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Bearing Arms author Tom Knighton feels that shooting that autistic kid was self defense on the part of the cops.
I have a huge problem with that.
All they needed to do was to step back four feet from the fence and the kid could have waved that knife menacingly all day. They were not in imminent danger.
Tom, stop licking the jackboots.
It's not self defense unless and until you're in imminent danger.
Next, I think it's high time we get night sticks back on the belts of law enforcement.
This could have ended with the kid having a broken wrist instead of being ventilated by four cops and lots of rounds.
Back in a better time shooting the suspect was not the first choice. It was well down the list.
I know that we're jumpy about night sticks since Rodney King, but it's the original less lethal weapon for cops to carry. Hell, in many places that truncheon was a constable's only weapon for a long time.
I've watched the video, and saw that the police didn't do fuck all to de-escalate the situation. They rolled up, gave orders and when they weren't instantly obeyed, they opened fire.
Fuck you Pigs!
A free citizen doesn't owe you instant obedience.
Fuck you and your officer safety trigger happy bullshit too.
We give far too much deference to them while we forget that they're on the vanguard of fucking us out of our liberties and rights.
It's almost enough to say, "defund the police."
The problem with night sticks is, like the LAPD at the time of Rodney King, civilians had managed to make said sticks totally friggin useless by requiring only surface strikes and hard pushes.
ReplyDeleteThey weren't allowed to throw shots like a Scadian, not allowed to push through the target, to hit hard snaps and wraps and combos.
Properly used, a night stick can solve a lot of problems. But the first broken wrist or snapped forearm will result in a huge civil liability lawsuit.
Same can be said for the very very very few adverse reactions to tasers. It's the reason we've seen a lack of tasering in the last 10 years.
Cops are civilians. Everyone, including and most especially them need to fucking remember that.
DeleteAnd OK, the problem is the fucking lawyers again. We can fix that. Because the only force we seem to allow the cops is to kill someone and I'm VERY unhappy with this as the solution.
I generally support use of tasers as a less lethal alternative and this is despite the fact that one of my high school friends was killed by police who tased him. He had a heart attack. However, he was a middle aged guy, so he could have had a heart attack sooner or later anyway. I've lost a few friends that way too. And he was extremely intoxicated and swinging a sword around and apparently at least scaring people if not actually threatening them. He ignored repeated orders to put the sword down before they tried to tase him. I wasn't there but it sounds like they were actually using restraint only using the taser instead of shooting him. They had no way to know other than him being a middle aged guy that he'd have a heart attack. One problem with tasers is they aren't always effective. And occasionally against a blade armed person they are able to cut the probe wires rendering it ineffective. But still, as McThag notes, there was a chain link fence and unless the kid made motions like he was going to jump the fence or throw something, any claims that he was an imminent danger to the officers sufficient to justify a shoot are extremely weak at best. I'm not a cop hater, but this was obviously a very bad shoot.
DeleteOh, damn, that was me. Forgot to sign.
Delete-swj
That was a mutual friend who was tased and died. Something was very wrong in his head because it was surprising that it was ONLY booze in his system.
DeleteAnother mutual friend said he was dealing with PTSD and trying to get off the meds for that.
Yeah, it was a truly unfortunate situation. Sadly, general lack of and poor quality mental health services to veterans (well, anything VA really), especially in Iowa which is generally known for having among the worst mental healthcare systems in the country and poor veteran's services (because so few military decide to retire there compared to other states) makes it not so surprising something like this happened.
Delete-swj
If the only tool you have is a hammer, then every problem is a nail.
ReplyDelete...or to be more accurate: if the only tool you can use effectively is a hammer, then every problem is a nail.
Maybe the Brits have it right: cops are unarmed, except for the armed response units which are requested as needed.
JohnKing
Tonight it is reported that the kid died. He had been on a ventilator.
ReplyDelete