Here’s a shorter video of the event (as far as I can tell the ambient noise is completely unrelated to the events recorded on video):
I’d have thought that he would have shown more of a reaction if he had heard a loudspeaker. He basically acts much as he did in the previous few minutes until they drive up (although theoretically he could have responded to a loudspeaker at about 0:10 by walking into the open. Regardless, they were the ones who approached him at that point). From what I can tell as an untrained person, the police were leaving themselves very little options here. They were within 5 feet of the kid, so that really reduced their reaction time and meant that they had just over a second to choose between ‘shoot to kill’ and ‘do nothing’. They were also restricting themselves quite a bit by driving onto a snow covered grassy area that was closed off to vehicles on most sides. You really only have the options of tasing or shooting someone in order to disable them if they’re standing in front of you and you’re sitting in a car (and you probably aren’t going to go for the taser as the guy standing is much more mobile), so giving themselves more space would have allowed them to more thoroughly appraise the situation and protect themselves and the kid from poor split-second decisions. While I wouldn’t expect them to value their own lives less than his if he had pulled a real gun on them, there are many ways that they could have avoided bringing it down to that choice.
I really wish there was a way to “like” a comment without “liking” it.
It really does seem like they took a course of action (really shoddy training there…) that forced them into a split second decision (or they’d already made up their minds about what was going to happen, and followed a course of action that would lead to it)…
It’s “armchair quarterbacking” at it’s finest, but there are so many ways that this could have been avoided (on both sides).
I’ve been in the situation (more than once … hey, I live on the south side of Chicago) of having one or more police cars appear out of nowhere at racing speed only to stop within feet of me. Trust me, your reactions at that point are based on the fear you are about to die.
It’s the stupidest thing they could possibly have done if they thought the child (standing there by himself) had a real gun and was thinking of shooting it. Singularly the stupidest, most likely to cause gunfire thing they could have done.
You mean King? Yeah, but it took years to get to that point, where we got a King holiday. His imagine was really “whitewashed” (yeah, I know) for white mainstream America.
That’s what I mean, actually, even though I didn’t really explain myself well. It took years to get a King holiday (and Arizona was the last, of course), and now he has been whitewashed, as you say, and you wouldn’t BELIEVE how many obvious racists use his imagery and his words in a skewed fashion to support their racist beliefs.
White people seem to be perfectly okay with MLK now that he’s dead. It’s something I’ve been mulling over for the last few days.
Oh, no, I totally know how many racist use him. Also, Rosa Parks… I swear, if I hear one more one dude claim he’s the Rosa Parks of something… Really? You were an active member of the NAACP who tried to bring the rapes of black women by white men into the public consciousness dude? Really? There needs to be some way to call these people out on this…
Yeah, the whole embrace of King goes along with the whole notion that many whites feel as if “racism is dead” because there are no longer Jim Crow laws on the books and because we have a black president. [edited to add] Ignoring the new sorts of Jim Crow laws, in the process. which “apply” to all, but that in reality have a disproportionate impact on people of color and the working poor.
Wow. So they name the county after a white guy, and when America’s most influential civil rights leader happens to have the last name of “King”, they pretend it’s about him instead of the original white guy they named after the county? Yikes.
According to the Guardian newspaper, the police officer responsible for shooting Tamir had previously been discharged from another force with the recommendation that he should never serve as an officer again, due to problems with his firearms training
Sweet fucking hell, did they completely go stupid all of a sudden? Suspected person with/without weapon in a park, and you roll up between wood/concrete abutments (or what appear to be), into a somewhat enclosed area in your vehicle? And right next to the person you’re looking for? Yeah, armchair QB and all that, but holy what the fuck? That’s basic battle tactics–don’t put yourself into an enclosed space when you’re already in an enclosed space. Maybe driving up on the road surface and then, if necessary, situating the vehicle in a defensive position with the ability to GTFO if everything goes tango uniform.
Poor situational awareness/training matched with bullets plus young black man…that’s a sad situation all around. Condolences and hope.
