Video Footage Shows Dallas Police Fatally Shooting Mentally Ill Man

Great, I'm glad that you get something out of it.

The officer's life absolutely counts. However they've signed up for a job that can put them at significant risk. It's one of the reason I'm so incredibly appreciative of police officers and the jobs they do. Of course if more cops used lethal violence only as a last resort it might make even more members of our society more appreciative.

The main reason you should have to figure a way out of the situation is that a person's life is at stake and should only ever be taken as an absolute last resort.

Another reason why you should have to figure a way out of a situation without killing someone is that hopefully you aren't so mentally challenged that you believe the only solution to problems is violence.

I'm sure it isn't pleasant. But that's far down on the list of my concerns when weighing the importance of a human life.

 

Someone dig this thread up when officers are no billed. Not sure why I keep opening these kinds of threads, considering the demographics.

 

Personal attacks are conducive to debates, yet you throw personal attacks at the end of your post. He is the one who said he was not smart. Practice what you preach.

Anyway, if a cop gets a call from a mother to a guy who has a history of mental illness, why would they come out with their guns drawn? Do they not see how the mother is acting, can they not properly evaluate the situation? The mentally ill man was not wielding a firearm, there are three cops there, and you're telling me they were right in pulling their firearms first? Even on the show Cops, they taze when a "suspect" who isn't weilding a firearm. They do this in the UK, and there are various examples of it in the US. Instead, these Dallas cops went to the last resort first when they did not have to. You could tell Mom was surprised too.

 

Lol demographics. You mean that we are citizens and not officers? You guys are so brainwashed. Stay safe out there.

 

You think he is bad, go take a visit to the Officers forum. It is downright scary that those folks on there are police officers (most of them).

http://forums.officer.com/

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...deadly-confrontation-dallas-article-1.2153201

Some quotes I pulled about the background and nature of the call. The quotes from the brother and lawyer are spot on, but the police are strangers to the mentally ill man and don't know how to communicate effectively with him. The mom clearly yelled and agitated him, too, which I think contributed to his confused state of mind.

Instead of yelling at him to follow her or listen to the cops, the mom should have stood in front of him to shield him from the cops and got him to drop the screw driver. She understands his state of mind, not the cops.

This was a poorly mishandled situation by the mom, victim, and cops. Hopefully, police departments can use this as a learning experience for how to deal with mentally ill people. Give them space, act calmly and slowly, and maybe have a familiar person try to calm them down.

 

Deadly force is the last resort and maybe they could have done something else. When you have mere moments to act, if you try to take guesses on what the person with the weapon is going to do, it may be the last guess you ever make. Assumptions will get you killed.

These events are highly unfortunate, and I hope I am never faced with this tough decision. Things are getting worse every day (we are up like %200 this year on violent crimes) and there are countless mentally disturbed people all over the place.

 

Wow at trying to put this on the mother.

 

Yep... you now have cops killing innocent/unarmed people every day too.

 

You're right, and I apologize for that. I thought you were correcting him that tasers could and should have been the primary weapon rather than drawing the firearm, then lowering to a taser. I misunderstood your words and edited it out after rereading it. Again, my apologies.

The cops didn't draw their guns until the man came out holding a screwdriver. It was actually two cops according to the news article, I had thought it sounded like there were three. Not that it matters for the debate, just for clarification. Like I've said, the cops don't know any suspect's intentions. You add mentally ill on top of that, plus holding a deadly weapon, and it's a recipe for disaster. I said I wish the cops had tried other methods, but I think the cops are legally allowed to pull their firearms, not that it's right.

 

Oak Cliff. The cops were already on high-alert and that probably contributed to the quick trigger finger.

 

Of course it does. Does a citizen's life matter?

Because it is the job for which they signed up.

It isn't about liberal versus conservative, it is life and death, right and wrong. You are absolutely correct that the suspect created a situation which the police have to get out of, but using nonlethal force before resorting to a firearm doesn't seem like a large hurdle. It seems like a very reasonable response to me.

Agreed, it would certainly be a better situation (particularly in this case) if the officer didn't have to go through all that. IMO, he could have easily avoided it, but chose to shoot first, second, and third.

I'm making the assumption that I'm armed with both a firearm as well as some nonlethal option as well as a bulletproof vest, as it appears the officers in this case were. I would have reached for my nonlethal weapon first, instead of pulling out a firearm when there wasn't a gun, knife, or other ACTUAL "lethal weapon" present. I have extensive training regarding encounters with aggressive opponents (as police officers do, I assume) and would have used a taser and/or pepper spray to subdue the screwdriver wielding person, along with my aforementioned training. I, like the officers in this video, would have gone home at quitting time, but without having taken the life of an obviously mentally ill man.

If the officers had just used contextual clues, like the mother not being irate or scared in any way at all, they could have surmised that the man was at best a minor threat, despite the fact that he had the weapon necessary to build an Ikea dresser in his hand. Instead, they shot first and a man is dead, a man who likely didn't understand the instructions given in the time given to him to do so.

 

This is kind of the point. Police officers are trained to go to deadly force first, treating a man armed with a screwdriver with the same level of force they would use against a man with a gun or knife. The training needs to change, if this is the case.

 

Mom didn't appear concerned in the least. Contextual clues are everything, unless you're a cop, apparently.

 

There is almost no doubt they will be no billed. Again, this is kind of the point.

 

I'm not sure what you are seeing, but everything looks pretty calm until the mentally ill man shows up holding the screwdriver and starts twiddling it in his hands? The one police officer who knocks on the door doesn't appear to have a gun drawn at all and they do back away from the door giving some distance. Maybe they didn't give enough distance, but it didn't seem like they were necessarily crowding the door either.

The Mom also does not seem to have any reaction when she opens the door and walks past the cops. I feel like she would have had some sort of reaction if their guns were already out. You can also see a quick motion from both officers about a second after the Mom walks past, which I would guess is both police officers drawing their weapons when they notice the screwdriver.

Can you tell me what indicates to you they had their gun drawn from the outset? It looks to me like they were surprised by the situation. A transcript of the 911 call may help explain the information they had available to them..

I'm definitely not saying the cops handled this right, because I know nothing about police training, you also cannot tell from the camera for certain whether the man lunged at them or not. It just seems like every time I read one of these threads a whole bunch of stuff is fabricated/conjured on both sides to make a complex situation as black and white as possible so that conclusions can be reached like "cops don't value human life" or "the cops did absolutely nothing wrong."

 

I hope you experience a family member being executed by the police while holding a "deadly weapon"

You're a piece of work

 

You don't serve **** you POS