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Today in cops gone feral

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by dixiehack, Sep 1, 2017.

  1. qtlaw

    qtlaw Well-Known Member

    Last thing I'll say, its this kind of thinking that perpetuates the continued shooting of unarmed (mostly) black men.

    "What if he was a serial killer"? "What if he was a rapist?"

    Well you know what? You can question every one who comes across your vision that way because serial killers, rapists, violent criminals are in every walk of life.

    And that's why we have the 4th Amendment, you must have probable cause to kill someone, not suspicion. You're trying to build suspicion.

    The only issue is "did the shooters have a reasonable belief that their life was in danger before using deadly force?" Was he a criminal the night before? Well the shooters never knew that, so its irrelevant. None of what you hypothecate even comes into play.
     
    OscarMadison likes this.
  2. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I guess I am different than you. A man gets 60 bullets in the back after a traffic stop, and I am not trying to come up with reasons why he deserved it, especially in the speculative, inconclusive manner you just did.

    My instinct is to focus right in on the people who shot him 60 times in the back.
     
    OscarMadison, qtlaw and Mngwa like this.
  3. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Speculation and inconclusiveness is most of what we have at this point, isn't it?
    Believe it or not, I'm not trying to indict Walker and back the cops. I'm also not praising Walker and condemning the cops, which is probably what's getting me in trouble here. I'm trying to look past the smokescreen of emotion and analyze what we know (or think we know) so far. I refuse to believe that eight cops got together at the beginning of their shift and said, "Hey, you know what would be fun? At 12:30 let's pull over the first black guy we see, chase him down and shoot him! And then make sure our body cameras record the whole thing! YEE HAW!!!"

    Walker ended up in a mental spot where, for whatever reason, he thought he needed to run from the cops instead of pulling over and getting a ticket.
    The cops involved ended up in a mental spot where, for whatever reason, they felt they needed to unload their guns into Walker.
    There might well be good answers for both. There might be unacceptable answers for both. But solving those two mysteries leads us toward the truth. Apparently, pointing out that they exist is unacceptable.
     
  4. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Nope. We have a very conclusively dead man who was shot 60 times in the back while he was unarmed. No speculation needed about that.
     
    OscarMadison and qtlaw like this.
  5. qtlaw

    qtlaw Well-Known Member

    When does running away unarmed ever justify getting shot 60 times in the back? That's the only question. Please answer and show your work.
     
    OscarMadison, Mngwa and Spartan Squad like this.
  6. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    If that's the only issue, there is plenty of evidence that they did.
    And you can't have it both ways. If the shooters never knew what he did before, then they couldn't have known all of the good things about him either, and the "he was just a Door Dash driver!" and "He was a good person" arguments are also irrelevant. You have to pick up this story at 12:30 a.m. on June 27 and look at what the police were dealing with — someone who ran from the cops, (allegedly) shot at the cops, ran from the cops again, and turned around and reached toward his waistband.

    I'd prefer to go a couple levels deeper and find out what was making Jayland Walker tick. What was going on in his life, either in that moment or over the past month, that he felt he needed to run from the cops (possibly on more than one occasion) instead of getting a ticket?
    Similarly, I'd like to know what was making the cops tick. Did any of them have prior complaints about excessive force? Were they twitchy on the job? Are their stories consistent with the physical and video evidence we've seen? Why were they so quick to fire, and were there any other ways they could have reasonably subdued Walker?
    There are also things we need to know about the physical evidence, as I spelled out in the other post.
    I'm keeping an open mind that the cops are full of shit and/or they acted irresponsibly. And if that happens, then I'll buy you a Coke and say 10 SJ hail marys. But the evidence that has been presented so far doesn't seem to contradict the idea that this was a routine traffic stop that escalated into a terrible tragedy.
     
  7. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    I have work to do this afternoon. I really don't have time to type this out for the eighth time.
     
  8. sgreenwell

    sgreenwell Well-Known Member

    Like the "worst case" scenario here for the cops is that he shot at them, once, during the chase, X minutes ago. He then got out of a moving car and attempted to run. It sounds like there were, at most, two attempts to taze him, and maybe only one, and that he started getting shot 4 seconds after the tazer(s) failed. Shooting at cops isn't great, but throughout the story as presented by the Beacon Journal, it seems like there was no attempt at deescalation (just screaming and swearing at him, almost no chase on foot given), and right now, there's not even evidence his gun was fired.

    I don't know. My suspicion is that there will be no criminal charges filed, because the law gives wide latitude for justified shootings instead of deescalating a situation, whether you're a cop or not. I also suspect that the body cam footage after the shooting - when they cuffed him and gave him CPR, or didn't - is probably pretty grisly, and the city will be handing over a bag of money.
     
  9. FileNotFound

    FileNotFound Well-Known Member

    This is real simple.

    Dylann Roof, the Highland Park shooter, the guy who was literally eating his neighbors while high on bath salts in Florida … all still alive.

    This guy in Akron and pretty much all of the others: dead.

    What is the common thread between each instance?
     
  10. Neutral Corner

    Neutral Corner Well-Known Member

  11. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

  12. Neutral Corner

    Neutral Corner Well-Known Member

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