This is a tragic/ needles death born of the times we live in today. The guy who was shot announced he had a weapon and and a licence to carry it. Now I haven't heard that disputed yet but weather he was told to get his licence or not is in dispute. I have an opinion on what happened and who is at fault (Which is not set in stone) but will keep it to my self until all the facts are in. I will, however, state why I think this over all event (And others resent in the news) have taken place.
Racism, it seems, is running rampant in the USA. I don't remember racial tensions being this high in my life time. I think that the tension started to build with the first election of Obama when people started saying that if you don't vote for him you are raciest. I believe this statement started from the left as a political ploy to get votes, and it worked maybe too good. Then there is the President him self, making comments about cretin cases when the facts of the case were not in, those comments only added fuel to the per-verbal racial tension fire. But, in my opinion, it is the mainstream media that is the biggest culprit in aiding the growing of the racial tensions.
The news is suppose to be there to report the happenings of our nation, weather it be local or national, there are other opinion shows that are there to give ones perspective on cretin happenings. It seems, though, that today the mainstream news media is not only reporting the news but are adding their opinions to is as well. Then they are only reporting certain parts of the news story, leaving important content out or at times not reporting certain stories that are news worthy because it would not help their personal agenda / cause. For example, making the protests, that steamed from the Ferguson shooting, national news (This is the hands up don't shoot protest). Or the "Pigs in a blanket fry like bacon" protest that was made national news. All those have done is to pit citizens (And mainly the black citizens) against our police force.In doing all this the news media has grossly inflamed the racial tensions.
That leads us to what happened in Minnesota and other parts of the USA. The shooting of Philando Castile had nothing to do with race, in fact the officer that shot him was him self eater Mexican or Asian. Racial tension is high right now especially when it comes to the police, which in turn has made our police on edge and not knowing who is thee to harm them, more so then any other time.
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I agree with Nosaj. Every time a black man is shot everyone says "Racist". I'm not saying that this does not happen - it does - there ARE white officers who are gun happy and get edgy when engaging blacks but the media is making it like all police officers are this way and they are out to get black people, that's ridiculous. I especially like what Nosaj said about Obama giving opinions on things because it involved a black person and the investigations weren't over yet. You don't get a white president doing that for traffic stops where the cop killed the white man.
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Nosaj:
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I do not think it is all about the training. As a ex military police officer and working daily along side police officers today I can understand why he was shot. Any time you have a traffic stop you want to know what the person is reaching for. If he did tell the officer he was armed then it was to his best interest to keep his hands were the officer could see them. IF he continued to reach for his wallet or something else that would have placed the officer in a dangerous position. With all the hype on social media for the killing of police you would want to make the officer more at ease.
I am a armed citizen. If I get pulled over it is my duty to tell that officer that I am armed. Once I do that it is my duty to keep my hands where the officer can see them. I would then follow the officers instructions so that they know that I am not about to pull out a weapon.
With the video starting after the shooting and her saying he was just trying to get his wallet makes it clear to me that IF he did mention he was armed then he did not keep his hands where the officer could see them. How many people would let a person you know is armed possibly reach for a weapon to be used against you? I know I would not and remember I was trained to deal with these types of situations.
Edited: KNtoran on 9th Jul, 2016 - 2:08pm
Thanks for your input KNtoran. I will wait for more details on this case but according to several news outlets, the victim's girlfriend stated that the police officer asked for his license and registration and this what allegedly took place:
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For my protection I would always make sure the person I was questioning had no weapons on them. Then I would get identification. IF I knew a person was armed I usually told them what to do at gun point. As a MP I dealt with many armed personnel on a daily basis. That was for my and others safety.
Seeing that the police officer was a bit hysterical means that he was under a lot of stress and he did not want to shoot the subject. I think there is a lot we do not know yet. But removing her from the vehicle and hand cuffing her was for everyone's protection until they could secure the weapon. O be shock and it would not do well for her to grab the weapon and start shooting.
KNtoran, I used to watch the show cops. I have seen countless similar situations, a traffic stop and the subject is armed but in ALL of them at gun point, the officer commanded to VERY carefully reach for their wallets to get their licence/registration. I have never seen handled in any other way.
The behavior of the officer could also be that he let his emotion run high when he realized the man was armed.
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