Alton Sterling: Video 'shows US police shooting black man'

[cronus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36721584

Alton Sterling: Video 'shows US police shooting black man in Louisiana'

A video has emerged appearing to show two white police officers holding down and shooting dead a black man during an incident in the US state of Louisiana.
The confrontation took place in the state capital, Baton Rouge, on Tuesday after reports of a man threatening people with a gun outside a shop.
A post-mortem examination showed the victim, Alton Sterling, 37, died of gunshot wounds to the chest and back.

The video shows two officers wrestling a man in a red shirt to the floor.
The man struggles and one of the officers pins his arm to the floor with his knee and then appears to pull out his gun and point it at the man.
A voice is heard shouting: "He's got a gun. Gun." Then shots ring out and the camera moves away.

Someone - apparently a bystander - can be heard saying "Oh my God", followed by another asking, "They shot him?" She replies: "Yes."

(continued)

[pErvinalia]

Fark.

[mistermack]

So Sterling drops again !!

If you fill the country full of guns, you can expect cops to shoot first, and then ask questions later.
On the assumption that any person they tackle might have a gun. I would do the same.

They were apparently answering a report of a man threatening people with a gun.
That's reason enough to be ready to fire. I'm surprised that they let him get that close.



And they take the piss out of the teeth of the English !

[pErvinalia]

Saw an interview with his wife and oldest son. Very sad stuff. The son was inconsolable.

[mistermack]

As a nation, they always get very sad at each killing. Never sad enough to give up their guns though. I reckon you'd have to kill about half of all Americans for that to happen.

[JimC]

As long as it was the right half...

[mistermack]

It doesn't on the face of it look like the typical cop killing. They Tazered him first, then they were struggling with him on the ground, when something scared one of them enough to pull out his gun.
They obviously tried to use non-lethal force first.

If you are stupid enough to fight with cops, in a country where the cops kill people, then you are bringing it on yourself. And if he did have a gun, then he's no loss to humanity.

[pErvinalia]

I'm not sure if there are other videos, but that video doesn't show him being tazed, and doesn't show him fighting with the cops. Where are you getting your information from?

[mistermack]

I saw a few online versions of what happened. I have no way of knowing if they're accurate.

In this one : http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... d-him.html

They quote his friend the shop owner, as saying that he was tazed first. Don't know if that quote was true or not.

Basically, if he was carrying a gun, good riddance. If he was tazed as it says, he was an idiot for not complying then. He was an idiot for struggling with the cops, even if none of that happened.

I personally don't care how many people the US cops kill. It's a natural consequence of a gun-obsessed society.
The cops are TRAINED to shoot if they feel threatened, and to shoot rather than risk their own lives. And that's fair enough.
Sometimes some of them will go over the top. That's human nature. Nobody's perfect.
You might have a split-second to decide, and get it wrong.
Best to say sorry in that case.

But that's the shit world that they want to live in over there, so fuck em.

[mistermack]

I saw this one just now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNuL1-tiM5k
It shows the video right from the start, and you can see one cop pointing the taser, then you hear it going off twice, then the other cop tackles the guy to the ground.

I reckon they must have reduced the power of tasers, because the early ones would have floored him.
Maybe too many people were dying from tasers.

[laklak]

Dude had a record as long as your arm, burglary, felony weapon possession, sex with a minor, possession of narcotics, you name it. He was very well known to the local police, who responded to multiple reports that he was threatening people with a gun. He was fighting multiple cops while in felony possession of a weapon after being fucking tazed. They did us all a big fucking favor, I'd give them a week off and a bonus.

Here's a tip: if you're a violent felon well known to the cops, you're carrying a weapon (in itself another felony), you're threatening innocent people with that weapon, the cops roll up on your ass and end up tazing you multiple times, you need to fucking lie there really, really, really still, because you're about 10 nanoseconds from getting a bunch of 9 mills in you.

A righteous shoot.

[tattuchu]

Dude had a record as long as your arm, burglary, felony weapon possession, sex with a minor, possession of narcotics, you name it. He was very well known to the local police, who responded to multiple reports that he was threatening people with a gun. He was fighting multiple cops while in felony possession of a weapon after being fucking tazed. They did us all a big fucking favor, I'd give them a week off and a bonus.

Here's a tip: if you're a violent felon well known to the cops, you're carrying a weapon (in itself another felony), you're threatening innocent people with that weapon, the cops roll up on your ass and end up tazing you multiple times, you need to fucking lie there really, really, really still, because you're about 10 nanoseconds from getting a bunch of 9 mills in you.

A righteous shoot.

But...but...he was a gentle giant

[laklak]

And he was apparently trying REAL hard to stay out of prison.

[pErvinalia]

Dude had a record as long as your arm, burglary, felony weapon possession, sex with a minor, possession of narcotics, you name it. He was very well known to the local police, who responded to multiple reports that he was threatening people with a gun. He was fighting multiple cops while in felony possession of a weapon after being fucking tazed. They did us all a big fucking favor, I'd give them a week off and a bonus.

Here's a tip: if you're a violent felon well known to the cops, you're carrying a weapon (in itself another felony), you're threatening innocent people with that weapon, the cops roll up on your ass and end up tazing you multiple times, you need to fucking lie there really, really, really still, because you're about 10 nanoseconds from getting a bunch of 9 mills in you.

A righteous shoot.

I think this sort of view is the problem in the US - someone deserves to be killed just because they are a prick. No, you don't deserve anything other than being arrested and sentenced by a court.

[pErvinalia]

And there was an even worse shooting the next day too. Some cop killed another black guy in his car in front of his girlfriend and her child.

What a fuck up of a country.