Plainclothes Chicago police officers fired nearly 100 gunshots over 41 seconds during a traffic stop that left one man dead and one officer injured, according to graphic video footage a police oversight agency released Tuesday.

Five officers from a tactical unit who were in an unmarked police vehicle surrounded an SUV last month driven by Dexter Reed, allegedly for failing to wear a seatbelt. Video shows the 26-year-old Black man briefly lowering a window and then raising it and refusing to exit the vehicle as more officers arrived, yelled commands and drew weapons.

  • Alexstarfire@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Why are undercover cops pulling over a guy for not wearing a seat belt to begin with? Unfortunately, we’re still waiting for an answer to that.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      That’s an easy answer, they profiled him as a drug dealer and looked for any pretext to stop him. Instead of doing real police work like developing leads and stopping someone because they have probable cause to believe they’re transporting drugs. But that’s not sexy and adrenaline inducing.

    • foggy@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Isn’t failure to wear seatbelt a secondary offense? I believe you cannot be pulled over for it, only cited for it during a legitimate traffic stop.

      • UnculturedSwine@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Got pulled over in Utah because my adult passenger wasn’t wearing his seatbelt correctly. There was no other pretense for it and there have been ad campaigns making it clear that officers will pull you over for that reason and only that reason.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    8 months ago

    If a bunch of people in plainclothes rushed my car with guns drawn I’d think I was being robbed.

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    8 months ago

    The audio isn’t all that clear but i heard a returning: “what is going on?” And a lack of an answer followed by excessive firearm usage.

    I have a feeling this person, same as the black guy from another video that refused to stop as he was convinced cops came to execute him and decided to pull into a gas station first…kinda knew what was going on by the energy the cops give off.

    If you want someone to co-operate you pull them over, explain the situation and there would be no need for firearms. But if you charge someone like wild bulls wanting to make a kill, people are gonna know…it’s instinct.

    I’e also seen this in a video where a guy got shot in his own house where two cops were yelling opposite commands and killed him for not co-operating, the worst part was when he knew he was fucked because they didn’t have their shit together. He was asking for clarity and bang bang bang…definitely cleared it up tho, but that shit ain’t right.

    Stop murdering people, please.

  • xkforce@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    It is fucking sad and predictable how many people there are in this thread that defend the cops here.

    You dont get a prize for being the bestest bootlicker.

  • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    You’d think with all the shooting they do cops would be better at shooting things. A hundred rounds for one dude? Even if he was an actual threat that’s a huge waste of money. Ammo is expensive.

    • crusa187@lemmy.ml
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      7 months ago

      Not expensive enough. As the Chris Rock joke goes, maybe if bullets cost $10k per round we wouldn’t have so much needless gun violence.

      • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Ammo is expensive.

        Legit peanuts compared to what police departments actually spend their budgets on.

        9mm rounds cost ~$0.08 (less if you buy in bulk, which these departments most likely do) That means 100 rounds to kill this guy was about $8.

        They spend more on ammunition for target practice.

        I’m sorry, I know you hate cops but this is just an absurd angle to criticize them over. I know you won’t realize this though :(

        You can see what they said when you hit the reply button, even though the comment was deleted.

          • FilterItOut@thelemmy.club
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            7 months ago

            It once was, before gun companies and ammo manufacturers realized they could squeeze fud for all he’s worth if they rant (through means such as the NRA) that someone is coming for your guns. Eight cents for 9mm is pre-craze prices. I think the last bulk buy I saw was more in the $0.15 range. .223 has also doubled, in my experience. .22lr went through the roof. It was once $20 for 500 rounds. Now I saw 200 for $30. The only ammo I can think of that hasn’t changed greatly is shotgun shells.

            • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              9mm is currently like $0.22 per in 1000ct, .22lr is around $0.07, .223 is around $0.55.

              9mm and .22lr are about 25% higher than pre-craze, .223 has kept the same price as during craze.

          • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            50cal is in the dollars per round for certain types of ammunition, less than ten cents a bang is bloody cheap.

    • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      He did fire at the police, you know. Pretty sure that counts as an actual threat.

      • stringere@leminal.space
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        8 months ago

        He fired at a group of dudes in civilian clothes driving regular vehicles telling him they were cops. Guess what more than tripled from 2019 to 2021 and continues? Car jackings and armed car jackings.

        They allege this was for a seatbelt. Weapons drawn for a simple traffic stop?

        Plainclothes officers, especially, should not be approaching people with a weapon drawn.

        • squozenode@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          This is exactly why the “defund the police” movement is so popular.

          Traffic cops do not need to be armed.

          • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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            8 months ago

            Traffic stops should also be initiated by marked cruisers. If needed, plainclothes cops can assist, but they shouldn’t be the first contact.

            • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              I’m not stopping for an unmarked without being on the phone with 911 to make sure they’re a real cop.

              Growing up, we had a string of assaults in a podunk city that was perpetrated buy some guy(s) who bought some blue/red lights and a siren. Hell, for a while even the cops were saying not to stop outside of a well lit area at night…

          • x0chi@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Specially traffic cops on a ego trip thinking they are playing Miami Vice

        • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          civilian clothes driving regular vehicles

          The vehicles had lights and sirens, and the officers were wearing body armour that identified them as police.

          The idea that he thought this was a carjacking just isn’t feasible.

          • Soggy@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Plainclothes police and unmarked cars should not exist (outside of, potentially, planned and warranted sting operations)

          • x0chi@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Not so feasible that even the 60 minutes show not so long ago did a episode/piece just about a wave of robberies that their method was using police cloths, sirens on their vehicles bought on Amazon… This must be common enough for 60 minutes show to do a piece on it, and I bet people who seen it sure think it’s a thing that is happening. Not that I’m blaming 60 minutes, just saying that it’s common enough for a national tv show to pick on it for a piece.

            • FilterItOut@thelemmy.club
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              7 months ago

              Maybe… I still remember the national news piece about D&D being evil, and the national furor over satanic cults existing inside of day cares that had plenty of news coverage. Fearmongering isn’t a new millennium thing, it’s just gotten prolific due to the ease of the internet.

      • 100_kg_90_de_belin
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        8 months ago

        Nearly 100 shots. Either they really suck at hitting targets, or they really like shooting people.

        • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          20 rounds in a Glock mag, five officers, basically all five of them put an entire mag into the guy.

          I probably would too, if someone was shooting at me.

          • 100_kg_90_de_belin
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            8 months ago

            So you’re telling me that State-condoned violence is managed by people who are not better trained than a rando on the Internet.

          • x0chi@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            You don’t expect a trained soldier to shoot all the rounds when he is being attacked for multiple reasons. For other reasons you should also expect that a trained police officer shoots in the best possible way. All agents firing all the rounds in the mag sounds like panic too me, and if it is then cops should be better trained. One thing is how we civilians would react, another thing is how a professional that has a license to kill acts. And men with license to kill panicking and firing all the rounds sure isn’t professional… so why we admit that can say “oh I’m my case I would do the same.”. They are professionals, they should act professional, they NEED TO BE professional or else shouldn’t carry a arm and a licence to kill.

            • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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              7 months ago

              Have you heard of suppressing fire? Soldiers fire a huge amount of ammunition without hitting anything.

              And as other commenters have pointed out, it’s not panic, it’s a strategy, keep firing until the threat is down.

  • juicy@lemmy.today
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    8 months ago

    Chicago’s finest:

    In all, the city spent $295 million to resolve lawsuits alleging more than 1,000 Chicago police officers committed a wide range of misconduct — including false arrest and excessive force — in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, according to WTTW News’ analysis. Through the end of November, the city spent $62.3 million in 2023 to resolve police misconduct lawsuits.

  • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
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    7 months ago

    I wish we lived in a world where we could readily believe this statement.

    The Civilian Office of Police Accountability said preliminary evidence showed Reed fired first, injuring an officer in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the city’s West Side.

    Rather than assuming that they probably shot their own officer in their excitement.