WSJ--The Myth of Systemic Police Racism

[Spider-Dan]

He potentially could have been a threat but was no longer a threat when the police arrived.

A drunk person driving is a threat, and should absolutely be arrested.  A person sleeping in an improperly parked car is not a threat.  The officers knew this, which is why they needed to converse with him for 40 minutes to build up probable cause to arrest him.

[Sunstroke]

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see a drunk dude passed out in his car as much of a threat...unless he pukes on me when I wake him up and take his car keys.

Not sure I'd necessarily kill him for that, but his head would probably smack the door frame really good as I dragged his drunk ass out of the car.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see a drunk dude passed out in his car as much of a threat..

If he drives he is....but impounding the car would have solved that rather than killing him.

[pondwater]

The reason he is dead is because he made a choice to fight with police. When a police officer tells you that you are under arrest and to put your hands behind your back. You comply and deal with it in court with the judge. You don't resist and fight the police. That was his choice and his choice alone. Again, you're making excuses and justifying his poor behavior. He's dead because of the decision he made.

[Fau Teixeira]

Resisting arrest and assault don't carry the death penalty.

There were 2 cops vs. a drunk guy. Don't tell me they had no way of handling the situation other than killing him.

[stinkfish]

Didn't he grab and run off with one of the cop's tasers and use it against him though? If that's the case then yeah, you're going to get dropped.

[Spider-Dan]

What if he threw one of his shoes at a cop while he was running away? Is that also a death sentence?

Again, police departments regularly defend generous use of tasers as "non-lethal." So how can a taser be non-lethal in the hands of the police, but a mortal threat in the hands of civilians?

[stinkfish]

If someone points a weapon at someone who also has a weapon, someone is going to get shot. That should be obvious.

[Phishfan]

Arrested yes. Shot and killed no.

[Spider-Dan]

There are very few valid reasons to ever shoot someone in the back as they are trying to flee.  A taser is not one of them.

And this is what I was talking about: a year ago, any sort of force used against the police would be considered justification for summary execution.  We are in a very different world now, where police are being expected to have a proportional response instead of "You punched me and ran away so I'm going to kill you."

[BuccaneerBrad]

There are very few valid reasons to ever shoot someone in the back as they are trying to flee.  A taser is not one of them.

And this is what I was talking about: a year ago, any sort of force used against the police would be considered justification for summary execution.  We are in a very different world now, where police are being expected to have a proportional response instead of "You punched me and ran away so I'm going to kill you."

What I don't understand is that the Atlanta D.A. determined a taser is a "lethal weapon" when cops used it on students in College Park, but in the Brooks case, the D.A. deternmined it's a "non lethal weapon".   You can't change a weapon's status based on who is handling it.

[pondwater]

^^^^^It should be self explanatory.

A TASER is an offensive weapon under Georgia law and has been declared to be a deadly weapon by Paul Howard; in fact, one of his investigators swore that a TASER is a deadly weapon before the Honorable Belinda Edwards on June 2, 2020.

The ironic twist is that Paul Howard is the Fulton County District Attorney who charged Brooks. All a bunch of political nonsense.

[CF DolFan]

There are very few valid reasons to ever shoot someone in the back as they are trying to flee.  A taser is not one of them.

Absolutely false. This police officer will get off. Once you take a taser you can be shot running away, standing on you head or dancing whatever the latest Tik Tok craze. He becomes a threat to everyone there at that point.

Black Georgia sheriff says shooting of Rayshard Brooks by Atlanta police was 'completely justified'
https://www.foxnews.com/media/sheriff-alfonzo-williams-rayshard-brooks-shooting-justified

This is the third law enforcement agency I’ve been head of," Williams, who is black, told CNN. "Every agency I’ve gone to, I’ve required every officer who carries a Taser to be Tased with it, so that you understand the incapacitation.""Five seconds; 1,001, 1,002, 1,003, 1,004, 1,005. That's five whole seconds [when] if an officer is hit with that Taser that he, all of his muscles will be locked up and he'll have the inability to move and to respond. And yet he is still responsible for every weapon on his belt.

"So, if that officer had been hit, he still has a firearm on his side and the likelihood of him being stomped in the head or having his firearm taken and used against him was a probability. And so he did what he needed to do. And this was a completely justified shooting.”

"So you think lethal force here was necessary?" CNN anchor Brianna Keilar asked. Williams said it was and argued that the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution allowed that type of force. "There's nothing malicious or sadistic in the way these officers behaved."


A black sheriff says the police shooting of Rayshard Brooks was 'justified.' Atlanta's mayor and protesters disagree
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/16/us/rayshard-brooks-atlanta-shooting-tuesday/index.html


This is the most important thing he said but no one wants to talk about it. The percentages of everyone going home safely goes way up when you obey the officer regardless of your color.

We're sending the wrong message to our black youth. We're telling them that it's OK, that they can run from the police, that they can take a weapon from the police, they can fight with the police, and point their weapon at the police, and expect nothing to happen. That is the wrong message to send to black youth."

[Spider-Dan]

If you throw your shoe at an officer and hit them in the head knocking them unconscious, you could take their sidearm and kill them.  Therefore, throwing a shoe is attempted murder and must be met with lethal force.

No one is saying that the officers should have just let him escape after resisting arrest.  And since there were TWO officers there, had Brooks actually managed to taze the first officer and moved back towards his incapacitated body, the second officer would absolutely have been justified to use lethal force to prevent Brooks from getting the incapacitated officer's gun.

But that's not what happened!

We need to stop allowing police to respond to any action as if the worst possible outcome of that action actually happened.  If you push an officer off you on the side of the road, you could have been pushing them in front of a bus in an act of attempted murder.  But you didn't, so they should not be cleared to act as if you did.

[pondwater]

If you throw your shoe at an officer and hit them in the head knocking them unconscious, you could take their sidearm and kill them.  Therefore, throwing a shoe is attempted murder and must be met with lethal force.

No one is saying that the officers should have just let him escape after resisting arrest.  And since there were TWO officers there, had Brooks actually managed to taze the first officer and moved back towards his incapacitated body, the second officer would absolutely have been justified to use lethal force to prevent Brooks from getting the incapacitated officer's gun.

But that's not what happened!

We need to stop allowing police to respond to any action as if the worst possible outcome of that action actually happened.  If you push an officer off you on the side of the road, you could have been pushing them in front of a bus in an act of attempted murder.  But you didn't, so they should not be cleared to act as if you did.

If you know that resisting arrest and fighting the police could result in your "suicide" by cop. Then you deserve what you get if you make that choice. Play with fire, you get burned. Play with a snake, you get bit. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. In this instance, it was completely justified.