Cop Cleared After Killing Mentally Disabled Double Amputee Wielding a Pen

A police officer has been cleared of charges after fatally shooting a man who was mentally disabled, a double amputee and at the time of the shooting was wielding only a ballpoint pen.

Houston Police Officer Matthew Marin did not violate police procedure in the shooting of Brian Claunch, a 45-year-old man who had paranoid schizophrenia and used a wheelchair, said Police Chief Charles McClelland on Oct. 24, according to local radio station News 92FM.

Read full story at The Huffington Post.

Comments

[Andrew S.]

I understand. He could've stuck that pen up the officer's asshole. That would've been rape.

[Hugh Akston]

It would only have been rape if he wasn't a trained medical professional with a rectal search warrant close to hand.

[Copernicus]

NUTS! HUUH!
GOOD GOD Y'ALL
WHAT ARE THEY GOOD FOR?
ABSOLUTELY PUNCHIN'

SAY IT AGAIN Y'ALL.

[DEATFBIRSECIA]

It stands to reason that if the pen is mightier than the sword, and a sword can get you shot, then...

Open fire!

[Ted S.]

I'll take Swords for $400, Alex.

[Loki]

That's "S Words." You are a moron.

[Doctor Whom]

If we were civilized, we'd have pen control by now, but as long as that hero made it home safely, all's well that ends well.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

"Certainly [it was] an unfortunate and very tragic event," McClelland said. "But we must keep in mind that when these events or incidents do occur, officers are making decisions in a matter of seconds, sometimes in less desirable environments."

OFFICER SAFETY! It's not like those cops are paid to make smarter decisions that us civilians.

[Enough About Palin]

The dude is in a wheelchair FFS. Officer Matthew Marin can't outrun a wheelchair?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Seriously. What the fuck are cops being paid to do if confronting a man in a wheelchair is too much of a danger for them?

We're supposed to call them heroes?

[AlexInCT]

Probably said yes to too many donuts, and needs a motorized scooter himself to move at anything faster than a slow gait.

[Agammamon]

He thought it was a knife - and we all know that wielding a knife means that you can close 30 yards in the blink of an eye. That's why its perfectly justifiable to shoot someone wielding a knife the instant you see them.

[sarcasmic]

A caretaker at the home called police after Claunch became aggressive, and Claunch cornered one of the responding officers and waved a sharp object at him. The other officer, Marin, shot Claunch in the head in order to protect his partner, The Associated Press reported at the time of the shooting.

How does someone get cornered by a double amputee in a wheelchair?

What. The. Fuck.

[Andrew S.]

The same way a Chihuahua nipping at an officer's heels becomes a pit bull with its teeth at the officer's neck: FYTW, and how dare you ask questions of our brave men in blue?

[Mad Scientist]

Also, if Keystone A manages to get cornered by a guy in a wheelchair who is so close that he could inflict injuries with his mighty ball point pen, how the hell did Keystone B manage to shoot the wheelchair guy and miss Keystone A?

[Agammamon]

Keystone B was acting smart - he aimed for his partner, figuring that he was highly unlikely to hit what he was aiming for.

[sarcasmic]

Seriously though, it's now at a point where "refusal to obey a lawful order" is excuse enough for lethal force.

Next time you deal with a cop, remember that. Do what he says or he just might kill you. And nothing else will happen.

[Andrew S.]

Since when does the order have to be lawful?

[sarcasmic]

If it comes from a cop, then it's lawful. Even if it's not. Because fuck you, that's why.

[db]

If an officer says it it's not unlawful.

[db]

Dammit sarcasmic, you need to wait longer so I can get in first.

[jesse.in.mb]

Dammit sarcasmic, you need to wait longer so I can get in first.

It's best to set down parameters before the threesome, db, otherwise you're just gonna keep getting sarc's sloppy seconds.

[AlexInCT]

Sloppy seconds suck, huh?

