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He was a street peddler who was shot 41 times. Cops thought that he had a gun, but it was only a wallet w/ ID that he wanted to show them. There is a serious problem with the police state. The only caveat is that liberals such as the OP don't have a way out. They will gripe about the problem, but will not sign on to a solution, namely limited government that is restricted from running roughshod over a Dialllo or Stephens.
What would you say is a reasonable solution? I'm looking for something more specific than "limited government." You can't dismantle every police force across the entire country.
The penalty for doing that isn't being shot 4 times. It's not even a penalty of being shot once. It's not a crime that should get a gun drawn at all.
Stephens was shot because he displayed an object in his hand. Officer Lin did not know what that object was. Are you seriously saying that you would allow yourself to be shot by a non-compliant combatant just because you did not know what was the object?
What would you say is a reasonable solution? I'm looking for something more specific than "limited government." You can't dismantle every police force across the entire country.
I've said what needs to be done many times.
1. Cops need to quit being expected to be tax collectors. That doesn't apply so much here but no one likes a tax collector. Stop this and they will be better liked and more respected.
2. When something like this happens there has to be an independent committee made up of more than just the police force to investigate it.
Stephens was shot because he displayed an object in his hand. Officer Lin did not know what that object was. Are you seriously saying that you would allow yourself to be shot by a non-compliant combatant just because you did not know what was the object?
He wasn't a combatant. As I said, if you can't be honest here..........
When the black cop pulled me over I was wearing a backpack, and it did not contain a pressure cooker. I was riding at night without a light. Stephenson was riding against traffic and almost collided with a truck. He was holding what looked like a gun towards Officer Lin. Both the Asian and Black cops who pulled over Stephens and me did so because we were operating our bikes in non-compliance of the law. The result was based on our actions. I was compliant with the cop and was not shot. Stephens refused to be compliant and was unfortunately shot. That is his fault.
If the cop simply pulled him over for 'bad cycling,' then what's the "looked suspicious" and "not from around here" stuff all about?
How did the guy look suspicious? And since when can't you ride a bicycle in a public area? The link doesn't say that he rode his bike in a banned area.
I'm torn on the topic because "aggressive policing" has been shown to be an effective reducer of murders, they are currently doing this in kansas city MO and are touting it's success.
What that means is targeting people just like the guy on the bike for whatever excuse they can find and as a result they are bagging felons with illegal guns etc. and then those guys aren't out on the street shooting up the bus-stop or the 5 guys hanging out in front of 7-11 etc.
So, what you get is reduced total crime but it comes with the price of the occasional innocent victim or just people getting harassed.
Of course, these discussions just get polarized and nobody wants to see the shades of grey. They just want to jump all the way into the cops are out to kill blacks or the other extreme that "thugs got it coming" and mistakes happen.
Me personally, I'm disturbed by either extreme but I'm more than a little irritated that you can have gangs gun down 500 black youths in Chicago in a year and that's a "statistic" but if a cop shoots someone like Michael Brown then suddenly we have an "epidemic of police just killing black youths".
I think any efforts we can make to foster better relationships between the community and the police will help this ongoing problem. *WE* is always better than *us vs. them*.
I'm torn on the topic because "aggressive policing" has been shown to be an effective reducer of murders, they are currently doing this in kansas city MO and are touting it's success.
What that means is targeting people just like the guy on the bike for whatever excuse they can find and as a result they are bagging felons with illegal guns etc. and then those guys aren't out on the street shooting up the bus-stop or the 5 guys hanging out in front of 7-11 etc.
So, what you get is reduced total crime but it comes with the price of the occasional innocent victim or just people getting harassed.
Of course, these discussions just get polarized and nobody wants to see the shades of grey.
There is no grey. We are all innocent until proven guilty of something. Stopping people on the street for doing nothing other than not looking proper to a police officer should not be acceptable in our country. Period.
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They just want to jump all the way into the cops are out to kill blacks or the other extreme that "thugs got it coming" and mistakes happen.
Me personally, I'm disturbed by either extreme but I'm more than a little irritated that you can have gangs gun down 500 black youths in Chicago in a year and that's a "statistic" but if a cop shoots someone like Michael Brown then suddenly we have an "epidemic of police just killing black youths".
The gangs go to prison when caught, the police go free. We do not have an epidemic because of Brown either. We have an epidemic because it happens over and over.
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I think any efforts we can make to foster better relationships between the community and the police will help this ongoing problem. *WE* is always better than *us vs. them*.
If the police weren't trying to collect the mayors taxes, Eric Garner would be alive today.
By putting bad cycling in quotes, you seem to be dismissing it. Are you really OK with cyclists who are outside the law?
Was this guy doing anything illegal on a bike that warranted being shot?
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