Yeah, one place to play in the entire city of Cleveland. You call me an idiot? Did you ever ask yourself how these ghetto people are going to get those bikes to the bike park? Think those lowlifes will tow their two thousand dollar bike trailer with their twenty thousand dollar pickup truck there?
Use your brains for crying out loud!
Oh, basketball programs like Clinton's midnight basketball courts that resulted in three separate shootings?
Once you show the public you will not fight a lawsuit, you become a target. Ambulance chasers swarm in from everywhere just to get a cut in the payout.
If a police officer is found not to be doing anything illegal, you fight it until the end. Even if it costs more money to fight lawsuits, you set a precedent for those in the future that are looking to cash in.
Sorry, but that's the way it works. In any shooting, multiple investigations take place. If the officer broke no laws, no charges are filed. if it's questionable such as the Tamir Rice case, it goes to a grand jury. If the GJ believes an officer broke a law, that officer is charged for the crime per the OP.
What you're saying (as so many liberals do) is that we should prosecute officers even though they didn't break any laws. WTF kind of country do you think we would have if we conducted ourselves with that jungle mentality? How would you like it if a police officer arrested you for having a supped up car, but didn't break any speed limits? If you broke no laws, WTF should you pay any penalty for not breaking any laws?
Well genius, riddle me this: what do you think the parents will do when one of their children gets seriously hurt in that bike park? Think they will just pay the bill and say "oh well, it was my sons fault?" Of course not, there will be lawsuit after lawsuit with kids getting injured or even killed. And when a large enough suit is awarded, they will have to close down that two million dollar park, and then drug addicts and pushers will hang around there.
The city of Cleveland awarded Rice's mother 6 million dollars without the case being heard. The investigations and video showed that the police officers broke no laws. Now add that 2 million dollar bike path money, and we have 8 million dollars we could use to keep our police and maybe upgrade their vehicles.
The state of Ohio put an issue on the ballot several years ago which would have allowed first time drug offenders to enter rehab instead of prison. I voted for that measure, but it was beat by a two-to-one margin. So what are police supposed to do about that?
My cousin lost her 28 year old son to dope almost two years ago. It tore her and her husband apart. He was addicted since the age of 15. They tried everything including several rehabs. Nothing worked. I also have a friend who's two sons spent years in prison. When they got out, they went right back to the dope again.
So you tell me, what would work? Rehab doesn't work in many cases. Keeping them away from drugs even for years doesn't work. So what are we supposed to do?
What we need is a law that states if no law was broken, you cannot sue anybody in a civil court. The stupidity that you can sue somebody who broke no laws is what leads to these ridiculous lawsuits that are sometimes won.
Civil court is where you determine liability. Not criminality. That simple fact keeps escaping you. I'll give you a for example you can relate to. Let's say you are walking to your car in the dark of the night in mean old dangerous Cleveland. There, a scary black guy steps out and shows you his gun in his waistband. You pretend to go for your wallet but pull your pistol out. He sees this and pulls his. You start firing, and he starts firing. You put him down since you have the Dirty Harry signature model pistol. But two of your rounds went stray. They did not hit the target.
The police show up and after beating on any blacks who happened to be there, give the corpse a ticket for littering and decide you were totally justified in shooting the baddie. They even stand and pose with you as you hold the head up of your game kill.
But we mentioned the two stray rounds didn't we? One of those struck Mrs. Herbert Thubwhumper who was pouring herself a cup of coffee in her kitchen. It requires a hip replacement to fix what was damaged.
You broke no laws, but you can be sued, and you would probably lose. It was your bullet that went flying. Now, if you are smart you have some sort of insurance. There are several, the USCCA is just one. I'd give you a link, but if you can't look up insurance well there is no hope for you.
They would suggest that you settle, because if you don't, then it goes to a jury. A jury who is going to hear about how Mrs. Herbert Thubwhumper is in pain all the time since you shot her with your Dirty Harry signature model pistol. The plaintiff's attorney is going to talk about all the less powerful guns you could have chosen, but you went with the baddest one you could find.
The insurance has a limit, and when the jury awards a bazillion dollars to Mrs. Herbert Thubwhumper you have to pay all that is left after the insurance runs out.
The cases that Cleveland settled came to just over 13 million. The ones they fought in court, two of them, came to $17 million. Now, most of us who went to a decent public school see it like this. $13,000,000 < $17,000,000. Now, Cleveland is fighting the $17 Mil, but if they lose they have to pay. Or the Judge will order the city property seized and the assets sold to pay the debt.
Now, before you post a reply about how things ought to be, just remember that Civil is different and not excluded by criminal activity. That's the way it has always been since the nation was founded. Civil court, lawsuits, seek to recover money or property for a wrong or damages. Abraham Lincoln as a lawyer was involved in more than one of these. So while you are decrying how fucked up it is that good cops who beat up people in handcuffs are sued, know that it not only is it not going to change, it shouldn't.
Your scenario is ridiculous. If I accidentally shot somebody, I would be arrested and prosecuted. It's my legal duty to insure that nobody is "downrange" of my target. It's called involuntary manslaughter and if nobody was killed, assault with a deadly weapon.
