- The officers did not try to wake McCoy up or talk to him after they spotted a gun in his lap, and instead pointed their firearms at his head directly outside the car as he slept for several minutes.
One officer said: “I’m going to pull him out and snatch his ass.”
The officers then realized the firearm did not have a magazine in it, noting to each other that if it was loaded, it would have a single bullet in it: “He’s only got one shot if he shoots.”
The officers then appeared to make a plan to fire at him, with one saying, “If he reaches for it, you know what to do.”
McCoy eventually started to move, scratching his shoulder and not yet appearing alert or saying anything to officers, and several seconds later, all six officers fired at him.
- One of the officers who fired at Willie had previously shot and killed an unarmed man and is the subject of an ongoing excessive force lawsuit. A second officer was previously sued in a police brutality case. The officers have not commented on the shooting.
I am so angry. How can we go on like this? How long will this last?
I feel almost opposite of the way you feel. I'm angry but the seeds of real change seem like they might have been planted. I grew up being told not to trust the police. My parents told me that the police beat and killed people and didn't face consequences. The police framed people and lied to put people in jail when they wanted. Most my 40+ years I've seen an unending standing ovation for the boys in blue, at least from white society. It even got worse as time went on, first it was the drug wars and then 9/11. The guys who killed Willy McCoy would have gotten bravery medal twenty years ago (they still might) now there's a slim chance that they could lose their jobs or get prosecuted. Who knows what another decade might see come to pass. The first thirty years of my life there was basically no chance of an officer ever being held accountable for murdering an innocent, that's starting to change.I am so angry. How can we go on like this? How long will this last?
It's not getting better nearly fast enough But it is getting better. I wonder if guns are something Americans are going to "age out of" like TV and cigarettes. I mean, at some point the law enforcement profiling will have to catch up with the fact that it's the white dudes who are most likely to have contraband in their car, guns in the pants and an aggrieved sense of entitlement looking for an outlet.
Not going to happen. Even setting aside the thoroughly racist origins of modern American policing , law enforcement is effectively a right-wing gang. The FBI is too busy persecuting nonviolent environmental activists, Black Lives Matter, and other left-wing groups to recognize the growing threat of right-wing extremism in their ranks and in the country at large.
Not as long as the GOP can throw a fit and shut them up every time Homeland Security tries to bring it up.I mean, at some point the law enforcement profiling will have to catch up with the fact that it's the white dudes who are most likely to have contraband in their car, guns in the pants and an aggrieved sense of entitlement looking for an outlet.
