No, I didn't mean to imply you did. I was fulminating and blowing up about the situation generally. My meds need adjusting.

...and what if he DOESN'T have shitty aim? Are you willing to take that risk?

It isn't a stretch, but the kid is in a goddamned bathroom, alone. He is not on an airplane or in a crowded train station. He's in a bathroom alone, and the cops ... some of them anyway; everybody's going to be busy denying who heard what in the next few weeks ... but some of them are not going to be able to escape the fact that they've heard from the father and brother that the kid's gun isn't real, it's a pellet gun painted black, and he's cowering in a rest room, alone, with this toy, before they go in and kill him.

Is there any point at which we stop defending the police?

Do they get to just keep killing?

With a pellet gun, yes -- especially given the artillery they hit him with after.

[Edited on Jan 15, 2006 by StickyRice]

This whole thing isn't worth it. I just hope the family's lawyer nails those fuckers to the wall. I think he will.

Here are a few things I don't understand.

This is a SWAT team. We're not talking here about one or two local police officers locked in a life-or-death situation; we're talking about a group of highly-trained, presumably experienced law enforcement persons, wearing body armor and equipped with all sorts of weapons. SWAT officers, at least those around here, are trained to recognize suicidal persons who are deliberately engaging in behavior that could cause them to be shot. They are also trained to disarm people without killing them; as someone said a few posts up, the officer could have just as easily shot the kid in the shoulder and the whole thing would have ended differently.

They had the kid cornered at close range. The kid was obviously suicidal. They had plenty of time to get a non-lethal weapon to the scene with which to incapacitate the kid before he was able to shoot himself or anyone else.

So, why did they not do these things? Why did a highly trained group of SWAT officers do little else but stand around and wait for this kid to find some way to kill himself?

Very good question.

Folks? Answer the boy.

(Edited to add: I'm not in favor of killing with real firearms troubled teens who wave around painted pellet guns in bathrooms, but this question points up the undue force used by overzealous police in the situation at hand. Which is appalling, and I'm horrified that people are trying to justify it.)

[Edited on Jan 16, 2006 by StickyRice]

[Edited on Jan 16, 2006 by StickyRice]

I'm a lady!

I'm also not in favor of shooting suicidal kids in the shoulder, as exciting as many of us might find that whole thing.

Why not negotiate? Is the motherfucking bathroom so important that we can't take the time to talk with a despondent kid who's waving around a pellet gun that he painted black? Is there nowhere else for people to piss and shit -- we have to kill the kid, so life can go on for the rest of us with excretory needs?

Bizarre.

Ha! Fuck. Answer the lady.

I think we're the only ones awake and pursuing this whole thing anyhow.

p.s. Crap, how was I supposed to know. Scanty profile.

[Edited on Jan 16, 2006 by StickyRice]

WoW, so lets see, you hope its a pellet gun? you hope he has shitty aim? I'd love to live in your fantasy.

Hmm maybe its just me, gun pointed at me, dont know if its real, dont know if he can hit me. just sitting there wondering doesnt sound like a smart plan to me

[Edited on Jan 16, 2006 by chevyblaze87]

Not a fantasy; it was a pellet gun, as the boy's father and brother told the police, and as was verified after his death. You need to read the whole thread before you, like the others, jump in bed with the cops.

I understand the rationale, though. If most of the people who posted in this thread pointed anything at me, I would assume it's lethal and kill them instantly.

Hey, I'm standing right there by Barbara, dude. I pretty sure I look like a lady.

Im sorry, but did they know for a fact that it was a pellet gun. As i stated in a previous post, what is to say the kid did not get a real gun somewhere else.
Oh yeah did read it all the way. And i don't agree with every police shooting. I agree with non-leathal force. say the kid has a knife or a bat, situation should be differnt.
Thing is no one here knows what went down, none of us were there.




[Edited on Jan 16, 2006 by chevyblaze87]