An Alabama preacher and politician killed himself Friday two days after being outed for having a secret life he shared online as a “transgender curvy girl.”

  • athos77@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    So, I have a question. From the Daily Beast article:

    Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said that deputies who tried to pull Copeland over for a welfare check witnessed Copeland step out of his car and shoot himself.

    Why are we taking the word of the cops for what happened? We know the right-wingers don’t distinguish between cross-dressers and pedophiles. We know that some of them find great satisfaction in abusing, torturing and even killing those that they consider “other”. And we know that cops cover for other cops.

    Yes, it’s entirely possible and plausible that this guy killed himself, but why are we just blindly accepting the cops’ version of events here?

    • m0darn@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Good point, what kind of wellness check involves a roadside stop?

      It seems quite possible that the police pulled him over to harass him.

      • Orbituary@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Oh, sure. Nothing ever happens like that with cops. They never turn their cameras off or lie.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        That doesn’t really count for anything unless people other than cops look at the footage. Not that I’m saying it should be made publicly available but somebody independent should see it.

        If it turns out there’s no body cam footage that’s a problem too but again unless someone outside the police force can see that there’s no body cam footage the lack of footage isn’t ever going to be made public knowledge.

        The police have body cam footage to make sure they’re doing their actual jobs and not something else, for the bloody useless if they turn them off or no one ever reviews the footage. They are not primarily there for the police’s benefit they’re there for ours.