You are justifying the murder of an unarmed 12 year old. Think about that long and hard before you continue defending the Clint Eastwood wannabe morons who drove their cap right up to a little kid before shooting him dead, because he was such a threat to them.
Police shouldn’t be putting their own safety ahead of the safety of civilians, including the civilians they are trying to arrest. If you disagree, you have no business being a cop. Every time I see one of these morons resign in protest because if they can’t go in guns blazing they don’t feel safe, I cheer – those cowardly scumbags don’t belong on our streets, not in the capacity of law enforcement officers.
Why are you holding a 12 year old – who, like all 12 year olds of all races, was not capable of making rational decisions – to a higher standard than the trained, armed police officers responding to the situation?
The video is evidence. The dishonest words of the cops are evidence. Judge Adrine’s opinions are evidence. The dishonest failure to disclose his past for one of the cops is evidence. There’s plenty of evidence – certainly enough for reasonable concern that a reasonable attempt to get justice was not made here.
I don’t know that I would go as far as excusing said behavior, but what they did was all by book (according to the evidence presented). What needs to change is the process, the mind set, and the follow through. Training and education is a good first step. Everything XT listed upthread. Wash out those who struggle under duress. Firearm training, picking the right people for the right job and with a higher (or highly) paid position of great responsibility, hopefully we can actually get the cream.
So it’s just a coincidence that cops, AKA grown men with firearms and training, repeatedly feel “threatened” by unarmed black boys, much more often than they feel “threatened” by white men. Got it.
We’ll agree on one thing - in such a racist society as ours, it can be impossible to determine whether a shooting was criminal or not, because the institutions are so corrupted by bias that they usually are unable to function justly. They can certainly function to protect power and wealth, but not consistently to find justice.
Not sure the first part can be generalized. Just looked up my community - an upper middle class suburb of Chicago w/ what I consider a very low crime rate.
Population approx 50k.
Of the 66 police department employees:
50 earn between $80-140k;
11 earn <$80k;
5 earn >$140k.
$80-140k does not impress me as significant undercompensation for the job as I perceive it, especially with what I consider relatively generous pension benefits. I personally feel my town spends WAY too much on police, their toys, and their pensions. (I know Kenosha has some sketchy areas, but a freaking tank?!)
Now in Chicago, it appears as tho the median salary is $60k, w/ 50% earning between $56-65k. That impresses me as pretty low pay for a much tougher job.
I fully agree w/ the other 3 factors you list, tho.
Protect and serve the people is what the police should do. You don’t get to decide who dies. If you don’t like that kind of job then don’t apply for it. There are plenty of people who are braver than you and who understand the arms of government better than you do who can also replace you.
Yes, the Floyd killing doesnt seem to have anything to do with racism. Chauvins past has been checked and rechecked and no hint of racism. It was either uncontrolled anger or a personal issue.
The kid certainly appeared to be armed, with a very realistic replica, which even had it’s orange tab removed to make it look more real. How would they know? X-ray vision?
100% agree. If you’re confronted by cops who have the guns drawn, obey commands immediately and precisely and THEN consult your human rights advocate. If you walk briskly to your car, open the door and make like you’re reaching for something, that’s just asking for trouble, IMHO.
No doubt there is racial oppression and racism. No doubt some white cops shoot black men as they are more “threatened” due to the fact that the white cop is still racist, even if subconsciously . That doesnt mean every time a white cop kills a black man it is automatically racist.
Why are you putting the burden on untrained civilians, even if they aren’t criminals and are just going about their life? How about the men and women who are trained for this sort of thing, carry firearms, and have legal protection when they kill people be the ones with the burden of behaving responsibly here? The dissonance here is just too much – cops, who are (supposedly) trained professionals, can’t be blamed if they screw up and shoot someone; but a 12 year old kid should have known better if his actions lead these trained professionals to shoot him? What kind of fucked up country are we living in?
