Spyder_Venom

Cop nearly lost his life, so we don't want him


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In the classic Western High Noon, the hypocrites of Hadleyville want Sheriff Will Kane to protect them from the bad guys - as long as he doesn't shoot anyone.

It turns out Cincinnati is right next door to Hadleyville. But to find out why, we have to go to Cleveland.

On Aug. 27, 2002, Cleveland Police Officer Robert Taylor stopped three teens in a stolen car and was nearly run over. "I had to jump back into my car to avoid getting hit,'' he said.

Taylor and his partner then chased the car for about four minutes, until it wrecked in an alley. The cops got out and as Taylor approached, the driver tried to back over him. "It struck me and I was knocked backward into the squad car. I was trapped.''

Both cops fired. The driver was wounded and a passenger was killed by Taylor.

The shooting was reviewed by Cleveland Police homicide and internal affairs, the city prosecutor and the county prosecutor. All found it was justified. Taylor could have been killed. But 16-year-old Ricardo Mason was killed instead.

Mason was black.

And that makes Taylor unfit to be a Cincinnati cop, according to the Cincinnati Civil Service Commission.

Taylor was among 250 cops laid off in a Cleveland budget crisis. He applied in Cincinnati, and says, "They wanted me.''

His wife, Sue, said, "He was one of the first officers they made an offer to. He had glowing letters of recommendation from two supervisors, one black and one white.''

He passed a polygraph test, a five-person interview and a psychological evaluation, they said. But it wasn't over.

He also had to get past the Civil Service commissioners: Dan Radford, Robert Braddock and Margaret Allen.

They said no.

So did lawyer Fanon Rucker, who was asked to screen the Cleveland cops. Five were rejected; 25 are being hired.

Taylor said he was told the city feared more protests from the Rev. Damon Lynch III, and didn't want bad publicity. "Is that right to deny a job for those political reasons?'' he asked.

He's considering a lawsuit for being rejected without cause.

Cincinnati Human Resources Director Rodney Prince said, "We did the right thing here.''

Prince said he understands how some could say that being tested in a life-and-death struggle "makes him even better.'' Taylor's exoneration was made clear in the discussions, said Prince, secretary to the Civil Service Commission.

"But it seems to me, to have invited this particular officer would not promote healing. It would have further inflamed passions and misunderstandings.''

He said the commissioners decided the Taylor shooting was too much like the Timothy Thomas shooting in 2001 that led to riots.

But, Taylor said, "the shootings were not similar.''

He's right. Taylor was in a knee brace for weeks and was nearly killed. "It was really the only option I had."

Taylor's wife has family in Cincinnati, so he wanted to work here. It's the city's loss to reject a good cop. But he's lucky to avoid a city that expects cops to bust bad guys without hurting them.

"We are not surprised,'' said Cincinnati FOP President Harry Roberts. "The city of Cincinnati is well known for punishing good cops when they do the right thing.''

Welcome to Hadleynatti. It's about 230 miles from Cleveland - and still going south.


http://www.enquirer.com/editions/200..._bronson11.htm

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The local track whore

Cynthetiq

This is what happens when everyone is afraid of legal ramifications and lawsuits.

a shame. a real shame.

I'm surprised that there are no lawsuits from the Iraq war because from what I remember there were laywers embedded with some of the troops kind of like Diana Troi from ST:TNG

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I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

wubbawubba

That's messed up. Here in Louisville everybody wanted this cop to be fired after he shot a black guy and he haden't even gone to trial yet.
In this situation I think that he should be fired cuz he shot the guy in the back while he was running away. But these people also have to realize that you can't just fire someone without first doing some sort of investigation to prove if the shooting was justifiable or not.

onetime2

My fiancee's father is a cop in a large city here in NJ. He was involved in a very similar situation and he said it's just not safe to be out there anymore. As the car was coming back towards him he said he actually ran through a checklist of things he could and couldn't do and what would happen if he did this or that before he fired. He's retiring in a couple of weeks and is working in Internal Affairs in the interim. He says he can't believe he's made it through his whole career without it going down the crapper with all the BS that goes on. He says he feels sorry for the new people on the force because their hands are tied in so many ways and when they do act to defend themselves, IA and the politicians are all over them. If every t isn't crossed they can kiss their careers (and pensions) good bye.

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Strive to be more curious than ignorant.

stevie667

i may of missed something, but why did they need to open fire anyway?

onetime2

To stop the driver from continuing to push the gas and crush the officer.

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Strive to be more curious than ignorant.

Iliftrocks

Deadly force vs. deadly force.

I'd say he had no real choice but to defend himself.......

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bill hicks - "I don't mean to sound bitter, cold, or cruel, but I am, so that's how it comes out."

floonine

we have truely become a nation of people scared of each other.

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Political arguments do not exist, after all, for people to believe in them, rather they serve as a common, agreed-upon excuse. Foolish people who take them in earnest sooner or later discover inconsistencies in them, begin to protest and finish finally and infamously as heretics.

Psivage

I'm sure they are coming, with the amount of soldiers commiting suicide, I'm sure one family memember will sue the government for not giving their love one the treatment he or she needed.

Cynthetiq

not the same thing. The lawyers were there to help make sure that the soldiers were firing upon "legal" military targets.

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Psivage

No shit? Damn.

Bill O'Rights

There have been several cases, over the past few years, in Omaha, where the police pull over someone in a stolen car, said someone proceeds to reach for a gun, or something with the appearance of a gun, police fire and said someone is killed. Unfortunately, this always seems to happen in the black community, thereby causing an uproar within that community. You can always count on same three black civic leaders to cry racism, every time...no matter what. I don't really know what the police are supposed to do in a situation like that.

I suppose that one important lesson to learn is; you driving around in a stolen car at 3:00 in the morning + you failing to obey a police officer's instructions + you reaching under your coat = you getting shot by the police. Seems simple enough to me.

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"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony

"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus

It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.

Cynthetiq

I don't hear of many whites or asians that have that problem. It must be because their black, I mean, whites and asians must steal cars too right?

Kaos

Jeez, is the only course of action to prevent riots and avoid people crying "racism" is to hire only Black Police Officers?

bellzboy

The world is so afraid of offending anyone, its just stupid. Cops are being handcuffed rather than handcuffing crooks.

Xiomar

TOTAL bullshit. This is what makes it all suck. Having to tapdance around while bad guys do whatever the hell they want. They are the ones trying to take our rights away, yet in the end... they are the only ones protected by the laws they are breaking in the firstplace.
And, FYI. If I run... SHOOT MY ASS. I DESERVE IT! I AM RUNNING!

Xiomar

KAOS, WERE COMIN TO CANADA! MAKE ROOM IN THE GARAGE!

sailor

What they said. Gotta love beaurocracy.

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"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."
--Plato

analog

America is a nation of people who are afraid of everything.

Fear is fed to us by the news media and perpetuated by those radical few with large mouths.

Every time shit like this comes up, I think of the scene in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, when a crows brings a woman to Bedevere...

Everyone wants to blame someone for their problems.