Was that a protestor? I thought it was a media-reporter/videographer?
Are you even capable of focusing on the point someone’s making instead of nitpicking about something entirely inconsequential?
Why are so afraid of questions being asked? 
Aw goldurn contrary! If the County Board has poor policy in regards to property tax and its effect on school levies, a polite vote at your local polling place is the appropriate response. If your beloved country is sending young men to kill for a dishonorable cause, further involvement is required. No one ever honored their country by assisting in an ignoble cause. Does it change things, is it effective? You don’t get to know that, you pays your time and you takes your chances, and you get your fair share of abuse.
Or you don’t. YMMV.
Few things are as difficult as convincing the hopeless that they have power. And authority already knows that power is in precisely the right hands, and tend to be suspicious of change. Quite.
I don’t know for sure. It looked to me like he was addressing someone to the side of the person videotaping. Is that distinction important to your assessment of their right to use self-defense?
However you meant it, it’s just as incredible to say Mike Brown charged Wilson’s loaded gun as it is to say Wilson tried to arrest Brown from inside his car.
I’m not afraid of questions being asked. I am annoyed by dumb-ass questions that have nothing to do with what’s being talked about derailing the actual point of the discussion.
There can be more than one thing wrong in a clip. Did you really need me to give you a +1?
It is a tried and true tactic of protesters to goad individual police officers into bad reactions and then yell “See the violence inherent in the system!” Also a tried and true tactic of paparazzi. It worked. He should have known better. He is being disciplined for it. In that kind of situation you have to take the Dalton philosophy of security. It’s also incumbent on the supervisors to make sure people are rotated out since the stress of being out front is going to wear people down. He shouldn’t have snapped. And he is going to pay for it. He’s not a furguson cop by the way. The town only has 53 officers. CNN alone probably has twice that number.
So since I had nothing to add to your point except that I agreed it was improper behavior I decided to point out something else. The media is Heisenberging the fuck out of the situation. You want the reporters to point out the problems to the world. Fine. What if they are making things worse?
Let’s try this again. I’ll repost my question. Do you see any mention of Brown in it?
*You’re in the street, all alone. A 6’4" 300 pound guy just shoved your door shut on you as you tried to exit your car. Then he hit you in the face and wrestled with you. Now, he backs off and charges you. You have a gun. What do you do?
*
Now, can you answer the above question please?
Links with no context, explanation or comment. At least you are consistent.
The cop that threatened to kill that protestor (yes, it was a protestor) has been suspended.
Sorry I wasn’t specific. I mentioned that he was being disciplined a few posts ago. I should have brought a cite.
If the protester believed he was in imminent danger – that is, if the protester genuinely thought the cop was serious – then yes, legally.
The problems he would face is making a jury believe he thought the cop was serious. But on the record, the cop said he was going to kill, he was armed with a weapon that gave him that immediate ability, and that certainly satisfies the objective component.
I was just watching a CNN panel talking about the case, and the host asked the question “What do you do when you have these dramatically different eyewitness accounts?”
The legal expert starts talking about the physical evidence “ …, Brown’s DNA on the gun would suggest he tried to grab it,…”
I admit the first thing I thought was “OJ! Someone’s going say it was planted!"
And that the officer was acting outside the legal scope of his job. Which certainly appears to be the case here. Unless it is shown that something happened before the edit that warranted his response. I don’t think that is likely. It seems that he gave into being goaded and lost his professionalism. The only thing at least a little in the cops favor at this point is that at least he had his finger off the trigger. That’s not much but at least a little of his training was seeping through his anger.
Next question. If they do move to prosecute Wilson, is it even remotely possible to get a jury panel who has not heard about the case and formed an opinion in this matter?
That is a huge problem. With most people’s attitudes about jury duty even in mundane trials you get a pool of people too dumb to figure out how to get out of it (and some who feel it’s their civic duty). With this case you would have to get a jury of shut ins. One side or both will probably argue for a change of venue which will most likely be granted. If I was Wilson I might ask for a non-jury trial (if allowed by state law) to try and keep emotions out of it. But if Missouri has elected judges you then have to worry about politics coming into it. Any way you look at it there will be difficulties.
I’d shoot.
Now let me try this again…
A 6’3" - 6’5", 240 - 260 lb cop just thwarted your attempt to wrestle his gun away from him and even got a shot off. You book. The cop fires so you stop to surrender. But the cop keeps firing. What can you do?
A lot of states have cleaned up their jury systems. It’s much harder to get out of jury duty these days. Not sure about Missouri, but here in NY, after your first pass, it’s damn near impossible to skirt.
even in your condemnation of the cop, you are making a lot of allowances for what might have lead to his “unprofessional ism” (i.e. threatening to murder people), I’m sure you have the same empathy for Brown and what lead to his state of mind.