On Wednesday, March 13, the Napa County District Attorney's Office released surveillance footage of a shooting by an American Canyon police officer in Vallejo
I don't know man, I'm all for police oversight, but this isn't a great example. This dude is running around a neighbourhood with a gun. Who says he doesn't go into one of those houses and some innocent person gets hurt.
The cop yelled at him to drop the gun and stop running, he didn't.
The part of them trying to cover it up after is shitty, but the action itself I can't really take the criminal's side. Again, image that's my neighbour with my kids playing in the area, I don't want some lunatic running around with a gun.
I realise what sub I'm in, and this isn't a popular opinion and that's fine. We need police reform, but this isn't a good example.
When people jump on everything with the same fervor it weakens your case because people start tuning you out.
Additionally, someone is innocent until proven guilty and that's not the cops job. The cop shot someone not guilty and now people are speculating about the crimes that person could have done to justify it
This is an interesting ethical dilemma which I don't know if there's a clear cut answer. It's a variation of the trolley problem (sort of). I think it depends a lot on the risk assessment being made. I don't know the details of this particular case, but I can think of plenty of examples where a potential future danger should be limited by direct action. I'm happy to provide examples if you're interested in exploring this thought further. I don't know that I have a simple yes/no answer to this dilemma (also why I never became a cop).
You can't go by what if. I'm so tired of people defending their stance because of whataboutism. It's a shitty argument. Dude was literally running for his life. I will be honest, I don't know the full extent of the situation yet, but I do agree with you that people shouldn't just jump on the bandwagon just because a cop shot someone. But just looking at the video, I don't see why this kid was shot. Did the kid shoot at the officer? Did the kid threaten the officer's life? Those are the questions I don't know.
Should I fear for my life just because I am carrying a gun? I live in an open carry state. I don't carry anymore, but I see plenty of people walking around with a weapon. my first thought isn't that the person is a criminal just because they carry and I really don't have much thought about it at all.
My views on this are still neutral until I know more information, but please don't go on about whataboutism.
The guy that got shot was part of a car chase that switched to a foot chase after the cars tire blew out. The guy didn't just walk down the road with a gun. In the video you can also see the guy making a strange movement with the gun just before the cop shot. It most likely was to throw the gun away but the cop couldn't have known that. And given the overall circumstances shooting at this point seems reasonable.
But the cop is still a piece of shit that shouldn't have been a cop by this point anymore. He is a cop since 2018 and has been involved in now 5 shootings (far higher than the average). And he was part of the badge bending scandal. Where cops bent the tips of their badge to mark fatal shootings. Any cop who does that, shouldn't be a cop.
Luckily the guy survived, unfortunately the cop will stay a cop.
"Coleman was implicated in court testimony in 2022 for participating in the Vallejo police badge bending scandal, where officers bent the tips of their badges to mark fatal shootings. Coleman testified his badge was bent against his will, but a department superior testified that he was more involved than he said and may have even helped spread the practice to other officers."
You make some good points in general, but Coleman seems to be everything a cop should not be...
They chased a traffic stop. This wasn't some crazed murderer on the run. And then the guy tried to comply with the order. He tried to drop his gun. But the officer shot him when he tried to.
The officer has also been involved in 4 other shootings.
So much for "most officers never even pull their gun..."
Doesn' matter, unless you have a reasonable belief that they will use that weapon unlawfully simply possessing it is nothing but an extra charge and you cannot shoot a fleeing suspect unless you have ras to believe that they are dangerous and that suspicion cannot be generalized and inarticulate.
So much this. If we aren't going to restrict possession of firearms in any way then we can't use that as a basis for intent. Just replace, "had a gun", with literally any other constitutionally protected right and this argument falls flat on its face.
"He was using words, we will never know if he was about to run into a theater and yell 'fire'..."
Thank you, I hadn't heard this story as it's not from my state and it shows that the institute of policing is flawed and filled without gun happy scared little monkeys in every country.
yea the article should have been titled armed 18 year old too but you know they probably believe that ends justify the means. in any case seems like this police was one of them trigger happy ones who probably wont feel a drop of remorse over this.