Quote:I note that in the majority of African-American police shootings, the
victim has usually given the police a reasonable belief that they're armed and dangerous
and/or suspected of having committed a crime.
There are two parts to that observation, SYZ. First, no they do not need a reasonable belief. Walter Scott was running away when Slager shot him in the back. Philandro Castile told the cop there was a gun in the glove compartment and the cop shot him anyway. Freddie Gray was arrested for carrying a knife which an official of the DA's office said was legal under Maryland law. They cuffed him and threw him in a van and then drove around at high speed throwing him around the van until he was in a coma. The cops claim they have no idea how he got injured. Witnesses said the pigs beat him with a baton. So they can hallucinate a gun if they want. They can hallucinate that a person is reaching for a gun and they can hallucinate that a legal knife is "illegal." I probably don't have to tell you what color Scott, Castile and Gray were, do I?
Second, so what if he committed a crime? There is not one statute in any jurisdiction in the country under which a cop is summarily appointed judge, jury and executioner. A cop is supposed to take prisoners and turn them over to the courts for trial. I doubt that it is much different in Australia seeing as how both nations derive their legal codes from Britain.
Robert G. Ingersoll : “No man with a sense of humor ever founded a religion.”