diante yarber
courtesy theguardian.com
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“California police fired what sounded like more than 30 bullets at a packed car in a shopping store parking lot, killing a black father of three and injuring a young woman in the latest US law enforcement shooting to spark backlash.” That’s the report from The Guardian.

Police in Barstow, two hours outside of Los Angeles, killed 26-year-old Diante Yarber, who was believed to be unarmed and was driving his cousin and friends to a local Walmart on the morning of 5 April. Police have alleged that Yarber was “wanted for questioning” in a stolen vehicle case and that he “accelerated” the car towards officers when they tried to stop him, but his family and their attorney argued that the young father posed no threat and should not have been treated as a suspect in the first place.

In short, the exact circumstances surrounding the shooting remain unclear and will no doubt be the subject of an extensive investigation. His friends and relatives are, as you’d imagine, is devastated.

“The police took him away for no reason,” said Brittany Chandler, the mother of Yarber’s 19-month-old daughter, Leilani. “The police should be held accountable for this … They are sick people for them to be able to shoot someone down in broad daylight.” …

“It still doesn’t even feel real. I wish I could just wake up and it would be a dream,” said Chandler, adding it was difficult to imagine her daughter growing up without Yarber. Police probably targeted him because he was black, added Chandler, who is white: “They would’ve never drawn their guns on me.”

While the number and race of the officers involved hasn’t been disclosed yet and the circumstances are obviously disputed, the shooting is already being called racially motivated. Yet another example of police officers’ propensity for drawing down on and firing at black men.

Or, as Kirsten West Savali writes at The Root:

We could lament over the fact that he was just sitting in Walmart’s parking lot, but in a nation where white supremacists with badges gun down 12-year-old black boys in parks; where vigilantes gun down 17-year-old black boys walking home; where shape-shifting slave patrols choke black men standing on street corners minding their business; where so-called officers of the so-called law shoot to kill black men standing in their grandmother’s backyard, or kill black mothers and wound their babies in their own homes, or fatally shoot sleeping black girls in their beds, who are we to think Walmart’s parking lot is safe…right?

We know how this plays out.

“White supremacists with badges.” “Shape-shifting slave patrols.” “So-called officers of the so-called law.”

The Root, which describes itself as covering black news, opinions, politics and culture, was originally started by the Washington Post. While it’s now part of what’s left of the Gawker Media “empire,” it’s a shame that Ms. Savali isn’t more familiar with her publication’s former parent company’s work.

Following the Michael Brown shooting in August of 2014 and all that followed it, the Washington Post began compiling what they call the Fatal Force Database, which assembles a variety of data on every officer-involved shooting in the US.

First, let’s stipulate that every individual instance of anyone shot and killed by police is a tragedy, no matter the circumstances. And that not every police involved shooting is justified. Individual cops make mistakes. Or are trigger happy. The issue here is whether there is an identifiable trend of police officers shooting black men.

A few minutes spent digging into the Washington Post data would have revealed to Ms. Savali — assuming she’s open to seeing facts — that, all incendiary rhetoric to the contrary, the facts don’t support her premise that police officers disproportionately kill black men.

First, it’s extremely rare for police officers don’t shoot anyone of any color. Here are the totals for 2015, 2016 and 2017.

To put that in perspective, police officers interact with the public hundreds of thousands of times a year for crimes from jaywalking to murder. From this small, three-year sample, in a nation with 330 million people, you can see that the number of those interactions that escalate to the point where cops pull their firearms and kill an individual is surprisingly and consistently small.

As for the race of those who are shot and killed . . .

So according to the Washington Post’s numbers, whites are shot and killed by police at about twice the rate of blacks.

But hold on. Blacks represent only about 12 to 13% of the population. If that’s the case, why do they make up almost twice the percentage of those who are shot and killed?

The answer has to do with how frequently blacks commit other crimes. According to the FBI in 2014 (the must current numbers I could locate) blacks were arrested and charged with murder 4224 times. That’s compared to 3807 whites and Hispanics. In other words, blacks made up 51% of the 8230 people arrested and charged for murder.

Blacks were also arrested for 37% of non-murder violent crimes (rape, robbery and aggravated assault). In other words, blacks tend to commit crimes at a higher rate than their representation in the population. And they’re shot and killed by police at a rate lower than their statistical representation in violent crime would indicate.

Long story short, Ms. Savali’s implicit point — that black men are overrepresented in the total of people who are shot and killed by police officers — is false. In fact, the opposite is true. They’re actually shot and killed less often than you’d expect when taking into account the percentage of crimes they commit.

