Posted on 09/23/2016 7:29:56 AM PDT by rktman
Amid a climate of confusion and anger, retired police officer Jeff Roorda lent his pro-police perspective to CNN’s analysis of the shooting of Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
While video footage shows Crutcher with his hands up only seconds before Officer Betty Shelby fired the fatal shot, Roorda cautioned against rushing to condemn the officer, particularly given what already is known about the suspect.
“Let’s wait for all the information before we reach some judgment,” Roorda told host Don Lemon during a Tuesday appearance on CNN Tonight. “And I think what we know so far is that this gentleman did not have his hands up when the officer shot him. We know that he was very likely under the influence of a controlled substance.”
In case developments on Thursday, the officer was charged with first-degree manslaughter.
District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler filed the charges Shelby, 42, and her lawyer was arranging for her to surrender.
Lemon noted that until autopsy results are released, it won’t be known if Crutcher was under the influence, but Roorda warned against drawing hasty conclusions anyway.
“We’re fine with rushing to judgment on the police officer, but we don’t want to rush to judgment on the suspect,” Roorda chided. “But they did find PCP in his car.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
Please tell me you are not assuming that nothing at all happened in the 60 seconds prior to the video starting, and that it would be normal for the police to have a drawn weapon on a motorist with JUST a disabled vehicle.
.
I have watched the raw footage of the incident. The thing that I noted was that the officer on the left says a tazer was fired. Then the female officer shoots. This gave me pause after I found out she had just recently gone through a particular type of training. There are questions about the female officer in regards to time of service and had she ever been in a situation like this before. I am surmising that when the tazer went off the female officer was caught off guard and panic set in. She instinctively pulled the trigger without really thinking because she was in a high state of anxiousness actually due to her recent training and never encountering something like this before. I honestly believe that her pulling the trigger was a very tragic mistake and something she will have to live with for the rest of her life.
I came to this conclusion right before I sat down at a bar to have an enjoyable meal at a local restaurant. These two guys came up to the bar and sat down next to me. I overheard their conversation and interjected. They almost came to fist-a-cuffs with me over it. They were white. The one guy said he didn’t have time to view some stupid video on youtube and only listened to the media’s reports. They kept saying how could the guy in the helicopter know he looked like one bad dude. I tried to explain there was more to the story than the biased media. The son told me he was going to kick my behind. I laughed and ended the conversation.
The “I don’t have time like you to watch the video” stuck in my head so I gave him a few choice words that began to escalate the situation again. I told him to take his Jesus book away and run along. I wanted to gauge his reaction from this. He told me the only reason he had it at the bar was because his brother passed away and he was creating a gravestone for him. I apologized for his loss and that seemed to calm things down.
I sat there finished my meal and nursed my beer as they kept talking. I listened intently. They kept saying they didn’t want to vote for Hitlary or Trump but the POSOTUS was the greatest president. Then their conversation turned to 9/11. That was it for me when they started spouting that 9/11 was an inside job and it was a proven fact that we blew up the building with explosives. They gave all the talking points like the jet fuel was not hot enough to melt the steel etc.
I called for my check and as I was leaving the bartender who knows me really well kept giving them strange looks. My hands were in balled fists at this time. I said to the bartender, “You know I am 100% service-connected disabled veteran right?” I almost continued on with what I was going to say after that about how I had no heartbeat for a few minutes and was temporarily paralyzed so the two stupid idiots next to me could sit here in this bar and be dumb as a box of rocks. They weren’t ignorant they were were plain stupid. Ignorance is curable; stupidity can never be cured. I have been saying that since 96 and I stick by it. These guys were the embodiment of that very saying. Had they accompanied me outside, I more than likely would be sitting in jail right now facing life. Because of my disability I can never have a CCW even though I live alone. However there is more than one way to skin a cat.
“Your trite opinion ignores that hundreds of cops have died when they were incorrect about a person being “without a gun””
Yes, but that is not reason for a cop to shoot someone. If it were, cops could shoot everyone they encounter.
“This 275 pounder 6 foot plus size jackass was high on PCP and could have done anything.”
Could you please post a link the the victim’s toxicology report?
“Despite todays hit movies, he was not someone that a any normal cop would be able to subdue.”
Maybe, but four cops and a tazer should be able to subdue a man with his hands in the air.
