There’s no evidence that he was too scared and nervous. He sounded completely calm on the video. What you are reacting to is my statement that these cops have a problem on their hands with these people. They are damned if they do, damned if they don’t. If this guy had hit and killed a mom and child, everyone would be up in arms as to why he wasn’t in jail years ago. Having lived on the edge of inner cities most of my adult life, perhaps I have more sympathy towards cops than most people here.
Right up to the point where he shot him.
What you are reacting to is my statement that these cops have a problem on their hands with these people.
Those people have rights too.
If this guy had hit and killed a mom and child, everyone would be up in arms as to why he wasn’t in jail years ago.
But he didn't, did he? He hadn't in the past and there is no reason to assume he was hell-bent to run over a mom and child in the future. He just a man with a less-than-savory past who did something dumb like try and drive away. That does not justify shooting him for it. Whatever happened to the concept that deadly force should be the last resort, not the first? That it should be used only when the officer or bystanders is in danger of serious injury or death, not just because the officer was startled? There was no justification in this, and one has to assume the officers on the scene knew there wasn't. Otherwise why would they falsify their reports and cook up the story about him being dragged by the car? Why do you want to make the officer out to be the innocent party here? And DuBose the guilty party?
Having lived on the edge of inner cities most of my adult life, perhaps I have more sympathy towards cops than most people here.
I know a lot of police officers. I live in a rural county and have played in church softball leagues with probably half of them. They're all great guys who all do a difficult job for not a whole lot of money, and they do it well. They do a job that I freely admit would not be a good candidate for. That job comes with a lot of authority, but also a lot of responsibility. The responsibility not to abuse that authority. The responsibility to follow proper procedures. This officer abused his position. He shot a man. He violated every procedure for the use of deadly force in the book. And afterwards he and his friends tried to lie their way out of it. They are not the typical cops out there doing a good job, day after day. They are instead an insult to those cops and are not fit to be placed in the same category as the good ones. And if you cannot see that, if you cannot see that there is difference between what is right and what is wrong that needs to apply even to police officers, then I honestly don't know what kind of world you want to live in.