DGS49
Diamond Member
East Pittsburgh residents demand answers in 17-year-old's death
Here we have the same repeated story that hits the news with some regularity:
Unarmed "Black" kid is fatally shot by police...justification unknown...the community is outraged...he was a "sweet" kid, never got into trouble...what a tragedy!
As a cynical old "White Person," even I have to ask the general question, When is it appropriate for police to use deadly force against someone who is running away from them?
But this question is never satisfactorily answered.
Now for my comments: Why did the kid run? He had nothing to do with the police stopping the car. It was probably a traffic violation, and the target of the police was the jitney driver, not the kid/passenger.
Why did he have a gun (actually, 2 guns)? Although it is common "knowledge" that police carry around spare untraceable guns to deposit at shooting scenes so they can claim that the perp was armed, it is impossible to make that claim here, since the driver is still alive, and in fact is not in custody. Those guns belonged to the "sweet" kid.
Good kids don't carry multiple unregistered handguns. Innocent people do not reflexively run from police. Many criminals lead exemplary lives when they are not actively perpetrating crimes, so the fact that an accused person "volunteers at the food bank" is not proof of anything with respect to any criminal activity.
And yet, I guarantee that none of the coverage of this incident will ask those two questions: why did he run, and why was he carrying TWO guns? If he ran because he had a fear that the police are out to get him, then he was badly misinformed. He was 100 times more likely to be shot by another Black Yoot than a policeman...until he fucked up.
It will be interesting to see what the police explanation turns out to be. The "community" reaction is foregone. Preachers being outraged, a Mother (seldom a father) crying over the grave, a neighborhood grandma saying that the community had to DO SOMETHING. We've seen it all before.
Here we have the same repeated story that hits the news with some regularity:
Unarmed "Black" kid is fatally shot by police...justification unknown...the community is outraged...he was a "sweet" kid, never got into trouble...what a tragedy!
As a cynical old "White Person," even I have to ask the general question, When is it appropriate for police to use deadly force against someone who is running away from them?
But this question is never satisfactorily answered.
Now for my comments: Why did the kid run? He had nothing to do with the police stopping the car. It was probably a traffic violation, and the target of the police was the jitney driver, not the kid/passenger.
Why did he have a gun (actually, 2 guns)? Although it is common "knowledge" that police carry around spare untraceable guns to deposit at shooting scenes so they can claim that the perp was armed, it is impossible to make that claim here, since the driver is still alive, and in fact is not in custody. Those guns belonged to the "sweet" kid.
Good kids don't carry multiple unregistered handguns. Innocent people do not reflexively run from police. Many criminals lead exemplary lives when they are not actively perpetrating crimes, so the fact that an accused person "volunteers at the food bank" is not proof of anything with respect to any criminal activity.
And yet, I guarantee that none of the coverage of this incident will ask those two questions: why did he run, and why was he carrying TWO guns? If he ran because he had a fear that the police are out to get him, then he was badly misinformed. He was 100 times more likely to be shot by another Black Yoot than a policeman...until he fucked up.
It will be interesting to see what the police explanation turns out to be. The "community" reaction is foregone. Preachers being outraged, a Mother (seldom a father) crying over the grave, a neighborhood grandma saying that the community had to DO SOMETHING. We've seen it all before.