Video Footage Shows Dallas Police Fatally Shooting Mentally Ill Man

Damn... I don't know what's worst... The senseless execution or the disgusting conversation at the end.

 

Cops are p*****s. Always having to resort to lethal force for situations where deescalation or stepping back a bit would have taken just an ounce of courage that I would think majority of humans would have. A screw driver has no ****ing range. Step back a bit if you think a dude is taking a couple steps towards you with screw driver. As a former grunt I can attest that many of us infantry personal coveted our chance at our first kill. I wouldn't be surprised if many cops have the same desire for the "first kill" or the first time they discharge their weapon. It's a way for them to say "been there done that". I understand the mentality. Difference is I wasn't policing a civilian populace and was engaging groups of individuals with small arms and crew served weapons who used hidden explosives to deter us.

 

You don't back pedal when deadly force is being applied by someone; mentally ill or not. Jesus Christ...it didn't take but two posts to go full blown Monday am QB.

We don't know what the 911 caller said. We do know a guy with a deadly weapon came toward two officers (or at least one of them) with a weapon. ANYTHING else except deadly force and you don't care about going home at night. You will be deemed incompetent, and probably terminated for being a liability.

There's a garage door and a car in the way. Are you supposed to back pedal, hope you don't trip and drop your weapon and try to get away from him? Give me a break. Tase him? Maybe but bringing a taser to a deadly force encounter is dangerous and you're a liability.

 

What was wrong with the conversation at the end? It is a shame that a scum bag attorney (when the family sues) is going to analyze the video at leisure and make the officers out to be some kind of monsters, taking anything (everything) they say out of context, having likely never been in a nerve racking situation himself.

 

A freaking screw driver. Basically, if the guy has anything in his hands it's a deadly force encounter. That's how cops are trained to speak. Tip toeing through jargon that most people would say is bullcrap. The legal standard for police killing people is way too low, that's why cops rarely if ever get indicted.

 

Do they not have tasers? The guy's mom walks out of the house all calm and nonchalent like "this again", but then they kill her son. Why have the guns drawn out and not just a taser for a mentally ill person who already has a history?

 

In what situations do police use non-lethal force? Is there variation by department?

Also, I just don't think I'd ever call the cops on someone I care about who's ill or drunk unless I'm willing to accept the distinct possibility that he/she can be shot by the cops. I'm only calling if I think my life is threatened and it requires cops who don't seem to be great at deescalation (I'm sure many are, but the opposite happens too often).

 

A ****ing car behind them? Back pedal and trip and drop your weapon? You seriously have some low expectations for our law enforcement. Really that is your excuse? "Bringing a taser to a deadly force encounter is dangerous"... You are just making up assertions that make zero sense. Tasing an individual waving a screw driver would still be excessive force in my opinion. What happened to deescalation by conversation? Modern law enforcement only understands yelling commands. When someone is mentally handicapped, calmly speaking to them will be more effective then shouting commands that will only frighten him.

Modern day law enforcement deescalation training is absolutely pathetic. Infantry personal who engage armed combatants have a better understanding of deescalation. Pathetic.

Oh... And it's really convenient the cam doesn't directly point at the individual with the screw driver when they execute him.
It's pathetic that the ROE for infantry battalions in Afghanistan had more stringent guidelines on when to use lethal force than many law enforcement departments in the U.S.

 

Thank you sir for pointing out your police training sucks.

 

"don't bring a taser to a screwdriver fight" ... just when you thought bobbythegreat had already exhausted every excuse in the book ... this guy shows up.

 

It might be pathetic, but it's certainly not surprising. It's a fair argument to say that the military has better situational combat training than local police which is subject to the variations in quality. The military is more scrutinized by the public (or arguably has been). There is also from society a higher accepted fatality rate in the military than in the police...just an unsubstantiated by stats observation, but that's what I see. You combine those factors of being under a microscope and the higher perceived risk of the job, then I can easily see why the training would be more strict and the troops would be more disciplined and more calm in situations of high stress.

 

Just quit typing. I have been patrolling night shift in a suburb of houston for almost ten years. I have a clear grasp of chapter 9 of the penal code. You come at me with deadly force, I'm going home at night. Luckily the DAs understand this concept and officers can defend theirself. I'm not paid to try and figure out how to get myself out of a use of force situation. I'm not gonna negotiate with someone inside of ten feet of me with a weapon. Action is quicker than reaction, EVERY SINGLE TIME.

 

yup... no ounce of courage.

 

Quoted for posterity. Also the entire sequence of events from door opening to shooting took place in 12 seconds. That is absolutely ridiculous. Even Judge Dread required more time for sentencing.

 

Deadly weapon:



Not a deadly weapon:



This is a perfect example of when the police should be required to use a taser or other nonlethal force. While it is certainly possible for the man to have done some damage with the screwdriver, it is highly unlikely it would have even gone through the officer's vest (I assume they were wearing them), much less killed him. This fatality was the result of the "shoot with deadly force first" mentality that our police forces seem to have in this country.

Shot for holding a screwdriver.

 

Apparently, according to a poster in this thread, this qualifies as a "deadly force encounter..."

 

*Dredd

 

So outside the realm of writing traffic tickets you're F'n useless. You're not a police officer... You're a meter maid.

And check out how many times they shot him. After the 1st shot the victim was already falling away from the cop but yet the cop kept squeezing the trigger... That was an assassination.

 

Exactly... I thought officers were here to protect and serve and I thought part of that entailed deselecting threatening situations.