The NYTimes has a good graphic presentation of the shooting the other night in Queens. I didn't realize this earlier, but the shooting is four blocks from the site of my semester's architecture project. Sweet.
As far as I can tell, the cops were being assholes to a group of 23 year old black kids. Same old NYPD. It seems to me that the group of black males left the club at 4am pretty drunk. I mean, it was the victim's bachelor party. They got in the car and when approached by the officer they panicked. I don't think they panicked because they had a gun or were doing anything wrong, but because they were afraid of getting a DUI on the night of his wedding. Who wants to be late to your wedding because you got arrested? Now, driving over the cop and hitting a van (twice) is not the best solution or action, but its a far cry from being a gun weilding psycho like the cops portrayed their story.
Its possible that the police were actually shooting at themselves. One officer is in front of the car, others were behind. They shot 50 rounds, but missed 29 times, hitting the AirTrain Station, other cars and houses in the area. If the officers had to reload their weapons because they thought they were being fired upon, the cross fire could have caused this. There have been problems with officers shooting excessively or killing innocent residents recently. This archived article talks of three recent killings that have raised questions of police brutality. Is police brutality a question of police being stressed, or are they continuing their jobs as if it were still the 1980s when crime was higher?
jgabriel.org
PIPS
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