this post was submitted on 19 May 2025
212 points (98.6% liked)

News

29441 readers
2940 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 42 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

They did not speak to the staff or explain to Burgess why they were there, jurors heard.
Instead, Smith told him: “Do you want to put the knife down or you will be sprayed or Tasered. Those are the options.”

Instant escalation!

Footage from body-worn cameras played to the jury showed Smith then discharging the spray directly into Burgess’s face.
“Comments made by Mr Smith suggest he emptied all of the canister into Mr Burgess’s face,” Jarvis said.
Seconds later, Smith drew his baton and struck Burgess.
Comotto deployed her Taser and Burgess cried out in pain. The officers took the knife from him.

A 93 year old man with one leg holding a fucking cutlery knife!
They could probably just have taken the knife from him without issue.
At 93 years people are not very strong.

Jurors were told there was nobody within arm’s reach of Burgess at the time and it should have been clear he was not mobile.

So they had plenty option to stand back and talk to him too! But instead decided to go on a powertrip and escalate the situation immediately!
That's a decidedly an unnecessary violent attack, and a breach of their position. So this should be punished doubly. The idea that officers should be protected by the badge when acting like criminal bullies is insane.

He was taken to hospital after the incident and later contracted Covid. He died 22 days later.

What a sad way to end a life of 93 years. Maybe the officers can't be blamed for him catching COVID, but essentially his life ended the day those officers entered his room and attacked him.

I am also not sure the quality of the home is very good, calling the police on behavior that sounds like dementia?!

[–] MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world 40 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Of course the officers can't be blamed for him catching COVID

If you put someone in the hospital where they then contract a contagious disease and die, then yes, they can absolutely be blamed. Dude could've been sitting on his couch watching antiques roadshow right now if they hadn't assaulted him.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 11 points 12 hours ago

I actually agree on that morally, But I think legally they probably can't be blamed.
So I changed it to "maybe".

[–] Carmakazi@lemmy.world 7 points 11 hours ago

If police get into a shootout with someone and police gunfire 100% without a doubt hits an innocent bystander, in some states at least the cops can legally pin that injury or death on the suspect, for the same logic.