Does any of that indicate that the Diante Yarber shooting was justified. Of course not. We don’t know enough about what happened to judge that yet. And no one can know what prompted the officer(s) involved to draw their guns and open fire.

Are there bad cops? Yes, there are. Just like there are bad plumbers, auto mechanics and accountants. Are there racist cops? Again, of course there are. There are about 765,000 LEOs, so there are no doubt the same percentage of racist police officers as there are racist individuals in the general population.

But throwing around the kind of baseless charges — calling cops white supremacists and slave patrols — that Savali makes, does precisely nothing to improve the situation. If fact, to the extent that these charges cause officers to pull back from involvement and policing in minority majority areas (i.e., the Ferguson Effect) the people who will be most harmed will be blacks. The people Savali no doubt is most concerned for. But she probably hasn’t thought quite that far ahead.

 

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107 COMMENTS

    • And every time this comes up, I say to folks like Savali, “Ok, so black people are getting shot and killed by cops at a rate higher than their percentage of the overall population, and you assert it’s because cops are racist. Men comprise over 95% (940/987 according to Washington Post) of the people shot and killed by cops, while only accounting for about half of the population. Are the cops sexist, too?”

      I invariably get a response about how men commit more violent crimes than women, and then say, “So you’re saying that if a group of people tends to commit more violent crimes, they’ll probably get shot more by cops? Interesting!” Then I get a glare, and am called a racist.

      • Clearly we White people are the problem- we need to rob, rape, and murder more to even things out, and women need to start pulling their weight!

  1. Are there bad cops? Yes there are. Just like there are bad plumbers, auto mechanics…

    A bad plumber or auto mechanic doesn’t have the state-granted power to impact or wreck your life life a cop does.

    • Indeed, well stated. Cops should face the same scrutiny non LEOs would face if we discharge a firearm in pubilc. Stop arguing about it. There can not be Liberty while there is one set of laws for them and one for us.

      • So what does that actual mean. Does the one set of rules mean that ordinary citizen should be able offensively engage and pursue criminal suspects or does it mean that the police should only be able to engage direct threats to themselves, and in some cases others, and have the justification for the use of deadly force end when the suspect withdraws?

        • good question. Either, both. Let’s consider how many times you’ve heard that cops get to carry in instances you don’t. Start there.

        • It means that cops shouldn’t be allowed to fire blindly into the night, without knowledge of their target or what’s beyond it, or even whether it’s actually a threat, the way they did when they tried to murder Emma Hernandez and Margie Carranza.

          Nor should they be allowed to ram and attempt to shoot to death David Perdue, having previously waved him through a checkpoint.

          Of course when they do these things, they shouldn’t be allowed to blame the totally innocent victims, claiming that they were “scared”.

          Over the years, Chicago cops have given people abundant reason to be “scared” of them. Does the public get to shoot THEM because they’re “afraid”? I wonder what would have happened to the victims if one of them had shot Jerry Finnegan when he was committing a home invasion robbery or kidnapping somebody’s minor child to get leads on future robbery victims.

        • We are supposed to live in a nation of delegated powers. Citizens cannot delegate to the government any powers or authority that the citizens do not already have. So yes, citizens should be able to offensively pursue criminals. Citizens also have the right to say what powers and authority the government employee has and to set parameters for government employees. Citizens have every right to disarm the police. If you don’t want to be disarmed, don’t become a cop.

          All government employees, cops, judges, prosecutors, down to the street sweeper, should face strict liability for their actions on the job. “Good faith” or not, screwing up is screwing up and a government employee should be held to account for their actions.

        • “or does it mean that the police should only be able to engage direct threats to themselves, and in some cases others, and have the justification for the use of deadly force end when the suspect withdraws…”

          That is already the legal standard. The problem is when the suspect “withdraws” by driving at officers in a 1-3 ton piece of steel.

        • Here is the problem: if the rules allow us to do what the police do we would be forced to make the same decisions that they do, which means we would make the same mistakes. We would also forfeit the one advantage that we do have over the police. Bad guys know we can’t come after them. Why do think that most DGUs end with no shots fired? Take away the escape route and you will get more chances to have a gun fight you can lose.

          Treat the police like a regular citizen and it would very difficult to make an arrest. All that an armed bad guy would have to do is run away. Treat the police like Joe citizen then why bother have police which defaults to everybody is cop or no one is cop.

          Hannibal is being disingenuous. Yes, a police officer must terminate the use of lethal force when the lethal threat ends but unlike you or me he can draw his weapon preemptively and/or pursue a fleeing suspect. The Courts have ruled the police can use lethal force against a retreating suspect.

