Unnarmed man lying on ground with arms up shot by police

[caervek]

Apparently the cop, officer Burgundy, has a brother who once encountered a therapist who used his psychic powers for evil, and so didn't want to take any chances.

[Kraenen]

At this point why would you call 911 to help with someone mentally ill? About 1/4 of police shooting victims were mentally ill last I checked.

[Dystemper]

BAd shooting. Officer needs to be put up on charges. But considering the atmosphere lately and Cops are edgy and jumpy, expect more of this to happen as more officers are ambushed and killed.

[Super Friendly Kitty Cat]

I never said there was, quite the contrary I said he didn't deserve to get shot, BUT if he let the police handle the 911 call instead of interfering he wouldn't have gotten shot.

Why do you add qualifiers then?

If you are saying he didn't deserve to get shot, end that statement with a period.

Anything more than that is victim blaming and defending the actions of the police.

Once again, I am only talking about this specific case.

If the police officer cannot handle a situation like the one we are talking about without shooting someone, then they do not deserve to be a police officer.

Personally I think the police officer who shot the guy should be fired and should face charges. Also I think the city should be sued by the person who got shot.

[Ghostpanther]

If it happened as the person says it did, the officer involved should face criminal charges. This is why body cams are so vital not just for the protection of a victim's story account, but to back up a officer's story. Is there a clear video backing up the victim's account?

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If we had photon weapons the officer could have set it to stun. We really need to get some photon weapons that can be switched from stun to incinerate with the flip of a switch.

Lol! If we reach that point of having stun guns, that is all the cops would have.

[josykay]

If the therapist wouldn't have tried to interfere, it is quite likely, that the autistic man would have been killed, since it is questionable if he is capable of properly reacting to the officers orders, instead of getting confused, and ressist. Even if he was told, not to do anything, it was the right decision. After all he is there to help und protect the autistic man, and we do know, that cops usually are not the best trained when it comes to mentally ill or developmentally delayed people.

[Fenixhart]

I've usually been on the cops side in these shootings, but unless there is a ton of missing information here, the cop was clearly in the wrong and way too trigger happy here. Should be fired and prosecuted.

Should be.

Won't be.

[Techno-Druid]

Well you'd be wrong in your assumption, but carry on.

If the therapist wouldn't have tried to interfere, it is quite likely, that the autistic man would have been killed, since it is questionable if he is capable of properly reacting to the officers orders, instead of getting confused, and ressist. Even if he was told, not to do anything, it was the right decision. After all he is there to help und protect the autistic man, and we do know, that cops usually are not the best trained when it comes to mentally ill or developmentally delayed people.

I agree. I actually commend the therapist

[Reeve]

I never said there was, quite the contrary I said he didn't deserve to get shot, BUT if he let the police handle the 911 call instead of interfering he wouldn't have gotten shot.

Also you're seeing half of the video at best.

The police in this situation were clearly not prepared to deal with an autistic person in this situation. Without the therapist to referee, it's quite possible the police would have shot the autistic guy, especially if they started trying to manhandle the autistic guy, who lashed out in response (as low functioning autism patients often do when manhandled).

It's completely reasonable to stick around to try to explain that the person involved is autistic while the whole time maintaining that you're unarmed and keeping your hands in the air.

Honestly, I think the therapist did everything exactly right in this situation.

[Techno-Druid]

If that's the case, shouldn't our military be comprised of therapists?

Because the police and military are completely seperate entities with entirely different goals.

The goal of the US military is to defend America from all threats, foreign and domestic. The job of the police system is to ultimately protect and serve.

[Reeve]

Lol! If we reach that point of having stun guns, that is all the cops would have.

Yeah, if we had perfectly functioning stunning weapons that worked 100% of the time and had multiple shots per use, like the phasers in Star Trek, there would never be a reason for the police to use the "kill" setting.

[Super Friendly Kitty Cat]

Gotta quote this.

