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    Flying Squid (I hate me more than you do.)Marina Galperina
    7/21/16 3:03pm

    I can’t wait to find out what the armchair quarterbacks ready to defend any and all police actions have to say to excuse them this time...

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      NicoFlying Squid (I hate me more than you do.)
      7/21/16 3:05pm

      I heard Charles Kinsey spilled some juice as a child, and then told his mother he didn't do it. So, you know, totally had it coming.

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      Flying Squid (I hate me more than you do.)Nico
      7/21/16 3:06pm

      Well he definitely did something in his past that was bad that the officer could not possibly have known about and/or resembled a criminal because of his wide nose.

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    FreeRonMarina Galperina
    7/21/16 3:08pm

    According to her statement, the prosecutor’s office will be determining “whether the actions of the shooting officer constitute a criminal act that can be proven beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt.”

    I’m not a fan of this particular arrangement of words by the prosecutor. That already smells like an out, but I hope I’m just being overly cynical.

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      jroberts548FreeRon
      7/21/16 3:13pm

      That's literally what they're supposed to do for every case.

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      gingerhammeredFreeRon
      7/21/16 3:14pm

      No shit. That’s a pretty goddamn high bar before choosing to actually try to be successful at your job.

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    ArkMarina Galperina
    7/21/16 3:08pm

    I can’t fucking believe the cops felt like they needed to pull the ARs out of the trunk to deal with an unarmed autistic person and his caretaker.

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      gingerhammeredArk
      7/21/16 3:12pm

      NO, they both had two arms. and two legs. That’s four arms and eight total limbs. Stop with this “unarmed” stuff that’s being perpetrated by the dangerous and reckless Black Lives Matterers.

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      Ka Mai - New and ImprovedArk
      7/21/16 3:13pm

      To be fair, when they drew them they thought they were dealing with a guy with a gun. To continue to be fair, the moment it was clear that wasn’t the case, they should have put them away. To be 100% fair, there was absolutely no reason for anyone to get shot in this situation, and the officer that pulled the trigger should be fired and prosecuted.

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    puncha yo bunsMarina Galperina
    7/21/16 3:07pm

    “I don’t know” is simultaneously the most honest and most horrible answer the cop could have given at that time.

    Imagine someone (who’s supposed to protect you) almost killing you and the reason they give you for it is basically a shrug of the shoulders.

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      butcherbakertoiletrymakerpuncha yo buns
      7/21/16 3:15pm

      Just like a six-year old:

      “Why the hell did you poke the dog in the eye?!”

      “I don’t know!”

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      Lex Luthor's Saintly Twinpuncha yo buns
      7/21/16 3:26pm

      I don’t think it’s horrible - my guess (and it’s a pure guess with zero evidence) is that the guy didn’t mean to fire. If he had malicious intent, I don’t know why he’d shoot the guy in the leg.

      Accidental discharge of a firearm is not excusable for a cop, but it’s also not unheard of.

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    Cylontater: Genital WhispererMarina Galperina
    7/21/16 3:10pm

    WAITING FOR THE DEFENDERS LIKE

    GIF
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      ArnheimCylontater: Genital Whisperer
      7/21/16 3:13pm

      Do you really think there will be that many of them? I mean, there will surely be some (even if it’s only the contrarian assholes), but I grew up in a LEO family, and my folks were disgusted with this shit—as was I.

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      DangleSnizCelliCylontater: Genital Whisperer
      7/21/16 3:19pm

      Whoa, this is the best popcorn gif ever. Thank you for this.

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    Dinosaurs and Nachos, girlfriend!Marina Galperina
    7/21/16 3:28pm

    I have a serious question for my fellow white folks. Guys. Guys? Guys. When you see these videos, are you not afraid? Do you not get that tingle of fear that this could be you someday? That you could be at your job and some nosy busybody (c’mon, we’re white, we ALL know a nosy busybody or two) will call 911 because something scares them?

    I mean, you remember the time Grandma called 911 because the raccoon got in her trash cans and she thought someone was breaking into her home right? Or the time that little Aiden called 911 with your phone because you told him he couldn’t have candy before supper? Right?

    Well, okay, so what if someone sees you out and about one day and calls 911 because they see you holding something small and dark in your hand? Sure, it’s your phone and you’re playing Pokémon Go but someone else’s Grandma is going to be confused and scared because WHAT THE HELL IS A POKERMAN JOHNNY? Maybe it’s No Shave November and she thinks you’re one of them Mooslims or something. Maybe you are wearing skinny jeans and she thinks you are a transgendered person trying to follow her into the bathroom. C’mon. We all know our grandmas say shit like that.

    So aren’t you worried that it could be you? Doesn’t that inspire you to support reform of police training? Doesn’t that mean you can understand that police are often called to situations where their lives are NOT in danger but that you, a private citizen, are potentially always in mortal danger from the police as long they shoot first and ask questions later? Aren’t you worried? No?!?!

    -

    -

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    -Oh. Right. Because you are white. So. You wanna admit that there is some racism involved here after all? Because if you, a law-abiding white person are not afraid after watching a law-abiding black person get shot, then it’s bullshit when you pretend this has nothing to do with race. If it didn’t, you would be afraid too.

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      BCDFGDinosaurs and Nachos, girlfriend!
      7/21/16 3:56pm

      I have to say, beyond respectability politics, beyond the shooting —this whole case is really fucking me up, because the whole thing starts with a person who is simply developmentally handicapped. This is someone who is likely the textbook definition of “innocent,” who cannot tell right from wrong any more than a child, and moreover was acting like a child. I have a very hard time trying to think of a situation where you can lecture a non-communicative autist into not acting like a child.

