"Oops, I'm Sorry" - The Tale of Wannabe Cop Bob Bates

In a shocking video from Tulsa, Oklahome you can see Bob Bates, a 73-year-old reserve cop, shoot a black suspect named Eric Harris, who had already been tackled to the ground by another cop. Then Bob says "Oops, I'm sorry, I thought it was my taser."

New excuse - His taser made him do it. Even though the taser was inside his vest and the gun was on his hip. Oops.

Again, Harris was on the ground and nearly subdued. Other cops were standing around him, so there was no need for Bates to shoot, and indeed, dangerous to do so because he might have hit another cop!But good old boy Bob Bates just had to do something, so he shot Eric Harris.



Then as the dying man lay on the ground saying "I can't breathe," you see another cop press his full body weight onto Harris's head while snarling "F--- Your Breath," possibly referring back to the death of Eric Garner in New York City, the man who was tackled to the ground and grabbed around the neck while begging for air.

Seems like cops have had enough of this "freedom of breath" nonsense. The only thing you can do is just kill people. Totally understandable. After all the jails are too crowded, right? Killing suspects for petty crimes clears more space for the real bad guys - the killers, etc. You know, just like Bob Bates.

Bob Bates didn't even have the proper training records, according to Tulsa World

In a statement that the 73-year-old reserve deputy gave the sheriff's office following the fatal shooting of Eric Harris during an undercover operation on April 2, Bates noted he had taken "active shooter training" from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
Lisa Allen, chief media relations office for the sheriff's office there, said they had no record of Bates attending their training.
. . . "We don't allow out-of-state people to take the class," she said. "I'm only surmising, and I can't confirm this because this would not have been our class, but our active shooter instructor did travel to Dallas once to teach a class.
. . . Supervisors at the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office were ordered to falsify a reserve deputy’s training records, giving him credit for field training he never took and firearms certifications he should not have received, sources told the Tulsa World.
At least three of reserve deputy Robert Bates’ supervisors were transferred after refusing to sign off on his state-required training, multiple sources speaking on condition of anonymity told the World.

Even beyond the nonexistent certification is the fact that Bob Bates had supplied the Tulsa police department with gifts of money and equipment. So did he bribe his way onto the force?

KRMG in Tulsa published a list of donations from Bob Bates, ending with this important piece of information:

Bates also served as Chairman for the re-election campaign of Sheriff Stanley Glanz in 2012, and contributed money to the campaign.

From the Today interview with Matt Lauer via Crooks and Liars:

“First and foremost, let me apologize to the family of Eric Harris,” Tulsa reserve deputy Robert Bates said of the 44-year-old black man he fatally wounded. “This is the second-worst thing that’s ever happened to me or the first that ever happened to me in my life. I had cancer a number of years ago. I didn’t think I was going to get there… I’d rate this as number one on my list of things in my life that I regret.”

Asked by Matt Lauer how he could make the fundamental mistake of grabbing his gun instead of the taser, Bates replied, “This has happened a number of times around the country. I have read about it in the past. I thought to myself after reading several cases, I don’t understand how this can happen.”

He added: “You must believe me, it can happen to anyone.”

