Christian Taylor shot and killed by police officer

[Esternial]

I have not yet seen a thread about this, since the incident is two days old, but I haven't really found any discussion regarding it yet.

Another unarmed (African American) young man was shot and killed by a police officer today.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/09/us/te ... index.html

Here's a video on the story. From the video footage, it's evident that Taylor was engaged in criminal activity, damaging cars in a car dealership.

Seeing the video, I couldn't help but feel confused regarding Taylor's motive for doing that. Could it be possible that he wanted the police to respond? Or was he just looking to do vandalism for good fun?

The details are scare and very vague, but after that the police arrived. One officer pulled out his taser to subdue Taylor, while the other pulled out his gun and one of the officers on the scene shot and killed him. Apparently there was an altercation preceding that shooting.

Personally, I don't see why you need a gun (rather than a taser or another non-lethal weapon most officers have available) against someone who's unarmed, altercation or not.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/unarmed-blac ... -he-feared

I found this article, which illustrates that Taylor very much feared that this would happen. It's incredibly tragic.

UPDATE: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/12/us/ar ... .html?_r=0

But in Tuesday’s news conference, Chief Johnson offered a detailed account of the confrontation, saying that Mr. Taylor never made physical contact with any of the officers at the scene and indicating that Officer Miller’s own actions had escalated the confrontation.

This would be fairly condemning for the officer in question and for me, personally, removes most - if not all - of my doubt that this young man's death was unjustified.

---

It's sad, as is any pointless death. I'm also a little concerned by the fear that's beginning to spread throughout the population. I don't really see how law enforcement can protect and serve the people if more and more people fear them. On the flipside, police officers may also begin to fear the people they're supposed to protect - fearing rash acts of revenge using legally acquired firearms.

I get the ominous feeling that the American population is beginning to enter a state of mutual distrust between them and the people that are supposed to protect them, which isn't a healthy atmosphere for anyone.

Aside from the topic of this particular shooting, how do you stand on the relationship between law enforcement/general public yourself?

If you have more information/better articles feel free to post them and I'll update the OP.

[Ndaku]

Hopefully this won't spark another riot.

[The Wolven League]

Hopefully this won't spark another riot.

We all know it probably will.

[The Serbian Empire]

I'm starting to think that the reason lynchings disappeared is that the KKK decided it was more efficient to don a police uniform and kill unarmed black males.

[Big Jim P]

I'm starting to think that the reason lynchings disappeared is that the KKK decided it was more efficient to don a police uniform and kill unarmed black males.

A criminal got shot. Not many tears will be shed.

[Italios]

The news have done a lot more coverage on unnamed black men being shot by policemen recently. In many of the cases, the video footage or eye witness descriptions are unclear or collide with one another one what actually happened.

[Italosia]

I'm starting to think that the reason lynchings disappeared is that the KKK decided it was more efficient to don a police uniform and kill unarmed black males.

Oh, take off your Tin Foil hat.

[The Serbian Empire]

I'm starting to think that the reason lynchings disappeared is that the KKK decided it was more efficient to don a police uniform and kill unarmed black males.

A criminal got shot. Not many tears will be shed.

This one is definitely a criminal. But we all know how the Black Lives Matter crowd will try to paint Mr. Taylor as he didn't do nothing.

I'm starting to think that the reason lynchings disappeared is that the KKK decided it was more efficient to don a police uniform and kill unarmed black males.

Oh, take off your Tin Foil hat.

I'm officially one of the leading buyers of Reynolds Aluminum Foil.

[Italosia]

Oh yeah, I don't see any of you getting outraged over the killing of an unarmed white teenager by Police.

[Big Jim P]

A criminal got shot. Not many tears will be shed.

This one is definitely a criminal. But we all know how the Black Lives Matter crowd will try to paint Mr. Taylor as he didn't do nothing.

They have already played the "but he was a good boy" card. Read the article.

[Val Halla]

IDK, shooting somebody seems a bit dramatic for vandalism.

[Italios]

Oh yeah, I don't see any of you getting outraged over the killing of an unarmed white teenager by Police.

Do we look outraged? Are we typing in caps? Are we discussing how disgustingly outrageous this is? We're not. In fact, quite the opposite:

A criminal got shot. Not many tears will be shed.

