Cincinnati campus officer shoots and kills unarmed black male

[xxlt]

(07-26-2015, 07:38 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: The bottom line is this, Bland is not the paid professional in this situation, but she has an even greater reason (i.e. self preservation) to keep her cool than the officer involved.  People have become way too obsessed with the concept of being "disrespected" and they consequently make stupid decisions.  Be the adult, and the smart one, and act in your own best interests.

I was so happy to see the above quote. I have not heard enough people say this ^ and it seems so obviously correct to me. I actually have heard people praise/defend Bland for running her mouth to the cop and say they would do the same thing. To me, that is just not smart strategy. Let's say the cop stopping Bland/or you/or our buddy is evil incarnate and has no reason to make the stop and is a disgrace to every good officer who has worn the badge. Let's say his racist/sexist/abusive rhetoric toward you is relentless. It seems to me in a situation like this the shrewd strategy is to get out of the stop as quickly as possible by complying and letting the officer write up your citation(s)/warning(s) or if you are going to jail get there as expeditiously as possible while doing nothing to make the situation any worse. Once you have gotten out of that ordeal, from a safe place down the road or the relative safety of the jail you can begin to document the officer's misconduct and attempt to have the officer held accountable for same. Why on earth you would escalate the conflict is something I can't understand.

It is even more astonishing to me when the civilian is black. I have heard for as long as I remember about "the talk" that black parents have with their children. If you are stopped for nothing more than being black (and it happens - and it is wrong) parents allegedly tell their children you are not to run, you are to keep your hands out of your pockets, you are to be polite and not raise your voice and you are not to make any sudden moves. Now, that all seems like common sense to me but if you had been told that as a child even if you were drunk or high at the time of a stop I would think that sage advice would come back into your consciousness and you would, as SSF said, act in your own best interest. I am astonished when people do not and then others cheer them for running their mouth or being non-compliant or defiant with a LEO.

As to the UC incident...driver did not have tag on vehicle so stop was legit in my opinion. I thought Deters calling it a bogus stop was dumb. People license their vehicles because they get cited if they don't. People alter or remove plates from stolen vehicles or vehicles they are operating unlawfully. So, the cop stopping a vehicle with no tag is legit. Driver could not produce OL. Again, that is illegal. Minor violations but we are up to two now... The bottle of booze on the floor surrendered to cop looked unopened but it did seem the driver was impaired - so now we have the possibility of him operating vehicle under influence. That could still be a misdemeanor. But above the minor crimes, no tag, no OL, possibly driving drunk - the worst thing driver was guilty of was putting himself in harm's way by starting the car when he was told to take of his seatbelt, pulling the door shut, and trying to drive away. Judgment may have been impaired by alcohol or other drugs, but still, bad decisions. They were followed by a bad decision by the cop, who I am pretty sure would not have shot this guy had he not tried to flee. However, the cop's choice to pull his pistol and fire was also a horrible decision. There was no way the guy could run him over when he was standing next to the driver's door. He could have used verbal commands, his body, baton, chemical spray, or taser to try to keep the man from fleeing. Or he could have just let him flee and pursued him. Yeah, that endangers other people but so does pulling your pistol and firing it at point blank range. I don't think the continuum of force says if the subject is stupid you are justified in using deadly force. It says you are justified if your life is threatened and this officer's life wasn't. I am not sure what Ohio law on murder is, but this case looks like at minimum manslaughter and possibly murder.