Re: Minneapolis woman shot and killed by police after calling 911 to report assault,
It's becoming increasingly clear that any interaction with police, no matter how innocuous it seems, could end up being fatal. The only safe thing to do seems to be to avoid the police at all costs.
I had recent highly emotional interaction with my hometown cops about a month ago. On a Saturday morning at 7AM, my SO came into my driveway intending to take his car...the car I had destroyed with a sidewalk ice chipper the night before... the car that was filled with trash bags of his stuff soaked with bleach and roundup. I ordered him off my property. He refused to leave. I called the cops describing a "domestic," their favorite. I was drunk from an up-all-night pity party for myself. My SO thought I would be arrested.
The PD sent four squad cars. Two eventually left. I quickly explained the situation. Told them I had a signed paper saying I could destroy his crap if he cheated again. I'd caught him the night before. Then I stepped away and let them do their thing. "Their thing" was to tell him to call a tow truck... that he wasn't driving the car anyplace or they'd impound it. He wanted his car keys. They were in the house... I said I couldn't find them. They looked at him and shrugged. He wanted his phone. I soaked it in the toilet for 45 minutes, then gave it to them to give to him. The cop just shook his head. He wanted his wallet. The cops asked for it. I brought it out and throw everything in it up in the air and scattered it across the property. Told him to get down in the grass where snakes,belonged and pick it up himself.
I called him every name in the book, as they say, at the top of my lungs. The cops finally asked my cousin to try to get me in the house. I went, but snuck out on the porch a half dozen times to continue calling him every name I'd ever heard of. The cops never addressed me. Never confronted me. They just stood there and supervised my SO getting his **** off my property.
Why am I telling you this? Because I could have just as easily been confronted by the cops. I could have been arrested. I was drunk and out of control. I was also emotionally destroyed. THAT was what they responded to. When the tow truck finally arrived, the cops told him if he returned and I called the cops, they would arrest him if they caught him on my property.
I picked up the police report a few days later and apologized to the cops. The police report said "no alcohol involved" and that my SO agreed he'd signed a paper saying I could destroy his stuff. (That last part is true.) They are my heroes -- the same way I've viewed cops my entire life.
As a PS, four days later, the same cops supervised his getting the rest of his crap, toured the house with him and my cousin as she let him make sure he had all the stuff he wanted, witnessed his signature as he signed receipt of same and told him if he ever returned he'd be arrested.
No shots fired. No guns drawn. (I have a concealed carry, btw.)
99.9% of cops are filled with awesome.
