Cop Shoots Unarmed Fleeing Man in the Back

Originally Posted By ecdc

Exactly. No one isn't arguing that people should be respectful to cops and cops should be respectful back. Of course that's how these encounters should go. So to say, "Hey, it's reasonable to be respectful" is kinda...uh...yeah. No one is saying otherwise.

But they don't always go that way. Sometimes cops are needlessly aggressive and escalate the situation. And sometimes suspects like Walter Scott run. Walter Scott shouldn't have run, no question. But the solution isn't to shoot him down like a dog in the back. Cops are supposedly professionals who are trained to know how to behave in situations when suspects are not cooperative. He pulled over Walter Scott. Let the guy run. He's a non-violent threat. You have his license plate. Go to his house and arrest him. There's a million different ways this can play out that don't result in Walter Scott dead.

Since when did we decide that anyone who has any encounter with police gets whatever is coming to them?

 

Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder

Walter Scott ran because he was a deadbeat Dad. He had a warrant out for unpaid child support of over $18,000.00. He ran from his responsibilities as a father and he ran from the police. Now he's a martyr. Life can sure take some twists.

 

Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder

">>Here's a reasonable message<<

...that has nothing to do with anything."

Certainly it does. We'll never know how this have gone down had Scott stayed put. This kid stayed put.

 

Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder

"Since when did we decide that anyone who has any encounter with police gets whatever is coming to them?"

I don't know. When did we? I missed that part.

 

Originally Posted By Tikiduck

Assailing Scott's character is entirely beside the point.
Social miscreant or not, the treatment he received from that officer was despicable.

 

Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder

Scott shouldn't have taken off, cop shouldn't have lied.

 

Originally Posted By Tikiduck

Scott shouldn't have taken off, cop shouldn't have killed him.

 

Originally Posted By ecdc

>>I don't know. When did we? I missed that part.<<

Probably when people started defending cops with things like, "Well, he shouldn't have run," or by pointing out the prior behavior of suspects. Or when people link to unrelated articles that have nothing to with the case at hand to suggest that if only everyone does precisely what cops say, everything will turn out okay. They have a name for that: a police state.

 

Originally Posted By ecdc

>>Scott shouldn't have taken off, cop shouldn't have lied.<<

That's some epic false equivalency right there. Also, cop shouldn't have lied? I'd go with, cop shouldn't have fired at an unarmed fleeing suspect.

 

Originally Posted By Yookeroo

"Scott shouldn't have taken off, cop shouldn't have killed him."

Scott shouldn't have taken off, cop shouldn't have murdered him.

 

Originally Posted By ecdc

Charles Blow's current column is apropos.

<a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/04/13/opinion/charles-blow-walter-scott-is-not-on-trial.html?_r=0">http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015...tml?_r=0</a>

 

Originally Posted By utahjosh

Great article.

"There is no moral equivalency between running and killing, and anyone who argues this obdurate absurdity reveals a deficiency in their own humanity. Death is not the appropriate punishment for disobedience. Being entrusted with power does not shield imprudent use of power"

I agree with this, but I do not think people who say "he shouldn't have run" believe that he should have been shot for running. Maybe it's spurious to point out that he shouldn't have run, but it's also true.

 

Originally Posted By TomSawyer

One of the things that we train our security officers is to recognize when adrenaline kicks in and how that affects their decision making process. Adrenaline triggers the fight-or-flight response, and in an encounter it is going to be in play for the officer and the person they are talking to.

Unfortunately, if an officer or a suspect doesn't really recognize what is happening with their own physiological response then things can go pear-shaped very easily.

Humans are animals. It's a natural reaction to try to try to fight something threatening you, or to flee something that you don't think that you can flight, and to feel the need to chase after that which is fleeing from you as the predatory instinct kicks in. Police are just as susceptible to it as suspects.

The best advice I ever heard is to treat any encounter with the police in the same way that you would treat an encounter with a strange dog. No sudden moves, speak calmly, don't run, and don't make any gestures that can be perceived as threatening.

 

Originally Posted By EighthDwarf

"The best advice I ever heard is to treat any encounter with the police in the same way that you would treat an encounter with a strange dog. No sudden moves, speak calmly, don't run, and don't make any gestures that can be perceived as threatening."

You act that way around strange dogs because you don't know if the dog is deranged and/or could attack you. It's pretty sad if that's how we should treat police.

 

Originally Posted By utahjosh

<The best advice I ever heard is to treat any encounter with the police in the same way that you would treat an encounter with a strange dog. No sudden moves, speak calmly, don't run, and don't make any gestures that can be perceived as threatening.>

Like ecdc said, that's a "police state" and as citizens we should not have to fear the people sworn to protect us.

 

Originally Posted By TomSawyer

The problem is that people are responding to them with fear and reacting by fighting for fleeing.

If you don't fear them then you are far less likely to make stupid decisions like a physical struggle or running away and triggering the pursuit impulse.

Treating a strange dog like that doesn't mean that you're afraid of the dog. It means that you're in control of your emotions enough that you can think rationally through the choices that you are going to have to make.

Fearing the police is what causes people to run or fight.

 

Originally Posted By Kusin_It

"Scott shouldn't have taken off, cop shouldn't have lied."


cop shouldn't miss squealing like a pig in prison during his 18 month stay and you shouldn't make yourself look imcompassionate towards murdered people

 

Originally Posted By DDMAN26

I think it was more 18,000 owed in child support that caused Scott to flee.

 

Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder

"I think it was more 18,000 owed in child support that caused Scott to flee."

It was indeed. I take a special interest in that aspect of this case since child support enforcement is what I do for a living. If I had a dollar for every time I heard "I'd rather shoot (or hit, or kill, or blade, or slap, or punch) the bitch than pay her money" for support I'd have a tidy sum to take to to Vegas. Black, white, Mexican, Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese, etc., doesn't matter, they all say it. The mothers get an escort out and once or twice a year you hear about where it really did happen. Doesn't make what happened here right, but to me, it's all part of the mix.

There's no reasonable discussion of this situation to be had in a thread like this. It's been decided that all cops are bad and if that isn't the impression you want to give, then you're doing it wrong.

Not a single person here understands what it's like to be a police officer. Not even me. I grew up around it, went to school for it, found out I couldn't do it due to my eyes, ended up working in and around it for over 20 years, and now I do the child support thing. I married a cop's daughter. Nobody I know is proud of what's happened recently, but then again, everybody I know would never tolerate this type of behavior from a fellow officer, either. There's quite a lot people never get to know about threats to the public and that's one thing to consider when talking about their equipment nowadays.

But have standards fallen for who gets hired? Sure. When cops continually get vilified as a whole for the acts of a comparative few many decent candidates walk away and do something else. You're left with what you see. Then also their pensions get cut, pay doesn't increase, etc., and again, decent candidates go the other way. I could write more, but why bother.

 

Originally Posted By Kusin_It

oh that makes shooting a guy in the back fine.

I've heard of debter's prison before but not capital punishment over money
do you know how crazy you sound?!

i hope you don't have children to raise because you might be the daylights out of them for not bringing you back the exact change from a 7-11 slerpy run.