They’re yelling at him to “drop the knife”. He’s holding it at his side, making it look like a knife, saying “shoot me” while moving forward towards them. I’d call that threatening with an object that he knows they think is a knife.
To be clear: I don’t think he should have been shot for that. But according to existing training guidelines for most police in America, they were justified. And to be clear again, I think that’s absurd.
There was no justification for the police to do anything except to continue talking and maintaining a safe distance. The only life in danger here was Scout’s.
From a common decency standpoint, I completely agree with you. The problem is that that’s not, as far as I know, how police are currently trained. And that’s what needs to change.
I apologise for the cranky tone, but as mentioned, this one is a bit personal to me. Given my medical condition, if I were American, I would probably already be dead at the hands of the police.
Seriously. If you find yourself in these stupid hypothetical situations where you are very far back from someone brandishing a small melee weapon (perhaps a sword or piece of sharp flint), they don’t have hostages, and you have your gun out, then you’ve done a lot of things wrong.
One side of me has to agree that if it was a knife or multitool this guy was carrying, a taser or a can of mace should have been more than enough to get him under control, were de-escalation to fail.
Another side of me is asking: Why the heck did he try to challenge the cops in the first place, if he wasn’t trying to commit suicice by cop? Like what’s the point? Since the cops already had drawn their firearms, it just meant he was going to get himself shot.
You know, since cops basically never (somewhere around 99% of the time) are even charged with ever doing something wrong when they shoot a gun and it kills someone.
Talking or at least shouting while backing up appears to be a valid
tactic over here in the UK; generally followed up by out flanking and
overpowering the target. Maybe police should be issued with shields
instead of guns. it would certainly make for a different mindset.
While I’m willing to use the pronouns that theys are more comfortable with, because this is not the type of asshole I am and I recognize that them had a personal challenge I cannot fathom, I find the choice of ‘They/Them’ by thems unfortunate for a slew of reasons and probably won’t reliably be able to.
More likely I will construct my sentences in a way that foregoes the use of pronouns for any of thems by using their names or describing each they when referring to thems. Unlike here now. That’ll be less awkward.
I also feel that just because an individual is deeply disturbed, has difficulty coming to grips with the reality of things and feels persecuted at home and the entire world, does not mean we need to oblige the wish to reciprocate his addressing himself in the pluralis majestatis or auctoris, when the president edicts so.
But that is an entirely different subject.
(Gotcha for a second, didn’t I?)
On the subject:
All officers involved in the killing of Scout Shultz were badly trained, lacked capacity to assess the situation and were gutless cowards. Nobody was being served, nobody was being protected.
There was no urgency to end the standoff, nobody’s life was in immediate danger but Scout’s, who had just voiced a death wish.
You know how long it takes to find and open the right tool in a knock-off Leatherman? As a civilian without protective gear I would probably have rushed and put this soft young person in a hold. A lot of us do far more dangerous things for fun.
She got scared, lacked enough trigger discipline and put her finger on the bang switch. Scout then took four more slow and short steps when she squeezed a single shot at Scout’s torso at nine feet distance before stepping further backwards. She did everything wrong, the poltroon, then says: “I can’t believe this.”
I can.
This happens when you let cowards carry weapons.
They use them.
Is that not what happened here?
Those shit for brains cops didn’t even grasp that their mission was to save Scout’s life. What did they think they were doing there?!
That escalated quickly! I think that when police are out of control like that, it is more productive to take over their headquarters than to fight them in the field, if it can be helped. That’s where the decision-makers are, and it’s harder for a bunch of desk jockeys to excuse (or succeed) shooting a few dozen calm but firm people.
If you meet someone trying to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge, is it the right response to give them a good shove? If someone is suicidal, they’re not well. They need help. Suicide by cop should not be a reliable way to kill oneself.
The police should be issued balls. It is a supreme act of cowardice to shoot an unarmed person, or in this case, a laughably armed person. The US police are being trained to self preseve by eliminating any threat in their vicinity with lethal force, no matter how minimal or manageable said threat is.
Anecdotally, a person in my home suffered a medical emergency and we had to call 911. The first three responders were police, each of whom asked me more than once if there were any weapons in the home. One of them asked me and others present four times by my count. There were not any weapons, but there was a person who needed medical attention or she would die. When I dialed 911, I wish I could have specified no police. Finally, the fire department arrived and did their job commendably as always. The only accomplishment of the police that day was to secure our otherwise safe home for themselves. The police obsession that their job is dangerous is just not supported statistically and is making life hazardous for the rest of us who happen across a police gang member.
1212 documented police killings for 2015 (accuracy in this case highlights how truly terrible the situation is in the US). The website I’ve linked to tracks media reports of police killings in near real-time. Two other people were documented having been killed by police since Scout Schultz was killed.
@M_Dub: Sadly, there’s yet another thing police are afraid of to add to the official list: multi-tools.
