Its gotten to the point where if you are pulled over for a merging violation you need to strip naked, exit the vehicle and lay face first on the ground lest you be shot for making furtive movements.
video of recent shooting in my last post btw
That's ridiculous. There are hundreds of thousands of traffic stops, maybe even more, that go completely without incident for every incident like the above. With that said, I don't like the way the officer approached, or his aggressive language and demeanor.
I don't think it can be questioned that he perceives a threat, but is that a reasonable threat? And is that threat because of his prior experience involving the incident with the bb gun, which I don't have reason to question based on what I was able to find.
But this incident definitely raises questions about the actions of both parties. Me, I would assume he was trying to hide drugs. This officer, who had another subject attempt to pull a gun from his waistband the previous year, was definitely remembering that incident. Does that make this more, or less justified? I don't know. I would hazard a guess that another officer likely would not have perceived so great a threat, but we can't see his actions from the video. We have the officer repeatedly telling the man to get his hands up, away from his waist and he does not comply and continues to reach for something.
I really don't know how to call this one. Had the officer been calm, not cursing, and had not reached for his gun almost immediately, I probably would not have so many misgivings about the shoot.