          And FYI most retired LEO do not exercise their right to carry as ex LEOs. The conditions are onerous. The only LEOs I know who have done it live in states with a restricted right to carry

    • If police are not indemnified by the state, what kind of police would we have ? Just think about that for a minute.
      Third world police force, not very motivated because all their life savings and property would be in jeopardy while try to protect and save lives..
      States have lowered all standard for hiring. That’s part of the problem

      • Law Enforcement hiring standards nationally are higher than they ever have been. On average less than 3 percent of LE applicants will ever actually successfully navigate all the steps from initial application to being released from probationary status. Standards being “lowered” is just code OFWG use cause they don’t like seeing women and minority’s in uniform. American Law Enforcement is more professional now than it ever has been. Becoming a federal or major metropolitan non-probationary LEO from start to finish can take up to 3 years.

      • “If police are not indemnified by the state,”

        Indemnification is not the problem. It is the abuse permitted under the shield of indemnification.

        “States have lowered all standard for hiring. That’s part of the problem.”
        Maybe the standards have been lowered (on the whole) because there are not enough “high standard” types volunteering for police duty. The generations have changed (not to mention the imported cultures of late). Maybe the current generations that would be eligible for police work have attractive alternatives. Maybe risk-taking is not high on the agenda of “high standard” candidates.

  2. wait, i’m confused. are these the same people who want to take guns away from citizens and give them only to the police?

    • As they saying goes, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

      I’ve known Black people in Chiraq who BOTH:
      1. Supported the handgun ban.
      2. Illegally owned handguns.

      “Cognitive dissonance” indeed.

      • “Cognitive dissonince” indeed.”

        Actually, no. Good tactics, though. Agitate for people to be disarmed so that you won’t face return fire.

    • They have it backwards. Cops, and all other non military government employees, should be disarmed and citizens should carry weapons.

  3. surest way to get shot is to utilize a vehicle in a threatening way towards an officer, assuming their side of the story is not exaggerated of course. That said, having the police in front of you car is not always necessary it seems.

    recent shooting in my neck of the woods recently…of course guy killed was white so probably did not make national news. Cops claimed he was trying to kill others with car, to others looks like he was trying to simply nudge cars out of the way to get away and off the onramp onto the highway. you be the judge.

    • Looks like he he was nudging cars? He floored into cars in front of him and almost reversed over a bunch of officers. Definitely a deadly threat.

    • The cop coming up on the driver’s side window lodging himself between the guard rail and the vehicle was very foolish. That was begging to die there.
      I can’t figure out when the first shots happened, but the second the truck ran into the driver’s side door of that car in front of him, it should have been lights out for the driver of that truck. I take it that it was.

      • yeah at about the 1:30 mark they started shooting, audio works in the follow-on angle later in the video. the ironic thing is that this was a case of mistaken identity initially…police were looking for a similar vehicle from another crime and when they tailed this guy, he must have had something to hide because he ran. I feel bad for the passengers…they always seem to get bullet ridden regardless of the 5ft range of the shooters. the smoke was from tires and engine being redlined after he was already dead…his foot/reflexes hit the horn/gas and engine basically blew up before it finally quieted down. I was 100yds away in another building. this was maybe 50ft from a large mall’s parking garage and had many spectators.

    • Once he began driving erratically while officers were approaching the truck, he forfeited his license to breath. Why? Because he had ample warning to surrender. If he was willing to jeopardize the lives of the officers and the innocent bystanders in their vehicles, why would they let him continue?

      Life is not GTA. There is no reset once you accidentally kill someone.

    • yeah, clearly justified. In fact, the dude in the little car that got rammed into the rail should have been the one to take the shot.

  4. Based on Barstow demographics those white supremacist cops have a 50/50 shot at being black or hispanic.

    Also, don’t try to flee the scene and you incease your odds of not getting shot by 100%

    • Unless you’re in your backyard with a cell phone, in your car with a legally carried firearm, lying on the ground at a hotel in Arizona, or walking out on your porch after the police were sent to SWAT someone else…

        • Nah, he was just a cop, and in many instances, that’s justification enough for him to shoot somebody who isn’t. Ask Emma Hernandez, Margie Carranza and David Perdue.

      • Unfortunately, I have to agree. While many cops are certainly good people, the majority tend to be trigger happy ‘roid junkies with a power complex, who enjoy hurting people because it makes them feel big and strong. Maybe because they were picked on in school, but if that’s the case, they were probably picked on because they weren’t the brightest bulbs on the tree.

