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someone comes banging on your door around midnight
you dont live in the nicest neighborhood
you go to the door with a (registered)gun
point it out the door(i am assuming)
the people banging identify themselves as cops(i am assuming)
it turns out to be the cops
they shoot you dead
did the police infringe on my rights?
how would you have handled the situation?
ohh ya, gramma got it. there is so much gray area when it comes down to these tragedies. so many questions. i imagine the 90+ woman scared out of her mind. im sure she though she was guna die. in her situation i probably would have doen the same. sad.
God, this is a tragic story. I don't know if it's possible to declare who is right or wrong in this event. I am usually very careful about who I answer the door for, I would have been suspicious whether they claimed to be cops or not, however I probably would have looked out of one of my front windows to see if there was a cop car or if I could see the actual officers. I doubt I would have opened the door at all until I verified that they were cops. But I can't judge Wicks either, he was in his house with his gun, which is his right. However, the cops would have no idea that this guy didn't intend on blowing their heads off, they were trying to protect themselves as well. Tragic.
someone comes banging on your door around midnight
you dont live in the nicest neighborhood
you go to the door with a (registered)gun
point it out the door(i am assuming)
the people banging identify themselves as cops(i am assuming)
it turns out to be the cops
they shoot you dead
did the police infringe on my rights?
how would you have handled the situation?
From what we can tell of the report. This is the alleged action reported by the police.
Quote:
According to a statement from the Inglewood Police Department, officers responded to a radio call of a domestic disturbance at Wicks' apartment. Police said officers knocked on the door, and Wicks opened it. "At one point while the door was ajar, the officers observed that Wicks was holding a handgun," the statement said. "Wicks then suddenly raised the handgun at the officers, which resulted in one officer firing his weapon in self-defense."
Here is the thing. There is no justification for pointing a weapon at a police officer by law. They are sworn an oath to protect and serve. While this is not the case with another person (as you can not assume intent with a random person), the police are assumed by law as not a threat.
So, the moment the person recognizes they are a police officer, they are to relinquish their firearm because it is understood that the police is not there to harm them. Usually police will identify themselves when they knock (even emergency officials such as fire and medical are required by law to identify themselves).
He raised his gun AFTER he saw they were the police. A police officer by law and training is taught that the moment someone points a weapon at them, the use of lethal force is authorized. A police officer is not expected to stand at the end of a barrel and take extra effort to identify a threat as it would needlessly endanger the life of the police officer.
Why did he raise his gun? Why did he feel the need to place an officers life in danger when he knew they were public servants?
Unless there is more to the story, the man shot was a 100% in the wrong.
God, this is a tragic story. I don't know if it's possible to declare who is right or wrong in this event. I am usually very careful about who I answer the door for, I would have been suspicious whether they claimed to be cops or not, however I probably would have looked out of one of my front windows to see if there was a cop car or if I could see the actual officers. I doubt I would have opened the door at all until I verified that they were cops. But I can't judge Wicks either, he was in his house with his gun, which is his right. However, the cops would have no idea that this guy didn't intend on blowing their heads off, they were trying to protect themselves as well. Tragic.
Well, we can certainly establish who was right. What we can not establish completely is if the intentions of these suspects were honest, devious, or negligent.
The officers in both cases acted perfectly according to law and common sense procedure. The man with the gun at the door is without a doubt wrong as he was well aware they were police. Was his intention malicious or did he just make a stupid mistake?
The older woman was wrong as they did identify themselves and were clearly marked as police when they entered. The older woman, while it is plausible and I would most likely agree that she was probably just scared and reacting on instinct, she was still wrong and let emotion drive her to act. Its sad, but it was an irresponsible action.
People who own guns need to treat them with respect. They need to be aware and responsible with their use. They aren't toys and it is very important people take steps to properly apply their protective purpose. As with the above stories, irresponsible behavior with a weapon can result in some extreme consequences.
the sad thing is that only the cops side of the story will be told. i just hope they tell the truth.
we dont know if he did recognize them as cops, if he did fully open the door, did they identify themselves.
there are too many questions unanswered.
but the victims family deserves the truth and i hope these cops are honorable enough to tell it.
The truth will be found, the issue is, will the truth be made public in any capacity to which it will be generally known.
An example is the Rodney King case. Only 8 mins of the footage was publicly shown openly. There was actually 22 mins of footage to which placed the incident into the proper context, which is why the officers were exonerated of the accused crime. The facts are often only "partly" shown in these issues.
The media has a terrible habit of starting something and not finishing it. That is, they report widely accusations, assumptions, and so on, but they very rarely follow up with the facts of the resolution.
You can be sure though, if this is "negative", that is, the police were found "guilty" or negligent, then it will be plastered everywhere. On the other hand, if this is something plain, then we won't hear much of it again which will only fuel assumptions that they are hiding something. Thats how the news works these days. It isn't objective reporting, it is entertainment.
someone comes banging on your door around midnight
you dont live in the nicest neighborhood
you go to the door with a (registered)gun
point it out the door(i am assuming)
the people banging identify themselves as cops(i am assuming)
it turns out to be the cops
they shoot you dead
did the police infringe on my rights?
how would you have handled the situation?
If I had any hesitation about whether the cops were really cops I would request their badge numbers before opening the door and while calling dispatch to confirm that they were in fact cops.
These are the instructions I have taught my children should they ever be home alone and need to respond to any persons claiming to be law enforcement officers at the door (or window).
A cop car, uniform, even a gun and a badge are not sufficient in that case for me. My children are to inform the persons that they require their badge numbers as they are verifying that they are in fact real law enforcement officers.
Oh, and answering the door with a gun is stupid and rude. Why would you even answer the door for someone if you felt you needed a gun to do so?
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