Brickbat: Bullets Are Cheaper Than Patrol Cars

Pcheruvi / Dreamstime.com

In Tennessee, White County Sheriff Oddie Shoupe was caught on body-camera video lamenting that he was not present for a chase that ended with deputies and a Sparta police officer shooting and killing Michael Dial. "I love this s***. God, I tell you what, I thrive on it," he said. He also revealed he'd told deputies to shoot Dial. "They said, 'We're ramming (the suspect),'" he said on the video. "I said, 'Don't ram him. Shoot him.' "F*** that s***. You're gonna tear my cars up."

Comments

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[Eidde]

He doesn't sound very empathetic...he must be a libertarian.

/sarc

[Fist of Etiquette]

"I don't know how you can thrive on taking a human life," [widow's Attorney David] Weissman said. "That's not law enforcement."

Someone hasn't been paying attention.

[Deflator Mouse]

Everybody has people whose lives they would thrive on taking. Like you wouldn't enjoy killing Hitler, Kim Jong Un, or Liberace.

[Curly4]

Kill? Yes. Enjoy? No. It would be an unpleasant necessity.

[BigT]

This is what happens when you only raise the budget by 10%. People start cutting corners.

[Deflator Mouse]

As usual Reason leaves out details that don't align with their anti-cop narrative. The driver of the pickup with trailer had intentionally crashed into one of the cop cars that was trying to get him to stop, disabling it and severely injuring the officers therein, and was headed to crash into another one when he was shot.

[Griffin3]

I watched the original source (video). The police officers are entirely responsible for the threat to other civilian vehicles in the area, having near misses with several vehicles, and forcing other civilian vehicles off the road. The suspect vehicle was headed down a steep embankment towards a barbed wire fence and ditch when the officers shot; may not have been disabled, but definitely wasn't going anywhere on the road after that. I could not find any source that claimed the officers in the first car were severely injured, or that any officers were injured at all. After watching one officer in the video destroy his own front right wheel assembly in stupid ramming attempts, I would guess the first collision is also officer-initiated.

Then again, a brickbat is a paragraph summary of an obvious outrage. You want a more in-depth article slanted to your own biases, right your own brickbats.

[Kivlor]

I was pretty impressed with the cops in the first part of the video, trying to box him in and force him off the road. Then they seemed to get aggravated and started ramming him, which isn't particularly shocking, since he had obviously hit the car in front of him repeatedly.

To me, this whole thing accentuates the value of policies restricting aggressive chases. In my town, several years ago we restricted the police in chases, instructing them to pursue at a distance unless a clear and present danger to the public is posed. (ie he's rammed other cars or run over pedestrians) Our cops are expected to follow the guy until he stops. If it gets out of control, then they try to get a spike strip up ahead of him.

[Brendan]

Yep, this is another case of "you're not helping".

I can't think of anything that's done more to quell my anti-cop feelings than the constant crying of brutality and excess force for cases that are borderline at best or flat out not excessive.

[Marty Feldman's Eyes]

Really? Ordering the execution of someone because some cars get damaged isn't excessive? Let me ask this- what crimes would you *not* use the instant death penalty for?

[Marty Feldman's Eyes]

and severely injuring the officers therein,

This is the most that is said in any of the sources:

"Shoupe also mentions that one officer is bleeding from the mouth, and was taken to a hospital."

"Three officers, one from Sparta PD and two from the White County Sheriff's Office, sustained injuries consistent with being in a vehicle crash and have been transported to the hospital."

Once again, cops being pussies. If they were seriously injured we would have heard all about it. We know from past stories that cops will use the slightest scratches and bruises to claim that shit was serious, when it's clearly not. It's no fun to be in an accident, sure, but this whole mentality that I see time and time again that hitting a police car=intent to murder an officer=death penalty is bullshit and needs to stop.

[Conchfritters]

Was banjo music heard when the execution order was given?

[Wizard4169]

No, but the sheriff was wearing mirror shades.

[Jimbo]

Wow, looks like the police really...

(dons sunglasses)

Dialed it up a notch.

[Tony]

Cops > cop dogs > cop cars > white civilians > glazed donuts > brown civilians

[IceTrey]

Sounds like conspiracy to commit murder.

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[Calidissident]

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[Calidissident]