Video released of Cleveland cop shooting 12 yr old with airsoft gun

That's what I have. I'd never own a real gun (with kids in the house, I'm just not comfortable with the risk), but just in case, I have an airsoft with the orange tip removed that I keep locked up. Combined with a loud "I have a gun. Leave the house NOW!" it might scare off an intruder.

 

Who cares if the kid runs? ITS AN OPEN CARRY STATE! NO LAWS WERE VIOLATED

 

Yes lets just ignore the whole fact that minors can't open carry.

 

I'll assume youre being sarcastic. However, it doesn't matter where you are, you can't brandish a weapon. That is why he got shot.

As a kid, we were taught never to point any gun at anyone, real or not.

 

Echoes my thoughts. Only I saw a different video that was just the kid harassing people with the toy gun at the same time I heard about this story. I thought to myself, "Geez, kid. The way you are putting that gun in people's faces.... This can't end well."

The kid made a major error. The caller did a fair job reporting the situation. The dispatcher majorly ****ed up. The officers... well, I don't know police protocol, but I thought it was strange to pull up so close to the kid. What if they kid had a real gun and decided to draw and just start shooting once the car was upon him?

The video quality distorts time, so I don't know how long they had a "stand off" with the kid. But maybe I have just seen too much TV where the officers pull up at a "safe" distance and have a stand off.

 

Bull****. Kids with toy guns point them at each other all the ****ing time.

12 year old kid ... in a playground ... playing with a toy.

 

Brandishing Firearms: Careless handling, waving the pistol around, aiming or pointing at things or acting in an aggressive or threatening manner while armed may be considered Brandishing which is a misdemeanor. A person when carrying a handgun in a holster in plain view, and not mis-handling or waving or displaying the firearm in a threatening manner does not constitute brandishing.

 

Sorry! I'll change my childhood narrative to fit your story. While I am at it, is there anything else I should change to appease you?

 

So the policeman brandished a firearm while the 12 year kid brandished a toy gun.

So as long as a person is waiving around a firearm in a nonthreatening manner we all good?

 

I think it is the adult narrative that is giving me problems.

 

Whatever happened to approaching from a distance and calling backup?

 

Situation was getting out of control fast. As far as those cops were concerned that kid might have been a suicide bomber. They needed to neutralize the treat quick.

 

Michael brown was a punk. This is the true travesty. I hope clevelanders (is that a word?) make a real stink about this.

 

That's a load of crap. Airsofts are not toys. See if you can tell real vs airsoft:







Each one of these is a side-by-side comparison between a pellet gun and a real pistol.

Any cop who has one of these pointed at them is going to draw and pull the trigger. I don't blame the cops one bit for shooting this kid. He should have known better, even at 12.

 

Was it too much to ask to not almost run over the kid while basically doing a drive by shooting? Seriously, you think that was the best approach? The kid was spooked by the cops. Is that hard to imagine?

 

Yes, that's too much to ask, and also isn't an accurate description of what happened. They drove close to cut-off his potential path of escape, and then shot him as he REACHED FOR HIS GUN. When a person is aiming a potentially lethal device at people on the street (as was reported by the caller) and as the police arrive, rather than raise his hands and follow directions, he REACHES FOR HIS GUN, the cops absolutely should do whatever it takes to take out that person, be they white, black, Asian, man, woman, 12 year old or otherwise.

A 12-year-old finger squeezing the trigger can kill just as easily as an 18 year old finger. He may have been spooked by the cops, but that really doesn't matter. Because it doesn't change what he did and the result of his actions. This shouldn't have happened, but it's not the cops fault it did. Period.

 

Our society is asking way too much of cops, IMHO.

Yes, some make mistakes. Based on statistics alone, yes, some are even racist a-holes. But to expect a normal Joe or Josephine to run around and deal with every awkward situation, with increasingly murky situations involving ever-younger kids, yeah, it's not going to end well.

We should collectively decide to not let the media get us fired up about another specific single event (which is easy, lazy work for them) instead of reporting the much larger and more important facts. This event is a leaf, and we need to talk about the forest. (I know: good luck with that, B-Bob.)

Also, really interesting about these stupid "airsoft" guns. Thanks, BetterThanI for the side-by-sides. It's almost like a manufacturer set out to say, "okay, what can we design that will lead to a cop-on-kid violent tragedy?" SMDH.

 

Im a pro-gun person. However, I will say that there should be very distinctive visual difference restrictions between toy/pellet/air soft guns vs firearms. This is one of the many ways kids get hurt and killed ... thinking they are playing with toys. An orange tip is not enough, especially when they can be broken off.