Pat Rice in Short Shorts wrote:StLGooner wrote:Pat Rice in Short Shorts wrote:StLGooner wrote:Another shooting of a black man by police, this time in LA. He was riding a bike unlawfully.
Why even stop him? Do the cops have nothing better to do?
That is not all of the story. I don't what he was doing wrong on the bike. But he did run off, punched a cop, then fell over at which time they saw he had a semi automatic handgun. Details to follow no doubt, but in the meantime let's all assume it was a racially motivated shooting?
A reasonable person would stop, ask what was he doing wrong and go his way. But if you are carrying an illegal gun things would get a bit more sticky.
I know it's not all of the story. But I can't think of a crime important enough to stop a black man from riding a bike these days. Unless someone reported he had a gun. Otherwise, what harm was he doing? Serious question
But even then, I read he dropped some clothes on the ground along with the gun and then continued to run. So he dropped the gun and ran, and they still felt the need to shoot apparently. Did they not see the gun on the ground? I don't know, but my point was why even stop the guy? Do they stop white people doing the same supposed crime? I doubt they do it as much.
Again, nothing proves it was racially motivated, but questions must be asked. In these delicate racial times, you would think that a white cop seeing a black guy riding a bike unlawfully wouldn't be something that they need to pursue, cause it' usually something stupid like having no helmet, or riding in the wrong lane, or not stopping at a sign or light, which I've never seen anyone get stopped for. I'd really like to know what the crime is though.
I would too.
The flip side is that cops are on a "hair trigger" these days because so many are being shot. Also given the cops did stop him and he was carrying an illegal gun who was he going to shoot with it? Was it for self defence? Perhaps, but doubt he had a permit in SOCAL for a gun that nobody else is supposed to have. The one thing all these shootings have in common is that guy being killed or shot was doing something illegal at the time, had warrants out, they fought with the cops or were high out of their minds. Put yourself in the Cop's position.
We will find out in due time.
Trust me, I understand that cops have a very difficult job. BLM could go a long way with understanding that too.
I also realize that in many cases being talked about, some of these things could have been avoided if the person would just not have resisted arrest. I also know that police violence on black people isn't as bad as the world is wanting us to think it is right now, statistically speaking. Well as far as black people dying at least. I've read people stating that black people get killed by the police more than twice a week, and that is just BS if you believe the statistics.
But like I have said before, I've been in a few instances myself where the black person was treated worse than the white person (myself included), and then of course most of us have seen all the videos of white people getting away with things black people don't. Now I realize those are just random videos, and that the media doesn't report white people getting beaten up by police unjustifiably, but there is still a small portion of the police force that is bad, we can assume racist as well, and just maybe pure evil. And for an organization that is put in place to help and protect people, we just can't have that. Most of us can make mistakes in our profession and nobody is harmed, but they can't. They almost have to be perfect, especially in a nation where they have to assume everyone has a gun.
