Second Deadly Shooting by Police in MO This Week

Another St. Louis Police shooting of a black man just 5 miles away from the Ferguson, MO shooting that’s the cause of so much unrest this week. (WARNING: You can watch it on mute and see what happens just fine, but if you watch it with sound there is plenty of vulgar language.)

Lest any of us get on the Irate and Hate Bandwagon, I’m going to give you my two cents on this 2nd shooting by police in Missouri.
There are six things I’m considering here.

1: The person did NOT respond to orders from the police to drop what was in his hand. In fact, he became MORE aggressive, even hollering at them “Shoot me! Shoot me! Shoot me NOW, M…F….!”

2: He did not stop walking towards them during a portion of this footage when they were clearly instructing him to do so.

3: He didn’t even attempt to put his hands up to show that he was no threat to them.

4: The “21 foot rule” is absolutely a valid concern for this scenario  (The 21 foot rule is that takes the average officer to recognize a threat, draw his sidearm and fire 2 rounds at center mass, an average subject charging at the officer with a knife or other cutting or stabbing weapon can cover a distance of 21 feet–however, recently, it’s been demonstrated that a duly determined subject can actually cover as much as 30 feet!)

5. The recorder is making a big deal of the officers cuffing the subject even after “he dead.”  A) if the man is dead, then what the heck do the observers have to complain about if they are cuffing him?! B) I suspect that it’s protocol to cuff someone under these circumstances in the event that everyone around him assumes that he’s dead and thus has their guard down, only to have him regain consciousness and attack someone nearby.

6. I make absolutely NO distinction as to the color or race of either the subject or the law enforcement officers.  All I see is a man threatening police officers and coming at them in spite of their repeated requests. (Let’s also not forget that SOMEONE had to have called the police in the first place and told them what THEY were witnessing to cause the police to arrive on the scene the way they did.)

I think the killing of anyone is truly sad, regardless of the character of those who are killed, but I believe that there are natural consequences when a situation escalates as quickly as it must have for these officers. Even if *I* had merely been your average Jane on the street and I saw a knife in a person’s hand who was that tall (thus able to cover more ground faster than I could), and unresponsive to my demands to stay away from me, AND shouting at me, WITH the presence of a knife that would have been enough to cause me to draw and fire without any hesitation on my part. (All the more reason why it’s VITAL that if you intend to use a firearm to protect yourself, you MUST become proficient with a quick-draw defense shot such as that which is taught at Women of Caliber and Castle Defense.

Unfortunately, though, this situation will be used to fuel even more violence and discord and lawlessness in MO. And in my opinion, it is the surging of such hatred and dividing of our nation that gives us plenty cause to watch and be ready. What’s just as dangerous if the fact that our news media will twist this in whatever way they see fit. In fact, I first heard about this shooting from a CNN video. I found it ironic how they twisted it AND how they made NO mention in their report of the person shouting at the officers to shoot him.  They glossed over the fact that he had an object in his right hand and even went so far as to provide a medical diagnosis that the man was mentally retarded.

It is my belief that the danger that threatens our peace and comfort is not just the incidences themselves but the people who disseminate the information about such events.   Heaven help us all!!