The remorseful deputy, who was surrounded by his family and lawyer, told Lauer that “I have no desire to ever take anyone’s life,” and recalled the state of shock he was in the moment he realized he had shot Harris.

~~~~~~~~~~

"This is my taser, this is my gun. This one's for killing and this one's . . . oh look, a black guy!"
~ Arfer on Crooks and Liars

An old geezer with no training playing cop, what could go wrong?
~ lardheppus on Crooks and Liars

As ever... conservatives love to TALK about responsibility... but when it comes to TAKING responsibility... we have folks like this guy. "I pulled my gun instead of my taser, but that's okay, because it's happened before to others, and I killed a guy but I right away said I was sorry, so I am NOT GUILTY!"
~ Willem on Mediaite

Literally unbelievable. "The second-worst thing that's ever happened to me." And "it can happen to anyone."
Well excuse me, Deputy Dawg, but I believe this is the first-worst thing that ever happened to Eric Harris, and the second worst is that you're still drawing breath.
"Remorseful" my foot. Bates is mildly inconvenienced because of all the attention he's getting because of his little oopsie and he wouldn't mind if you all just went on with your business and left him alone.
This guy needs a room with no view next to Alex Hernandez, and should be let out on the same day.
~ expatpatiot on Mediaite

Oklahoma and the Unusually Cruel Execution

Oklahoma gave an inmate an untried chemical cocktail in an attempt to perform an execution. The only problem was the prisoner didn't die right away, and instead suffered a horrible death that was witnessed by reporters. Thanks to the secrecy of the state of Oklahoma, we'll probably never know exactly what went wrong, but at least they stayed execution for the next prisoner in line. As if OK wasn't backward enough, now they have this new blot on their record. One more good reason to get rid of Governor Mary Fallin.

Live Tweets of horror by reporter Bailey McBride:

First execution botched, second execution stayed.
— Bailey Elise McBride (@baileyelise) April 30, 2014

6:23 p.m. execution started, stopped when blinds were lowered at 6:39 p.m.
— Bailey Elise McBride (@baileyelise) April 30, 2014

Prison officials said they will try to get Lockett to hospital to resuscitate him.
— Bailey Elise McBride (@baileyelise) April 30, 2014

He was conscious and blinking, licking his lips even after the process began. He then began to seize.
— Bailey Elise McBride (@baileyelise) April 30, 2014

At 6:33 the doctor said Lockett was unconscious and then at 6:34 Lockett began to nod, mumble move body.
— Bailey Elise McBride (@baileyelise) April 30, 2014

7:06 inmate Clayton Lockett suffered heart attack and died.
— Bailey Elise McBride (@baileyelise) April 30, 2014

Her feelings the next day, April 29, 2014:

Live tweeting an execution seems unnecessary and kind of sick to me. After what happened, I felt like it was important for people to know.
— Bailey Elise McBride (@baileyelise) April 30, 2014

From The New Yorker

Oklahoma’s secrecy laws make it impossible to know anything beyond the names of the ingredients injected into the condemned prisoner. The state has declined to provide the public with reasons for selecting a particular drug cocktail, or with any details about the drugs themselves, or about the supplier. The state reportedly buys the drugs with petty cash, to make the purchases more difficult to track and, therefore, harder to legally challenge.

What is known, though, is that, ten minutes into Lockett’s execution, a prison official told a doctor, “Go ahead and check to see if he’s unconscious.”
After checking, the doctor said, “Mr. Lockett is not unconscious.”
“I’m not,” Lockett said.

Courtney Francisco, a reporter for KFOR-TV, in Oklahoma City, was one of the witnesses at the execution. She told the BBC that Lockett, strapped to the gurney, was moving his arms and legs and mumbling, “as if he was trying to talk.”

We have a fundamental standard in this country that even when the death penalty is justified, it must be carried out humanely. I think everyone would recognize that this case fell short of that standard.
~ White House Spokesperson Jay Carney

You’d think that a modern society endlessly searching for a “humane” way to kill people, and finding that all of its methods turn out to be some form of torture, would do one of two things: realize there’s no humane way to kill people, and stop it, or accept that the point is cruelty, and just torture the hell out of them. Mary Fallin and her Oklahoma allies appear to have decided the latter. They should be honest about it.
~ Joan Walsh on Salon

The botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma this week is yet more evidence that the death sentence is barbaric and has no place in a civilized society.
The fact that, as reported, Lockett was left "writhing in agony" on the gurney of the death chamber of Oklahoma state penitentiary after a cocktail of lethal drugs had been administered, and that it took 43 minutes for him to die of a heart attack, should be reason to call a moratorium on the death sentence in the US, else it can no longer claim to be that symbol of freedom and justice it claims.
~ John Wight, Huffington Post

The death penalty may be on its death bed.
The botched execution of an Oklahoma inmate Tuesday night has temporarily halted planned executions in that state, but the horrifying death of Clayton Locket is only the most recent in a series of executions to illustrate that lethal injection is not a humane alternative to options like the electric chair or firing squad. With crime rates dropping across the U.S., states abolishing capital punishment, and drug companies abandoning the execution market – forcing the creation of secret and unproven drug combinations – the fight to end the death penalty may have reached a tipping point.
~ Meredith Clark, MSNBC

From KFOR News in Oklahoma City

ACLU of Oklahoma Says Governor’s Proposed Investigation is Not Independent

UPDATE 7:38 p.m. - Shortly after the execution of Clay Lockett, the American Civil Union of Oklahoma called for a moratorium on all executions in Oklahoma pending a complete and independent investigation into the botched execution and the events leading up to the fundamental breakdown in the state’s execution process.

The ACLU of Oklahoma issued a statement in response to Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin call for an investigation to be conducted by a state agency under her control.

The Executive Director of the ACLU of Oklahoma Ryan Kiesel said, “It is impossible for the Department of Public Safety, the Attorney General’s office, or anyone who is under the control of any agency or politician who played a role in this matter to offer a truly independent assessment. It is absurd to think that the same group of people that unnecessarily rushed last night’s execution and fought openness at every turn, can now be expected to hold themselves accountable in an investigation. This began as a question of whether we trust the government to kill its citizens, even guilty ones, in a secret process. Now we add to that the question of whether we trust the government to investigate itself and hold itself accountable when something goes horribly wrong during its secret execution process.”

Excellent reporting by Rachel Maddow on this horrible topic:

GOP Truthers ~ Obama Has a Tornado Machine

I don't know if this was a weather weapon or not, but they can with the right weather conditions, they can create and steer groups of tornadoes. People 50 miles out of storm systems see aircraft in and around the clouds spraying and doing things, if you saw that, you better bet your bottom dollar they did this. But who knows if they did, that's the thing.
~ Wingnut Radio Host Alex Jones on "Weather Weapons"



False tornado flag operation.
Cause that is the first thing the government would do with a weather weapon.
~ One Who Wanders on Wonkette

Windghazi!!!
~ Noodlesalad on Wonkette

Why does the government hate mobile homes? Why? Why? Why?
~ PurgedVoter on Wonkette

Oh my good cigar-smoking, parachute-jumping, suspender-wearing, tap-dancing Jesus, no .
This story cannot be real.
~ Bosda on AtlanticWire

WE'RE NUMBER DUMB !
WE'RE NUMBER DUMB !
WE'RE NUMBER DUMB !
~ wonderYrednow on Huff Post

Just as this caller, who’s obviously suffering from severe paranoid delusions, ended her rant, Jones launched into a paranoid rant of his own which included, as it always does, a random string of official names of organizations potentially involved. Bill Gates Weather Modification, Geo-Engineering, AP, Reuters, Department of Energy. (Other frequently blurted names include IBM, Raytheon, Bechtel, FEMA and The Illuminati.)
Then, totally unrelated to the tornado, he tossed in a bit about the U.S. Code relating to biological and chemical warfare, and the apparent ability of the government to kill us with chemicals agents under the guise of experiments and law enforcement. In fact, he named a U.S. Code title by number, chapter number, subsection number — all the way down to the paragraph letter. Because it sounds official and therefore authentic.
Word salad. You’d expect to hear this from a guy wearing a tunic made of plastic bags and used diapers while shouting at invisible enemies on the street corner. But it’s just the kind of gibberish, delivered with the slick fluidity of a televangelist, that paranoid schizophrenics eat for breakfast. Millions of them nationwide.
