Plainclothes Chicago police officers fired nearly 100 gunshots over 41 seconds during a traffic stop that left one man dead and one officer injured, according to graphic video footage a police oversight agency released Tuesday.

Five officers from a tactical unit who were in an unmarked police vehicle surrounded an SUV last month driven by Dexter Reed, allegedly for failing to wear a seatbelt. Video shows the 26-year-old Black man briefly lowering a window and then raising it and refusing to exit the vehicle as more officers arrived, yelled commands and drew weapons.

  • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    He did fire at the police, you know. Pretty sure that counts as an actual threat.

    • stringere@leminal.space
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      7 months ago

      He fired at a group of dudes in civilian clothes driving regular vehicles telling him they were cops. Guess what more than tripled from 2019 to 2021 and continues? Car jackings and armed car jackings.

      They allege this was for a seatbelt. Weapons drawn for a simple traffic stop?

      Plainclothes officers, especially, should not be approaching people with a weapon drawn.

      • squozenode@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        This is exactly why the “defund the police” movement is so popular.

        Traffic cops do not need to be armed.

        • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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          7 months ago

          Traffic stops should also be initiated by marked cruisers. If needed, plainclothes cops can assist, but they shouldn’t be the first contact.

          • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            I’m not stopping for an unmarked without being on the phone with 911 to make sure they’re a real cop.

            Growing up, we had a string of assaults in a podunk city that was perpetrated buy some guy(s) who bought some blue/red lights and a siren. Hell, for a while even the cops were saying not to stop outside of a well lit area at night…

        • x0chi@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Specially traffic cops on a ego trip thinking they are playing Miami Vice

      • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        civilian clothes driving regular vehicles

        The vehicles had lights and sirens, and the officers were wearing body armour that identified them as police.

        The idea that he thought this was a carjacking just isn’t feasible.

        • Soggy@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Plainclothes police and unmarked cars should not exist (outside of, potentially, planned and warranted sting operations)

        • x0chi@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Not so feasible that even the 60 minutes show not so long ago did a episode/piece just about a wave of robberies that their method was using police cloths, sirens on their vehicles bought on Amazon… This must be common enough for 60 minutes show to do a piece on it, and I bet people who seen it sure think it’s a thing that is happening. Not that I’m blaming 60 minutes, just saying that it’s common enough for a national tv show to pick on it for a piece.

          • FilterItOut@thelemmy.club
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            7 months ago

            Maybe… I still remember the national news piece about D&D being evil, and the national furor over satanic cults existing inside of day cares that had plenty of news coverage. Fearmongering isn’t a new millennium thing, it’s just gotten prolific due to the ease of the internet.

      • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        20 rounds in a Glock mag, five officers, basically all five of them put an entire mag into the guy.

        I probably would too, if someone was shooting at me.

        • 100_kg_90_de_belin @feddit.it
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          7 months ago

          So you’re telling me that State-condoned violence is managed by people who are not better trained than a rando on the Internet.

        • x0chi@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          You don’t expect a trained soldier to shoot all the rounds when he is being attacked for multiple reasons. For other reasons you should also expect that a trained police officer shoots in the best possible way. All agents firing all the rounds in the mag sounds like panic too me, and if it is then cops should be better trained. One thing is how we civilians would react, another thing is how a professional that has a license to kill acts. And men with license to kill panicking and firing all the rounds sure isn’t professional… so why we admit that can say “oh I’m my case I would do the same.”. They are professionals, they should act professional, they NEED TO BE professional or else shouldn’t carry a arm and a licence to kill.

          • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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            7 months ago

            Have you heard of suppressing fire? Soldiers fire a huge amount of ammunition without hitting anything.

            And as other commenters have pointed out, it’s not panic, it’s a strategy, keep firing until the threat is down.