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well said...however,
I still believe that their behavior was reckless...there was no weapon at the scene. Too many unarmed civilians get killed by officers who overreact.
Your belief and the law are two different things. What you think is reckless may not meet the legal definition.
And before you can call their behavior reckless, you need to walk a mile in their shoes. Shoot-don't shoot decisions are made in a split second. They're based on the available information at the moment the decision is made. Prosecutors and juries have the luxury of hindsight and lots of time to study and analyze the situation. When you believe that your life in danger, there is no such thing as overreaction. Your survival is all that matters.
Are u saying that police officers are always justified for shooting an unarmed civilian? that they do not overreact? they are not superhumans
You're twisting my words. There are times when the shooting is justified --- and times that it is not. As far as overreaction, you're not in a position to judge. Far from being superhumans, cops are put in situations that you are not and react as trained, but human, police officers. Because you believe they overreact doesn't make it so. You were not in their situation making split-second decisions and taking actions with the limited information available at the time. Your conclusions that they overreacted are based solely on the media information available after the fact. There is undoubtedly lots that both you and I don't know about this event.
There's more to this story than you know. The conviction was appropriate.
Well, what are the details? What made this conviction appropriate, or are you just a typical person who thinks all black men are guilty until proven innocent?
Your leaving a nightclub with your friends and you get into your car. Five plainclothes ARMED men come at you pointing guns and shouting. Reports say that the officers didn't identify themselves at first, so with that in mind, all you know is you about to get carjacked or robbed. What is the best solution? Hit the gas and go. At that time Bell thought HIS life was in danger, so trying to run one of the armed men over was logical to him at that time.
If the officers would have identified themselves first and flashed some badges, all of this would have been avoided. And besides, they had no proof that these men had a gun. Firing 50 shots is more than excessive. Why couldn't they shoot the tires? It's all about shooting and asking questions later, and unfortunately a life was lost in the process. Justice wasn't served today and all it was, was a slap in the face to Bell's family.
It's all about profiling. The cops saw a group of black men leaving a club that they were staking out and ASSUMED that they were up to no good. These were just innocent men who were out for a night of partying. If a group of old ladies came out the club (black or white) and got into an argument, then jumped into their car. The cops wouldn't' have thought twice about approaching them or even wasting their time on them.
I hope these cops live with what they did for the rest of their lives. I hope Bell haunts them. Because of their assumptions, an innocent man lost of life.
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