I thought it looked as though he was opening his coat to show them he was unarmed.
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Perhaps he was, but that’s one thing a person shouldn’t do in that situation. Also a person shouldn’t put themselves in that situation. He had plenty of opportunity to avoid it.
It is a bad idea. Unless there’s audio, a lawyer could posit that he was asked to open his coat. That’s getting into tinfoil hat territory though.
[[Also a person shouldn’t put themselves in that situation. He had plenty of opportunity to avoid it.]]
the fighters of the revolution “had plenty of opportunity to avoid it” too, the civil war and many insurrections against tyrannical government- they could have sat home and not gotten involved and been nice and cozy safe in their warm comfortable homes too- but instead, they believed in a movement and gave their lives for it- while the majority of people sat by and did nothing- and we have the nation we have today because of brave people like Finicum and those standing with him who feel that government has gone too far- and we just saw a perfect example that by golly the group was right- Our government has gone too far and shot down a man who had his hands in the freakin air— There was a better way to handle this situation than to shoot a man who is surrendering in the back-
You wouldn’t lower your arms for any legitimate reason if you were in that position. He didn’t anticipate the LEO behind him and though he could get the jump on the LEOs in front of him.