Guys,
This is an aviation forum and not the place to discuss the politics of police shootings but as a police firearms officer who is just about to finish my ATPL(f) I have to reply to Harpy.
You have given two examples of 'innocent' people being shot by police.
The first example in Brighton..Mr Ashley.a fine upstanding member of the commumity who had only 86 convictions for mainly violence ,firearms and drugs including killing another human being.
A highly trained firearms team entered the flat that morning,the first officer in being PC Chris Sherwood a fine honourable family guy doing the right thing because he believed in right and wrong. The team attempts to enter by stealth but the door has been barricaded with steel bars(as you do) so has to be broken open.(The following is from PC Sherwoods statement)PC Sherwood is then greeted by a naked Mr Ashley who has his hands behind his back.PC Sherwood issues a challenge of armed police to Ashley and Ashley points his hands towards Sherwood as if holding a gun.Sherwood in the half light shoots Ashley once in the chest which proves fatal.
There are two witnesses to this..The 18 year old girlfriend in bed with Ashley and the firearms officer behind Sherwood.Predictably you might say the other firearms officer coroborates Sherwood and the 18 year old girl states that Ashley raised his hands above his head and Sherwood executed him.On the basis of what she said Sherwood was charged with murder.
The pathologist assigned to this case was Dr Ian West(the pathologist from the Fred and Rose West trials). His evidence was that the only way that Ashley could have been standing when he was shot was with his arms held out in front of him and that the girlfriends evidence was lies.On the first day of the trial the judge stated that there was no case to answer after 18 months of hell for PC Sherwood...would you do this job???.The reason that heads rolled on this was because the firearms team were given false information by the management(ie there was good information that a firearm was in the premises when this was utterly false)
Thankfully Chris is getting his life back together again and has moved back in with his wife and children and will hopefully one day return to being the man he was( Sorry Harpy who was the innocent victim in this)
As regards the shooting of Harry Stanley in Hackney with the chair leg I am involved in this ongoing case and cannot comment further except to say read bjcc's post
Ps I really wanna fly planes for a living instaed of this