Fair enough, but who on earth is going to decide, with cops standing around with weapons drawn, "ah ha, NOW is the time for me to make a call!"

They don't even need a cell phone. They don't have to see you reaching for anything. Only to SAY that they saw you reaching for something.

"ah ha, NOW is the time for me to make a call!"

Who would do that? Well, me for one. Anytime a PBB cop is around, wouldn't EVERYBODY want some video evidence of what the cop is doing? Or an audio file to record what the cop is doing. Remember, smart phones are video cameras, still frame cameras, audio recorders, (and now guns), much more than just phones.

Yes, they now are reasons to kill people. Nothing new to be worried about. As snards says quite correctly, the PPB only has to "say" that they saw you reach for something that might have looked like a smart phone, gun, granade launcher, etc. And they have been "saying" that $hit for years. Nothing new here.

Works for the New York cops.

Snards: No, not even that. They just have to say that they "believed they were in danger of death or serious bodily injury."
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/03/deadly_force_rethinking_the_po.html

Who would do that? Well, me for one.

And that's why Darwin may have been wrong.

Yes, he was holding his wallet but it could have been a walletgun. And by they time you see the wallet you're dead.

Cell phone cover story used all over -- by L.A. Sheriff's Office, too. Krazed killers....L.A. settled this one out of court:

Federal Suit Alleges Decade-Long Pattern of Violence and Corruption by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
****
The parents of the late Devin Eichenlaub filed a lawsuit in federal court this past Wednesday. The suit alleges Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies used excessive force resulting in the death of their son, Devin Eichenlaub. In their suit Mr. and Mrs. Eichenlaub claim their son was beaten to death by "nearly 20 deputies" after running from two deputies on patrol in Lakewood. The suit claims
deputies illegally stopped him, arrested him, used excessive force against him, murdered him by beating him to death, and then engaged in wrongful conduct to cover up what they had done.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the incident began when deputies on special anti-burglary patrol in Lakewood tried to stop and talk to Eichenlaub because he "looked out of place." After he was handcuffed, sheriff's deputies discovered Eichenlaub was not breathing and had no pulse. The Sheriff's Department said the death is under investigation.

In addition to seeking damages for the death of their son, the suit claims that Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies have engaged in a "decade-long pattern of violence and corruption." The complaint asserts causes of action for civil rights violations and violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)....

http://losangeles.injuryboard.com/miscellaneous/federal-suit-alleges-decade-long-pattern-of-violence-and-corruption-by-los-angeles-county-sheriffs-department.aspx

It has already been demonstrated that, even when what a person is holding is known to be a camera, he can expect to be Tasered in Portland:
http://blogs.wweek.com/news/2010/02/17/independent-police-review-panel-finds-campbell-cop-wrongly-fired-taser/

I was going to mention that flashlight guns have been around for a long time, as cellphone tasers. But that is a moot point as your readers point out. It has nothing to with the object or even if there is an object. It boils down to whatever fantasy's they can conger up, based on their skewed view of reality, and of course it is always the victims fault and we should pity the few cops that are rouge.

Michael Moore did a great VIDEO about this.

(No Michael Moore rants please)

OK MM is a nut case.

BUT

That is a priceless Vid!

I wish someone could do that in Portland. Of course we would have to have unarmed / mentally ill people running from Police/ not following commands they do not hear or understand. Being hit with a 250 lb lineman and being shot for not holding still!

That vid was great.

Maybe if the perp in Salem last night had had his hands up, he wouldn't have been able to shoot the Woodburn PD officer twice last night.

And the guy in Woodburn was actually armed. And was a known suspect in a burglary where guns were taken, sorta like the "fake" bomb" they played with 12/08.

You know mp97303 after awhile you will start to figure out the basic differences between these cases. Its not about following directions, its not about further training, its not about ride alongs.

Its not about following directions

I would be willing to bet the ranch that if all of them had simply complied with the first officer command, they would all be alive today.

Just watching an episode of cops where, despite being slammed to the ground twice, kneed in the ribs several times and being placed in what could only be called a choke hold, the big burly male officer could not control the female subject without the help of additional officers.

Well I don't watch COPS, so I'm at a loss to what you are talking about.

mp97303 - shouldn't you spend more time listening to your police scanner and less time on blogs with people who want to hold cops accountable? But seriously I bet there is nothing a cop could ever do that you could not excuse as justified, right?

Campbell was not justified
Chasse was not justified

BTW, y'all have long since passed the line of wanting to hold cops accountable.

A Woodburn police officer was shot last night. Still waiting for the outrage over that....

"A Woodburn police officer was shot last night. Still waiting for the outrage over that...."
====

Count me outraged. Larry hereby announces his outrage over a cop getting shot.

Also, Larry is outraged that a cop shooter is still alive after shooting a cop, when Chasse is dead, Campbell is dead, deranged homeless knife self-mutilator is dead, Kendra the black woman stopped in her car is dead, and the Corvette driver is murdered (by Washington police).

The cop-shooter gets to live, but these other people, they get killed.

Okay, more s-l-o-w-l-y this time. Kill anybody who is shooting at you with real bullets from real guns. Got it? Not people who (might) be shooting you with cell phones or wallets, or just scratching their backs, or trying to drive away before you can give them a ticket.

Shoot the bad guys, okay? The others you can just arrest.

Thank you Larry :-)

Actually, crazy exacto knife guy posed a greater threat at the time of his shooting. He had the knife in hand and was heading toward the officer.

The dude in Salem didn't have a weapon in his hand at the time of his shooting, but by all accounts was reaching for them.

Dang emm pee you mean the officer could have been "trimming and manipulating(like)slips of paper."?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Acto

Frankly mp97303 there are some people that have a lot of experience in not only "on the job," "life and death" injured officers,the management of officers, dealing with unions, dealing with impaired officers, dealing with those they have molested and those injured without cause.
Life has a lot of gray areas. You are full of clichés and BS
-d

It is 1215 AM. A light just flashed in my living room for the second time. It was not a car turning around in my drive way, it was a police cruiser slowly driving down my block turning his spot both left and right, looking between the houses, under the parked cars, behind the trash cans for a real threat. Some one who might be dangerous is in my neighborhood.

Right now.

I will let the dog out for a while and see if she alerts to anything. If not, I will wait a bit longer then call it a day. The officers in that cruiser won't go off shift until about 7. My family is safe and someone decent is watching out. Thanks fellas, may God bless you with a boring night.

"I was holding my wife's purse."

"We thought it was a purse gun."