Shooting of a teen (San Antonio, Anton: crime, live in, to move)

[Merovee]

Originally Posted by meisha210

Merovee, you do know you're talking about an area on the northwest side just inside 1604?

meisha have you seen the houses out in that specific neighborhood?

You don't have to answer as the question is clearly rhetorical.

protip: not every neighborhood near 1604 is an exclusive suburb, especially if out on the west, east, or south sides, and not every neighborhood within the loop is an inner-city slum, especially if they are the most inclusive enclaves and richest parts of town

Originally Posted by BoranKhru

Police train for hostile situations and they have every tool available to man to prevent them from having to use deadly force, period. Pepper spray, first line. They can shoot that stuff 25' or so. Tazer, believe me, a 15 year is going down. If they sprayed him, and tazed him, and still can't get him under control with batons without getting whooped, perhaps he(they) should go guard the parking lot at the Wal-Mart.

lol

It is also true that mace can be very effective in making someone stop, turn tail, and/or fall to the ground in screaming anguish. In some cases though it might have no effect.

Tazers, I am kinda iffy on those, they just support the Arizona corporation who markets and produces them. If some in Arizona had their way they would also privatize prisons, oh never mind that is already happening and their state spearheaded that movement, but also they would privatize police.

In either case Tazers are alternatives to using lethal force and can still result in death. Too many, not claiming you, but too many, including police departments, seem to advocate and use Tazers in situations that are not life or death situations.

[L210]

Originally Posted by BoranKhru

Having done so personally, I'll just agree to disagree. Unless the kid was an expert with escrima sticks, he had no idea what to do with both hands full of a short stick. He just watched the movie KickA$$ too many times it sounds like to me. If an officer is scared of a 15 year old with a stick, he should not be an officer. I'll repeat again. Pepper spray can reach well beyond the arm length of a man even with the better part of a shovel handle in his hand swinging like Babe Ruth. I understand you want to defend the police because you feel it's right, but it's only right when it's not wrong.

The boy is 16, not that it makes much of a difference because there are 15 year olds who are 300 lb linebackers.

Was it you that said the boy could have been deranged? There have been many cases where pepper spray or being tased had no effect on someone under the influence of drugs/alcohol or mentally unstable. Police also receive training on using deadly force against a deadly threat. There is no need for a person just doing their job to risk their life because a non-law abiding citizen is trying to attack him or her. If a 16 year old is not smart enough to understand to put down a weapon when asked, then 16 year olds should not be driving and 17 year olds should not be in the military.

[Merovee]

Well it does appear there was more than one officer on the scene, that he was already walking around the neighborhood with a broken shovel, and that he had tried several times to charge the officers, but one officer finally shot him. It was most likely a good call but there are overall factors some will not grasp. Factors pertaining to both this particular scene and the overall community. So while this area might have less crime, than say something deeper in the west side, it is working class and has its fair share of social ills. It is also understandable many will simply not care about any of this, whether they are not from this community, whether they once were and left it behind mentally, or whatever the case may be. In either case tragic that another kid was shot. Guarantee had this been in Alamo Heights or Stone Oak it would have went down differently.

SAPD: Officer shoots at teen in reported self defense | kens5.com | San Antonio News, Weather, Sports, Traffic, Entertainment, Video and Photos

So it is most likely the officers had the area well lit and they knew he had a broken shovel and did not mistake it for a gun in a dimly lit and surprise situation. It seemed the situation just escalated. What could have been done? Maybe some rubber bullets? I know they can still be lethal but less so I believe than tazers. Similar situations end up quite differently. It is in my estimation based on how officers treat members of different communities differently for the same offense and it's perhaps not an individual officer's call when it becomes part of the work culture for that particular beat.

[L210]

Merovee, the neighborhood is definitely better than the one I grew up in and that zip code has more white people than Hispanics. The average home price in that zip code is not something you would see on the east side or west side inside the loop. There are mostly married couples and the average income is pretty decent.

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

[Merovee]

Yes, the houses there might be worth double the price as those in my neighborhood too, but they are still $140k cheaper than the average home in Stone Oak.

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

This is also the property values of that specific street. Just a tad lower than the average for that area. Notice that one house on that street is owned by HUD.

//www.city-data.com/bexar-count...-Castle-1.html

[L210]

A neighborhood doesn't have to be as expensive as Stone Oak in order to not be "the hood." Just judging by the few names listed, that street has a mixture of white and Hispanic people. They aren't rich, but they definitely are not poor.

By the way, I'm having fun with that site. I can't believe those little, ugly houses on my street with so many 10 year old vehicles out front are worth that much. LOL

[Merovee]

I never said they were poor and in fact mentioned working class. The biggest problem might just be graffiti there which is a great indicator of social ills. I still maintain it would have been handled differently in Stone Oak.

It is an older neighborhood, the nearby middle school was built in 1985. If I am correct it was most likely Ray Ellison who built these homes and yes, I know something about the typical family who moved into these homes, my family was friends with a family whose father was involved in these developments, so I have visited them, etc...and yeah it was nicer than the hood but they are still working class and still people in plenty of ways just like us (as in me and my family).

In some cases these communities quickly deteriorated more than others especially towards the far SW side. How does that saying go? "You can take someone out of the hood but you cannot take the hood out of someone." This community needs help too. Do you even care about this stuff meisha or just want to prove me wrong about something that is a bit unrelated to the topic? Again rhetorical but it kinda seems one could ignore the more important issues, even sidestep them completely, if they introduce a debate about how the neighborhood is.

[Merovee]

Well I find that angle interesting anyways so I will indulge you and myself.

The following link lists all the police calls for any neighborhood. Unsure about any time frames involved.

https://webapps1.sanantonio.gov/pdwr/?res=1600&ver=true

Hidden Meadow has 148 calls. Great Northwest which is next to them had only 36. Northwest Crossing which is also next to them had only 45. Northwest Crossing also has or had the option of calling a private security company instead of the police so that might explain some of the lower numbers. It is also mandatory to join the HOA in Northwest Crossing but not in Hidden Meadow.

My own neighborhood had around 110 calls and is a much larger area than Hidden Meadow. The highest amount of police calls for any listed neighborhood, which does not cover all sadly, was 239, for Lockhill Estates. Very near Castle Hills but I do know that the nearby area around Patricia has been on the decline recently.

[L210]

Is this by year? It's hard to believe my one apartment complex got that many calls in one year. I rarely see any cops at my complex, just ambulances because we have a lot of elderly people. Anyway, Stone Oak had 144 calls, lol. Thousand Oaks had 138 calls, Redland Heights 206, and Redland Ranch had 226. Those are all very nice neighborhoods with expensive homes. I used to deliver the Wall Street Journal in those neighborhoods. So, I'm not convinced.

[Merovee]

I should have compared to these other wealthy neighborhoods instead of just the two that are right next door. I guess you are right in that police calls are not a good gauge for a neighborhood either. If I could find actual domestic violence or violent crime rates it would be so much easier, and not just by zipcode, but by neighborhood since one zipcode can have a wild variety.