The world is a better place without wood carvers...

Is the victim homeless in this case?

 

Yup.

 

thanks I can honestly say that I was lazy enough to not want to look it up. But still even the homeless have rights. and carrying a weapon isn't illegal......yet. Hazardous but not illegal.

 

I am so amazingly pissed off right now, I could not read this entire thread. I am glad that us Cops have all of you to tell us how we SHOULD do our job on a daily basis.

Job #1 GO HOME to my wife and kid SAFELY. When I "unass" my car, because I see a guy with a knife, odds are decent I will have my weapon drawn. Displayed? Maybe not, but probably in my hand behind my leg perhaps. I know people that are very well trained and can take that Exacto knife and cut you from asshole to elbow before quick can get ready. Was this guy one of those guys? We don't know. When the cop got out of the car he didn't have a clue who he was dealing with.

I deleted a 7/8 of this response, it was not appropriate.

Was the cop right, or wrong? I don't know, you don't know. None of us were there. We have less than a second to make a decision, yet everyone takes years to dissect and tell us and everyone else what we did wrong and how we should have done it. Are there corrupt cops? I'm sure. Are there punk cops on a power trip? Yup. Are we all like that? Not a chance.

Back to my hidey hole.

 

The officer wouldn't have been nine feet from Williams if he wasn't running over towards him with gun in hand...

 

The female witness knows. You can hear her asking the officer "why".
I'm sure there are other witnesses as well. Obviously when a cruiser pulls up and an officer gets out with his gun drawn and yells several times to someone, people are going to be curious.
There were 5 shots.
The guy had a few misdameanors which I understand is pretty common for homeless people.
non violent. Vagrancy, tresspassing, shoplifting, whatever.
This was totally uncalled for. Seems to me imo that the officer put himself in this position by placing himself in a danger zone.
I fully support law enforcement but this was just rediculous.

 

The fact that Williams had misdemeanors is a moot point as well. It's not like the officer knew that that particular man had misdemeanors when he ran out of his car with his pistol drawn.



Anyways...

 

Unit 33, shots fired. Subject wouldn't drop the knife. Atleast he could have acted a bit more concerned.
And the girl walking by? 5 shots from a .40 didn't seem to phase her much. Like that kinda thing happens every day.
That video just makes me sick.

 

Dude is sitting on a bench whittling wood. He wasn't harassing people. Cop was way out of line, dude deserves to have his badge taken and his ass kicked.

 

Here in the free world I am supposed to be able to carry a knife in public without being shot. This officer had well over a second to make a decision. He should have called for backup before he exited the car if he felt he needed to have his weapon drawn! He didn't have to chase they guy either, from what we saw he wasn't running he was strolling which is also legal. I want every officer to return home as well but I as a civilian want to get home to my kids as well. Don't you think I should be allowed to enjoy my freedoms as well?

WTF would you do to me if you saw me open carrying my gun? If you come at me with a gun in hand yelling for me to drop my gun I'll hesitate for damn sure! Especially if I am just out walking from point A to B.

Oh and no one said that you were all bad, just the opposite this cop was bad, but the same can be asked of you are all people carrying knives bad? Do they deserve to be gunned down?

 

That was a pretty disgusting abuse of power. There's no defending that. I have numerous friends who are involved in law enforcement or the legal system, and I know that none of them would act that way.

 

I wasn't going to chime in on this thread as most folks have said everything I thought already, but this statement, coming from what I believe is policeman upset me.

I sense your sarcasm, but yes, you're damn right we SHOULD tell you how to do your job. What do the terms "Public Servant" and "To serve and protect" mean to you? You work for us, we should be able to decide if your actions are right or wrong.

I don't know many cops, but the ones I do know don't consider going home safely to be there #1 Job. They are willing to risk thier lives for public good. Job #1 is to protect and serve. If you were the cop in the video, and your #1 job is to go home safely, why even get out of your car?

 

That's a great point. The cops I know feel the same way.

 

Everyone keeps blathering on and on about "To Serve and Protect" Check out "Castle Rock vs Gonzales" Simple summary is- it says that police and the gov't are not responsible for protecting anyone. Good reason to take steps to protect yourself.
Police are armed historians and if they are lucky- they aren't too far behind the occurrence and they can actually do something about whatever occured.

That being said-Seems like this cop was a little too hot to use that pistol. Damn straight I woulda come out of the car with it out if I was going to approach someone with a knife- Pretty sure I woulda waited for at least one other unit before making contact at all and pretty sure I would have been outside 15 feet and wouldn't have shot the guy unless he charged me.
Seems like the firearms inquest board found that the cop was out of line.

However-Even with one bad cop that have shows up in videos here and there...There are 1000s of police actions everyday that go down with no issues, harassment, shooting, or anything else of note- and you never hear about those because they don't make ratings or a point about anything.

 

I agree with this. If some crazy guys pulls a gun and shot me in the street, I certainly don't think "the cops should have stopped him". I never said they are responsible for protecting me. There job is to protect and serve, when they can. Obviously can't be everywhere all the time. On the other hand, if the crazy guy is pointing at gun at me, and there is cop present, you bet I expect them to help protect me. Notice I said "help", obviously I need to protect myself as well. If they aren't going to protect and serve when they can, what's the point of having a police force?

This cannot be overstated! One cop made one mistake. Sure, he probably made others, but this instance is isolated. I'm going to make a stretch of an analogy here, it's like flying in a plane. Yes, planes crash and people die, but the vast majority of flights are perfectly safe. You only hear about the bad ones. The police (for the most part) are typically unsung heros. Risking thier lives for a fairly meager wage to insure our safety as a society. Regretfully, abuse of this power exists and that's what's going to make the news. Let's not lose sight of the heroics that our law enforment officers perform thanklessly every day.

 

I don't think anyone here is bashing all cops, I'm certainly not. But we are voicing our opinions on this cop and his apparently bad judgement call, based on the evidence we see here. This is a democracy so the people are supposed to be the ones that voice their opinions on how things should be. City and state officials are paid by the working man. If the cop shot a criminal congratulations great job but if this was an innocent person then shame on you. I believe this is the majority vote here.

 

Confirms my point of cops abusing their power...I have no respect for officers, until I have a reason to.

Cop: Excuse me sir do you know why I stopped you?
Me: UMMM no
Cop: The reason I stopped you was because you have to much air in your tires.
Me:

 

Did the guy with a knife come at the cop...probably not! he was walking away so why did the cop shoot him? CAUSE HES A COP! and what he says or does is right. Give me a fucking break!!!!!!!

GO WRITE SOME MORE SPEEDING TICKETS