That being said, I just watched the video and this cop did in fact not handle the situation correctly. He will pay the price, and justifiably so.
Instead I was going by the statement in the post that said:
Levar Jones' painful groans and then-Trooper Sean Groubert's reply "Well you dove head first back into your car" were captured by a dashboard camera in the trooper's car.
Looking at the video I do not see the man diving into his car head first. I see him leaning into his car head first, not diving. That's the way the DA saw it and his boss saw it. His boss fired him and the DA charged him.
There seem to be a lot of people on FR that criticize cops at every drop of the hat. I was obviously allowing that fact to form my response as well. But once someone actually sees the clip one does determine that the cop was not justified in shooting this man. The only problem I have is not seeing the entire stop. Did the man do something that we do not see in the clip provided that made this cop pull out his gun? Him having his gun trained on the man is not proper procedure either, unless the man had given him good reason to.
I live in the country and our cops are not involved in many shootings. They sure as hell do not train their guns on us for no reason. These people may live in large cities where I'm sure cop related shootings occur more often, because crime is more prevalent. Just another reason to live in the country.
I guess my real point in all of this is that we should not be trying cases that have not been heard in court in the news outlets. We may be missing an important piece of information not being provided.
You have not point regarding this specific incident. And your responses are FOS, to be blunt.
No one knows what is going to happen in life. No one knows when a vehicle will cross the center line and come right at you. Or do you swerve first and throw your car into a possible loss of control situation, endangering all around you? Do you get treated for cancer before being diagnosed? Do you shoot anyone who knocks on your door because they could be home invaders?
If someone tells you to F off in traffic, do you open up on them because they could possible kill you?
There is no defense to this incident. Zip...
And you think that was enough to try and kill him? No weapon. No movement to the cop. No threat at all.
“The only problem I have is not seeing the entire stop. Did the man do something that we do not see in the clip provided that made this cop pull out his gun? Him having his gun trained on the man is not proper procedure either, unless the man had given him good reason to.”
The main thing we don’t see, that the cop DID see, was what came back on the guy’s record when the plate was run before the stop. He very well may have had good reason to be nervous about the driver.
I believe you are correct. I also suspect that's not quite how Joe Q Public sees it...they see cops treating everyone as criminals.
That's why so many who in the past reflexively gave the benefit of the doubt to LEOs no longer do...in fact, the opposite.