        A job where one can shoot people without repurcussion will generally attract that type of individual. While no police department worth its Krispy Kremes ought to consider that type of individual for cleaning the bathrooms, much less an officer of the law, almost all of them are now made up primarily of those guys. At first, they started hiring them because they were having a really hard time staying staffed and werere desperate for any warm bodies (and no wonder, when they’re paying $30k/yr – it’s not a desireable career choice for the vast majority of people). Eventually, those old guard retired and those “bad apples” rose to leadership positions, though, and those power-hungry jackasses are now hired because the department has become a govt-backed gang itself, riddled with corruption, and seeks them out.

        And don’t give me the “it’s a hard job, cut them slack” crap. They all knew that going in, assuming they the IQ to process information of that magnitude. The first rule of police work isn’t “go home tonight.” It’s “protect and serve.” Be willing to sacrifice everything. Be willing to defend the weak and innocent, at any cost, becuase they can’t protect themselves – and that’s ok. If that statement even gives you the slightest pause, you’re in the wrong line of work.

        Soldiers do it every day. Cops talk all the time about how they’re “warriors” and their territory’s a “war zone.” So if that’s true, what makes you think you’re above sacrifice?

        • “While some cops are certainly good people, the vast majority are trigger happy ‘roid junkies with a power complex, who enjoy hurting people because it makes them feel big and strong. Maybe because they were picked on in school, but if that’s the case, they were probably picked on because they weren’t the brightest bulbs on the tree.”

          I know that you won’t believe me, but when you post something like this, replete with overstated hyperbole and ridiculous generalization, you are only making yourself appear as an absolute idiot. Such a ridiculous claim leads the rest of us to believe that you have had your face rubbed in the dirt by a cop at some point, because you did something incredibly stupid with your life, and that you now bear a grudge because you ‘fought the law, and the law won.’
          What was it, a DWI? Disorderly conduct? Spousal abuse? Child molesting? How drunk or high were you? Did you crap your pants, or just p*ss yourself? Who held your beer? How long did you spend behind bars?
          Don’t bother to deny it; Nobody’s going to believe you, anyway.

        • I have never had a bad interaction with police. I have had, maybe 10 encounters, of any type. I never trust the cop. I never aggravate the cop. I never do anything “normal” when in the presence of a cop; I am very slow and deliberate, telling the cop what/which move I am about to make (even scratching my nose). There can never be a good outcome from trusting a cop to have your best interest at heart.

          I learned that LE considers everyone who is not a cop to be a “scumbag who just hasn’t been caught”. In one episode, in an auditorium full of LE, I was forcefully informed that anyone who needs social services provided through charitable organizations is likely already a criminal.

          Cops do not trust or respect me. I respect only the fact that a cop can end your day, forever. Which is simply a restatement of Col. Cooper’s Oplan.

        • And you’d be dead wrong, John in AK. I’ve never been arrested or have a record of any kind (one speeding ticket; my fault). I have a brother who’s on the force. I do quite a bit of work for my local sheriff’s department, in which I have several very good friends. I’m fortunate to live in an area where the sheriff (and at least most his force) respect the people of their county and very much live up to the standard of true protecting and serving. He’s pretty quick to get rid of the types I’m describing in the original post.

          Funny how those pre-conceptions get you into trouble isn’t it? You see, unlike you, I’m not spouting hyperbole or throwing out guesses based on my pin-headed view of the world. I’m analyzing facts, and making statements based on them. Which means that my conclusions are probably correct – and that makes you terribly uncomfortable. Wonder why, John?

        • “….my conclusions are probably correct…”

          It seems fair to observe that so far, all you can correctly conclude is that you haven’t yet been the victim of an abuse of power at the hands of police.

        • Not sure what it’s like in your neck of the woods but in any major metro city or county less than 3 percent of law enforcement applicants will ever actually be hired and or pass there probationary period. Any major city or county LEA has literally tens if not close to a hundred thousand applicants a year, it’s one of the best jobs you can get without a STEM degree. Soldiers prioritize there own lives over civilians as a rule, untold numbers of middle easterners have died because soldiers also don’t take unnecessary chances if they can help it, and are primarily concerned with “going home” and not much else. It’s a great and expansive historical mythology that men at arms are there to “serve and protect” you, it’s propaganda. If you’ve grown up so privileged as to actually feel entitled to being “served and protected” by them, then your just not in on the joke, that’s not the way any country has ever worked including the U.S..

