It's Watch!... Neighborhood Watch. Not shoot.

Including, in this case, the police.

 

Overaggressive police shooting someone who tried to kill them seconds after the deadly threat ended.

vs.

Chasing and confronting an innocent teenager, then using the confrontation as an excuse to shoot him.

 

"who tried to kill them"

Your words and not consistent from any of the accounts of the incident.

Henry was told to move by cop in cruiser behind him. He complied and the shooting cop went cowboy and jumped on hood of car.

After Henry was shot the police pulled him out of the car, threw him on ground and handcuffed him.

There is a trauma center literally 5 minutes away from scene. Did the delay cost Henry his life?

Obviously there are differences in the 2 cases, but now the biggest difference is that the Florida case has hit the national main stream. For whatever reason the Henry case did not. Al Sharpton stayed mute, perhaps because he was negotiating his deal with MSNBC and did not want to ruin it. Politicians stayed mute perhaps because they knew it would be sure political death in mostly white Westchester County.

The cop gets named "Cop of Year by local PBA. For what?

 

Here's a shocker: Fox News has barely covered this story, and when it has, it's spun it into how people are using it to attack the hallowed NRA.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/20/fox-news-coverage-of-the-trayvon-martin-case-criticized.html

Actually, the Brady Campaign is indeed attacking the NRA, because it is the organization behind the shoot-first-ask-questions-later laws that helped make it possible for a person to shoot a teen in cold blood and claim self-defense. However, the coverage I've seen, while questioning Florida's law and noting the NRA pushed it, hasn't "attacked" the NRA -- yet. Although if people want to do that, the NRA and its backers can't act like they're the real victims in this shooting. Though they probably will, even though it's a legit question to ask, whether stand-your-ground laws are resulting in more, unnecessary shootings.

 

Big march tonight in New York.

interoccupy.org/march-21-a-million-hoodies-march-for-trayvon-martin-nyc-6pm/

 

They need to have one in Sanford.

 

My bad, I skimmed over the disputed facts.

I tend to give a shit-ton of latitude to trigger-happy cops as far as criminal charges go. The cop in that case overreacted and shouldn't be a cop, but I wouldn't put him in jail.

Still not remotely the same thing as a guy hunting down a kid just because he was black and wore a hoodie.

I'm going to send this thread spiralling into a wild direction, to be sure, but I have a cousin -in-law who is a cop and constantly posts stuff like this on Facebook:

http://www.policeone.com/vehicle-incidents/articles/5263880-Video-Man-waiting-with-gun-shoots-cop

Stuff like that is why I understand why cops cross the line. It doesn't make it right, but I understand it.

 

Al Sharpton said they are having one on Friday.

 

They're having several. Check the link.

You can also send Skittles to the Sanford Police chief.

 

"Overreacting" is an understatement. Cops were called to break up a bar fight that likely happens in every college town on a weekend. Pulling out a gun should not have entered the equation.

What is similar is that a young black kid is shot and killed
unnecessarily. What is different is the Pace case did not seem to capture national interest.
If it had, the cop might be in jail as opposed to being named "cop of the year".

 

The cop had a reason to be there, a reason for there to be a confrontation, and a reason to have a gun with him.

The shooter in this case had none of those three things. That's why one is gathering attention and the other isn't.

That said, the "rally round the family" mentality of the police department there in the aftermath is disturbing.

 

Meanwhile, Mitch Daniels in Indiana has just signed a bill that, basically, has just given every meth-lab runner, gang member and paranoiac license to kill any police officer, Census counter, postal worker and Girl Scout-cookie salesgirl who they reasonably believe is acting unlawfully when they step onto their property.

This is the bill summary:

Self defense. Specifies that a person may use reasonable force against any other person in certain circumstances. Provides that a person is justified in using reasonable force against a public servant if the person reasonably believes the force is necessary to: (1) protect the person or a third person from unlawful force; (2) prevent or terminate the public servant's unlawful entry into the person's dwelling; or (3) prevent or terminate the public servant's criminal interference with property lawfully in the person's possession. Specifies that a person is not justified in using force against a public servant if: (1) the person is committing or is escaping after the commission of a crime; (2) the person provokes action by the public servant with intent to injure the public servant; (3) the person has entered into combat with the public servant or is the initial aggressor; or (4) the person reasonably believes the public servant is acting lawfully or is engaged in the lawful execution of the public servant's official duties. Provides that a person is not justified in using deadly force against a public servant whom the person knows or reasonably should know is a public servant unless: (1) the person reasonably believes that the public servant is acting unlawfully or is not engaged in the execution of the public servant's official duties; and (2) the force is reasonably necessary to prevent serious bodily injury to the person or a third person.

This was in Mitch Daniels' statement on signing the bill:

http://indianalawblog.com/archives/2012/03/ind_law_gov_sig.html

“Moreover, unless a person is convinced an officer is acting unlawfully, he cannot use any force of any kind. In the real world, there will almost never be a situation in which these extremely narrow conditions are met.”

Doesn’t Mitch Daniels remember that Linda Thompson is from Indiana? George Zimmerman was “convinced” Trayvon Martin was a threat. Presumably, Zimmerman’s reasoning doesn’t fall under Florida’s stand-your-ground law, but there he is, walking freely, without charges, nearly a month after the shooting. If I were a police department in Indiana, I would order extra Kevlar for the officers — oh, wait, the budget’s been cut, you can’t afford it. Good luck not dying!