That kinda reminds me of a story in my home county where a kid got arrested for hitting and killing a cop with a car. (car was stolen, kid was charged with first degree murder) Anyway, while he was in custody and awaiting a trial, he was killed and his murder made to look like a suicide. The kid in question was isolated from other inmates, the only people who could have killed him were the employees of the correctional facility.

As for the subject matter of this thread, I personally have never understood why we allow police departments to have internal investigations and then leave it at that. As far I'm concerned, police actions should be investigated from 3rd parties whose authority and operational structure originates in a higher authority within the governmental structure than the local jurisdiction. (so, if the cops are part of City A's police department, then the investigative body would be part of the county or state/provincial government that has authority over city A)

That's what's happening in this case. The provincial (equivalent to state, no?) police are investigating the city police who were involved in the shooting.

The economic downturn has been especially hard on the Mushroom Kingdom.

OP I get the feeling you think the officers were aiming at that bystander. You can't help a ricochet shot.

While I agree the force was perhaps unneeded we really can't judge because we weren't there.

This same thing happens all over the world. At the end of the day it just comes down to the fact that they let some really stupid people into the police. Officers are oftentimes very irrational and consider themselves above the law. I think there should be greater penalties for laws broken by officers than people would otherwise have. It's good incentive to actually do your job and not abuse the system.

Montreal is an otherwise good city though. I went there for a week last summer, and enjoyed my time there. No one likes speaking English much though, which is a pity. But it's not as if cities like New York are any better

Even though the police are underpaid and overworked, they [censored] up.

I did not once say or insinuate that the officers took a direct shot at the bystander. So I don't know where you would of come up with that.


Underpaid? Maybe where you live :thumbsup:
I know an ex-cop who worked for the OPP who took in about $65,000 a year. And that's a pretty comfy number since he admitted most of the time all he was doing was sitting in his car waiting for something, or was on routine car patrols.

Gotta be a boring job most of the time to be honest ><

What would you do

Well. Considering police are training in CQC to detain and disarm suspects if they don't pose an immediate lethal danger [i.e pointing a gun at you and shooting], my guess is wait for the guy who is charging, and whom is probably not thinking and going to do an obvious jab or strike with the knife, when he swings, move, grab his arm, twist his wrist, put it to his back and drop him on his face on the ground.

Not "OH [censored] A GUY WITH A KNIFE RUNNING AT ME JESUS CHRIST SHOOT. [censored] SHOOT HIM! HES GONNA KILL US ALL!"

They should be put on a double murder charge.

Looks like Montreal has cops just as bad as Seattle.

Does anyone like Quebec anyway?

This is sad both for the homeless man and the unfortunate bystander.

The article states
The police may or may not have been aware of the homeless man's mental illness, BUT, he was threatening someone he knew with that knife. The job of the police is to protect the populace. That includes making sure that a knife wielding mentally unstable homeless man does not incapacitate them and obtain their weapons, which would further endanger others. It is sad that the homeless man died, and it is even more tragic that an innocent bystander was killed. It could have been worse. The homeless man could have gotten hold of their guns. Mentally ill people can exhibit tremendous strenght and cunning. Mental illness does not equal physical weakness or lethargy.

^This right here. Seriously, people are so quick to judge the actions of police when they know ABSOLUTELY nothing of what happened. I read the report linked in the first post. Nowhere in there did I read that they shot the man on sight with no provocation.

This innocent bystander is very unfortunate however. None of us know the details of that part of the story so should reserve judgement for later. It is clear, however, that the officers were traumatized by the event, since 4 officers had to be treated for shock.

One thing I hate most in the world is when an authority figure who is there to keep order and supposed to help citizens thinks he has power and is above the law just because of their titles and toting around a gun. I hope they get the .................. .

I have no qualms against regular police who are actually doing their jobs, but there are plenty of pigs out there.

BS. Dont cover for these morons. They viewed the homeless man as a cancer to society and couldnt wait to pull the trigger. I know this because in the coreectional system I heard many many times other officers talking about how much they would love to start sniping inmates from the tower. Cops and Correctional officers are generally violent people, and they want the action. This is why I quit. Stupid me thought that we were about reform in this country.

And as we all know, if there's a few police officers who are dikes that means that the rest of them are as well.

Without any figures to base this on, I would[n't] be surprised if that is a coping mechanism for many of them.

My brother is in the military. Trained pretty well. He jokes with his squad about the best way to rob a bank.
He'd never rob a bank. None of them would.

Didn't know you were there to see what happened.

I have several acquaintances that are cops. They're nice people and wouldn't take shooting someone lightly...yes, even a homeless person...even an annoying homeless person. Also, beat cops and correctional officers aren't anywhere close to the same breed. I've had my share of run-ins with cops that were jerks, but there are also a lot of good officers out there. I think it's sad that so many here are jumping to the conclusion that this was an act of malice with very little information. I'm sure it really encourages the police to be nice...you know...being so appreciated and everything...

Great. Officers with the mental capacity of a chicken infront of a meat grinder, that fire weapons off in such as fashion they can't hit their target <_<

I am so never going to Montreal.




I know a few myself. I know one guy in NYC who got shot in the leg trying to detain a guy with a gun who was running away. Which I give him credit for since, the guy had a gun and he didn't decide to just shoot the [censored].

no no no no no. you can question whether or not they should have used tazers or checked to make sure that they had a clear shot and no bystanders in the background etc. but you do not try and run up and "subdue" someone with a knife. that is the height of stupidity. that is as stupid as when people say well why dont you just aim for the legs. you can kill someone just as easily doing that hitting a main artery and having them bleed out.

firing guns in real life is not like in video games or the movies. more often than not you miss. its amazing how badly adrenaline can mess up your aim even from short distances.

hindsight being 20/20 they should have either tried to tazer him or used bean bag rounds or something. maybe even pepper spray since those things spray several meters.

In hindsight. If the suspect really was close enough that he was 'lunging' and officer, a bean-bag shot would be more lethal than a bullet at that range. Not to mention more cruel since you'd destroy the ribs, and organs around the impact site so it would be a painful slow death.

And, well. I don't know.. if you know this.. but officers... train to.. you know... fire guns under stress... fire guns while chasing after suspects, or firing guns when extremely exhausted. :shrug:

And they didn't have tazers.

And.. erm.. as a general rule of thumb.. especially when at close range, you shouldn't be missing your shots on a suspect.

The pepper spray i'd agree with but. If the guy was 'mid lunge' it'd be more effective to just punch him in the face.

ill have to read the actual article but if the guy was actually lunging at the officer with a knife then why are people even complaining about this. you dont talk to someone who is attacking you with a knife, you defend yourself and cap their ass. the fact that someone else got shot is obviously not good but unless people are suggesting that cops dont have guns and only use billy clubs and tazers then i dont see an alternative until we get phasers with stun setting. :shrug:

supposedly he was threatining someone he knew so frankly im not feeling sorry for the guy. not all homeless people are "victims of society"

i also think your overestimating police training. this isnt military level training by any means unless your talking swat. practicing at the range and a couple of run throughs of a cardboard house do not prepare you for the real thing.