Baton Rouge officer: Alton Sterling reached for a gun before he was shot

[Noxx79]

Pretty much. I see nothing about the 93% black murder victims killed by other blacks. I'm fed up with all of this BS BLM terrorist movement.

What about the 89% of whites killed by whites? I'm fed up with all of this anti-BLM terrorist movement.

[Barnabas]

What about the 89% of whites killed by whites? I'm fed up with all of this anti-BLM terrorist movement.

89%? I think I'm not gonna protest.

[primalmatter]

I also love the "well he was a career criminal so they got rid of him" reason as well. SO many people in the world with LONG careers in crime are still alive and well and no one calls for their death or justifies a reason they died when they (pending investigation) shouldn't have.

They didn't reach for a gun.

[Mad_Murdock]

Alas it's far easier to shift the blame on the cops than accept the fact that the Black community in the US is totally screwed up and always has been.

What needs to be done is to look very critically at 'inner city culture' and call these people out for what they are: uneducated, backwards, lazy and criminal.

Well, I'm sure I'll be call an white apologist or some other name. But you can't enslave a group of people for 400 years, free them, but still deny them many rights until another movement happens, that gets them more rights and then just expect them to be super performing members of society. Whites need to accept they helped create this mess by doing everything possible to keep blacks uneducated and backwards for as long as they possible could.

I'm not making excuses for the behavior of some, but when the system has worked against you for many years you can't just snap your fingers and ask why haven't they gotten over it. But let's just take the standard approach and make a mess somewhere and then complain because it didn't clean itself up.

[lonely zergling]

One does not simply try to reach for a gun when getting arrested... this was mostlikely spontanous suicide by cop.

[Kujako]

Soon as their body cameras "fell off" they lost credibility as witnesses to the event.

[Deleted]

People like to forget that people who wear a uniform are also people. A police officer isn't Steven Segal(video for funsies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X9RvuSuU_Y) so when someone is reaching for a gun with 2 people on top of him you're not going to take the chance that he won't be able to shoot it properly. When you're getting arrested or pulled over fighting back isn't the best idea.

For everyone who is saying "TAZE HIM!" you need to realize that tasers can get caught up in clothes easily enough which makes them useless. Long story short everyone needs access to what evidence there is. If people are resisting arrest and reaching for things that may be guns well maybe "next time" don't.

[Dug]

Soon as their body cameras "fell off" they lost credibility as witnesses to the event.

Pretty much. It's always so convenient how the body cameras fail to capture what happened when stuff like this goes down.

[Thanatoss]

Could people please stop repeating the insanely stupid argument that black people aren't allowed to complain about police shootings because more black people kill black people than police kill black people? First of all, the fact that most white people are killed by white people has never stopped anyone who was white from complaining about what they feel is inappropriate conduct. Maybe, just maybe, the police are not your average citizen and having been given special authority over other citizens need to be held to higher standards. After all, if you don't like gang violence, who the fuck are you supposed to trust to handle that? The police. And if you don't feel you can trust them? Well, fucking *crickets*.

Well, if I have to keep hearing the rhetoric of "cops are committing genocide against blacks left and right" I think they should take a hard long look at who's actually causing the genocide against young black men (other young black men)

[Wildtree]

One does not simply try to reach for a gun when getting arrested... this was mostlikely spontanous suicide by cop.

None of the videos existing shows him reaching for his gun.
One cop sits on his chest, and his stretched out left arm.
His right side was pinned down underneath the front bumper of the car, and the second cop on top of him.
I have no damn clue how this could have been a threat to either one of them.
Evidently they've removed the gun from his pocket after he was shot 5 times.

[Felya]

Soon as their body cameras "fell off" they lost credibility as witnesses to the event.

They release unrelated information about the dead guy, trying to say he deserved it, regardless of the act that got him killed. Claim the video the person sitting next to him recorded doesn't show everything and the body cam fell off, without any physical altercation. Obviously the guy deserved to die...

[Barnabas]

Last year there were 4,224 murders, not all of black people, among a population of 37,685,848 black Americans. Are you telling me that it's OK to treat nearly forty million people like criminals because of the actions of 0.01%?

Seems the way blacks are treating police.

[justflayin]

Did he? I think we all saw the same footage. You can't tell if he did or didn't from that angle.

[unbound]

Unfortunately, this information still leads to multiple uncomfortable questions.

Alton was already pretty well pinned by 2 police officers. Could he have really pulled the gun out and pointed it at them? Was he really reaching for the gun or was he just still struggling and his hand got close? Is the mere possibility of what he might or might not have done enough to warrant summary execution without an investigation and trial? Are police body cameras really applied so flimsily to the police uniforms that they just pop off over any struggle?

This isn't to say that the police officers didn't behave appropriately. The video information available to date doesn't tell us enough. But the questions remain none-the-less. This wouldn't be the first time a violent criminal had to be put down appropriately...but it also wouldn't be the first time police have outright lied about what happened.

[Deleted]

Last year there were 4,224 murders, not all of black people, among a population of 37,685,848 black Americans. Are you telling me that it's OK to treat nearly forty million people like criminals because of the actions of 0.01%?

There might be other forms of crime which could possibly alter one's view on a certain group. Maybe.

[Notter]

I think black people have to give police the benefit of the doubt on this one, the accused was a career criminal, you can see him doing something stupid and getting himself shot.

That guy in Minneapolis is a different story, that man should be alive.

it's not THAT different..
the police stopped their car because there has been a bank or store robbery (can't remember) by armed criminals, and the description of the car matched the one they stopped.
then the policeman told him NOT to reach for pocket (not even to present his ID), you can hear him say that in the video.
he reached for his pocket anyway.

he SHOULD be alive, yes. the policeman definitely was quick on the trigger.
but it's not very different imo.

[dubious_doomhammer]

Well, if I have to keep hearing the rhetoric of "cops are committing genocide against blacks left and right" I think they should take a hard long look at who's actually causing the genocide against young black men (other young black men)

Because they can't care about 2 things simultaneously? This argument is dumb.

[Reeve]

Pretty much. I see nothing about the 93% black murder victims killed by other blacks. I'm fed up with all of this BS BLM terrorist movement.

One of my black friends from high school posted this on Facebook the other night:

Protip for friends that decide to get into political arguments today: black people don't like black-on-black crime either, and have been arguing against the causes(education,economics,drug war) for decades. Welcome to the conversation.

[Thanatoss]

Because they can't care about 2 things simultaneously? This argument is dumb.

I'm not saying they can't but there's nothing I've seen or heard about BLM that leads me to believe they care about inter-racial crime which is statistically a much larger issue than isolated incidents with police. I agree, police reform needs to happen, but they also have to address the other issues as well

[Reeve]

Seems the way blacks are treating police.

We expect to be able to hold our police to a higher standard than our criminals.

- - - Updated - - -

Well, if I have to keep hearing the rhetoric of "cops are committing genocide against blacks left and right" I think they should take a hard long look at who's actually causing the genocide against young black men (other young black men)

You think they're unaware of this, or that they don't mind it? That they don't try to do things to deal with the issue?