Shootings resulting in death, regardless of race, are not a good thing. We aren't justifying Taylor's or the policeman's actions; we are discussing the story. If you want to make a thread about the shooting of an unarmed white teenager, you go right ahead and do that.

[Big Jim P]

IDK, shooting somebody seems a bit dramatic for vandalism.

According to the article there was an "altercation". Depending on its nature, the shooting may or may not be justified.

[Italosia]

IDK, shooting somebody seems a bit dramatic for vandalism.

Well, that's what happens when you're a crook.

[Val Halla]

IDK, shooting somebody seems a bit dramatic for vandalism.

According to the article there was an "altercation". Depending on its nature, the shooting may or may not be justified.

IDK, I think we should wait until we have more of an idea of what happened before taking preemptive judgement on either of them. People are too quick to cry outrage

[Big Jim P]

Oh yeah, I don't see any of you getting outraged over the killing of an unarmed white teenager by Police.

Do we look outraged? Are we typing in caps? Are we discussing how disgustingly outrageous this is? We're not. In fact, quite the opposite:

A criminal got shot. Not many tears will be shed.

Shootings resulting in death, regardless of race, are not a good thing. We aren't justifying Taylor's or the policeman's actions; we are discussing the story. If you want to make a thread about the shooting of an unarmed white teenager, you go right ahead and do that.

Some shootings (even those resulting in death) are justified. In this case, we don't know the nature of the "altercation" or whether or not it justified the shooting.

[Big Jim P]

According to the article there was an "altercation". Depending on its nature, the shooting may or may not be justified.

IDK, I think we should wait until we have more of an idea of what happened before taking preemptive judgement on either of them. People are too quick to cry outrage

True.

[Val Halla]

IDK, shooting somebody seems a bit dramatic for vandalism.

Well, that's what happens when you're a crook.

What, you commit any crime and you get shot?

[Kar-Esseria]

Personally, I don't see why you need a gun against someone who's unarmed, altercation or not.

Because people can be dangerous without weapons. It's not that hard to understand, really. Just because someone isn't armed does not mean they aren't a threat. You don't need a weapon to kill someone.

As for the rest of this, there doesn't seem to be enough here to make a valid conclusion. If an altercation occurred, and Taylor attacked the police officer, the officer would've had every justification to shoot him. I'd say the most likely scenario is the kid probably tried to attack the officer and got shot, just like Michael Brown.

Regardless of what actually happened, the media is going to spin it as police brutality and racism before all the facts are in, naturally.

[Dooom35796821595]

IDK, shooting somebody seems a bit dramatic for vandalism.

According to the article there was an "altercation". Depending on its nature, the shooting may or may not be justified.

Well unless the aggressor had a firearm, it wasn't justified.
Not that hard now is it?

[Val Halla]

According to the article there was an "altercation". Depending on its nature, the shooting may or may not be justified.

Well unless the aggressor had a firearm, it wasn't justified.
Not that hard now is it?

He probably had something, if he was vandalizing vehicles.

[Big Jim P]

According to the article there was an "altercation". Depending on its nature, the shooting may or may not be justified.

Well unless the aggressor had a firearm, it wasn't justified.
Not that hard now is it?

A firearm is not necessary for someone to put anothers life in danger. People can kill or cause severe injuries with their bare hands, justifying a shoot.

[Socialist Tera]

Shootings is over the top, what do police think black people will do? Activate their transformers mode and turn into a tank.

[The Serbian Empire]

According to the article there was an "altercation". Depending on its nature, the shooting may or may not be justified.

IDK, I think we should wait until we have more of an idea of what happened before taking preemptive judgement on either of them. People are too quick to cry outrage

But without quick outrage, the people of the Black Lives Matter movement lose relevance faster than Al Gore at a cryptozoology convention with Man-Bear-Pig.

[Kar-Esseria]

According to the article there was an "altercation". Depending on its nature, the shooting may or may not be justified.

Well unless the aggressor had a firearm, it wasn't justified.
Not that hard now is it?

Wrong.

The police have a right to defend themselves by whatever means necessary, that includes shooting people who attacked them, regardless of if they're armed or not.