Yet Another Senseless Death By Cop
BY Herschel Smith
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Grim’s Hall (via a reader).
Here in North Carolina, though up in Ashe County, deputies accidentally killed a motorcycle rider by triggering his airbag safety vest. They were unreasonably aggressive, pulling a gun on him and physically dragging him off the bike without bothering to disconnect the safety vest. If you don’t know how these work, they are connected to the bike so that if you come off of it the ripcord causes the airbags to expand. These things exert pretty serious force (as you can see from that link), which can cause problems for breathing — especially if you are also being choked out by a deputy sheriff. An autopsy ruled Mast’s death a homicide and found the cause of death was “compression asphyxia of the torso and neck.”
First of all let’s get past the issue that most cops are overly aggressive and paranoid idiots and probably started the whole downward spiral of this terrible event.
This is also why I don’t like cops touching another man’s gun. The gun might be striker fired. It might be hammer fired. It might have a safety. It might not. It might be in half-cocked position. It might not be. It might have a round in the chamber. It might not. It might have a modified (light) trigger. It might not. It might have other modifications of which the cop is unaware.
Only a stupid department run by imbeciles would have a procedure where a cop touches and pulls another man’s gun off of him for reasons of “officer safety.” I cannot imagine something more unsafe.
On May 13, 2025 at 11:47 pm, Archer said:
IANAL, but….
They had no probable cause for anything other than a traffic stop, and even that is dubious. Certainly insufficient to pull a gun or violently pull him off his motorcycle to “detain” him.
They didn’t suspect, and couldn’t have known, that he had meth in his system. They had no reason to suspect he was armed or dangerous (which may or may not have been an offense, I don’t know NC law). They had no reason to suspect he was transporting drugs (on a motorcycle, with no backpack?). So what did they suspect him of, other than riding a motorcycle at night?
All they had was his identity and their own aggression. And now he’s dead because of it.
I wasn’t on that grand jury, which is good for the cops because I would have voted to charge.
I wonder: What are the odds the prosecutor half-assed his case so the GJ wouldn’t indict?
On May 14, 2025 at 7:39 am, Dan said:
Cops do whatever he hell they want for a very simple reason. BECAUSE THEY CAN. With RARE exceptions they suffer no personal consequences for their abuses and criminality. Any “damages” their victims receive…after lengthy expensive court battles…is stolen from the taxpayers under threat of violence. We simply MUST force the end of the insanity called “qualified immunity” and MAKE them personally responsible for their conduct.
On May 14, 2025 at 8:24 am, Matt said:
I’m still waiting for a case where a cop makes a traffic stop on the wrong guy(s) who quickly give the cop a career ending lesson in respect my authority. If I were ever on the jury, I wouldn’t even need to sit for the trial to declare not guilty.
I despise what cops represent and I think the founding fathers would have been aghast at the idea of tax funded, career, enforcers going around and detaining people and using physical violence because they thought there was a crime. I believe there are constitutional amendments that say people are to be free of such treatment unless a warrant is issued by a grand jury.
On May 14, 2025 at 8:34 am, JoeFour said:
Are Cops Constitutional?
https://scholarship.shu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1395&context=con_law
On May 14, 2025 at 12:01 pm, hard-line said:
As for the grand jury, I don’t think they have the power to dismiss a case with prejudice. After the release of body cam footage, the case should be resubmitted to the grand jury.
Unlike cars with 4 wheels, motorcycles cannot always stop immediately when the pursuit lights go on. The cyclist must look for a safe place, one out of the traffic lane, a place with enough hard shoulder to pull off on, and pretty level so the bike won’t fall over when placed on the side stand. It may take a number of miles before an appropriate safe place can be found. The fact that he did not speed away suggests he was looking for such a spot to safely stop.
