Posted on 12/17/2010 9:51:53 PM PST by Orange1998
A dash cam video from the officer who shot and killed Native American woodcarver John T. Williams was released Friday, showing Williams ambling slowly across the street in a crosswalk before the officer opens fire.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=956_1292627716
(Excerpt) Read more at liveleak.com ...
All the action from the video is off-camera. We only had the audio of the shooting.
FYI: Birk's badge was later pulled after a Seattle Police Department Review Board and Chief John Diaz reached a preliminary finding that Williams' shooting was not justified.
They have made a judgment. Meanwhile, you are free to wait as long as you need.
the cop cant justify being threatened when he knew the guy had a knife and he himself put himself within a range that he felt was threatening.
It is complete BS
“It sounds like assassination as you describe it doesn’t it?”
Only important people get assassinated. Regular folk just get murdered.
That said, this guy was a known drunk with violent tendencies. Whether that justified the cop’s actions is another matter.
And Earlier DIAZ attempted to justify it.
Sorry. I was backtracking all the way back to #22 and when I jumped back on my browser I landed on your post and didn't read it carefully enough. As you can see from my post, I was trying to point out that the link said 'side', not 'back'.
Yeah, I understand what you are saying here. It is theoretically possible, of course, but it doesn’t jive when coupled with the other evidence.
If I were to be a cop, I would go to school on this one: When a citizen is just walking down the street, and they are not disobeying any laws, leave them the f*** alone. Allow them a little dignity. Also, when someone IS carrying a knife and you are threatening them, stand at least 9 feet away (as is claimed this guy was) so they have to throw the thing to hit you.
And maybe one warning shot would be a good start.
Honestly, what makes me the most angry about this video is that a police officer was harrassing a private citizen in his day to day life, with no justification whatsoever. AND the cop ended up shooting him.
I keep losing more and more respect for cops. I’ve observed them in Chicago and consider them to be just plain thugs.
Cop yells order to deaf guy minding his own buisiness. Failute to comply. Blam! Blam!
Did this cop have a previous run in with the carver? The carver had had other run ins with cops and had been described as violent when drunk and had previously threatened cops. This is not meant say that he was at this time but that to this cop he may not have just been a stranger on the street.
Of course he did. They all do, initially. That's their job. But once discovery is made to the contrary, then they should accept the light of day. Some do, and some don't. In this case, Diaz did.
Williams was no angel, but at least he wasn’t a murderer.
This whole scenario is inexcusable.
Yup.
Source? Was it Diaz? Was it the public info officer? Was it contrived?
Your sentence is a mess - there was no 'drunk guy with a knife in his back"
geeeze -
From the video, he didn't appear drunk at all- just walking down the street carving on a piece of wood - which is how he made his living...he was a 7th generation carver
He was known to drink, but didn't look under the influence at this time.
He was deaf in one ear, was being approached from his back and by the time he may have heard enough to think maybe he was the one the man - did he even know it was a cop?- was yelling at him, started to turn and bang bang bang bang - he's dead.
that was no 'officer' - that was punk who should never have been given a badge and a gun.
You're right! He never identified himself as the police...another strike
The guy defiantly liked the sauce, He ****ed a guy up once in his 50 years throwing him through a glass window.
He has a long record of exposing himself in public, but for all I know that just means he was taking a pee.
I saw nothing of threats to cops.
Damn murderer! I used to be a cop supporter. No more. Too many out-of-control cops out there. They are no longer your friend. This cop needs to die, but he’ll get a pass.
A photo of the knife recovered by police show the blade is 3-inches -- a knife that is legal to carry in Seattle.Seattle Municipal Code states that it's unlawful for a person knowingly to "carry concealed or unconcealed on his or her person any dangerous knife, or carry concealed on his or her person any deadly weapon other than a firearm ...."
The code states "a dangerous knife means any fixed-blade knife and any other knife having a blade more than three and one-half inches (3 1/2") in length," though there are exceptions.
Any blade that could cause a lethal injury would be considered a deadly weapon, and the 3-inch knife Williams had was definitely capable of causing a lethal injury, Diaz said Tuesday.
"I don't think any one of us would feel comfortable having somebody come up to us with an open blade," Diaz said.
That law is idiotic and Diaz is a moron.
>>You are spreading disinformation about the officer shooting the drunk guy with the knife in his back.<<
You are correct. I got it from the video in post 22. All they REALLY said was that Williams was not facing the officer when he was shot.
This video only condemns the cop. It shows that the guy was doing nothing wrong, yet the cop felt that he could harass a citizen. And the timing of the event makes it look even worse. And then add that to the announcement that he was not facing the cop when he was shot and the whole thing looks like murder.
And it all started with an un-necessary stop that never would have happened in the first place, if the cop had not been a Brownshirt. Are these guys not trained to know that it is always very stressful for people when they are singled out by the cops, so the cops should only do it when justified?
And now this cop will pay the price for it.
OK. So what?
Read post 133 and 136.
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