  5. “The answer has to do with how frequently blacks commit other crimes.”
    ” According to the FBI in 2014 (the must current numbers I could locate) blacks were arrested and charged with murder 4224 times.”
    The assumption there is that because they are arrested and charged more, they have committed more of these crimes. This is an assumption that is impossible to prove or disprove, but it is an assumption non-the-less. The often used, and maybe valid, maybe not, argument is that poor black people do not have a higher violent crime rate than poor white people, they just get arrested and charged more often for it. This is, again, impossible to prove or disprove.
    Prisons are full of guilty people, and so is everywhere else. They just haven’t been caught.

    • IQ is the primary indicator of earning potential and propensity towards violence.

      The more appropriate statement is that prison is full of stupid people and so is everywhere else.

    • Having grown up very poor at the decaying edge of a major east coast city in the late 60’s, I have experienced living near all manner of people in the same condition. Every flavor except Asian at that time.

      IN MY EXPERIENCE (argue if you will, call me names) the poor white folks worked hard to make the best of things. “Welfare” was an extreme embarrassment. Get off of it ASAP.

      The harshest language I have EVER heard about the low-life blacks was from my black neighbor (and friend) using descriptive terms I can not and will not use here. He HATED being associated with “them.” His upstanding life was tainted by those who looked like him, but acted in a manner that appropriately brought the attention of LE. If you haven’t lived “there,” you can’t truly understand it.

      Is profiling sucky? You bet. Are some unfairly treated? You bet. Is there a reason for profiling? You bet.

      Does this justify shooting anyone? No. If you want to discuss profiling, as a vet who has done a tour in the sandbox. Ask them how they look at people. As you enter a hostile environment, you start doing threat assessment.

      A cop just want to go home at night safe and alive? Well, duh.

    • There’s a good argument to be made for that when it comes to certain offenses. For instance, we know from anonymous surveys that whites and blacks both use and sell drugs at roughly the same rate, yet blacks are arrested for it 2-3 times as often. The same multiplier pops up in arrests for frequent “catchall” offenses like Disorderly Conduct.

      Crimes like murder are a different story, though. Dead bodies are hard to ignore. Both conviction data and victimization studies agree that violent crime is overwhelmingly intra-racial – which means applying the “differential enforcement” hypothesis to murder would imply law enforcement is turning a blind eye to the murders of white people. Not a likely prospect.

      • If you believe ex-cop Dale Carson, who wrote in his book “Arrest Proof Yourself”, that the disparity between blacks and whites in drug arrests is that the white drug user is probably doing drugs inside his own home or otherwise out of sight of the street where lazy cops in cars can’t see them. The black drug user is probably in public, hanging out on the street. The cop needs a warrant to search the white guy’s house. The black guy is a stop and frisk away from an arrest. Cops being lazy they go for the easy arrest.

        Carson also points out that the white guy probably has a home address, a calendar, a watch and a wife or old lady who does own one of those if he doesn’t. The black guy sleeps on couches or floors or with his baby mama of the month. So the white guy makes his court dates, parole officer meetings, and gets calls from his lawyer so he gets off on probation or stays out on parole. Where the black guy misses his court date gets a bench warrant and goes to jail without passing GO.

        • Watch cop shows like Cops or Live PD and notice there are some people who the cops ask, “Where do you live?” and others who they ask, “Where do you stay?”

  6. I don’t see why anyone takes Gawker’s ‘The Root’ seriously, aside from a telling window into the far left. They’re all about 100% race card all the time and are consistently disgustingly racist themselves.

  7. Call me culturally insensitive or chronically undereducated but what the heck is a “Shape-shifting slave patrol?”

  8. Finally an article with the stats. Now make the table legible. I’ve tried to show people these stats, but they never change their opinion, which they’re entitled to…

  9. As I keep saying, this isn’t a black vs. cop problem or a white vs. cop problem — this is a cop vs. citizen problem. Cops will kill anybody at any time simply because they can. And who wants to take away your gun even more than a demorat? Your local chief LEO. Cops need to be reminded that they work for us, not the other way around. It says so right in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. And police abuse isn’t just the headline shootings; the problem goes much deeper than that. Get the facts about our out-of-control cops at policemisconduct.net.

    • “Your local chief LEO. ”
      Maybe where you live, but not where I live. The Texas DPS executive director has testified on multiple occasions that there is no evidence to suggest concealed carry holders are a threat. He went on record that he didn’t think open carry would be a threat to his officers, and that he only needed some time to reeducate his officers that it would not longer be a crime.
      My local Sherriff (which to be fair is about an hour away) and Constable are the same way, big 2A supporters, and regularly shoot at my place.