[SugarFree]

Do what he says or he just might kill you.

Remember the original Dunphy? The one our resident coptroll named himself in tribute of? That is exactly the argument he made.

I can assure you the officer is not all that concerned with trying not to offend you. He is instead concerned with protecting his mortal hide from having holes placed in it where God did not intend. And you, if in asserting your constitutional right to be free from unlawful search and seizure fail to do as the officer asks, run the risk of having such holes placed in your own.

Link to The Agitator article because National Review purged the original.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Oh. That's disappointing. I thought he named himself after the bumbling idiot on Modern Family.

[SugarFree]

dunphy predates MF. That shitheel has been stinking up this place for years.

[Rasilio]

I figured he named himself after the cop in West Side Story

[SugarFree]

There's a cop in West Side Story named Asslick Cuntsnot?

[Hugh Akston]

Don't you remember the song?

[Ramjet]

Just spit on my keyboard.

[jesse.in.mb]

Did anyone notice the author of this story is "The Huffington Post"? When did the entire news website become a contributor?

[Hugh Akston]

They probably have a content partnership agreement. If you ever sullied your computer by visiting the Hufflepost, you'd likely see some reason content there. Thankfully there's no commenter-exchange clause in the contract.

[BakedPenguin]

That's actually what they have up as a byline over there.

[Enough About Palin]

There's no sugar coating it, Officer Matthew Marin is one tough literary critic.

[GILMORE]

+1 Harold Bloom with a Glock

[Paul.]

A police officer has been cleared of charges after fatally shooting a man who was mentally disabled, a double amputee and at the time of the shooting was wielding only a ballpoint pen.

We knew he'd be cleared. Did we really need a followup story kicking us in the nuts to remind us?

[Warty]

BALLLLLLKOOOOOOOOO

[Paul.]

"But we must keep in mind that when these events or incidents do occur, officers are making decisions in a matter of seconds, sometimes in less desirable environments."

Jesus fuck, why am I torturing myself?

Can someone please turn this thread into a Jezebel bitch fest or a discussion about Star Trek?

[Warty]

OMG SHE LOOKS TOTALLY BADASS OMG

[Brett L]

I wouldn't kick her out of bed for much. Maybe to get me a sammich.

[Warty]

You asked for it. First, have some Maddow worship. Then some OMG BOYS LIKE TITS.

[Warty]

For dessert, have some we're totally huge comic fans and we totally love comics and OMG diversity.

[jesse.in.mb]

To be fair, Maddow also likes tits.

[Warty]

Everyone loves tits. In your pray-the-gay-away therapy, did the therapist mention to you how awesome tits are? Because I worry that you might not realize how awesome tits are.

[Brett L]

Gay men know. Women show them all the time.

[jesse.in.mb]

Look Warty, I'm gay, not sarcasmic. I'm well aware of how awesome tits are.

We didn't get to that portion of therapy. Had I known tits would be involved I would've pretended to have been molested by a distant uncle or something so we could move forward.

[Warty]

Good. Now let's all look at some tits. Mmmmmmmmmm.

[Hugh Akston]

See now I'm thinking of starting my own queer-fix camp where one of the sessions involves two chicks rubbing their oiled-up tits all over the faces of prone campers.

[Warty]

"Hugh's Cabaret the Gay Away"

[jesse.in.mb]

Perverse incentives! Next thing you know you'd have horny little straight teens coming out just so they could be sent there, claiming complete cure, but having the occasional tragic relapse and needing to re-up on their therapy.

Jesus, Hugh, this could be big.

#8

[db]

The reaction would be the same George Bluth got to his "startled straight" speech.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

From the Hooters article:

So why would a bunch of teenage boys be requiring "a whole fleet of therapists" because they happen to have seen some women in skimpy clothing? Most of them have probably seen Miley Cyrus' new vid, why would seeing semi-naked humans be traumatizing?

Very reasonable.

