That is honestly disgusting. Both parts.
I thought 28 months was a bit little, but how you guys can even consider feeling safe when the police have just 10 weeks of training before being sent out on the street, armed, with people saying stuff like that to them during training is.. Something I don't understand.
Honestly,
If you have to tell your kids to remain calm and very cautious in regard to the police, the people who are out there to protect them... then I'd say there is a serious problem.
Teenagers need to be calm and de-escalating in their presence to not get shot. That's sad.
Honestly, most of the interactions i had with the police - getting mugged, getting my flat flooded - i was in need of getting calmed, not the other way round.
Imagine: I was mugged and blood was running down my whole face, and i have to try to calm myself before speaking to the police, because otherwise i risk getting shot at?
If you think that is normal, the problem is maybe even bigger.
Think about it from another perspective. If you're a victim, you don't need to worry about much. We're not talking about not being frightened/discombobulated, we're talking about not getting aggressive. When the police came to my home after I was mugged, I didn't worry about it much either. When they pull me over however, it's a different story.
Traffic stops are a good example, since they're dangerous for police. They have to be alert because there is a genuine risk of being shot, which means getting agitated or making foolishly risky decisions like moving your hands out of view too quickly can escalate what should be a bland situation. Not to say a minor error should cost someone their life, I fully agree that well trained police should be a source of calm, and support more/better training for police. Just saying that if you're not aware that there is a risk when you deal with an armed person, you're being naive.
Anyway please don't take this to mean I support what happened in the incident at hand. It's a tragedy and the officer in question deserves punishment, and the system which produced him needs to be reformed.
I'd make a very large wager that what happened, would have happened much differently if it was in a predominantly white area, rather than a predominantly black area.
Her owning a gun is irrelevant as was pointed out many times in this thread. She was in her own home and perfectly within her rights to defend herself with it.
There was zero motive. Scared cop, not enough and/or poor training.
I didn't say there was racial motivation as in "hey, there's a black person, im gonna kill her" ... but there's definitely a difference in how authority figures treat black people compared to white people. You deny there's racial disparity in the US?
He should get more, simply because he failed basic requirements as a police officer, I believe they have to identify themselves when they talk try to arrest people. And clearly that didn't happen when he shot. From the little bit of video that I have seen he didn't. Hell, he didn't even give her enough time to put her hands up when he asked for it. This is exactly what happened when Tamir Rice was murdered, but the cop there wasn't prosecuted. Which was bullshit.
- - - Updated - - -
I wish we had training for cops like wherever you are from. You are lucky TBH. But I am also guessing you don't have a lot of open killings by cops there.
Googled it, and it was hard to find the last time police killed ANYONE. Over the last 3 months we've had 3 shootings involving the police, but no one died in any one them.
It's fairly nice living in a country where I don't have to be in constant fear that I'll get shot by armed people with little or no training.
Might also help that guns are basically unheard of, so even if they were as untrained as the US counterparts, they wouldn't have to fear guns around every corner.
As he should be. In this case, the evidence is clear he is guilty of reckless homicide. Murder.
- - - Updated - - -
But they are not out there to protect anyone. Their job is to enforce the law as per a Supreme Court ruling. Winter Blossom's advice for her children is a smart one.
" If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.." - Abraham Lincoln
“ The Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to - prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms..” - Samuel Adams
Police are only bad if its the FBI investigating russians, then the police are corrupt, but if they murder people its completely fine
Imagine being so bad at your job that you literally take out your gun and fire at the first shadow of a human being you see. No ducking down and asking to identify yourself, no calling out to see if its an intruder or the lady herself.
Just, insta BLAP BLAP, like a fucking gang banger.
I'm not arguing against the advice. It's good advice for the US. At the same time i think it's sad that advice of this kind has to be given.
Maybe a mentality thing about power and state enforcement. As in my country the job of the police is very much to protect the population. They are not government goons.
To clarify: I'm not thinking the institution itself is a problem, but the training and the corps mentality. They longer this runs unimpeded, the worse it will get, because by now the police seems to be attractive for people with power fantasies, as for the longest time they seem to get away with it.
If you're sneaking around someones house at night and don't announce you are police any rational person with a gun would be armed if they saw someone lurking outside their window. On top of that he never gave the person a chance to putt heir hands up. I bet he is one of those assholes who signals a lane change during a lane change and not before.