Police shooting protesters delay start of Kings-Hawks game

drwho said:

Shooting until the PERCEIVED threat is ended is not poor training.

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LA4Bama said:

This is not okay. As far as I can tell this is a perfect example of cops making every assumption -- not only racial but that, too -- in a way to make it like a war zone. The guy was in his grandparents' back yard for Christ's sake, but the working assumption was he was a dangerous criminal. They are just going on what some 911 caller said, which is hardly a reliable source. In his family's back yard with no gun, and absolutely no attempt by the police to diffuse the situation. Instant death penalty, and we don't even know for sure he was the one who broke the windows. I am just disgusted.

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Bamaro said:

Im not justifying what the cops did but for clarification this guy wasn't just sitting in his grandparents back yard minding his own business. He was chased by the cops and finally was confronted after he ran to his GPs back yard. As far as the cops knew it could have simply been a strangers backyard and unfortunately they thought he may have had a gun.

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LA4Bama said:

I'm actually not sure from the video whether he was really running from the cops; it is hard to say. He does not appear to be running, and that drone which is following him is probably inaudible at that height. He may be hiding from his angry, redneck neighbor who came at him with a baseball bat. I don't know; I could believe he was hiding from the cops but it's hard to believe he lead them on a "chase", as you put it. What can be said is that the cops assumed quite a few things. The reality is that they did not "see" a gun, because there was no gun. They did see a black man in a hoodie, and they assumed he was trespassing, assumed he was dangerous, assumed he was the vandal, seemingly they assumed any object in his hand would be a gun, because at least one of them panicked and "saw" a "hooded black man with a gun." Then they shot at him 20 times even though in reality the man was not pointing a gun at them. Then they didn't provide him immediate medical care because they couldn't see the gun. I think it is not hard to see how the cops' assumptions and fears played into it, and why that is reason to suspect conscious or unconscious bias plays a role.

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LA4Bama said:

I'm actually not sure from the video whether he was really running from the cops; it is hard to say. He does not appear to be running, and that drone which is following him is probably inaudible at that height. He may be hiding from his angry, redneck neighbor who came at him with a baseball bat. I don't know; I could believe he was hiding from the cops but it's hard to believe he lead them on a "chase", as you put it. What can be said is that the cops assumed quite a few things. The reality is that they did not "see" a gun, because there was no gun. They did see a black man in a hoodie, and they assumed he was trespassing, assumed he was dangerous, assumed he was the vandal, seemingly they assumed any object in his hand would be a gun, because at least one of them panicked and "saw" a "hooded black man with a gun." Then they shot at him 20 times even though in reality the man was not pointing a gun at them. Then they didn't provide him immediate medical care because they couldn't see the gun. I think it is not hard to see how the cops' assumptions and fears played into it, and why that is reason to suspect conscious or unconscious bias plays a role.

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The recordings begin with a man calling 911 to report a man in a hoodie and dark pants breaking car windows. The officer in the helicopter spots Clark running and walking through backyards, and tells officers on the ground that the suspect has just used a "toolbar" to break the window of a residence.

With direction from the helicopter officer, the officers on the ground follow and confront Clark.

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