Fort Worth Woman Was Playing Video Game With Her Nephew When Shot by Police

[SummerMadness]

Fort Worth Woman Was Playing Video Game With Her Nephew When Shot by Police

Minutes before she was shot and killed by a Fort Worth police officer, Atatiana K. Jefferson was playing video games in her bedroom with her 8-year-old nephew, a lawyer for her family said Sunday.

A neighbor had called the police after seeing Ms. Jefferson’s front and side doors ajar, a call he later said he regretted making. The two responding officers quietly crept around outside the dark house, where Ms. Jefferson lived with her mother.


After unlatching a fence door and walking into the back yard, a white male officer saw Ms. Jefferson, who is black, through her bedroom window. He shouted for her to put her hands up and immediately fired a single shot through the glass, according to body camera footage released by the department. The officers do not identify themselves as police in the video.

 

[Nithavela]

I literally have seen comments to this that say its their own fault for staying up so late.

 

[-Luca]

I don’t understand....why does stuff like this happen? Why do I never here news of this anywhere else?

 

[-Luca]

I literally have seen comments to this that say its their own fault for staying up so late.

Probably just internet trolls.

 

[zephcom]

Fort Worth Woman Was Playing Video Game With Her Nephew When Shot by Police

America needs to get control of its police agencies. Police have, over time, acquired privileges far beyond what normal citizens enjoy which allow them to run roughshod over their communities.

It is a dangerous and thankless job. But those people who can't handle it properly HAVE to be weeded out before they kill, not after they kill.

 

[dogs4thewin]

America needs to get control of its police agencies. Police have, over time, acquired privileges far beyond what normal citizens enjoy which allow them to run roughshod over their communities.

It is a dangerous and thankless job. But those people who can't handle it properly HAVE to be weeded out before they kill, not after they kill.

I agree to a certain extent. Cases like this yes, but there are some cases where the person was unarmed or armed with something that turned out to be harmless, but the police had no way of knowing that until after the fact.

 

[dogs4thewin]

Probably just internet trolls.

I would hope so. In other words, I would hope those would be the only ones to make comments like that.

 

[dogs4thewin]

America needs to get control of its police agencies. Police have, over time, acquired privileges far beyond what normal citizens enjoy which allow them to run roughshod over their communities.

It is a dangerous and thankless job. But those people who can't handle it properly HAVE to be weeded out before they kill, not after they kill.

Honest question how do we weed them out? PT can not weed out things like that.

 

[zephcom]

I don’t understand....why does stuff like this happen? Why do I never here news of this anywhere else?

Likely you don't hear about it elsewhere because America is flooded with gun and police are taught to be scare silly at the sight of a gun.

Even though guns are largely legal in all parts of American life, police are legally allowed to execute anyone anywhere if they even -think- they see a gun. And because of our racial biases, in that split second police have to make a decision, our minds will more often create the picture of a gun in the hand of a person of color more often than it will if there is something in the hand of a white person.

Time after time police have killed a person of color who happened to have their cell phone in their hand and the officer who shot will swear that he/she saw a gun. Their mind is pre-programed to see more danger in people of color than white people.

 

[dogs4thewin]

Likely you don't hear about it elsewhere because America is flooded with gun and police are taught to be scare silly at the sight of a gun.

Even though guns are largely legal in all parts of American life, police are legally allowed to execute anyone anywhere if they even -think- they see a gun. And because of our racial biases, in that split second police have to make a decision, our minds will more often create the picture of a gun in the hand of a person of color more often than it will if there is something in the hand of a white person.

Time after time police have killed a person of color who happened to have their cell phone in their hand and the officer who shot will swear that he/she saw a gun. Their mind is pre-programed to see more danger in people of color than white people.

to scare silly at the sight of a gun? What do you expect them to do? Yes, I feel that waiting to get shot and KNOWING it would be in self defense would be ( sadly) the best way to prevent these things, but short of that what can they do?

 

[zephcom]

Honest question how do we weed them out? PT can not weed out things like that.

Over and over again, we have seen that the officers who get involved in these questionable killings have a history of poor performance, abusive behavior or other discipline issues.

It won't stop every single instance of questionable shootings, but cutting employees loose for a series of minor discipline issues should go a long way in reducing these incidents. It is human nature to be more willing to overlook a friend's mistakes than it is to overlook a stranger's mistakes. Basically, the police view themselves as a closed society and they understand that mistakes are made. They protect each other because they want the protection if they make mistakes.

But there are differences between making an occasional mistake and a pattern of mistakes and abuses.

 

[dogs4thewin]

Over and over again, we have seen that the officers who get involved in these questionable killings have a history of poor performance, abusive behavior or other discipline issues.

It won't stop every single instance of questionable shootings, but cutting employees loose for a series of minor discipline issues should go a long way in reducing these incidents. It is human nature to be more willing to overlook a friend's mistakes than it is to overlook a stranger's mistakes. Basically, the police view themselves as a closed society and they understand that mistakes are made. They protect each other because they want the protection if they make mistakes.

But there are differences between making an occasional mistake and a pattern of mistakes and abuses.

What kind of mistakes are you talking about? Not all mistakes have something to do with the job and I am not sure I would call abuse minor.

 

[Nithavela]

Honest question how do we weed them out? PT can not weed out things like that.

Maybe remove the IQ limit.

 

[dogs4thewin]

Maybe remove the IQ limit.

They have an IQ limit? That would seem like you would want to raise it in that case.

 

[Nithavela]

They have an IQ limit? That would seem like you would want to raise it in that case.

US Court Ruling: You Can Be "Too Smart" to Be a Cop - Global Research

 

[dogs4thewin]

US Court Ruling: You Can Be "Too Smart" to Be a Cop - Global Research

Why on Earth would that be a rule? and if so maybe they should have a MINIMUM IQ.

 

[zephcom]

to scare silly at the sight of a gun? What do you expect them to do? Yes, I feel that waiting to get shot and KNOWING it would be in self defense would be ( sadly) the best way to prevent these things, but short of that what can they do?

There is no doubt that it takes a special person to do a job like that. Being a police officer should mean the person has to accept risks that normal people would never accept. The job is to serve and protect the community, NOT to kill anything scary looking.

America is stuck in a downward spiral with its gun issues. We can investigate six ways from Sunday vaping problems if ten people die from vaping. We can order the vaping sales to be halted while we do it but we can't do anything to limit access to guns. Guns are a fact of life in America and policing HAS to be able to deal with that in a manner differently than simply killing everyone they think has a gun.

 

[Tinker Grey]

See also thread: Another person shot in their own home

 

[Nithavela]

Why on Earth would that be a rule?

I think the idea is that if someone is too smart, they might get bored with the drudgery of police life or be dissatisfied with their job.

 

[SummerMadness]

I think the idea is that if someone is too smart, they might get bored with the drudgery of police life or be dissatisfied with their job.

That's what I've seen as an explanation. Despite the arguments of some, police work is not dangerous for the most part. You are more likely to be sitting in a car with your lights on for road construction than you are patrolling a dangerous neighborhood. You also need someone that is going to simply follow orders and do the job, which you may not get with an extremely intelligent person.

But I think it's less an intelligence issue and more simply a quality issue. Many officers that are mediocre or abusive are simply allowed to continue on the force without ever being punished or fired. When they close ranks and protect the clearly abusive officers in their ranks, it should be no surprise that the mediocre continue unchallenged.