Video of John Crawford Shooting

[summer]

holy shit

[mrsjuleshs]

GOOD GOD! They didn't even give him time to put it down before they shot him. How can anyone find this justified is beyond me.

[elleblue]

That was an execution. Plain and simple.

[iammalcolmx]

I am scared to watch. Can someone give me a recap?

[elleblue]

Sept 25, 2014 14:50:01 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

I am scared to watch. Can someone give me a recap?

It's mostly just him walking around the store, holding the toy gun while talking on the phone. Yes, he gestures with it, but it's clear it's in context to his phone convo and an unconscious gesture given that no one else is around him for the most part. Then a family goes in to the aisle, turns around and the 911 call happens. Moments later he's shot. No warning or anything, it happens so fast.

eta: I think it's also important to note that this is an open carry area, so there is no justification for shooting him just because he is holding a visible "weapon" (not saying if it weren't open carry, his death would have been ok, just that it's even more of a wtf given the laws).

[blink]

This is horrible. I hate that everything seems to be shoot first, ask questions later.

[summer]

Sept 25, 2014 14:50:01 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

I am scared to watch. Can someone give me a recap?

He's walking around with a gun, not even around anyone. Some people see him from a ways away and apparently call 911.  Police come in and shoot him immediately.  He isn't threatening anyone with that weapon from what I see. They just kill him.     

[downtoearth]

Sept 25, 2014 15:10:31 GMT -5 summer said:

Sept 25, 2014 14:50:01 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

I am scared to watch. Can someone give me a recap?

He's walking around with a BB gun, not even around anyone. Some people see him from a ways away and apparently call 911.  Police come in and shoot him immediately.  He isn't threatening anyone with that weapon from what I see. They just kill him.     

An off-the-shelf BB gun and he's not really just walking around so much as chatting on the phone with it in his hand while he stands in front of the place where the BB guns are shelved.

[summer]

No. 

www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/09/25/ohio-wal-mart-surveillance-video-shows-police-shooting-and-killing-john-crawford-iii/

"Piepmeier said Wednesday that the case revolved around whether Crawford obeyed police orders to drop the gun. “Was the officer reasonable to think himself or someone else would receive physical harm?” Piepmeier said at a news conference, the Enquirer reported. “The law says police officers are judged by what is in their mind at the time. You have to put yourself in their shoes at that time with the information they had.”



The officers had just been trained in responding to active shooters two weeks before, and were taught to be aggressive, Piepmeier said.



The grand jury watched hours of video, listened to audio and heard the testimony of 18 witnesses. On the third day of convening, the jury decided that the officers were justified in their actions and declined to indict any officers."

[elleblue]

Fuck that grand jury.

[WOT?*]

But then there's this b.s. too, which makes me think that the caller should be indicted for manslaughter or negligent homicide or something. Calling and saying a black man was waving a gun in a store? What did he THINK would happen? Police come in ready to shoot, of course.

In addition, the man who initially made the call to 9-1-1 to report that Crawford was carrying a weapon around the store and pointing it at people, Ronald Ritchie, has already admitted to lying about the facts regarding his 9-1-1 call.

During the initial call, Ritchie claimed that a black man was “walking around with a gun in the store.” He told the dispatcher, “He’s, like, pointing it at people,” and later told reporters, “He was pointing at people. Children walking by,” according to The Guardian.

But a month later in an interview with The Guardian he had changed his story stating, “At no point did he shoulder the rifle and point it at somebody.”

Additionally, in the initial call, Ritichie told the dispatcher that Crawford appeared to be “trying to load” the gun, which the 9-1-1 dispatcher relayed to officers telling them that they thought the gunman had “just put some bullets inside.”

[redwino]

I'm so fucking angry. Fuck!

[NewOrleans]

NO FUCKING WAY. NO FUCKING WAY.

[josieposy]

[wawa]

I don't even understand what's happening there. He was just standing there, looking at bird seed or something, and then suddenly he was on the ground. There didn't appear to actually be any confrontation with the police at all - no interaction. They just came around the corner and shot him.

Also this:

The law says police officers are judged by what is in their mind at the time. You have to put yourself in their shoes at that time with the information they had.”

makes me ragey. So...your shitty training and their racial biases just aren't relevant? As long as you stipulate that "aggressive action" and "scary black man" are already the base condition, well then...sure this makes perfect sense. BUT THAT IS A BUNCH OF BULLSHIT. Fuck man. FUCK.