Pueblo deputy awarded Purple Heart for injuries suffered during shooting of Richard Ward
chieftain.comSubmitted by Drablit t3_11aj0ep in nottheonion
Submitted by Drablit t3_11aj0ep in nottheonion
So like America to be so obsessed with military that they give police military metals. What’s the point of losing a limb overseas if some fat cop can get the same recognition for shooting a child.
They legit think our communities and neighborhoods are battlefields if they are giving Purple Hearts out to cops who get scraped in my driveway or my middle school. My community is not a battlefield and interacting with the public you swore to serve, is not combat for you to get awarded combat metals in
It's not a real purple heart, it's like a participation trophy from the local trophy shop... You can just give anyone any shape award and make it any color you want to... That doesn't make it official.
Is Purple Heart not a legally protected term? It's pretty close to stolen Valor.
I want him to wear it everywhere and explain how he earned it truthfully.
Pretty sure this is the region in Colorado that sends Lauren Boebert to Congress. They won't mind.
Hicks gonna hick
Have you met these people? Stolen Valor is their wheelhouse... I'm sure they'd just claim it's civil asset forfeiture, not theft... And so what if it was? Qualified Immunity.
It definitely feels like stolen Valor, but there is no such thing as a legally protected term...first amendment and all. You can trust me that I know what I'm talking about *points to noble peace prize ordered from Amazon*
There are protected terms in the US but they may all be professional titles as far as I can see - oh and dietary statements like 'fat free' which are protected defined terms.
And if official organisations bounce your arse there's always your local cryptofascist militia for you to rise through the 'ranks' of.
“We investigated ourselves and found ourselves not guilty of any wrong doing”
A lot of the lingo used is military-esque too. Like referring to non cops as civilians. Them having sergeants and lieutenants etc
Quasi-military with none of the individual accountability, rules, commitment or danger.
Much service, very proud.
Hey! I take exception to that. As a mentally ill person I do not want to be associated with those absolute bastards
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The key is to not respect awards cops get without fully understanding how exactly they got it
Every policeman’s aspiration
How can these people not be offended themselves for being offered an award for doing something so cowardly? Like that should feel like an insult, to anybody capable of feeling shame. Instead they relish it. Wtf.
Have you seen the video?
The reality doesn't support what you are saying.
Looks reasonably accurate to me. At what point did he warrant two rounds to the chest?
>Looks reasonably accurate to me.
Perhaps you have some sort of mental impairment, or English is a second language to you, but when you say someone is "non-violent", but there is a video showing him being violent, people are going to start questioning your claims.
>At what point did he warrant two rounds to the chest?
I suppose at some point during the fight the police officer felt his life was in danger. Apparently he went for his gun.
It sounds like the man was somewhat disturbed, based on his reported behaviour prior to police arriving. He certainly failed to do what was asked of him and fought with the police when they tried to remove him from the car.
You can't change what actually happened simply by saying things you would like to be true.
It's unfortunate, but these things happen.
Cop sees man swallow a pill
Somehow, his fetid cop brain interprets this as a threat
Cop grabs man from car, throws man to ground, jumps on top of man, screams at man
Man wiggles legs and flails in fear
Heroic cop helps man cool down by blasting extra ventilation holes in man’s chest
Rude ass man doesn’t even say THANK YOU HERO COP
I'm not sure how you think making a story about what didn't happen will help your case.
We can all see the video and you are wrong about what you claim happened.
You need to stop consuming so much propaganda, it's hurting you
I'm not sure how you think making a story about what didn't happen will help your case.
We can all see the video and you are wrong about what you claim happened.
What video did you see?
I saw a video of a man with obvious mental health issues was pulled from a car and shot by police while trying to take his meds.
Please describe what you saw in the video.
I’m wondering if you watched a different video or if you are a troll
You are either a cop or want to be... that is the dumbest take on this I've ever seen.
You mean like he was violently sitting in his car talking to the officer, who repeatedly made contact, and already had his hand on his gun, and the grabbed him for taking a pill, and threw him on the ground, and then proceeded to get violent with someone who was not at all acting violently, who unsurprisingly reacted when he was flung from his car onto the ground.
Then he shot him because hims was toos a'scairt of going two on one with a man after he initiated the violence.
He shouldn't be getting a medal when he started the fight. He should be rotting in jail, awaiting his trial on first degree murder charges.
Cops need to be taught how to deescelate situations, not immediately go to full Rambo mode. Cops need to stop being mollycoddled when they shoot unarmed citizens. Cops need to stop acting like the whole world is out to get them. It sets them into kill or be killed mode in every encounter, no matter the situation.
But I guess I shouldn't worry. Three of his buddies investigated it real good, and they agreed that their friend and coworker did absolutely nothing wrong.
