(10-04-2013, 11:22 AM)eppie Wrote: I also read some more now. The woman was shot by several police officers when she got out of the car UNARMED. Friends told media that she was suffering from a post-natal depression.
That was probably an overreaction, although I know if I'd been one of those cops in the video, I'd have certainly been pretty agitated - they almost got run over, even after they'd surrounded her.
Post-natal depression is terrifying and deserves our utmost sympathy, but sometimes it makes you do completely horrifying things. And in this case, the cops didn't really have much time for psychoanalysis. Decisions must be made in high-adrenaline situations in a very short time with extremely limited information.
Quote:So yes she tried to crash some gates, but shooting an unarmed person is being your own judge, or lynching I don't know how you want to call it.
It's certainly not a lynching. Police are legally allowed to use lethal force where they feel lives are threatened. (In this case, presumably, theirs...) I agree this was almost certainly an overreaction. But watching the video, it doesn't surprise me that something went wrong. This was not someone signalling that they were sane and harmless, and the grain of truth in FIT's screed is that the police are going to be quicker on the trigger if they think someone is trying to threaten the government.
Quote:It also makes the whole fleeing thing a lot more understandable.....whenever in the US the cops try to stop you just flee because you have a 9 out of 10 chance that they will start shooting at you.
You think, if she'd just rammed the barrier, then walked out of her car and surrendered, she would have been shot? Maybe. US police do start shooting far too quickly, although 9/10 chance is way, way overstated. Here, though, I think she upped the ante herself - again, watch the video. The police appear to be keeping their composure, right up until she nearly runs them over while escaping, after ramming a police vehicle. It looked like something out of Grand Theft Auto. Which is not to say that they should have shot her. But this is not Amadou Diallo. She was clearly putting lives, including the police, in danger.
-Jester