Hexen] The fact that they played it this way is smart, but it also makes it easy to argue that the use of force itself was objectively unreasonable under the circumstances, because they intentionally set up the circumstances so that he couldn't threaten anyone. The only part you can second guess is the decision to take the guy out, and there's not enough in the video for me to chew on regarding that topic.
Yea pretty much this. That's why I hope all this craziness leads to body cameras for all cops nationwide. In too many of these recent shootings, there's too little factual information leading up to the cop using force. It's been hard for me to really have a serious opinion on most of them because the standard for justifiable homicide for police is so subjective and without true knowledge of the events leading up to lethal force, it's hard not to side with the cop. If he says he felt like he or another was in imminent danger of serious bodily harm or death, how can you really argue with that if you cannot see a video of the entire encounter from start to finish? The Michael Brown case is great example of this and that particular case is sad because even though the justice system determined that officer was innocent of wrongdoing, his career in law enforcement is over thanks to the media.
I did see a pretty good bit on the news after one of these shootings (I think it was the Michael Brown one) where a sheriff's office invited some well known guy that was supporting the victim's narrative out to do field training with paint ball guns. They did several scenarios where he pretends to be the cop and comes upon a crime in progress. One that stuck out to me was when he came upon two guys fighting. He orders them to stop and one of them (a guy much larger than him) immediately advances on him in a threatening way. He of course ends up shooting the guy. I thought the scenario was pretty pointedly designed to ultimately lead the trainee to support the police narrative simply because the guy in the scenario was given only one option, lethal force. He did not have a taser or pepper spray. However, I think the key component that made it really effective was that it allowed someone who is inherently anti-police (I hate that label by the way) to step into an officer's shoes for a moment. It was valuable in that way so that the anti-police folks could step of their preconceived ideas and empathize with the officer.
And that is sort of on par with what Sonya is saying. I have a lot of white middle-class people on my facebook. In fact, it's almost exclusively that segment of the population. Inevitably, most of them have been very vocal about supporting the police side of these recent shootings when the facebook arguments ignite. I was trying to figure out why that is and I think it goes back to what Sonya was saying. It's really fucking hard for most people I know to imagine walking a mile in the shoes of most of these victims. A black dude who robs a convenience store for cigars? No. A black guy who runs from police because he thinks he's going to go to jail for not paying child support? No. A Mexican guy who ends a petty crime spree with stealing a rifle and firing it in public in front of police? No. Consequently, if you can't imagine walking a mile in their shoes, it's really hard to empathize with them and almost automatically makes your opinion very biased towards the other side.
That's why for most people (in our demographic) it's funny when dipshit with the rifle gets run over GTA style and not funny at all when that cop gets shot at the scene of a crime.
