Cop Shooting Thread

It is not illegal to have a gun in a car. Heck, they even get to skip to the next step, you know the part where they ask you if you have a gun in the car because they already know there’s a gun in the car. So what? He’s not threatening anyone. He’s not pointing it at anyone. There was no valid reason to suspect there was danger or a threat here until the cops got involved.

I don’t think they would have called if it was a white man just hanging out in his car. Reading, sleeping, black men get put in danger for just doing what everyone else gets to do.

What would have happened if this guy woke up and just drove away… probably nothing. Now he’s dead.

It’s not a crazy scenario. Black men get called on for just being around their cars whereas other people who do the same thing do not engage the police at all because people do not call the police on them.

You don’t think the Taco Bell employees would have called the cops if it was a white guy with his car idling in the drive-through, asleep, with a gun in his lap?

I think people going to Taco Bell high, drunk and who know what else is not new. No. They don’t call the cops on everyone. I’d be curious to hear the 911 call. Did they call and say hey, someone is in the drive thru. He might have passed out or something. He could need help and we see a gun. Or holy shit a black man with a gun, come hurry!

hey look:

when employees reported a driver slumped over in a car at the drive-thru.

So I’m sure the ambulance and the fire truck were on the way right. A man is in trouble.

You have more exciting Taco Bells than I have around here.

To be clear, here’s my position:

  1. it was not unreasonable for the Taco Bell employees to call the cops

  2. once #1 happens, I expect the cops to respond.

  3. Once the cops respond, and they see a guy with a gun visible in his lap and not responding, it’s not unreasonable for the cops to try and address the situation, rather than just shrugging and driving away.

  4. stuff gets a bit unknowable from here, depending on what actually went down, which we don’t have the full details of, yet.

I think 1-3 are all reasonable, whether the dude is black, white, or other.

You call 911 when you think someone is in trouble:

If they think someone is in trouble, it shouldn’t just be cops called to the scene. First responders include more than that.

First responders put their lives on the line all the time, and while it would be nice to always know everything is in the clear, those EMT and fire truck arrivals often arrive before the police.

At what point did they even decide he was not having a heart-attack and needed help but decided he was just a threat that needed to be contained.

I don’t think this would have happened if he was not a black man. 25 shots for being slumped over in a car… read that a few times.

Welp, this is our main point of disagreement, then. Based on the what facts are available now, I’m not certain of that conclusion. Contrast that to other stories where it’s almost certain to me that its race driving things (e.g., more everyday situations where it seems more likely than not that race was the main factor).

I think it’s perfectly reasonable to call the police on anyone falling asleep in a drive through with a gun visible on their lap. It’s a weird situation and no minimum wage kids should have to intervene there. But the police response was way overboard and led to this kid dying. I hope the camera footage is clear, however it turns out.

I just want to know if they called 911 and told them they thought someone was having trouble. It’s not unusual cal 911, but if they called it in as a threat… yeah that’s unusual. When you call 911 you don’t have to make a judgment call but if they actually told them he was slumped over in his car, like that article says, that indicates a medical emergency, not a threat like how the police seemed to treat it, immediately. Unless the emergency repsonders were there and no one mentions they were… anywhere.

Some dude sitting in the drive-through with a gun in his lap is in fact a thing that normal person would report to the police as a threat.

The police claim they found the gun, not that they were told it was there. The original call should have been one about concern.

Upon arrival, the officers said, they noticed a handgun in the driver’s lap and called for backup.

If that original call was about a threat and not medical assistance, then yeah, they didn’t respond like you’d expect a lot of people to respond, if they called at all, that a human being was slumped in his car and might need actual help.

White men with guns get arrested all the time. The Parkland shooter was arrested, in fact. Here are just two examples. But sleeping black guy with a gun gets killed, no questions asked? Wonder what the difference could be.


You point to two completely different circumstances as some sort of categorical proof? Is your argument busted if I point to two articles of white guys with guns getting shot and two articles of black guys with guns getting arrested?

Look, if your point is that any story where a black guy is shot is proof that race was the primary factor, than there’s no real reason to discuss anything.

My point is the guy was sleeping and he was simply … shot. Shot 25 times. Given how often black men are shot in circumstances that are not warranted and how police are perfectly capable of arresting men with guns without simply openly firing points to something amiss. But since you seem to think the police can summarily execute anyone they want because they are afraid, and that that seems to happen with alarming frequency if the suspect is black - there’s not much point in discussing it with you.

You know what makes them completely different, the white guys presented an actual threat. This guy was in a car with a gun. He didn’t do anything except exhibit what most not racist people would say is a potential medical event.

So yeah, not the same.

You know this based on the info released so far? The guy dozed off with a gun in his lap. Is it beyond conceivable to you that being startled awake, he went for his gun? Now, that may or may not have actually happened as alleged by the police, but that’s the only side of the story we have so far and it doesn’t sound completely unreasonable to me.

One last time, at which I’ll likely stop commenting on this particular story until more info comes out, the circumstances are downright weird. Weird enough that I don’t jump to “yeah, this was about race.” You guys seem to think this type of thing is par for the course and clearly exhibits racial bias on the existing info alone, but I don’t.

On the medical event issue, I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect any first responder, whether police, fire, or EMT, to walk up to a guy sleeping in a Taco Bell drive through with a gun in his lap and render aid until the issue of the gun is first addressed. I’m sure there are some first responders somewhere in this country who would bravely do that, but I don’t have any expectation that they should do that simply because they’re first responders.

So they killed him just in case? I can’t phantom how you believe that is a rational course of action.

Did you read the article? The cops story (and I recognize it is a one-sided story at this point) is that he woke up while they were blocking in the car and went for his gun. If that’s not true and they did, indeed shoot him while he was asleep, then yes, that’s straight up murder. But that’s not the established facts, at this time.

Yet, based on the current set of info in what appears to be a bizarre situation, your assumption/unshakeable conclusion is that they shot him because he’s black.

Based on the information provided so far, a man unexpectedly stopped responding in a drive-thru. The employees called the cops. No EMTs in sight. They have no idea what is going on with him at this point, not a clue. Cops show up, see a gun. Absolutely nothing illegal at this point, no crime. They start boxing someone who is unaware they are there based on a some phantom threat, phantom because there is no reason, none at all, for them to to have to force a dangerous situation here. He wakes up and they fucking shoot him 25 times, 25 times!

Why is it so hard for you to fathom that a bunch of cops that unloaded their guns might be, oh I don’t know, not the best reliable source. You keep acting like this is so unusual, so strange, well of course our cops would just shoot the shit out of someone they put in a dangerous situation themselves… except they are the ones that put their lives at risk and for what?

I know first responders. They’re going to want to help someone who is in trouble. They didn’t even know the gun was there when they called, and that’s according to the cops, you know, the ones that you trust completely at their word. They say they didn’t know the gun was there until they arrived, but you don’t believe that but you totally buy that a a man woke up, in his car, and deserved to get shot 25 times?

You’re right, there is something weird about this, but it’s not what you’re claiming.

I’m (more or less) with you on 1-3, but then I think we know a bit more than you’re letting on here. The black man apparently shot no one at all, and the police killed him with 25 shots.

I’m even finding it hard to understand what danger the guy posed; even if he woke up and went for the gun, by the time he woke up and went for the gun there was or should have been no one for him to shoot at. Who is he a danger to?

I mean, I get police shot him because they were frightened, but really, fuck that. That’s not their job.