General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Deputies shoot man in his front yard He was getting cigarette out of his mother's car [View all]pipi_k
(21,020 posts)or have you ever, been a cop?
If not, I suggest getting a little perspective/education on how difficult it is to make what could be life or death split second decisions.
Yeah, cops have guns.
But that doesn't mean they're freaking mind readers. They have NO way of knowing who is, and who isn't, a threat.
They like to go home every night in one piece just like the rest of the working world.
And part of the training involves assuming that every suspect has a weapon. In fact, the cop who gets lax about that or lets down his guard is in danger of being killed.
Cops know people hate them. Cops know that some people are on powerful drugs AND hate them. And I've seen enough hateful anti cop crap here at DU to believe quite strongly that quite a few would have no problem at all killing one.
Anyway. None of us was there. None of us knows exactly what happened. How compliant (or not) the man was being.
And unless someone is, or was, a cop, it's impossible to know what it's like to literally put your life on the line every day when you don't know what the suspect's intent is.
And it appears the guy was shot before being put in handcuffs. That means he hadn't even been checked for weapons yet.
So. Until the suspect has been handcuffed and weapons are either found, or not, he's a threat.