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

[Malfecto]

That guy was nowhere near as restrained as this guy was and even after they initially shot him, they still tried to take him into custody rather than simply execute him.

I think you are refusing to even acknowledge that the time it takes to differentiate under control and not under control when a deadly weapon is involved could result in the officers life. They aren't robots. Given what you say here, should the officers wait until a shot has actually been fired before they draw their weapon? Be it a gun, a taser, a baton, etc?

If we cannot differentiate the line, then how can we call for the police to change their behavior?

[dubious_doomhammer]

Well, you see, he is a convicted felon who is not legally able to carry a firearm.

Cops didn't know that prior to shooting him.

[Theinquisition]

It is a disproportionately black problem even when you adjust for crime rates.

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The video I saw I don't see how that's possible. One officer was kneeling on his left hand and another had his right in a vice grip.

Guess no one will really ever know.

As for me, I'll take the word of the police officer.

I mean, I know it sounds rough, but I shed absolutely no years over his death. He spent his entire adult life brutalizing and victimizing people. Hes been convicted multiple times for battery and aggravated battery, domestic violence, rape (as a 20 year old he impregnated a 14 year old) and failed to register as a sex offender.

The world lost nothing of value with his death.

Ultimately, I blame our criminal justice system. How the fuck was this guy not in prison for his offences?

[Gib Lover]

Cops didn't know that prior to shooting him.

Cops have an uncanny ability of accidentally killing criminals without knowing it.

Michael Brown, Eric Gardner, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile. We have the Mr. Magoo of police forces.

[zenkai]

Your second part is something quite often overlooked by the anti cop crowd. The entire reason the cops were there in the first place is this convicted criminal was pointing an illegal gun at other people, therefore 911 was called and they had to come out. Additionally, he resisted arrest and even shrugged off a taser shot. If he wasn't a criminal, acting like a criminal, he'd have been fine.

That aside, your first comment makes me sick. You and everyone else do not, in any way, shape, or form deserve access to the any additional footage, even if it makes it clear as day that he is innocent. The only people that deserve access to that footage are the cops, internal investigation, and anyone involved in the legal proceedings that I'm sure will crop up. In those proceedings, guilt or innocence will be proven and society needs to just accept that with the additional footage, his innocence was proven, not resort to their "Oh, another cop getting off killing an innocent." bullshit because they were proven innocent in a court of law.



1) Again, just because you're nosy doesn't mean you should have the right to the dash cam footage just to satiate your curiosity.
2) Life and Death can happen in a split second. It doesn't matter if the cop said "Don't reach" and the guy started reaching and didn't stop, or if the cop said "Don't reach" and the guy started to reach 10 seconds later, in both instances the cop had to make that snap decision which could have cost him his life due to a non compliant suspect.

I guess you don't understand freedom of the press

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Cops have an uncanny ability of accidentally killing criminals without knowing it.

Michael Brown, Eric Gardner, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile. We have the Mr. Magoo of police forces.

I don't think you understand the difference between accidental and neutralizing a threat.

[Gib Lover]

I don't think you understand the difference between accidental and neutralizing a threat.

I'm pro cop in almost all of these situations, I actually struggle to remember one I didn't feel like the shooting was justified.

I just more so mean they shoot and kill someone and the public is outraged, then it turns out the person was a huge piece of shit. Like our police just stumble into a violent criminal and end up in an altercation.

[Theinquisition]

Cops didn't know that prior to shooting him.

Your point?

The cops were called because he was threatening people with a gun.


Which is obviously illegal.

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Cops didn't know that prior to shooting him.

Your point?

The cops were called because he was threatening people with a gun.


Which is obviously illegal.

[Dug]

You don't need to aim to shoot someone, nor do you need to pull the gun out of your pocket to shoot it.

This is probably the dumbest thing I've ever read.

[Brubear]

Wow! Look at that gun! Or maybe it's a missingno pokemon. We really have no idea.

I'm sorry but where exactly is the gun in this picture? Because I'm looking and don't clearly see a gun anywhere. I'm guessing it's that blurry area right next to the cops blurry arm?

Seriously, without any real context of what that was a shot of (I could tell the part in the upper left was a car, and I was pretty sure the bottom right area was the front of the car) it took me awhile to decipher what was all in this picture. I saw the foot in the bottom, figured out that was a cops arm (based by the all black area) and then finally figured out where his body was.

