FSTDT Forums
Community => Politics and Government => Topic started by: Ultimate Paragon on August 19, 2014, 05:20:20 pm
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http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/michael-brown-shooting/st-louis-cops-shoot-kill-man-near-ferguson-crowd-gathers-n184216 (http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/michael-brown-shooting/st-louis-cops-shoot-kill-man-near-ferguson-crowd-gathers-n184216)
Two St. Louis city police officers shot and killed a black man who came within several feet of them brandishing a knife on Tuesday a few miles from the turbulent suburb of Ferguson, authorities said.
A crowd of at least 100 people quickly gathered at the scene. Some people chanted, “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” — the refrain from a week of protests over the police killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, three miles away.
The man in the St. Louis shooting, 23, had taken energy drinks and a package of pastries from a nearby convenience store, Police Chief Sam Dotson told reporters. He said that the man was “acting erratically, walking back and forth, up and down the street.”
The chief said that the officers repeatedly ordered the man to drop the knife and drew their weapons after he did not drop it. The chief said the man told the police: “Shoot me now. Kill me now.”
He said the two officers fired after the man moved toward one of them and came within 3 to 4 feet.
“One of the witnesses described it as a suicide by cop,” Dotson said.
There was a heavy police presence at the scene, and police marked off the intersection with yellow tape. Antonio French, a St. Louis alderman who was arrested last week during protests over the Brown killing, urged the crowd to maintain peace.
“The last thing we need is violence in our neighborhood,” he said. “And that’s not going to be on the police to make sure there’s not violence in our neighborhood, that’s going to be on us. No silliness here.”
He said that he had much more confidence in St. Louis city police than in Ferguson police, and promised to work with the department to make sure there was not a “heavy-handed response” to any protests.
In Ferguson, protesters were confronted by a government “that quickly treated them like the enemy,” French told NBC affiliate KSDK.
“I think we have a different situation here, handled much better,” he said. “This is not Ferguson.”
Any thoughts?
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There was a similar case in Finland, except that the guy was holding a "gun." Later it turned out that it was a airsoft gun that had looked real (we don't have to paint the barrels yellow or anything) and when he had pointed the gun at police they shot him in the leg.
Well, that police officer did have a MP5 rather than a pistol so he could shoot accurately but still, this guy had a knife so they could have at least tried to use a taser or OC spray or something.
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Eh, I figure that it could have gone better, but the shooting wasn't completely unjustified as many of them are.
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I guess none of the cops over there are bothering to carry tazers?
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I guess none of the cops over there are bothering to carry tazers?
I would think it is less about "bothering to" and more about "deparment didn't give them tazers." Which is apparently quite common.
After all the military is just giving out free grenade launchers, camogear, automatic weapons and even tanks but they would have to PAY for tazers out of their own budget.
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It's surprisingly expensive to get Tasers. Even the lower end models are $500 each and you pay close to 1/5 of that price for each reload; the higher end, brand new stuff is even more expensive. A two-shot Taser is $1400. Meanwhile, the federal government tosses military surplus left and right for free as long as they make sure to use it regularly.
It's very likely that few cops in Ferguson carry any less-lethal weapons beyond mace, which isn't something you really want to use on a guy with a knife if he intends harm.
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A video of the shooting was released. Needless to say it's graphic. A total of 17 seconds pass from the moment the police car stops rolls to a stop to the time the first shot is fired. It appear he pull the knife out a 1:29, but I can't see it, just the hand motion that seems to be him pulling a knife out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-P54MZVxMU
As the cameraman says, "here we go again."
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Different video, still graphic of course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ikg3x5_tJc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ikg3x5_tJc)
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Different video, still graphic of course.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ikg3x5_tJc
FTFY.