18 and Dead.

[Wasillaguy]

I think it's entirely possible that the first shot was justified and successive shots were not, if the stories being told turn out to be anywhere near the truth.
If you assault a cop, expect to get shot. Once the threat is gone, cop's gotta stop shooting.

On the other side of this story, I just learned that a no fly zone was established over the Ferguson area Monday morning after news helicopters reported taking gunfire from below.
Remember the one kid saying "Revolution ain't gonna be televised". Well now we know what that meant.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

Shooting the kid, on the face of it, was an over-reaction to a bare-hands scuffle.

This is, of course, what some folks have issues grasping: there is no such thing as an overreaction to a bare hands scuffle.

Any human of reasonable size or strength can kill you with their bare hands. (Or take your own baton, tazer, gun, etc., if you are an officer and carry such things.)

If an individual is within your sphere, armed or no, and has enacted an assault upon your person? And the disparity of force is not such that an NFL player is being assaulted by a midget?

Then deadly force is legally, morally and ethically condoned.

Heck, if this officer allowed himself to be backed up to his cruiser before firing? With the full weight of everything supporting a play using deadly force?

Then he's a better man than ANY of us.

[djv8ga]

Originally Posted by Wasillaguy

On the other side of this story, I just learned that a no fly zone was established over the Ferguson area Monday morning after news helicopters reported taking gunfire from below.

Nice neighborhood.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Wasillaguy

I think it's entirely possible that the first shot was justified and successive shots were not, if the stories being told turn out to be anywhere near the truth.
If you assault a cop, expect to get shot. Once the threat is gone, cop's gotta stop shooting.

And provide the best medical assistance he/she can.

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Nobody got shot for walking in the street.

That's what he was doing when the cops "encountered" him.

A pretty Goddamned minor offense if you ask me.

I'm not double deadlocking all my doors and sleeping with a pistol under my pillow out of fear that some kid is out in the street blocking traffic.

The way I see it, it's the cops responsibility to handle that type of situation without it escalating into a shooting. Don't they get training for that? Seems like a no-brainer to me.

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by Zeke

I have no issue with that.

Being said, an officer has every right to persuade someone to get out of the street. (And it needn't be polite.)

If someone takes umbrage and assaults me? And I have -- basically -- retreated to my cruiser?

You're getting shot.

Any break in that logic chain demands a different result.

You've used the phrase "You're getting shot" twice now. Is that what the field manual says? The unwritten one, perhaps?

You think you know what was in the head of a dead kid when you weren't even there. You have 'one story:' that he was "acting out from a grotesque bastardization of generational rage turned entitlement." Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. There are actually millions and millions of stories.

But we have, right here, your repeated testimony that if he violates the sanctity of your cruiser, it's death. And you've got one story to back it up. We don't have to guess what's in your head, you keep telling us.

"You're getting shot." I'd say you know all about entitlement, all right.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

But we have, right here, your repeated testimony that if he violates the sanctity of your cruiser, it's death.

What do you think a cruiser is to a patrolman?

What would you think if we inserted "you" instead of patrolman, "bedroom" instead of cruiser and then added that you were being assaulted in it?

"You were being assaulted in your bedroom."

Context, man. Context...

If that's entitlement, you're not thinking clearly.

Do we, respectfully, have a facepalm smiley?

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Tom Joad

That's what he was doing when the cops "encountered" him.

That's NOT what he was doing when he got shot...

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by Zeke

What do you think a cruiser is to a patrolman?

What would you think if we inserted "you" instead of patrolman, "bedroom" instead of cruiser and then added that you were being assaulted in it?

"You were being assaulted in your bedroom."

Context, man. Context...

If that's entitlement, you're not thinking clearly.

Do we, respectfully, have a facepalm smiley?

If a cop thinks of his cruiser as his bedroom he has some serious issues.

Reminds me of this guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkavwuWE5eQ

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Tom Joad

If a cop thinks of his cruiser as his bedroom he has some serious issues.

Which is a nice diversion from the point I very clearly made and hit home with.