[DoughtyOne]

Did the officers observe the boy on the approach? Yes.

Oh really? Is that what police training consists of - "when faced with a possible gunman, drive directly towards him and observe him on approach. Drive to within a couple of feet and shoot him, because hey, you've got a possible gunman a couple of feet away from you, so now you're in danger." What a crock!

Do you know where the boy was reported to be, how much further the officers may have thought they needed to go to approach him?  Do you know if they came upon him sooner than they expected?  Do you know how wide the street was?  Do you know if they had to avoid oncoming traffic?  There could easily be a number of contributing factors here.  Perhaps they didn't intend to come up on the kid that close either.

This didn’t merely happen in a second or two. He faced the officer with what looked like a weapon. Who is really to blame?

The officers drove right up to him, and so made him face them with whatever it was that was in his hand. It was a toy. But the officers, having put themselves into potentially lethal danger by approaching so closely with no cover, decided to shoot him because they felt threatened by the proximity they alone created, over the supsicion they alone had, which was wrong.

Once again, this arm-chair quarterbacking is not really productive.  There are some things that have a bearing on how they pulled up to the kid that we just don't know.  What I do know is that if there is a determination to be made, there is a group of people here who will always look for some way to cast the police in the worst light possible.

I'm not one of them.  I make no appologies for it.

[Talisker]

What I do know is that if there is a determination to be made, there is a group of people here who will always look for some way to cast the police in the worst light possible.

And there are some people who will forgive them anything - which is exactly why they feel free to do anything.

This country is based on the idea of civilian control - not military. Cops are becoming militarized and claiming absolute power of instant execution. That is not America, and supporting is is not American. Soldiers put their lives in harm's way in order to protect the rights of Americans. Police kill Americans if they feel endangered and have as their SOLE object being going home safe at night. They are NOT the same.

So when the police become militarized, they are not the military, don't behave as the military, have not committed to the risks and sacrifices of the military and have absolutely NO intention of any military level of bravery. Treating them, therefore, as the military is WRONG. They are ARMED BUREAUCRATS. And they will be the first to invoke any and every bureaucratic reason NOT to get involved in helping anyone. It's a job they intend surviving to get their pension, no matter who they have to kill to do it - THAT'S IT.

But - fine. Okay, they're armed bureaucrats. But what police work USED to be is getting backup, and using negotiators, and keeping things calm. These days that's out the window. It's confront, exacerbate, intensify the situation, wait until someone breaks and then unload on them - and not once or twice to stop the threat, but redefining threat as life itself, and emptying magazines completely as a matter of policy. Or using SWAT teams for, of all things, warrants, and even administrative warrants with zero expectation of any threats. It's gotten completely nuts out there. And it unneccessarily endangers cops.

Of course (and thank God), most cops do NOT go looking to hurt people, and a many are actually, genuinely service-oriented towards their communities and take a lot of sh*t while doing so. Neertheless, they are ALL bound to an ABSOLUTE Code of Silence that is MEANT to subvert the law and protect the guilty. And there ARE bad cops, and as a result they do NOT get punished - EVER, NEVER, EVER. No way, Jose. NotGonnaHappen.

And if that's not enough, their Rules of Engagement against Americans are FAR more easily and immediately lethal than the ROEs of our own troops against our country's enemies in time of war. And that is a crime in itself.

It's a real problem, and one that the Democrats are literally bragging about exploiting while crying crocodile tears for the dead thugs who SHOULD have been shot, while excusing ACTUAL police brutality cases when they arise, thereby totally confusing rightful and wrongful shootings. That's why we need independant civilian review of police shootings, and deny internal reviews as final authorities. Otherwise this problems is just going to keep getting worse, right up to catastrophe. Because the goal of the Rats is not a crazy police force - it's to use them to incite riots and ultimately martial law, as you can see from the media exploitation of Ferguson.

WAKE UP.