Closing Bell: Shooting in Front of 370 Lafayette

Now they are saying that the cop was wearing earphones and therefore could not hear Walker (who was standing right next to him). Even if that is believable, and Walker did start physically assaulting the cop, he must have known that Walker had just come from inside the building and had a good idea of the motivation for the assault. Then he is assisted by his partner, who grabs Walker, but the first cop still sees a need to pull out a gun?

I also find it hard to believe that Walker would grab the gun if he was indeed aware that the armed man was a police officer. Not a smart thing to do in any event, but if you were being restrained by one apparent thug while another was pointing a gun directly at you, that might be a natural reflex action.

Brownstoner, I find it interesting that you emphasize that Walker was an ex-con. There is no question that the whole thing was an unfortunate accident, arguably resulting from police error, or a systemic over-reliance on firearms by law enforcement. Do you mean to suggest that one's view of the incident should be different if the victim is an ex-con vs. someone who has never been caught breaking the law? It's not as though there is an issue as to whether he "brought it on himself" by association with other criminals. In this case, the cops only appeared to be criminal types and were clearly not associates of the victim.

I agree with the prior post saying that if the cops were intent on not blowing their cover they should have just left the scene rather than engaging with Walker. Given their posture as drug dealers hanging out on other people's property they might have chalked up any flack they received to occupational hazards. It would be different if they witnessed Walker assaulting a citizen, but then again the appropriate thing to do would still be to identify themselves.

Blowfish -- I take it you are okay with the cops (posturing as drug dealers) hanging out on private stoops as long as it is not your stoop. How would you feel if you walked out of your door to see a shady character lounging on your steps? Also note that this was the stoop of a single family home not an apartment building, so it was clearly not someone who had any reason to be there.

Posted by: supersleuth at July 14, 2009 2:18 PM

Blowfish, I also live on a corner with a lot of drug activity and, selfishly, would love to see some regular busts until the market moved elsewhere. However I think using private property for this purpose without permission is pushing it. Sorry to belabor the point but if this happened to you, you would not know the person sitting on your stoop was a cop. It would just appear that they were loitering. As a woman, I think I would actually feel a little threatened by a strange man sitting on my steps without permission. (Particularly if, like Walker's mother, I was in my seventies, legally blind and an amputee.) Depending on my level of timidity that day I may even be reluctant to ask the person to move, because I would assume, just by virtue of them sitting there, that they didn't have too much regard for my interests. If I were home by myself at night I might even be afraid to open the door, which, if they had some criminal intent, would give them the opportunity to force themselves into my house.

You are right, I misspoke when I said the undercovers were posturing as drug dealers. But regardless, to the person whose property they are using I think they would seem shady just by virtue of what they were doing. And based on some knowledge of this issue (not from TV) I think that most undercover narcotics officers affect a less than clean cut look because sometimes they play the ghost role and other times the buyer. So I imagine these guys didn't exactly look like Jehovah's Witnesses taking a break from knocking on doors.

I think that this incident may result in a new policy precluding the use of private property by undercover cops when not absolutely necessary.

Xander -- this happened on Saturday night. A LOT of people with jobs are home on Saturday night.

Posted by: supersleuth at July 14, 2009 7:03 PM