Lawsuit: Virginia police officers threatened man during stop

[CJD]

(04-15-2021, 10:47 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: It's not his job, it's just intelligent.  But, if by de-escalate you mean actually follow instructions, then yes, that is his "job" under the law.  The interesting thing about this scenario is that the Lt. is objectively wrong under the law.  The two LEO's are subjectively wrong based on your opinion of the facts.  So, for the sake of argument, let's say all parties are in the wrong.  Why do the LEO's get the sole blame for the whole scenario from those inclined to fault them?

I suppose we can also fault the media for fomenting the insane fiction that LEO's are constantly on the prowl looking to kill "people of color".  Never mind that unjustified shootings make up around 1%, if that, of the around 1,200 LEO fatal shooting per year.  But I suppose highlighting the ones that do occur, endlessly, instead of honestly reporting on how rare they are does breed a climate of anger, fear and distrust.  Here we see the partial fruits of that.

The LEOs get the sole blame for the whole scenario because they were the ones who escalated it. As far as him not following their commands, the first thing we see in the video is the cop yelling at him to put his hands out of the car, gun drawn. We don't see what the man was doing because our view is just the cop's arm. I don't know if the first cop approached the car at first and the man did something that made the cop retreat to his car, pull his firearm and begin screaming, but I...doubt that happened. It seems to me that the police pulled him over (after he drove to a well lit area, it seems, as I've seen suggested when you're being pulled over at night), got out of their cars and immediately drew their weapon and began yelling.

And once that began, obviously the man was scared for his life, as he said once they actually approached the car, at which point the cop openly threatened him. "You should be [afraid to get out of your car]." That's about as blatant a threat as there can possibly exist. He may as well have said "I have the ability and will to murder you."

If I were in that position, I'd be scared. So they then demand that he get out of the car. He has his hands out of the window. He already is scared and he already thinks, justifiably, that these cops are unhinged and ready to kill him due to their apparent approach (yelling, guns drawn before even interacting with him). If I were in his position I would NOT open that door. I am not moving my hands at all. They can see my hands and that I do not have a gun, I am not moving those hands until the guns come down. That is almost certainly what the man was thinking as well.

Now, you can say that I would also be "non-compliant" but I see it as survival instincts. If a person is threatening to murder you if you move in any way that they don't approve of (which is what holding a gun on someone is implying) and are already at the top of their voice to the point where they come off as unhinged and crazy, I am not giving them a SINGLE REASON to shoot me. I am not reaching for the door, I am not reaching for my seat belt, I am not reaching for my driver's license. Nothing. I am not moving until they calm the **** down and stop threatening my life.

This is a natural reaction and the fact that you're painting it as some sort of hostile action by the man does not ring true to me in any way. The person who is in danger of losing their life if they upset these two cops is not the person who needs to de-escalate when they weren't the ones who escalated. The cops came in at 100 and remained at 100 throughout the stop and then try and blame the man for not doing everything they bark at him wildly?

I'm not buying that defense of the police at all.

I am not even getting into the race part, which I think is relevant in how they responded to him (not consciously, per se, but I think there is a higher level of fear of black people in this country for socio-economic reasons and that will obviously bleed into a cop's profession as well), I am just looking at the approach, the escalation, the responses by the man and, when I put myself in his shoes, I just don't see anything he did as unreasonable given the circumstances he was put in by these two officers.