First and foremost: My condolences to the family of the fallen Marine.
Moving on to the topic at hand, i am of a mixed mind WRT pursuits. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're bad.
Now as far as the video, i understand the media's great LOVE of making a stink out of things they understand little about, but one quote by that spokesman really stuck in my craw.
"We have media people questioning the vailidity of the pursuit, as if that was the issue at hand."
Well, sir, you must understand that the criminals heinous record notwithstanding, YES, Police condut on pursuits is ALWAYS AN ISSUE AT HAND. Perhaps not 'the issue', fine, but it is ALWAYS an issue. The fact is that pursuits are very dangerous, and should only be engaged in when the conditions appear(please note that i said APPEAR, thus giving the cops full ability to use their own good judgement and realizing some mistakes can/will be made from time to time) to be permissive to such an activity.
Now not knowing the details of this incident i have no idea if it was justified or not, but i have seen cases in the past where i felt they were not, and i have seen cases in the past where i felt they were.
What's your take David? What would you have done differently if you'd been there?
Oh, and one other thing:
"Maybe we ought to sit in our stations like firemen and only respond when we're called, maybe that's what the people of SF want. I don't think so."
Well actually.....i would be absolutely fine with that. At least that way the cops might actually COME when you call them(as opposed to sitting at a speed trap or running 8000 tags at once fleecing the public for yet more money)
"Officer Berko did nothing wrong in this pursuit, and that will come out when the investigation is complete."
Sir, if the investigation is not complete, and if you are not one of the investigating officers....???
As far as judges being corrupt and incompetent, um, yeah...no shiit.
Again, my condolences to the Marine.