^ Did I say otherwise?
The second video is awful. I’ve read it was from the store owner–who indeed has said he had no problems with the guy.
I haven’t even been able to watch the video with his family. It’s too much. This is local for me and it’s just so heartbreaking.
The close up video literally has me sick to my stomach. I wish I had never watched it. Its so much worse than the video they are looping on CNN.
“This is a problem that as a society we need to address. If so many locations are making open carry and concealed carry legal, the police can no longer shoot someone just because they are armed. The cry “he’s got a gun” can’t mean anything if having a gun is completely legal.”
That is a terrific point. So, then, what does it mean when there really is the bad guy with the gun? It strikes me that the want-to-carry-crowd really only wants certain kinds of people to carry. They don’t REALLY want big black guys carrying guns around and displaying them so that no one messes with them.
No. Just expanding on what you were saying.
I wonder if he was carrying to protect himself from someone who might steal his CDs and now this happened.
I read somewhere (might have been just. FB comment so not sure it’s accurate) that the store owner said that someone had robbed or tried to rob Alton Sterling in the past.
Nice comment (NOT) from the FIL of one of the cops:
Obviously he hasn’t seen the video. What a horse’s behind.
I am not going to watch the video. However why does it have to be that he shot him because he was black? Couldn’t it possibility be that he shot him because he felt like it and it had nothing to do with the guy being black?
You have to wonder what the cops had been told before they arrived – if Sterling was described as an armed felon and child sex offender who was waving a pistol around, I could see them being on edge and cautious.
But if cops believe someone who should not be armed is armed, aren’t they supposed to have him put his hands on his head or lie down on his stomach, cuff him, and simply disarm him? That’s the first problem: they either momentarily forgot about securing the gun, or completely botched their attempt.
And even if he was illegally armed, he never appears in the video to reach for that weapon.
He wasn’t a saint and he was committing a crime by being armed (felons can’t own firearms, right?), but he shouldn’t be dead. In jail, maybe/probably, but not dead.
Did the police give him any orders? Did they tell him to get down on the ground? Why did they taze him?
Sure. Could be. Could be that they shot him because he was overweight. Could be they shot him because they didn’t like khaki shorts (I think that’s what he was wearing).
But when Black boys and men are being grossly, disproportionately shot and killed for very minor things, it’s probably not because they didn’t like his shorts.
There is another video, shot by the store’s owner that shows everything MUCH more clearly. It shows before, during, and after the shooting at very close range. I haven’t watched it other than the small clip MSNBC put up. The angle that they had him at would make it absolutely impossible for the officers’ lives to be in danger. He was pinned down by two officers who were on his chest. You’re not moving from that position. AFTER the shooting, his gun was taken out of his pocket.
@MichiganGeorgia because we always end up dead that’s why. There are COUNTLESS videos of police encounters with White citizens and somehow they manage to de-escalate the situation. I’ve seen them brandish knives, hatchets, fight the cops you name and somehow they are spared. Heck after Dylan Roof murdered the charleston 9 he was quietly apprehended and taken to Burger King for a meal before he was booked.
I wish I had the link of the young man who tried to give the cop his license and the cop still shot him after the cop asked for his license because he thought he was reaching for a gun. The entire time the young man was polite and respectful.
You have to realize this has been going on for years it’s just that now there is video evidence and cops are still walking. I would encourage you to watch the close up video.
Nailed it again, Albert… well said! 
》》 How many times are we going to see officers calmly disarm, arrest or take down everyone else but people of color. 《《
As many times as the media wants you to see it.
》》 But when Black boys and men are being grossly, disproportionately shot and killed for very minor things, it’s probably not because they didn’t like his shorts.《《
Data? From what I see in this list of police shootings in 2015, white men were killed nearly twice as much as black men. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings/ Now, I’m not arguing the specifics of this case - I agree with pretty much everyone else that the shooting was wrong. But trying to say that white men are always handled nicely and black men always aren’t is simply untrue. And suggesting that all white gun owners are racist is just as offensive as a cop assuming that any armed black man is a danger just because he’s black.
