There was never any claim that Eric Garner was killed in self-defense.
As we post protesters are protesting legitimate self-defense. I mean, it doesn’t get more legitimate than when someone is pointing a gun at the self-defender.
Objection! Argument relies on facts not in evidence: it has not been established that anyone was pointing a gun except for the police officer who killed someone.
All those years of hanging up paper targets of black kids at the shooting range would finally pay off.
Liberals: “I have no logical argument, so, you’re racist.”
Did Blank Slate change his name to Liberals? 
Because I’m still seeing him post as Blank Slate.
And the guy who was caught on surveillance camera pointing a gun at a police officer.
But I’m sure the police probably just edited the video on their squad car computer while ducking bottles and firecrackers because racism.
I was unaware this was established as a fact. I thought it was just the report of the officer.
Conservatives: “All black men are uppity criminals and deserve what they get.”
So… the video of the incident is out there. It’s not very hard to find. It’s seems pretty cut and dry to me. Dude pointed a gun at cops within extremely close proximity. Not sure this one is debatable.
Are we ignoring it? Are we rationalizing it? Are we saying it’s edited, doctored, made up? Help me out. I got signs to make for the annual Cops are Racist Thugs Christmas Pageant.
I wasn’t involved in an argument.
One of the cornerstones of white conservatism is racial antipathy. What? Do you guys think that you’re operating in secret?
You can see a gun? I can’t see a gun. In the enhanced video on the Guardian site, I can see someone who appears to be pointing but I can’t see a gun nor can I tell that he’s pointing at the officer.
For a guy who’s so blind to facts, you sure seem to have incredible sight when it suits you.
Given the climate of racial tension right now and the fact that so many abuses by police have been brought to light, we definitely should question the cop’s word if he said its self-defense. He shot a person, therefore protests are expected and proper. Until he can prove otherwise, I have no problems with the people deciding to be angry about yet another killing by a cop
And what of the gun that was found on him loaded and ready to fire? I suppose you think the cops planted that after they shot an unarmed man and realized the security footage they hadn’t seen yet would show him in a position exactly as if he’d been holding a gun?
I suppose it makes much more sense that he decided to stop running, face the police, assume a shooting posture, and point at them. And they shot him anyway, because all cops are racist and get out of bed every morning hoping today will bring their big chance to shoot an unarmed Negro.
I haven’t seen contortion work like this since I dropped a fin to get in to that seedy strip joint in the misspent days of my much younger self.
If a child didn’t understand this, I would have him read “The boy who cried wolf.” If a grown ass man posting on a message board didn’t understand this, I would blame his parents for failing him at the age when he was still capable of self-improvement.
You forgot that if it’s some black kids defending themselves from some violent white police officers, then none of the above applies. Or maybe that was just your personal hypocrisy and racism?
I have several problems with that. First, I have met a couple of first-rate human beings who are cops, who truly embody that whole “protect and serve” thingy. My respect level is pegged at “awe”, and is reserved for people who routinely accomplish what I simply cannot do. They deserve better, and they deserve other cops much like themselves. How many are there? Dunno.
Met the other kind, too. 'Nuff sed.
Second, it doesn’t matter. Tenemos a serious ass problemo. One that *demands *fixing. Even if the protestors are exaggerating, even if only half what they way is true…if only a quarter of what they say is true!..we cannot abide it, we cannot dismiss it.
A start…a start, mind you!.. is body cams for all cops. Good cops will bitch about it as well as the bad ones, but you know out of one eye they’ll be looking at the jerks they have to put up with and counting the days before they fuck up. Raise the pay, raise the standards, pension off the dead wood that can’t measure up. Aim to make being a cop a profession, with professional education, pay, and community respect.
Gonna cost a buttload. You-know-who will shriek in porcine rage. Attach it as a rider to the appropriation of the Whizbang Missile Mark 34 program. Gonna be hard, too, something is rotten in our foundation and we have to hold the whole structure up with one hand while we replace the basement bricks with the other. But it has to be done. Biased justice is not justice, it is merely a milder form of tyranny. Fuck* that* shit, to paraphrase Thom Paine.
The is my edict as Queen of Romania. Tremble and obey, my possums!
So you’re saying that officer present didn’t notice that the man he shot had his arm extended? Then why did he shoot him? And yeah, I find it plausible that a cop would plant a gun to try and justify his actions.
So every time I point at something across the street I’ve “assumed a shooting posture”? What about when I wave? Is that a “shooting posture”? Can I make an “okay” sign or is that also a “shooting posture”?
The thing is, Smapti, you don’t know any more than I do, but you’ve already reached a conclusion, not only about the shooting but about what I think. You think I think the cop is racist, even tho there’s absolutely nothing I’ve ever posted that would back up that belief, for instance. It’s stunning, because at the moment, I haven’t ascribed any position on this yet other than “I do not know what happened and have seen little or no evidence at all”.
Somehow, tho, you already know what happened. That’s why people give you shit: you have no critical thinking skills, only a knee-jerk reaction that is ALWAYS in favor of the police.
So you can see a gun in the video?
I watched the video on the nightly news, and it’s pretty fuzzy. I can see the guy raising his arm, but there wasn’t enough detail to see a gun. I assume we will be shown an enhanced version in the next few days.