      Police will always complain that they’re expected to be social workers, like that profession is somehow beneath them. I think as this case shows, maybe cops are beneath the caring professions, since this guy could manage to stay as cool as you could be in a very stressful situation —and you really can’t say that about the cops involved here.

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      TheDramaLlammaDinosaurs and Nachos, girlfriend!
      7/21/16 3:59pm

      Please, common now. We are white. We are so privileged, we don’t even need to acknowledge that we are privileged.

      Its like one of those unwritten baseball rules. Pine tar?! Hahaa, what pine tar?

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    Vanguard KnightMarina Galperina
    7/21/16 3:14pm

    So the respectability politics didn’t work.

    This man is a community worker.
    Has an education.
    Spoke politely.
    Begged for his life.
    Prostrated himself before the police.

    Yet he was still shot.
    Tell me what Charles Kinney could have done differently?


    I have the feeling that there could be a police camera footage of a police officer slowly decapitating a black person in 4k, with a notarized statement of guilt, along with the membership cards of the officer beloning to alt-right and white supremacist organizations, and some people will still ask:

    Yeah but what did the victim do to deserve this?
    Did that officer fear for his life?

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      SrynersonVanguard Knight
      7/21/16 3:35pm

      So the respectability politics didn’t work.

      So your theory is that the victim would have been better off if he’d run towards the officers screaming, “I’m going to kill you” or something like that? Because I’d definitely say that while “respectability politics” may not have prevented his shooting, it did save his life.

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      speteVanguard Knight
      7/21/16 3:36pm

      He should’ve tried not being born black, apparently. Really pretty irresponsible of him if you think about it.

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    pre-emptive sighMarina Galperina
    7/21/16 3:08pm

    suicidal man with a gun in the area

    Quick! Shoot him before he hurts himself!

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      Nicopre-emptive sigh
      7/21/16 3:18pm

      Well, suicide is against the law.

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      Captain IntensoNico
      7/21/16 4:06pm

      Where?

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    CarpoolMarina Galperina
    7/21/16 3:14pm

    So, OK, let’s take a look at it from a completely different angle - perhaps this has a lot more to do with training and funding than racism.

    I’m no expert at all WRT local budgets, manning, cost of equipment, etc., but I think it’s not irrational to posit that for many police departments, budget increases don’t translate to increased manpower and training. Instead, perhaps any increase of funding is going to “better” equipment, like, you know, the stuff that the military doesn’t need anymore and that police departments feel is essential to them doing their jobs properly.

    What gets lost is the need to properly train police personnel in the correct use of force; what I would bet $1 on right now is that the police officer in question is a relatively “new” officer who probably hadn’t fired his gun in the line of duty, and was not prepared mentally or via education on what to do in that situation.

    He may be a seriously racist fuck...but my guess is he's a generally crappy cop who really, really fucked up. Which, of course, doesn't make anyone feel any better about this horrible incident.

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      NicoCarpool
      7/21/16 3:22pm

      I think it’s a combination of inadequate training and racism. I think it’s pretty clear at this point that white people have an easier time dealing with the cops in general, it’s disingenuous to try to explain that away with the separate issue of poor training.

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      BCDFGCarpool
      7/21/16 4:16pm

      My take from where I am in New York, where we’ve historically had these kinds of shootings where mentally ill or developmentally handicapped persons were involved: the classic excuse cops give is, “we’re not social workers.”

      The thing about that line of horseshit is that nobody expected cops to be social workers. They do —rightfully— expect that mental illness stop being treated as a crime, and that maybe cops shouldn’t be the people who immediately deal with it. Or, at least, maybe force is not the first solution.

      A big part of this, IMHO, is the availability heuristic that is used to shape police training. What kind of training is endlessly drilled into police forces nowadays? Active shooter and terrorism. Podunk towns across America get billions of dollars in aid via FEMA and DHS to handle terrorism and active shooters.

      While the bodycounts involved in terrorism may be scary, the actual number of terrorist incidents is rare. We still train way too many Paul Blart types as if they’re going to SWAT team into Wal-Mart tomorrow.

      Meanwhile, we have god knows how many people who are mentally ill, developmentally handicapped, or simply prone to psychological crisis in this country. There’s got to be stats somewhere that go into how many 911 calls concerned “emotionally disturbed person.” And yet, there’s very little training given to anyone on any police force that I know, about how to properly deal with someone who may have something like a psychotic break that may be odd, a nuissance, or even disturbing to see but is zero threat to anyone’s life.

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    carpetboxerMarina Galperina
    7/21/16 3:09pm

    This kind of turnaround for an investigation shows the impact and importance of Black Lives Matter.

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      theunseenonecarpetboxer
      7/21/16 4:43pm

      I was thinking the same thing. A few years ago, if we had even heard about this, the cops and justice department would have dragged ass as much as possible in dealing with this. Then, after the whole deal languished long enough for the majority of people to lose interest, they would quietly acquit the officer. Maybe they’d even have him transferred to another city so he could still be a cop.

      BLM isn’t perfect, but nobody can say it hasn’t gotten some results.

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      Fresh Courage Takecarpetboxer
      7/21/16 4:50pm

      I’ll star it, but are they paying you by the comment?

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