Worse, he's a Jordan Peterson fan lmao
That explains it
Wannabe rittenhouse
Your take is the dumb one.
Clearly the guy violently resisted. Saying "he was violently thrown to the ground" and other blah blah means nothing, when the video shows he was resisting and fighting the cop from the minute he tried to get him out of the car.
It's pretty simple. A police officer is allowed to grab someone. A citizen is not allowed to then fight with the cop in response to being grabbed.
Actually, cops are not allowed to assault citizens without cause, and the cause can't be because they wanted to. Now the courts may not choose to enforce these violations of civil rights, or the crimes that officers get away with, but that doesn't change the fact that they are breaking the law.
And in case you are wondering, that is how humans respond to being suddenly and violently attacked. Your body goes into fight, flight, or freeze. Most folks will respond physically when anyone suddenly grabs you. It's called a survival instinct, and cops shouldn't get to use that basic human response to get away with murder.
I'm very sorry that you understand so little about the real world. You have a fine evening in your little fairytale land.
>Actually, cops are not allowed to assault citizens without cause, and the cause can't be because they wanted to. Now the courts may not choose to enforce these violations of civil rights, or the crimes that officers get away with, but that doesn't change the fact that they are breaking the law.
The guy was acting suspiciously and the police officer wanted him to get out of the car. Police have the power to do this. Citizens have no right to resist or fight. > >And in case you are wondering, that is how humans respond to being suddenly and violently attacked. Your body goes into fight, flight, or freeze. Most folks will respond physically when anyone suddenly grabs you. It's called a survival instinct, and cops shouldn't get to use that basic human response to get away with murder.
Flight or flight is not a legal defence for resisting a police officer and fighting with him. This is a ridiculous idea. > >I'm very sorry that you understand so little about the real world. You have a fine evening in your little fairytale land.
You are the one living in a fantasy world. One where people don't have to do what the police say and can fight with them if they choose.
I would say the same to you, but I don't think anyone could really have a fine evening living in such a messed up place, even if it is imaginary.
Lmao give him one of your Jordan Peterson books. You just told him to clean up his fairytale room
You couldn't be more incorrect. Cops don't get to just tell you what to do if you haven't broken a law. Hence "Law Enforcement". Police have exactly zero authority to touch you if you've not broken a law.
He didn't have to speak at all. That's his right. If he wasn't pulled over for a traffic violation, they can't even demand ID without a reason.
People with intellectual or emotional disabilities often can't follow directions (at least immediately) under stress, and don't deserve to be murdered by police. It's not hard to understand
One day you might witness someone you care about being murdered by a cop in the most agonisingly, frustrating, needless way. Let's see your take on whether it's necessary then.
> Clearly the guy violently resisted.
Not to the point of requiring a lethal solution. Reaching into your jacket is a no-no when interacting with police, and the grab out of the car was likely fine. Once on the ground though, it doesn't matter how much they're kicking, the gun is only called for if they're going for a weapon.
I'm unclear as to protocol on taser vs gun when an unknown weapon may be in play.
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You're so deluded if you think that man needed to be shot.
I just hope one day you have an interaction with a cop, a slight misunderstanding happens and you get to see first hand the bullshit you spew is in fact bullshit.
Sorry to disappointed you, but I don't plan on fighting with a cop any time soon.
I’m not your dad, you won’t disappoint me. But I’ll share a tid bit of info. Most people who are abused by the police didn’t ask to be any of the following stopped, assaulted, raped, arrested, oh and murdered.
Your argument is weak so you are forced to make petty insults.
Watch the video. It shows what happened.
Your first reply to this conversation
>Perhaps you have some sort of mental impairment, or English is a second language to you,
Also you
>Your argument is weak so you are forced to make petty insults.
No petty insults just a fact bud.
The facts are in the video. You should watch it.
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You:
> Perhaps you have some sort of mental impairment, or English is a second language to you
Also you:
> Sorry to disappointed you
No shit you'd be too busy sucking their dick for shooting your dog and beating their wife.
Neither did the many innocent people who have been murdered by them. Many were just answering their own door, sitting in their own vehicle, minding their own business when a cop suddenly feared for their life (because they are so scared shitless everything poses a mortal threat to them) and that was the end of their life. No explanation, no reasonable judgement, no jury of peers. Just an executioner who gets a paid vacation after you die
Exactly! When a cops says suck my dick, you will eagerly suck cop dick…
Good engwish bwo. Try getting lessons from the lovely immigrant english teachers lil prick :)
That was a cop that turned a non-violent situation into a one where he murdered a man… because he thought he put something in his mouth.
The guy could have obeyed orders, he could have not resisted, he could have not fought with the officer.
He chose to do that and it was that which made the situation violent.
