AncientRunner wrote:
Having seen numerous videos posted on this thread it is easy to see why there is a rush to judgement. Politicians and supporters on both sIdes rush to legitimize their claims with inflaming rhetoric. For me it just brings up so many unanswered questions. Ones that need to be answered in order to establish a clearer picture of the events and to hold individuals accountable for their actions or inactions. Actions that we see in slow mo and freeze frame happen in split seconds. For me its time for all parties to disengage, take a step back versus add gasoline to the fire.
1. While showing up to a protest with License to Carry weapon is well within a persons right, why put yourself in the middle of a confrontation while carrying ?
2. Was there really a need to carry extra clips of ammo along with your weapon when the clip in the weapon had sufficient rounds for self protection ? What was the motivation for doing such?
3. Why did the protester resist when confronted with what seemed to be overwhelming force? For that matter why did it take 5 agents to subdue one person?
4. Who first identified that the protester was carrying? What did he say to alert others of the fact?
5. If the agent who removed the weapon from the protester had enough time to calmly remove the weapon, back away from the scene - why did the officers use deadly force?
6. If the agent that took the gun in fact discharged it (which is not clear to me in the videos) - Why? That discharge would have lit the candle for deadly force
7. With the protester lying on the ground, incapacitated and disarmed why was there a need to fire additional rounds?
Sadly many of these questions will remain unanswered as the protester is dead. I think we can all agree that it is time to disengage, take a step back, reconsider our positions and ask the hard questions without further inflaming the situation on the ground. ICE needs to stand down, the protesters need to go home and both sides need to come together to put an equitable end to this.
I agree with almost all of this, with the exception of the "stand down". ICE is working in many cities. There are to my knowledge only real problems in one, where the local leaders have whipped things into a frenzy, and it, to me, appears ICE or DHS overreacted twice. The equitable end should be getting those here illegally and with other criminal behaviors out with local LE assistance. Leave everyone else alone. And then ICE can move on to somewhere else. The two shootings, both of which seem wrong to me, both resulted from "protesters" interfering with ICE/DHS.