Police shoot, kill man

Press Enterprise (Bloomsburg, PA) ^ | 8/22/2003 | Susan Schwartz

[toomuchcoffee]

"Everybody knows the cops would gun down a baby with a pacifier if the baby threatened them with it. Our brave heroes"

Yeah, those cops just drive around looking for some guy, raking his lawn, to shoot down. After this shooting, the cop probably cruised down the street looking for some schoolkids on bikes that he could run down. With all due respect, if you are serious, you, and all of the other cop bashers on this thread, are idiots.

[Dead Corpse]

People need to learn to obey authority.

You've gotta be frigging kidding me! You can't be serious.

[Centurion2000]

No seems to be denying he was swinging a weapon at the cops. That is enough to shoot him right there.

Bullshi'ite .... if you shoot your neighbor for swinging a rake I GUARANTEE you the DA will have you up on charges. These cops are weaklings and protected by law.

[americafirst]

Well, that's it then. Had to kill the guy. Now I understand. Thanks on behalf of us ignorant posters.

[BlackbirdSST]

People need to learn to obey authority. You've gotta be frigging kidding me! You can't be serious.

He's dead serious! Check out some of the Ashcroft love threads. Blackbird.

[Centurion2000]

People need to learn to obey authority.

Local police in rural areas cannot afford tasers, bean-bag guns, etc

This has to be the most asinine statement on FR I have seen in a long time. As far as matching a gun to a rake, EVER HEARD OF A NIGHTSTICK ???? They're cheap enough for a rural police department to have a less than lethal force weapon at every cop's side.

And f$%^ the authorities on stuff like this if the cops are going to act the way this one did.

[LibWhacker]

OMG, you're right! Very careless of me. Let me rephrase that:

Everybody knows the cops would gun down a little scrawny guy with a rake if the little scrawny guy with a rake threatened them with it. Our brave heroes.

Better?

[hopespringseternal]

Well, that's it then. Had to kill the guy. Now I understand. Thanks on behalf of us ignorant posters.

Whaaa! Reality intrudes. Care to make a rational comment and debate the facts, or is whining and juvenile sarcasm more your thing?

[toomuchcoffee]

Better?? How do you figure that? So, you only want cops to gun down guys that are 6'4", 250 lbs? I'm only 5'4" but I can kill with a rake if I choose to. Very sharp, pointy things and if I can get inside someone's defense zone, I can do some nice damage. And yes, our brave heros. I wouldn't like to think of my street without some police protection.

[marktwain]

From "three steps" away? If you can't hit someone in a lower extremity from that close, you don't deserve to be carrying a firearm. Period.

Dead, I often agree with you, but you are wrong here. If a person is justified to shoot, they are justified to use deadly force, and there is always a reasonable chance of death resulting. Shooting for an extremity is a good way to get yourself killed or injured. I counsel people to consider shooting for the pelvic girdle if the threat is using a contact weapon, not because it is less likely to be fatal, but because it is more likely to remove them as a threat before they severely injore or kill someone.

You know that I am not a police uber allis type from my past posts, but this article was clearly written to sensationalise the shoot.

I don't think we have enough information to decide if it was justified or not.

[LibWhacker]

I'm only 5'4" but I can kill with a rake if I choose to.

LOL, okay, Terminator. If you say so. But what's a scary guy like you doing condoning a cowardly murder?

The cops I know and respect would've subdued him with their bare hands and at most would've had no more to show for it than a couple of scrapes and bruises.

[toomuchcoffee]

I'm a scary 62 year old great grandma with a cop daughter. I don't condone cowardly murders. I like live, undamaged cops. The cops *I* know and respect would use their judgement in the situation and hopefully, come out unscathed.

[Hacksaw]

Bullshi'ite .... if you shoot your neighbor for swinging a rake I GUARANTEE you the DA will have you up on charges. These cops are weaklings and protected by law.

A garden rake (since you don't seem to know what one is) is a rake with a straight row of thick metal points. it is used for breaking up soil and raking out rocks. You can seriously injure (or kill) someone with one if you swing it at them hard enough. If I have a gun and someone is attacking me with one, I would defend myself.

[Durus]

Maybe it was one of those "assault rakes"

[adx]

Agreed. If this was one of those plastic rakes (for raking leaves and stuff), I'd be hesitant to call it a good shoot, but a garden rake with metal tines being weilded by someone within 20 feet of you is a deadly weapon.

[Dead Corpse]

I agree that there are inconsistancies in the article. We've definately seen better. However, we have also seen an increase in the "shoot first, ask questions later" attitude of local law enforcement agencies across the country. From "three steps away", you could walked up and punched this guy in the head before he raised his rake more than a foot.

The rake guy didn't exactly sound like a pillar of the community, but did he deserve a double-tap to center mass?

[Erik Latranyi]

"And f$%^ the authorities on stuff like this if the cops are going to act the way this one did. "

Yeah, trying to stop a moron from killing his wife after she got a restraining order is really stepping over the line.

Your mentality is what leads the police to act like jerks. Hope you don't have kids that will learn your respect for the law.

[toomuchcoffee]

He deserved whatever it took to protect the threatened. If he was determined to hit someone with a potentially lethal weapon and would not quit, then okay, whatever... Agreed that this was really poor reporting, but that's to be expected.

[LibWhacker]

Well, since you brought it up, I'm sure your daughter would've gunned him down. She would've had no choice, would she (what is she, about 5'1" and 150lbs?)? That's the problem with having women and girly men in the police department.

Guys like these two give cops a bad name.

[Bon mots]

Someone three steps away from you swinging one of these at your head in a rage...

If it's true, I would have shot him. Once this guy initiated violence, expect violence in return. And you KNOW what happens when you bring a rake to a gunfight.