In The News...

Thought the article was just good food for thought/discussion.
I hear stories of things being like that here in the old days. My experience hasn't been the same.

I was harassed out in this rural area, followed when driving, stopped and searched, when I was a kid just because my long hair made me suspect of "something". Every long haired kid in my town in the mid "70s went through the same thing.

The police here are motivated by making profit for their department and the courts through arrest and confiscation...not necessarily the officers on the beat, but they are trained and instructed to make it so.
 
woodworkingboy said:
No, you need to have better reason than that to take a life. After telling of his permit, the man apparently moved his arms when fetching his wallet, so the cop got to freak.
Click to expand...

I disagree with this. In spite of the fact that the driver did what he was supposed to do in disclosing his permit to carry, which in my mind makes him one of the good guys, this cop was so full of fear that he simply over-reacted. Whenever you (as the operator of a motor vehicle) are interacting with law enforcement, and suspect that they might be even a little bit nervous, it is best to ask permission for each little move that you plan to make, announce each move before you make it, just to be clear, and then when you do move, move very, very slowly and deliberately, trying to allow your hands to be easily seen at all times.

I think the guy got shot because of a scared cop, and a lack of enough paranoia about the danger of the situation the driver was in to cause him to be very, very cautious and methodical.

Tim
 
Your assessment seems about right to me Tim. The officer sounded scared beyond competent ability to carry out his job in a safe manner.

When I get stopped I have both hands on the dash and don't move until instructed to. I do my best to put the person with the gun and club at ease...which entails making them feel they are in total control.
I've had several friends (white) beaten at traffic stops for one "reason" or another.
 
I agree that the driver could probably have done things in a better way, but your post seems to make nervous a justification for shooting the man. I hardly think being frightened or whatever the exact mood was, absolves the cop of unjustified murder. It's difficult to know the exact sequence of instructions from the police, and at which time in that sequence did the driver inform of his permit and that he had a gun. At some point the cop asked for the identification, and after the shooting you can hear the cop screaming, "I told him not to reach for it". The man could easily have been confused, and when he was bringing his arms forward after being told not to reach behind himself, that's when the cop unloaded. That is my impression of what occurred.. So, maybe the man could have been more deliberate or done things to better suit the cop's mental crisis, but my impression is also that he did nothing threatening towards the cop, apparently acted in a normal fashion and showed no weapon or even hostility.

Not to be forgotten is that there was a woman and child in the vehicle that the cop shot multiple times into. It's a terrible shame that the man was shot, I see no way that he deserved to be by way of his own actions. You guys are absolving the cop of responsibility? I don't get what you are saying. I believe it a reasonable expectation that police will be operating in a professional and trained manner in all situations until you know different. How many law abiding people modify their normal behavior to suit a cop's stress, I think very few by in large. Cops shouldn't put people in a position where they have to. Courtesy and following instructions is the order of the day if everything is done according to the law. Things must have happened pretty quickly in that incident.
 
Jay, your taking my statement the opposite of what it meant. The officer was unhinged and probably shouldn't have been on active duty IMO...another loose cannon.
Shooting into a car load of people...not sure that is proper procedure.

We don't get the whole story from these partial/possibly edited videos either to be fair.
 
Thanks for clarifying. You are right, Dave, still unanswered questions. The cop sounded hysterical after, I don't know what to think of that. Just shooting someone to death might be good reason, even for a cop. The guy is in the driver's seat is bleeding to death and still the cops were gun pointing very threatening on the woman. The whole thing seemed over the top out of control, and shocking.
 
I visit with the Under Sheriff once in a while, he was telling me that when he runs the tags and sees that the driver has a concealed carry permit his level of alert actually goes down.

He figures if that person took the time to apply and was granted the permit, he must be at least a little bit responsible.

Not sure about other states, but your CCP is linked to the information that the cops see when they run the tags.
 
Well, we might not have the whole story yet. So far all we have is the word of the woman, who was so calm and collected that when I first saw the video I thought it was an elaborate hoax.

Do we know if the cop was wearing a body camera?

Maybe the driver pulled on the cop. Maybe he was reaching for his wallet. Maybe it was justifiable, maybe not. I would like to know the details.

The cat in Louisiana was shot on the ground, after being tazed a couple of times, and still resisting. The cops were called for a man waving a gun around. Lots to know yet.

Been lots of cases of cops being shot while on the ground struggling.
 
I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's quite unlikely that the school cafeteria cook of 13 years with his girlfriend and a kid in the car was looking to quick draw from the shoulder on a nervous cop who had his gun pointed at him. But you never know.
 
You might never know what makes people snap, cops or otherwise.

One thing is for sure, the level of tension is pretty high, on both sides. Notice how I did not say how high it was......I did not want Dave to fire up and tell us young folks how wonderful things are today compared to the 60's and 70's.....:P
 
You never can tell, Justin.
He might have been the same type of sneaky black as Rodney King.

In the whole video here, it is apparent that he is just playing possum, waiting for a chance to make his move.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sb1WywIpUtY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
I saw that on the news @3yrs old:(

Watched the ensuing riots as well. We could use a good riot.
 
Sure, sure, Butch, but you know:


“The man who has no sense of history, is like a man who has no ears or eyes”
 
Ha. don't worry Jim, I'm not of the opinion things are wonderful at all. Damn disappointing is more like it.
 
You know the cop's lawyers are going to come up with a scenario that there was justification for shooting into the car, and the complete TRUE facts may never be known, but in this case i agree with Justin, it just doesn't stand to reason that the guy would want to pull his licensed gun with a cop on each side of the car, plus the other people inside. His job responsibility and such seems to indicate a rational man, He had more than a lot to lose, everything.
 
It still gives the "viral" story away as a fabrication. If they thought they were confronting an armed robbery suspect. . . that is a whole different ball of wax. Especially one with a handgun sitting on his lap.
 
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