So you shot a fire chief for no good reason? Have him falsely charged, too, for good measure

In a continuation of a recent story where Arkansas fire chief Don Payne was shot in the back by a police officer, in a courtroom, for no good reason other than he was creating a very mild disturbance (in other words, contesting the corrupt, power-mad cops in the town of Jericho and their ticket-writing mania), Payne is now gonna be charged with battery on a police officer.

Well, okay, perhaps that seems fair, you would say. He would indeed deserve to be charged if he had bludgeoned a cop; he still wouldn't have deserved to have been shot in the back, which was both excessive and cowardly, but an attack merits punishment. Except that it's not the case here: Payne simply shoved an officer back when the officer had shoved him first, apparently without provocation other than the fire chief disagreed with the two traffic tickets' he'd gotten in a single day. (Or so Payne's account states.)

Fairley says Payne went after officers, and the officers had every right to detain Payne.

Detain him, not shoot him. They wouldn't have been justified in using lethal force (which is what gunfire is classified under, regardless of whether you aim for the head, chest or limbs) unless he was posing a serious, credible risk of serious injury or worse to anyone else. I don't think a little shove constitutes such a danger.

Payne says he was not armed, and that the officer pushed him. That's when Payne says he shoved the officer back.

One of the police officers shot Payne, a bullet also grazed one of the officer's hands. Fairley says Payne tried to beat up the officers.

Payne has hired a lawyer. That lawyer says they haven't decided if they will file a civil lawsuit against the officer. Payne is still recovering at The MED.

This whole affair is torridly ridiculous. First, if the fire chief gets two traffic tickets in one day, I do think he's entitled to complain a bit before the judge, especially in light of the cops' overzealous approach to upholding the law in the town of Jericho. Second, even if Payne did enter a scuffle with an officer, merely shoving an officer – particularly, shoving an officer back when the thug had pushed him first for no reason – does not constitute battery (see the legal definition here), but assault at worst. It would classify as battery only if the cop fell and hurt himself upon landing or something, which the report doesn't say he did. And third (and most of all): even if Payne had committed full-fledged battery upon the cop, that still doesn't excuse shooting him in the back. Proper protocol would've been to forcibly restrain him, or at worst, to threaten him with a gun, without actually squeezing the trigger unless things turned real sour.

I wish Fire Chief Pain a quick recovery, and then, a full load of luck in the lawsuit I hope he will launch against these overreactive twits.

(And need it be said that, of course, the cop who actually shot Payne won't be himself charged with anything?)

(via The Agitator)
Technorati tags: courts · fire chief · don payne · police brutality · jericho, arkansas