~ Bob Cesca on The Daily Banter

Who knows? Who knows if the US. Government uses a secret made-up weather weapon that only exists in the mind of -- yeah, that's the thing, right? Here's the other thing. Alex Jones should be disqualified from participating in Republican party politics. His crackpot theories shouldn't prompt hearings in Congress and inspire actual legislation in Congress, shouldn't do a money bomb on his show running for Congress. Do not fundraise on the theater of the absurd by showing yourself to be one with this guy, really. He says the tornado was a conspiracy, the tornado. Can we agree it is over now, Republicans, going on his show, really, can we agree, please?
~ Rachel Maddow of MSNBC, via Crooks and Liars

Surprised it took so long->Why Did Obama Make Those Tornadoes? Ask the Tornado Truthers gawker.com/why-did-obama-… RWNJ's claim Harrp #uniteblue

— Sasha (@sasha031) May 22, 2013

Weather Weapons? We're Just Asking, But Weather Weapons #FutureIssaHearings

— Oliver Willis (@owillis) May 23, 2013

Let's all remember, the guy who thinks the tornado was deployed by Obama is bff w/ @drudge huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/ale… …

— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) May 23, 2013

@cihuamexica Well, if Obama sends a Great Flood then I will start to get worried about weather weapons.

— Marlboro.Stan (@MarlboroStan) May 24, 2013

My favorite is when the people who think Obama has a weather machine accuse us of blaming Bush for everything.
— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) May 26, 2013

source: facebook

Limbaugh: Romney is a Zero Placeholder

From the Rush Limbaugh Radio Show, July 10, 2012
My transcript

Caller: Um, I do disagree with you on several things. One of them is . . . Mitt Romney. It's not just that he's dull and boring and awful, it's we can't stand him! We don't trust him! There's nothing there. I mean, it might be politically incorrect to say it, but he's Obama minus the tan. I mean, I don't see any difference and I don't . . .

Limbaugh: Now wait! You can't . . . you can't seriously believe that! I know there is a lot of distrust and lukewarm support for Mitt Romney politically on the Republican side. He's a placeholder, for people, uh . . . He's not . . . the one thing we know for sure is that he's not going to continue what Obama has done. . . .

*snip*

Caller: . . . I live in Oklahoma so it doesn't matter who I vote for. I mean, it's a slam-dunk that Romney's going to win.

Limbaugh: No, no, no, I'm not going to let you off the hook that way! No, no, no, no, no. . . . the nomination is over. It's all official except for the convention. Romney's the nominee and NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT!!!

Caller: I know (whispers)

Limbaugh: So everything that you're saying to me is what we heard about during the primary fight, okay? Fine and dandy - that's cool. But he ended up winning. I'm not arguing. I'm just . . . what are we supposed to do now? If Romney's no different than Obama, if the Republican establishment's going to do exactly what Obama's done, 'cause they're all the same. What do we do?

Caller: I don't know! That's what's so frustrating!

Complete Transcript of Lengthy Phone Call Here



Personally I love the inadvertent campaign slogan Limbaugh stumbles upon towards the end.
"Romney's the Nominee -- There's Nothing You Can Do About It!"
Oh yeah, that's just the thing to spark the fires of enthusiasm.
~ comment by The MidnightWriter on Media Matters

"A placeholder for people?" No, more like a placeholder for President Grover Norquist..
~ comment by Conjuring Cat on Media Matters

More like a placemat.....
~ comment by louis-t on Democratic Underground

The only strategically significant point of having a placeholder is so that the people themselves can regroup. Romney cannot be a savior, and in policy terms, he is not the answer to our problems. In the foreseeable future, we have to do the heavy lifting.
. . . In 2012, the governing dynamic is the American people talking to ourselves, deciding who we really are and what we really believe. Romney isn’t, at any point, going to intrude on that dialogue. In an important sense, Obama is irrelevant to it, except as an example of the extremes to which our century-long practice of seeking saviors can take us.
The dialogue will continue for years after November 2012. The dialogue is what matters, and if a sleeping giant is awakening, it will take some time for it to educate itself.
~ Hot Air

The GOP would be wise to convince its base that Romney would make a great placeholder instead of a great President.

— Zack O. (@ZackO66) July 10, 2012