  10. Good lord! Edit, proofread and copyedit, fer chissakes! And format properly!

    That’d rate a D- when I was in school. So maybe a C+ these days? Sheesh.

    • “Good lord! Edit, proofread and copyedit, fer chissakes! And format properly! That’d rate a D- when I was in school. So maybe a C+ these days? Sheesh.”

      So true about this article.

      I’m not a perfect writer either, especially when I write extemporaneously. I make lots of mistakes in grammar, composition, verbiage and word choice. But I spend about twice or three times as much time proofing what I write to try to eliminate those errors…out of consideration for my readers.

      No one will like this comment. But I think left-wing writers do better than do right-wing writers. And, having read enough comments by lefties in comment sections and about us I also know it’s a contributing factor to why they think we’re uneducated.

      Presentation’s not everything. But it’s also not unimportant.

    • Yes, please! This article is full of sentences that either have typos or are poorly constructed:

      “His friends and relatives are, as you’d imagine, is devastated.”

      “If that’s the case, why do they make up almost twice the percentage of those who are shot and killed?”

      “First, it’s extremely rare for police officers don’t shoot anyone of any color. ”

      This is a really interesting article — but the grammatical errors are distracting and reduce its impact. Thank you.

      • You don’t “clean up” direct quotes.

        Other than that, remember that this is a blog, not a literature class. Speed typing and speed reading are the norm.

        Also…..

        We are getting all this stuff free.

  11. Blacks don’t commit crimes disproportionately to their population. There’s a perfectly rational explanation. The racist cops let white, Asian, and Hispanic rapists and murderers go free while over enforcing in the black community and framing innocent black men.

    • When I encounter a stranger I feel most comfortable with the races in the following order (from most to least comfortable): white, oriental, Hispanic, black, cops.

      • “Mouse, so only whites can be racist?????????????”

        Wow. I thought that was “settled science”.

        It has been proven to exhaustion that if you are a person who was subjected to racism, and you respond by acting in what would normally be a racist manner, such person is not a racist, but a justified victim responding in righteous anger.

        So….NO, no one other than the oppressor can be a racist.

        How much more simple does it need to be?

        • Academia in the 70’s is about the only time and place that belief was settled on. That definition of racism is about as commonly accepted as flat earth.

  12. Today, there are so many things that separate the U.S. citizenry into warring camps that I am often concerned about our resilience as a nation.

    I can imagine that we could breakup much like Yugoslavia did into smaller enclaves perpetually at war with one another.

    Once, we weren’t like this.

    • Hugh? The whole founding concept of our country was as a lose confederation of 13 different self governing states. We literally had a civil war. Ever see Gangs of New York? Ethnically based tribalized crime and violence is the rule in American history, not the exception. If by “once” you mean two to at most three generations during the 20th century and only counting whites then ok, but that’s only normal to you cause your world view is only as broad as your own life time.

  13. On a side note it’s crazy how anti-police and anti-white leftists get each time this happens. Not exactly the smartest strategy to take considering the elections are now around the corner.

    Of course, I fully expect the #NeverTrump crowd to sit that out. To show us a lesson or whatever stupid Boomer logic they need to rationalize it. So it might not mean much.

  14. “First, it’s extremely rare for police officers DON’T shoot anyone of any color.”

    You mean:
    “First, it’s extremely rare for police officers TO shoot anyone of any color.”

  15. “White supremacists with badges.”

    Most of the people I’ve seen throwing Gestapo accusations in the Barstow region are low-mid income whites. And there are a LOT of accusations.

    From the stuff I’ve seen from Barstow in recent years, I would not be surprised to learn that ‘accelerated towards us’ really meant ‘desperately swerved to miss us after we jumped in front of him’ (which would of course be murder if it happened that way).

  16. It seems this young man has a history, convicted of child abuse, assault on an officer, pointing a shotgun at people and discharging in the air all before this incident. If this is true, the story he tried to ram the cops is easy to believe. Bad cops exist, but its all too easy to allow the media to convict cops in the media before the facts come out. I would not want their job in a million years….

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/walmart-police-shooting-black-man-unarmed-car-california-barstow-a8308986.html

    • Ya the fact that they are already busting out the white supremacist slave patrol schtick tells me a. There’s corroborating witness and or clear video evidence, and b. He tried to run over the cops.

    • Grumpy, how right you are. Just check their background
      and they come back with a lot of dirt.

