Quote:
Originally Posted by Lester Burnham
Well, most sane people see a native american homeless guy carving some wood (especially in Seattle; not exactly Compton, CA), they don't think he's a gangster looking to shank some fools like he is in a prison yard. He was even using the cross walk while walking across the street lol. I also think it is telling that the lady screams at the cop "He wasn't doing anything!!" (you gotta turn up the sound to hear it..but it is clear what she said and has been confirmed).
I've had a gun pulled on me by a cop (for jaywalking btw), and I was pretty cool about it (but scared shitless). Just crazy because when someone yells at you sometimes you need a few seconds to adjust, and based on the video, the homeless dude was shot and killed 7 seconds from the first demand, and 4 seconds for the last demand. It happened that quickly.
Of course, the cop is gonna say, "I feared for my life", despite the fact that some old dude who probably has reflexes like an elephant was up against an armed, younger, sober and in shape officer.
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As I said above, I'm not defending the cop. Based on what we can hear, he shot the guy too quickly and for no reason. We can also assume that if they found the shooting unjustified that the cop was in the wrong for doing so.
That said, if you walk down the street, no matter what race you are or where you live, with a knife in your hand you are going to attract attention. If a cop drives by and sees you doing this, chances are he is going to stop and talk to you to see what is going on. Of course 99% of the cops would be a lot calmer and would have dealt with it in a much better way than this guy did. I'm simply saying there are common sense things you can do to avoid putting yourself into situations where you might encounter one of these bad cops.