You can hear wind on the audio. The camera might have been able to pick up more than the officer’s could.
I’m entirely willing to consider that the officer might have used poor judgment, even that he is lying after the fact.
But I don’t see why we can’t let the investigations play out, and even if we THINK someone is guilty or innocent, we qualify that with the caveat that there is yet to be a proper investigation.
I sat on a jury once, and our instructions were not to talk about the case until deliberations, and not to arrive at any final judgments until we heard ALL the evidence.
I’m UTTERLY amazed and really disturbed by the fact that we are rapidly becoming a lynch mob society, casually and lazily drawing conclusions about people’s guilt or innocence. Often someone, even here, won’t read a whole story, or follow up on obvious questions, yet they have no problem pronouncing someone’s guilt.
God says He hates that, that He hates both the innocent being improperly convicted and the guilty being allowed to go free.
This leaping to judgments is really a huge problem. And I apologize if it seems I’m directing this all at you, or if it seems like I’m forgetting your concerns that apparently someone unarmed and just lying there on the ground, hands up, was shot. I’m glad you care.
But understand, there are truly many people in this country who don’t care about facts. They are going for how to get power for themselves, and ruthlessly using these cases, whatever the facts may be, to help get that power, is all they care about.
I just posted the other day about CNN apparently altering the Alton Sterling video. It appears it moved up the sound of the gunshots. There is no doubt that the first three gunshots in their version are in a different spot in the video.
They probably played this video over and over on t.v., and no wonder many people thought the officer who wasn’t on top of Sterling shot him in cold blood - which caused so much outrage, that this was an “execution.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3450819/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3450819/posts?page=14#14 (A photo three screenshots - one from CNN, one from CBS, and one from the Young Turks. In each case, I stopped the video right when I heard the third gun shot. All three images should be about the same, but while the CBS and YT videos align, the CNN one does not).
What about the conduct of whoever tampered with the video that way - knowingly, deliberately, with ample time to consider their decision, and doing so apparently to cause unrest and conflict?
You are correct.
Wht hurts me on all levels -
1. My dad was a cop and I know how much ‘bad’ cops made his job more difficult.
2. My mother was a teacher for the disabled and I worked as a therapist in a group home. Some of the behavior is bizarre and society must figure out a way to deal with it.
3. My son was a T1 Diabetic and, when he went low, he went insane. Our local PD knew him and were so loving and good to him. They managed his crashes and saved his life. That’s what I’ve come to expect from great cops.
I really do get that cops are called to cope with so much more than the average person. But, once it’s explained, the cops need to use judgement. Shooting is the *last* resort.
In the end, the public needs to trust their police force. It’s vital. They need to know that our cops are wise and restrained. They need to trust the police.
We can’t have that if an informed officer still shoots.
My dad never fired his weapon on duty. Not once. It was an odd situation when it did happen.
Now cops shoot dogs and people every day. In the 70’s, the cops were trained to deal with dogs and trained to deal with the disabled. Cops hesitated.
So much of this depends on where the cop is operating. Our small town is pretty tame. Chicago is a war zone. So we can’t judge all cops by each incident.
But we’ve got to admit when it’s a shoot that reflects on every other officer in the nation. This shoot was NOT good, by any measure.
Yes. We’ve got to wait for the facts to come in, but if there’s any stink on this investigation, it only empowers the left. That is bad for all officers.