Destinee Thompson was supposed to be on her way to lunch with her stepmother in August 2021 when Colorado police, mistaking her for a robbery suspect, fatally shot the pregnant mother as she fled in her minivan.

  • magnetosphere@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Snelling added that the agency later discovered Thompson had warrants out for her arrest and the autopsy found illicit drugs in her system.

    Man, I hate it when the cops bring up this irrelevant bullshit. All they’re trying to do is make the victim look less sympathetic, and make themselves look less bad in comparison. Even if the officers had known about the warrants and drugs, these facts don’t make it okay to gun a woman down.

    • meco03211@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I wish reporters would flip this on the cops. “Two officers, with no active warrants, killed a woman.”

    • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Remember when a cop broke into Botham Jean’s apartment and shot him in the face while he was sitting on his own couch eating ice cream? Remember when afterward they had a press conference to show off the <1 gram of marijuana they found just in case that made him a bad person who deserved to die.

    • Zengen@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Running from the police with an active arrest warrant while your high is pretty relevant lol

      • kase@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Afaik, running from the police also isn’t a reason for them to gun someone down.

    • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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      It’s not irrelevant at all. It’s likely the reason she didn’t identify herself, which in turn led the police to believe she was their robbery suspect. Outstanding warrants and drugs wouldn’t justify gunning her down, but a robber is much more likely to go on and hurt or kill someone.

      • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Or, the constant barrage of videos thanks to people having smartphones where we see cops regularly exploiting their position and maiming and killing random innocent people. Might also be a decent reason why somebody may not want to just get ol buddy buddy with the police.

        I mean I for one have seen more cops kill innocent people in videos than I saw people die on rotten.com.

        • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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          1 year ago

          When I have an arrest warrant out against me, I contact the courts and figure out what I need to do to get the judge to withdraw it. Most likely, they just give me a court date. They might ask me to go to the courthouse and sign for service of a summons.

          I do this, because I know that if I don’t do it on my own volition, I’m going to have cops and/or bounty hunters explaining the steps they had to take to arrest me, and that judge is then going to consider their testimony during my bail hearing. The more I run, evade, hide, or fight, the less likely I’ll be released on my own recognizance, and the higher my bail.

          That’s the expectation in our society. We avail ourselves of the justice system. We demand that our case proceed out of the police station and into the courts as quickly as possible.

          It’s rather dumb to try to run from the police, but arrest warrants aren’t issued by the police. You’ve got to be tragically stupid to try to run from a judge.

          • TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            It’s only felony warrants that bounty hunters and cops really pursue. You aren’t being hunted for not showing up to court for a misdemeanor. Also, I have personally known people that have waited out their warrants. They seem to disappear in most states after about 7-10 years.

            • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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              1 year ago

              Whether police are actively searching for me or not is completely irrelevant. They might show up at my home at any time. They might show up at my workplace. Any contact with the police triggers almost certainly triggers arrest: Being pulled over at a traffic stop. Being involved in a vehicle collision. Being attacked by a criminal. Witnessing a crime. Kids get lost, can’t find their way home, and police return them. Neighbor complains about noise.

              Or, as in this case, being mistaken for a suspect.

              No, I’m not going to spend 7-10 years of my life looking over my shoulder to avoid a misdemeanor warrant that carries nothing more than a small fine or community service. No reasonable person would. That’s just stupid.

              She would have been arrested after this stop, not for the crime they initially and reasonably suspected, but on the warrant. She knew that, even if they didn’t. She decided to mash on the accelerator of a 3000lb vehicle in the presence of officers on foot. She decided that endangering the lives and bodies of police officers was a reasonable and acceptable course of action. She decided that aggravated vehicular assault of police was preferable to paying a fine and performing some community service.

              The expected standard of behavior is that she contact the court and clear up the warrant on her terms. She chose instead to ram a police cruiser and multiple officers with her car.

              She was no Breonna Taylor. She was no Philando Castile. She had full control over the situation, and chose felonious acts of violence in an attempt to avoid the courts.

              I can empathize with her position, but I have no sympathy.