      These “folks” as Barama would call them, are not your
      model countrymen. Sad to say but true.

  17. Meh. My local cops are generally revenue enhancers. I could easily see my southern Cook county town erupting after a bad copstop…and my city is one of the “best” for po-leece interaction. Many other nearby towns are notoriously bad for police pricks. In Chiraq I’m incredulous there isn’t MORE rioting.

    • While I believe that there is racism in play in some of these cases, I see a far more fundamental contempt for ANYONE who’s not a cop.

      Chicago cop Tony Abbate tried to stomp barmaid Karolina Obrycka to death, and in the words of Weird Al, she’s “whiter than sour cream”. Her unforgivable “sin” was to defy a drunken cop. Then the rank and file lined up behind Abbate, both in attempts to intimidate the victim, her employer and co-workers, then in VERY ostentatious shows of public support for the perpetrator.

      Cops may despise and abuse you because you’re Black, but it’s just as likely that they’ll despise and abuse you just because you’re not a cop.

      “If you’re not cop, you’re little people” isn’t just a movie line. In some places it’s SOP.

  18. “First, let’s stipulate that every individual instance of anyone shot and killed by police is a tragedy, no matter the circumstances.”

    No, let’s not stipulate to any such ridiculous thing. Instead, let’s stipulate that sometimes it’s justice.

    • Word. I’ve had 2 cousins from my generation killed by the cops and 1 killed proving you can’t rape a .38. At least one of the cop killed was told by me that if he came around me again I would shoot his scummy ass.

      All lily white and all needing killing. I also have a cousin that is half white, half black. He’s been golden his whole life.

      Does any of this prove anything? No. I don’t relax around any stranger, regardless of race til I get to know them.

      • Any cop I don’t know personally is just a stranger with a gun.

        I neither know, nor CAN know his motivations.

        Assuming, without proof, that he means me well is an invitation to disaster.

        I treat cops like hitchhikers.

        Not all hitchhikers are serial killers.

        Some are.

        I don’t pick up hitchhikers.

        Not all cops are violent, racist sociopaths.

        Some are.

        I avoid contact with the police to the greatest possible degree, and conduct myself in ways which facilitate that lack of interaction.

        • Well, aren’t you special. Just so you know……most folks try to avoid ‘official’ interactions with cops. Not out of fear of being shot, if that is truly your fear you need therapy. Or do you also avoid cars cause they kill folks every year?

          Most of us don’t like to be called to task, and have to pay the fines, for our poor driving decisions. It really is that simple. Most of us hate to be told we were being stupid, even when we were. It’s kinda like the 2 yo blaming the adult for catching him in the cookie jar.

          In a nation with 330 million + folks and less than a million cops if you are really living in fear of randomly being shot by a cop then you have serious issues.

      • Be neither trusting, nor frustrating when facing a cop with a drawn weapon. You may be “right”, but what is the value of being “dead right”?

    • Certainly the shooting death by police of the Somali “car and knife” jihadist at Ohio State brought no tears to my eyes.

  19. “Are there bad cops? Yes, there are. Just like there are bad plumbers, auto mechanics and accountants.”

    But if, as in the case of the Chicago PD’s “SOS” home invasion crew, they break down my door and try to rob me, I can light those “bad plumbers, auto mechanics and accountants” up with my AR and THEY don’t automatically become the “victims”.

    Cops like the ones who murdered Kathryn Johnston feel that they have impunity… and for a very long time, they were right. The fact that the actions of the cops who shot Emma Hernandez, Margie Carranza, David Perdue, Levar Jones and Charles Kinsey have been called into question drive police unions and fanbois into an insane rage. Of course the attempted murderers of Hernandez, Carranza and Perdue have never been punished, and the victims were subjected to a despicable circus before they were compensated.

    I don’t give a damn about Michael Brown or Trayvon Martin. They might just as well have shot themselves. The people I care about are the TOTALLY INNOCENT people shot by police, like Charles Kinsey. The police have far more hatred for him and David Perdue than they EVER had for Mumia Abu Jamal, and the handcuffing of Kinsey and the attempt to allow him to bleed out without treatment out prove it. Mumia Abu Jamal shot one cop. Charles Kinsey shot the “thin blue line” narrative right between the eyes.

    • This.

      For those who don’t know:

      Officer Jonathan Aledda really protected and served the sh!t out of Kinsey — an unarmed mental health therapist who was trying to take care of an equally unarmed patient — while Kinsey was laying prone on the ground.

      The three goons who murdered Kathryn Johnston, after bursting into the wrong home on a “no-knock” warrant, also planted dope at the scene and received short sentences for their trouble. Disgraceful.