Because that's exactly the wrong thinking, the very root of the problem.
A person with a gun is 100% the job of a therapist.
They're exactly the type of people that have to be approached with that kind of attention and deescalation procedures.
You are not in possession of all your senses when you run around pointing guns at people.
You're not in possession of all your senses when you're found sitting in the middle of the street. That's fucking common sense.
And that's where real police work would be needed, and not goddamn bullets as answer.

Here's to bring the casualties numbers down
Mentally Ill Lives Matter

I would have to disagree with you there.

If someone "goes crazy", the police should first stop the threat and not take chances with their own lives and the lives of bystanders if someone has a gun.

I also don't think you are going to find too many "therapists" that will want to approach a crazy person with a loaded gun and attempt to deescalate the situation.

[ItachiZaku]

Dude, I am right there with you on 95% of the police shootings, but this one, come on.

Yep. Here is one case where I'm definitely leaning on the side of the perp.

[TZucchini]

I don't have all the facts on this one, but judging on what we do have, this one looks really, really bad.

Again. It's a really difficult job. When I make a big mistake doing my job, someone loses money. When police officers make a big mistake, someone gets shot, and possibly killed.

[Faroth]

I really wonder how many times forum experts on police procedure would be "killed" and how many would unecessarily "shoot" someone doing one of those police training scenarios reporters sometimes get to do where they have to decide on when/when not to use force.

Really wish police departments held open events where people could do those and see what split second decisions based on cloudy information is like first hand. I think people would be surprised how much their believed perfect judgment of situations would get them killed or how often their assumptions are dead wrong.


In this instance, however, with him being on the ground with his arms up, and the police offering no apparent explanation, this one definitely seems like "you dun f'd up, officer."

[Fleckens]

As I said on the first page he shouldn't have gotten shot, BUT he put himself in a tense situation. Whatever officer shot him is a total idiot.

He put himself in that situation to help his patient who was far more likely to get shot. There should absolutely never be a situation where a man lying on the ground with his hands up and cooperating gets shot, how it even happened here is beyond me. On the other hand while it shouldn't happen either an autistic person in such a situation is far less likely to be able to properly do as the police tells him, and so is much more likely to get shot and killed.

The therapist did the correct thing by doing exactly as told by the police and not posing any threat to them while calming talking to them to try and make sure his patient did not get hurt. Honestly I'm usually also on the side of the cops but there is just no way you can defend what they did or say that the man who got shot did anything wrong.

[Simulacrum]

The US police never stop making interesting headlines, do they? This cop should be in prison for years, be banned form handling firearms ever again, and every single person responsible for putting him in a position where he was allowed to handle a gun in the first place should have their competence seriously investigated. Lots of people should lose their jobs when something like this happens.

[Super Friendly Kitty Cat]

I really wonder how many times forum experts on police procedure would be "killed" and how many would unecessarily "shoot" someone doing one of those police training scenarios reporters sometimes get to do where they have to decide on when/when not to use force.

Really wish police departments held open events where people could do those and see what split second decisions based on cloudy information is like first hand. I think people would be surprised how much their believed perfect judgment of situations would get them killed or how often their assumptions are dead wrong.


In this instance, however, with him being on the ground with his arms up, and the police offering no apparent explanation, this one definitely seems like "you dun f'd up, officer."

I am sure if police where only given a brief couple hours training and then given a gun and set loose, the number of incidents involving police shootings would skyrocket.

That is the whole point of prolonged and intensive police training. To be trained well enough to handle a situation without resorting to shooting someone.

[Faroth]

I am sure if police where only given a brief couple hours training and then given a gun and set loose, the number of incidents involving police shootings would skyrocket.

That is the whole point of prolonged and intensive police training. To be trained well enough to handle a situation without resorting to shooting someone.

And yet here we are with people with no training whatsoever dead set that they know better than anyone exactly how things should have been handled.

[Kraenen]

The US police never stop making interesting headlines, do they? This cop should be in prison for years, be banned form handling firearms ever again, and every single person responsible for putting him in a position where he was allowed to handle a gun in the first place should have their competence seriously investigated. Lots of people should lose their jobs when something like this happens.

Prison only makes things worse. He might become a terrorist if you do that.