

[Nevakonaza]

Sad that an innicent person lost his life and all,But..

Harris did not stop and, instead, drove to his home.

Why did the guy not stop when told to by the police,This in itself is a big red flag to the police officer,and you can sort of understand when he does eventually pull over if the guy gets out fast waving his arms around well what do you expect.

Im not saying it was right to have pulled the trigger that fast,But you can understand why so many people get shot because they dont do as they're told.

Harris was found guilty of resisting an officer in 2010 when he lived in Connecticut, according to public records. However, this resisting charge was likely due to the fact that Harris could not hear the officer’s commands.[/B

I dont believe this for one second,If your driving and a cop car is behind you with the lights going..you pull over,remain in your car.

I doubt we will ever get the full picture here though of what really happened.

 

[Amp34]

We will probably find out later that the police car started following him a few hundred metres from his street, did a hand brake turn (because he could), hit a lamp post, and then continued following him to pretend it was caused by the deaf man, who was just pulling over 30 seconds later in front of his house.

Something akin to the shooting of the unarmed guy lying on the floor, where the excuse went from shooting him, to trying to shoot the autistic guy holding the toy beside him, and somehow shooting the man lying on the floor in the leg...

As usual, it's probably worth waiting a few days to see what the police report actually says about the incident. The. Wait a few more to see if someone releases a cellphone video completely blowing the story out the window, and the police having to release another corrected report...

 

[Dis86]

Amp, you're probably right but let's wait until we nail it either way. Straight out stating that this is murder though at this point is wrong.

 

[doofer]

Im not saying it was right to have pulled the trigger that fast,But you can understand why so many people get shot because they dont do as they're told.

Not complying with a Police Officer whether by impairment or belligerence should not be punishable by Summary Execution. Weapons should only be used if lives are endangered not because someone isn't doing as they were told.

 

[cainer]

anyone said 'Merica yet?

 

[Dis86]

Not complying with a Police Officer whether by impairment or belligerence should not be punishable by Summary Execution. Weapons should only be used if lives are endangered not because someone isn't doing as they were told.

Again though, we have no indication that was the case. We do not know how this guy behaved but, given the points i posted before, can you not start to understand maybe...just maybe why the officer was a bit on edge?

 

[Dave85]

Surely you should only be shot by police in the USA when your a danger to others with a weapon not because your waving your arms around trying to communicate. Things like this really only reinforce the stereotype of the US police as gun happy morons who are most likely high school bully dropouts.

 

[Nevakonaza]

Not complying with a Police Officer whether by impairment or belligerence should not be punishable by Summary Execution. Weapons should only be used if lives are endangered not because someone isn't doing as they were told.

Well we really dont get the full story,Who knows maybe the guy was acting weird as he was about to get out of the car like he might have reached for a weapon.

I know there are a lot of trigger happy cops out there,But i think its going to get to the point now when cops will hesitate to use their weapons,Either getting themselves killed or because of not reacting quick enough someone else gets killed.

I wouldn't want to be a cop in the US,Not great pay and you always have the risk of been prosecuted yourself while doing your job all because people dont listen,you see it all the time on TV both in the UK & US etc..drivers NOT doing as their told and the cops are been as nice as pie to them.

 

[Dis86]

Surely you should only be shot by police in the USA when your a danger to others with a weapon not because your waving your arms around trying to communicate. Things like this really only reinforce the stereotype of the US police as gun happy morons who are most likely high school bully dropouts.

Ideally yes, you should. The trouble is though that by the time it's been firmly established you're a danger to others someone else has usually been hurt.

 

[asim18]

No, clearly this shouldn't have happened, but my point was that officers will be more twitchy due to the raised threat.

What happens in the UK for failures to stop? Are ARVs automatically deployed for all failures to stop simply because a worst case scenario must be assumed?

 

[Dis86]

What happens in the UK for failures to stop? Are ARVs automatically deployed for all failures to stop simply because a worst case scenario must be assumed?

ARV weren't deployed. You're being intentionally facetious. You know fine well that in general the police within this country thankfully don't face the risk that American officers face.

2015 had I believe 130 officers killed whilst on duty in the US.

2015 had 1 officer killed on duty in the UK.

 

[Nevakonaza]

What happens in the UK for failures to stop? Are ARVs automatically deployed for all failures to stop simply because a worst case scenario must be assumed?

You cant really compare the UK to the US though,Practically everyone and his mother has a bloody gun out there,You can get them so easily its silly.

Sure you can get guns here,But its not as easy as it is in the US..Id be very jumpy out there as a cop too.

