Monday, March 2, 2015

Man Killed by LAPD- Jazmin Garcia (2nd Period)

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/02/us/los-angeles-police-shooting/index.html

Police stated that a man was trying to reach for his gun, but a bystander's video says otherwise. Anthony Blackburn said he was confused that the 4 officers couldn't just shoot him in the leg since he was already on the ground. Los Angeles Police Chief defended the officers' actions by saying that the officers took the reasonable steps to avoid a tragedy but the man shouldn't have grabbed the officer's pistol to begin with. An officer pointed with 2 pieces of evidence to support his statement that the man reached for his gun. The evidence they have is pictures of the pistol and the slide is partially engaged. Officers also have video that they took privately and it shows the man reaching for the officer's waistband. The officers later stated they feel great compassion for people who are homeless and have mental illness with no treatment.

From this, I'm assuming the man probably had a mental illness. Also, I don't think he was really trying to grab the gun, maybe he was just trying to get attention. The reason they actually took his life away instead of injuring him will be unknown to me. This relates to APUSH because many lives have been lost for no apparent reason, especially from unfairness in which the people never got the justice they deserved. Whether it be examples like Ferguson, or even lynching back in the day, if the person has no reason to have their life lost, then why bother taking away their life if they still have the right to keep it?

1 comment:

  1. I don't think that we should automatically assume that this man had a mental illness. It isn't the answer to every irrational thing humanity does.

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