ignorance abounds wrote:
Wow, so if a 6'4", 300 pound man charges a policeman, he doesn't have the right to kill him? I think you should become a policeman. Evidently, you are a tough guy and have it all figured out. You probably wouldn't last a week in the inner city.
A couple of things.
There's an important distinction between whether he has a legal right to use lethal force versus whether he should have used lethal force.
He may have the legal right depending on the local law, most of which are written with provisions so wide to almost always provide officers the RIGHT to use legal force if they feel threatened.
That doesn't mean the officer OUGHT to use lethal force or even that the officer HAD to use lethal force.
Any reasonable person (in my opinion) should be able to agree that an officer's use of a gun should be to DISABLE an aggressor, not to KILL an aggressor.
I cannot imagine any possible world where it takes a competent police officer six shots THAT HIT to disable a person. That doesn't even count shots that may have missed.
Officer Wilson shot Brown six times, twice in the head, and by all accounts did so at a distance.
His defense will certainly argue he felt mortally threatened. How the courts will rule I cannot know.
How can a competent cop need to shoot someone six times in order to disable him?
Answer: he was trying to kill him.
Good cops don't try to kill -- ever. Sometimes this happens as a consequence of the situation and it's sad. Killing here was clearly not an accident.
Six. Shots.
Give me a break.
And FWIW, I've lived in Baltimore for the last 7 years while a teacher in poor, black schools. I've seen violence TOWARDS teachers from students and I've broken up violent situations. I've had knives drawn during fights IN MY CLASS. I was able to resolve the situation, as were the teachers and permanently stationed police officers in my school in other scenarios. Those kids were ass holes and deserved punishment but they didn't deserve to die.
Officer Wilson = bad at his job.