This is a great reminder that the LAPD is largely a bunch of thugs with badges and guns. I don’t mean that in a teenage angst “every cop is a thug” way, but in a “raining federal convictions” way. [1][2]

The current sheriff was a member of the “Grim Reapers” [3] and the battle against the thugs has been on going for fifty years [4]

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LASD_deputy_gangs

[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Baca

[3] https://www.dailynews.com/2022/07/01/former-top-aide-to-vill...

[4] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/06/06/the-la-county-...

>Gage claims that Tipping wound up with three broken ribs, a lacerated liver, head injuries, and a broken neck. "His heart eventually stopped working because of his injuries" and "he was paralyzed….He had subdural hematomas at three places on the left side and three places on the right side. There is no way that grappling would have caused those injuries the way the LAPD portrayed it."

Sure sounds less like a simulation and more like an actual event.

It's really not easy to have someone die during an exercise with this many injuries caused by physical contact. Things like drownings, falls, and collisions can occur in a hugh risk training event- but this extent of injuries from falling on the ground seems real tough to spin as accidental or unintentional. At best you'd have to be extremely negligent, at worst this was a deliberate choice.

You'd really think someone would notice the person they're training with is actually hurt and stop to check in on them, presumably there are measures in place to pause the exercise which people are aware of before starting- were these ignored? I guess we'd have to have a discussion on the intent of the exercise and the extent to which force is used with no regard for safety during training, which is a whole other issue.

> He added that the LAPD said no video footage of the training exercise exists, even though these sorts of trainings are often recorded.

That seems like standard procedure by now. When something happens, conveniently the video footage that should exist, magically doesn't.

I'll point out another dimension to this: it can be entirely true that Tipping's death was an accident, because the other cops at the training exercise may have "merely" intended to beat him within an inch of his life for daring to break the wall of silence.

In other words: defenses on the grounds of his death being an "accident" are not sufficient. What matters is the totality of circumstances, and those include the implicit threat of violence against any cop who dares to out the crimes of their peers.

Lots of speculation and innuendo in that article.

- Officer Tipping wasn’t investigating rape, but simply took the victim statement.

- The officer in the training exercise that killed Officer Tipping has the same name as the officer in Tipping’s report, but they are not sure if it is the same person.

- The medical examiner ruled the killing an accident. The article then quotes a tweet that says medical examiners undercount murders by police, implying collusion or coverup.

- There is no recording of the training. The article states that often video recordings are made, implying a cover up.

Abuse of power by the police is heinous. They are supposed to be our protectors, so I hate it as much as the next person.

But we must be led by fact not belief or we are no better than those who believe the Big Lie.

So far arguments can be made that officer Tipping was not really murdered, or that the woman was not really raped, but it is known for sure from prior cases, including criminal convictions, that there are plenty of rapists and murderers and all sorts of sick individuals in the police, that obviously should not be in the police.

Many articles and discussions on police criminal activity carry a tone of surprise, but in my view nothing here is surprising considering that large numbers of questionable individuals who passed some subjective selection process are armed with guns and placed into what are essentially life-long appointments where lots of money and power is at stake. In my mind it would be surprising had there been no criminal activity within the police under the current system. It would be just as surprising if dictators stayed benevolent and never abused their authority.

I'd say the solution to this problem is to have the public democratically elect police just like politicians, and to also have them be subjected to term limits just like politicians.

So far this system has successfully prevented most people who should not be politicians from becoming politicians or maintaining political power, and I argue that in the same way it would prevent lots of people who should not be in the police from becoming or remaining police officers.

I happen to have seen a recording of a crowd control exercise including regular police, a riot control unit and even a SWAT-style unit, including "arrests" and "resistance", and it was a lot tamer than the description may make it sound.

A bicycle exercise for regular police spontaneously morphed into a mob control exercise spontaneously morphed into a grappling match definitely sounds fishy on its own.

Three broken ribs, a lacerated liver, head injuries, and a broken neck and finally death from 'bicycle' exercise.

