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Police shot Ohio man ‘on sight’ as he leaned on toy gun in Walmart


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Video shows police shot Ohio man ‘on sight’ as he leaned on toy gun in Walmart, attorney says

 

Surveillance video shows an Ohio man talking on a cell phone, leaning on a toy gun, and facing away from officers moments before police shot and killed him in a Walmart store, according to an attorney for the man’s family.

 

[...]

 

He said the video suggests Crawford probably did not see or hear officers as they arrived.

 

Crawford was speaking by cell phone to his girlfriend, who was with his parents, when he was shot.

 

“He said he was at the video games playing videos, and he went over there by the toy section where the toy guns were,” said LeeCee Johnson, the mother of his two children. “The next thing I know, he said, ‘It’s not real,’ and the police start shooting, and they said ‘Get on the ground,’ but he was already on the ground because they had shot him.”

 

Johnson put the phone on speaker mode, and she and Crawford’s parents heard him die.

 

“I could hear him just crying and screaming,” Johnson said. “I feel like they shot him down like he was not even human.”

A 37-year-old woman at the store suffered an unspecified medical emergency after the shooting and died a short time later.

Sweet Jesus!

 

I avoided the other high-publicity police-shooting story because it became clear minutes in that breathless hype was going to overshadow any facts that came out (facts that would be discounted or disbelieved by people if it didn't validate their prejudice anyway). But if the video here is even half as damning as the attorney says, this is little more than a ****ing death squad. How disgusting.

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Holy ****! It's been a trend for awhile people dying in Walmart, but now that police are in on the act...

 

Interesting the apparent difference between eyewitness testimony and video.

Confused. So far, I've only heard the account from one eyewitness: the guy who called in the kid, claiming he had a AR-15 rifle -- not exactly the most reliable source.

 

I accept that the video may show a completely different story, might even convince me that the shooting was justified. But I dunno if I'd put much credence in that dude's perception of events.

 

:eek:

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Actually in this day and age it is NEVER justified for a black person to be shot by anyone except another black person, otherwise it is obviously racism.

 

End sarcasm.

Yeah, ok. These officers might not have been klansmen looking to cap the first black man causing trouble; but I guarantee you they would have assessed the situation with just a LITTLE more caution and discretion had the man in question been white.

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It is NEVER justified when police are involved and a civilian dies.

I disagree. In fact, as much as I complain about cops being trigger/fist-happy ***holes, I actually have no problem with a police officer shooting and killing somebody while defending themselves from a threat. I have a very, very big problem with them shooting and killing somebody in a Walmart who is not acting in a threatening manner.

 

I also have a problem with the alarming number of pets who are shot while guarding property when simply asking the owner to bring their dog inside or into another room would not interfere with their ability to do their job.

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No police would see a white person and instantly not view them as a direct threat. But cops are afraid of black people, and will shoot them more readily than a white person. It's police profiling. And if you think it's not like that then you're naive.

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No police would see a white person and instantly not view them as a direct threat. But cops are afraid of black people, and will shoot them more readily than a white person. It's police profiling. And if you think it's not like that then you're naive.

Really no police would see a white person as a direct threat? Damn you must really know a lot of cops! what about a black police officer? I know police profiling happens, but the whole concept of the police shooting or not shooting based on race is not profiling. You cannot lump that police action into profiling. You have to look at officer involved shootings individually to determine if the shooting was justified and unless you are in law enforcement, a district attorney, judge, grand jury given access to evidence the general public isn't given, or an expert in criminal law, 99.5% of the regular population including myself are not qualified to determine what is a justified police shooting and what is not.

 

Its easy for us to sit back and play armchair police officer all day and criticize on what the police should have done or not have done but in the real world and in the eyes of a police officer they have seconds to determine things and do not have the luxury to think about it all day. Rule #1 and I don't care if you are white, black, blue or green if the police tell you to stop then you stop. If the police tell you to show them your hands then you do it. Otherwise do not be surprised if you get shot more than once and probably end up dead. Period the end.

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How is police shooting or not shooting someone based on race not profiling?

 

At the end of the day being a cop is a job. And no one wants to get hurt on the job. You wanna go to work and come home for dinner. Statistically police are more likely to be injured or killed by black males more than any other demographic, sadly it's true. An there are all sorts of political and economic and social reasons why poor black people make up the crime statistics but that's kind of beside the point right now. All I'm saying is, cops don't wanna get hurt. If they are going to be hurt, they know it's probably gonna be done by an African American male. So officers over compensate for this fear (cause to show fear is not a good or smart thing to do as a police officer) by being unreasonable, gung-ho, jumpy, and quicker to resort to violence. I.E shooting someone dead. And that's not cool.

 

Now I don't know the ins and outs of this case, but my money would be on the fact that had the person been white, the officer in question would not have been as quick to shoot if at all. Because in the eyes of the police white people are not as much of a threat.

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I'm not saying that, RM! Of course white people are a threat and some of the worst people on the planet.

 

I'm just saying, police are MORE scared of black males, and target THEM more often as a result. When was the last time you heard of an unarmed WHITE male being shot dead by a cop????

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RelentlessMalice, a white man in Texas set up an AMBUSH to kill police, fired at them and committing arson, and he was taken down without the police firing a shot at him.

 

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2014/08/dallas-police-in-far-north-dallas-where-a-man-with-a-rifle-is-claiming-to-be-a-sovereign-citizen.html/

 

Do you REALLY think if the perp had been black, he WOULDN'T have been killed?

 

Meanwhile, a black man gets killed by the police for carrying a BB Gun in WalMart. See any difference here?

 

Still want to pretend there is no racism?

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I know there is racism but not every shooting involving the police and a black person is racism.

 

Police work is a damned if they do or damned if they dont. How many cases have we seen in recent years involving death by taser which is supposed to be non lethal. Or the police being accused of excessive force trying to make an arrest.

 

All the training in the world cannot prepare someone who is constantly facing life or death scenarios daily in a thankless job that so many people including the media wish to judge.

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I think it's harder for white people to understand the ingrained, structural racism that is prevalent in our justice system. I read a piece recently that was a collection of quotes from African American parents. The point of it was to highlight the conversations they'd had with their kids about how to act in public, with police, etc. Don't wear the same color shirt as your friend or it'll be thought that you're in a gang. No hoodies. Never involve the police in domestic affairs if you can help it. If you're a black man, you've already got two strikes against you. How many white parents have that conversation with their kids?

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