I think his name was David Hackworth
You are right. But also the family of the man shot as well as Tulsans in general, are still faith-oriented Christians. There have been and will be more demonstrations, but the family called for non-violence, and people have respected that. Also, we have the recent example of a elderly reserve sheriff’s deputy’s recent conviction for manslaughter and imprisonment for having shot a black man accidentally when he thought he was deploying his tazer during an arrest. That incident resulted in the resignation of the longtime sheriff and major changes in his department. So I would think there might be some confidence in the legal system here by the black community at this point in the process, at least.Nobody sane is happy about what happened in either incident.
I believe the statement was that the victim was reaching into his vehicle for a gun.
I think the prosecutor found that odd as the vehicle’s door was closed and the window was closed.
“Please tell me you are not assuming that nothing at all happened in the 60 seconds prior to the video starting, and that it would be normal for the police to have a drawn weapon on a motorist with JUST a disabled vehicle.”
Sometimes they’re so afraid they don’t even need a motorist to be present when they lose their minds and start shooting in the name of ‘officer safety’.
Sadly, the empty, parked car did not survive the encounter with crazed, irrational police officers.
The amazing lack of information you have, factored by your intransigence in maintaining an uninformed opinion, is simply stunning. The car did not stall, a witness called in that Crutcher abandoned the vehicle, bailing out while yelling that the vehicle was "going to blow"! People who have cars stall will normally attempt to get them to the side of the road or at least not straddling the centerline. There was very little about this encounter that should not have put any officer into a high state of alertness.
The info I have stated above has been available in open press reports in multiple places. You have chosen to be uninformed in order to justify throwing the officer to the wolves. She may yet end up with a guilty verdict but that will be after all the info is presented and that certainly isn't the case right now. Yes, there are lots of factors that point toward a potential bad outcome in this case for the officer but throwing around willfully uninformed opinion does not advance your cause.
Alberta’s Child wrote: “I can’t imagine the Clinton campaign is happy about what is unfolding in Charlotte. This kind of thing will drive a “throw the bums out” mentality among voters faster than $10/gallon gasoline will.”
70% of the ‘demonstrators’ who’ve been arrested have out of state ID implying they were brought in. Soros?
“<...throwing around willfully uninformed opinion does not advance your cause>”
But it seems to be working so well for so much of the rest of society.
Similar but the “errors”, if I may use such an understated term, were quite different.
The Oakland case showed us that the handle and general feel of the Taser was too similar to the service revolver. The officer in that case said he thought he had his Taser in his hand. If that’s the case, then IMO that might be more of an issue of a design flaw of the Taser than of the officer’s action.
If I am reading the details of this shooting correctly, it looks like the officer panicked, shooting reflexively when she heard, well, something.
Thanks! That’s right. Good book. He did wrench his arm out patting himself on the back but I guess that is what one does in an autobiography.
I knew a deputy that was pretty good at getting confessions. They’d put a guy in the small concrete block building where they did interviews, they guy would be scared to death he was about to meet a rubber hose, and the cop would ask the guy if he wanted a snack or a soft drink, and make a pretty big deal of digging change out of his own pocket to buy the guy a candy bar and canned drink from the vending machines that were located in the building.
While good cop/bad cop isn’t a bad tactic, it’s the good cop that will get the confession. And frequently, the bad cop isn’t even needed.
“He could not have reached into the car as the window was closed.”
Could he have reached into his waistband? How did they know he was unarmed???
He was not obeying commands which left the officer in jeopardy. I think it would be reasonable assume on the part of the officer that he was waiting for an opening to attack.
If you look at the video she was by herself up until the final moments leading up to the shooting. She was unable to subdue him safely by herself. He was obviously trying to take advantage of that.
This guy had previous violent encounters with police and long criminal history.
He was shot when he lowered his arms. Are you supposed to let him get off the first shot?
There are questions about the female officer in regards to time of service and had she ever been in a situation like this before. I am surmising that when the tazer went off the female officer was caught off guard and panic set in. She instinctively pulled the trigger without really thinking because she was in a high state of anxiousness actually due to her recent training and never encountering something like this before. I honestly believe that her pulling the trigger was a very tragic mistake and something she will have to live with for the rest of her life.
Most likely she mistook the tazer being deployed as a gun shot, panicked and shot the guy.
“Yes, but that is not reason for a cop to shoot someone. If it were, cops could shoot everyone they encounter.”
I think the cop thought her life was in danger even though evidence indicates that she was not in danger.
It was a dicey situation and I’m glad the cop came out alive.
Hardly.
“think the cop thought her life was in danger even though evidence indicates that she was not in danger.”
Nothing Indicates she thought her life was in danger and the three other police officers did not believe their lives were in danger.
Tulsa is a lovely city populated with good people.
Lived there for several years, still have friends there. Don’t diss it. More of America needs to be like Tulsa.
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