Chase,Taser,Shoot

[Mr. Laz]

Cop Arrested After Video Shows Her Shoot Unarmed Man in Back Lying Face Down in the Snow
By Cassandra Fairbanks on March 25, 2015

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Harrisburg, PA– Hummelstown police Officer, Lisa J. Mearkle was charged with criminal homicide on Tuesday in the shooting death of 59-year-old David Kassick on February 2.

Mearkle shot Kassick as he laid face down on the ground in the snow, unarmed, during a routine traffic stop gone awry.

Mearkle had attempted to pull Kassick over for an expired inspection sticker, but the situation escalated when Kassick attempted to flee from the officer.

Eventually Mearkle caught up to the motorist close to his sister’s home where he was staying, but Kassick got out of the vehicle and fled on foot. As he was attempting to run away, he was incapacitated by the officer’s taser which she held in her left hand. With her right hand, she unnecessarily pulled out her service gun and shot the unarmed man twice in the back as he lay face-down on the ground.

The 36-year-old officer claims that she shot the unarmed man because he would not show his hands and she was concerned he may have been reaching in his jacket for a weapon, but the recording from the deployed taser paints a different picture.

District Attorney Ed Marsico has stated that it appeared from the recording that Kassick was simply trying to remove the stun gun probes from his back before his life was taken.

“At the time Officer Mearkle fires both rounds from her pistol, the video clearly depicts Kassick lying on the snow covered lawn with his face toward the ground, furthermore, at the time the rounds are fired nothing can be seen in either of Kassick’s hands, nor does he point or direct anything toward Officer Mearkle,” the arrest affidavit reads.

A syringe was found near his body, and there were unspecified drugs as well as alcohol in his system when he died. His family has admitted that he has struggled with addiction, a personal problem which should not have cost him his life.

“Mr. Kassick is now dead as a result of a traffic stop, a routine traffic stop,” one of the family’s attorneys, Christopher Slusser, told the press. “He should not be dead. He should not have died as a result of that traffic stop. And the manner in which he was shot — you can infer from that what you will.”

Mearkle is currently free on $250,000 bail. She faces potential charges ranging from misdemeanor involuntary manslaughter to felony first-degree murder depending on what the prosecution decides when she is formally arraigned.

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/pa-...v0jtryAGBAF.99

[RobBlake]

running away got him tazed. Getting stopped by an inept trigger friendly cop got him shot.

He was nervous. anyone who has done drugs and drove will have a twitchy paranoia to them and esp if stopped. If i read correctly, he had drug objects on him.. thats prob why he ran. The only personal responsibility he should own is running and getting arrested because he couldn't keep his cool.. but we know the results

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by Brock

I'm sure it is true that almost all cop-suspect shootings are justified. As we've recently seen, it's also becoming more common for cops to behave recklessly and negligently, or perhaps we're simply becoming more aware of it because there are cameras everywhere. Killings like this one are the result of making stupid people cops. There are other examples where it's just plain old malice and meanness and power-tripping. It's unacceptable.

I really, really don't want to believe that there is any cop, anywhere, that goes to work hoping that they get to shoot someone that day. That's not something that I can wrap my mind around at all.

In this case, I don't know if it's as much stupid as she wasn't mentally capable of handling the situation. That I can understand, and those people shouldn't be cops, but unfortunately you never know until you're in that situation.

[Rudy tossed tigger's salad]

Originally Posted by BigMeatballDave

I know, right?

Check out this evil pig saving this black child...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/body-cam-fo...ry?id=29898186

Staged

[jspchief]

Originally Posted by Baconeater

Interesting that Strongside didn't post anything from the article he pulled that graph from.

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-d...-people-2014-8



Curious to how similar a graph of how many police officers were killed by criminals would look...

50 officers were killed by firearms in the US in 2014.

It's time to call bullshit on the narrative that the job's dangers justify their itchy trigger fingers.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by jspchief

50 officers were killed by firearms in the US in 2014.

It's time to call bullshit on the narrative that the job's dangers justify their itchy trigger fingers.

Just like it's bullshit that all cops are trigger happy assholes because a minority are.

[TimeForWasp]

Originally Posted by jspchief

50 officers were killed by firearms in the US in 2014.

It's time to call bullshit on the narrative that the job's dangers justify their itchy trigger fingers.

575 people were killed by cops in 2014

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...d_States,_2014

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by jspchief

50 officers were killed by firearms in the US in 2014.

It's time to call bullshit on the narrative that the job's dangers justify their itchy trigger fingers.

Tell that to the families of those 50 officers. I'm sure it will go over really well.

[jspchief]

Originally Posted by Baconeater

Tell that to the families of those 50 officers. I'm sure it will go over really well.

I'm sure the family of the guy this lady just executed feels all warm and fuzzy inside.

No one wants to die on the job. But statistically speaking, there's a lot of jobs out there where it's more likely to happen than by being a police officer. The idea that a police mans life is so threatened that it justifies their reckless use of guns simply bullshit.

And imbeciles like you eat up the police department talking points about how endangered their lives are. You read an article that describes the victim as a junkie and the shooter as a mommy and wife, and are too stupid to see how you're being manipulated. You take a cavalier attitude that his life wasn't worth much anyway, so who cares if he was sentenced to death without trial for running from a cop. The same attitudes that the police use to justify shooting people even when they don't face legitimate threats.

[Demonpenz]

Cops love to shoot people.

[TimBone]

Originally Posted by Baconeater

I really, really don't want to believe that there is any cop, anywhere, that goes to work hoping that they get to shoot someone that day. That's not something that I can wrap my mind around at all.

In this case, I don't know if it's as much stupid as she wasn't mentally capable of handling the situation. That I can understand, and those people shouldn't be cops, but unfortunately you never know until you're in that situation.

Definitely not the same as shooting, but there is an officer in my area that is hoping to use his tazer on someone. I've been pulled over and harrassed by him twice. Both times he had legit reasoning for pulling me over, but he was super aggressive. Both times I was being very polite (even more so the second time), and he seemed to be trying to escalate the situation. It was very odd.

I mentioned it to my wife in front of her friend. Her friend used to work some desk position at the police station. When I told her the name of the guy, she said, "Oh, yeah. He's trying to use his tazer. He's been looking for a reason to use it since he got hired here."