I’m all for the “Hands up, don’t shoot” motto. If Mike Brown had actually done this, he’d be alive today. If the 12 year old in Cleveland had done this he’d be alive today.
There are senseless shootings in this country everyday. There’s no reason why Mike Brown should have attempted to struggle with Officer Wilson over his gun. There’s no reason the 12 year old in Cleveland should have pointed his pellet gun at the police.
When I was in my 20’s, I was hanging out with some friends in the parking lot of a closed gas station. It was about 1:00 am. Apparently someone thought we were there trying to break into the station and called us in to 911. All of the sudden, 4 patrol cars rolled up on us with no sirens. Quicker than I can remember, 8 patrolman hop out of their cars, yelling “hands up”. Me being naïve thought well I just need to get out my ID to show them I’m a student at the local college. I reached my hand towards my back pocket, and I immediately heard 2 or 3 shotguns get racked with the verbal bark, “GET YOUR HANDS UP!” I wonder if I had been black, would I still be alive today. But the officers had no idea if I was reaching for a gun or not. Fortunately for me upon hearing the shotguns racked I immediate put both hands up, and we were frisked, and then able to talk our way out of any arrest or citation.
So for me, “hands up, don’t shoot” sounds like a good policy for everyone involved. The police aren’t looking to murder anyone, they just don’t want to get shot themselves.
Yes, it was called Life Skills - how to cook, how to do laundry, how not to get shot. And we were grateful for it, in my day, get off my lawn, etc.
Actually, it was part of my martial arts training - act calm while being robbed. It keeps you from getting shot by accident if all he wants is your wallet, and relaxes him before you distract him when attempting a disarm.
Ah ha! And that’s no longer allowed thanks to the whiny liberal PC patrol. So they are ultimately to blame for black people not knowing how to surrender properly.
Yes, that oldest of American traditions: “When you see the police, be afraid and act like they’ll shoot you with little to no warning or reason.”
That’s precisely the sort of lesson we want to be teaching in a democratic society about fellow citizens who purportedly protect us and from whom we expect protection.
And why would you think that? For that matter, what makes you think it was even possible for the 12 year old? He was shot in seconds as I recall, and didn’t have the time to do anything at all.
And I doubt that a cop willing to shoot a 12 year old on sight is going to care what the 12 year old does, even if the kid had the chance to do anything.
Maybe, maybe not. If he thought that Wilson was going to try to shoot him anyway, then struggling over the gun was a rational and reasonable response. Did Brown actually think that? I don’t know, and it’s too late to ask him.
As seems often to be the case, what you think you recall is not what really happened. He had time to reach for the gun in his waistband, which is why he got shot.
Who knows? Since there were no cops willing to shoot a 12 year old on sight, we will never know.