From a just-posted article at NBC News – Saint Louis:
TwoSt. Louis city police officers shot and killed a black man who camewithin several feet of them brandishing a knife on Tuesday a fewmiles from the turbulent suburb of Ferguson, authorities said.
Acrowd of at least 100 people quickly gathered at the scene. Somepeople chanted, “Hands up! Don\’t shoot!” – the refrain from aweek of protests over the police killing of Michael Brown, an unarmedblack teenager, three miles away.
Theman in the St. Louis shooting, 23, had taken energy drinks and apackage of pastries from a nearby convenience store, Police Chief SamDotson told reporters. He said that the man was “actingerratically, walking back and forth, up and down the street.”
Thechief said that the officers repeatedly ordered the man to drop theknife and drew their weapons after he did not drop it. The chief saidthe man told the police: “Shoot me now. Kill me now.”
Hesaid the two officers fired after the man moved toward one of themand came within 3 to 4 feet.
“Oneof the witnesses described it as a suicide by cop,” Dotson said.
“Hands up! Don\’t shoot”?
“Suicide by cop”?
What, I would love to know, would the people making these idiotic comments have done if they were in the same situation?
This is the mindset police are dealing with. For some (not all) Ferguson protesters, the circumstances are irrelevant. If police shoot a Black perp (and we don\’t even know the color of the officers from this story, do we?), it must be a racial outrage. Period, end of story. Even if he is coming toward them with a knife and ignoring their orders to stop.
Is that why some of the people protesting Michael Brown\’s killing do not seem to care that the autopsy debunks some of the stories going around about how it happened (as opposed to the looters and rioters, who couldn\’t care less what happened, and see his death as nothing more than an opportunity?)
I don\’t envy the police what they\’re dealing with in that sad part of the world.
