Posted on 12/15/2016 5:26:32 AM PST by jiggyboy
Slightly after midnight on Monday, police in Bakersfield, Calif., received a call concerning a man thought to be brandishing a weapon in a residential neighborhood.
Shortly after police arrived, 73-year-old Francisco Serna - who family members said was suffering from the early stages of dementia - walked out of his home and into his driveway. When Serna, who was unarmed, did not comply with officers' orders to remove his hands from his jacket pocket, one officer fired seven shots at him, killing him.
-- snip --
The 911 call came from a household on the block where Serna resided. A woman who lived there arrived home just after midnight. She was unpacking the car when Serna approached her.
Serna asked why she was at her house, according to Martin, and then asked if he could get into the car. Throughout this conversation, Serna kept one hand in his pocket.
The woman noticed a black- or brown-handled object sticking out of hispocket that she took to be a gun. She rushed inside and told her boyfriend, who called the police.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Here is a news report of the incident. It is at about the 45 second mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJPOr57UgRs
Do I know it is dementia, someone tripping, someone just being an ass or out to inflict harm upon me and others? All I have is the initial call and I have to asses the situation when I get there. Again am I supposed to be superman and recognize and know every detail when I roll up on a call? If you think this is logical you have been watching too much television.
If you are a cop and you let someone you don’t know and who has not been searched with their hand in their pocket within 20 ft. of you through out your career a good percentage of the time you will probably walk away, but eventually someone is going to put a blade in you or shoot you at point blank range.
If I want to do a strong armed robbery of you and you don’t know me from adam’s cat and you let me get within 10 feet of you with a good knife I will be on you before you draw your gun and you are at my mercy 99 times out of 100. If you want to take that chance with your life go for it. But you don’t have the right to demand every one else does, including police officers.
If his hand is in his pocket and he is closing in on you and refusing to obey your commands what would you do? If you know anything about self-defense if you let someone with a knife within 20ft. of you they can be on you within a couple of seconds or less.
We were not there and do not know what happened but from the articles it appears the man was belligerent and would not remove his hand from his pocket. Had it been a drug dealer with a knife or pistol in his pocket you would be cheering one less lowlife in society. Had he pulled a gun and shot a cop you would be wailing how sad you were for the officers widow and kids. This was a tragedy where it sounds like a lot of things went into the mix to create this outcome. As I said the only thing I question is why 7 rds. were fired to stop the man.
If you read my post I noted there was a question as to why 7rds were fired.
You are looking at this from a all police are evil stand point and I am looking at it from the article which is clearly not a pro-police piece. I want to hear both sides of the story. There are times when the cops screw up and clearly need to be prosecuted, from the articles this is not one of them.
If you were an officer and you had a call of a man with a gun, the witness who made the call points him out, you make contact and he starts walking toward you with his hand in his pocket, he is belligerent and will not follow your commands and if clearly closing the distance and coming toward you.
What are you going to do? You have only a few seconds to decide, what are you going to do? Are you going to do the BS shoot him in the hand Hollywood crap or wing him in the leg? If you deploy your taser it may or may not take him down, they do not do so 100% of the time. Do you physically attack the man? If he has a knife you are going to the hospital at the very least or the morgue at the worst. Remember if you choose wrong you may not go home. Choose wisely.
Nobody made you be a cop. It shouldn’t be a license to kill everyone in sight just to make your job stress-free.
Funny; I was gonna say, if you choose wrong, an innocent citizen dies. Silly me. It's really all about what's good for the cop, isn't it?
Yup. It's all about perspective.
You are correct in that the visual was disgusting. I did intend it to be so.
This kind of jumping to conclusions of guilt by cops has gotten real popular since the Fergusson “Hands Up! Don’t Shoot!” lie invented by destructionists and propagated by the media.
There have been many such stories since and, by and large, they turn out to be bs spun by the media to perpetuate that narrative in support of the destructionists.
Take another look at that article, please. Go over the details, what very very few there are. Then go back over the comments where people are knee jerking into the assumption that the cop was out of control, stupid, scared, whatever. Look at how much is invented by those commenters to fill in the near complete lack of detail in the report.
Now consider the constant pounding of the propaganda drum on this issue by a media that we know, without doubt, lies through its teeth all the time on all the issues.
I will be honest and say that I hold such persons as either at worst, belonging heart mind and soul to the enemy, or at best, useful idiots for the enemy and thereby force multipliers for same.
Also, please take a good long think on how many cops have been executed or assassinated since this BLM and such started, and how many more such things are likely to take place as more and more people do get on their knees to suck at that propaganda pipe.
And, what will be the end game of that?
Keep in mind that war has been declared against us by the destructionist domestic enemy. It is a non-metaphorical war and it is for everything of value and worth. It only gets worse from here on out until one side or the other is vanquished.
Finally, if I overstepped, notify an admin. If I’ve transgressed, I’ll take my lumps.
No, I am curious about the taser issue as well. And what you’re referring to is known as the reactionary gap.
CC
Sorry you want to go the BLM route and do the cop hate thing. I am by no means saying all actions of cops are correct and in some cases they should be prosecuted and absolutely held to the law but to blindly hate the police is just stupid. I get angry when officers do stupid and in some cases illegal acts.
The officer who blatantly shot the suspect in the back while running away deserves the murder charges he is getting. However there was no indication of malice or pretense of murder in this case it seems, even though you want there to be to fit your cop bashing agenda.
This whole event looks to be a series of events which culminated in an officer using deadly force. Take any one of these events out of the mix and maybe no one gets hurt.
As I said if this guy had shot an officer because he didn’t follow commands you would be pissing and moaning about the poor officers widow and kids but from your responses I suspect you wouldn’t even do that.
I would think the taser should have been deployed but we weren’t there to gauge the behavior of the man in his interaction with the officers. Video or audio of this event would answer lots of questions.
So who is “blindly hating” here? Don’t try that BS with me. The blindness is with those reflexively throwing wild and incoherent accusations as soon as their sacred cow is criticized. That would be you.
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