Racist Cop Shoots Elderly Black Man in Louisiana

[Avalach21]

Wookaroo said:

I have hard time siding with either side in this story. It sounds like the cops made some stupid moves for sure, but there's a lot we probably don't know about.

It's difficult for me to judge people after reading a few paragraphs of a report that likely originated from the family and friends of the victim. The prior convictions of the son also raise a few flags. If I put myself in a cop's boots, I'd be very cautious and on edge around that house.

Having said all that, shooting the guy sounds a bit drastic if he hadn't even got to his weapon yet. The article makes it sound like he was well away from it. Sounds like the officers would have had enough time to tase him instead of kill him. If I HAD to choose a side based on this information, it'd be the side of the victim.

Honestly though, immediately painting these cops as racist and murderers is a bit drastic and cliche, no? I'd be more comfortable declaring them so after more facts are revealed.

I'm not a fan of cops usually, but I'm tired of people lumping all of them into the same negative categories.

 

This is key.  We don't have all the facts.  A journalists job is to get people to read it and get outraged and talk about it and post their article on forums, and get more people to read it and get outraged etc. etc. You all are doing exactly this.  There's probably more to the story.

 

What if the guy came to the door with the gun in his hand?  Then the cops shot an armed person who was threatening them.  Then the journalist has no story to write about.  So if there were conflicting reports, they're going to take a story that his family made up about his "gun laying out on his porch for everyone to see all the time...?" and the cop moving it next to him, rather than the gun just falling next to him cause he had it in his hand when he got shot.  This is purely hypothetical, but completely possible.

 

There's always more to a story.