> But a county medical examiner ruled Tipping's death an accident, saying the suspicious injuries revealed in the autopsy were sustained during attempts to save his life.

If he sustained those injuries during an attempt to save his life, those officers definitely need to be taken off the street anyway. More dangerous "helping" people than just sitting in their cars.

And so continues one of the oldest traditions in American policing: attempting[1] to drive out or kill any cop who doesn't comply with the wall of silence.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Serpico

The police departments attract the same kind of thuggish person who joins a gang. Someone hungry for power and respect. Many times there are people who have an axe to grind with society or were bullied so its time for payback

I had a friend who became a cop and he changed in a bad way, the power went to his head. After two incidents, one involving him pulling out his off duty gun in a crowded bar I cut him off. I did not report him out of fear of retaliation.

"Retaliation"? I talked to another friend, a former cop painted a hellish picture of the police: "Its a power struggle internally with everyone forming cliques and hierarchies trying to brown nose superiors to garner favors, overtime and promotions. Anyone who breaks rank will be targeted for harassment. If you report him there's a chance you'll be "randomly" pulled over one day and suddenly there's drugs and/or a gun in your car. They will ruin your life. Just keep your mouth shut."

I am genuinely scared of cops.

Nothing the LAPD does shocks me anymore. They've normalized their awful behavior as the norm

Whether murder or accidental, what kind of "bicycle training" exercise that includes grappling is designed in such a way that it may unintentionally result in the death of one of the trainees? So even if it wasn't intentional (and it's awful suspicious) the LAPD should be on the hook for running a training exercise that risky.

I am 100% confident the LAPD will investigate themselves and find they did nothing wrong.

After Christopher Dorner nothing surprises me with LAPD. I don't think this was a training accident, the injuries are too severe, more akin to a beating.

The detective work on this one must be difficult. Doesn't seem like the LAPD is up to the task.

It’s worth mentioning - when officials commit crimes, early press reports usually reflect what the criminal wants.

It’s only after looking into it much deeper that it’s clear the initial story was a “setup.”

Anyone know what set the 4 alleged rapists are in, if any? Has there been any public speculation on the possibility of either the alleged rapists or the cops who beat this guy being in a gang?

The double-standards for cops feels to me like the first step in the USA becoming a fascist state. One of the first things that happened in 1933 Germany was the breakdown between the police and the courts. Germany maintained a court system which, on paper, looked fair, but in practice the police had their own parallel justice system which just made up rules as it went along.

Holy crap, "Gage claims that Tipping wound up with three broken ribs, a lacerated liver, head injuries, and a broken neck." Ohhh, they were bicycle training.

Sarcasm aside, it's insane that after this incident, it's being labeled as a "training accident" when it so obviously wasn't.

If this happened in any other country, the US media & establishment would be screaming at the top of its lungs about how brutal and evil that country was. But its happening in the US. So its 'okay'.

Sounds like a typical murder -- like freddie gray, etc.

3/5 cops take illegal steroids. 4/5 cops in LA are in a gang. i say just throw them all in prison.

Just another extremely fortunate coincidence for people possessing lots of power, nothing to see here folks.

The scary question is: "why do they keep them employed?"

The answer is: As long as they are busting the right heads, they are doing their jobs perfectly. It is not about protecting citizens. It is about corralling and controlling them.

You will stew in your decaying cities full of people experiencing mental crisis and drug addicts, and you will not complain as we do nothing.

i would definitely not put it past the lapd to murder their own but it seems like the guy was just a patrol cop who took a statement, not internal affairs or sex crimes detective who would actually make an arrest in a case like this, so why kill him?

It's a good thing that a police department is actually doing training.

WTF. Police are supposed to be catching rapists. Not doing the rapes themselves!

Well, guess we don't need to investigate anymore?

I enjoy that there's just this demoralization of "yeah, I'm not surprised, and it's going to make me sadder to think about how little consequences are going to come of it."

Both IA and FBI should be involved by now.

Nothing fishy going on at all.

What a coincidence! /s

Why is this on Hacker News?

Seems very non tech related and the type of article that generates heat rather than light.