      Emma Hernandez and Margie Carranza were shot at (only one of them was hit) for the horrible crime of delivering newspapers during the Dorner “pursuit;” their shooters got off and they got paid $4.2 million. If it was $42 million then maybe this would all stop. David Perdue, a surfer, was shot at during the same Dorner incident and received $1.8 million. The three victims should celebrate the fact that cops are terrible shots.

      Levar Jones was stopped for a seatbelt violation and shot while his hands were up. After he was shot, a wounded Jones plaintively asked, ““What did I do, sir? Why did you shoot me?” The punk who pulled the trigger said at his trial, ““I realize now that I misread body language.” Please tell me, how does anyone misread hands-up?

      Martin and Brown were thugs who got what they got.

      • Two minor corrections:

        1. Margie Carranza was wounded by bullet and glass fragments, whereas Emma Hernandez was shot in the back.
        2. Levar Jones didn’t have his hands up. He was ordered to retrieve his license. He was shot for complying with that order by reaching into his vehicle.

        Regarding 2 above, I’ve seen Jones blamed for reaching into his vehicle while OBEYING A DIRECT ORDER. The excuse is that “cops are scared”. Yet those same people tell the lie, “Obey all orders by police promptly and you are in no danger of being shot.”

        We’re supposed to believe SIMULTANEOUSLY that:
        1. Cops are highly trained and should be the ONLY ones with firearms.
        2. Cops are so dangerously on edge, that you must weigh EVERY movement you make, EVEN under DIRECT ORDERS, lest you be shot.

  20. I’m sorry, if you are behind the wheel of a car, you are most definitely not unarmed…so let’s correct that error immediately.

    • So then Emma Hernandez, Margie Carranza and David Perdue deserved to be shot to death by the LAPD and Torrance PD?

      • I don’t believe that was mentioned or implied….but the idea that a person behind the wheel of a car is unarmed is a common fallacy that we would all benefit from dispelling.

  21. Commiefornia. So they will allow the riots cause rounding up protesters seems worse to them than half of the town looted or burned down. Still waiting for the day there absolutely brave black people dare to riot somewhere in rural Texas…

  22. It’d be a big step in the right direction if we all would just let the courts, and a jury of peers decide this crap before everyone else decides with bits of here-say, if even that.

    Whether you are shot dead while committing a crime (or not) or did the shooting, justified or not, it seems you can never get your life back.

  23. I mean, ignoring any racial component, cops do kill a lot of people. At least if you believe there are massive numbers of people kills in mass shootings. About 450 people were killed in mass shootings in 2017. Police killed twice as many people as were killed in mass shootings last year.

    No matter how you feel about it, there ARE a significant number of people killed for no good cause each year by police. Is it hundreds? Dozens? We don’t really know because as far as I know the numbers aren’t published. There are at least monthly stories about police killing people holding cell phones. Or they “moved towards their waist” with no gun found. We also know police DO plant guns sometimes. Sometimes apparently they plant toy guns. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8xvzwp/baltimore-cops-carried-toy-guns-to-plant-on-people-they-shot-trial-reveals-vgtrn

    86 people in 2015 and 2016 were shot and killed, found with toy guns.

    Yes, sometimes people do have an “inappropriate reaction” when they encounter cops with guns. Cops are also often WAY too trigger happy and in some case there is absolutely nothing to justify a police involved shooting.

    Mistakes happen, but you know what? A fatal mistake absolutely means you are in a the WRONG line of work. Unless it turns out that there is evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that would support that the officer really should have felt that their life was in danger, then they need to be terminated with a permanent ban from ever being hired in policing or security again. Someone shot and killed with a cell phone in their hand? For failing to comply fast enough? Because they ran away? Sorry, if the evidence can’t support murder charges, it should still be grounds for termination and black listing. Yes, it is a dangerous job cops do, but they haven’t chosen it and at least most cops wear body armor and are armed and likely already have a gun leveled on a person. Most people police have interactions with didn’t choose to have a police interaction (because most people police interact with have done absolutely nothing wrong), probably almost no one ever has been wearing body armor during said interaction and many of the people shot and killed by cops weren’t armed or presenting an actual threat.

  24. Lol, another “gud boi just doin nuffin”. Im sure he was an aspiring rapper/entrepneaur just trying to get his life back to together. Just remember fellow white people, around blacks DO NOT relax. Im all for strict gun control and vehicle restrictions for blacks, as well. Lets stop this needless black violence.

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