The problem is even if I shot that scary black man, killed him, his family has the legal right to sue me even though the police investigation ruled it justified. In other words, I did the right thing, I obeyed all laws, I used deadly force to protect my own life, and yet I can get sued anyway.
A more fair comparison is if I seen a house on fire, and a child screaming for help. I bust down the front door and save the child. But then, the parents of the child sues me for breaking down the door. The police would not charge me for the damage or forced entry. It would be perfectly legal considering the circumstance.
Um no. You wouldn't. You were by criminal law taking a reasonable self defense action. This is why police are not charged with murder when they shoot the hostage. Their intent was to shoot the bad guy so that is just fine.
The criminal suing rarely wins. Unless the actions are excessive. So the baddie you shot wouldn't have much of a case.
You refused to look at the cases the city settled. In every one the Department of Justice said the actions of the police were excessive or unjustified. The police did punch and kick a man in handcuffs on the ground. They had every right to catch him. They had every right to use the force necessary to restrain him. They did not have the right. No one has the right to beat up a man who is helpless and defenseless. That is not the actions of caliber defenders of anything. Those are thugs.
The city paid him $600,000 to drop the suit. There would have been at least another zero if it had gone to a jury.
Civil is about liability and damages. It has everything to do with responsibility and nothing to do with criminal activity.
I know this is hard for you to understand. I keep repeating it. It can't be said any more simply. Your cops are thugs and are costing the city a fortune.
What you posted was from a very liberal site, Cleveland.com. Cleveland.com is an internet extension of the Cleveland Plain Dealer which of course is a very liberal newspaper.
So instead of talking about a bunch of stories (most I've never heard of) why don't you take one at a time, so I can find out what really happened by looking into unbiased sources.
The problem in our country is you can sue for anything. We need a loser pays all system, and that would reduce the amount of phony suits greatly, because anytime a suit is discussed, cities and businesses pay out just to get it out of the way, and that encourages even more phony suits:
Group protesting Michael Brelo verdict settles civil rights suit with city of Cleveland
First, I'm not sure what you intended to prove with the link. The charges were dismissed against the protestors in the story, and using your standard for how awesome cops are, the lack of criminal prosecution seems to indicate they were innocent. False Arrest is not one of the powers normally associated with police. Unless you are of the opinion that Justice is served when INNOCENT people are arrested.
Second. I've mentioned in nearly every reply that the article I linked to was a report on the Department of Justice investigation. If this information has not been integrated yet, I'm not sure what more I can do to make it clear. You denounce the source, but make no effort to look it up yourself. It's not that you don't know, it's that you won't know.
If you are unaware because you refuse to consult Liberal sources, then all I can say is that you must have the shortest period of time reading the news of any citizen in the area.
Cleveland Police Monitor.
Proposed Use of Force Policies Community Feedback (ARCHIVE)
News 5 in Cleveland.
What's changed for Cleveland police since U.S. Department of Justice ruling?
USA Today. Which means it was national news, funny how you didn't hear about it.
DOJ report: Cleveland police use excessive force
The actual report from the Department of Justice.
https://www.justice.gov/sites/defau...veland_division_of_police_findings_letter.pdf
Fox News.
Cleveland, DOJ announce settlement over police abuse claims
I don't know if it was mentioned on Rush Limbaugh, or on any other News Radio show. I guess that's where you get most of your news if you missed every single one of those stories. I mean, you never heard that the Department of Justice investigated your police department? You never heard that they had found a pattern of abusive behavior? You never heard that a number of these conclusions were based upon interviews of the cops themselves?
I could have posted a lot more links, but I can guess that you will reject them all except the Fox News, perhaps.
The fact of the matter is that the payouts that the city is making is saving money. The city fought some of the cases, and generally speaking, almost always loses. Right now they are appealing $17 million in verdicts against the police and the city.
So from the DOJ report. Stop it. Stop beating on people who are restrained. Stop using excessive force. Stop with the nonsense false arrests. Stop with the crap. It will allow the city to invest in things like police if they can stop paying the victims of those police.
The cops in Cleveland aren't great, they are't dedicated servants, and they aren't even fairly good.
I-Team asks why drive-by shooting caught on camera in Cleveland didn’t lead to police investigation
They had a drive by on video, and didn't make a report about the video. That's not good police work, that is bullshit check the block fake investigation. If there was justice in Cleveland, the first thing they would do is fire every one of those idiots, and start over. The Congress should pass a law. If you were a cop in Cleveland, you can't be a cop anywhere else ever again.
The excuse for not taking a report? No one was hit. Until someone is actually hurt, there was nothing they could do. Attempted murder, reckless endangerment, apparently those aren't crimes in Cleveland. I bet if someone had shot at a cop, it would have been a crime worthy of a multi state manhunt until that dastardly bastard was caught.
Want to know why your city is so dangerous? Stop blaming the ******* Democrats, and start blaming the ******* idiots wearing badges that you valiantly defend without exception.
They have the shooting on video. They have the gunman on video. Talk about an easy case for the prosecutor. What do you think Ray? Do you think that the cops recognized one of their fellow officers doing the drive by? Do you think the cops recognized one of their friends and decided to cover it up for them?