Cops shoot unarmed man, on floor

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42277309


W-T-F.

I started out being sympathetic because the victim was a 4 star moron, brandishing a pellet gun in a hotel room such that other people saw him and called the hotel staff, who called the police. What a bonehead. But this is part of the police's job: evaluate whether there is a real threat and then deal with it. Further, the cops these days show up ready to assault Fort Knox, and should damn well be confident in their firepower.

Long story, short, they get this moron and his female companion out in the hallway, where its obvious they are both unarmed and scared. All they have to do is get them to lay down and spread eagle, or else spread eagle against a wall and walk up behind them and handcuff them. This ain't Bonnie and Clyde. Its two unarmed idiots who are (like most people), wetting their pants at the sight of storm troopers in flak jackets and automatic rifles.

The cops are only slightly less stupid, it seems. They start lecturing the two idiots who are too scared to think and can barely follow instructions. I've given instructions for a few years now in Karate and you don't lecture: EVER. Many students simply can't keep up and many don't process information fast enough to make the lectures worth it in the middle of instructions for striking, blocking, etc..You keep instruction simple and easy and short.

So instead of walking over and handcuffing these two - WHO ARE CLEARLY SCARED, AND NOT THAT BRIGHT - ONE IS CRYING - the cops give them instructions to get on their knees and crawl towards them? Why? They are immobile and still - AND HARMLESS. If one quickly moved to their waistband or quickly did something to provoke an attack, and the cops responded, fine. But the cops give a series of bizarre instructions which the idiots are having trouble following (so then just make them sit still and move to them), and when crawling, the man's oversized pants fall; instinctually, he reaches down to pull his pants up (stupid) and the cops unloads on him with his automatic weapon.

First off, with both "assailants" (who had hurt no one) on the ground, if you want to talk to them, you can ask them if they have a gun and ask what sort of gun it is (yes, they can lie, but most cops see right through lies). ODDS ARE they are not carrying an automatic weapon, so just confirm its a couple of idiots and not a team of ex-Seals ready to repel borders (highly unlikely). You see two fools, man and woman, sloppily dressed, no body armor, no sidearm, no rifle, NOTHING, then guess what? You get them down, handcuff them and slap them on the wrist in court for being stupid; but brandishing a pellet gun isn't a life-or-death situation. GOOD cops (rarer and rarer), can figure this out.

These two cops acted like this was a video game. They shot people they thought were ready and prepared to kill them. These two were both scared and stupid; at worst one was reaching for a handgun (but had his head down), and was preparing to shoot (blind), meaning he was going to miss and miss badly - if you have fired any gun, EVER, once in your life, you would know that even when aiming carefully its not very easy to hit your target - shooting blind, it takes a small miracle to hit anything smaller than a barn. Instead of taking just one shot, dummy cop opens up with 3, 4 shots on the guy losing his pants, in a t-shirt, with no protection of any kind. The "perp" is killed. Way to go, Mr. Law enforcement. That said, yes, the man reached back (for his falling pants), which will make any cop nervous and twitchy on the trigger - but recall, the purpose is to handcuff these two, not shoot them and kill them.

Again, policeman or woman is not an easy job, and they must have good common sense and good, calm nerves and a high emotional IQ. The two perps were clearly not prepared to mass kill anyone. The perps were unprepared, poorly dressed, couldn't follow orders, came apart, emotionally, very quickly - this are just too poor sods acting stupid. A good cop will figure this out in about 20 seconds. The language a person uses, their dress, their actions - its not rocket science to figure out. Come on, ladies and gentlemen; yet again, we can do better than this.

JB