Fuck Joseph Schramm

Check out this letter to the editor in the local rag DC Examiner today:

Behavior led to police shooting

Media coverage of the unfortunate death of Aaron Brown has stopped for the moment, so I want to take this opportunity to focus the discussion in a different direction, and on the real cause. The kids involved instigated this tragic event. Officer Stowe, while performing his duty, tried to resolve it.

Everybody likes to place blame, so let’s start with the parents of the kids involved. The parents allowed them to stay out beyond 4 a.m. They raised them with no sense of right and wrong and little respect for others, for authority and for the law.

These kids were allegedly involved in theft, illegal drinking of alcohol and possessing and/or using illegal drugs. They were fleeing their crime scene and thought this was all a game or a joke.

If the kids had behaved responsibly, they would have stopped when confronted by a uniformed police officer. Had they done the right thing, the outcome of that night would have been quite different.

I am sure the investigation of Stowe will be decided based on the facts. I hope the parents and kids involved are also investigated and held responsible for their actions.

Joseph Schramm
Alexandria

So, four teenagers skip a tab, and cop shoots one of them to death, and this jackass says the responsibility lies with the parents for letting an 18-year-old stay out late? I bet this conservative piece of shit would have a far different opinion if a white kid were in SE DC late at night, and got shot by a private citizen who was Black in a questionable "self-defense" case outside a nightclub. Think he'd say the blame belonged with the parents for that one? Or think he's be hollering for justice?

You think he blames rape victims too for walking around late at night? And their parents for letting them out? If the "kids had behaved responsibly" this wouldn't have happened, huh? Is it "responsible" for an off-duty cop to shoot wildly at a moving car?

Does this man have no human empathy? Can he place himself in the mind of a kid who skipped a tab? Does he have sadness for the senseless loss of human life?

By defending this murder, Schramm hurts the credibility of all law enforcement.

The Post reports the use of force was questionable -- even if the officer's story was true.

Many public safety experts agree that policies allowing officers to shoot at moving cars are risky and antiquated.

"We put the emphasis on better training. Striking at a moving vehicle doesn't do you any good. If you think you had a problem before, try adding a corpse behind the wheel," D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said last night. "We feel better tactics, better approaches . . . is the way to go."

Geoffrey Alpert, a criminologist at the University of South Carolina and an expert on the use of lethal force, said officers can put themselves in a position to fear for their lives. "This is an issue that is well resolved at major departments for all the right reasons," he said. "You do not shoot at a moving vehicle when the only force being used against you is the moving vehicle."

But, even so, it appears the cop fired into the side of the car! See: Family, Witnesses Discuss Fatal IHOP Shooting

"I don't know why a cop would open fire on a vehicle full of kids, when, really, what should have been done was taken the tags down and called it in," Daughtrey said.

Sources told News4 that at least four shots were fired into the Jeep: one into the grill; one into the hood; one into the rear, side door behind the driver; and one into the rear quarter panel.

"Immediately after, we're yelling at the cop, telling him, 'He's not breathing. He's shot,'" Daughtrey said. "At that point, he told us to shut up."

Fuck you, Joseph Schramm, I hope you get arrested in a case of mistaken identity. Fuck the police. I hope this cop goes down for murder and gains a gain a new appreciation for Oz while in lockup

Don't get me wrong -- our society needs police, and most do a sacrificing, noble job, but if you can't discipline your own, if you can get shot 41 times for brandishing a wallet, fuck 'em.

Alright, I'm off to listen to some Springsteen.