geebs | (no subject)

TV commentary:

Backstrom- Oh weird, I didn't even think of that. So, even though the police cleared Backstrom of any wrong doing in the shooting in the pilot, apparently the mayor created a civilian oversight committee, headed by his ex-fiancee played by Sarah Chalke to look into the situation. Which, they bring up the fact that the reason the have the committee is to make sure the cops aren't covering up misdeeds by one of their own. But then the person doing the investigating is the ex-fiancee of the person being looked into!? Shouldn't she have to recuse herself or something?!

But yeah, heh, with him accidentally shooting himself, I didn't realize that could be evidence of a cover up, like he shot himself to make it look like the perp shot him so he'd be justified in shooting the guy. Moto told him he did nothing wrong at the time, but its weird like they're acting like they did something shady. When Valentine takes Backstrom to the doctor about his insomnia, and they're arguing whether he should unburden his mind, Backstrom is all, "You can't say anything under doctor-patient confidentiality, right?"

So he admits the guy was unarmed, but was going for his gun, and as Backstrom said, would definitely have killed him if he got to it. Isn't that still the legal definition of self defense? Backtrom was incapacitated and couldn't really do anything to stop the guy from getting to his gun. I think even if the gun is not in the perp's hands, and the cop has no other way of preventing them from getting to the gun, and he warns the criminal to not go for the weapon, it is self defense to shoot him if the guy does!

This should be a non issue, it seems Backstrom is worrying about it for nothing. Unless he's worried that they won't believe him, but he's not acting like they'll think he's a liar, he's acting like he really does think it was a bad shoot, when it totally wasn't.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What might legally be self-defense doesn't mean it's ok for a cop to do. I actually don't remember the scene that well, but as a cop you're supposed to be like "don't reach for the gun or i'll shoot," and maybe even obligated to try to close the distance and get the gun away from him. You can't just go shooting people because you fear for your life, because as a cop you're constantly fearing for your life.

Also, I think doctor patient confidentiality may not apply with a third party present. The expectation of privacy/confidentiality is out the window, because Thomas Dekker is not his doctor or spouse. So I think the doctor can be compelled to testify. At least, if years of L&O can be used to learn about the law (and not just bird law... if that's how charlie learned bird law? i might be confusing two different things).

Btw, I find Thomas Dekker's super gay character hilarious. Remember when he was on Heroes and totally gay, but then he was up for the part of John Connor and suddenly they were like "nope, totally not gay"? Now he's back to being super gay.

But that's what I was saying, since he had accidentally shot himself and it was rainy, I thought he was on the ground and wouldn't be able to get to the gun and take it away before the other guy reached it. And didn't he say, "Don't!"? Like I swear I remember them showing a close up of the other guy's face considering whether her should grab the gun and kill Backstrom despite him saying not to. But then he went for it and since Backstrom was on the ground, he had no choice since he would be easy pickings if the guy got to the gun. But maybe I'm remembering it wrong.

But heh, yeah, I was thinking that about Thomas Dekker, how he's back to playing a gay guy after that whole thing with Heroes. Actually, didn't they say later he was totally fine with the gay thing, and it was his agent who pushed the not gay thing?

Watched it again (it's at about 33:30 on the fox.com version).

He's not on the ground anymore but he is bleeding. He shouts orders at the guy when he is just going to walk away, but the guy ignores him. Then the guy sees his gun on the ground, Backstrom sees him see it, the guy takes a step towards him, and then he shoots. The guy had a couple more steps, had to bend down to get the gun, then pick it up, aim, and fire. A cop should not be shooting a guy in that situation.

Ah never mind, that didn't go how I remembered at all.