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.