Please! Some warning next time before you post that pic.

I don’t know where you get your info, but the “drug deal gone bad” was never discredited as to the motive for Shepard’s killing. I never heard the relationship angle, but even if true is irrelevant.
Also, it appears that the cop didn’t know, at first, about the robbery. He apparently found out just before the confrontation that led to the killing.

I got no problem with the heat, per se. It keeps the other Californians away. Right now it’s 8:30 in the morning and pitch black because we are getting an awesome rainstorm. The lightning last night was magnificent.

Look up Michael Bell white man killed by a Hispanic cop No riots

http://fox6now.com/2014/08/18/michael-bell-whose-son-was-shot-killed-by-officer-following-unrest-in-ferguson-mo/

This was one of the incidents I was thinking about, as well as the constructive end toward which the outrage was directed. Personally, I’d support a law that required all officers who kill a suspect to be charges with Unjustified Homicide. If it was a clean action then that will come out in trial, but the guarantee that the officer will have to face a jury to justify his actions will both place confidence in the community that the process will be fair as well as making the officer more thoughtful before making deadly force the default go-to option.

Neither of them has a ’70’s ‘fro, though.

We used to go out and play in the heavy rain. More fun than a swimming pool. We could have gone to the pool over on Lackland, but would play in the rain when the opportunity presented itself.
Anything to keep the Kalifornios away.
Garner is a nice place in the Hill country though.

I’m no expert, and if you read my comments they are very balanced.

Cops get in fights and confrontations with people all the time without killing them.

I’m not sure when the death penalty was instituted for petty theft and fighting. I’m not sure where in the police manual it says that suspects should be subdued with an entire round of ammo.

This is an interesting, but largely unimportant issue.

The kid was certainly stupid, and it looks like the cop was too.

If both parties would have done things a bit differently, none of this would have happened.

What punishment should be handed out, if any, can only be determined once everything dies down.

Sure, the cops position will certainly be bolstered if Brown’s fingerprints are on his gun.

But if we are going to be utilizing conjecture, that just seems a bit out there. How does Brown physically reach the cop’s gun when the cop is seated?

Why would Brown do that?

I could only imagine that happening if the cop drew his gun on Brown for jaywalking…

Oh. So he TRIED to shoot him in the back and MISSED? Color me skeptical.

Thanks. Obviously, I am educated-guessing it was a 9mm handgun because that seems to be common still among PDs. Also, a heavier caliber or energy weapon, in equally competent hands, likely would have produced a take down with fewer rounds. More speculation. And the issue, as Quartermaster mentions below, is stopping power. That is what a LEO or Soldier wants. If the magazine was emptied — assuming standard ten rounds of 9mm — then six in the target anywhere in high-emotion condition is, I would say, rather good shooting. I doubt I could do that well. One has to be calm to shoot accurately, even at close range. That is a blessing professional Soldiers and Police have, thankfully.

The 357 Magnum round was invented by Smith and Wesson to give police more stopping power without having to adopt the 45 Auto (often wrongly called 45 ACP, which is the semi-auto pistol chambered in 45 Auto) round. The 45 Auto and 357 Magnum rounds and handguns to fire them are significantly heavier than the 38 Special round and weapon. Also, without an extended magazine, the 45 ACP handgun is limited to 7 rounds per weapon, a potentially lethal limitation.

9mm Luger was a compromise between a semi-auto’s magazine capacity (7 or 10 or more) and a 45 ACPs weight and a 38 Special or 357 Magnum revolver’s six round cylinder limit.

The 40 S&W semi-auto pistol at 10 or more rounds per magazine adds stopping power to the just-mentioned compromise. However, the revolver-type handgun, in general, is less liable to mechanical mishap (jamming) than is its semi-auto pistol-type sibling.

Not irrelevant: the Philippine Insurrection, for which the US Army ordered what became the justly famous and long-loved Colt 1911 45 ACP chambered in 45 Auto, was largely a Moro Insurrection and Moros were/are Caliphists. They were hopped up, as are their modern compatriots, on drugs and then sent against US lines of battle. The 38 Special round, as Quartermaster says, did not stop them. The reason: they were too high on drugs to feel pain and just kept charging despite lethal wounds. AQ did this in Iraq when they sent car bombers (whom they also tied to the steering wheel to make sure they did their stuff) and vest bombers at US posts: jack them up on drugs

This war with Caliphists, who hate USA, is very old. Tommy Jefferson sent US Navy and Marines to conduct it, with local success, in North Africa. They beg for a chance to be subjected to unconditional surrender and one day, I know not when, they will have their wish.

In Utah, the law states that one can use deadly force in the event of a forcible felony. By Utah’s laws, if this guy was rushing anybody – not just a cop, ANYBODY – that person would be well within their rights to shoot him and keep shooting until he was no longer a threat (i.e. in forward motion) because his actions would be construed by the person he’s running at as constituting a threat of serious bodily harm or death (especially given his size). I can’t say I’ve ever know a criminal to rush a police officer to give them a hug. I have no idea how Missouri’s laws are written, so I have no idea how it would play there for a civilian or a cop.

The point is, an unarmed person flying at you can absolutely be a deadly threat and one would absolutely be wise to act accordingly. If that means shooting his dumb ass when he’s still 10+ feet from you, you shoot. Otherwise you could be the one on the slab.

They had a picture of him at 13. It looked kind of like Rosey Grier in his playing days.

The story I heard was when the officer shot him, the physically large brown had already injured the officer, was know by the officer to be a likely robbery suspect, and was rushing toward the officer shouting obsenities and threats. That account is not yet confirmed, that is why you wait for the full investigation. But if true, we are not dealing with an innocent teen waiting peacefully with his hands up in the air.

You missed his point entirely. whites and hispanics get killed by cops too, but they wait for the investigation, which normally turns up the facts, and if the officer is guilty he gets punished. But the riots only happen if the victim is black, the accused is white, and Sharpton gets involved. And how many cases has Sharpton stoked up the riots where the accused was actually found guilty, once all the facts were known, almost zero. The guy is a disgusting race baiter, making his living on stoking racial hatred on mostly bogus cases, and I find him quite disgusting.

When shot, he was already a known likely robbery suspect. Just before most of the shots were fired, he started a dozen feet away, then turned around, stated cussing and threatening the officer, then rushed toward him, at which point he was shot. That is the version I heard, probably not the version you heard. Finding out which version is true is why you wait for investigations, instead of rioting and looting.

You have no confirmed evidence for that. In reports I heard the cops did not know about the robbery when they asked Brown to leave the road. But they then came back once they got the robbery report, and realized that Brown might be a suspect. Of course my report may be false as well, that is why you need to wait for the investigation without looting and rioting, to sort out the truth.

Yes, the death penalty to all petty thieves and ignorant bullies!

I agree with your general point that outside agitators who benefit financially and ego-wise will stir any available pot. I also agree that in this specific case the odds of a fair investigation and diminishing. However, I stand by my assertion that in general wrong doings committed by police officers are less likely to result in a finding of guilt or punishment than the same done by another. While this is not a problem exclusive to blacks, I do think the effects do fall disproportionately on the black community, but not because of racism but more because often these communities are poorer and have higher crime rates and, therefore, the police are more active there.

Nonetheless, the problem of a criminal justice system that increasingly feels empowered to do whatever it wants whenever it wants and is too quick to use the easy tool of violence to enforce its will is real and needs to be addressed.