I think this is less about seeing women in skimpy clothing and more about the bro, women-exist-to-look-hot-for-you attitude that is sure to be cultivated by that coach and Hooters in general. You're right, one time probably won't kill them, but a group of 8th grade boys are going to try to one-up each other at whatever stereotypically "masculine" thing they are doing at the moment, whether it is football or objectifying women. I don't think it's the best message to send to a group of young men that when you are celebrating something as guys, you do it by ogling (and then, surely, lewdly discussing) women who are obligated to allow you to do so.

Male Gaze!

[Paul.]

IF they're ogling women, they can't be male gaze. They must be male straightz.

[Paul.]

With clothes on... which is the Jezebel subhead.

[Mad Scientist]

The good Star Trek? Or all the other Star Treks?

[Paul.]

The good one. Not that shit with Shatner in it.

[Mad Scientist]

You realize, sir, this means war.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Yeah, Captain Janeway is forever the number 1 captain in the franchise.

[Andrew S.]

Even in jest, that comment is atrocious.

[jesse.in.mb]

The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc

A Serious Man never jests.

[Mad Scientist]

What, never?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Of course I jest, I just jest seriously.

[Warty]

"Captain Janeway. Lace: The Final Brassiere."

[Rasilio]

I'm sorry but there was only 1 actual portrayal of an actual starship captain in the entire Star Trek franchise and he was in something like 2 episodes.

That would be Captain Jellico

Kirk was a cowboy who might have been able to command a private corporations exploration vessel but lacked the discipline to get past Lt in a military.

Picard was a diplomat and so could have commanded a non military diplomatic vessel and while he would have done ok in a military system would never have risen to command anything more powerful than a small escort ship.

Sisco was a military governor and was reasonably good at it but never really played the part of ships captain. He'd have been ok as a ships captain but was much better suited to the role of space cop.

Janeway was more of a ships mom than captain. In a real navy she may have commanded a training fleet but lacked the aggression and drive to truly succeed as a field officer.

Archer, ok I can't comment on him as I never watched Enterprise

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Archer was an explorer, but at the same time he did come through (barely) when Earth needed him to stop a genocidal race of aliens from destroying the planet.

[Agammamon]

"Picard was a diplomat and so could have commanded a non military diplomatic vessel and while he would have done ok in a military system would never have risen to command anything more powerful than a small escort ship."

I guess its a good thing that Picard didn't join a military organization then.

And Janeway was just insane.

[Swiss Servator, Sail Genfersee]

Picard wouldn't have fired - maybe on "stun"?

[Andrew S.]

Picard would've ordered his tea, and just sat and looked at the guy til he gave up.

[db]

Picard would have let loose all badass-gangster-like with a motherfucking Tommy gun.

And then run and cried into Guinan's shoulder about what a horrible feeling it is to suffer out-of-control rage and fight back against all-encompassing assimilation into a collective.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

He'd also be a total asshole throughout the entire movie.

Like when he killed that crewman rather than let him be assimilated. Because if there's one thing Captain Picard knows it's that once you've been assimilated by the Borg THERE'S NO COMING BACK!!!

[SugarFree]

All problems solved everywhere and forever!

The New Ms. Marvel is a Muslim Girl from Jersey

[Anonymous Coward]

In the words of Ms. Marvel writer G. Willow Wilson (herself a convert to Islam)

I'm glad Stan Lee just sits home and collects checks. I fear he might blow his own brains out working with the creativity-challenged, ascended fanboys, self-inserting hacks that have overrun Marvel and DC.

[Paul.]

Well I must say my suggestion was a rousing success. Thanks guys. Now I don't have to think about the fact that a cop can murder a double-amputee with a bic pen with ZEEEROOOO accountability.

