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Trigger happy American cops..
Nicola32
Posts: 5,153 Forum Member
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Yet another fatal police shooting in the US.
Was there really any need for this officer to shoot that driver? Was the officer really under any threat from him??
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/07/facebook-live-video-appears-to-show-black-man-shot-police-minnesota-philando-castile
ETA....Sorry, this link doesn't actually show the video of what actually happened, so difficult to judge whether the officer really thought the driver was reaching for a gun or not.
Either way, really awful thing to happen with a child in the car.
Was there really any need for this officer to shoot that driver? Was the officer really under any threat from him??
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/07/facebook-live-video-appears-to-show-black-man-shot-police-minnesota-philando-castile
ETA....Sorry, this link doesn't actually show the video of what actually happened, so difficult to judge whether the officer really thought the driver was reaching for a gun or not.
Either way, really awful thing to happen with a child in the car.
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I've seen the 'full' video, the recording happened after shooting. Very sad and tragic, but its impossible to really tell from most videos, but especially this one. Regardless of what happened, people will fill in the gaps with whatever narative they prefer.
http://heavy.com/news/2016/07/philando-castile-falcon-heights-minnesota-police-shooting-facebook-live-video-watch-uncensored-you-tube-police-shooting-man-shot-lavish-reynolds/
It doesn't actually show the shooting, just the man in question slumped in the drivers seat with blood over his t-shirt. His girlfriend is filming herself talking about what happened.
You can hear the officer sounding very hyper as he's still pointing his gun at the man.
The woman is then instructed to leave the car and we see she's also being covered by two armed officers. She's then told to get on her knees and you can hear the sound of her being cuffed, which is quite incredible really, considering she was being quite calm and compliant.
I suppose that's true, but I guess it could be argued that she wanted to start filming partly for her own protection. She's initially quite calm, but when she realises her boyfriend is likely dead she does then get obviously quite distraught.
It may well have been an unjustified shooting, it may not. But I'm surprised you find it incredible that she was cuffed. That would be standard procedure around the globe in cicumstances like that, to secure the scene until you can be completely sure what's going on. Just because someone appears calm and compliant does not mean they will stay that way given the extreme cicumstances of the incident, 'calm and compliant' people can be the most dangerous (in fact it's quite odd how calm and composed she was, but that may have been due to shock). They probably don't know her, so the rule is usually not to take any chances. It's doesn't mean a person will be cuffed for long or arrested. Might just be until they do a quick search. I would have probably done the same thing if I had just arrived to that. The initial shooting is another matter.
Watched a documentary the other night about Islamophobia in America and it's absolutely crazy, they protest with guns, shotguns, machine guns, just stood on the street, I guess perfectly legally. Incredible!
It was certainly red when they finished with him.. Maybe that's their thinking.
Well he was Chinese apparently if that counts as white?! Latino also seems to count as white when people feel like it.
He doesn't look Chinese. He's black.
It's only a matter of time before they either shoot dead a VIP in governmental power, or a tiny child who is frightened and innocently makes a wrong move. Just a matter of time - and then the shit really will hit the fan over how much power these trigger happy loons have got, and how much they get away with.
While it's just the average bod being shot, nothing will being them to book.
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/06/us/baton-rouge-shooting-alton-sterling/index.html
So many die pointlessly, so glad we don't have guns in this country. There is no way I could live in America, even when I go there on holiday I am very paranoid about guns.
Then again, Spanish police etc carry guns, hell even the Securicor guys have guns. Do you ever here about those Spanish police killing people?
Not the victim the officer....
Oh. Oops!
I am not surprised US cops shoot first ask questions later. 129 cops where killed in the line of duty in the USA in 2016, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.
Funny how you never see any threads about this on DS - and yes I know i could start one
They' already ended up killing and seriously hurting a large number of children (including babies) in cars when they've opened fire on the parent who was unarmed, or fired at another vehicle and missed their target (not to mention when they've opened fire on dogs and hit people inside the house).
Nothing changes.
It would probably take one of them to shoot and kill the president by mistake before something happens.
Police have killed 560 this year so far.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database
Last year it was 1145.
Fair enough if the other person has a gun and is a danger, I think shooting them is valid then, but in some cases they don't.
560 killed by US cops so far this year - link
How easy is that to judge in a split second when you might be in fear of your life.
I am not condoning shootings just trying to explain that it might not just be racism playing a part in this.
LOL. Okay perhaps not in every single case but most of them sadly it is.
I don't think it is racism. I think it's just the US police being too trigger happy. Shoot first ask questions later.
There's a fair percentage of white people also shot dead.
129 killed in the line of duty, not shot..
That will include those that died in car accidents, in general accidents, when they've shot each other with their own guns by mistake, training accidents, stabbings, dying after an unarmed assault etc.
Basically it could include virtually every possible cause of death whilst they were "on the clock".
Apparently only about 35 police offices died of non accidental gunshots.
That sounds like a lot (and it would probably be higher than the total number of gun deaths in the UK), but is about in line for the per capita rate of gun deaths in the US as there are nearly 800k police officers.
Eventually even petty criminals would all be carrying firwarms, the UK public would then demand the right to have weapons at home. Some of the public would inevitably carry such weapons about their person...
It would be an arms race and no way to reverse it.