美国国家公共电台 NPR After Stephon Clark Shooting, Questions Remain About Police Use Of Force

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Video of the death of Stephon Clark in Sacramento has rekindled¹ anger over police shootings of unarmed people. Some are asking whether the protests and media attention of the last few years really made any difference in how police use deadly force. NPR's law enforcement correspondent Martin Kaste has been exploring this. And a note - his report includes audio of police officers firing at Clark.

MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE²: The Sacramento shooting is still being investigated, and it'll be a while before there are any official conclusions about whether the officers acted legally and properly. But the videos from that night are shocking. People keep remarking especially on the number of bullets fired.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Show me your hands. Gun. Gun. Gun. (Gunshots).

KASTE: Twenty shots by two officers in less than five seconds. Seven of those bullets caused major wounds. That's according to Bennet Omalu, the doctor who did an independent autopsy³ for Clark's family.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BENNET OMALU: Each one of these bullets independently possessed⁴ a fatal capacity. All he needed to have died was just one of the seven.

KASTE: To the average person, this looks like overkill. But the truth is, this is how cops are taught to shoot. Massad Ayoob is a respected firearms trainer.

MASSAD AYOOB: It's not a tennis game where you smack⁵ the ball, and you say, OK, your serve. If you have to shoot somebody, you want him down before he shoots you, before he shoots one of the people you swore an oath to protect.

KASTE: That means you keep pulling the trigger until the threat is neutralized⁶, to use the common euphemism⁷. Also, cops today often have semi-automatic handguns, which hold more bullets than revolvers did, so when they decide to shoot, more bullets go down range.

There was a time when the training was different. Cops used to be taught to shoot, stop and assess. But Lance LoRusso says that method was abandoned in the '80s. He's a former officer, now a lawyer who specializes in the use of force.

LANCE LORUSSO: The advent⁸ of video showed us that bad guys don't react to bullets the way they do in the movies. There's videos that I can show you where people are shot dead set in the chest, and they're still coming at the officer or going at another party.

KASTE: And that's why we're not likely to see a change in the number of bullets that cops fire. But for those people who've been trying to change policing since Ferguson, the number of bullets fired matters less than how often this happens.

TRACEY MEARES: These incidents are still occurring, and the obvious thing to say is that there is still work to do.

KASTE: Tracey Meares is a Yale law professor who served on President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, which was formed after Ferguson. She says on the surface, it can look as though nothing much has changed. For instance, it's still rare to get a criminal conviction against police officers after a shooting. But she says you have to look beyond the courtroom and at the new policies being adopted by police departments.

MEARES: What we've seen in the last couple of years - training about de-escalation, training about crisis intervention⁹. All of these things are policies that eventually will have an impact on how courts interpret the reasonableness of the legality of police officers' use of force.

KASTE: But that kind of change is gradual. Others want to rewrite the laws now. At the state capitol in California, the ACLU's Lizzie Buchen is pushing a bill to raise the bar for when police can use deadly force.

LIZZIE BUCHEN: When a civilian¹⁰ is approached by a police officer with a gun drawn¹¹, they might be scared. They might panic. And under current law, an officer can assume that they are armed and kill them if they flinch¹² or if they move in any way that could be construed¹³ as dangerous or reaching for a weapon.

KASTE: The ACLU's bill would reserve deadly force for times when it's, quote, "necessary." Right now, the state allows it when it's reasonable. A tougher standard may mean police will be asked to take more chances with their own lives, but Buchen says it tips the balance toward protecting, as she puts it, all lives. Martin Kaste, NPR News.

1 rekindled   

v.使再燃( rekindle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• As soon as they met again his dormant love for her was rekindled. 他们一见面，他对她的旧情如乾柴烈火般又重新燃起。 来自辞典例句
• Ive found rekindled my interest in re-reading the books. 我发觉这提起了我再次阅读这些书的兴趣。 来自互联网

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 autopsy   

n.尸体解剖；尸检

参考例句：

• They're carrying out an autopsy on the victim.他们正在给受害者验尸。
• A hemorrhagic gut was the predominant lesion at autopsy.尸检的主要发现是肠出血。

4 possessed   

adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的

参考例句：

• He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
• He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。

5 smack   

vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍

参考例句：

• She gave him a smack on the face.她打了他一个嘴巴。
• I gave the fly a smack with the magazine.我用杂志拍了一下苍蝇。

6 neutralized   

v.使失效( neutralize的过去式和过去分词 )；抵消；中和；使（一个国家）中立化

参考例句：

• Acidity in soil can be neutralized by spreading lime on it. 土壤的酸性可以通过在它上面撒石灰来中和。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This strategy effectively neutralized what the Conservatives had hoped would be a vote-winner. 这一策略有效地冲淡了保守党希望在选举中获胜的心态。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 euphemism   

n.婉言，委婉的说法

参考例句：

• Language reflects culture and euphemism is a mirror of culture.语言反映文化,而婉语则是各种文化的一面镜子。
• Euphemism is a very common and complicated linguistic phenomenon.委婉语是一种十分常见而又非常复杂的语言现象。

8 advent   

n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临

参考例句：

• Swallows come by groups at the advent of spring. 春天来临时燕子成群飞来。
• The advent of the Euro will redefine Europe.欧元的出现将重新定义欧洲。

9 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

10 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

11 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

12 flinch   

v.畏缩，退缩

参考例句：

• She won't flinch from speaking her mind.她不会讳言自己的想法。
• We will never flinch from difficulties.我们面对困难决不退缩。

13 construed   

v.解释（陈述、行为等）( construe的过去式和过去分词 )；翻译，作句法分析

参考例句：

• He considered how the remark was to be construed. 他考虑这话该如何理解。
• They construed her silence as meaning that she agreed. 他们把她的沉默解释为表示赞同。 来自《简明英汉词典》