The Kajieme Powell shooting, on camera

Maybe it's the amount of blood that is spilled.

 

To follow up, YF, I don't think anybody can render a definitive judgment on the officers' decision to shoot. Who knows how I would react in that situation. It's the situation itself that the video sheds light on, and it's hard not to question whether it could have been handled differently. Maybe not the officers' fault. More a matter of training. Why pull up right next to the guy who is behaving erratically? Do the cops have to stand their ground? Can't they back up, moving to a safer perimeter and at least give the situation a chance to end in something other than the death of a clearly disturbed man? Look, if you wield a knife at police, you have to accept the consequences. But I can't help but think this would have been handled differently if it had occurred in an upper middle class cul de sac with a clean cut white guy as the suspect.

 

The FBI's stats on justifiable homicide by law enforcement show that the numbers have been largely steady (about 400 a year) over time.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_14_justifiable_homicide_by_weapon_law_enforcement_2008-2012.xls

 

Will Ezra Klein and the New York Times be ok with it if the President plays golf today?

It wasn't a journalist who was killed right?

 

What's Chuck Blow saying?

 

Not all officers carry Tasers. They are not standard equipment. They are extremely effective in certain situations (an uncooperative suspect high on PCP) and are ineffective in others.

The way a Taser works is that it shoots two darts that are attached to electrodes. The darts remain connected to the hand-held unit through wires that conduct the electricity. In order to function, both darts must make contact with the skin of the target. Hitting a target with those darts is imprecise, at best.

Assuming that one of the officers in this case both had a Taser and had drawn that instead of his firearm - a move that would go against police training in dealing with an armed suspect - in order for the Taser to be effective the officer would have had to land both darts in the narrow area of this young man's chest that was not covered by his loose fitting sweatshirt. If either dart hits the sweatshirt, it does not penetrate through to the skin, the Taser is ineffective and the armed man has ample opportunity to now use his knife on the officer.

 

Harder to sue for excessive force if you are dead.

 

This ... Taser's are not 100 percent reliable.

 

So then come up with a better Taser, shit, even a tranquilizer gun with a hard fucking needle that penetrates clothing.

 

Yep. Of course it does. In a situation like this, being able to see the videotape can make all the difference in the world in being able to formulate an intelligent and informed opinion in the debate over what happened and whether the shooting was justified.

That, of course, is in sharp contrast to the Foley beheading video where there is no debate over justification, and nobody needs to actually see the head being sawed off to decide which side was in the wrong.

But you must understand that YF is simply not that smart about these things, this is the sort of obvious distinction that often seems to elude him.

 

Out of curiosity, does anyone actually see the alleged knife? I sure don't.

 

thanks. I appreciate the numbers. I was just going off what I have seen in my metro area where for about five years we had no law enforcement shootings and LEOs were crediting to using tasers. Last two years, we've seen about six or sevene.