I’m not saying I would have hired Philando to manage my 401k or to remove my appendix, but there is no evidence he was a bad citizen.
The accusations that Philando was a “thug” and a felon are not based on objectivity and tainted with bias.
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Timpanagos1 sums it up pretty well here. Those that keep saying it is good to have him off the streets have a real bias problem. This was a decent citizen, not great citizen, I don't know why he couldn't keep a drivers license.
The cop made a mistake. It is a mistake perhaps other cops would have made too. What I don't understand is why so many people think it was OK to kill him just because he had a gun. He had every right to have the gun. I want to say this again, he had every right to have his gun, even to have it concealed. I personally believe he was shot because a nervous cop saw the gun and wanted to make sure he was able to go home that night when he got off work so he neutralized the threat, except it wasn't a threat except in the mind of the cop.
Now was the dead guy a dead ringer for someone who held up a store? Probably not but he was black and so was the robber. He did not have on any of the same clothes, his hair did not match the description, oh, he did have a broad nose. Well most blacks do have a broad nose.
I am upset that this guy is dead. I carry and can see something like that happening to me. So far I have been careful enough to have my hands where the LEO can see them and I already have my papers out in sight before the LEO comes to the car. There is no requirement for me to have my hands in plain sight or my papers ready, I just am nervous about getting shot for having a gun.
No matter what happened here IT WAS A BAD SHOOT! The cop should not have shot and if he could have a do over I'm sure he wouldn't. We don't get do overs and this cop in that instant thought he needed to shoot, HE WAS WRONG. Stuff happens. In this situation the cop made a mistake that cost a man his life and a LEO his vocation. It is sad all around, trying to make the dead guy look bad won't fix it.
I hope all CCW permit holders have learned a lesson from this screw up. I hope all LEO’s who see this learn a lesson too. You see just because a lot of people are bad it is not an excuse to treat everybody as bad. Just because you see a lot of inner city black youth that need a good killin does not mean that every black person you see deserves to die and I see that over and over again in this thread.
I wish this had never happened, whatever the baby mama gets from the city will not bring her baby daddy back.
B.S.! His hair, clothing, glasses and other features most certainly DID match the robber’s.