Tuesday, December 1, 2015

The View

Here's why the video you see on the TV news may not necessarily reflect the whole truth. Watch video 1. Good shoot? I bet you say no. Now, watch video 2. Good shoot? I bet you change your mind. Note: contrary to what some would have you believe, that is NOT a cell phone in the subject's hand. It's a gun.

Note: I was contacted by someone who states that he works for the agency involved in this shooting, and that the object in the subject hand was, in fact, a cell phone - not a gun (see comment below by jrd151). Regardless, the shooting was deemed justified. I try to be as accurate as possible with information I post with such videos. If I failed in this instance, the fault is entirely mine.


5 comments:

Mad Jack said...

From the safety of my armchair and without any pressure or time limit to decide the proper course of action, I'd say...

As the bad guy raises his gun in a two handed grip, one policeman begins to grapple with him but is somewhat hampered by his instinct for self-preservation. If he grapples and goes to ground, the bad guy might easily get off a shot at him with the barrel pressed up against his head, or arm, or leg - and he'll be crippled up for life. So he backs off.

The bad guy aims, another cop ducks and the bad guy torches one off. Okay, that's more than enough for me. Fightin' has commenced.

I think I would have aimed for his buttocks. One hit will drop him and he'll likely lose interest in returning fire. But then, who can say for sure? Under a lot of pressure I might miss, which is not good. So, just aim for the bad guy and keep shooting until he drops.

He dropped and the cops stopped shooting.

You're right about the two videos. The first one looks pretty questionable, and you can't really see what he's got in his hand. I did see the shot in the first video, and after that I called it a good shoot.

Thanks for the post.

Anonymous said...

Is this a good shoot? Yes. Does that mean there arent any bad shoots? No.

Unknown said...

As a member of the agency involved in this shooting I feel it is necessary to correct your statement that the object in the bad guy's hand is a gun. It WAS a cell phone. The shoot was still good, but accurate information needs to be put out to the people reading your blog.

Thank you in advance for correcting this misstatement.

Officer Cynical said...

@jrd151 - I don't doubt you for a minute. I'm going off an archived news report that the object in the subject's hand was a gun, not a phone as had been earlier reported. So, I'm posting your comment as well as making an addition to the original post. Thanks for your input.

Unknown said...

Thanks Officer Cynical. We know how accurate the media is don't we? ;-)