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Sorry, no. The premeditation to create the situation was by the irresponsible 911 caller. He set the stage and the mental expectations for the cops by reporting a man walking around threatening people with a gun, and by stating that he had loaded it. The cops had every reason to expect the worst. This could be considered "murder by cop", in the lines of "suicide by cop".
That doesn't excuse their pizz poor handling of the situation or relieve them of responsibility. I'd split the blame 50/50 between the caller and the cops, who failed to properly assess the situation.
First, the COPs never heard the 911 caller, they only heard what the dispatcher told them.
Second, any COP that is incapable of correctly assessing a situation once they arrive on the scene, in spite of what they are told by the dispatcher, should not be holding a badge much less a firearm.
Third, the COPs failed to identify themselves, or say anything at all. They simply started shooting first. A decision to use malice aforethought is by definition "premeditation."
The COPs should be charged and tried for first degree murder.
Somebody should call the FBI and report a couple of cops waving guns in a threatening manner. The Feds should 'pokerize them on the spot.
Or better yet, wait for the killer COPs to go off duty and then call 911 and report them as "crazed lunatics on PCP that are threatening people by brandishing assault weapons and screaming 'Allah Akbar!'"
What am I missing? An innocent man is gunned down by cops for operating fully within his rights, a right that Conservatives have vociferously fought to have recognized as protected by the Constitution, and no one is charged w/ a crime or held liable. And nothing?
How do Conservatives reconcile their supposed vigilance against tyranny and gov't trampling over American rights w/ the silence over an American getting killed for doing nothing, but standing in a store and the murderers not even being charged?
I did a Google News search on the story when I got off work @ 6p -- "John Crawford Walmart." In that last hour, 342 websites have an posted an article about the story. Everyone from Slate to NBCNews to LA Times to UPI to the AP, even local news stations. Everyone except the vast majority of Conservative watchdogs.
Reason is the only Conservative source bringing this up. Every major independent and Left-leaning news source seems to at least have an update. Why?
He was told to put it down. All he had to do was follow the officer's request, and we wouldn't be having this conversation.
He was told to put it down. All he had to do was follow the officer's request, and we wouldn't be having this conversation.
If the cops did tell him to put the gun down, the video clearly indicates he didn't hear them. Before being shot, he never looks at, or in the direction of, the cops. Before being shot he doesn't alter his behavior in any way whatsoever. In the moments before the cops arrived he's turned sideways, looking at the shelves, and talking on his cell phone while swinging the BB gun back and forth at his side, and at the moment he's shot he's turned sideways, looking at the shelves, talking on his cell phone while swinging the BB gun back and forth at his side.
In the 30 second clip on here showing the shooting - and in the 17 minutes of video you can find elsewhere online showing every movement of this man from the time he arrived in the Walmart parking lot until he was shot - he never once points the BB gun at anyone (cop or Walmart patron), and he never once uses the BB gun in a threatening manner towards anyone (cop or Walmart patron).
He was told to put it down. All he had to do was follow the officer's request, and we wouldn't be having this conversation.
Was he? I didn't hear that. What I saw was the cops coming in & immediately shooting him. Look at it again, they shot him the second they walked into that aisle.
I guess little can be done about unjustified police shootings until they get bold enough to enter rich neighborhoods and shoot an unarmed rich person in the the back.
just IMHO but i dont think i want you to carry a loaded gun into walmart. sorry.
a loyal NRA supporter.
open carry debate may well be self-solving, darwin style
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