But overall, this is terrible evidence of a gun and I'm willing to bet if you showed this to most people, without mentioning there was a gun in this picture, the vast majority of them wouldn't see a gun.

[Torgent]

I'm sorry but where exactly is the gun in this picture? Because I'm looking and don't clearly see a gun anywhere. I'm guessing it's that blurry area right next to the cops blurry arm?

Seriously, without any real context of what that was a shot of (I could tell the part in the upper left was a car, and I was pretty sure the bottom right area was the front of the car) it took me awhile to decipher what was all in this picture. I saw the foot in the bottom, figured out that was a cops arm (based by the all black area) and then finally figured out where his body was.

But overall, this is terrible evidence of a gun and I'm willing to bet if you showed this to most people, without mentioning there was a gun in this picture, the vast majority of them wouldn't see a gun.

The gun is supposed to be in the cop's hand. Yet we can't clearly see it, like that other poster said he could. Even went as far to say that the people who can't clearly see a gun are blind.

I think you misunderstood my post, I was mocking him.

[Daymanmb]

Because if they're demanding to see it and they're not allowed to, it makes sense they would make a public uproar about it

Unless that standard operating procedures...

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I just more so mean they shoot and kill someone and the public is outraged, then it turns out the person was a huge piece of shit.

I know Im about to be accused of harassing you again but in spite of that, the bolded part is not a reason to be killed and you become said pos if you believe that.

[Reeve]

Lets be clear, you have no idea what they pull out.

You'd have to be a hardcore conspiracy theorist to think that wasn't the gun. They'd have to have the foresight to pull something vaguely gunlike out of the pocket during the event, then threaten the shop owner into telling people they found a gun in the pocket, then they'd have to find Alton Sterling's actual gun, wherever it was, and falsely book it into evidence.

The chances that they didn't just pull the gun out of his pocket, like it appears in the video, are astronomically low.

[Daymanmb]

You'd have to be a hardcore conspiracy theorist to think that wasn't the gun.

No, I just rely on evidence and proof, of which we have little of either.

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The chances that they didn't just pull the gun out of his pocket, like it appears in the video, are astronomically low.

Sturdy enough to hold up in a court of law, right?

[Reeve]

It stands to reason that it was a gun, otherwise it wouldn't have been taken from his pocket.

And they wouldn't have then had the gun to later book into evidence to corroborate their story that he had a gun.

[Reeve]

Sturdy enough to hold up in a court of law, right?

If they have the actual gun as evidence, absolutely. You think the cops would be going around telling everyone he had a gun if they couldn't produce the gun?

[Daymanmb]

If they have the actual gun as evidence, absolutely. You think the cops would be going around telling everyone he had a gun if they couldn't produce the gun?

Thats the beauty of stand you ground laws, Reeve. There doesnt have to be a gun. The police only need to perceive a threat to their lives before theyre justified, in the eyes of the law, pulling the trigger.

[Gib Lover]

I know Im about to be accused of harassing you again but in spite of that, the bolded part is not a reason to be killed and you become said pos if you believe that.

It's pretty sad that you respond sarcastically saying I'm going to falsely accuse of you harassment, then you call me a piece of shit. Do you have no self awareness at all?

Being a piece of shit is not grounds for being executed, it is just objectively better that someone killed by police, in a justified or non-justified way, turns out to be a career criminal than not one.

Disagree all you want, I'm sure you will just respond to this post with more unneeded insults.

[Reeve]

Thats the beauty of stand you ground laws, Reeve. There doesnt have to be a gun. The police only need to perceive a threat to their lives before theyre justified, in the eyes of the law, pulling the trigger.

That doesn't change whether or not there was a gun in this case.

To be clear, I'm not saying the shooting was justified. I'm saying that the idea that there was no gun requires a great deal of conspiracy nonsense to make sense.

[Daymanmb]

It's pretty sad that you respond sarcastically saying I'm going to falsely accuse of you harassment

Falsely would be correct, sacastically youd be incorrect. Thats been your response to every reply Ive gotten from you. I expected it.

[zenkai]

Man I hope these aren't real... http://www.snopes.com/alton-sterling...graph-myspace/