This was an extrajudicial murder because an officer that was ready to pull his gun right after he asked the guy to get his ID out suspected him of putting something in his mouth… not a single crime committed… sentenced to death by a murderer.
"Obey orders or I'll kill you," is a robbery.
And if one person commits a murder during a robbery, they're not only still considered guilty of murder but so are their accomplices who created the situation.
​
I know you openly want a police state, but you're in favor of crime so it's not even a proper police state.
He didn't insult you and your points are nonsense. Throwing a guy out of a car because he may have taken a pill is dumb. American police resort to excessive force as soon as they feel their authority is threatened not their safety.
Stop being a bootlick.
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That boot taste good huh?
It will be "unfortunate" when you get two to the head, for a "misunderstanding", and the cop getting the medal of freedom?
Jesus christ, in what world is putting ANYTHING in your own mouth grounds for getting pulled out of the car and thrown on the ground. Also i think its terrifying that people like you think its ok for "trained" police officers to freak out and do whatever they want while us regular people are the ones that need to stay calm the whole time while cops pile on top of you for, again, literally no reason, or else you'll be shot.
Dude fuck your self righteous attitude
The icing on the cake for me is that there's a V attachment on his award as well, which means his actions were considered exceptionally heroic.
This shit is so fucking gross.
The V was from 2017, the picture used there isn’t the purple heart
That makes sense, but now I hate both awards.
This will not change until federal laws address it.
The Graham v. Connor and Tennessee v. Garner Supreme Court decisions mean that this is a license to murder:
"I am claiming now, that at the time of the shooting I believed the person I shot was likely to cause serious harm to someone else somewhere at some time."
Cops don't get much training, but they're told ALL about these two decisions and how to frame things properly.
And those decisions aren't going to be challenged.
The only way this changes is a new federal law.
Good fucking luck.
Police can outright murder you and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.
American police force is a Joke for:
How is structured
How is financed
How is not regulated
How is not responsible
How is not trained
We try our whole lives to avoid any interaction with any of them. They're dangerous, armed, lie, get away with breaking their own rules, laws, general morality & I don't believe a single officer in America can empathize with other people. ACAB, psychos, one & all.
And wannabe army when the army teach better fire discipline. And I don't understand the whole SWAT thing you have there.
America is amateur time... All the time.
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I'm quite glad you posted your comment. It led me to research those two rulings. I'm making a list of alarming supreme court rulings and these two rulings are valuable additions to my list.
Graham vs Connor 1989 states that claims of excessive force have to be "objectively reasonable." However, police can now use deadly force if they have an "objectively reasonable" belief that there is a threat to their safety. That belief does not need to be based on evidence. See "Police can use deadly force if they merely perceive a threat" on https://www.vox.com/identities/2016/8/13/17938226/police-shootings-killings-law-legal-standard-garner-graham-connor
Tenessee vs Garner 1985 lets police kill fleeing suspects when "the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others."
These rulings seem to let police kill people whenever they want and are part of a broad trend by the Supreme Court to gradually destroy democracy while protecting corrupt power.
Are there any other distressing important rulings that you think I should know about?
Imagine being a Purple Heart recipient
You risked your life to save lives in a war
And then this twat-waddler gets one for free for shooting an unarmed person.
Man I’d throw that medal in the trash now it’s fucking meaningless if we give them out like candy to fucking murderers
Not to take away from those who earned a Purple Heart but the military loves to give them out for about anything.
When my father was in 'Nam, some drunk on base got ahold of a grenade and thought it would be funny to pull the pin and throw it in the middle of the base trying to scare everyone.
A piece of shrapnel grazed my father's arm, requiring 4 stitches to close up the wound. And while they were sewing him up, someone came and just put a Purple Heart on the table next to him.
He grabbed it, threw it back at the guy and said "save it for those who actually earned it"
And my father said the last he saw of the drunk idiot was an MP walking up and hitting him in the face with the butt of his gun and then they dragged his unconscious body towards the makeshift brig they had.
>Not to take away from those who earned a Purple Heart but the military loves to give them out for about anything.
They had crates full of the things left over after WWII because they were made in expectation of an invasion of the Japanese home islands. Naturally the invasion didn't end up happening, so they were just left with a whole bunch of medals and no one to give them to.
I think they're still using those medals to this day. If that's how many they have, I'm not surprised they hand them out like candy.
That and it makes them look good. Kinda "hey we sent this person to an active warzone and they got hurt/killed. But we gave them this medal to make up for it"
They estimated a minimum 800,000 dead, and a total of 1.5-2 Million casulties by US forces alone, plus another million casulties by other allied forces.
The Japanese casulties would of crippled Japan forever.
10-15 Million dead, and another 10 million wounded on top of the dead.
The Atomic bombs seemed like a slap on the wrist compared to the absolute slaughter of Operation Downfall.
