In light of what has been happening to our country as exemplified in Ferguson, MO., the Los Angeles City Council, has just approved a $5 million payout to the family of a man the LAPD murdered. I have written comments about that tragedy, along with other examples of cops out of control, but this struck me as good news/bad news, but really not so good.
The Los Angeles City Council today approved a $5-million settlement with the family of a National Guard veteran who LAPD officers fatally shot at the end of a wild pursuit in downtown L.A. last year. The settlement comes in the case of Brian Newt Beaird, 51, the subject of the chase last December that was broadcast live on TV and went on to receive national attention.
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The fact that this was captured in real time and run over and over I'm sure helped the council make its decision. Because it was clear that the driver was not aggressive (he was falling down drunk, actually; it was a wonder he could even drive) and that cops shot with no provocation or reason. I used the word "murdered," because that is what it was. The police, of course, will give it different spin. But one man is dead and I will be paying for that along with the other 3 million residents of this city that cannot repair sidewalks, trim trees or recruit and train cops when and when not to shoot.
Earlier last year, another group of blue-suited LAPD geniuses, looking for a rogue cop who was murdering other cops and their family members, sent 100 high projectiles into and around a truck carrying two elderly Hispanic women, who did not in any way resemble the African American bad guy. Only fate knows why they were not killed nor was anyone else in the residential neighborhood they shot up.
Those cops got a slap on the wrist. The ladies got a new truck and some of my tax money, too.
So it behooves the cops and powers-that-be in Ferguson to see how transparency is done; what taking responsibility looks like, but we still haven't addressed the underlying reason for trigger-happy cops. I don't think I have an answer, nor, without proper investigation, will we get one. But what we do know is that we can't keep hiring and protecting cops who are killing instead of doing the same for the citizens they are sworn to serve.
And I also feel that most of that $5 million should come from the pockets of the trigger happy assholes who killed Brian Beaird, not the rest of us.