I worry about the posters, here and elsewhere on the net, who grasp at any shred of a narrative that could justify the police (he moved his hand, he said he’s unhappy, he insulted the cop, etc).
I worry because none of these narratives come even close to explaining the killing to a reasonable audience. There is some desperation in them to live in a world where cops do good and only good.
They want so badly for that narrative to be true that they lose all ability to evaluate the evidence at hand. They ignore every fact that doesn’t fit.
They have a deep authoritarian streak, and have no idea what that means.
That may be what you see. I see people who deal with mentally ill individuals on a regular basis–maybe even daily–and who have no training or clue how to deal with such people.
And executing a suicidal person doesn’t solve the problem.
Depressed doesn’t always mean you mope around like Eeyore.
This part, not a direct reply to you → Look, it appeared something was going on with this guy, but these cops were also primed for something by their “animated” actions. I get they had a suspicious person call (supposedly), but holy shit I hope no one in a white car ever gets put out in an APB or can I also expect that sort of reaction from what should be a routine traffic stop? Non-compliance shouldn’t be a death sentence. Even if you somehow excused the initial shot, the shot gun at the end where hes going into shock and doesn’t have the ability to react is fucking nuts. If a non-cop shot someone in self defense and then shot him again on the ground, they would arrested and charged with murder. Unfortunately, some animals are more special.
First of all, no one appointed you Censor-In-Chief and no one voted to give you the power to silence anyone you deem not worthy. It’s kinda awkward when you pose like you have that power. I am not your petulant child.
Now, I said,
When I was a youth, I had to show an ID and wait in line to rent a fake snuff film, like Faces of Death. Let that sink in…once many people had to be screened by maturity in order to even watch a fictionalized portrayal of a death.
Fast-Forward a few decades, and you want the power to judge which snuff films are justifiable police action and which ones are suicide-by-cop. And to shush people who call you out on such ghastly business.
It seems like the cops are more interested in keeping their promise to shoot him again if he doesn’t raise his hands than they are in walking over and searching/handcuffing a guy who has already been shot and is clearly incapacitated by the bullets.
I guess the police can make the hypothetical claim that he could have been reaching for a gun (or a grenade), and was a threat even when he was shot and on the ground.
OK.
My counterpoint is that the way things are in America today the police should be willing to take that chance, be willing to take one for the team if necessary, because every new video of an innocent or unarmed person being executed by police officers (and that’s what this was) only makes the job harder for all police officers, everywhere in the US.
The police need to be willing to be martyrs instead of murderers.
Fuck internal affairs. Fuck the police investigating themselves. They work for us! Last time I checked my taxes were all paid. Let’s get a jury and citizen’s commission put together to end this type of shit. I will bring the matches to set that rule book on fire.
I have to admit that I stopped before the second cam (I didn’t need to watch the murder twice). I did hear someone mumble, presumably the victim, but what he says is completely unclear.
This makes me wonder if we have a “lost generation” of law enforcement, people so badly trained that the whole system won’t recover until they’ve all left the field. If a business unit were performing this badly you wouldn’t necessarily try to fix it by adding to it … you’d think about starting a new unit so the old wouldn’t contaminate it.
Did I write that he should have been moping around? As you highlighted, I simply wrote that he seemed more animated…and I continued to write that he appeared to be high. Either way, depressed and animated or high and animated, he did not appear to have a gun.
I have seen that entire video. It is thee worst video I have ever seen. And I have seen the unedited “Budd Dwyer” video. The brutality and …inhumanity. …words fall short. It’s indescribably brutal.
A ten-pack of likes for you. So many other ways that could have worked out.
Also, anybody want to start a thread about Obama/ABC’s town hall? What a crock of stage-managed horseshit. President Obama spent the whole time studiously NOT taking the black perspective. Even with Diamond Reynolds right there with him (by video feed since she went to a funeral today), he managed NOT to give voice to the one obvious conclusion: “What happened to Philando Castile and all the other black men like him never should have happened.” I guess his talent has always been more about intellectualizing than emoting.
Has anyone here ever actually had LEO draw down on them?
I have, it sucks. It is incredibly difficult to comply in real time, even when completely cogent, if only because:
Adrenaline - guns are scary, when they are pointed at you, infinitely more so. When adrenaline courses through your veins (if you don’t know how to mentally compensate) everything slows, goes wacky & things get foggy - you may as well be on drugs.
Fear - like I said, having guns pointed at you by aggressive people is scary. Anyone that says otherwise is a liar or a boastful idiot who has never been downrange from an angry officer.
Confusion - officers never shout just one command, they all shout different commands - STOP! LET ME SEE YOUR HANDS! DON’T MOVE! GET ON THE GROUND! (etc) - and with the adrenaline + fear, it’s immediately confusing because by the time your brain registers a command and you decide to engage your body to follow it, you get another, often contradictory command, and you have to go through the entire “is this going to get me killed” mental checklist while you’re high out of your mind on adrenaline and scared shitless. It’s no cakewalk to comply – believe me.
When the news came out about them sending the National Guard into Ferguson, I was momentarily optimistic…until I realised that the Guard weren’t there to do what was obviously needed: disarm and arrest the entire Ferguson PD.