It's not that they give them out for "about anything." You can take a look at the requirements here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Heart
In the example you described:
Type of injury: caused by shrapnel, so qualifies
Severity of injury: required medical treatment, so qualifies
Source of injury: This is the only real question. The description says that the injury may be caused by an enemy or friendly fire that was intended to harm an enemy. This definitely fails the requirement for friendly fire intended to harm an enemy, so we have to evaluate if the drunk soldier was considered an enemy.
I would say intuitively no, but who knows what they were thinking at that time.
I got my purple heart by being shot by the NVA, the grenadier in front of me got his by being killed.
They're honestly taking one of the most sombre and humbling awards a soldier could ever earn and passing them out. Might as well load em into a t-shirt cannon at this point.
Just when you think reality can't be any more of a fucking joke, this happens
After watching the video the best thing I can say is about Charles McWhorter is that he's a killer. I won't go as far to say that he's a murderer, but I'm thinking it...
It's particularly telling that police forces try to mimic armed services awards. A real clue that they believe they are at war with the people they are supposedly serving. Continue to not hold murderers accountable for their actions and award them instead you're definitely not gonna see any change in police behavior.
Fuck the police. Biggest gang in the US.
It's not a single Gang, but multiple gangs with different rules.
No other country in the world has a so granular and indipendent structure for it's police force.
Italy for example has:
Polizia di stato (State police)
Carabinieri (Gendarmerie, 4th armed force branch)
Guardia di finanza (Finance Minister police)
Guardia costiera (costal guards)
The minor forces, as regional, or local police, are generally cover only administrative role and are not always armed.
Every single one of these uniformed thugs need to be run off the planet
Since when do cops merit purple hearts? Do veterans find this insulting? Not being facetious.
Since they started being treated as a military
I mean police by nature are paramilitary due to their usually post Civil War founding, so adopting ranks and medals made sense then. But I do think they’ve leaned into the military style aspect too much
It took something like 18 months to determine that charges were warranted against Alec Baldwin but a DA determined that the shooting of Ward was "justified" within two days? I'm going to bet that was one hasty investigation. This is why cops have lost the confidence of the public.
Part of the gang initiation - you need to murder an unarmed citizen to prove your allegiance
Acab once again
But not a real one, right? The Purple Heart is a military medal.
> The Purple Heart is awarded in the name of the President of the United States to any member of the Armed Forces of the United States who, while serving under competent authority in any capacity with one of the U.S. Armed Services after 5 April 1917, has been wounded or killed.
Did these chuds go down to the local trophy shop, and and have the Little League trophy guy steal some valor for them?
A Law Enforcement Purple Heart is a generic term to describe an American law enforcement medal which may be issued to any law enforcement officer who is injured, wounded or killed in the line of duty.
Okay, so … yeah. Not a real one.
Apparently the LEO PH was “invented” in 2013. And they don’t even need to be injured for it.
> In addition, this award may be conferred if an injury was averted by the wearing of body armor.
What. The. Fuck.
McWhorter also received the Medal of Valor award in 2018 because of his response during a 2017 officer-involved shooting in Colorado City. McWhorter and Deputy Charles Roldan were responding to a search for Dennis Flowers, who had an arrest warrant out for a robbery.
Flowers allegedly pointed a gun at McWhorter, according to the CIT report for the incident. Roldan first shot Flowers twice, and then McWhorter shot the man 10 times “until Flowers fell to the ground.”
Mighty deep hole they're digging themselves
Sounds like they are building a tower, a tower that stands above all rules and ethics.
I hope the department dissolves
What. The. Fuck.
This is one of many reasons why Pueblo will always be the asshole of Colorado.
We'll keep saying ACAB until the decent humans pull the psycho violent thugs from their ranks. Uvalde, Elijah McClain, Sandra Bland - show us because all average Americans see are murderers running the jails.
Can a CIVILIAN even earn a purple heart? Because a police officer is a civilian.
If I was an alien species I would stay as far away from earth as possible. What kind of barbaric species commends the killing of a young man has heroic? Not one that I would want to associate with.
It is a murder award.
I have no words.
Cops can get purple hearts? What the fuck is that shit
Its beside the point I suppose, but arent purple hearts strictly a combat earned military award?
Pigs will be pigs I guess
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Next year he will retire with a full pension because he hurt his back while shooting that unarmed man three times in the chest.
Dirt bag cops reward dirtbag cops. We need to federalize all police forces.
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Be more careful, people. Stop electing these insane sheriffs.
Holy shit.
Cop gets a medal for murdering someone that was afraid of police murdering him. Irony isn't even remotely a strong enough word.
Drablit OP t1_j9sbl51 wrote
The officer was given a Purple Heart for the very slight scrapes he suffered while shooting an unarmed, terrified, nonviolent man to death.