To quote a man far greater than me “It was there, I had to take it.”
Yeah. Trouble (big trouble) is, cops use guns in so many situations (like say, this one) where lethal force is not necessary. Either they’re fucking fascists, or they’re fucking scaredy cats. Or maybe both at the same time. Either way or all three ways, I hope so much that the pressure that’s building on them now to stop killing unarmed black and brown (especially) people keeps on building.
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Fairly sure that already is part of the rule.
In this case the guy with the knife and the cop who moved to block him were getting quite close. He didn’t look necessarily like he was going to attack from the video, but on the other hand he had just apparently stood there for a while with 4-5 policemen aiming guns at him and shooting him with beanbags and failed to drop the knife. I would certainly not predict that anyone would do that, so it seems pretty ludicrous to confidently declare that if not shot stabbing would [edit: or would not] have been attempted a second later.
Some of these shooting videos, including this one give me the classic ‘watching a train wreck’ feeling. You can sort of see the mistakes and bad luck piling up and then it finally the shooting happens. The instant of the shooting doesn’t always look to be the problem. Its the minute or two or five… or well up to the entire suspects life and way that police officers are trained and socialized and equipped that built the situation.
Once again, the public lets somebody be murdered, and then complains about it on the internet. Good thing you didn’t need to intervene, somebody could have been hurt!
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I’ve found that it helps to view the world as a vast tragic comedy. Laugh at it no matter what it throws at you. Cry if you feel like it, but laugh even if you don’t. In the end, nothing’s worth getting angry over. Also helps you to stay calm when changing things so the thrown lemon in face doesn’t happen again.
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America.
That. Is. America.
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or a taser.
Or some humanity.
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Other countries have drug addicts and mentally ill people and plenty of knives, yet rarely experience these kinds of police shootings. I don’t ascribe the difference to “bad luck” so much as “a fundamentally different approach to law enforcement.”
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All I see piling up are the bodies and the bullshit excuses
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I just googled about how the UK police deal with people armed with knives. This is kind of interesting to me, mostly because this is my sister’s patch. Although it’s not her in the video.
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Oh, sorry, I was busy when my mate called to tell me that five cops were going to shoot some guy all the way across the country from me a few hours from now, and I couldn’t really afford the airfare…I just assumed someone else who lived closer would take care of it.
My bad, everyone!
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Jesus. That’s messed up. I don’t understand why if one person fires, the other 4 would too. I guess to defend his brother/sister? If one person shoots they might be labeled as “trigger happy”. If all 5 shoot, then there must have been a REAL threat perceived to make 5 officers all fire.
Granted I’m not a cop, but from what I saw I can’t see my self pulling the trigger is someone else started shooting first.
US cops also have been known to disarm and subdue people with knifes. Taser, peppery spray, bean bag rounds, riot shields and batons have all been used. Of course we never read about those. That doesn’t go viral because that is what is SUPPOSED to happen.
Note - not saying that there are WAAAAY too many cases of lethal force being used where it shouldn’t, just saying there are also a lot of cases where non-lethal force is used to subdue armed suspects.
It also comes down to how much value they assign to the person’s life…
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I meant people who were present where and when the incident occurred. Sorry that I was not more explicit.
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As you are the resident expert in guns, this is a pretty telling line about your knowledge of how OTHER PEOPLE ACTUALLY USE THEM
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I was recently watching some footage of fights for a separate reason. I noticed, and others have mentioned it before, that people really, really don’t want to risk getting hurt. Lots of yelling and showing off, but actual fights tend to require either lots of adrenaline or some other drug to get it started. I’d assume the same thing is involved when stepping in an ongoing confrontation.
Plus there’s the whole whatchumacallit, observer-thing, where the more people are around, the harder it gets for an individual to step up. Sure there was a term for it, but for the life of me can’t remember what it was.
Cowardice is the word you’re looking for.
Oh sorry, fair enough. I should have inferred that instead of being snarky.
Found it! It’s called “Observer Syndrome”, “Kitty Genovese Syndrome” or mainly the “Bystander Effect”.
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“Cowardice” is funny, but I suspect you’re looking for “diffusion of responsibility”.
If you’re hurt or similar in a public space and you yell out generally for help, everyone around will assume you’re asking someone else. Instead, point to someone or make eye contact and specifically ask that person for help. You are much more likely to get help that way.
There’s a related phenomenon about how people who are uncertain what they should do tend to watch other people around them and copy what they do. That might help to solve @Mister44’s little mystery from further upthread:
You see, when a bunch of people are in a dangerous situation they are constantly looking for signals of what they should do next. The sound of a pistol firing would probably be taken by most people in such a situation as a clear signal that they should fire a pistol.
Edit: OK, it’s called the bystander effect.
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