 

[Richdog]

Sorry, but objectively speaking if the deaf guy did not stop when he is as being chased then he either had something to run away from, or he should not be driving. A police car with flashing lights is obvious to anyone driving, deaf or not, and if this guy was sane and an adult used to being a deaf personal in a hearing man's world then he would have stopped and rectified to the situation.

If the situation, presuming the officer was not ramming him prematurely, had escalated to this point then it is also understandable why he was on a knife edge after getting out the car and clearly not knowing he was dealing with a deaf guy, especially when the adrenaline was pumping and he is used to perps putting him in life threatening situations.

I am by no means saying that the officer should have **** the guy but objectively you can see why an officer who has just been involved in a violent car chase with someone could potentially, when in a stressful situation where he is not aware a suspect is deaf, could confuse sign language for a lack of willingness to obey when shooting for someone to put their hands behind their head.

It is truly messed up, but I firmly believe that US officers are so paranoid about getting harmed that they always err on the dramatic side of caution and shoot first instead of calmly trying to deescalate a situation once it has already got that far.

 

[asim18]

I am by no means saying that the officer should have **** the guy but objectively you can see why an officer who has just been involved in a violent car chase with someone could potentially, when in a stressful situation where he is not aware a suspect is deaf, could confuse sign language for a lack of willingness to obey when shooting for someone to put their hands behind their head.

Getting arrested in the US is never as straight forward as "putting your hands behind your head". According to a popular US police reality show called "Cops", cops always use many different conflicting instructions. Sometimes they want you to put your hands up, sometimes they want you to interlock your fingers, sometimes they want you to face away from them, sometimes they want you to get on your knees, sometimes they want you to get on your stomach, sometimes they want you to stay in the car sometimes they want you to get out, sometimes they want you to take 3 steps backwards, sometimes they want you to take 4 steps to the side, sometimes they want 4 steps backwards and 2 steps to the side. Heck I've seen many episodes of Cops where one officer is yelling one thing and another is yelling the complete opposite instruction.

Yes as a deaf man you should know that you need to yield to an officers demands, especially one who's pointing a gun at you, but then how is the deaf person supposed to know if the officer wants him on his knees or if he wants him to take 3 steps backwards and get on his arse and is not hearing an instruction such as "interlock your fingers" enough reason to get floored?

I mean there are so many verbal instructions officers use when arresting someone at gunpoint (just watch an episode of Cops), and you need to do it in the correct order without any deviation. I don't see how it's possible for a deaf man to get handcuffed at gunpoint using the same procedure a hearing person would.

 

[Burnsy2023]

What happens in the UK for failures to stop? Are ARVs automatically deployed for all failures to stop simply because a worst case scenario must be assumed?

No, but a FTS will result in you being dragged out the car unceremoniously, which is our equivalent.

 

[Freakbro]

No, but a FTS will result in you being dragged out the car unceremoniously, which is our equivalent.

A few years ago now, but I was pulled once about half mile from my home so I cba to stop and just drove back and pulled up in the communal car park. The police car screeched up behind me and he wasn't pleased but he didn't drag me from the car......I'm glad he didn't shoot me either

 

[Xordium]

Getting arrested in the US is never as straight forward as "putting your hands behind your head". According to a popular US police reality show called "Cops", cops always use many different conflicting instructions. Sometimes they want you to put your hands up, sometimes they want you to interlock your fingers, sometimes they want you to face away from them, sometimes they want you to get on your knees, sometimes they want you to get on your stomach, sometimes they want you to stay in the car sometimes they want you to get out, sometimes they want you to take 3 steps backwards, sometimes they want you to take 4 steps to the side, sometimes they want 4 steps backwards and 2 steps to the side. Heck I've seen many episodes of Cops where one officer is yelling one thing and another is yelling the complete opposite instruction.

Yes as a deaf man you should know that you need to yield to an officers demands, especially one who's pointing a gun at you, but then how is the deaf person supposed to know if the officer wants him on his knees or if he wants him to take 3 steps backwards and get on his arse and is not hearing an instruction such as "interlock your fingers" enough reason to get floored?

I mean there are so many verbal instructions officers use when arresting someone at gunpoint (just watch an episode of Cops), and you need to do it in the correct order without any deviation. I don't see how it's possible for a deaf man to get handcuffed at gunpoint using the same procedure a hearing person would.

Could you please explain exactly how one can discern that someone is deaf at a distance of > 10m with a degree of certainty whilst categorically ruling out that person is not unstable and exhibiting that by making erratic hand gestures considering your sole evidence to date is that they have been driving erratically with a proven current history of failing to respond to law enforcement instructions.

 

[Roar87]

If you're a deaf driver maybe it's a good idea to have a sign on the car indicating that you are deaf, then Police and other drivers would know

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Anymore childish personal insults and/or baiting will not be tolerated. I've just had to deleted a load of crap.