BART has decided to let the DA decide what happened, after interviewing 40 people, except for those suspects closest to the action and the person, Police officer, who actually fired the shot, BART has completed its investigation. The results of the investigation have been passed to the DA but with NO recommendations a highly uncommon occurrence.
For those of you who have been living on Mars, a BART police officer shot an unarmed man in the early hours of January 1. The Man was face down and pinned by two officers, apparently offering no resistance. One of the two officers then drew his firearm stepped back one pace took aim and shot the man. The whole incident was captured on multiple cell phones and cameras, with ample video from many angles.
It has taken BART 12 days to "investigate" and they punted. The problems with the BART investigation are Legion. Basically it stinks to high heaven.
For those of you who want the full story go to the ABC news web site, their reporting has been fairly comprehensive.
http://abclocal.go.com/...
There are a number of very clear issues that need to be looked at:
- The shooter claimed the fifth, early. This everyones right under the law, his included, however if I shot some one in front of multiple witnesses (at least 40 plus three they clearly did not interview) I could claim the 5th and refuse to talk but I would do so from a prison cell.
- The statement from the BART police that they do not know intent is pure BS, intent is not an issue if the shooter will not talk. He should be held in custody and brought before a judge who can either remand him or set bail. If he choses not to speak then the judge can take that into consideration when determining bail. The officers resignation is not an excuse.
- BART may have given at least one board member an inaccurate statement as to the occurrence, this prior to the emergence of multiple sets of video footage, technology is wonderful.
- No mention is made of disciplinary action against the other officers involved, why for instance is no medical attention offered to the victim, why is the shooter left armed?
- Having a police review board will not solve the fundamental issues, that just investigates incidents. Or at least it will look at incidents presumably with information from the officers involved. Far more fundamental would be to go back to recruitment and training to determine what went wrong, and to look at the organization's operating culture.
- It took them 12 days to get to this point, that is about 10 days more than it should have taken, why?
I am sure others of you will have far more succinct points to make, but to be honest I keep looking at that snark letter written on BART letter head and thinking you know I would not want to travel on their trains right now. If you want people to use public transport then the people have to be confident about their safety on that public transport, including having confidence in those employed to maintain the safety of ALL passengers.
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