[jester]

Whew! Close call. Not a single wrongful death caused by a policeman in about a decade in the city of Houston. Cannot let that streak end. Glad Houston is my home. Houston's cops are obviously top men. I feel so much safer now. Hopefully Officer Marin will get a medal after a paid month leave. God, that must have been traumatic having to shoot a man to save his threatened partner. It's like something out of a CH*Ps episode. Art does imitate life.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Amanda Marcotte Attempts to explain insurance

Under the ACA, the individual market is being set up to look like the kind of insurance that you get through an employer, as Jonathan Chait at New York Magazine explains. So whether you are using a health exchange or you get insured through your employer, the young "subsidize" the old and young men "subsidize" young women. That's how insurance works. Which is why, if you look past the jokes about "bros," it becomes quickly evident that what Roy isn't arguing against here is the ACA so much as the very existence of insurance itself. If it's wrong for older people or women to use more health care when everyone's paying into the system, then it should be wrong whether you get your insurance through your job or the health care exchange. Having your boss arrange the paperwork doesn't change the fact that some people need more health care. I'm guessing Fox News is so certain that its audience will be enraged about women stealing all the health insurance with birth control pills (which, in the land of right wing media, have no benefit for men at all), that viewers won't notice that they were just nodding along to a radical argument against the very concept of health insurance at all.

[SugarFree]

Just as awkward, yet in no way as entertaining, as watching a monkey try to fuck a football.

[FYTW]

It's fascinating to me that somebody as incandescently stupid as Amanduh has somehow managed to convince Slate to give them a regular paycheck.

[Brett L]

Holy shit. I would like to see her explain renters insurance.

[Mad Scientist]

Yeah, but she never will. She's found a way to deceive herself into believing something she desperately wants to be true. Once she's convinced herself, no further thought on the matter is necessary. If she had to think about it more, she'd also have to construct further lies to tell herself in order to maintain the illusion.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

She is absolutely getting hammered in the comments. She's even jumped in to defend herself by saying she supports abolishing gender rating for car insurance and life insurance.

[Brett L]

Ah, so she supports paying the same insurance for liability and full coverage because poor people can only afford liability but really need to replace their car if they are at fault?

[Mad Scientist]

C'mon, man, we all know that liability-only insurance is bad and it's a good thing if it goes away and every has to pay more for coverage they don't want.

[Brett L]

But what if my car is paid off and I don't drive it very often?

[Mad Scientist]

Look, there are coeds out there who need cars to get to the pharmacy to make a co-pay on prescription birth-control pills. This is all very simple.

[Bryan C]

A dangerously noncompliant 2010 Volvo has been removed from your driveway. For your convenience the modest towing fee will be automatically garnished from your weekly paychecks.

But there's no reason to dwell on your past mistakes. Just complete the appropriate paperwork, and your new Trabant will be available within 3-7 years*

[Anonymous Coward]

So whether you are using a health exchange or you get insured through your employer, the young "subsidize" the old and young men "subsidize" young women. That's how insurance works.

NO.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Balkoooo...wait. Who is this Hunter Stuart person and what has he done with Balko?

[jesse.in.mb]

He defeated Balko in hand-to-hand combat and ate his heart for the privilege of repeatedly punching us in our collective, and occasionally metaphorical, nuts

[Homple]

"Houston Police Officer Matthew Marin did not violate police procedure...."

Makes you wonder what in the name of Beelzebub and the rest of his colleagues in Pandemonium WOULD violate Houston Police Procedure.

[Kaptious Kristen]

1) Snitching on fellow cops.
2) ....

[Suthenboy]

Ya know, sometimes I think maybe my rantings on here should be less....vitriolic. Maybe I get too extreme sometimes and I should tone it down. I come here with a calm mind determined to carefully think about things before saying anything, and only if I have something worth saying. Instead, I sit down and inside 3 minutes I read some shit like this and I am pissed off and pounding the keyboard again calling for ropes, torches and pitchforks. It happens every damn time.

Goddamn people suck.

[Ramjet]

Yep.

[Homple]

They can have my Uniball Signo Micro 207 when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.

