Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, 54, died Tuesday during the arrest of occupation ringleader Ammon Bundy and six others during a traffic stop near the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. His death was captured on video taken from a police helicopter that shot footage as Finicum, in a white truck, was pursued and ultimately confronted and killed by Oregon State Police officers.
“I want to caution you that the video does show the shooting death of LaVoy Finicum,” said Greg Bretzing, the special agent in charge of the FBI field office in Portland. “We realize that viewing that piece of the video will be upsetting to some people, but we feel that it is necessary to show the whole thing unedited in the interest of transparency.”
Supporters of the militants who took over the refuge had claimed Finicum was gunned down in cold blood and have used his death as an anti-government rallying cry. The FBI released the video to allay public concerns over “inflammatory” accounts of the shooting, Bretzing said.
No link to the video, though.
How long will it be before someone claims the FBI faked the video? ;)
This may be problematic, because in the video he runs out of the truck with his hands up. If you were to isolate just that part, you could make it seem like he was shot in cold blood.
You would have to ignore the part where he almost runs over an officer, or that he seems to repeatedly reach toward a gun, but I can see folks choosing to interpret this in ways that make him look like a victim.
What’s also not totally evident was that Ammon Bundy was in another car that originally stopped a mile or so down the road before Finicum sped off to the next road block. There is no way Ammon was a witness. His brother Ryan was with Finicum, but even if his hands were raised its very clear from his body language that he wasn’t cooperating with police.
He ran into a police barricade, jumped out hands up…
…and then reached for his pockets multiple times, during which the officers probably were yelling for him to get to the ground, hands behind his head, and he did not do that. The recovered a loaded handgun from his pocket. As sad as it is, it is pretty much the cleanest shooting you could get. This is a man who said he wanted to kill federal officers. If you make those threats, make it public that you are armed, attempt to run over some cops, and then reach for your pockets when you are being told to surrender. Gonna be shot at. This looked like suicide by cop.
Yeah, even if he wasn’t reaching for the gun to fire, he acted in a way which made it reasonable for the officers to fear that he was going to attack them.
If he wanted to give himself up, that isn’t how to do it. He could have done it before they drive away from the first group of officers… Or before driving off the road. Or by just waiting in the car with his hands on the steering wheel.
Let’s not forget that it was the guy who earlier said he’d rather die than end up in prison, no? I mean, not everybody walks the walk, but they had reasons to be cautious.
<Redacted> I see no gun and no proof or statement he had a gun. Its BS
<me> You just watched him try to kill someone with a vehicle and only by the grace of God did he fail. Then he went for his waist. He’s known to be armed. He said he’d die rather than go to jail. That video is a clean shoot even if he wasn’t armed. Attempted murder with his truck, then going to his waist - that shit gets ANYONE shot.
<Redacted> Bundys said no weapon on him.
<me> Bundys lie
<Redacted> You a government employee?
<me> No, but that you think that would matter says it all. Try playing your cards closer to your chest if you want to convince people.
Facebook conversations with friends of friends who are insane. Same guy. At least he’s not a Trump supporter?
There is no way you will convince those people. It’s not even worth trying. People still think the moon landings were faked. A famous rapper seriously thinks the world is flat.
See, this is what always bugs me… The same folks saying this are the folks who gave cops a pass for shooting various black people who may have had a gun or may have acted in a threatening way.
For me, in many of those cases I said the same thing I’m saying now… If you take certain actions in a situation like that, you are gonna get shot. But I’m consistent about it. Being white doesn’t make it somehow ok.
As you say, he bascially attempted vehicular homicide by running over a cop (for christ’s sake it looks like that cop was missed by less than a foot). And then he immediately jump out, and reaches to his waist. THE COPS ARE SUPPOSED TO SHOOT YOU IN THAT SITUATION. Because the alternative is to risk one of them getting shot, and your life isn’t worth more than theirs.
The sad thing is, that this guy said “I would rather die than go to jail” “I will use force to defend my rights” and he was shot. A 13 year old black kid with BB gun says nothing, and the police have the same response.
It’s totally reasonable to argue that the shooting of Finnegan was more acceptable than the shooting of the kid.
What is totally unreasonable to argue is that Finnegan’s shooting was somehow LESS acceptable, unless you literally think it’s more acceptable to just shoot black people.
Here’s the thing black people have to deal with. Cops killing or abusing them and then covering it up. As we’ve seen over and over again, the only safety an African American has is his cellphone. If police want to have less reason to shoot people they need to be pushing like crazy for much more stringent concealed weapons permit laws. National gun registry, mandatory safety training, better background checks, no license to carry and caught with one is an harsh prison term. Advertise it all over the U.S. so there’s no doubt you should not be carrying a gun without a license and if you are it’s an automatic Federal jail term. You need to upend the “everyone has a gun” mentality so police don’t feel threatened every time someone innocent wants to get his interaction with
police on Video. But generally you have the same sheriff’s/police who are all gung ho about an unrestricted 2nd amendment shooting people grabbing their wallet or their phone. People who use weapons like the Bundys and the militia who use their weapons to intimidate should have their rights to guns revoked, and when they didn’t give up their weapons, the criminal charges piled on. People can still have their guns but they need to have more stringent conditions, and the number of Pepe wandering around with guns in their belts of pockets needs to be drastically decreased. If people have a true fear for their life I see no problem as long as they have good training and are registered. I had a home nurse several years ago who had a concealed weapons permit because he had to attend to a elderly Diabetic patient in a desolate gang area. I was super glad he had that protection for himself.
Guns should be just like cars. I think they should all be registered, licensed, insured, with mandatory safety classes.
