Robert Bates, retired millionaire and volunteer Tulsa deputy shot Eric Courtney Harris, who was on the ground. Bates says he mistook his gun for his taser.
Oklahoma police say they do not plan to investigate the incident further because, hey, it was just a mistake. They haven't said if Bates will keep his job as unpaid deputy.
There is talk that
supervisors were told to falsify his training records, and it has been alleged that
those who refused to comply were transferred. There's supposed to be an internal investigation about that.
Bates actually went through police training and became a deputy in his early 20s, but left that job for some reason.
Bates donated tens of thousands of dollars worth of vehicles and equipment to the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office. And in 2012 he gave Sheriff Stanley Glanz $2,500. for his re-election campaign ... the largest contribution Glanz received that cycle. This may have encouraged Glanz to wave some training requirements, or it could have been because of the training Bates received 50 years previous to the incident. Whatever. I think we can agree that it was unwise.
Small wonder Bates has been called a pay-for-play wannabe cop and Sheriff Glanz' sugar daddy.
America's cops need to police their ranks and get rid of the idiots and bad apples. It's a job that needs to be done by trained and disciplined professionals.