Also discussed on the body-cam video, there was discussion among the officers about removing the cyclist’s helmet. UNLESS ONE IS A TRAINED MEDICAL FIRST RESPONDER, NO OTHER PERSON SHOULD EVEN CONSIDER TAKING A CYCLIST’S HELMET OFF! IMPROPER PROCEDURES CAN EASILY CAUSE PERMANENT SPINAL DAMAGE OR DEATH!
On May 14, 2025 at 12:41 pm, Herschel Smith said:
“UNLESS ONE IS A TRAINED MEDICAL FIRST RESPONDER, NO OTHER PERSON SHOULD EVEN CONSIDER TAKING A CYCLIST’S HELMET OFF! IMPROPER PROCEDURES CAN EASILY CAUSE PERMANENT SPINAL DAMAGE OR DEATH!”
Great point! Just like no cop should ever touch another man’s gun. No cop should ever touch another man’s stuff that can paralyze him.
On May 14, 2025 at 5:55 pm, ragman said:
Unless/until these pirates are held personally accountable, along with the corrupt judges, attorneys and prosecutors nothing will change. At the very least, any of these psychopaths that violate a citizens civil rights should immediately be fired and have their certification taken away. Their pension should be liquidated along with their assets to compensate their victims. They should spend a minimum of one year in jail, no parole. This BS would end real quick.
On May 14, 2025 at 9:48 pm, X said:
Well, kids, let’s face it. You live in a totalitarian police state. Cops can and will kill you at any time, lie about it, and get off scot free. King’s Men, and all that.
When you get right down to it, you have no rights, only privileges that can be revoked at any time.
Aren’t you glad we defeated Hitler and the USSR so we could “live in freedom” LOL?
“Free country,” my ass.
On May 15, 2025 at 12:20 pm, Don W Curton said:
As a lifelong motorcycle rider, I can attest that there are some (perhaps many) cops who have a special hard-on for motorcyclists. I ride like an old man – slow and in my lane. No lane splitting, no wheelies, no swerving between other vehicles. I just sit back and cruise. Yet I’ve had two specific cases where cops almost rammed me off my bike when trying to enact a simple traffic stop. Their excuse? All motorcyclists try to run and they’re tired of putting up with it. Oh, gee, ok then. Someone else outran you so now you’re justified in putting my life in danger by yanking your 4 ton SUV into my path and running me off the road. Thanks.
I don’t have the air-bag vest, but I do have an armored jacket for riding. It seriously restricts motion and I’d be hard pressed to put both my hands behind my back if I was being yanked and put in an awkward position. If this guy had an air-bag vest inflated, he might not have been able to comply without releasing the pressure and removing the vest. Something else to think about.
And yeah, don’t remove someone else’s helmet. High chance of neck injury.
On May 15, 2025 at 12:39 pm, X said:
“I can attest that there are some (perhaps many) cops who have a special hard-on for motorcyclists.”
A few years back I recall an incident (Oklahoma, maybe?) where there were a group of sport bike riders who pissed off the cops, so the cops parked the cruiser in the middle of the lane past the crest of a hill with the lights on and when the riders came over the hill at high speed they hit the car and died.
Now… the bikers were wrong to crest the hill at excessive speed because anything could have been there — a tractor, a disabled car, whatever.
But the cops deliberately killed them to “teach them a lesson.”
On May 16, 2025 at 10:11 am, Michael (from Utah) said:
“X” has it correct:
“Well, kids, let’s face it. You live in a totalitarian police state. Cops can and will kill you at any time, lie about it, and get off scot free. King’s Men, and all that.”
Unless people do something about this, nothing will change…ever. And since the majority of people (obviously not those here) think the police are the “good guys”, the likelihood of this ever being rectified is almost zero.
On May 17, 2025 at 3:46 pm, X said:
An addendum: “Cops can and will kill you at any time, lie about it, and get off scot free IF YOU ARE WHITE.”
If you are a “felon of color” and your co-racialists riot, loot, and burn… that’s different. THEN the cops will hang.