Sarcasm Alert I don’t know that he wasn’t being dangerous though. After all, we know that everyone who carries a gun in public is a gun-slinging nutcase with John Wayne fantasies. People are threatened by the mere sight of a gun, so it’s not surprising someone called the cops. Goodness knows, his gun could have turned on someone in the checkout line at the convenience store because he thought they had too many items!
And another last night in Minnesota. A man stopped for a busted taillight and was shot and killed by a police officer while in the car with his girlfriend and her (their?) child.
His girlfriend steamed the aftermath.
One of the problems with such lines of questioning in cases like these is that it shows misplaced prioritization in examining cases like these and provides effective cover for those who feel cops are always justified in shooting suspects…especially Black and racial minority suspects even when video evidence and witness testimony clearly show the shooting was unjustified.
It’s also irrelevant in the larger context as selling CDs without a permit doesn’t merit a massive takedown by two cops and an effective death penalty by cop.
According to this and other articles, it seems the clerk and/or the relatives involved in the 911 call fabricated the UAE citizen’s statement supporting ISIS:
In addition to an official apology from the police chief and mayor, they are also saying criminal charges may be pending against the hotel clerk for that fabrication on basis of profiling the UAE citizen on the basis of his clothing and appearance. I’ll believe they’re serious when the actual charges are filed against that hotel clerk and possibly her relatives who were involved in making the 911 calls and that they’re prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for making a false report…
Are you &(&(^%^ kiddingme?!?
Not even 24 hours after my last post and another man is gunned down. Philando Castile, stopped for minor traffic violation. He had a concealed carry permit, and let the officer know he had it. He was shot while trying to retrieve his license… Upthread, earlier, I posted about a young man shot while trying to retrieve his license, thankfully he wasnt killed. This has to stop. If SOME officers cant control their fear of every Black person they encounter, then they shouldnt be officers.
@albert69 You missed the key words disproportionately, and minor. We are being disproportionately killed when initial stops were minor violations. The data does support it.
Regarding the Alton Sterling shooting, hmm, as usual chief makes statement, suspect had a gun, encounter resulted in loss of life, of course this is when they thought their butts were covered. Now a more graphic, video emerges, and we see they are a bunch of liars.
I have no faith, that they will be punished.
Lets see we cant open carry, and I guess we cant conceal carry either. I am in tears.
“Sarcasm Alert I don’t know that he wasn’t being dangerous though. After all, we know that everyone who carries a gun in public is a gun-slinging nutcase with John Wayne fantasies. People are threatened by the mere sight of a gun, so it’s not surprising someone called the cops. Goodness knows, his gun could have turned on someone in the checkout line at the convenience store because he thought they had too many items!”
Albert, I know you think this is a gotcha given my statements on the previous thread, but it really isn’t.
This is precisely part of the problem with your open-carry, what’s-the-big-deal-if-you-carry-a-gun-into-Safeway-and-Starbucks mentality. The sight of a gun is intimidating because it’s freaking MEANT to be because THAT’S WHY POLICEMEN CARRY THEM and why you guys want to carry them all over the place.
So if it’s intimidating when Mr. Bland White Guy (who looks like he couldn’t knock over a flea) sidles up next to me in line ordering a latte with his gun on his hip – and I have to already think twice, how do I know this guy isn’t a weirdo who is about to gun us all down – well, just think how intimidating it is when Mr. Large Black Guy (who does look like he could knock me over) has a gun in a sketchier place where he’s operating a business he technically shouldn’t be and has money to protect. But, that’s the wild wild west that the pro-gun side allegedly wants.
And please, as much as you would have applauded Mr. Bland White Guy who foiled a robbery in Starbucks, don’t tell me that you really would have applauded this man using his gun to defend himself against an overaggressive, overeager takedown by the police. I am not that stupid. The pro-gun crowd is really only pro-the “right” people having guns.