Sunday, May 16, 2010

Ohio Cop Guilty of Shooting Motorcyclist in Back

The Toledo Blade reports on the conviction of cop who shot a motorcycle rider in the back during a traffic stop. The story is about former Police Officer "Thomas White, 27, who was indicted on one count of felonious assault with a firearms specification for the May 23, 2009, shooting of Michael McCloskey, Jr."

Video taken by a dashboard camera about 2:15 a.m. showed Mr. McCloskey pull over his motorcycle and look back at the patrol car. When Mr. McCloskey again turns to look back, he is shot and he and the motorcycle fall over.

The officer then appears on the screen and has his gun drawn while the victim is on the ground. After a period, the officer and another man lift the motorcycle off of the victim.

Mr. Lingo said the video was the prosecution's strongest evidence.

What's your opinion? Is McCloskey another one for the VPC list? Oh, I almost forgot, even if they did include cops on that list, this one didn't kill anybody.

At least he's been convicted and will be punished. It shows they don't always get away with that old "I thought he was about to pull a gun and my life was in danger" excuse.

What do you think is the appropriate punishment for this? Should he spend a lot of time in jail, or would the career-changing felony conviction itself be punishment enough?

Please leave a comment.

3 comments:

  1. What?! CCW? Are we reading the same story?
    The cop was using a gun the government issued to him, while on duty. He would have had that gun even if you wrote every law you wanted to.
    Make your point in a response.

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  2. The point is simple. CCW guys and cops both have inadequate training and screening. Many of these problems could be avoided.

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  3. Very true.
    You appear to believe this can be done by screening certain inherently violent people.

    The US decided a long time ago that the government can't declare some people "inherently unfit" to exercise a constitutional right.

    Screening can only weed out people who have already lost their rights by due-process as a result of criminal conviction (or who do not possess full rights as citizens, like foreign visitors and juveniles).

    So we're left with training. When the Brady campaign lobbies for a mandatory training program, I'll believe that it's on their agenda.

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