wings wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 7:49 pm
Local reports are that the victim had called the police after being assaulted by multiple assailants, and was defending herself with the knife at the time she was shot.
If you think it was a 'good shoot," Kyle Rittenhouse should have been shot. If you think Rittenhouse should be walking free, then Ma'Khia should still be alive. I don't believe there's ever such a thing as a "good shoot." But there's a hell of a double standard here and it's racist to the core.
OK, let's have it your way...
Scenario: A armed criminal was endangering multiple lives while committing multiple felonies in this officer's presence, and the officer from a distance has to act in a split-second to save a life or lives? The criminal's age has no bearing once they arm themselves and present deadly force to others, and all the dispatcher gave to the responding officer was an address and a caller who said people are going to be/or were already stabbed or something similar and hung up. When the officer arrived it was obvious who the aggressor was as it's on his body cam video, and he had no time to do anything but to immediately react to save lives.
NOTE: What happened prior to the officer responding doesn't matter to the responding officer when he pulls up, just what he is witnessing in real-time. Any prior events will be noted in the investigation, and be applied after the fact.
a) What's racist about it aside from the armed criminal was black, and the intended victims both white/hispanic and black, while the officer white?
b) What would you have done in this officer's place?
1) Watch the deceased girl and the guy who was fighting with her kill or seriously injure two girls at minimum?
2) Go hands-on with the stabber after she kills or seriously injures at minimum one person?
3) Attempt to aim for her leg which would not have stopped the knife attack immediately unless bone was broken assuming you hit it?
4) I'm not sure what the range was regarding less-lethal possibilities, though depending on the victim's toxicology tasers are at times ineffective while center-mass shot placement typically isn't, and in this case the split-second goal was to stop a knife attack and save live(s)?
NOTE: When deadly force is presented in any officer's presence, against the officer(s) themselves or the public, officers are certainly within their bounds to meet it with the same, this is the law and how they're trained, and if it was you who was about to be stabbed you'd no doubt sing a different tune!
c) Yes, there is a double standard with regards to the Rittenhouse case, as he should've been arrested at the scene, though it'll be the courts that get to decide on whether he was defending himself (which he has a decent case for...), and all of the other crimes he committed just being there armed at his age etc.
He shouldn't have been there armed at all, and he and his mom should answer for that IMO as I believe she bought him the AR before he was 18, though it all started when he tried to put a dumpster fire out. According to witnesses Rittenhouse was attacked by multiple rioters after that (not the many peaceful protesters who were also there as well, there is a difference!).
There is video of two of the attackers, one of them armed with a handgun, being shot by Rittenhouse after he was chased and knocked to the ground, almost having his head removed by a swung skateboard, so for those two incidents Rittenhouse has a decent case for self-defense. I'm not sure about the first shooting, though reports from witnesses are that he was backed into a corner by multiple rioters after using the fire extinguisher on the burning dumpster, but I don't believe there is video of that shooting, so anything goes with that one?
However, anyone who can't see the facts of the stabbing case is blinded by rage (as was the deceased!), and they should be aware that crying racism when there isn't any evidence of it harms the BLM movement (crying wolf too often etc...), and strengthens the racist groups that do exist withinin law enforcement and the general population that the BLM movement is trying to overcome.
EVERY EVENT IS UNIQUE, and needs to be judged on it's own facts and merits!
"THE FACTS MATTER", and in this case when it's obvious on body cam video, and confirmed by neighbors who the armed aggressor was, it's an open and shut case, i.e. a good shoot (and technically speaking, a hell of a job considering the target of the stabber was in extremely close proximity to the stabber!).
Finally, "good shoot" is a legal/technical term as no shooting is a good shooting, and yes it's tragic that a young girl lost her life over a moment of rage, and sadly so easily avoided by controlling that rage, but every person has responsibilities to themselves and others, and one's actions can have repercussions.