No kidding. Then why were the police called to the scene?![]()
Because some jackass called 911, that's why. If he were "threatening" untold legions we'd expect more than one 911 call.
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No kidding. Then why were the police called to the scene?![]()
No kidding. Then why were the police called to the scene?![]()
Because some jackass called 911, that's why. If he were "threatening" untold legions we'd expect more than one 911 call.
Because Black + Gun = an automatic (e.g. racist/sterotypical) 911 response.
1. The surveillance video plainly shows the boy brandishing the toy gun. He was pointing it at something at least once in the video. At what? Who knows. Surveillance videos are limited like that.
2. The park didn't look that busy. Maybe there simply weren't that many people passing through. I never made the claim that he was threatening "untold legions." If he threatened even one person, that's one person too many, that constitutes assault (with what at least appears to be a deadly weapon) and that warrants a 911 call, and from that point on, his blood is on his own head; he is responsible for whatever happens after that.
3. The caller said that the gun was "probably" fake. "Probably" fake isn't the same thing as "definitely fake." Those are chances that I wouldn't want to take. The fact that the caller made the 911 call in the first place indicates that he isn't sure, and if it looks like a real gun, then a police officer doesn't necessarily have time to stop and ask questions. "Hello, young man, is that gun fake or..." -Blam.- And the police officer is dead. That's an on the spot life or death decision that the officer has to make. If the officer feels threatened, then he should shoot. Center of mass. Every round in his gun. Every time. Period. End of story.
4. Once again, I ask the question: Why was the 12 year old at the park unsupervised with a fake gun? You can't blame that on racism.
5. Regardless, even if the shooting was unjustified, it takes a racist worldview to turn this into a matter of race. This has nothing to do with race. This has everything to do with a single mentally unstable police officer who probably would have done what he did whether the boy in question was black, white, hispanic, jewish, asian or whatever else.
And again, what is the role of the boy's parents? Where were they?
The fact that the cops lied repeatedly and killed this kid without hesitation whatsoever demonstrates we've got (at least) a serious cop problem in this country. Of that I have no doubt. Trying to portray a twelve-year-old who was harming no one as some kind of crazed crook is simply disgraceful.
Except, that's not what prompted the 911 call. What prompted the 911 call is that he was pointing the gun at people. That's assault. Assault (especially with a deadly weapon) is a crime.
Furthermore, especially in certain neighborhoods, there's a good reason that black + gun = automatic 911 response. There's a good chance that 1. the armed black person in question is involved with a gang and/or the drug trade and 2. the gun isn't even legally possessed by the black person in question.
That's what Kids + toy guns = do. (BANG BANG...at least traditionally.)
Reads like the: White Guy's Field Guide to Stereotypical Race-Hating.. What edition are they up to?
The conspicuous truncation of my quote illustrates your willfull ignorant take on the subject...you can do better than that.
You say "brandish," I say "a kid screwing around with a toy." As twelve-year-olds are wont to do.
Victim blaming claptrap. He wasn't "threatening" anyone. He. Had. A. Toy.
Your armchair fascism might make you feel snug but it's gruesome.
Why was a kid in a park with a toy? Gee, Trad. Search me. Back in the olden days they did that all the time. But whippersnappers today? You're right, usually they stay cooped inside, seated in front of a glowing screen of some kind or another.
Let's at least admit we have a serious cop problem in this country and move on from there.
Your comfort with this manner of brutality and your flippancy towards use of force speaks to a greater issue: The increasing comfort Americans have in explaining away police abuse of power and their unwillingness to hold police accountable for their savagery.
The fact that the police repeatedly lied should say enough--beyond the obvious insanity of Rice's murder. Who exactly felt "threatened" here? Ultimately, it was the Rice family who were threatened, victimized, and shot. A twelve-year-old kid is dead because an idiot in a uniform killed him. What exactly do you think would've happened here without a video?