Recently, two police officers shot and killed a man wielding a screwdriver. They officers claim it was in self-defense after the man who was seen in an abandoned building looking around was confronted by police and ran on foot. Once the police eventually caught up with the man he refused many orders to drop the screwdriver and acted confrontational. The man lunged at a 3rd officer as he arrived to the scene and the officers opened fire, killing him. The Chief of Police later released a statement saying that the shooting was justified and the officers were acting according to their self defense training.
I'm not quite sure what to think of this. I don't really think they needed to shoot the guy as he was only armed with a screw driver. After watching one of the officers body cam, I believe the man might have been mentally ill as he was acting quite strange and seemed deranged. In the video the man also seemed to be far enough away from the officer that he could have moved out of the way of the man or tackled him to subdue him.
I think this relates to the various shootings of African Americans that lead to the civil rights movement where they were debated as being justified or being an instance of police brutality.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/04/10/louisville-kentucky-officers-shoot-kill-screwdriver-wielding-man.hln
A screwdriver? Is that the response now to people who have a weapon as useless as a screw driver? Police (I assume) have and should have been taught how to protect themselves in hand to hand combat, the fact that they would use a gun for a man wielding a SCREWDRIVER has me quite livid.
ReplyDeleteIf he was simply wondering around the building, the police officers hostile confrontation was the reason for the attacked man to arm himself and act defensive
ReplyDeletemaria gonzalez
ReplyDeleteThis is just another example of police brutality. It another life that was innocent. I feel like police sjould have an updates protocol before shooting.