When Gerald Sykes woke up in the hospital Saturday morning, one of the first things he asked his family was "did they get the bad guys that shot me?"
"Jerry, you were shot by the police," his step-daughter Diana LaFalce told him.
The 76-year-old man was "flabbergasted," LaFalce recalled Tuesday from her family's Upper Deerfield Township home where the shooting occurred.
"His eyes got huge and said 'no way, that was not the police that shot me' and I said 'I'm sorry that absolutely was'."
"He just kept shaking his head," LaFalce said. "He couldn't believe it."
What began as a 911 hang-up on Friday night ended with Sykes laying in a hospital bed Tuesday morning, with three bullets still inside him.
Officials say Sykes was shot by New Jersey State Police troopers after officers were sent to his Centerton Road home — the wrong address, officials have since said — to check on a 911 hang-up call.
Police are gangs, corporations are gangs, governments are gangs, mafias are gangs.
that's real, all are gangs
The police is a really contentious topic. On one hand, we need a powerful third party with everybody's best interests at heart to protect us. Otherwise society devolves into a scary lawless banditry where the strongest people take whatever they like.
But on the other hand, the police we have today aren't always completely benevolent. Power has a corrupting influence. But the worst thing we see is police sticking up for their own, even when they're sticking up for corruption. Even good cops that would never cause harm to society themselves, usually defend other cops, just based on principle. They want to be defended when they make mistakes, so they defend others that are purposefully corrupt. This is the part that needs to change, and I wish I knew how it could be done.
Incorrect! We don't need a single powerful 3rd party.