Authorities in New Mexico will not seek charges against three police officers involved in a fatal shooting after arriving at the wrong house last year.
Officers in the town of Farmington fired dozens of shots and killed Robert Dotson, 52, because he appeared at the door of his home holding a gun.
At the time, the officers were responding to a domestic violence call from a house across the street.
The Dotson family filed a lawsuit against the department last year.
According to a complaint filed by the family in court, police arrived at the Dotson residence late on 5 April, 2023 and “parked down the street and did not have their lights on”.
When Mr Dotson opened his front door holding a weapon, police immediately opened fire, striking him 12 times. Another 19 shots were fired at his wife Kimberly, who was unharmed during the incident. Police later said she opened fire on officers with a pistol.
Police should have access to weapons, but they should be locked in the car and require remote unlock when they actually need them.
Or maybe leave them to trained professionals they can call for support.
That might work in cities with a reasonable response time.
Or maybe just fucking train them. 6 months is supposed to be enough? You need more than that to cut someone’s fucking hair.
The problem is they attend conferences that brainwash them into thinking that every person they interact with is seconds away from pulling a machine gun out of their pocket and mowing them all down. To make things worse, their word is also treated as gospel by a large portion of the population so generic terms like “I feared for my safety” (along with qualified immunity) is all they need to avoid any sort of accountability.
the police training in the united states is a complete disaster.
theres no standardization, no requirement for any kind of conformity. you have random contractors and “state schools” teaching officers that every interaction with anyone, ever is a threat to their life. seriously.
they actively reject ‘students’ who question questionable practices. they reject people who test ‘too intelligent’.
the entire system is designed to attract, and keep the worst kind of people.