Another Cop shooting, this time vs. flag pole

Originally posted by Robtard
No, not really, if you know his history and general views towards black people, as I mentioned.

But are you implying that his racism is other people's fault?

I don't think it was anyones fault. Well, if he didn't have a history of being racist I could maybe see a retort about "ebonics" as sarcasm to the suggestion of race baiting, but then again that wouldn't be true racism anyways.

But no. I don't think it is anyones fault.

EDIT: Though if he has a history of racism why hasn't he been banned?

I'm not a racist but I still race-bait Tzeentch and Delph, but that's because it's funny when they react to it.

perfectly understandable

Completley unjustified. The flag pole look plastic and the cop could have grabbed it and disarmed him without having to kill him.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
Yeah that one looks pretty clean. The cop doesn't do anything that would seem to aggravate the situation, he does not draw his gun until after the person has picked up a weapon, he seems to issue a challenge, and he doesn't fire until after the guy has swung the pole trying to hit him.

He only fires twice, very reasonable for someone likely in fear for their life, and immediately calls it in.

Now, I would rather cops did not carry guns, and it is possible this could have been resolved with a non-lethal weapon. But if cops are going to be armed, they need to be governed by strict usage procedure. Most of the issues we see with American cops is them being insanely trigger happy- drawing guns without provocation, not issuing any sort of coherent challenge, firing without good cause and blatting off insane amounts of rounds that indicate a lack of control.

None of that seems to apply here.

The suspect was visually deranged and had mental issues and seemed to be on a retard rage and was visibly much smaller in size and stature then the cop. The cop could have gotten behind his car and waited for backup or disarmed him and put he man in cuffs. I've seen cops disarm much worse then this flag pole carrying. The cop was in no serious threat and could have used a non lethal.

Like I say, I would have been happy for the situation to have been dealt with using non-lethal weapons.

Nonetheless, I think it is quite a thing to assume that situation could have been so easily handled- that thing is always easy to say in theory commenting afterwards. I don't like cops using guns, but I would definitely say that guy was in a situation where pulling the gun was reasonable in the heat of the moment, especially in the professional way he used it. He was not out of control- he made a reasonable judgement about how the situation needed to be handled.

In so far as American cops carry guns by default, that's a political issue, and a different debate- in that respect, I do believe that if American cops were not routinely armed then a person like this would not have needed to die. But as US cops are armed by default, the thing that causes controversy is the poor gun discipline they often show, as I outlined above (and which I think is more or less inevitable when you arm an entire police force, as good gun discipline in law enforcement is frankly difficult and you can't expect all cops to have the right temperament for it).

By those rules, this cop was fine. He didn't provoke, he didn't abuse, he didn't go wild. You may not agree with his choice but he was within the rules.

Sadly the police force here is not only armed but militarized it will always be this way, and it will only get worse. Carrying the same equipment and weapons in the back of their squad cars that US Marines carry in combat over seas. Mostly to the untrained eye people just think that's "right-o"

However it's not right.

Even if America did take its guns away from the people, domestic law enforcement will only grow and grow in power.

Like I think I have said here before, if you are saying that US police forces are inappropriately militarised, I agree, but where I suspect we disagree is that you see it as a projection of abuse of government power, whereas I see it as a genuinely held but mistaken and counter-productive approach to what law enforcement involves.

Seems we agree more then we disagree.

.

Just because you are mentally ill does not mean you deserve any special treatment when it comes to the fact you might be threatening lives. Reminds me of the recent autistic teen and her mother who were kicked off a plane, the mother whined, but further investigation into the case revealed it was more her fault, but she had to complain because her child has special needs to apparently that overrides the safety of everyone on board.

Before anyone says a child can't be a threat to people, this was a 15 yr. old girl known to LASH OUT at people if she didn't get her hot meals, etc, which the mother failed to plan for, and then she whines and blame the airlines and threatens them.

So what evidence was there that it was plastic? The pole did not look plastic to me. He doesn't get a pass just for being mentally ill, so you're going to need some evidence to show the weapon was harmless. Of course even then, how the hell could the cop be sure? You see something as plastic doesn't look plastic to me, so how could the cop even be sure?

If you are mentally deranged you should be in a mental institution, not roaming the friggin streets.