Watch the video. It starts with their car about 2 blocks from the scene. They’re still ½ block out when they say, “F**k this guy.” ‘Perp’ is then clearly seen moving away from the passenger side of a different marked SUV which then moves forward, indicating that the officer was inside the SUV in the driver’s seat. The officer driving the car with the dashcam has made up his mind solely based upon the radio reports of a different officer. Said radio chatter is not part of the video, but radio reports are typically not detailed but more like, “Send backup, he’s not cooperating.”
Well that’s a perfectly good reason. STOP BEING REASONABLE!
So, to summarize the video, we have a man waving a gun at another police car. They enter the scene with a duty to stop this man from shooting someone. As the video progresses you can hear one of the cops say “watch it, watch it”. They’re clearly not trying to run him over or they would have run him over.
I think “fuck him” about sums up the expected response to someone threatening a co-worker.
Yes.
Okay, so I try not to lecture anymore, but could people meet me halfway and not say such horrible things?
No, Mann didn’t “have it coming.” No one does. The police have one legitimate reason to attack or kill–and that is when it’s the last choice remaining to prevent harm to themselves or others. It’s never a measure of whether they deserve to die.
The information we have is that the guy was not an imminent threat. He was outside with a kitchen knife, and there was no one around besides the cops. The previous two cops were still in their cars. Then we have a third cop say he wants to hit him, when he’s still half a block away. Then, lest you think they meant “get out and hit him” and he just got out in front of them, they turn around and go after him in the car again, before giving chase. We then see the cops run after him, and while a cop car drives by, we hear 16 shots, and see Mann go down. It does not appear to my eyes that he was close enough to be a threat before the first shot is fired and does not appear to have gotten closer to the officer, but I admit it’s hard to see anything.
Also, according to the LA Times article (which is linked in the article accompanying the video iiandyiiii provided), one of the cops reported an injury saying that Mann had charged them. However, security camera and cell phone footage retrieved by private investigators reportedly show that the officers charged Mann instead.
That’s the type of information needed to determine if this was a legitimate shooting. Not some idea that Mann “had it coming.” If people are saying stuff like that, no wonder BLM exists and doesn’t trust the police.
He didn’t have a gun.
Hey, feel free to lecture as much as you want (which is, apparently, quite a lot). Means nothing to me. Frankly many people have expressed a preference that you don’t say much of what you say. And yet, here you are …
Perhaps you’re unfamiliar with the colloquial usage of the term “have it coming”. FYI, it’s commonly used in situations where a person, through their own actions, put themselves in a situation where others felt the need to harm them. As was the case here.
The idea that it refers to what a person deserves from a moral and judgmental standpoint is in keeping with your approach to discussions of any and all topics on this board, but you need to appreciate that not everyone thinks like you do.
To summarize your post…what the hell video were you watching?!?
A mentally ill meth head charging along a busy thoroughfare waving a knife isn’t an imminent threat?
I suppose that’s one way of looking at it.
Regards,
Shodan
Did the police know at the time that the person on the street was (a) mentally ill and (b) a “meth head”?
AFAIK they only knew that he was “acting erratically”, waving a knife around, doing karate moves, and refusing to drop the knife or submit to arrest. That he was found later to be both mentally ill and a meth head is evidence that their judgment at the time, that he was dangerous. was correct.
“WTF is going on with that nutcase over there with the knife? Is he cra-cra, or on drugs?”
“Why can’t he be both, like the late Earl Warren?”
And sure enough, he was.
Regards,
Shodan