Posted on 02/26/2014 11:02:34 PM PST by Slings and Arrows
BTW, I told you how he could have easily existed his vehicle in a very innocent manner...
but 70 years old is not young or middle age.
He’s old man.
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Well, if you are gonna put it that way....
However wait till you get to 75+- and able to work every day then you will know what I mean when you refer to 70 as old. HA
Only difference is that it is nice to be able to work at 75 BUT not if you HAVE to.
No problem, I reread mine and thought it could be interpreted that I was on the ‘cops side’, so I was just clarifying that I wasn’t.
Rather than my saying it ‘looks fishy’, lets just agree that THEY are not giving all the facts of the lead up to the shooting.
One would think that if they feel he is going to survive they would at least try to get public opinion near their side without revealing a whole lot that should come out when the ‘older gentleman’ sues the pants off of him and the department.
Unless they have him acting super hostile or something like that on tape...Definitely more than what is/has been revealed.
“Canipe” is close to “canine” so it’s an understandable error.
So, the National Guard, one’s neighbors in the locality within a state can behave amorally, but the US military, with no particular interest in a locale, will act morally when it comes to orders to murder?
Such a belief will cost many people their lives!
Really? If all you can see is some of the shaft, and the rest of it is hidden behind the person holding it? To me, the shaft of a cane and the barrel of a rifle look very much alike.
I have three canes. One of the three I use most of the time. Not a one of them even remotely looks like a rifle or shotgun barrel. I drive a pick up most of the time. Because my truck has a bed cover the cane is in the front seat beside me. So should I be shot if I moved my cane? It's very poor training and very poor supervision. A Rookie out of the academy should be required to spend a minimum of three years preferably five with an experienced officer. A lot of this stems from one patrolman per car. Put two cops back in patrol cars. Have the senior officers train and evaluate the junior officers actions and judgments.
But as one poster said if as cop approaches a pick up with an open bed the cops will look in the bed as he approaches the driver for visible reason to further investigate such as beer cans etc. IOW the story stinks.
None of the ones that I seen did but, that is just me. I never saw a pink elephant but other people told me they did. So, what I am saying is, that if someone says they that they saw something, how can it be proven that they didn’t. I don’t necessarily believe the deputy but I don’t have to. He is South Carolina’s problem. Sooner or later he will run out of people from North Carolina to shoot and start working on people from South Carolina.
I had to walk with a cane for a few months. It was, as I recall, long, black, and cylindrical for most of its length, and it bent around at the top to form a handle.
I have fired rifles. As I recall, the barrels were long, black, and cylindrical.
If you do not see the top, and all you see is the long. black, cylindrical portion, I can easily see mistaking a cane for the barrel of a rifle. Especially by someone who is already hyper alert—because police officers do *not* know how the person they are pulling over will react, and police officers *have* been killed during traffic stops.
I can think of any number of scenarios in which someone could hold a rifle without the stock being visible. According to the story, the event occurred Tuesday evening—meaning it was dark. And the old guy reached into the bed of the truck—meaning that his body was very likely blocking view of much of the object. And a police officer is likely to get extremely nervous when people reach for things without first saying what they are doing. If all you can see is a few inches of a dark cylindrical object, and you are already hyper alert for any kind of threat—you don’t think you might interpret the object as a rifle barrel?
The unfortunately incident could have been avoided had the man said, “I need my cane from the back of the truck.” Then the officer would have known what the object was from the get-go.
Furthermore How could the man block the view of a cane being raised out of the bed of the truck? The cane would be in front of him or clear of him at any angle.
Cops are supposed to train on a course where Innocents carrying items like canes flashlights etc pop up and cop respond appropriately. But wait a second here. DHS ordered some new training aids didn't they? Typical citizen targets to shoot at. Too many Boo Boos from No Knock Raids on wrong addresses to officers thinking they see a weapon and shooting first confirming weapon later or worse not confirming and a big opps are happening.
BTW a 70 something year old man? The gentleman may have been hearing impaired and cop shouting Panic series of orders rather than slow understandable ones and yes I've heard cops do it before.
Cops need to return to a two cops per car requirement with a senior officer of ten or more years as an officer teaching the junior till at least the Rookies third year so they learn how to properly interact and get control of their panic.
BTW man may have been getting out to look for himself. Canes aren’t just used for walking they are also used to help a person stoop down and get back up.
At any rate, he got the shit shot out of him. And it being dark was just a bunch of bull crap. Cop cars now have headlights on, floodlights on their light bars, and a spotlighs in addition to their flashing lights. The deputy was just scared or kill happy, or maybe a combination of both. But as long as the good people of South Carolina do not mind being shot like rabid dogs by him....
Honestly, I think part of the problem is the anti-gun hysteria the left keeps trying to invoke. In an environment where kids are being expelled from school for nibbling a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun, it only makes sense that police officers would be hyper sensitive to anything resembling a gun, as well.
It would be easy enough to block the view of a cane that one is getting out of the bed of a truck. The old guy was probably facing the truck, with his back towards the police officer, while he reached in to get the cane. So the officer’s view of what he was really holding would have been quite limited.
Please note that while I am saying I think the officer made an honest mistake in this situation, that I don’t automatically assume the police are right in every situation. Each situation has to be judged on its merits.
His wife is also lucky the cop didn’t blow her head off either while she was sitting in the truck. You can see the bullets going through the back window of the pickup.
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