Policemen’s time is valuable. What if, for example, the perp doesn’t speak English? And how many minutes do you expect the cops to waste? If the perp says No, then what? Call in a child psychiatrist?
By racing right up next to Rice and minimizing verbal interaction, the cops took out the thug in the most cost-effective way possible. Kudos.
The video shows he had a gun in his hands and the police reacted in exactly the way that any single person on this board would react if they saw someone waving a gun around.
Liar.
How could he have a gun in his hands, and be reaching for his “deadly weapon” in his pants at the same fucking time?
No, if I saw a child on a swing set with a gun in his hand, my first assumption would be that it’s a toy. Because, shocking as it may be to you, few kids, even them scary thuglike black kids, come strapped to the fucking playground.
I’ve told this story before (maybe even in this thread), but when I was young and dumb I bought an Airsoft gun (which, in France, are sold in hunting shops - where real guns are also sold), unpacked it right then and there and started faffing about with it on a park bench nearby.
A cop approached long-haired, be-black leathered gun waving me and asked politely whether the gun was real or not ; then advised me to go home with that thing so as not to frighten people.
Amazingly he didn’t feel a need to plug me full of holes on sight, in dire fear for his life. Must have been a rookie.
I see no reason to ever assume that a gun is fake. That’s a mistake that you only get to make once.
So you ever get to assume the suspect doesn’t have a gun? That’s another mistake you’d only get to make once.
If I see someone wielding a gun, I assume that their gun is a gun, because if I’m wrong, I’m dead.
Why would I ever assume that their gun is not a gun? How many shots are they allowed to pop off before I’m allowed to assume that the gun I see them holding is a gun? Why should I ever be required to prioritize the life of a gun-wielding stranger above my own? How much are you willing to pay me to prioritize the life of a gun-wielding stranger above my own?
So what if it’s not even fake, you twatbuckle ? Owning a gun, carrying a gun, even having a gun in one’s fricking hands are not threatening. If that gun is pointed at a person, then you get to shoot. Not before, not on sight, not in the back, not fucking ever. You fire at the last possible moment, because that’s the job.
If you can’t handle that pressure, don’t be a cop.
Why does a cop have less right to self-defense than any other human being?
Because that’s his job. And BTW, non-cops don’t get to claim self-defence on the sole grounds that “he had a gun somewhere on his person” and absent any further context whatsoever, either.
So you can be required by your employer to surrender your fundamental human rights?
That’s an interesting stance for a liberal to take.
Since when is shooting people a fundamental human right ?
Since when is self-defense not?
Are all human beings obligated to allow themselves to be murdered by armed criminal thugs, or only the ones drawing a government paycheck?
Self-defence does not mean “I get to shoot people whenever, if I’m itty-bitty scared or think they might conceivably at some undetermined point in the future cause harm to me”. And, again, if you are a cop and as such are vested by the People with the means and the authority to use force, we the People expect and demand that you do so responsibly and not shoot random people on sight.
So which is it, Smapti-Did they gun the child down while he was brandishing his “weapon”, or did they gun the child down while he was reaching for his “weapon”?
Black 12 year old child, Smapti.
Can you read my mind? Are you capable of objectively inferring whether or not I or any other human being is in genuine fear of their life? No. You are not.
If I see a civilian waving a gun around in a public place, then I have every reason to believe that my life is in danger, because guns are deadly weapons. And just as you have no ability to read my mind and objectively measure in kilolovecrafts how precisely afraid I am, I have no ability to read that person’s mind and know whether they intend on shooting everyone they see in exactly two seconds or whether it’s just a toy. And if I am similarly armed, then you bet your sweet bippy I’m going to shoot first, because if I’m wrong, I am dead, and if it’s my life versus the life of some idiot waving a gun around in public, I have no reason to value their life over mine, and there’s no amount of money you could pay me that would make me value their life more than my own.
Yes.
You seem to think that detail is relevant somehow. I disagree.
You are one fucked-up asshole.
I’m looking through the history books for an example of when “All you have to do is just as you’re told and you will be OK” was ever an honest or fulfilled promise.