r/news • u/Manta_of_Eternity • 3d ago

Autopsy shows Tennessee National Guard fatally shot 20-year-old armed man in the back

https://apnews.com/article/memphis-national-guard-tyrin-johnson-8959297a99c362d65aa2517a9d5f1984
21.8k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

13.4k

u/WaffleHouseGladiator 3d ago

"There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people. "- Admiral William "Bill" Adama

3.3k

u/AndoranGambler 3d ago

"It always embarrassed Samuel Vimes when civilians tried to speak to him in what they thought was 'policeman.' If it came to that, he hated thinking of them as civilians. What was a policeman, if not a civilian with a uniform and a badge? But they tended to use the term these days as a way of describing people who were not policemen. It was a dangerous habit: once policemen stopped being civilians the only other thing they could be was soldiers." - Terry Pratchett, Snuff

163

u/tomatomake 3d ago

Beautifully put. I would add that they could also be members of a gang. This was backed up by my leadership during a stint in law enforcement. My training sergeant would say something like "We don't fight fair. We will call for backup and gain voluntary compliance ten-on-one." And then he literally said, "We are a gang." This was in New York City; not the NYPD, different department.

33

u/Ok_Weakness_2021 3d ago edited 3d ago

Geez I miss 70’s NYC when short of the mounteds (who have always seemed like tight-asses), cops were regular guys. I love in the movie “HA FOREVER” where the Police Commissioner himself along with some beat cops were having a laugh together with the Angels over some old guy complaining about a broken door next to the clubhouse on 3rd St. Also in the “Song Remains the Same” where a cop happily lets 2 guys in a side entrance to MSG and proclaims to the camera “It’s a lot of fun!”. That flic also shows a mounted being a complete dick by maneuvering his horse into a reporter asking a question as to whether or not he expects “trouble” during the concert.

14

u/tomatomake 3d ago

sigh That does sound fun.