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.
If the police are allowed to kill you simply for possessing a gun, you do not have a right to bare arms. They have violated your civil rights.
You don’t get killed for “simply possessing a gun”, you get killed for brandishing one in front of police.
Having a gun on your person while opening the door is not brandishing. Also, there are countless other examples of people getting shot by the police simply for possessing a weapon.
There is also zero reason to believe that this man was aware the people at his house were police.
Having a gun on your person while opening the door is not brandishing.
Yes it is.
there are countless other examples of people getting shot by the police simply for possessing a weapon.
I’m referring to the incident in the OP.
There is also zero reason to believe that this man was aware the people at his house were police.
I mean there’s 1 reason: they were police. If the man failed to investigate before opening the door while brandishing a firearm, that’s on him.
But as I’ve already stated, it doesn’t matter if he knew or not, really.
You should look up the definition of brandishing because you are incorrect.
Who the fuck “investigates” before opening their door? Basically nobody aside from looking out a peephole.
You should look up the definition of brandishing because you are incorrect.
Who the fuck “investigates” before opening their door?
Any sensible person, but especially people who open doors WITH FUCKING GUNS IN THEIR FUCKING HANDS.
Having a gun in your hand is not brandishing. You have to wave or aim it in a threatening manner for it to be brandishing.
You do not have to wave or aim it in a threatening manner for it to be brandishing. It doesn’t even have to be in your hand. Stop looking up legal definitions on Merriam Webster.
The term “brandish” means, with respect to a firearm, to display all or part of the firearm, or otherwise make the presence of the firearm known to another person, in order to intimidate that person, regardless of whether the firearm is directly visible to that person. 18 U.S.C. § 924©(4).
disarm the police. they do not need to be armed their entire shifts. if they approached this house without lethal weapons, how many people would be dead right now?
zero. the answer is zero.
do not let cowards have lethal armament
It’s well known in most countries that only hunters and cowards own guns, so are you saying we should disarm everyone bar the hunters?
i believe the police in their normal day to day operation do not need to be lethally armed.
they turn simple transactions into life threatening events with almost no benefit to the public.
this is a perfect example. if the police only had, say tasers and this guy comes walkin out with a gun. is he going to run? not possible. do you really think he would just start shooting a block full of police officers? no of course not.
but the cowardice is part of police training. shoot first, question later and be sure to empty the fucking clip.
I would love to see all the people asking to disarm police officers apply for the job once we do. But its so easy to make these claims from the safety of your house. Who cares about actual realistic solutions?
UK police only carry a baton and pepper spray my dude. Last I checked, they weren’t hurting for recruitment.
UK has almost no privately owned guns. US has more guns than people and its gun laws are nuts.
UK leading by example then. But riddle me this, how often is a firearm needed for an officer doing their everyday duties? Traffic stops, patrols, responding to calls. How often is it explicitly needed to be actively carrying a loaded firearm to a inherently non violent situation before having assessed it? I honestly have no idea. Is the expectation in the US that you’ll just get straight up murdered for doing your job? Is that how you guys live?
That’s the gist of what they’re taught, yeah. It shouldn’t take much digging to find “training” videos that are essentially: cop walks up to man in parking lot, man pulls a knife and lunges at cop instantly. The moral? Everyone is ready to kill you.
How often do you need your seatbelt? Should you still wear it anyway? And there are situations when wearing a seatbelt can kill you where you would survive without it.
The idea is the same with cops. A properly trained cop carying a weapon all the time would be safer overall by being able to react to violent situations while not posing a threat in non-violent ones. The issue is how incredibly undertrained most US cops are.
And yes, if they are not sufficiently trained, they should not carry a gun period. Not in their car, not anywhere.
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.
Or maybe just fucking train them. 6 months is supposed to be enough? You need more than that to cut someone’s fucking hair.
They took 19 shots at the wife and didn’t hit her? Not only are these people disgusting but they can’t even do this part of the job fucking right.
I did not realize that I will be reading a post of a person who is upset that additional innocent person was not shot dead.
Weird takeaway but okay? Jesus ever living fuck this place is turning into reddit fast. I’m very clearly saying it’s pathetic that they are failures at even being killers as well. They can’t even be the pieces of shit they want to be right. Not that I’m disappointed that they didn’t manage to kill her.
And you know that. But you just desperately wanted a moral high ground. So I guess clap yourself on the back my man.
pizza delivery guys fuck this up far less and show a higher degree of care and professionalism, while not having guns and power to hide behind
must have been that White privilege I keep hearing about
If you’re gonna open a door with a gun in your hand while either not knowing who is on the other side, or knowing that it’s cops, you get no sympathy from me. That’s incredibly irresponsible.
In a country full of completely unjustified police shootings, this just takes away from real tragedies.
