Michael Blair Video released Police shoot and kill

[Sox8055]

Justified. If anything his partner should have used his taser. However when you are at the end of that gun trying to calm the situation and your life is in danger you should NOT think twice about using lethal action when your life is in danger. Common Sense period.

[Barn]

I have a hard time thinking that some of you here are this black and white about everything in life.

Look, I'm not saying the man didn't go after the cop, or that cops don't have the right to defend themselves. How about we have a conversation that goes further than if the cop is justified in killing someone who is trying to harm him.

So for example, let's look at the training and methods these cops use. In this particular situation they approach a man that is obviously distraught. Is he suicidal, homicidal, dangerous? We don't know...

So instead of creating a situation where it's two choices:


A: You stop what you are doing

or

B: I kill you

This seems to be the training for cops in America. So how about the possibility of the cops seeing it's a tense situation, and treating it much like you would a hostage situation or someone on a ledge.

You back off, you call a negotiator in, and you exhaust all options BEFORE you shoot the man 12 times and kill him. Is this so unreasonable?


The argument isn't whether or not the cop has a right to defend his life, the argument is, are these tactics working to save both the lives of cops and citizens?

Call a negotiator in when the armed man has already threatened violence against himself in a tight space? How the hell is that going to work? That would put the negotiator's life in danger. This guy honestly seemed and was reportedly out to harm himself or someone else. It was too risky for the whole lets just calm down talk.

I agree that it is a shame that it resulted in this when the call was made to stop the guy from harming himself. However, I'd wager cases like this aren't the norm and that the police do often do a good job. You're making it our here like the police are complete morons because of how one situation went down.

You also don't take into account that the police seem calm at the start, they might have exhausted the negotiation tactic from the other side of the door before filming began.