"Unjustified" Police Shooting

My rant for the day:


http://www.9news.com/rss/printarticle.aspx?storyid=92047



1. "There was no reason for anyone to kill him. A good person like him shouldn't have gotten killed the way he got killed,"

If someone’s charging me with a knife, I’m going to defend myself. I think that’s a pretty good reason. Law enforcement has even more of a right to do so- protecting not only themselves, but the public.

2. "Why didn't they shoot him in the foot instead of his body? If he had a knife, they could have just shot him in the foot, maybe an arm…

Are you defective? 50,000 volts and a pepperball didn’t stop this guy. It didn’t even make him drop the knife and you think a flesh wound to the foot would?? Do you know anything about adrenaline and the human body, much less an adrenaline/alcohol combination? Also, how easy do you think it is to hit the foot of a moving target as opposed to the torso?


3. “The punishment is for my kids, they took away their dad," said Valencia, through an interpreter.

No, the responsibility for that is SOLELY on the knife-wielding man that charged police. Don’t get me wrong- it’s a tragedy that these children will live without a father and I wouldn’t wish death nor the loss of a loved one on anyone. However, the law enforcement officers didn’t just pull up to these folks’ house one day, get out, and decide to pop a few rounds into an innocent party.


4. “A good person like him shouldn't have gotten killed the way he got killed...” Altagracia says she and Odiceo had been married for 24 years. They had separated two months ago…
... Valencia had a restraining order against him and was prohibited from being at the Dillon address, a home where Altagracia is currently living with her children.

“A good person like him…” If he was such a good person and there was no reason to fear him, why do YOU have a restraining order against him?


5. "Nothing is going to bring my husband back," said Valencia, through an interpreter. "But what they did to my husband they are going to continue to do. How many kids are they going to leave without their dads, because they are cops and have the right to kill?"

That’s right. Cops run around shooting people just because they have the right to kill. I’d like to see what this lady would do with a gun in her hands and a drunk guy running toward her with a knife …


There’s been some discussion that he was shot because he did not understand the instructions police were giving him in English, and spoke only Spanish. I've not been able to find anything substantiating whether or not there was a Spanish-speaking officer on scene. Whatever the case, for the sake of argument, I'm going to assume that's irrelevant because-

Let’s review: you have a knife in your hands and you’re threatening the lives of others. The police are yelling at you- eventually have to tase you and when that doesn’t work, they shoot pepper ball at you (essentially a paintball that hits with great force and delivers a blast of pepper spray).
Even if you don’t have much intelligence AND don’t speak the language, it takes even just rudimentary survival skills to know that the folks with the guns want you to put the knife down- not charge them with it.