sakinago
Gold Member
- Sep 13, 2012
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The cop who shot had “you’re screwed” written on his barrel...this should not be police mentality, police mentality should be “no one is going to die today, including me.” This was not this officers mentality. Training IS the problem, that’s what I’ve been saying this entire time. They use to train cops with the mentality that If you fired your weapon, that’s a fail because you did not diffuse the situation. Kind of like it’s a fail when surgeons cannot save an unsalable patient, there will be moments you will have to fire...THIS WAS NOT ONE OF THEM.Maybe saying it had to happen is going too far. I can understand how it happened. I think the cop who shot could have been aware that the young man was not a threat. But the cop was following all procedures learned in their training. The other cops there did not shoot. Maybe the one who shot could have been more circumspect. But human beings are not perfect. He was following training, but could have used better personal judgement.No this was not necessary, nor was hindsight needed to prove that. We ask our soliders in war zones, to correctly asses a threat before engaging a threat. In which, reaching is not a threat, reaching mean you can prepare for threat, but not engage until you have identified the threat....why the hell are our police standards lower with citizens, then they are with our soldiers and enemy combatants? There is no excuse.I think it's really obvious. You've all seen video of cops arresting someone out on the street. They have them first put their hands up then drop to the ground. The street is an open area and the people they are arresting have come out of cars. The cops can clearly see that no one else is in the car or around to be a threat. In this case they are in a narrow hallway. There is a room behind the woman and man with the door open, the room they came out of. The cops don't know who is or isn't in that room and if they are or not a threat. So instead of walking up to the people they are arresting and cuffing them, they have them come to them. They are on their knees with hands up to make them helpless. The cops are not going to go to them because there may be an armed person in the hotel room at the end of the hall.He should have never been giving him those orders in the first place, the orders should have remained stay face down on the ground, legs crossed, palms on the ground. He should’ve waited till first perp was secure, then cuff and search him with partner present. The cop made himself vulnerable in that situation. If for whatever reason they needed the perp to come to them, have him crawl backwards, tell him to lift his shirt so you can see if he has a weapon. At least a dozen other scenarios would have been better than what this cop chose. That is 100% on the cop.Well, how would the cop know if this guy was reaching for a weapon or not? I agree, he was a total asshole, but when they tell you not to move, then don't go reaching behind you. He has no idea if you are reaching for a weapon or not. I'm sure plenty of cops who practice "restraint" have been murdered because of it. These guys are dealing with the lowest of the low in society on a daily basis. Of course, that is going to have an effect on them and their psyche. It is silly to think that it wouldn't. Cops should have "term limits."
I’ll ask again, why is it we give enemy combatants in war zones better treatment than our own citizens. If this was in Iraq, these guys would have been court marshaled, and charged. This is unacceptable by our own soldiers standards, why do we accept it? I want police to come home safe, I want them to take necassary actions and precautions to do that, and I want them to put themselves in advantages posistions, but reaching IS NOT a viable justification. Closing with a mentally I’ll patient with a knife who lunges IS NOT a viable justification for shooting. DO NOT PUT YOURSELF IN THAT POSISTION. I get not every situation is cut and dry, and there will be times police get caught off guard, and have to make split second decisions, this was not one of those situations. Yes this kid was stupid, he was also scared shitless and clearly not thinking straight (kind of understandable if you’ve ever been scared shitless). Police should be held to civilian standards of self defense, at the very least, if not higher. Get rid of the law enforcement bill of rights, and get rid of the “when in doubt shoot training,” which is exactly what we saw in that video no matter what way you want to slice it.
Well, this I can agree with. You make a good point in how he was managing the suspect. Making them crawl over to them doesn't really seem to make much sense, but there might be a reason why they do this that we don't know about.
If the young man had only followed instructions, as the woman did, he would have been fine. He was warned repeatedly. It's very sad. We know now there was no leathal gun and that he was not a criminal, but that is hindsight. It's a horrible situation. I don't like what happened, but I can understand why it had to happen. Most cops are good people and trying to do their job. They are not evil. It's the bad ones who give them a bad reputation. Saying all cops are bad is like saying all blacks are bad, and we know that isn't true.
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It's a terrible situation, but I don't think it is a situation of cops being evil or being intentiional murderers. I had an acquaintance who was a cop, long time ago. He wasn't a good friend or someone I particularly liked. He was a deputy in a county that didn't have high crime, not a big urban area. He quit because he didn't like being shot at, as he said. So even in a non large urban, non high crime area, these guys get shot at. It's a dangerous job. He went on to be a safety consultant in private industry. He had a college degree. A lot of police are educated. They don't need to do dangerous work. Most cops are doing the right thing despite the hazards.
And I’ll ask again. Why is it we give enemy combatants better treatment than our police give our own citizens. Why do enemy combatants have more of a right to life than our citizens do? If this was a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan, this guy would be court marshaled and charged in a heartbeat. If this was a citizen like you or I (it’s important to remember cops are citizens too) we would be charged with murder in a heartbeat. If this cop was off duty, in plain clothes, he would’ve been charged with murder. Why is it that cops standards are this low, that merely reaching constitutes lethal action???