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

And you sound like someone who would excuse any behavior for police officers.

I expect better behavior from the police.

 

Don't expect a 12 year old to be mature enough to not exhibit childish behavior.

 

He wasn't shot because he was a 12-year old pointing a toy at police officers.

He was shot because officers followed protocol when any individual pulls a threatening weapon. Whether this weapon was a realistic toy that can be bought at walmart, or an unloaded firearm, or if the individual has zero intentions of firing the firearm, it doesn't matter.

Here is another scenario. If a 110lb girl pointed a realistic airsoft gun and demanded your wallet, would you comply or would you fight her off in hopes it was a toy gun?

 

that's called robbery. This kid was playing at the park with a toy.

Maybe if the cops didn't go all commando on him by nearly running him over on the grass where cars should not be then the kid wouldn't have been spooked into reacting.

 

how does the cops know if the kid was just playing with a toy gun, that's not what the 911 call was.

pointing a gun that is almost indistinguishable with a real gun and random people in the park is no longer "playing" to the police. And drawing that object at the police is definitely not "playing in the park" anymore.

 

Do you think the cops handled this correctly? yes or No? Do you think they could or should have given the kid space and approached him with more calm?

 

We have the benefit of hindsight.

What if they kept their distance, and the suspect got away and hurt someone? Then we'd be asking why they didn't do more to stop him.

All that said, I do think they handled it poorly. A veteran officer put a rookie officer in a difficult position. I do question not staying further back and using the car as cover to demand the kid's surrender. Was backup not going to be available?

Hopefully this will lead to better training, more non-lethal weapons for officers, and better education related to realistic looking air-powered guns.

I'm tired of hearing a pellet gun being referred to as a toy. I also don't like reading a gun that is called both airsoft and a pellet gun. Airsoft generally refers to the use of plastic BBs, and are really just a safer form of target shooting than traditional BBs, compared to pellet guns which shoot lead or metal alloy pellets and are used to kill small game/pests.

 

Thank you for your response. I agree with most of your post.

Regarding your question, "What if they kept their distance, and the suspect got away and hurt someone? Then we'd be asking why they didn't do more to stop him."
this i do not agree with. I would expect one cop would then pursue on foot and the other with the vehicle. You can't just go in shooting because of the possibility that things MIGHT happen IMO. I think we agree though that this was poorly handled. I don't think the police are overt racist nor did i ever suggest it.

 

Interesting... a 12 year kid is shot because he was carrying a toy gun in a park... and that's OK. But kids getting suspended for carrying a toy gun in school... well, that's bad, since the school should know its a toy gun, and, well, after all, its just a toy gun.

See, schools shouldn't have zero tolerance policies... and teachers should be able to see its just a toy gun. But the police? They can't be expected to tell if its a toy gun...

 

I'll get flamed for even comparing, but here goes...

We want someone paid $50,000 per year* to make split-second critical decisions perfectly in every case.

Steph Curry is paid $10,000,000 and makes a split-second turnover 15% of the time.

I'm not excusing incorrect decisions or bad training. There are many ways to improve the situation. Life and death is not equal to basketball, but seriously, think about it for a second, in terms of what we pay and what we expect.

If we want to pay someone handling life and death situations 200 times less than a basketball player who ****s up 15% of the time, we're getting pretty much what we ordered.

I'm sure there are awful, racist cops in the world, but there are a lot of good cops too, doing an incredibly difficult and dangerous job for terrible pay.

* = LAPD starting salary. Probably much less in the midwest.

 

Good post B-bob.

If nothing else I think having a mandatory, accurate national reporting system for how often these police shootings occur should be a no-brainer. It would provide a lot more context in this debate, and would also provides a mean of tracking progress.

High school teachers are paid more than police officers on average.

 

Agree that police are underpaid (as are firefighters and school teachers). The big difference between a basketball player and a cop though is that the basketball player's mistake doesn't result in the loss of life.

That said... I don't know if there is a good solution. I suspect that the number of mistakes that lead to the loss of life are few, suggesting the admirable job that police perform. But even the occasional bad decision... or worse, the purposeful violent act... these have to be identified and addressed.

 

I suspect that this is exactly what the police department told the boy's parents.
[/snark]

 

Why do you feel he may face prejury charges please explain.

 

If the boy had a gun and wanted to shoot the officer then the officers would still be making a mistake by entering the situation the way they did. What do you not understand about that? In fact the officer might have gotten himself killed too.

Also, as a side note your hypothetical is complete garbage. We deal in realities. The reality is the police killed a 12 y/o boy playing in the park.