sakinago
Gold Member
- Sep 13, 2012
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There’s been many stories of police seeing a “suspect” reaching to their waistband, and using lethal force. Most notably Philando Castile, the recent Mesa Arizona with the subject on their hands and knees sobbing and begging for police not to shoot...and my favorite, this video...
Here the “suspect” is shot for following police orders which were “can I see your drivers license.”
Over the weekend, police responded to call of a teen murdering his family, and dispatched a SWAT team. The SWAT team arrived on scene, the teen answered the door, and “reached”, which prompted police to shoot and kill the “suspect.” Doesn’t sounds too bad right?
Well what was really going on was a feud over a 2 dollar bet over a video game...what does that have to do with this story? Well this suspect was actually never guilty of any known crime, never murdered his family like claimed. What happened was his video game rival thought it’d be funny to do a prank called “swatting” where you falsely report someone of a serious crime that requires SWAT team involvement. There have been dozens of cases like this, most of them not ending with lethality, but still very very dangerous situations non the less.
Yet another innocent law abiding civilian was shot and killed by police...why, simply because he “reached.” Not saying police can’t draw and ready to shoot when they see someone reaching...BUT THEY NEED TO IDENTIFY A CREDIBLE THREAT (firearm, knife, etc.), BEFORE THEY OPEN FIRE. If this was a soldier or marine in Iraq or Afghanistan, who shot a civilian just because they were reaching...they would be court marshaled and charged with at least manslaughter, if not murder. We hold our soldiers to this standard in war zones, with enemy combatants. Why is it we cannot ask our police to do so when dealing with civilians?
Here the “suspect” is shot for following police orders which were “can I see your drivers license.”
Over the weekend, police responded to call of a teen murdering his family, and dispatched a SWAT team. The SWAT team arrived on scene, the teen answered the door, and “reached”, which prompted police to shoot and kill the “suspect.” Doesn’t sounds too bad right?
Well what was really going on was a feud over a 2 dollar bet over a video game...what does that have to do with this story? Well this suspect was actually never guilty of any known crime, never murdered his family like claimed. What happened was his video game rival thought it’d be funny to do a prank called “swatting” where you falsely report someone of a serious crime that requires SWAT team involvement. There have been dozens of cases like this, most of them not ending with lethality, but still very very dangerous situations non the less.
Yet another innocent law abiding civilian was shot and killed by police...why, simply because he “reached.” Not saying police can’t draw and ready to shoot when they see someone reaching...BUT THEY NEED TO IDENTIFY A CREDIBLE THREAT (firearm, knife, etc.), BEFORE THEY OPEN FIRE. If this was a soldier or marine in Iraq or Afghanistan, who shot a civilian just because they were reaching...they would be court marshaled and charged with at least manslaughter, if not murder. We hold our soldiers to this standard in war zones, with enemy combatants. Why is it we cannot ask our police to do so when dealing with civilians?
