The Shooting Gallery: Police Violence MEGATHREAD

[merithyn]

Hmm...
http://m.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/michael-brown-a-suspect-in-robbery-of-cigars-from-store/article_52c40b84-ad90-5f9a-973c-70d628d0be04.html?mobile_touch=true

The issue is that the video of the robbery shows a man with sandals on his feet. The picture of Michael Brown's body shows him wearing high-top sneakers.

Deadly force is ridiculous in this case, anyway, but now it also appears that the shot the wrong guy.

[Valmy]

Deadly force is ridiculous in this case, anyway, but now it also appears that the shot the wrong guy.

Oh for...

[Malthus]

Hmm...
http://m.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/michael-brown-a-suspect-in-robbery-of-cigars-from-store/article_52c40b84-ad90-5f9a-973c-70d628d0be04.html?mobile_touch=true

The issue is that the video of the robbery shows a man with sandals on his feet. The picture of Michael Brown's body shows him wearing high-top sneakers.

Deadly force is ridiculous in this case, anyway, but now it also appears that the shot the wrong guy.

According to what I've read, the other fellow admitted the two of them did the shoplifting/robbery - or at least, that's what his lawyer said.

Johnson acknowledged to the FBI and other investigators that he and Brown went to the store and "that he did take cigarillos," his attorney, Freeman Bosley, told MSNBC.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/ferguson/article20073213/

[merithyn]

Wonder how the shoe thing happened, then. I've seen the pics, and it does appear that they have two different kinds of shoes on.

[Razgovory]

Incidentally, I suspect the folks in Fergusson are not what the open carry advocates have in mind.

I don't know.  Most of the nutty right wingers I see tend to be on the folks in Fergusson's side.  Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, who Spicey cruises and stands with, have said so.  This may be another horrible symptom of irrational fear of the black man but publicly everybody seems to be against the cops on this one.

Looking at that Breitbart site, I get the impression the those people are animals and police needs to come down harder on them.

[Valmy]

Incidentally, I suspect the folks in Fergusson are not what the open carry advocates have in mind.

I don't know.  Most of the nutty right wingers I see tend to be on the folks in Fergusson's side.  Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, who Spicey cruises and stands with, have said so.  This may be another horrible symptom of irrational fear of the black man but publicly everybody seems to be against the cops on this one.

Looking at that Breitbart site, I get the impression the those people are animals and police needs to come down harder on them.

Well I guess there are always nuttier right wingers.

[CountDeMoney]

The issue is that the video of the robbery shows a man with sandals on his feet. The picture of Michael Brown's body shows him wearing high-top sneakers.

Deadly force is ridiculous in this case, anyway, but now it also appears that the shot the wrong guy.

What it really means is there's a bully shoplifter on the loose, and no stone will be left unturned, no rubber bulet left unfired and no unarmed black teen left unshot until this criminal is caught.

Bet his ass grabbed some Skittles, too.  There's your motive and shoot/don't shoot green light right there.  Taste the rainbow.

[Malthus]

First that guy in NY with the untaxed cigarettes; now this guy and the cigarillos.

Is there any doubt that smoking kills? 

[Eddie Teach]

Looking at that Breitbart site, I get the impression the those people are animals and police needs to come down harder on them.

Breitbart's dead, you should stop looking for guidance from his website.

[Scipio]

If the appropriate response to shoplifting a box of cigarillos or obstructing traffic is shooting the perpetrator, my police department is doing things all wrong.

[Jacob]

If the appropriate response to shoplifting a box of cigarillos or obstructing traffic is shooting the perpetrator, my police department is doing things all wrong.

Apparently the shooting was unconnected to the shop-lifting. The shooting officer was unaware of the shoplifting incident, and the police department has apologized for implying that the two were connected.

[Ed Anger]

Yeah, the county mounties seem to have a nasty reputation in their own right.

I've heard the phrase "county mountie" used here in Canada, but it's use in the US seems bizarre.  Since, you know, you don't have any mounties.

Stop being a goof.

[Razgovory]

If the appropriate response to shoplifting a box of cigarillos or obstructing traffic is shooting the perpetrator, my police department is doing things all wrong.

Apparently the shooting was unconnected to the shop-lifting. The shooting officer was unaware of the shoplifting incident, and the police department has apologized for implying that the two were connected.

I wonder if the kid knew that.  It does complicate things though.

[Sheilbh]

Obviously not.

It simply changes the public perception of the incident.

Okay. But my view after, like the rest of us, watching a few of these is that the biggest influence of perception is the immediate and total racial element to the story. Which goes both in terms of how the story's told and how it's received.

The view I get, from this forum and reading stories about American cops, is about the whole militarisation of the police that leads to a town like Ferguson  having a police force better armed than the RUC in Belfast during the troubles. That and that I should never stop grovelling and doffing my cap to American police 'officers'.

Policing is (not unconnectedly I imagine) like guns for me. There's just a vast cultural gulf. The best I can do is try and understand.

[garbon]

That and that I should never stop grovelling and doffing my cap to American police 'officers'.

I find it better to just not look them in the eye. No reason to call attention to yourself.