[Paul.]

It'll drop out of your hand before you hit the ground.

[Homple]

And be warned, I never leave my house without my Pentel 120 A3 DX pencil loaded with 0.9mm LEAD in my shirt pocket. Concealed carry permit be damned.

[Agammamon]

.9mm? What are you, a third-grader, that's like writing with a crayon. MEN use .3mm.

[jesse.in.mb]

The Tumbling Boundaries of Gay Rights

In this case, [Paul Singer] was announcing a new project to be funded, at least at the outset, by him and other conservative donors but to be run by the Human Rights Campaign, an L.G.B.T. advocacy group in Washington, which is much more closely affiliated with Democrats. The initiative will be dedicated to fighting the victimization of gays and lesbians internationally. But it will also show that there are Republicans ? not a majority, but an increasingly impassioned minority ? who are intent on progress and justice for L.G.B.T. people. They won't surrender that cause to Democrats, and they believe that Republicans who do so are resisting a future that's both just and inevitable.

I'm really interested to see how this plays out. The HRC is obnoxiously partisan but if they're beholden to Republican donors it might crack that nut in interesting ways. Still annoyed that ENDA is a litmus test for reasonable support for gay rights from Republicans.

[jesse.in.mb]

Bah, meant this for PM links, just ignore me.

[The Late P Brooks]

Officer safety was maintained.

[Ayn Random Variation]

joebro1060
89 Fans?DFAS is sucking me dry!
How do you arrest someone? Usually, the police officer goes up to them, physically bears down on them and cuffs their hands behind their back. If an officer is close enough to a suspect to grab their hands and handcuff them, then the suspect is close enough to stab the officer. Granted, this man was suffering from mental illness, the police should have kept their distance from the get go. Less than lethal weapons are always more desirable than lethal force. If the one officer was already placing the suspect under arrest, and the suspect then tried to stab the officer with "whatever" (or a pen) the officer's partner was duly trying to protect his college by stopping the potentially deadly attack. If your mother were trying to apprehend this man, and he tried to stab her in the neck with a pen (or with what you thought was a knife since you hadn't the time to positively identify the swinging object) would you have calmly asked him to place the weapon on the ground? This article doesn't present all the facts. Maybe we should research this a bit more to find out what the officers knew before they used deadly force and how the mentally ill man was acting at the time. Let's do that before we decide who is guilty or innocent.

[Homple]

"If your mother were trying to apprehend this man, and he tried to stab her in the neck with a pen (or with what you thought was a knife since you hadn't the time to positively identify the swinging object) would you have calmly asked him to place the weapon on the ground?"

If double amputee in a wheelchair was trying to stab my mother in the neck with a pen and I shot him, I would be in serious trouble with the police and would not get a paid vacation from work while my union got the authorities to excuse my conduct.

[Gray Ghost]

A thing that gets me about police shootings is that they're mostly investigated by representatives of the same entity that will have to pay out the ass if they find any fault or negligence with the officer. Not that Texas criminal jurisprudence isn't laden with conflicts-of-interest---letting the criminal judge appoint counsel to trials they oversee is another good one---but the investigation one always struck me as blindingly wrong.

[Loki]

Houston Police Officer Matthew Marin did not violate police procedure in the shooting of Brian Claunch

Procedures were followed, shots were fired, OFFICER SAFETY was upheld, nuts were punched...

[Ayn Random Variation]

In a sensible country, this would be the lead story for every media outlet, and outrage would ensue.

Which reminds me.
A guy named Leroy was invited to a come as you are party.
Leroy shows up with his dick in a custard pie.
The host says what the fuck?
Leroy says he's fucking dis custad.

[R C Dean]

I'm fascinated by the way "following police procedures" appears to be a full defense to murder charges.

[Meerkatx]

Cops couldn't have stepped off the curb or find a couple steps to stand on? I guess shooting is easier then moving.