I need mod points. Perfect explanation. +1

You don't? Cause this is one of two responses I already expected. Everyone is biased- ALWAYS.

I was originally going to add a caveat, but didn't want to adulterate your response. That thought was: Since the police are special, perhaps they should have a different set of rules. Slam dunk cases involving us, the common man, shouldn't be pursued, but if a cop shoots anybody, then they should have to defend it. I'd be ok with that and it would satisfy both of our needs for transparency and hopefully bring a more complete and just sense of closure for those involved.

You hunt for food. When I was young I shot things for fun. Don't you hate it when weirdos like me support your claims? It's like getting a defense donation from the KKK.....

Our cops need to quit being pussies. The best (from a technical standpoint) cops I've ever met were the Japanese Police. The time frame is 1997 so things may be different now. They did not carry sidearms. I do believe they had a rifles and such in the trunk, but all they carried on their persons was a night stick. That is all they needed. While American cops sit around the station getting fat on donuts, JPs are getting blackbelts. They are real ninjas. They do not need a gun to deal with you. The guy (cause that's all I ever saw, don't know if they have women JPs) would tell you ONE time to do something and if you weren't steppin, you unexpectedly found your ass on the ground, and if you twitched the wrong way, you got an ass beating with the stick. The overall point is, you took that ass beating, but you were alive unlike here you end up shot even while handcuffed (not claiming this happened in this case!). The over riding theme was, as a soldier (Army, Torii Station), I'd give the MPs/SPs bullshit all the time, but you DID NOT fuck with the JPs. They make Marines look like cry babies.

But isn't one of the "problems" the police claim in states where pot is legal, is that the tests might say you've been smoking pot, but that you can't tell if someone is high at an exact moment, say at a traffic stop? Also, so what he was smoking pot? Pot doesn't make people go into murderous rages. You don't still buy in to that reefer madness shit do you?

You might be the first person I've seen post this perspective and you aren't the only one who shares it. We all know the police have turned into jackbooted thugs, that racism is real, and that they are so wrangled in they fight each other rather than lift each other up because evidently so many are hopeless. The way the case appears though, the shooting was justified. It may not agree with what we had hoped but it is what it is. That in no way solves the problem that in that area, evidently, the police are assumed to be hostile and are treated as such when confronted. It further does nothing to address the hopelessness that makes people have to resort to drugs and crime. So maybe this shooting was justified, but as you point out, the people there are fed up. Something isn't right and they're pointing fingers right at the police. This was bound to happen and will happen again without fixing the root cause. People have limits to the bullshit they'll put up with.

I doubt that response will stop any of the diehards though. They'll just claim he "doesn't know the facts" but really, he's the President. Wouldn't you think he'd know more than the average basement dweller?

I, too, have obliterated small animals for fun, and can confirm his conclusions.

Really? Your non-position sounds an awful lot like a position opposite what dirk expressed.

Preach on brotha! I hate it when I have too many perspectives to choose from!

You don't read the same /. I do.

EXACTLY

Sounds like the righty got a blister from jacking his AR15 off :(

That means the same thing. You just used more words to say it. The technicality of whether you did or did not do something has no bearing if everyone pretends like you didn't. The outcome is the desired effect,not the means by which you achieved it. Your spin-fu is weak.