Patterico posts today about a video he found that amazed him. It’s the video of a Louisiana cop shooting that occurred some time ago which depicted what at first seemed to be a unjustified shooting:
Looks like the cop just shot him in the back as he is walking away huh? This is the kind of thing you get when you only see one angle. People believe that any video tells the WHOLE story…no ifs ands or buts. How wrong they can be:
The other angle shows the suspect pointing a handgun at the other officer who is off screen. Then walking away. He then turns and points the gun at the officer who ducks fearing for his safety at which point his partner fires.
Little different huh?
By the way, that gun was a cell phone.
Now your getting it….this is the kind of things we are faced with daily. Decisions to make on whether what a person is holding can hurt me or not, in a micro-second.
The officers believed it was a handgun, as did those viewing the video for the first time. Oh, one more thing. There are cellphone guns that we get briefed on all the time.
What warms my heart is when I hear this from Patterico:
The next time I do a jury trial with a video that doesn’t show the whole story as reported by the police, I’m using this in my final argument.
You see, if no video had been present what would those cops be looking at? All the shots were in his back…..they would have been crucified.
But we DO NOT have to wait until getting shot before we defend ourselves.
I’m just glad the video has gotten through to one person who will no longer automatically believe a video.
For a more detailed analysis of the shooting go here.
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